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No, this is not just another "Light Dry Red" playing to the recent fads but a serious nod to the 'Burgundies' of the 50's 60's and 70's which Nick Spencer is paying homage to. These were classic light-bodied Shiraz and Shiraz/ Pinot blends that emerged from the Hunter and are highly sort after now. They are back in fashion and tasting this it's not hard to understand why.

The style can be a little hit or miss and getting that combo of pinot and shiraz just right is critical, which Nick has done a brilliant job of here. A touch of sour cherry, cranberry and strawberries that plays off broodier black currant and blackberry fruit swirling around in the background. It's served on a palate that is crunchy and vibrant with lovely fine structure and soft melting tannins. Great poise between the fruit and other elements and while this is wonderfully easy to enjoy there is a plenty going on here that belies the seriousness of the wine.

While its ready to go now and easy to love if you put a couple of bottles away for just a couple of years or so I think you would be a very happy camper!

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!

The red 2019 La Calleja comes from a vineyard that could only be bottled in 2010, 2016 and 2018, as it has suffered everything—hail, frost or whatever. It's from a north-facing plot that was planted in 1992 in Fonzaleche on shallow sandstone soils on white limestone that is harvested late but keeps a moderate degree (14.2%). This 2019 feels darker than usual, with black rather than red fruit, but it is still vibrant on the palate with freshness and fine tannins. The vineyard is farmed organically (but not certified), and they started with regenerative agriculture in 2019. It had a long élevage of 23 months in foudres and 500-liter barrels. 5,200 bottles were filled in September 2021. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

La Calleja is a single hectare planted in 1992 by Eva with her father, when she was a little girl. 100% Tempranillo and typically yields 4500 litres (although the first vintage, 2010 produced just 3000 bottles). Its name means 'little street'. Mountainous, with lots of stone in the soil, Fonzaleche village produces light and fluid wines with excellent acid structure. Typical handling regime: lightly crushed (yielding only a half-litre per kilo of fruit), open fermentation in medium-sized old wood for 6 days without additions (total sulphur, 40mg/l).

Fruity-floral with violets, a fresh, mineral acidity and lovely texture, La Calleja is a genuine 'voice' distinct from the me-too choir of industrial-process Rioja.

Golden Delicious apple and sweet Elberta peach aromas encircle the head, with a touch of thyme and spicy cinnamon basil. This is a crisp, lighter-bodied Chardonnay that delivers white peach, lime and saline flavors on a laser beam of acidity. It will be difficult to resist a second glass. Best Buy. MICHAEL ALBERTY, wineenthusiast.com

Spiced nectarines, honeycomb and saline notes allude to its underlying ripeness. On the palate, it's ripe yet constrained by a savoury scaffolding of spicy oak. Earthy notes of wet pebbles and seapsray add to the wine's texture and flavour profile. The finish is pulled together by a lovely line of fine and chewy phenolics, adding to the tension and energy. GABRIELLE POY

This village wine is from a collection of vineyards in the highlands around San Vicente, at altitudes of 500m and above, from different sites and soils. Of San Vicente’s six valleys, all but la Rad figure. The composition is Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and a little Viura. Manual harvest; destemmed; all the plots are made separately, then blended. 

After fermentation in the concrete cubes in Briones, 40% of the village blend lingers in concrete, while the balance has ten months of gentle ageing is in old 500L barrels in the medieval cellar of San Vicente’s Castle Davalillo.

The whole orchard on display here, wood, flowers and fruits of cherries and apples, boysenberry, plum and blackberry. All is cut to shape by hyssop, juniper, dry brown spices and orchard bark. Savoury-but-juicy, it’s open, perfumed and round. Gravel and iron in the soil nuance the satin fruit-tannin sumptuousness. It’s a wine of great harmony and balance, and as it lingers, fruitfulness is beautifully trimmed by tannin to the finish where spice, bitters and easy nutty acid join in the violets-in-earth gorgeousness. SCOTT WASLEY

A river of black fruit, subtle florals and brown spices. Beautiful purity in the fruit, such detail and intensity and while there's a dusting of oak spice, the power and deeply pitched and mineral flecked fruit is very special. Bristling with energy. As I said above, long and aristocratic. Utterly convincing and delicious wine. MICHAEL MCNAMARA

100% Tinto Fino, from the towns of Villálvaro, Sotillo de la Ribera, Moradillo, Hontoria, Peñafiel, Quintana del Pidio, Anguix and Curiel de Duero. Average altitude of 850 to 900 meters, all in the province of Burgos and Valladolid. The grapes come from old vineyards between 35 and 100 years old. In French oak barrels for 428 days, having undergone malolactic fermentation in barrels for 10% of the final blend.

