David Crossley's Wide World of Wine

Clay Wine Fair 2026 (Part 2)

Posted on 03/03/2026 by dccrossley

In Part 2 of my coverage of the Clay Wine Fair 2026 held at Sotto Restaurant in Edinburgh on 1 March we have wines presented by Fion Edinburgh and Wanderlust Wines.

Fion is by now a well-known Edinburgh operation offering wines to the trade that they import, an online wine shop for retail customers and a wine club. They aim to bring in emerging fine wines from equally emerging regions, emphasising artisan producers crafting terroir-driven wines. Miguel Crunier has a deep knowledge of Spain, which forms a large part of their portfolio, reflected in the wines shown here.

Wanderlust Wines was founded by former chef, Richard Ellison, who works with a group of smaller producers, most farming organically, many being biodynamic or low intervention growers, from around the world, like Fion with a nod towards emerging regions. All of the portfolio reflects a passion for sustainability. The portfolio’s diversity is reflected in the wines they brought to the table, including fine examples from Argentina, South Australia, West Sussex and Bordeaux.

FION

Palomino Dorada “Mahara” 2021, Bodegas Vinificate (Cadiz, Spain)

This is a Palomino table wine from vines on bare white chalk soils (albariza) at San Fernando, near Cadiz. The Mahara range is for single site Crianza wines, but all wines are made without any interventions or additives. They are also biodynamic practitioners. This is a relatively recent operation, at least in the region. Founded by brothers José and Miguel Gomez in 2011, they are part of the new wave regenerating the wider Jerez region.

This Palomino spent nine months in amphora under flor. Zero sulphur was added. It is super-fresh with really nice salinity and a long, linear, finish. With only 12.3% alcohol it’s a perfect option for a seafood or fish lunch, or it would work equally well as an aperitif. It’s quite elegant, and neither the clay texture, nor the flor influence, is too strong. £32.50.

Tintilla de Rota “Mahara” 2021, Bodegas Vinificate (Cadiz, Spain)

Tintilla is often cited as a local variety, but there are some suggestions that it may be identical to Graciano, or a Graciano clone. In any event, it is a variety that generally produces dark-coloured wines with high acids, but also fine aromatics. This red wine sees longer in amphora than the Palomino above, around 15 months. It is still made by the same low-intervention methods with no added sulphites, but they generally make around 3,000 bottles as opposed to 2,000 of the previous wine.

The colour is indeed deep, quite blood-rich in the clay cup. You’d sum it up as rich, rounded and ripe. I say rounded…that’s the fruit. It is also a little grippy. That’s no bad thing with food. The alcohol has been kept at 12.6%. Also £32.50. Both are very nice wines, each in their own way. I’d be happy to buy either.

Clarete “El Jaguar” 2020, Juan Jose Martinez Palmero (Valencia, Spain)

This wine remains an enigma because I could neither find it on Fion’s online shop, nor anything on the internet. The back label is almost as unforthcoming as the front. The online Clay Wine Fair tasting booklet lists it as “2020 Field Blend (clarete), MUT Salvaje, Terre d’Art, Valencia”. The back label references little if anything of that, although it does confirm the vintage, and that it is made in tinajas with no addition of sulphur. From the Fion table I further gleaned that it is a field blend of red and white varieties which saw two days on skins and 18 months in tinaja.

However, it is a lovely pale wine with vibrant, almost electric, cherry fruit and a hint of, well I got incense but I was told “perhaps sandalwood”. Anyway, it is beautifully scented and nicely balanced. There are only 400 bottles made of this, so I was surprised to see it listed at just £27 (it could be had on the day for £24). A rather fascinating wine for that price.

Tempranillo Pico Lunar, Malaparte 2019, Bodegas de Frutos Marin (Segovia, Spain)

This is part of a range of natural wines made in Tinajas/amphorae by Elisa de Frutos and Rubén Salamanca outside of the Ribera del Duero appellation. Vines are up at around 900 masl, in a small plot of Tempranillo planted at the end of the 1980s. The soils are complex, mostly clay but with limestone, sandstone and silica. Fermentation takes place in open casks over fifteen days, but ageing is in the terracotta amphora (the clay comes from France) over eight months for the 2019 (sometimes up to 12 months).

