That’s 200 gallons to be exact – the same amount that each American household was allowed to make for ‘personal use’ during Prohibition.

And the go-to grape during this DIY time wasn’t Cabernet or Merlot, it was the bold and juicy Alicante Bouschet - widely planted in California but originally from Portugal.

Today, award-winning winemaker Jamie Quendera has crafted a mighty, Reserva-quality red, from rare 100-year-old vines.

And the unique twist? Jamie aged the wine for 12 months in custom double casks. The top and bottom are French oak (imparting subtle spice) while the long side planks are American (for vanilla notes).

The result is an ultra-smooth, cherry-ripe, well-spiced drop!

It won a Trophy for its first release, another Trophy and Gold for 2007 and 2009, and Gold for 2010.

It’s from the Elqui Valley, an extraordinarily high region next to the Atacama Desert.

Thanks to the wonders of irrigation, flourishing green vineyards stand out in stark contrast to their moonscape surroundings.

The award winning Viña Falernia was set up by Italians Aldo Olivier Gramola and Giorgio Flessati in 1995 and is one of only two wineries here.

Today they have extensive vineyards and a cellar packed with state of the art equipment.

With impressive richness, great complexity and finesse, this is a wine to decant and serve with roast lamb on a special occasion.

Altos de Bergasa is from Bodegas La Eralta, a family-owned winery founded in 1990. Quite young in terms of Rioja.

It proudly owns 360 hectares of vineyard throughout the three subregions, with this luscious Gran Reserva named after its first plots, planted in the village of Bergasa.

At their modern cellars, they boast 10,000 French and American oak barrels, within which they age their finest wines – from Crianza to this exceptional Gran Reserva.

For this wine, they only age their finest grapes, all Tempranillo, ageing the wine at least a year in barrel and the rest of the time in bottle.

Despite its 7 years' age, it is still fairly youthful. Delicious drinking now, we recommend early opening and decanting to release all the flavours.

His secret? He's Bordeaux born and trained at First Growth Château Haut Brion. His aim was to make Grand Cru Classé wines in Rioja, so he chose only high altitude vineyards, the highest in all Rioja.

So grapes ripen slowly, with great finesse and intensity. Visit his winery, up in the clouds – it's cold! Salix Alba is a new release for him and very special.

It uses grapes solely from El Pisón, a tiny location where the famous Artadi bodega gets grapes for its £260 a bottle wine.

Ageing in all new French oak lends the finishing touches to this sumptuous red. A special dinner red.

But a huge haul of Golds later and they've changed their minds. The velvety black fruits that are so loved by our customers can now be enjoyed tenfold with the even richer Reserva edition.

José has searched out the very finest, low-yielding and intensely ripe Alicante grapes for this super cuvée, and you can taste the mouth filling difference.

Even more richness and spice, but at only 13%, it's still no heavyweight and has a lovely zip of freshness to all that blackberry, cassis and damson fruit.

Enjoy with richly flavoured casseroles and red meat dishes.

Here, in the UK, we don't get to drink much Californian Zinfandel - 95% of it is consumed locally. And Lodi is one of the elite regions for growing it, its wines gorgeously rich, dark and swarthy. This is a special parcel from one of Lodi's finest cellars, so good we aren't allowed to name them. That's part of the hush hush deal that ensured an exceptionally good price on this wine. It won't surprise you that sales for super-premium wines have slowed, so the winery was keen to shift some stock. And with Zin-focused customers, we were more than delighted to oblige.

Small grapes ensure intense colour and a big lift of super-ripe black fruits, rippled with vanilla and spice. Open and decant an hour beforehand. Great with roast red meats.

Luca Maroni 99pts！