From a winery and winemaker that bring you Stones & Bones, one of our top-scoring Portuguese reds, this is a fabulous, one-off, premium release. It’s a red with two years’ maturity – delicious drinking now, but one with the richness, depth and structure for ageing, too.

It’s made by Vasco Martins at the fifth-generation family cellar, Casa Santos Lima, a terrific blend of 40% Syrah, with portions of Alicante, Touriga Nacional and Aragonez, all aged in French and American oak barriques, to lend layers of toasty vanilla spice to the dense black fruit. A sensational red with amazing depth of flavour. Best to open early and decant, if you can, so all the flavours open out. A great wine to serve with roast lamb, rich casseroles or at a barbecue.

Despite the then-ongoing pandemic, wildfires and a state-wide drought, California’s winemakers say the 2021 vintage will be one of the best in recent memory. Lower yields and smaller berries led to all varieties showing greater flavour concentration, resulting in deeper, richer fruit in this remarkable red. Doohickey is crafted exclusively for us at a top Californian winery which we’re not allowed to name. If their regular customers saw the price of this red, they’d be up in arms and we’d never secure this deal again.

The wine delivers mouthfuls of blackcurrant and bramble fruit mingling with notes of toasty oak. A perfect red to open when you have friends round, it’s especially good with lamb – from spicy tagine to moussaka.

Ultima Edizione started a few years back as a special project from the Farnese cellar. Based in an ancient castle in Abruzzo, the cellar has a terrific reputation and has been named Italy’s ‘Winery of the Year’ three times. We've been working with them for many years and for this wine we gave them free rein to produce the best red possible, regardless of region.

Talented winemaker today is Dennis Verdecchia, who cherry picked tiny parcels of premium soft, ripe Montepulciano and Sangiovese from Abruzzo, and dark Primitivo and spicy Negroamaro from sun-baked vineyards in Puglia in the south. Barrel ageing, then blending has produced this intensely flavoured, velvety red. Weighty, it’s best with roasted pork belly or a rich casserole.