The colour here is again quite dark ruby. The aromatics are lovely, quite subtle, with strawberry over some darker fruit. The palate adds in spice and savoury notes of bottle age, but although the texture is fine rather than aggressive, there’s plenty of it. However, you would characterise this as a very pleasant drinking wine which has clearly benefitted from the cool nights up at altitude in retaining beautiful freshness in a wine that is labelled at 14.1% abv. Just over 1,600 bottles made. £28.

I would say that of the four wines shown here it is genuinely too difficult to choose a favourite from a strong group.

WANDERLUST WINES

Chardonnay 2022 Alpamanta (Mendoza, Argentina)

I’m always on the lookout for exciting wines from South America, and this is a nice one. The grapes come from a single vineyard at 950 masl in Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza. Here we are up in the mountains, but pretty close to the western edge of the city of Mendoza itself. Luján de Cuyo is not as aspirational as say the Uco Valley further south, but there are a lot of old vines in the hills here. This is a biodynamic estate (the first to be certified as such in Mendoza), low intervention viticulture and low sulphur additions being practised too.

Fermentation, using only indigenous yeasts, is in stainless steel, but ageing is 50% in amphora and 50% in large used oak. The result is a lovely fresh wine with just a little well-balanced clay texture, and quite a bit of depth. Maybe I’ve not said a lot here, but I really liked it. There was just something that caught my attention. At just £22.50 I would 100% buy some.

Watervale Riesling 2024, Koerner (Clare Valley, South Australia)

I remember buying a few bottles of Koerner wines a long time ago, when they were with the Red Squirrel agency (now Graft Wine). Now they are with Wanderlust. This is a selection from two individual sites at Leasingham, close to the winery: the Gullyview and Parish vineyards. It is made 50% in ceramic vessels, the rest probably in stainless steel. Damon Koerner has dedicated this vintage to new daughter, Poppy, born in January 2024.

It’s a classic Clare/Watervale Riesling. It has 12% alcohol and a rapier-like acidity. It’s quite limey with crisp apple and the acids are prominent, but tamed just a little by the fruit. It’s a sure sign of youth and you might age this. Clare Riesling can age spectacularly well and I have some Jeffrey Grosset Rieslings from the early 2000s that prove it. But open it up this summer after a good chilling and, if you like acidity, you’ll find it thrilling. At just £22 the choice doesn’t weigh too heavily.

Qvevri Ortega “Artego” 2024, Tillingham Wines (West Sussex, England)

I see Tillingham wines far less these days, compared to the early days under Ben Walgate, when I was able to visit and taste there. The restaurant and rooms are doing very well now, I am told (the restaurant has a Michelin Green Star), and perhaps the wines have changed a little too. I am told they are more consistent, though one wine here isn’t a lot to go on to verify that.

This is fermented in the original qvevris under the oast house, which came in by lorry from Georgia and might well have been the first to be used in the UK. The style is fresh and fruity. Indeed, it combines Ortega’s fresh and fruity profile with the influence of clay, which I think gives the wine a bit more elegance and complexity. The nose is aromatic, floral, with some bergamot. The palate is salty and nutty, showing that flor developed over the fruit in the submerged qvevris. It finished with a hint of orange marmalade. £35.

Margaux « Le Hameau » 2020, Château Durfort-Vivens (Bordeaux, France)

Bordeaux is kind of a hotbed of experimentation nowadays and I think much experimentation and reassessment has gone unnoticed on account of us all turning our back on the arrogance of some proprietors and their Parkerised renditions of what was once a more subtle and savoury wine. Even the very top châteaux are looking at low intervention, regenerative, farming and the ranks of oak and shiny stainless steel are now being interspersed, even replaced in some places, by either once-traditional cement, or all manner of ceramic and concrete eggs, and amphora.

