Tasting Note: Tender and succulent, the plums are carefully hand-picked at the moment of perfect ripeness. In an aged-old tradition, they are fermented and then aged to ensure a rich, smooth flavour.

Product Details:
Volume: 750ml
Alcohol: 13.0%
Region: Fushimi

Veuve Clicquot is one of the world's biggest selling champagnes and is produced by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey in a range of styles and packaging. 

Veuve is named after the late, great Widow Clicquot, who was left not only a widow aged 27 but also in charge of running a champagne house. Her 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.

This magnum of yellow label non vintage (NV) champagne is typically made up of 55% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier.

This stunning little Greek white is a blend of native, local varieties Vidiano and Thrapsathiri, cropped from 10 to 100 year old vines that are organically farmed off schist soils in the southern part of Crete. The wine is bottled without filtration or fining, with minimal added sulphites.

Iliana Malahin is one of the stars of the modern wine movement in Greece who focusses on reviving native varieties and sites found around the village of Malampes, in the mountainous south of Crete.

Pol Roger Champagne was established in 1849 by a young Frenchman called Pol Roger, who was just 19 years old at the time. The company is now run by the fifth generation and remains in family hands, one of the few big champagne houses to stake such a claim to fame. 

This wine, the Brut R?serve, is the flagship of the house and is a threeway blend of the three primary champagne grape varieties, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, grown on 30 different vineyard sites. It includes 25% reserve wines in the non vintage (NV) blend, which is a relatively high proportion and provides richness and savoury flavours to the bubbly, which retains freshness from the crisp acidity from early harvested grapes in the balancing 75% of the bubbly.

Pinot Noir brings structure, body and power while Pinot Meunier adds body and roundness with the Chardonnay adding aromatic complexity, finesse and freshness. Each of the different grape varieties comes from a different area in the Champagne region. The wine is aged for four years following its secondary fermentation and it is one of the best known and best quality champagnes, thanks to high quality grapes and a long legacy of qualitative production methods. 

Another banger in our ever growing Hungarian section. This one is a deep ruby colour in the glass and offers a nose of red and black fruits complexed by chocolate and mineral notes, leading to a palate of blackberry, leather and spice flavours. It was matured in large Hungarian oak casks for more than two years. There are some lovely gorgeous Bordeaux notes in this wine - Petit Verdot being one of the seasoning grapes often found at low percentages in a lot of Bordeaux. It isn't showy though, more of a thought provoking wine.

 An ideal match with dishes made of venison.

Kekfrankos is also known as Blaufrankisch and is a late ripening grape typically with big tannins and pronounced spicy flavours. Here we find full ripeness to balance the elegant tannins and spicy notes - and lovely blue fruits moulded by elegant oak. Fabulous value for money.

Joven means young in Spanish and refers to red wines with low to no oak, like this lush, fruity Spanish red made from the most popular grape in Spain, Tempranillo. This wine is full of dark plum flavours in this firmly textured red wine. 

It offers exceptional value for money and is certified organic.

This wine is made from Tempranillo, Grenache, Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano grown on clay-limestone terraces from the Tertiary era, located  on  the slopes of Montes Obarenes and Sierra Cantabria. 

After fermentation with indigenous yeasts in oak vats, the wine is Aged for 26 months, in new French oak barrels made at Muga's own cooperage. The wine is fined with fresh egg whites, bottled and then remains in cellar for at least 18 months for further ageing.

The wine is a deep black cherry colour in the glass. The nose is complex, with aromas of dark fruits and hints of cedar wood, scrub and spice.

The palate is elegant and harmonious with more red fruits than the nose with lovely integration of acid and tannin.

Food pairing This wine will go well with red meats, lamb and all types of game dishes.

This complex and affordable Chianti Classico is a full bodied, ripe and powerful wine made from a blend of 90% Sangiovese, 5% Colorino and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, each grape contributing depth, body and balance to the wine. 

This brand was traditionally produced by a well known cooperative with over 60 different grape growers contributing to the blend but the brand has now been acquired by Tenute Piccini, which employs the highly respected consultant oenologist, Riccardo Cotarella.

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. 

Here?s a deliciously different wine from South Australian brothers Peter and Duncan Lloyd, who were brought up with wine in McLaren Vale, South Australia, which is an experimental hotbed for interesting varieties. Flavours here are all about ripe licorice balanced by soft plummy fruit flavours balanced by firm acidity which adds structure and length to every interestingly quirky sip.

They used five grapes which originate in five different countries to make this interesting new take on Australian red wine. The grapes are Touriga (originally from Portugal), Grenache (French), Negroamaro (Italian), Mourvedre (French/Spanish) and Shiraz (Australia?s stock in trade).

An exceptional dessert wine. Local wild cherries are infused with the prior year's vintage (Montepulciano and Sangiovese). Deep red and intense, with cherry aromatics and bright, balanced acidity. 

The great white Greek grape Assyrtiko is having a new lease of life around the world, thanks to interest from winemakers as far flung as Australia (Peter Barry is one of its biggest fans) and drinkers on both sides of The Atlantic. It's original home is the stunning Greek island of Santorini where, despite the hot climate, it has adapted to retain relatively high acidity, which gives its fresh taste when youthful and preserves it as a great wine to age too. If you're looking for the ideal white to drink with seafood, here it is. Also a great aperitif white.

Tre Monti Vigna Rocca Albana is a dry Northern Italian white wine made from Albana grapes grown in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The grapes are left hanging for a long time to increase concentration then soaked in stainless steel for 15 - 20 days with skin contact. The wine has aromas of melon, apricot, honey and wildflowers and flavours of ripe peach, bitter almond pineapple and ginger.