RED WINE - 2020

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2020 is the first release of this premium pinot. Downer has worked closely with three different vineyards all on the Western ridge on predominantly east-facing slopes. One vineyard that Downer has been taking fruit from since 2016 has consistently stood out. 85% of The Apollo 2020 comes from this site, located in Piccadilly just opposite the Mt Lofty Botanic Garden. The understudy source is in Ashton, and contributes more underfloor, forest notes to offset the Piccadilly vineyard's red-fruited intensity.

On the nose this is brimming with aromatics that lure you in- dark spiced black cherries, maraschino cherries, wet earth and rosemary. The core is compact with great intensity and depth that slowly unfurls with a little air. A beautiful interplay of savoury earth and fresh fruit is apparent. Its spine of fine silky tannins holds a lovely line of tension in its youth. This is so tightly wound at the moment, and promises a bounty of treasures if you can put it away for a few years. A powerhouse pinot that is so light on its feet. GABRIELLE POY, PWS

Rive Droite Rive Gauche simply means right bank, left bank and the name derives from fruit for the wine being sourced from both sides of the river - the grenache coming mainly from the left (gauche) and the Syrah from the village of Daumazan (on the rive droite), near Tavel. It is also a French film starring the rotund wine-nut actor Gerard Depardieu - fun fact!

This is a lovely fresh and crunchy styled Rhone from our friends at Rive Droite. There is touch of thyme and bay over red spiced fruits, layered with a little bit of red liquorice. This is a medium bodied rendition with a pure core of raspberry, wild strawberry and splash of black berry fruit in the mix. Its lithe with a lovely fresh cut to the sweet fruits that makes this look wonderfully elegant and damn easy to like.

Quite some depth and ripe red and black berry aromas for the 2021 vintage, but also gentle tannins and lively mineral acidity. With aeration delicate herbal nuances develop. Long licorice finish. From 4 hectares of vineyards with 45 to 70-year-old vines. 100% whole cluster and matured only in concrete tanks. Drink or hold. STUART PIGGOT, JamesSuckling.com

Notes of freshly turned earth, floral and underbrush add breadth to the various dark berry fruit scents. There is again excellent volume and mid-palate density to the sappy medium weight flavors that possess classic Nuits muscle though perhaps just a bit less rusticity than usual. This is really quite good and fashioned in a built-to-age style. BURGHOUND, www.burghound.com

As ever, this is one of Potel's best wines. It is quintessentially Nuits St Georges. Earth aromas lay next to red-moving-to-black fruits. Floral lift but it's more red petals than violets. The usual hint of dourness you love in Nuits. Red fruit attack, minerality and energy to burn with a more muscular texture than the Volnay. It's always a wine that starts to show it's true colours after five years. This is no different. Excellent. MICHAEL MCNAMARA, PWS

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One of the better versions of this wine I've seen. Bruised strawberry, crushed rose petals, mountain herbs and a consistent backbeat of liquorice and menthol waft out of the glass. Just bang on for the variety from this part of the world. That same band of brothers weave their way through the palate, carried along within a medium weight, sweet texture before powdery tannins carry the whole package to a satusfying end. It's just lovely Valtellina and a great intro to the Dirupi style and, to the regions nebbiolo in general. MICHAEL MCNAMARA

La Boca is sourced from vineyards in the Uco Valley, Argentina at elevations of up to 3500 metres. Purity and freshness is the key here with modern winemaking and very little oak to hide behind.

The high altitude vineyards lend a lovely lifted quality to the fruit on the nose and in the mouth.
Mulberry and black currant fruit give way to black spice and heady aromatics of violet that you don't often see. The well-established older vines yield wonderfully concentrated fruit at the core of the wine and the minimal fussing in the winemaking means that the pure fruits are allowed to shine. Plush and forward but with a lovely snap of acidity and round tannins that hold everything in check. Good stuff!

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The winery "Le Marie" comes from the passion for winemaking of the owner Valerio, his wife Luigina, and their children Simona and Daniele. The result are wines of personality, pure and elegant, produced in limited quantity and in respect of the territory, with environmentally friendly practices. The ten hectares of vineyards are between 400 and 450 meters. The land is rich in minerals that give the wines great structure and wonderful nuance.

Packed full of up-front blue and red fruits laced with peppery spice and vanilla. The palate is pliant and soft with a little nervy energy that flows through the red raspberry and currant fruit. A soft little snap of tannin that buttresses the sweet fruit nicely adds a little extra complexity. This is perfect trattoria fair and super versatile on the dinner table.