Smashed red and black fruits with that blue-note hit and spicy oak to top it off and little highlights of smokey, leather notes make for a heady and complex nose. Again, plenty of concentration for the mixed, wild berry fruit profile but never at the lack of freshness or energy. Firm but plush tannins grip the black fruits plastering them to the palate and driving home to a full and rich finish. Definitely see some oak here but it suits the style perfectly. PWS

Earthy, underbrush aromas with hints of fig, raspberry compote, cherry and herbal overtones. Bursting with red plum, spice and a mouthwatering layer of sour fruit. Peppery tannins and a toasty, warming finish. DECANTER

A pristine and primary Toro with spices and baked cherries. The juicy, medium- to full-bodied palate is wrapped by fresh, tight tannins before a medium-length finish. Vegan. Drink within the next three-to-four years. (90) JAMES SUCKLING

Matsu is more than a winery or a wine; it is a modern project of sustainable viticulture out of the Toro region in western Spain. Use of biodynamic agriculture through all its vineyards are cultivated in a form that is completely ecological, avoiding any use of chemical or synthetic herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.

El Picaro´ is a young wine of the author that was born out of the process of biodynamic viticulture. With this wine comes the completion of the collection of Matsu, a trilogy that is surprising for its ability to unite power with elegance. ´El Picaro´ continues to pay a tribute to the viticulturists that have dedicated their lives to the vineyards. As the youngest generation in the Matsu line, El Picaro embodies the characteristics of a strong young man, valiant, impertinent, and uncontrollable.

Hang on to your hat! Here’s a dense and dangerous wine for a grape most wine drinkers think can only give no-brainers. Very compact and structured with a dark personality that some may find shocking, but what makes it that way is the gypsum marl minerality that is its soul. Brain-rattling freshness at the super stony finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. (97) STUART PIGOTT, jamessuckling.com

The 2021 Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal is a monopole for Zind-Humbrecht. It is located between Brand and Heimbourg, utterly different from both, with calcareous marl and gypsum on south-facing terraces. In the past, this was dedicated to making sweeter wines with botrytis. The vines were planted in 1983. The nose has a flicker of reduction, followed by an aromatic notion of pear, freshly turned earth and orange peel. The palate has concentration and flow, a russet pear texture and a salty, cool, mouth-watering core. The saltiness is more intense than the fruit. The beautiful, bone-dry finish is very appetizing ANNE KREBIEHL MW, Vinous Media

Comprising of almost all Mencía with just a dash of Tempranillo and Sousón, this expressive, light bodied wine captures the very essence of Ribeira Sacra, grown on slopes above the River Sil so vertiginous they can only be worked by hand. Flavours of blueberries, blackcurrants, and herbs with fresh, lifted acidity. BARRICA WINES

Think ripe pomelo and melon with a touch of yellow grapefruit, then let yourself drift into this very fresh and chalky expression of the pinot gris grape. Only medium-bodied, but with a compact structure. Intensely salty finish that has a lot of drive. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold. STUART PIGOTT, jamessuckling.com

Smoky and delicately exotic with touches of bergamot and gunpowder, this is a super-elegant dry pinot gris that shows what this grape is capable of. Tremendous textural complexity in the very long, silky finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold.  95 STUART PIGOTT, jamessuckling.com

Pinot gris has the reputation of being easygoing, but this dry pinot gris from Alsace has enormous energy and vitality. The staggering citrusy juiciness electrifies the super concentrated, medium-bodied palate. At this stage in the wine’s very long life, the finish is a wild ride thanks to the chalky intensity. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but best from 2026. 97 STUART PIGOTT, jamessuckling.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!

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!

Excellent depth and complexity here, showing graphite, pencil shavings, inky blackberries, dark earth funk, black cherries and some roasted spices. Medium to full body with plenty of tight but creamy tannins. Juicy, pretty long and youthful. 100% tempranillo. Better from 2024. ZEKUN SHUAI, JamesSuckling.com

Laderas de Cabama is 100% Tempranillo, crafted from a single plot of 40-year-old vines in Ollauri. It grows on the classic clay/limestone soil of the Rioja Alta. This single-vineyard bottling used to be made in a similar style to Valenciso’s flagship Reserva, in that it was built to age in barrel and bottle before release. From the 2018 vintage, Valenciso has sought to craft Laderas de Cabama in a younger, more fruit-forward style. The fruit is picked a little earlier and the winemaking employs a portion of whole-berry, semi-carbonic fermentation, bringing a more primary, juicy profile.