Durfort-Vivens is in the heart of Margaux, in fact not too far from Château Margaux itself. Today it is under the direction of Gonzague Lurton. Apparently, they make three “second wines” here, and Le Hameau comes from vines in the commune of Cantenac, reattached to Durfort-Vivens in 1970. The other two are named Le Plateau and Les Plantes. It’s a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Amphora were introduced at the estate in 2016 and are used for around 40% of the wine produced. For Le Hameau they use horizontally-placed eggs, which the team believes aids the movement and distribution of lees.

This cuvée has nice minerality and a lighter touch. I’d say classic but vibrant. Winemaking is certified biodynamic at the estate (Demeter). Alcohol seems pretty balanced at 13.5%. It has a nice sophistication already. I’m very much drawn to this wine, though you’ll need to shell £44.50 to get a bottle. That’s always the problem when you want to revisit the classics.

Another clutch of nice wines. I’d not argue that it is objectively the best wine here, but I did enjoy tasting the Argentinian Chardonnay, and that is the one I’d buy faced with all four on the shelf.

Sotto…

Clay Wine Fair 2026 (Part 1)

Posted on 02/03/2026 by dccrossley

A break in the usual flow of articles has been occasioned by the Clay Wine Fair, which I went to on Sunday (1st March). The second part of my “Recent Wines” from February will follow later in March. I tasted forty-two wines at the Clay Wine Fair (out of a total of sixty-nine on show) which were all fermented and aged, in whole or in part, in various forms of clay vessel, mostly amphora. These were shown by eight importers/retailers. Rather than write one or two very long articles I plan to publish eight shorter pieces, which I think will do better justice to the wines.

The articles will cover the wines in order of tasting. So here in Part 1 we begin with Cork & Cask and Raeburn. Part 2 will cover Fion and Wanderlust Wines and Part 3, Astral Wines and wines from Passione Vino. Part 4 closes with Woodwinters and Slonk Selections. It was unfortunate that I didn’t get to taste the three Georgian wines from 266 Wines. I just couldn’t fight my way in.

The event was held downstairs at Sotto Restaurant in Stockbridge (Edinburgh). In general, I found it less crowded than last year, but as a public event it did get pretty full by the time I left. The staff at Sotto put on a range of small plates, as they did last year, much appreciated to soak up the alcohol that didn’t quite make it into the spittoons.

Clay Wine is organised by Isobel Salamon, along with her team. The idea of a clay event was genius in my opinion, and I’m so glad to see it continue in its second year. Check out @bellespick @claywines and @slonkwine on Instagram.

Every wine tasted was well-chosen, with no poor wines, at least passing my lips, and a whole range of levels of “orange” was on show alongside plenty of reds as well. Some wines were full-on in terms of textures, whilst other wines gave only minimal signs of having seen clay. There were some classics here.

Prices where given are retail as provided on the day. Where not given the wine may not yet be listed.

CORK & CASK

Cork & Cask is one of Edinburgh’s finest wine shops, south of The Meadows in Marchmont. They are known very much for their adventurous range which has a focus on lower intervention wines, including many natural wines, and their approach to buying which brings wine from many different importers rather than the convenience of one or two. Their wine and spirit buyer, Jamie Dawson (also one of the people behind Blind Summit Whisky), was on hand to pour.

Rustaveli Signature Blend 2022, Shilda Winery (Kakheti, Georgia)

A Rosé which blends Kisi, Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane. It’s fermented in qvevri, but with just 10% skins (six months maceration and six months after). Bright pink-straw colour*, the bouquet is stone fruit (apricots). Acidity is balanced in a nice wine with 13% abv, which means I’d drink it with food. A good start here. £25.

*We were given lovely clay cups, glazed on the inside, to taste from. It’s a fun way to taste at an amphora event, but you had to be inventive to analyse colour. Some of those pouring the wine were using glasses to show colour where they felt it was an important aspect of the wine, to show levels of orange/extraction, or perhaps for very pale reds.

