A proprietary estate red blend sourced mainly from the warm, inland soils of Bridge Pa Triangle and Gimblett Gravels. Plummy Merlot and spicy Syrah dominant flavours complexed by additions of Tempranillo, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Generous, soft, red fruits with easing going drinkability.

Primitivo comes from Puglia in the south of Italy where the hot Mediterranean climate provides ideal growing conditions to ripen grapes into a big, full bodied, plush and fleshy red wine, such as this one from Giordano.

This is a next level expression of a grape renowned for making big, dry, friendly drinking reds. It drinks well now and can age for another four to five years, developing into a more complex, savoury wine.

A winner in so many ways from its dry, full bodied, zing to its outstanding freshness - this wine is released regularly as a freshly disgorged bottle of bubbles that pays homage to both Maori language with its lovely name; MiruMiru is Maori for bubbles, and also to French winemaking tradition. This blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier is made the same way as champagne. It spends 12 to 18 months on yeast lees and is freshly disgorged to retain its complexity and zing.  

Hunter's MiruMiru won top prize for New Zealand wines at the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships for the third year in a row in 2023.

This is an outstanding new addition to the much loved Esk Valley stable and it successfully straddles the big buttery Chardonnay style with all the subtleties that wine fans adore about the Chardonnay grape too - namely, its crisp, freshness. 

It is part of the new Esk Valley Artisanal Collection wines, which were launched this year and this one is made from clone 95 vines in Hawke’s Bay. The grapes were fermented in French oak with wild yeasts, which gives this wine its rich and nutty flavours, its seductive savoury notes and its full body.

The finished wine went through 50% malolactic fermentation with lees stirring to accentuate and lift the big flavours in this big wine.

Bogle is best best known for its big, buttery, Californian Chardonnays so here is the red wine to match - a plush, soft, spicy and dark fruit tasting red made from the ZInfandel grape.

This grape is also known as Primitivo in Puglia, Southern Italy, and shares the same instant likeability of a big soft red for early drinking. It can hold and improve over the short to medium term; up to five years. 

Casal di Serra Verdicchio was first made in 1983 from grapes grown in the Montecarotto Vineyard. It now includes grapes from three other vineyards, all of which are fermented with natural yeasts in stainless steel tanks to preserve freshness and fruit flavours. It is then aged in tank for five months in contact with yeast lees but with no malolactic fermentation. 

Verdicchio tastes great with Seafood, the ideal match with Verdicchio, as is soft cheese.

The Marche region

The altitude vineyards and sea breezes in the warm Mediterranean Marche region both combine to create a wine with vibrant freshness and bright acidity as well as a medium to full body. Verdicchio is nearly always made as a 100% varietal dry white and also lends itself to high quality sparkling wine, thanks to its robust acidity.

The earliest written mention of the Verdicchio grape is in 1569 and it makes some of the most age worthy dry whites in all of Italy, even at relatively modest prices such as this outstanding wine from Umani Ronchi, which is now organically certified and represents one of our greatest hidden treasures on our white wine shelves.

Buy it by the case and watch its tasty flavours unfold over four to five years, potentially longer.

VINEYARD AND FARMING
Planted in 2002, Doctors Flat is a single 3-hectare vineyard in Bannockburn. The schist subsoil was ground off the Cairnmuir Mountains by glacial ice and deposited here about 480,000 years ago. The glacial action and millennia of weathering have
generated an abundance of clay and fine silt in the vineyard gravel. We know soil texture drives wine texture and this vineyard produces Pinot Noir with density, fine tannin and great texture. We farm organically to help grow and sustain soil biology.
In turn the soil microlife harvest and transport nutrient and minerals to the vine. It’s this connection between vineyard and vine that gives Doctors Flat Pinot Noir its character and sense of place.

WINEMAKING
The winemaking is a simple programme of small open tanks, close attention, minimal inputs and a very light hand in the extraction process with only three punch downs. In 2021 20% of the fruit went directly to tank as whole bunches. Fermentation occurred spontaneously and after 21 to 24 days on skins the wine was drained to French oak barrels (22% new). Malolactic was delayed until spring and SO2 not added until late summer. After a full 12 months in barrel the wine was racked to tank for a second winter, then bottled 20 months after harvest.

Dry, savoury and earthy style of Pinot Noir with delicacy and power from grapes grown on Craggy Range's windswept and beautiful Te Muna Road vineyard, 9 kilometres east of the Martinborough village. 

Hand picked grapes from the Te Muna Vineyard were fermented in a combination of French oak cuves and open top stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts. The finished wine was matured in French oak barriques, 22% new, for 10 months. No fining but a coarse filtration results in a satisfyingly savoury dry Pinot with tension and backbone. A stunner now and for the cellar. 

Here's a great little red blend from Antinori, which is a gorgeous expression of the insanely beautiful Tuscany region, but which is made from an interesting mix of Italian and French grapes. Sangiovese leads the way here with small quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, all grown in Tuscany. 

Antinori's winemakers describe this wine as firm bodied on the palate, supple with  velvety tannins and a long, savoury aftertaste.

This wine has biodynamic certification with Demeter and is a dark and complex dry red made from 50% Grenache, 25% Mourvedre and 25% Syrah. It's from the Lirac appellation in the southern Rhone Valley, which is famous for its high quality reds as well as dry pale rosés.

Amisfield Winery is based in Pisa while its beautiful cellar door shop and restaurant overlook Lake Hayes, just outside of Queenstown.

This winery makes a more diverse range of whites than most in Central Otago and the Pinot Gris is a light bodied, refreshing expression of this white grape from a cool climate. Spice, fresh fruit and a long finish all make this an extremely good quality Pinot Gris.

Te Kahu means the cloak in Maori and refers to the mist that shrouds the Craggy Range Giant's Winery in the Tukituki Valley in early morning . This bold but balanced red blend highlights five classic grapes from Bordeaux in south west France; Merlot leads the way in this sharply priced red with proportions of the other grapes varying each year. These include Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. 

We love this red from Craggy, which we think offers an outstanding wine in terms of being exceptional value for money which drinks well now and can age positively into the future too. 

This is a wine that punches way above it'w weight. It's made by Hawke’s Bay Wine Co's Sophie Harris, with fruit from vineyards in Te Awanga and the Gimblett Gravels. These two sites complement each other beautifully with the cooler coastal Te Awanga offering keen acidity and floral to balance the riper flavours off the gravels.

Rich ripe and succulent, offering dark red and black fruits, superb acidity and real length.

This so-called “Sardinian Sassicaia” is made by the same people who brought us the legendary Tuscan red wine. 60% Carignano, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot and 10% Syrah. This is a rich, intensely aromatic red with dark-fruit flavours and a full body. Super Sardinian anyone?

This is a fabulous little French Chenin Blanc from Vouvray - queen of the Loire Valley appellations (wine areas) devoted to Chenin. Flavours here run the gamut of delicious lemony fruity flavours in an off dry. Florals, citrus and peach on the nose feed into a similar profile on the palate, with further white flowers and honey notes.

Pair with fish and lightly spiced Asian cuisine.