Chillable reds are a fabulous new wine trend where softer styles of red winemaking lend themselves ideally to a light chilling. This is a great example from Chaffey Bros in Australia. It is a juicy little blend of Grenache and Mourvedre, made to satisfy red and white wine drinkers alike. This is a pale red wine with bright ruby colour and flavours of bold raspberries and ripe cherries. It's made to drink lightly chilled and works a treat in the hot Australian heat, the country in which it was made. It travels well too… Buy at least a bottle to enjoy on warm days and nights.

Domaine de Beaurenard is family owned and operated (over seven generations) and is one of the leading estates of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The Coulon brothers, Daniel and Frederic, have taken over from Paul and Regine, and craft some of the most fruity, charming and supple wines of the whole Appellation. With the modernization of the cellars in the late 80s, the quality of the wines has gone from excellent to often exceptional - and the vineyards are now organic and biodynamic.

All 13 of the permitted grape varieties are used here including some vines so old they’re not sure of the variety. Terrific stuff.

Spanish inspired, Australian made Tempranillo from the adventurous Chaffey Bros brand. This dry Aussie red is smooth, soft textured and tastes of ripe fruit flavours of red and dark plums, stewed and dried. It's made from two vineyards in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, one of them with 70+ years of vine age, which comes through in this wine's superb concentration of flavour - older vines are thought to deliver richer flavours. 

The inspiration for La Conquista comes from Spain's most famous red wine, Rioja, which is usually a blend. This is also a blend and uses the same grapes as found in Rioja - namely, Tempranillo with Grenache and Graciano (from the cooler Eden Valley) for support. 

The wine is named after the 1811 Battle of the Barrosa in Cadíz.

Adventurous take on the famous French theme of soft, spicy reds from the southern Rhone Valley. This smooth, fruit forward blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre has ripe dark fruit flavours of red fleshed plums, red peach and a hint of cedar, spicy depth on the finish. Medium bodied, bone dry, flavoursome and complex. 

Deep crimson in the glass. On the palate, ripe dark berries take the lead with subtle spiciness offering balance and richness. This is a smooth and persistent wine with rich red-fruit aromatics.

The Fifth Wave is Langmeil’s best old vine Grenache with its powerful flavours of dark cherries, red fruit, vanilla and a touch of green herbs, all combined in a gorgeous approachable red wine with a lingering finish and full body. 

Langmeil is owned by the Lindner family, which has been making wine for six generations in the Barossa Valley.

Grenache was first planted by Villa Maria in 1996 on a small patch of ground on the Ngakirikiri Vineyard in Hawke’s Bay and used to make a reserve wine.

This new addition to Esk’s Artisanal range is made from those grapes. Smooth, soft red with more noticeable acidity than southern French Grenache. Very classic Grenache aromas of red fruit and a smooth texture with elegance and without any hint of new oak flavour or any oak influence.

This Grenache dominant blend comes from certified organic vineyards in the southern Rhone. This wine offers excellent ripe red fruit notes and great structure. The palate is spiced, complex and rich. Charbonniere Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2016 is fresh enough for drinking young, yet promises to age gracefully.

A silky red with light spicy aromas and lovely depth of flavour with layers of red and dark fruit on the palate due to the inclusion of four different grapes in the blend of this wine. Three French grapes lead the way with Shiraz 56%, Grenache 17% and Cinsault 17%, all supported here by the dark deep flavours of Portugal's Tinta Barocca which contributes 10%. 

A portion of foot stomping helps to extract colour and juice prior to fermentation.
Ageing is in older, larger 4000 litre oak for 16 months.

From the winery...
The 2014 AA Badenhorst is our ninth release of this appellation wine. The wine has the potential to age very gracefully for the next decade or so. The tannins are prominent and well integrated and refreshing as a number of the parcels were picked quite early. The aromas are more upfront than normal with complex notes of pepper, liquorice, perfume and black cherries. The palate entry is quite dense with lavender and dark berry fruit. The finish is dry with well spread tannins ending with savoury and currant flavours.

Located Northeast of Montpellier, terrasses du Larzac vineyard is backed by the mountainous plateau of Larzac. The coolness of the nights abd the hot Mediterranean days allow a slow maturation of the grappes bringing. Freshness and aromatic complexity. Syrah, Grenache and Cinsault grapes varieties will charm you with aromas of red fruits and notes of spices. 

