Arneis is a white grape varietal from the Piedmont region in Italy. This wine is tangy, dry and full-bodied. The nose is bright and floral with a fresh pear quality. The palate is rich with stone-fruit and a light nuttiness.

Barbera is the juicy popular everyday red wine from Piemonte in north west Italy but it can also be complex, layered and succulently good, like this great example. Aromas of spice and fresh cedar lead into a full bodied, rewardingly interesting and smooth Italian red.

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.

94% Nerello Mascalese with 6% Nerello Cappucio. This is a bright red wine with an expressive nose and a fresh palate. The nose offers notes of fresh cherries and prunes with subtle touches of leather and tobacco. The palate is complex, with soft tannins, good structure and great fruit expression.

Grosjean's velvety Gamay from north east Italy tastes ideal with cured meats such as salami, prosciutto and Italian soups.

Gamay's smooth red fruited flavours and lifted red floral perfume are best known from France's Beaujolais region but here's an Italian take on the same theme from the dramatic beauty of the Valle d'Aoste in north east Italy. Grosjean is a small volume, high quality focussed producer, which makes this wine from grapes grown between 700 and 850 metres above sea level on steep sunny mountainous slopes.

The Grosjean family traces its roots back to the village of Fornet in the high mountain passes of the Valle d’Aosta known as Valgrisenche where they raised cattle. During the summer months, the family cultivated grapes and chestnuts on the slopes at a lower altitude, stocking up on wine to supply themselves over the long winters. In 1969, Dauphin Grosjean, the father of the five sons that now collaborate to produce the wines of this estate, was encouraged to present his wine at the local “wine expo”. The exceptional quality of his work was recognized and the entire family became engaged in the expansion of the vineyards and in the production of wine.

The estate has now grown to encompass seven hectares of vineyards. The domaine is located in the hamlet of Ollignan on the border of the towns of Quart and Saint Christophe and includes “cru” vineyard sites such as Tzeriat, Rovettaz, Creton, and Touren in Quart, plus Tzantè de Bagnere, Merletta and Castello di Pleod in Saint Christophe. After starting out with the traditional Petit Rouge along with some Gamay, Pinot Noir and Petite Arvine, the Grosjeans have planted other local varietals such as Fumin, Cornalin, Premetta and Vuillermin.

Sustainable farming techniques have been in place since 1975: only organic fertilizers are applied and no pesticides or herbicides are used. Natural yeasts are utilized for fermentation.

This beautiful dry Italian white wine comes from the dramatic valley of the Valle d'Aosta in the cool north where the Petite Arvine grape grows at 550 metres above seal level, retaining bright piercing acidity and creating wines of great drive and length. 

This wine is made from grapes grown on the Rovettaz vineyard, which has a sharp inclination and is exposed to the south, enjoying a dry and windy climate. This wine tastes of white floral and citrus flavours with intense pink grapefruit notes and a great acid structure which allows this wine to retain freshness and age for the long term. It also drinks beautifully now, especially with seafood and white cheese.

Petite Arvine was first planted at Grosjean, in the early 1980s on highly sandy soils with a medium limestone content. They have been organically farmed since 2011, and had to be irrigated for their first three years of life because drought is always a potential problem in this region. The vineyard sits at 550 metres above sea level and has a 70% slope, so the family needed to build terraces to carry out normal vineyard work and harvesting. Depending on the vintage, the grapes are normally picked in October. The wine is currently aged partly in steel and partly in oak, 70% stainless steel and 30% used barriques, but vintages of the 1990s and early 2000s saw no oak aging at all. 

Idda Etna Bianco is a white wine from Mount Etna, Sicily, made from the Carricante grape variety. The wine is a collaboration between Italian winemaker Angelo Gaja and grower Alberto Graci and offers real complexity with a firm texture, deep minerality and vibrant acidity. 

Nose - Notes of lemon oils, wild herbs, orange blossom, young peaches, crushed stone, wisteria, cantaloupe and marzipan.

Palate - Tropical citrus, melon, saline hints, florals, peach, passion fruit and papaya.

