Calvados, Mourvedre, Port, cid...

My love of fortified wines is no secret, in fact I am loudly proclaiming it to any and all who are willing to listen (usually that's a small group admittedly). This is a new one for me and it is one hell of a wine. Burnt fig, orange peel, walnut, black tea and a hint of fish oil all intermingle on the really complex and decidedly enticing nose. The palate pretty much follows the same line as the nose and has an expansive, detailed and surprisingly lively finish. This little ripper is a contender for my new wine of the year. ROSCOE

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From 50 year old Grenache and Mourvèdre vines in lirac - all Biodynamic fruit.

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Limpid orange. Mineral-accented blood orange, strawberry, floral and succulent herb scents show fine definition and pick up a spicy nuance with air. Chewy and densely packed yet energetic and sharply focused on the palate, offering vibrant red berry, bitter cherry, citrus pith and honeysuckle flavors and a deeper peach pit flourish. The mineral and floral notes return on the very long, precise finish. JOSH RAYNOLDS, vinous.com

50% Mourvèdre, 25% Grenache, 25% Cinsault.  An exceptional expression of Bandol Rose. Brilliant Sites, considered farming (organic) & purposeful wine making.

While this is beautifully fresh, it has morphed into a very fine aged fortified. Woodsy, earthy tones with coffee and vanilla, blackberry essence and brandy-esque flavours to the spirit. Lovely balance, clean with tannins adding a raw-silk texture. A lot of emotion infused into this: a fitting tribute to Chris Killeen's skill as a fortified winemaker. (95) JANE FAULKNER, Halliday Wine Companion

Deep, rich, burnished red colour with a tawny rim; the bouquet mellow, complex, rich and sweet. Licorice and blackberry aromas with star anise and spicy notes from the brandy spirit. The palate is still remarkably firm and structured, but also rich and sweet, the finish drying it off cleanly with well-balanced tannin, acid and spirit. Blackberry and espresso coffee flavours. It's drinking in its prime at 12 years of age. (Durif, touriga, tinta roriz, shiraz, tinta cão, tinta barroca) HUON HOOKE, The Real Review

Looking at the 2021s from barrel, the 2021 Lirac Antares shows the fresher style of the vintage yet still brings solid fruit and texture. Spice, violets, flowers, and lavender as well as both red and black fruits define the nose, and it's balanced, has fine tannins, and lots to like. JEB DUNNUCK

Antarès is the main star of the constellation of Scorpio. One of the basic principles of biodynamics is to work in harmony with cosmic rhythms. Antarès is a selection of vines located on hillsides facing North, at the Western end of the Lirac appellation, at an altitude of 160m. The vines are 50 years old. The harvest is fully de-stemmed. Each variety is vinified separately using  natural yeasts. The Grenache is aged in cement vats, the Mourvèdre in old French oak demi-muids  for 12 months.

60% Grenache, 40% Mouvèdre farmed organically (Certified).Notes of strawberry, black raspberries, pine, sandalwood and a hint of ground black pepper in this ripe but restrained blend. A full-bodied and concentrated wine that maintains remarkable vibrance and acidity throughout. Fine-grained tannins accentuate its youthful appeal. Supple mouthfeel, we love the generosity of mid palate filled with ripe black berries and blue fruits and spices. Beautiful Lirac for all lovers of great Southern Rhone reds.

 

 

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

Reddish-tawny color. Slightly roasted aromas of bonfire, toffee and almond; slight hint of maderization. Sweet and smooth, but rather powerful, with youthful red berry flavor and a bit of heat. Smoke and nutskin on the lingering finish. STEPHEN TANZER, Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

Portuguese paradox. Old and rich nut, tobacco and toffee flavors yet fresh, thick and fruity, adding a slight tannin bite. WINE SPECTATOR
 

The Quinta da Cavadinha has a lifted bouquet with more red cherry fruit. It is lighter and more airy that Symington’s other single quintas, with fine delineation with more expressive minerality compared to the Quinta do Bomfim 2006, for example. The palate is ripe and sweet on the entry and displays filigree tannins, a wonderful edginess and poise, plus a sense of completeness that is very attractive. This is not a powerhouse single quinta, but it has life-affirming tension and purity towards the long, sensual finish. Wonderful. Drink 2016-2040. Tasted October 2011. NEAL MARTIN, The Wine Advocate

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

Aged in small apple brandy casks for over 12 months, this rich and generous liqueur is a result of blending pressed French and British heirloom apple varieties with our apple spirit.

Complex and well-structured with baked apple and spice, balanced with firm tannins and cask influence.