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Ripe, plummy fruits leap from the glass followed up by violets, dried rose, gravel and something that reminds me of the perfect Sunday lamb roast. Yum. This is unctuous, round and ripe at first but just when it's needed that tart Barbera acidity comes to the rescue, freshening the palate and propelling the wine forward revealing a lovely mineral tingle and foundation of ripe tannin in its wake. This is very appealing and even more so when you see the price tag. ALEX DOBSON

There's a pleasant little blackcurrant jam note on the nose here. Lightly spiced, medium-bodied, juicy and with very fine tannins, there's a lovely sense of elegance in the wine, with very good acidity. Not as powerful as his cuvée classique, but a greater sense of finesse, balance and drinkability. Long finish. MATT WALLS, decanter.com

The bouquet brims with bright cassis fruit clad for now in smoky oak. The fruit pleases via a lingering coulis-style sweetness. The palate bears rolling richness, a fluid tone to the content, black berry fruits on display, the tannins ripe, layered. This holds good, proven fruit, its clear tenor appealing. From 2023, decant it. 2030-32 July 2021. JONATHON LIVINGSTONE-LEARMONTH, drinkrhone.com

This is such a beautiful wine in 2020 and an absolute gem to drink. It opens with a beguiling mix of varietal aromas and flavors so typical of dolcetto with blue fruits, plum, licorice, a touch of dried herbs. Its slippery, sweet fruit is pushed along by the varietals fine but grippy tannins. The plump mid-palate holds itself so nicely as you drink it offering up sweet fruit and juicy acidity. The wine charges through your palate with so much flavour but never feels heavy or overbearing, Really well done.

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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!

Onkaparinga. A wonderful word. Plum and cherry, ripe and spicy, an earthy coal-like character. It’s firm and almost liqueur-like in intensity, with firm dusty tannin, and a dry plum and dried flower finish. Very good, but not quite as good as the other two single vineyard wines. Kind of sticky in its firmness. GARY WALSH, www.winefront.com

From the Onkaparinga Hills, a parcel of dry-grown bush vines, fermented as whole clusters and aged in a single, larger-format cask. This parcel was planted in the early 1970s and it has a sappy feel (whole clusters) and bright, very pure raspberries and some leafy elements on offer, as well as blueberries. The palate has quite smooth and ripe tannins, holds a fresh edge (low pH) and delivers a similar combination of red and blue fruits as seen on the nose. A little, chewy stone pop at the finish. Nuanced and elegant. Good now, but even better in a year or two. (95) NICK STOCK, www.jamessuckling.com

A rare grape variety in the USA and most-where else too. This is from a vineyard ownded by Brian Babcock in Suisun Valley. A small two-acre block of Charbono which is slow ripening even with the warm weather and holds its acid well. Seems like a perfect pair for Cali's sun-drenched vineyards and owner Kenny Likitprakong vision to bring something a little more interesting to the table than the just the usual drab fair of innocuous plonk.

A dark brambly affair on the nose, with a little blue fruits, plum, savoury spice and an earthy hit that remind me of some southern Italian varietals like nero d'avola and primitive combined. The palate though comes through with a lovely bite of acidity and firm, chalky tannin that keep it much fresher and brighter than one might expect. A little fleck of cherry and wild earthy hit on the close make for a fascinating drink.

20% Whole Clusters or stems were included in the natural fermentation and the wine was aged in all older barrels for 10 months before bottling. PWS

The northcoast blend is off several Sonoma vineyards with the idea to showcase cool climate refinement thanks to the proximity to the North Pacific. Usually a blend of several cabernet vineyards with a touch of merlot for a little extra plushness. Each plot is fermented individually and aged in neutral French oak before being blended. then bended. PWS

This estate is the home of Alvaro Palacios, the famed Priorat producer. Having formally departed Alfaro in 1989 in order to set up shop in Priorat, Alvaro 'returned' in 2000 following the death of his father, Jose, who set up the family business in 1945 and ran it from then on.

Under Jose, Palacios Remondo was a conventional Rioja of industrially-farmed Tempranillo expressed within the Crianza-Reserva-etctera model of production. In the years under Alvaro's guidance, the vineyards and wines have undergone extraordinary change. Nowadays the vineyards are bio-dynamically grown low-crop organic plantings of local Garnacha genetics, with a scattering of Viura.  Any Tempranillo in Palacios Remondo wines is purchased from good growers near Haro on the Ebro's north shore.

 

 

40% whole bunch, 12 days maceration, fermentation in stainless, 6 months lees-ageing in 2800 litre 'mud jars'. Slow, gentle elaboration yields a fluid, lively Mandó (with 30% Arco).

