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Mountain Nebbiolo

Posted by Joelle Thomson on

Small is never a word to use when describing any wine made from the Nebbiolo grape but it does fit for a wine from Carema DOC, one of the smallest areas devoted to Nebbiolo in north west Italy. And the 2019 Cantina Produttori Nebbiolo di Carema is one of greatest wines to pass my lips so far this year. Not that it is small in taste or lacks for flavour (far from it) but the volumes made are minuscule compared to other regions. So much so that Italian writer Cesare Pillon once wrote "As a great Nebbiolo from northern Piedmont,...

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Top of the Tuscan reds

Posted by Joelle Thomson on

Tuscany is the best known wine region in Italy and one of the most beautiful in the world. Cypress trees line the rolling hillsides that lead up to fortress villages with vines tumbling down the gentle slopes. Those slopes is where the best Tuscan wines come from and of course their most famous expression is Chianti and Chianti Classico but not all Chiantis are created equal, as we have all discovered when ordering a glass at a pizzeria or even a great restaurant.  This month our wine team at Regional Wines & Spirits has been busy tasting through interesting new Tuscan reds...

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Chill down with chillable reds

Posted by Joelle Thomson on

  Who did make the world's first chillable red wine? The answer probably goes back a lot longer than most of us have been alive but there is a new trend today among winemakers globally to make lighter bodied red wines that work a treat when served lightly chilled. It all began for Wairarapa winemaker Jannine Rickards when she first tasted Foradori Lezer, a chilled red from a town in Trentino, north east Italy, where winemaker Elisabetta Foradori met a difficult vintage by making a light bodied red from it. The rest is history. Rickards has launched her second chillable red wine this...

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Cult rosé on the rise

Posted by Joelle Thomson on

Buy it in store - we have 12 precious bottles. That's our allocation for 2024. Get in quick. To describe Domaine Tempier Rosé as one of the cult wines of the world is to make a slight understatement. It is one of the highest priced, most sought after rosés made in France today in the small and heat filled enclave of Bandol, an appellation in the to die for beauty of Provence where lavender lines the gardens and the chocolatey Mourvedré grape lines the barrels. This pink wine is made mostly from Mourvèdre ( 50%) with Grenache and Cinsault playing support...

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Producer profile - Craggy Range Winery

Posted by Joelle Thomson on

Craggy Range is one of New Zealand's best known producers for both its highly sought after, small volume collectible wines known as the Prestige Collection (launched mid year, every year) and for its affordable, deliciously divine dry Rieslings, Pinot Noirs and staunch age worthy reds. But it may come as a surprise to discover where most of its wines come from or, rather where most of the grapes used in Craggy Range wines are grown. The winery is based in Hawke's Bay and began with high quality plantings on the Gimblett Gravels and other areas in that region. Today, however, the Bay...

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