Autumn Sale

Here's your perfect excuse to eat salted chocolate caramels - one of the world's great fortified wines; Amontillado from a top producer. Bodegas Hildago Amontillado Napoleon is a complex full bodied amber coloured sherry with flavours of caramelised almonds, sandalwood and vanilla. It's a blend made up of Oloroso Faraon, Cream Alameda and PX Triana, all between six and 20 years old, which add to the taste of cedar and sandalwood.

It is excellent served lightly chilled with a platter of aged cheddar and nuts or simply on its own as a late night cap with salted caramel. 

Bodegas Hidalgo - a rare sherry producer, six successive generations...

Bodegas Hidalgo is one of the few independent sherry producers remaining in Andalucia in the south of Spain - the home of sherry. All of its grapes come from its own vineyards, another rarity these days and one that definitely supports the universally high quality of its wines, which are made at Sanl?car de Barrameda near the Guadalquivir River, at sea level. The continuous exposure to sea breezes bears a strong influence on the quality of the wines and their long aging process, helping to keep barrels moist in the solera system, which creates a slow and steady aging. 

Bodegas Hidalgo produces about 200,000 cases of sherry and brandy every year.

Domaine Denis Race is a small, family run winery in Chablis. This Chardonnay uses no oak, resulting in a focused and linear wine. Steel ageing results in a very pure expression of terroir. The nose is fresh and mineral, with grassy and citrus notes. On the palate there is a textural richness, which is balanced by citrussy acidity and savoury minerality.

Samuel's Gorge Winery is in McLaren Vale; a wine region south of Adelaide, which is a hot bed of experimentation for classic European grape varieties such as Tempranillo, the great red grape of Spain.

This wine is dry, full bodied and complex with secondary flavour notes of freshly roasted coffee beans, liquorice and ripe, dark fruit notes. It drinks well now and can age for up to 10 years.

The Bilancia Syrah is sourced from a single vineyard on Roy's Hill, Hawke's Bay. This is a very fruit forward, bright wine with floral complexity on the nose and a spicy, youthful palate.

Here is a surprise; a dry white co-fermented field blend of more than 12 different grape varieties, grown in Alsace, France. The varieties in this wine include Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Muscat ? Petits Grains, Gew?rztraminer, Sylvaner, Pinot Auxerrois, Pinot Beurot, Muscat Blanc, Rose d?Alsace and Traminer, among others.

No added sulphur.

The seemingly maverick wines of Domaine Marcel Deiss pay homage to historical field blends made in Alsace, France; a region steeped in controversial history between France and Germany, countries which have both fought and both won (and lost) ownership of this territory. This is why the wines in Alsace are made from grapes more commonly associated with Germany, such as in this wine. 

Like all wines of Domaine Marcel Deiss, this one has cult status with wine collectors and drinkers alike so we are thrilled to have a wide range of them back in store, only they are in limited supply, so if you're a fan or a curious newcomer, get in quick.

Domaine Marcel Deiss is located in Bergheim, a small village nestling in the heart of the wine region of Alsace, equal distance from the northern and southern boundaries of the region. The current winemaker is Jean-Michel Deiss, who was born into a long-established family of wine growers, living at Bergheim since 1744.

Today he manages the domaine, which consists of 26 hectares (52 acres) of hillside vineyards spread over nine communes and approximately 20 kilometres.

Classic Graves from an exceptional vintage which favoured the left bank. This shows hallmark cassis and bramble fruit with lovely ripe tannins and keen balancing acidity. Entry level Bordeaux at it's best.

This barrel fermented Pinot Gris is a great alternative to Chardonnay, which was inspired by the classical French approach to Pinot Gris, using lees stirring and partial malolactic fermentation to add texture, weight and dryness to burn. 

This wine is made from 100% Martinborough grapes, all grown on Te Muna Road, 9 kilometres east of the township on a vineyard first planted in 1999.

Winemaker Larry McKenna recommends cellaring it for up to five years - or enjoy right now. 

This outstanding expression of Pinot Noir comes from one of the smallest wine regions in New Zealand, the cool climate Waitaki Valley in North Otago. 

Flavours of ripe plums, red cherries and a very subtle but noticeable smoky aroma all intermingle in this beautifully complex Pinot from the outstanding, if challenging climate in Waitaki - a tiny and great quality wine region. 

The l?Ancestrale is a natural sparkling wine made in the p?tillant style. The fermentation starts in tank and the wine is then bottled while still fermenting (at around 18-20 grams sugar) and then finishes in the bottle without the addition of any sugar and using only the natural yeasts. Generous citrus notes, subtle hints of toasted almonds. Mineral and complex with a persistent foam.

Barrel fermented, dry style of Pinot Blanc which is aged for 11 months. What more could you ask for in an alternative white wine from Te Muna Road in Martinborough? Winemaker Larry McKenna models this Pinot Blanc on the great dry whites of Germany's Kaiserstuhl district where spicy wines are made to complement rich food. 

This wine is made from vines planted in 1999 on Te Muna Road in Martinborough. It's bone dry with less than one gram of residual sugar and the finished wine spent 11 months aging in barrel prior to bottling. It can age for up to five years and drinks well now too. 

Domaine des Pothiers makes wines from Gamay Noir, the Beaujolais grape, only this producer is in the Cote Roannaise, in the northern Loire Valley. Eclipse is a pale pink sparkling wine made solely with Gamay Noir, using the Methode Ancestral technique; the oldest winemaking method to create sparkling wines via a fermentation in the bottle. This style is now affectionately known in wine circles as Pet Nat; an abbreviation for petillant natural, due to being naturally sparkling following its second ferment in the bottle. Unlike champagne, which is made this way, pet nat is not disgorged, so this style retains lees and therefore a touch of cloudiness. 

This bubbly is medium dry with 9% ABV, and really well balanced by crisp zingy acidity and savoury flavours. A great aperitif style.