This exciting Alexandra Pinot Noir is made from grapes grown on warm, north facing slopes across the Clutha River from Alexandra township on Earnscleugh Road on a site that was known for the early establishment of grape vines in the 1870s during the goldrush. It's the area of Central Otago that most attracted the shareholders, a group of friends who collectively own the vineyard and Grasshopper Rock wine brand.

Pinot Noir is the only wine they produce and theirs has a history of exceptionally elegant aging, thanks to its high acidity (a direct expression of the cool climate here) and its savoury, earthy flavours as it develops in the bottle.

This wine drinks beautifully now and has a long life ahead, for those with willpower. 

This complex and affordable Chianti Classico is a full bodied, ripe and powerful wine made from a blend of 90% Sangiovese, 5% Colorino and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, each grape contributing depth, body and balance to the wine. 

This brand was traditionally produced by a well known cooperative with over 60 different grape growers contributing to the blend but the brand has now been acquired by Tenute Piccini, which employs the highly respected consultant oenologist, Riccardo Cotarella.

THE CHIANTI CLASSICO APPELLATION

Chianti Classico is the heart of the wider Chianti production zone and its wines are distinguished by a trademarked black rooster on their labels. The wines of Chianti Classico are higher in quality and noticeably so in taste than wines labelled Chianti, which come from a broader area in Tuscany. The wines taste better because the vines are planted on hillsides with a higher degree of  iron rich soils and a greater diurnal temperature range, which provides more powerful, riper fruit flavours, which are balanced by higher acidity thanks to the cooler night time temperatures. 

The Sangiovese grape must make up 80% of all wines labelled Chianti Classico compared to 70% Sangiovese for wines labelled Chianti. 

Chianti was first defined as a wine producing sub region within Tuscany in 1716 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III, whose wanted to protect the integrity of the wines and prevent fraud. The Chianti Classico Wine Consortium was formed in 1924 with the distinctive Black Rooster trademark chosen to feature on the labels. 

Chardonnay is king and queen at Bogle in California and it invests enormously in ensuring the Chardonnays meet up with market demand for big, buttery, vanilla and cedar flavours in the wine. All Chardonnays at Bogle are aged in oak and this wine, the flagship, spends eight months in new American oak barrels to gain creamy richness to enhance its ripe tropical fruit flavours and sweet toasted coconut finish. 

If you're a big buttery Chardonnay fan, come and get it.

A beautifully structured Bordeaux from the hallowed gravels of Pessac-Leognan. The fruit grows on a 40ha site with Gűnz gravel from the Quaternary period located on the plateau above the village of Martillac with a distribution of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. The vines are planted at a density of 7200 per hectare.

This vintage is 60% Merlot – 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and offers a deep, dense, purple colour in the glass. The nose is intense and aromatic, with red and black fruits, spicy liquorice and gentle smoky notes. The palate is at once, powerful and fresh with well-rounded tannins leading to along and lush finish. 

The Bogle family are said to believe there is a phantom in the winery, hence the name of this big, buttery, full throttle Chardonnay from California. This wine is aged entirely in French oak barrels (no cutting corners here). It's an in your face style that works well with its caramel, popcorn and creamy notes. 

Bogle produces over 1 million cases of wine every year, all of it Chardonnay and all aiming to please those who like their Chardonnays big, buttery and rich in taste. 

If you're a fan of creamy Chardonnay, come and get it.

Dry, flinty, full bodied and creamy with flavoursome ripe apple and honey notes. This Hawke's Bay Chenin Blanc is sure to please both Chardonnay lovers and those who like crisp dry whites without all the bells and whistles too; it successfully straddles a diverse array of wine style thanks to clever winemaking from Rod Easthope, sources grapes from the Two Terraces Vineyard, inland in the Bay and owned by Chenin devotee Ian Quin..

Chenin BLanc is one of the least planted but most promising white grapes in New Zealand and is also one of the world's most versatile, thanks to the wide range of wines that can be made from it - from light to full bodied, still to sparkling and dry to lusciously sweet.

