【NEW】12 All-time Favourites at 50% OFF plus TWO FREE Gifts!
【Spender Rewards Program】Accumulate your spending to designated amount each month and redeem FREE fine wines (Click here for details )
The judges at the China's Wine & Spirits Best Value Awards were impressed by this rich, spicy Shiraz, unanimously awarding it a Gold. It’s from John Quarisa, who for many years made wine for the biggest names in Oz, winning both the Jimmy Watson and Stodart Trophies. Today, with the help of his wife Josephine, he crafts winners like this. ‘Passion is Everything’ is their motto, and, after just over a decade in operation, their winery in New South Wales boasts four stars from Aussie wine guru James Halliday. He describes the “exceptional value for money provided by the wines” and is full of praise for this red. It’s deliciously easy going, but still packs a punch of luscious ripe fruit. A sure bet for a bbq, a roast or a hearty bake.
only 26 left
This is a stellar white Rioja. t’s the flagship of Altos, a cellar founded in 2006 by winemaker Jean-Marc Sauboua, and already with 125 Golds. Old-vine Viura and Chardonnay, fermented in barrel, this is intense, citrusy and toasty.
Our Haut-Brion-trained winemaker, Jean-Marc Sauboua, founded Altos in 2006 and, all together, has won over 180 Golds, Trophies, plus many high scores.
He works with the young Amaia Amestoy and Hector Gomez in the cellar, whose CVs includes experience at Napa’s Château Montelena, Contino and Murrieta in Rioja and Villacreces in Ribera del Duero.
They made this wine from old-vine (80+ years) Tempranillo and Graciano, vinifying it using Burgundy’s pigeage method.
This involves fermenting in open vats and plunging the skins into the liquid three times a day – hands-on winemaking that delivers great results.
Aged for two years in half new French oak and bottled unfiltered, the wine offers seams of intense black fruit with spice-box complexity.
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.
only 7 left
Altos is a top performing Rioja bodega with Trophies for 'Spanish Winery of the Year', 'Reserva of the Year' and 'Crianza of the Year'. Owner-winemaker is Haut-Brion trained Jean Marc Sauboua. This is 92-pt single vineyard Rioja.
Gold, International Wine Awards, 2020
90-94pts, International Wine Awards, 2020
90pts, James Suckling, 2020
92pts, Andreas Larsson, 2020
The wine is matured for 12 months in the barrels that used to hold the family's fine port. Unique method allows the wines to get extra layers of lovely spice, incredible velvety richness, superb complexity, and a light touch of sweetness.
When I came over the high pass south into the Agly Valley in the 70s, I was captivated by the ancient vines on steep, terraced hills, topped by high, ruined castles. It was wild 'unknown' territory. That's where bestselling Cabalié, made by the legendary Hervé Sabardeil, is from. Hervé buys grapes for Cabalié from many vineyards, but the best grapes came from two vineyards of 100-year-old vines on schist/granite soils. They are two of France's oldest vineyards, lying on steep, terraced hillsides. When Hervé learned the farmer was retiring, he bought those two vineyards – and thus we have the 'Grand Cru' Origine … the purest essence of Cabalié … made solely from those two vineyards. It's a nearly all dark, spiced Carignan, with a few rows of silky Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, which add to the incredibly rich fruit and luscious texture.