Our take on the traditional aperitif from North-West France – enjoy as such or serve with blue cheese or dessert. WILLIE SMITH

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

This is an extraordinary house that seems to have been particularly successful with its vintage port since 1977.The 1977, still a baby, is fabulously scented, very rich and concentrated, and has a potential longevity of at least another 30-50 years. ROBERT PARKER

Saturated deep ruby. Brooding, reticent nose of cassis and kirsch; there's nothing cooked about this one! Then massive, sweet and superrich in the mouth; explodes with exotic ripeness. Intriguing note of graphite. This coats every nook and cranny of the palate and clings and builds on the back end in a way that no other wine of this vintage can match. Huge, sexy and wonderfully lush Fonseca, built for the long haul. As impressive as the best 2000s, and, along with the Quinta do Noval Nacional, is an early candidate for port of the 2003 vintage. (97) STEPHEN TANZER

Fonseca vintage Ports are always among the most attractive and long-lived. This 2003 conforms magnificently to that model. It is structured, rich, powerful and opulent. There are cassis and black fig flavors, as well as sweet tannins. It is delicious already, and will remain delicious throughout its long life. (97) WINE ENTHUSIAST

Sporting an opaque, black-colored robe with dark purple trim, the 2003 Fonseca Vintage Port exhibits a nose of profound depth. Its sweet black mass of dark fruit and spice aromas leads to a character of immense depth, richness, and weight. Full-bodied, viscous, and almost impenetrable, this dense, backward port is powerful and exceptionally long in the finish. Possibly the most masculine Fonseca I've ever encountered, it coats the taster's palate with licorice, jammy black fruits, and notes of chocolate that last for over a minute. This blockbuster will require at least three decades to fully blossom. Anticipated maturity: 2035-2060. (96+) WINE ADVOCATE

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

There are only a select few, perfect locations, to grow great wine on this big blue orb of ours and those are between 30 and 50 degrees north and south latitudes. Those regions need to provide just the right temperature, humidity, heat and climate to grow high quality grapes. We are absolutely spoilt for choice when it comes to the northern reaches with the whole of Europe at our disposal, but travel further south and things are a little different.

While New Zealand and Tasmania provide us with plenty of choices (and we would be remiss not to include them) the southern reaches sitting on and just below the 40 degrees latitude offer a up a wholy unique drinking experience.

While grapes like riesling, cabernet and pinot noir are familiar to us, a number of the wines in this months pack aren't seen so regularly on your local wines list or on the shelves of your corner wine store. From Malbec's in Argentina to the infamous Pinotage and the more classic varietals like Chenin in South Africa this is an exploration of all that is good in these great southern lands of ours.

Where do we start with such an awesome selection of interesting wine? It's hard to decide we might just do a quick run down by country.

South America is relatively new to the wine scene but has come along in leap and bounds. WE start with a couple of classics with the Finca Los Moras Malbec and the Santa Ana Cabernet. These are text book varietal wines with plenty to love in their up-front fruit and modern styling. For something a little different we through in the Bouchon pais. For those who do not know, Pais is an old variety that is Chile's answer to pinot noir. With a little more bite and a wild flourish this a great introduction to this fascinating wine.

Closer to home in New Zealand we have few classic drops with the Palliser Estate Pencarrow pinot. A wine you would be hard pressed to find with the structure, concentration and complexity at the same price. Off to Hawkes Bay for some stonking Chardonnay from Bilancia fame and some of the world most underrated syrah from stars Te Mata. What a treat!

Just in our backyard, Tassie continues to pump out some of the best wine in the country and while we would never miss out on showcasing another great pinot there is some real winners with pinot gris and riesling on the rise. The Moores Hill gris is a freat example of textural and vibrant gris from the Apple Isle with the Riversdale riesling hot on its tale.

And for something a little different we have got the latest release Willie Smiths Cider. This is an absolute belter, and we couldn't help but included it once we were told it had been released. Perfect timing! We will take that one!

Last, and something we don't see much in Aus is a cracking selection of wines from South Africa. Long-term customers may recognise some of these wines and as far as we are concerned, they are some of the best modern day Cape wines to make it over. The Bare Bones cinsault is a zippy red full of energy while the Winery of Good Hope pinotage is a juicy and fun take on this classic red variety,

And what would a selection of wine from South Africa be without a chenin blanc. The Secateurs is clean and crunchy with a plush fruit profile that is cleaned up by chenin's zippy acidity.
All in al a pretty awesome and exciting collection of stellar wines from the great south!

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

Very dark savoury aromas. Dark elderberry. More bramble than blackcurrant. Very dry and firm and dense. Dry but slides over the palate – even though the tannins are very compact it remains fluid. Leaves your mouth feeling clean even though it is so mouthfilling. JULIA HARDING MW

This is the first time Noval have declared their famous Nacional since 2003 so this is an exciting development. Very dark purple stains the inside of the glass.  Gosh, a massive bruiser of a wine. There is such concentration here that not much aroma can escape initially. Wild, peppery stuff. Then wonderfully juicy and spicy. This is like the ultimate biodynamic wine with lots of microbiology going on, in a good way.  Very clean and fresh on the finish.  Not notably sweet and with more marked acidity than some.  A big contrast to, for example, Fonseca 2011. This is all about subtle topnotes rather than broad lusciousness. So vital! JANCIS ROBINSON, 2013

The 2011 Quinta do Noval Nacional has an entrancing bouquet that unfolds with time. It is extraordinarily concentrated with black currant pastilles, baked earth, a touch of terracotta and bay leaf that gains more dimension with time. Yet there is undeniable purity and elegance here, a seductive chorus of aromas perfectly in tune. The palate has a wondrous symmetry and focus, perfect acidity and immense purity. Everything here is so precise and at the same time, unassuming, as if this Nacional is aware of its breeding without the impulse to brag about it. It has closed down just a little since last year, but I take this as a positive sign that this legendary Nacional will delight for decades rather than years. This is the kind of elixir that leaves you speechless – surely the finest Nacional since the ethereal 1963. NEAL MARTIN, 2014