No new oak is used. Instead, fermentation occurs in cool concrete, followed by 14 months in used French oak barrels. The resulting wine is spicy and rich, with blackberry and plummy fruit, some spice and tobacco leaf notes from the whole-bunch fermentation. It boasts good depth and a tea-scented, full-bodied finish. Great on its own, this will also suit a wide variety of meat dishes.

A bright, racy nose loaded with fruit, flowers, minerals and red cherries. Fine tannins unwind nicely with the fruit on the palate, with a medium body and a pretty long, precise finish. A co-fermentation from a co-planted vineyard over 60 years old in Abalos. 80% tempranillo, 10% garnacha tinto and 10% viura and other grapes, Half of the wine was aged in old concrete and the other half in used 500-liter oak barrels. Such a joy to drink now. ZEKUN SHUAI, JamesSuckling.com

The 2022 Colección de Viñedos is a village red with 80% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha and 10% Viura from four vineyards in Ábalos. It fermented in stainless steel with neutral yeasts. It feels a little like a carbonic-maceration red, but it fermented destemmed; it feels very young and primary, with a fruit-driven nose and a vinous palate, juicy and with very fine tannins and moderate acidity. 25,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2023. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

Balanced and supple, with notes of fresh plum, blackberry, tobacco leaf and liquorice. This is a juicy, fresh wine with bright acidity and a dry, chalky finish. DECANTER

Coleccion' is an assemblage of old bush vines (more than 60yo) from three parcelas, Peña Caída, Centenales y los Trepados, planted to Tempranillo with 10% each of Garnacha and Viura. These are field blends grown at just below 600m, yielding 4 tonnes/ha. Open tank fermentation of destemmed fruit, after a brief cold soak, 14 days fermentation and maceration, then malo transformation and 'aged' in raw concrete and 500L French oak casks for six months. Unfined. An incredible bargain!

The wine that stole the show this time is the 2020 Bahierra. It's from a single vineyard that they have worked organically for the past four years (but not certified) with some very old Garnacha and Viura on five terraces and some 35-year-old Tempranillo. It had a 15-month élevage in used 225- and 500-liter barrels and expresses the freshness of the place in Sajazarra. This vintage feels different, with red cherries and a touch of orange peel, more elegant and more Pinot Noir if you allow me. This is really a clarete with 60% red grapes and 40% white, fermented and aged like a red. The palate is vibrant and effervescent with acidity and acid berry flavors, ultra fine tannins and a long, supple and dry finish. Superb! Unfortunately, they had hail and had to sort to produce only 316 bottles. It was bottled in January 2022. It should age well. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

Located in the tiny pueblo of Villaseca, on the municipal footprint of Fonzaleche, Baherra is just north of Sajazarra, and features cold stony limey soil. It's a tiny 0.45 hectare field blend vineyard, planted 100 years ago to roughly 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 10% Viura and other unknown cultivars. Total yield is 1-1.5 tonnes (harvested in October).

Simply, the taste of a place. Tree and vine, wood and leaves, sky and earth. Brilliant, bright, savoury, lactic-electric fruit, centred and radiating. Floral, detailed, deep, fresh. Wonderful.

Estate grown field blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay Musqué, Riesling and Grüner Veltliner. Up to 7 days of skin contact before pressing. Natural co-ferment and maturation in a Pozvek foudré for 9 months on full lees. 100% malolactic fermentation. Bottled in January 2024 unfined and unfiltered.

Amber hue in the glass, this wine is complex and highly aromatic with scents of fresh apricot, musk and lychee. Peach, beeswax and subtle smoky notes. A creamy mid palate with a refreshing saline finish.

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!

Claríto is a tribute to the deep traditions of Rioja, updated perhaps. ‘Back in the day’ such wines were the epitome of a Village Rioja. In little towns, a small amount of Viura would trickle in, but it would take days to fill a press, so it was ‘little-by-little’ adding whatever correctly-picked fruit came in until a batch was ready, first white then later some red.

In 2022, the Viura was picked (September 14th), de-stemmed and macerated for 3 days or so until the red was ready to pick. This was added as 100% whole bunch Garnacha atop the white. After a couple of days co-maceration, it was gently pressed to a yield of just 65%. The young Clarete must was then left to ferment spontaneously in combination of a 3,200L raw concrete vat and a 2,000L stainless tank. Working with lots of skins, the fermentation started easily and was done in 8 days. The young wine and its fine lees were then aged in gorgeous raw concrete cubes for 8 months (a portion aged in a single old 1,000 litre foudre), stirred occasionally to protect from reduction During this time, natural malolactic conversion happens to create balance and palate structure. No sulphur additions are made to the wine.