Kha Mé Garnacha Blanca, Bodegas Bhilar (Rioja, Spain)

Bodegas Bhilar is based at Elvillar in Rioja Alavesa, but this amphora-aged white wine is not labelled under the appellation, nor any other IGP. However, it’s an excellent bottle with a floral bouquet. The palate is clean and fresh, more “mineral” than tannic. The Japanese kanji is a close translation of amphora. Lovely wine. £30.

Acqua Delle Serpa Bianco 2019, Anne-Santi (Umbria, Italy)

Made by Francesco Annesanti at Arrone in Umbria (not in Portugal, as the C&C web site oddly suggests), this amphora-fermented wine has a lovely citrus bouquet mirrored on the palate by equally lovely fresh lemon acidity. It has a nice mix of zip and texture, and all of this builds by the second sip into a rather intriguing wine. One of the more subtle amphora wines on show, but not lacking weight despite just 12% alcohol. £37.

Langhe Rosso “Adessa” 2022, Camparo (Piemonte, Italy)

This is a superb value Langhe blend of 70% Nebbiolo with 30% Barbera from a producer at Diano d’Alba. Although the 2023 was made in amphora, this ’22 was actually made in oak. However, I would buy this at the current price, and Jamie reckons the ’23 amphora version is even better (it simply hadn’t arrived in time). Fresh acids despite 14.5% alcohol make it quite rich and smooth, although there’s tannin too, for sure. But only £22.

Kimera Amphora Garnatxa 2022, LMT Wines (Navarra, Spain)

LMT Wines is the project of two friends, Luis Moya and Gonzalo Celayeta, who are based in Olite. It is made in traditional Tinaja de Barro. It’s a fascinating wine because the vibrant red colour isn’t exceptionally dark (though not pale), and the freshness, which may come from the clay, covers up 14.5% abv very well. But the clay does give plenty of texture. £26.

Amphore Pinot Noir 2018, Fontaine Goby (Burgundy, France)

We finish at Cork & Cask with a bit of a stunner, on several levels. Marie-Noëlle and Laurent Ternynck make wine at Préhy, which I’m sure you recognise as being within the Chablis appellation. This red wine is both fermented and aged in amphora (12 months), which seems less common in Burgundy, even if it has become fashionable in Bordeaux. There’s no added sulphur.

It’s so fascinating. Pure cherry scents dominate the nose. The palate is both textured and earthy alongside more cherry fruit. It’s labelled as 13.9% abv and that carries richness. As Jamie says, “a real game wine”. He suggested pigeon, and I’d add partridge, but also autumn mushrooms in garlic and a red wine reduction for those averse to meat. £42 isn’t cheap, but how much good Burgundy is these days. It wasn’t quite the best amphora Pinot at the tasting, but if the Beckham Estate from Oregon (see Pt 3) beats it, then that costs even more than this wine.

RAEBURN FINE WINE

Raeburn Fine Wines, to give them their proper name, are based in Stockbridge, maybe ten minutes from Sotto. Here they have a retail shop piled high with wonderful wines. Although they have “Fine Wines” in their name, and they do import a lot of traditional wines, they also have wide tastes, and if you pay them a visit something will jump off the shelf. They bring in a lot of wines, so perusing their list can take a while, though a fun activity it is. Murray, who was pouring on Sunday, is exceptionally knowledgeable.

Liòm 2022 IGT Alpi Retiche, Barbacàn (Valtellina, Italy)

The Barbacàn label of Angelo Sega and Sons (now run by Angelo, Luca and Matteo) in San Giacomo di Teglio is one of a growing number of exciting estates in the Valtellina region of Northeast Italy. It is often seen as a good source for Nebbiolo hunters priced out of Piemonte’s major DOCGs. This certainly contains Nebbiolo (here called Chiavennasca) but with local varieties (including Róssola and Róssolino Rosa). The vines for this cuvée grow on the famous terraces at between 550-600 masl. It is vinified in amphora, where it spends one year.

Pale ruby red, it’s very juicy, quite ethereal, beautifully scented. It has a grainy texture, very mineral. It’s a great artisan wine showing a different side of the Valtellina region, and it was very much one of my Wines of the Day. £36.

