Fiorini Chianti is a tasty, medium bodied Italian wine with refreshing red fruit flavours, bright acidity which adds to its structure and makes it taste great with tomato based food.

It's a traditional style of Chianti made from 90% Sangiovese with the balance being the Tuscan grapes, Canaiolo and Ciliegiolo, and a touch of French Cabernet Sauvignon, which adds to the structure. All of the grapes come from the Chianti DOCG and the wine is aged in a combination of new and old barriques and large older oak.

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. 

Pieropan Soave is a blend of 85% Garganega and 15% Trebbiano di Soave. This fresh, bright, white wine comes from Pieropan’s hillside vineyard in the Soave classico zone. On the nose, delicate notes of almond are complemented by flinty mineral notes. The palate is crisp and fruity, with notes of lemon and fresh stone fruit.

Umani Ronchi is an excellent Italian wine producer in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It's a company that makes a wide range of wines, including this incredibly delicious Montepulciano, which massively over delivers in taste. 

Big, bold and deep in colour, it has powerful dark fruit flavours held together in a smooth full bodied style with spicy notes adding complexity. Medium acidity adds balance to the blend, making for a beautifully integrated wine which is stunning value for money.

Sealed with a screwcap for freshness.

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.

Casal di Serra Verdicchio was first made in 1983 from grapes grown in the Montecarotto Vineyard. It now includes grapes from three other vineyards, all of which are fermented with natural yeasts in stainless steel tanks to preserve freshness and fruit flavours. It is then aged in tank for five months in contact with yeast lees but with no malolactic fermentation. 

Verdicchio tastes great with Seafood, the ideal match with Verdicchio, as is soft cheese.

The Marche region

The altitude vineyards and sea breezes in the warm Mediterranean Marche region both combine to create a wine with vibrant freshness and bright acidity as well as a medium to full body. Verdicchio is nearly always made as a 100% varietal dry white and also lends itself to high quality sparkling wine, thanks to its robust acidity.

The earliest written mention of the Verdicchio grape is in 1569 and it makes some of the most age worthy dry whites in all of Italy, even at relatively modest prices such as this outstanding wine from Umani Ronchi, which is now organically certified and represents one of our greatest hidden treasures on our white wine shelves.

Buy it by the case and watch its tasty flavours unfold over four to five years, potentially longer.

Here's a great little red blend from Antinori, which is a gorgeous expression of the insanely beautiful Tuscany region, but which is made from an interesting mix of Italian and French grapes. Sangiovese leads the way here with small quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, all grown in Tuscany. 

Antinori's winemakers describe this wine as firm bodied on the palate, supple with  velvety tannins and a long, savoury aftertaste.

This so-called “Sardinian Sassicaia” is made by the same people who brought us the legendary Tuscan red wine. 60% Carignano, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot and 10% Syrah. This is a rich, intensely aromatic red with dark-fruit flavours and a full body. Super Sardinian anyone?

Quaffable, rich Primitivo from the Puglia region in southern Italy. Ruby red with violet reflections in the glass. The nose is fruity and aromatic with strawberry, blackberry and raspberry notes. On the palate, berry flavours continue with some spicy heat. The finish is fruity, with complex liqourice and almond notes. Pair with roast meats or an aged cheese.

Here's a big, bold red number from Puglia in the south of Italy and it's made from a blend of the two most popular red grapes there, Negroamarro makes up 80% with Primitivo at 20%.

Powerful dark fruit flavours are held together in a smooth, full bodied red wine with soft tannins and a lingering depth of flavour on the finish, thanks to being made using the Italian appassimento winemaking technique, which sees a portion of dried grapes added to the ferment to create richness of flavour and concentration. 

The Calvarino vineyard is in the heart of the Soave Classico zone and represents the core of the ancient family estate, bought at the beginning of 1900. The soil here dates back to the tertiary era and is rich in clay and tufaceous basalt which give the wine an attractive savoury, mineral quality. This is a dry, well-balanced and elegant wine which offers notes of citrus and white flowers along with a generous touch of acidity.

This lovely smooth Chardonnay is made with grapes grown on the Castello della Sala Estate, which surrounds the medieval castle at Castello della Sala in the region of Umbria, which borders Tuscany. 

The vineyards here are planted in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which both grow well in the clay soils here. 

The 2019 Bramìto Chardonnay is characterized by delicate white flower notes followed by light sensations of citrus fruit. The palate is crisp, fresh and full bodied with lovely mineral notes which provide a long finish with flavours of ripe peach and notes of soft creaminess. 

This wine is sealed with a screwcap; a modern touch used on many wines from Marchese Antinori. 

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. 

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.

Sessantanni is a full bodied, rich red from the San Marzano region. The palate is very concentrated and juicy, with powerful tannins and complex notes of tobacco and cherry. The finish offers notes of cocoa, toffee and vanilla.