Label artwork by Leah Teschendorff.

The subtle orange look of Claríto ‘22 is matched on the nose with a line of tangerine skin. This fragrance plays beautifully around an air of ‘dust in a Rioja vineyard’, along with faded roses. Dried silage (including a hint of pickle) and sea shell smells tell of Viura grown in chalk. The nose is deep, bell-clear, like smelling the water in a well, many feet down, below the dust, the heat, the haze. Cool and still. The throat develops a deep compulsive tickle of desire to swallow. One is drawn in. In the mouth, there’s savoury roundness backlit citric with orange and golden persimmon, crabapples, brushed steel earthiness, faded florals. Steel magnolias and cherry skins in short. It’s edged by deep chalky minerality and run through with tangible energy … a circle with a line through it. Plenty of skinsy-tannin mouthfeel gives ungrippy grip, presence without tension.

Crianza red wine made from the varieties Tempranillo (90%), Garnacha (5%) and a small percentage of other native varietals, sourced exclusively from vineyards located in Rioja Alavesa. After a manual picking, all the grapes are hand-selected using vibration and selection tables. Long macerations and intracellular fermentations with indigenous yeasts in conic stainless-steel tanks. Natural extraction by gravity. 14 month ageing in French and American oak barrels.

Intense cherry color of upper middle layer. Aromas of black fruit and compote, spaces and dairy stand out. The palate is elegant, fresh and silky and shows a long aftertaste.

Fragrant and lifted aromas of Packham pear, baked apple, melon skin, white-stone fruit and sweet spice. Fleshy, textured, bright and crunchy. There's a lovely drive of pear, nectarine and some textured, grippy phenolics. Long and very satisfying THE REAL REVIEW

This is a punter friendly wine if ever there was one. It's fruity, it's soft, it's delicious. Sweet pear and red apple flavour do all the work, and very pleasant work it is too. This wine is simple in the most untaxing and pleasurable of ways. CAMPBELL MATTINSON

A zesty wine with notes of nashi pear, Jazz apple and fresh quinces. A hint of loquat and yellow melon. Lemon skin citrus and leisurely flow to the acidity. It's laden with pear nectar fruit weight and a note of ginger jellies. A touch of white tea tannins and grip on the finish that adds an element of mealiness. THE WINE PILOT

El Escolladero is a cuvée of Tempranillo and 15% Graciano from vines at 640 metres in cool climate Ábalos. Aged in larger foudres to soften its tannic structure, it has density and grip, damson, cranberry and black cherry fruit, muscular tannins, a hint of good reduction and plenty of texture and concentration.  (96) TIM ATKIN MW, Rioja Report 2025

The 2022 El Escolladero is 85% Tempranillo and 15% Graciano sourced from El Meadero in Ábalos, Rioja Alta. Aged for up to 12 months in foudres, this purple wine presents aromas of balsamic with an elder and sour cherry core, framed by an oaky touch. Dry, juicy and compact on the palate, this vibrant, fine-grained, chalky-textured wine lingers long with a whiff of pure, primary fruit—a modern Rioja wine. JOAQUIN HIDALGO, Vinous.com

This village wine is from a collection of vineyards in the highlands around San Vicente, at altitudes of 500m and above, from different sites and soils. Of San Vicente's six valleys, all but la Rad figure. The composition is Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and a little Viura. Manual harvest; destemmed; all the plots are made separately, then blended.

After fermentation in the concrete cubes in Briones, 40% of the village blend lingers in concrete, while the balance has ten months of gentle ageing is in old 500L barrels in the medieval cellar of San Vicente's Castle Davalillo.

Hailing from Rioja Alta, the 2022 José Gil Viñedos en San Vicente de la Sonsierra presents a unique blend of 75% Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and 5% white grapes. Fermented with 15% whole clusters, this purple wine exhibits a distinctive aroma of orange peel, accompanied by notes of blue and blackberry. Hints of elderflower and violets add further complexity. On the palate, it is dry, lean and intense, with a delicate and juicy character that lingers with refreshing ripeness. This wine offers an alluring and savory profile, infused with inspiration from the approach to Pinot Noir found in Burgundy. JOSE HIDALGO

The 2022 Viñedos en San Vicente de la Sonsierra was produced in the same way as the 2021 that I tasted next to it, trying to express finesse and purity in a warmer and ripe year. The wine has similar parameters, 13.9% alcohol. It's surprisingly fresh and harmonious for a 2022, close to the 2021 from the same village, with some floral hints and a seamless palate, juicy and with round tannins. 15,000 bottles produced. LUIS GUITTERREZ