From the sun baked slopes of Mount Etna and a joint venture between winemakers Gaja and Graci, this is 98% Nerello Mascalese, 2% Nerello Cappuccio which is vinified in a mixture of concrete and oak vats, with a three-week maceration followed by ageing for 24 months also in concrete and oak.

"Perfumed nose of red berries, spiced cherries, hazelnuts and smoke. Medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins and bright acidity. Balanced and round with a silky texture on the mid-palate and volume on the concentrated, long finish. It really grows on the palate. Better after 2024."
— 96 Points, James Suckling

Provenance:
Murgian rocky hill within the territory of Gioia del Colle, in the locality of Spinomarino, 4,5 km to the South East of the town. Karstic rocky soil, omogeneous mix of clay and limestone

Vineyard Features:
Planted in: 1990
Altitude: 365 m above sea level
Size: 8 hectares
Orientation: North-South
Density: 4000 vines/hectare
Lane: 2,20 m
Vine Gap: 1 m

Spontaneous fermentation of the must in contact with the skin for 240-300 hours at controlled temperature and just with autochthonous yeasts. Open-cycle process with frequent pumping of the must over the pomace. Natural malolactic fermentation. No addition of sulphites during the whole vinification process.  Only after the end of the malolactic, re-integration of the sulphites lost during the vinification steps to restore the initial natural value.

Ageing:
12 months in wine stainless steel tanks, 12 months in Slavonic oak 750-liter-casks with the application of music therapy to optimize the spontaneous microxigenation process and improve the fining of the wine, 6 months in bottle.

Ruby red intense colour with slight burgundy hues. Scent typical of very ripe fruits and slightly toasted wood and spices, with some balsamic notes. Full bodied, rich in minerality and freshness, balanced smooth taste of black sour cherry and plum tending to velvety with ripe fruity notes of blackberry and mulberry, and spices like clove and cacao. The feature that makes our natural authentic Primitivo of Gioia del Colle unique is the toasted almond aftertaste.

It’s not often we come across wines that date back to 1398 but Chianti is no everyday wine, especially when it's labelled Isole E Olena. All grapes in this wine were hand picked. It's a blend of 80% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo and 5% Syrah, which balance each other nicely with their ripe red berry flavours of cherries and raspberries which sit alongside complex notes of spice, smoky leather and a hint of cedar. This wine's lively acidity adds a freshness and gives length to the wine. 

This great red will benefit from ageing thanks to stellar winemaking and viticulture from Paolo di Marchi, one of the kings of the Sangiovese grape, who took over the winemaking in 1976. He ended decades of sharecropping and focussed on fine tuning work in the vineyards and pioneered Tuscan reds made entirely from the Sangiovese grape, such as the great Super Tuscan, Cepparello; now one of the region’s most iconic wines. 

Isole e Olena Chianti Classico is one of the great Tuscan reds.Try it. 

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. 

It takes a fair bit of work to create a Pinot Grigio as complex, rewardingly delicious and layered as this one from the northern Italian wine region of the Veneto. Dry with intense flavours of lemon pith, red apples and hints of saltiness, this wine makes an outstanding match with salads and seafoods and is a great aperitif on its own. 

Hand picked grapes were gently pressed and given temperature controlled fermentation with wild yeast. The finished wine was aged for three months pre release. 

An outstanding Pinot Grigio.

Timorasso is one of the great white grapes of northern Italy and it nearly died out following phylloxera in the late 1800s, until it was revived in the small Colli Tortonesi DOC of Piedmonte.

Timorasso produces wine that is structured and elegant and capable of aging for a surprisingly long time in bottle. On the nose the wine shows notes of white peach, honey, acacia, hawthorn blossom, and chamomile, developing smoky and mineral notes with age. 

This is a great dry white that gets better with age and is also hugely complex right now. 

A rewarding, savoury and deliciously complex red blend of two great Italian red grapes - Barbera and Nebbiolo, which combine very happily in this juicy, earthy, sensationally complex and layered red. It is medium bodied, completely dry and rewardingly savoury, without any aspect of astringency. It's an outstanding wine at the price.