This Chenin Blanc comes from Hawke's Bay winemaker Rod Easthope, who used old barrels to ferment this Chenin, which adds body, weight and savouryness. It drinks well now and can definitely age further too, thanks to the grape's naturally high acidity, which acts as a preservative.

ots of sherry and fruit in this, Glenfarclas 12 was originally bottled for export and travel retail markets. In 2006, it was named the "Best Sherried Whisky" in the Single Malt World Cup, and in 2007 and 2008 it won Gold at the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival.

Nose: Light and creamy with a mix of supple, soft sherry and Manuka honey. Gentle and well-balanced, there are hints of smoke, rich oak, and a little pine resin.

Palate: Medium-bodied, with notes of date and walnut cake, Oloroso sherry and hints of earthy forest floor. A beautiful note of malt, with toffee apple and a touch of smoke.

Finish: Spicy and long, notes of allspice, cinnamon and cloves, with orange zest and sherry.

This was the first whisky to be bottled at cask strength in the late 1960s and, as such, set the bar for non-age statement cask strength whiskies. It is thought that the malt is around 8-10 years old and from both sherry and bourbon casks. 

A beautifully deep and rich whisky with plenty of punch. 

Glenallachie Distillery pronounced "Glen-alec-y" is located in the heart of Speyside near Aberlour.  It was built in 1967 mainly to contribute to the MacKinlay blends.

COLOUR
Polished Bronze.

NOSE
Butterscotch and honey playing the lead, with raisins and mocha in the background.

TASTE
Honey, marzipan and bananas, with lashings of butterscotch, raisins and a delicate hint of mocha.

A 2019 addition to the GlenAllachie core range, this 15 year old single malt was treated to a finishing period in sherry casks before bottling. The casks in question were a combination puncheons and hogsheads that previously held Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry. Master distillery Billy Walker described this expression as having an "exceptional balance of the distillery's spirit and the influence of the Sherry casks used during maturation." We'd have to agree.

Nose: Peanut brittle, dates and a big scoop of chocolate ice cream.

Palate: Walnut, raisin, Christmas spices and fresh ginger.

Finish: Coffee, Turkish delight and just a hint of flaky sea salt.

100% Bobal from DO Manchuela near Cuenca. 

Bodegas Ponce has been at the forefront of modern Spanish wine since their inception in 2005. 

Juan Antonio Ponce's dream was to make wines with the old vineyards of his native Manchuela. He attended viticulture and enology school when he was 14 years old, and after five years of working with Telmo Rodriguez after his graduation he started his own winery Bodegas Ponce when he was 23 years old. Inspired by his years with Telmo and the growing minimal intervention movement in France. He approached his native varietal Bobal in a way unlike that of neighbors. Farming sustainably, with organic and biodynamic principles and harvesting the grapes weeks before his neighbors. In the winery he works simply and cleanly, whole bunch fermentation, native yeast fermentation and aging in old wood vats. His wines are more like those from Beaujolais and the Loire Valley than Rioja and Priorat. What is fascinating is that Manchuela is a region where the locals joke that there are nine months of winter and three months of hell, which sounds nothing like the bucolic hills of Beaujolais nor France’s garden, the Loire valley. The P.F. stands for Pie Franco. The vineyards for this wine range in age from 40 to 90 years old and they are all ungrafted. Juan Antonio’s wines are some of the most elegant wines being made in Spain.

Acustic is an old vines blend of Carignan and Garnatxa from the Montsant region in Spain. This is a somewhat Rhone-like wine with red fruit flavours complemented by balanced spice and herbal notes. This expressive wine is bottled without fining or filtration.

Deep and ripe Pinot Noir from a selection of five vineyards in Waipara. Great concentration and oodles of fruit. 

About the winery...

"The company takes its name from an early Canterbury resident, surveyor and farmer, Englishman Charles Torlesse. He gave his name to the Torlesse mountain range which part circles the Canterbury Plains and was at one time the largest land owner and farmer in North Canterbury and founder of the nearby town of Rangiora. Interestingly, the name Torlesse is given to the underlying bedrock from which most New Zealand soils are derived – Torlesse, the terroir of New Zealand!



Our winery first started its life as a farm woolshed. In 1987 it was converted into a winery for Glenmark Wines by John McCaskey and Torlesse Wines moved to Waipara in 1991 and still share the production facilities. Many additions have made the winery self-sufficient in all aspects of winemaking from crushing to bottling, a claim that some wineries can not make."