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The nose has a deep and dark winter stone fruit note. The palate is a woven series of dark plum and cloves. Nelson pinot celebrates an underlying umami or savoury note and this is no exception. "It caresses the mouth  with its round, chocolatey tannins that leave you licking your cheeks. If KFC’s chicken is finger licking good,  Tom’s is palate-licking good. This is a pretty freaking delicious and super young wine. REBECCA GIBB MW

Mataro / Cinsault / Carignan.

It starts bold, it finishes dry and long. It’s 14.7% alcohol but it holds it well, the finish warm but not overly so. Saltbush, blackberry, iodine, molasses and sweet, roasted game, the latter rolling through rather than gathering. Hefty but neat, is how I’d describe it. CAMPBELL MATTINSON, The Wine Front

STAGE 13 -  FLAT - LE BOURG D'OISANS > SAINT-ÉTIENNE 193 KM

The Robin family have grown grapes in Crozes-Hermitage for four generations, the first vineyard a 1.27 ha plot acquired by Gilles' great-grandfather Louis Pasquion in 1920. But until 1995 the production was substantially sold to the local cooperative in Tain l'Hermitage. When Gilles took over from his father Michel in 1996 however, he set the estate on a new course, bottling his first wines under the Gilles Robin label. More than 25 vintages later he is widely regarded as one of the top producers of the region.

100% Syrah from vines planted in 1996, 100% de-stemmed and fermented in stainless steel tanks. An early drinking style driven by perfumed black raspberry fruit with anise and spice notes lingering long on the fresh and vibrant finish. The violet lilt and pristine fruit standout here with nothing encumbered by oak and no need to flash this up given the quality here. A medium bodied Syrah, that is great all year round.

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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!

Introverted on the nose, but smooth and bold on the palate. A little more generosity and weight than some Hermitage this year, also slightly higher alcohol. Harmonious, with good acidity and integrated oak, it is detailed and defined on the palate. A large-framed but calm and collected wine with a good sense of purity and typicity, this is a serious Hermitage. Vines of nearly 50 years of age, grown organically on lieux-dits Beaumes and Péléat, matured in demi-muids with malolactic fermentation in barrel. (97) MATT WALLS, decanter.com

The bouquet mixes depth with shape, has a curve of black berry fruits, neat sweetness, a slightly floral persistence, a hint of licorice. It's a stylish opening. The palate is aromatic, offers well-toned soft black fruits, pleases on its suave, flowing progress, is elegant, and nourishing, all in a good tempo. It's a much more refined wine than the 2019, the balance good, the length trim and fresh, a little dab of mineral-powder on the close. From mid-2023, decant it. JONATHON LIVINGSTONE-LEARMONTH, drinkrhone.com

From 50 year old vines and a blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah.

Domaine Courtedune is a small family domaine in southern Rhone where a new generation has taken over. Brother and sister team Frédéric and Caroline Charrier have honed in on their viticulture and terroir prowess, finely tuning their work in the cellar. They've lifted Courtedune to venerable heights. There's a lovely synergy and balance in the wines, an intriguing spark that lures you back for another sip.

One of our high achieving reds that over delivers on price, this grenache dominant Cotes du Rhone boasts a rich velvety core of fruit. A backbone of tannins is ribbed by complex flavours from whole bunch and old vines. Their sandy soils (which neighbour Rayas) add energy to the wines.
The fluidity and composure of grenache is masterfully expressed here. Dark red raspberries, garrigue and blood orange scents sit alongside smoked meats, earth and licorice. This is a beautiful play on fruit and earth, where the terroir shines through in the ripe and juicy grapes. JONATHON LIVINGSTONE-LEARMONTH

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The nose carries a light essence of cooked plum fruit, strawberry jam, pepper, peony. It’s wide, will emerge and evolve well. The palate is close-knit, herbal-peppery, lined with red cherry, brisk fruits, cut in the tannins that still stand a little on the outside. Its frame is a bit skeletal, can amplify. There is rocky powder emphasis on the close, the length good. I like its gradual upping of the tempo, depth. It has interest, hidden corners, is not an open book. “It’s very fresh, always had foundation. 2019 is powerful, but 2020 bears jolis fruits, has true class, an identity,” Laurent Charvin. JOHN LIVINGSTON-LEARMONTH, drinkrhone.com,

A bold and expressive Cotes-du-Rhone with excellent wild blackberry fruit plus notes of meat and licorice. A big and well-structured wine that gets a real kick at the finish from the crunchy freshness. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. STUART PIGGOT, James Suckling

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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!

Deep Ruby hue. Fragrant aromas of wild raspberry, dark plum, sandalwood, vanilla and sea spray. Flavours of  silken and bright wild forest fruits and graphite. Supple and elastic mid pallet tannins that are contained with bright and pure minerality. Typical white rock tension creates a long and vibrant finish.