Grape Syrah, Grenache and Cinsault

Ripe and supple Grenache from Paarl blends seamlessly with the elegant and spicy berry fruit of Franschhoek Syrah.

PRODUCTION Wildeberg’s rationale is to source the finest vineyards available to us across Franschhoek and the Coastal Region, from which cuvées the eyes are plucked to make Wildeberg and the Terroir Series releases. In doing so there remains a small yet definitive expression of all the vineyards we worked with, and its these cuvees that are again selected to go into Coterie by Wildeberg. All fruit is handharvested in February from selected sites in Franschhoek and Paarl. Both cultivars are fermented whole bunch, with some whole berry fruit, there is no crush, just a daily pump over during the natural fermentation. We want to express place over cultivar so this slow, gentle extraction gives wines truer of origin than winery. The components are racked to French and Austrian oak, new and old, for 8 months before the blend is decided. This blend is then allowed to marry for 6 weeks prior to coarse filtration and bottling on the farm.

TASTING NOTE A warm, spicy nose with freshly cracked black pepper, allspice and ripe plum. Good concentration of sappy red berry and dark fruits are balanced by fresh acidity. The varietal characters of each cultivar complement each other well in this subtle and fragrant Coastal Region compote.

FOOD MATCH Grilled meats, especially lamb and spiced meat dishes.

A classic southern Rhone white blend made up of 50% Roussanne, 30%
Grenache Blanc, 10% Viognier and 10% Marsanne from Costieres de Nimes AOC. 

After a short skin maceration, fermentation is conducted at 18°C in stainless tanks
with no malolactic fermentation to retain as much freshness as possible.
The Grenache Blanc brings minerality, the Viognier brings aromas of apricot and peach and the Marsanne and Roussanne add citrus and floral complexity.

Fabric Series
This range of wines, named after fashionable fabrics, feature the iconic paisley design for which the company is named. The pattern became synonymous with the Scottish town of Paisley situated close to Glasgow and was the birthplace of Kirsten's great-great grandfather, who emigrated to Adelaide in 1839.

Tasting Note

The colour is mid red. The perfumed nose exhibits lifted raspberry, wild strawberry fruit, potpourri, with thyme and sweet spice notes. The medium bodied palate has plump and juicy sweet fruit predominately strawberry jam, pomegranate, mint, hints of liquorice and an earthy note. The old vines ensure weight and depth on the palate and the fleshy and supple tannins add to the mouthfeel of the wine with a mineral edge. The wine is balanced through the palate and the juicy berry flavours linger nicely. This wine drinks beautifully now but will cellar forup to seven years.

Food Pairing

Derek and Kirsten suggest this wine would be an excellant chilled red for summer drinking with pizza, tomato based pastas or barbequed meats.

Vineyards and vines: small parcels of selected fruit are sourced from various vineyards on our farm Kalmoesfontein, the Swartland area and the greater Paardeberg mountain.

Grapes: Chenin Blanc, Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Verdelho, Grenache Gris, Clairette Blanche, Semillon and Palomino.

Vinification: The vinification is quite straight-forward when you are working with fantastic grapes from old vineyards – whole-bunch pressing of cool grapes, this juice is then transferred to old casks; very old casks for fermentation and maturation. Some of the juices are blended during this time which what we like as the components really integrate then. A small percentage of the grapes are picked a bit earlier for some acidity but the rest are picked at what we reckon is a good ripeness and flavour.

Maturation: We only use old 1200l foudres and one 3000l foudre for the fermentation and maturation of 15 months. After this the wines are racked and blended in a single concrete tank with all their unsulfured lees and left for another 6 – 8 months before bottling.

Analysis: Alcohol 13.4 vol% Residual Sugar 2.6 g/l pH 3.45 Total Acidity (Tartaric) 5.56 g/l Total sulphur 80 ppm

The final makeup of the blend varies slightly each year. This is because of the vagaries of the vintage. We feel that Chenin Blanc is best suited to be the heart of the blend and that is why it forms the biggest portion of the blend. The aromas are very complex and change considerably in the glass. Perfume, spice, tea, stone fruit and citrus blossoms are some of the notes that can be detected. In the mouth the texture and ripeness and gentle tannins result in a wine that has incredible length and complex flavour profile. The wine also has wonderful fruit volume characterised by stone fruit and mineral flavours.

The finish is long and has slight phenolic edges supporting the fruit through the entire length of the wine.

Only 6400 bottles produced