Chardonnay with bubbles combines two of the wine world's most popular things and this wine comes from Limoux in the southern French region of Languedoc. This is a fresh, crisp wine made using the Champagne method. Extended ageing on the lees adds toasted notes and a rich texture. This wine is exceptionally good for the price.

Xarel-Lo is famously used in the production of cava along with a few others - but here it is made as a varietal wine from vines planted in 1974 in the high altitude of Penedes.

Fermentation was in stainless steel tanks with fine lees contact for three weeks to retain the fruity freshness and add texture.

The result is a youthful and vibrantly fruited wine with sweet herbal scents and fresh green fennel.

Bouquet: Blackcurrant and cassis layered with notes of subtle pepper and spice. 

Palate: Generous and sweet blackcurrant followed by layers of cedar oak and dried bay leaf. Elegant and textured tannins are balanced with natural acidity leaving a firm, persistent finish.

Big dark red with smooth mouthfeel and soft plummy flavours of ripe fruit, spice and liquorice notes leading into complex blueberry flavours. Montepulciano is one of the great red grapes of Italy, but is often considered a bit of a workhorse because it  naturally grows big bunches of grapes, which makes it easy to make high volumes of wine from. This wine is a step up from the most straightforward Montepulcianos on the market, and it's an incredibly smooth, deliciously drinkable red - a great wine to enjoy now and over the next two to three years. 

If you're looking for a next level red at an accessible price, here it is. 

This great Champagne is made by the Epernay based producer, Champagne Lombard, and it is staggeringly good quality with amazing balance and complexity for this price. 

Smooth, zingy, citrusy and beautifully toasty. A rare good deal. 

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.

A great champagne made by father-son grower-winemaker team. The pair are based in Ay, also home to Champagne Bollinger, to which they sell approximately half of their grapes each year. The vineyards around Ay in the Champagne region are focussed strongly on Pinot Noir, which makes this wine taste toasty and rich. These alluring savoury qualities are softened, mellowed and added to in the autolytic process of ageing the bubbles in the bottle while the lees (decomposing yeast cells) break down, releasing deliciously rich flavours on the journey. 

A great champagne made in relatively small volumes, pushing boundaries of great flavour to new heights. 

Bardolino is located on the shores of Lake Garda in the Veneto region of Italy.
where Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara grapes are permitted. This is a lovely fruit forward quaffer with decent structure to boot.

Terroir: Limestone terrace and gravel with pebbles soil.

Winemaking: The grapes are destemmed before fermentation takes place at a temperature of 28° C for 12 days with daily pumping over for maximum colour and flavour extraction. Rack and return is performed twice at the end of the fermentation.

Tasting: Round and smooth Syrah with rich blackberry and plum aromas .

Intense purple red color. Intense nose of flowers (violet) and black fruits (black cherry, blackcurrant) combined with peppery hints. Full on the palate with a nice fruity and spicy aftertaste.

55% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre grown in the Côtes du Rhône apellation in cobblestone-clay and clay-limestone soils.

Grapes were destemmed with daily racking. Wine aged on fine lees in vats with controlled oxygen levels.

Food Pairing: Spicy food, red meat in sauce, cheese.

"Richly fruited and instantly appealing, the wine shows dark plum, cherry, warm spice and roasted nut aromas, followed by a generously expressed palate that's succulent and silky. It's soothing and comforting with loads of tasty flavours. At its best: now to 2028" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Feb 2024

Grape Varieties: 100% Viura

Type: White Wine Crianza

Alcohol Content: 12.5% vol.

Serving Temperature: 14º - 16º

Production: 

Made 100% from Viura (Macabeo) grapes. The hand-harvested grapes are selected from old vines sourced from their own vineyards and are made in a very traditional winemaking style.

It has spent 4 years in oak barrels, been racked twice a year, been fined with fresh egg whites, been bottled unfiltered, and been followed by some ageing in bottle before being released.

Tasting Notes: 

Pale gold in colour. Aromatic and complex-scented nose of mature fruit, some dry honeycomb, and a citrus touch, floral and nutty with hints of oak. The palate is complex and developed, with good acidity that opens out very well and finishes dry.

Notes: With good ageing potential, it will drink well through 2027. It goes well with all kinds of fish, grilled seafood, and white meats, as well as with pasta dishes.

THE WINERY

The family-owned bodega López Heredia, one of Rioja’s oldest and most traditional establishments, was founded in 1913 by Rafael López de Heredia. Three generations later, the Lopez de Heredia family continue to devote themselves to producing exceptional and unique wines. Located in the heart of the Rioja Alta region, Viña Tondonia is a beautiful vineyard and one of the most spectacular in Haro, with over 100 hectares situated in a shell-like depression on the right bank of the river Ebro; the soil is alluvial clay with a high proportion of limestone. The grapes from Viña Tondonia are always used in making their highest-quality wine. 

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).

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.

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