Three organic and biodynamically certified hillside vineyards on the warm northern slopes of the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The vines grow through a diverse range of clay and limestone soils to produce intense wines completely expressive of each site. The family recently purchased a beautiful 7 hectare hillside vineyard names Damsteep, 10km north of Black Estate. It has quiclkly  become the jewe in their crown and rightly so.

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A little Languedoc love here. We were suitably impressed by this littles number when this along with its brother and sister wine crossed our path. The philosophy here is to create a classic range of Southern French wines, produced by the enigmatic Château Canet estate in the Languedoc, Côte Lavande is supposed to be fun and care-free.

Many shades of black fruits here with a delicate hint of liquorice and wafts of savoury dried herbs. Medium pushing into the lower side of full there is a seriousness about the wine with its fine sinewy structure and softly brooding palate that’s really appealing. That sweet mulberry fruit shines through while everything is nicely in its place. Smart winemaking here that really shines.

The 2020 Pommard En Boeuf, matured in 50% new oak, is quite backward on the nose and demanded encouragement from the glass, gradually, reluctantly unfolding with slightly earthy black fruit, hints of Earl Grey and tobacco. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red berry fruit, fine acidity, touches of sage and white pepper, the 50% whole bunch beautifully integrated on the finish. What a lovely Pommard, one that is Premier Cru level in all but name. NEAL MARTIN, vinous.com

13 barrels made, using one third new wood, two thirds one year old and vinified with 50% whole bunches. The lieu dit will be marked on the label this year. Glowing purple. A lively and delicious fruit, supple, with a gorgeous ripe raspberry, carries through really well, elegance and grip with a fair amount of new wood, which it can carry. JASPER MORRIS MW

An initial impression revealed predominantly floral and violet notes. They were joined by fruit, cherry and berry characters, while on the finish there was spice and a suggestion of hazelnut. An elegant wine with an appealing supple, fine-grained texture. BOB CAMPBELL, The Real Review

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The 2020 Rosso di Montalcino is deep, dark and almost sensual in the glass, as black cherries and minty herbs give way to hints of worn leather and spice. It coasts along the palate with silken waves of ripe red berries, coming across as supremely soft and pliant, yet all kept in balance by saline-tinged acids. Rosy florals and hints of licorice linger, as the 2020 tapers off fresh yet potent and long. This is an elegant beauty. ERIC GUIDO, vinous.com

Under the same ownership as Champagne Roederer for a couple of decades now, Delas Frères recently opened a new winery and enotourism facility in Tain l'Hermitage. It's a brilliant, modern facility that should be on the list of things to visit when in town. Winemaking is in the capable hands of Jacques Grange and Claire Darnaud. ROBERT PARKER

Ventoux is the name of the Village and only a select number of high-quality villages are allowed to put their name on the label. This is a bit of a hit from Delas and offers a more light and pretty version when compared to the CDR bottling. Nice purity stuffed with plenty of crunchy red fruits, think cranberry, raspberry and strawberry. There are flecks of ground pepper and vanilla spice in a lithe and lifted package. Another great release.

This is a masterpiece of delicacy; open-hearted and lingering beautifully.
It smells of fennel, radish and quinine bark with a sweet-spice-squeak. Lean and lipstick-kissy, fine wild fennel sweetness repeats in the acid squeak at end.
It has excellent ripeness in harmony with fine structure and incredible freshness, but is super-lean in glycerol terms, and wonderfully fresh. SCOTT WASLEY

It's beautiful and poised. With air the aromatics soar, the florals and bright blue fruits reach out from the glass beckoning.
It feels soft and glossy on the palate but through that there is a vein of rocky minerality and super filigreed tannins hold the wines shape and draw out the flavour.
Slowly building and slowly finishing. It's long and there is so much woven through this gorgeous wine that I could taste and smell it all day long.
I believe it will age incredibly well on the pure harmony it displays now.
This is genuinely beautiful. ROSCOE

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3 BOTTLES AVAILABLE

The nose carries a light essence of cooked plum fruit, strawberry jam, pepper, peony. It’s wide, will emerge and evolve well. The palate is close-knit, herbal-peppery, lined with red cherry, brisk fruits, cut in the tannins that still stand a little on the outside. Its frame is a bit skeletal, can amplify. There is rocky powder emphasis on the close, the length good. I like its gradual upping of the tempo, depth. It has interest, hidden corners, is not an open book. “It’s very fresh, always had foundation. 2019 is powerful, but 2020 bears jolis fruits, has true class, an identity,” Laurent Charvin. JOHN LIVINGSTON-LEARMONTH, drinkrhone.com,

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!