However, a down draught from the Andes and the Pacific’s Humboldt Current both help to moderate temperatures by day and ensure very cold nights.

In addition, the sunlight is exceptionally bright and snowmelt from the Andes provides all the irrigation water required.

Viña Falernia, one of only two wineries in the valley, was built in the late 1990s by Italian Giorgio Flessati and won a Trophy with its first vintage. Elqui produces “some particularly gutsy Syrah at altitudes of over 2,000 metres” (World Atlas of Wine), and the Carmenère is equally robust.

Deep bramble, cassis and spice character, it's great with lamb. Best decanted.

Antonio Federici is a small, 3rd-generation cellar in Lazio, just south of Rome. As you'll taste here, its wines are both authentic and delicious. Normally, they only supply their meagre output to top restaurants in Rome.

But with most shut in 2020, we managed to gain a small allocation of this superb, cherry-scented red. And again, the following year. On fine limestone soils (the rocks of which were used to build some of Rome's most famous buildings) they grow some of Italy's most characterful native grapes.

From these they make a small range of award-winning wines. No doubt the skill of top Italian consultant Franco and Matteo Bernabei comes into play, as well as the commitment and passion of the family.

A silky, smooth, easy red.

We work closely with great producers to ensure we get the best wines for our Averys label range. Our new German Riesling is crafted for us by Gabel winery, a small family estate with 350 years of winemaking history. Recently awarded “Rising star of the year 2022” in Germany’s Eichelmann Wine Guide, Oliver Gabel learnt his craft through the vineyards of Baden, Bordeaux, Burgundy and South Africa. He’s now developed his own style at home in the Pfalz, striving for elegant wines that show their origin. This Riesling is from limestone soils in organic vineyards giving the wine an invigorating mineral character. Wild yeast fermentation in traditional wooden vats (some more than 100 years old!) preserves the vibrant fruit aromas. Drink or cellar.

Let’s go back in time! To the 1st century AD and vineyards planted to serve the ruling elite at the thriving Roman port of Troia. Here, on Portugal’s windswept Atlantic coast, the only grape that thrives in the dry, sandy soils and super-hot sun is local star Castelão. This small, dark-skinned grape boasts fathomless depths of flavour – if you know how to unlock it. Back to today and enter Gold-medal maestro Jaime Quendera at Portugal’s most awarded winery, Casa Ermelinda Freitas. Only made in the best years, this Black Red flies of our shelves as soon as it's in stock. So our advice is: if you see it, buy it! Rippling with ripe plums, black fruits and laced with chocolate, with a spicy oak finish. At 14.5% it’s got power, so sip slowly.

This juicy, full-of-fruit red sums up the best of Aussie wine – gorgeous ripe flavour, good intensity and freshness. Way & Cat is short for ‘wayfaring catador’, catador being Spanish for taster.

So the name is a tribute to how the team source their fruit – they head out into the vineyards to taste the grapes of their grower friends. When they find the selections they like, they vinify each parcel separately, then blend the results into fruit first expressions of the varieties they chose. That blend changes vintage by vintage, depending on what performs well that year. It's top for versatility too – great as a glass on its own, tasty with roasted vegetable quiche, sausage and mash. And just the ticket at a barbecue.

Opi Sadler has brought us the customer favourite ‘Waxed Bat’, now he presents the ‘Big Bat’. If you didn’t think a wine could get any richer, silkier and packed with luxurious layers of flavour, you were mistaken. But then, Opi is one of Argentina’s most internationally renowned winemakers and he adores the Cabernet Sauvignon grape.

To achieve such an ageworthy perfection, he selected grapes from the finest, high-altitude vineyards in Altamira, Uco Valley, ageing this grand red for 18 months in French oak barrels. This lends a spicy edge to the rich black fruits. Opi states that Argentina makes "undoubtedly the best Cabernet wines in the world". A big statement, but judging by this wine, he may well be right. An elegant, mature steak red.