Its fresh and ripe blackcurrant nose is marked by aromas of spices. A frank, fresh and dense attack on the palate makes it a very delicious wine. Its beautiful length brings with it bewitching aromas of garrigue and reveals very sweet tannins. Powerful and pure in the mouth with a very elegant, fruity palate. Ready to drink, or even better with age.

Grapes: 60% Grenache, 40% Syrah

Terroir: Pebble soils from the Rhône.

Winemaking: Fermentation in stainless tank with temperature control, and aged in concrete.

Peyrassol Croix Méditerranée Rouge 2022 offers a classic southern French blend, led by Merlot and Grenache with Mediterranean warmth and generosity. Aromas of ripe blackberry, plum and wild herbs are layered with black pepper and dried lavender. Gentle oak use adds hints of cedar, spice and subtle toast, supporting a supple palate with soft tannins and a smooth, savoury finish. A vibrant, easy-drinking Provençal red with balance and charm.

Tasting Note: This is a high-altitude wine (450m), with warm, sunny days and cool nights. The result is a fine, elegant, fresh wine with a fine tannic structure. A fine finish of tension and freshness.

Winemaking Notes: Density: 10,000 vines / ha Growing region: Beaujolais – Lancié Average age of vines: 40 years Yield: 45 hl / ha Soil type: Weakly decomposed granite, mid-slope. Alcoholic fermentation: In cement vats and whole bunches. Maturing: 50% in vats and 50% in 228-liter barrels. Bottling: At the Domaine in Lancié, Beaujolais

Certification: Organic

Alcohol: 13.5%

Variety: Gamay

Region: Beaujolais, France

From 1.15 hectares of southeast-facing limestone vineyards planted between 1970 and 1994 at 820ft elevation, this elegant wine matures for 9–10 months in oak, with 25% new barrels. Delicate and refined, it offers bright fruit-driven character and graceful structure. Approachable in youth yet capable of short-term cellaring, it pairs beautifully with Charolais beef.

This wine is the approachable easy going face of Minervois. Blend of Carignan and Grenache and just a tiny amount of Syrah, the wine is softer and much easier drinking than you might expect Minervois to be. Rustic charm by the bucket load but it also very obviously a well made wine. 

 40% Carignan, 40% Grenache, 20% Syrah

La Grande Dame is one of the great champagnes and is a big, dry, toasty, full bodied wine, made from 90% Pinot Noir, which adds layers of savoury depths to this complex bubbly, and 10% Chardonnay. It is named in homage to the Grands Cru vineyards from which the grapes in this wine come, from Champagne villages Aÿ, Bouzy, Ambonnay, Verzy and Verzenay and 47% Chardonnay from Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. 

Its name also pays homage to the Grande Dame of Champagne, the late widow Clicquot, whose main legacy is to have left both the brand and the region in better condition than she found them, mostly famously by inventing riddling; the turning of the bottle to remove the yeast sediment into its neck, prior to disgorgement. This resulted in higher quality, cleaner, fresher bubbles in both look and taste. Her quest was quality and she is widely credited with having raised it significantly in the Champagne region and in the bottles it produces.

Ethereal, fresh, appealing to both the nose and the palate, Pédesclaux’s second wine is a flower that unfurls as you approach. Thanks to its reliance on a high proportion of Merlot, the wine is soft and gentle, with a delicious, silky texture. It has intense, compelling and savoury fruit aromas and, year after year, beautifully calibrated scents of white flowers, violets and small red berries. Exhibiting a more high-spirited elegance yet nonetheless showing remarkable length, Fleur de Pédesclaux is a delight. In the mouth, it is fresh, subtle, packed with fruit and beautifully smooth tannins, with a long finish. In this more floral expression, the marvellous complexity of our terroir is once again evident, but in a mouth-watering style that is instantly festive.

The Terroirs
Garonne gravel on subsoil of limestone

The Grape Varieties
59 % Cabernet-Sauvignon, 36 % Merlot, 3 % Petit Verdot, 2 % Cabernet franc

Château Cos d’Estournel Les Pagodes de Cos 2018 is the elegant second wine from the historic Château Cos d’Estournel, a Deuxième Cru of Saint-Estèphe founded in 1811 by Louis-Gaspard d’Estournel, famed for his global reach and distinctive pagoda-topped chateau. The vineyards sit on classic left-bank gravel and clay-limestone soils that provide excellent drainage and structure, nurtured for refined ripeness and balanced acidity. Vinification is traditional, with careful sorting, temperature-controlled fermentation and around 12 months in French oak to lend subtle spice and texture. The 2018 blend is 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc, showing concentrated black- and red-berry fruit, spice and silky tannins with a long, fresh finish — a poised, compelling Saint-Estèphe second wine.

Hand-harvested with rigorous sorting, traditional vinification with alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in 500-liter demi-muids, indigenous yeasts, without racking. Organic viticulture (certified), and biodynamic practices.

The nose is intense, offering beautiful floral aromas. The palate is splendid, rich, and full-bodied, with aromas of lemon. Tension is currently dominant, along with salinity and minerality, but this nectar will undoubtedly evolve towards a more luscious character. It finishes with a very long, mouthwatering finish.

An assemblage of different parcels on marl and limestone soils in Gevingey, 35yo vines on average, facing west. Vinified and aged in foudres with no bâtonnage, the wine was bottled in July the following year. This is a zippy and lean style of chardonnay that is always great. 

Notes on the producer

Natives of the Jura, both Pauline and Géraud’s families owned tiny plots (used to make wine for home consumption) and spending time in the vines in their childhood was enough to give them the wine bug. They met while studying winemaking in Dijon and created Domaine des Marnes Blanches when they returned to the Jura in 2006. They farmed organically from the word go and have added (some planted) parcels along the way to reach a total of 12ha today, spread across three towns in the Sud-Revermont (south of the Côtes-du-Jura AC).

They recently built a new winery off the main road in Ste-Agnès which gives them plenty of space and allows them to vinify and age every parcel separately. Wild yeast fermentation is the norm, wines are fermented in stainless steel and then aged in minimum 5yo 228 to 600ltr barrels. Sulphur is used sparsely for the whites (around 20mg/l total) or not at all for the reds.

Vacqueyras has always played second fiddle to Chateauneuf but the wines are finally starting to get the credit they deserve and this full bodied, deep and complex red is an excellent expression of this appellation. 

Sang des Cailloux means “blood of the stones,” and the galets ridden nature of the soil comes across in the mineral, stony aspect of this wine which is deep and full of energy and with notes of lavender, red and black fruit and olive. It is ready to drink now but will age gracefully for at least ten to fifteen years.

This wine is made from grapes grown on the elevated Plateau des Garrigues, where the vines are planted on a mixture of red clay, limestone and galets roule - or pudding - stones that are famously found in Chateaunuef.