Saumur Blanc « Les Perruches » 2021, Bruno Dubois (Loire, France)

This wine is a pure Chenin Blanc planted on the region’s argilo-calcaire (clay-limestone) soils. The vines are between 40-to-50 years old, and they are farmed biodynamically. Dubois is also committed to diversity in the vineyard, pursuing a regenerative approach. This cuvée sees one year in amphora, from a belief that this medium best expresses the terroir.

It’s certainly a wine of lovely purity. It has rounded fruit (lemon, lime, peach and a touch of pear) which all bring freshness to a wine that tastes alive. The texture is there, but it doesn’t hit the palate immediately leaving time to savour the purity of the fruit. £28.

Saumur-Champigny « Vue Sur Loire » 2018, Bruno Dubois (Loire, France)

Another wine from Bruno, who is based at St-Cyr-en-Bourg. It comes off the same clay-limestone soils as Les Perruches, the vines also being farmed biodynamically (see above). The variety here is Cabernet Franc, which as with the Chenin, sees 12 months in amphora. It mixes purity of ripe Cabernet Franc (at 14%) with grainy tannic texture, and just a little poise from age. It’s a cool wine, elegant, with a nice mixture of ripeness and structure. £30.

Vino Bianco Corteggio 2020, Cantine Mezzacane (Lombardy, Italy)

This Lombardy estate follows Georgian culture closely. The amphora, imported from Georgia, are buried underground. The organic Cortese fruit spends nine months on skins in the vessels. No sulphur is added to the wine. The nose shows almond and vanilla along with floral aromas, the palate showing quite concentrated fruit with a little spice. The texture is more like a gentle amphora-style brushing, rather than full-on tannin. Extremely pleasant and tasty, as well as classy. £47.50 retail makes it quite pricey, though the quality is undoubtedly there.

That sums up Part 1 for us. A very strong start from Cork & Cask and Raeburn, which we shall hope to continue in the parts which follow.

Jamie and Murray hard at work

Posted in Amber Wine, Amphora Wine, Artisan Wines, orange wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Festivals, Wine Merchants, Wine Tastings | Tagged Acqua Delle Serpa Bianco Anne-Santi Umbria, Amphora Wine in Rioja, Barbacan Liom IGT Alpi Retiche, Barbacan Valtellina Italy, Bodegas Bhilar Rioja, Cantine Mezzacane Amphora Cortese, Clay Wine Fair 2026 Part 1, Cork & Cask at Clay Wines 2026, Corteggio 2020 Cantine Mezzacane Lombardy, Fontaine Goby Amphora Pinot Noir 2018, Fontaine Goby Préhy Chablis, Georgian Qveveri Wine, Isobel Salamon Organiser Clay Wines, Kha Mé Garnacha Blanca Bodegas Bhilar, Kimera Amphora Garnatxa LMT Wines Navarra, Langhe Rosso Adessa Camparo, Raeburn Fine Wine at Clay Wine 2026, Rustaveli Signature Blend Shilda Winery, Saumur Amphora Wines, Saumur Blanc Les Perruches Bruno Dubois, Saumur Champigny Vue Sur Loire Bruno Dubois, Shilda Winery Kakheti Georgia, Wine, Wine Tasting | Leave a comment

Recent Wines February 2026 (Part 1) #theglouthatbindsus

Posted on 26/02/2026 by dccrossley

February. Oh, that dark time. Actually, I’m feeling quite upbeat as I type this because the weeks of wet weather have given way to sunnier days, quite pleasant, with temperatures up to eleven degrees or more (in Celsius, which I presume will mean nothing to some of you, but it is quite pleasant). That sure sign of spring approaching comes first with the snowdrops and crocuses, and now with a few daffodils poking their yellow flowers from their tightly packed stems. The oyster catchers are out in ever greater numbers and the first gannets are arriving, though on a sadder note a good few puffins arrived way too early and didn’t survive the two big recent storms.

The first part of the month saw a mix of new bottles and old favourites. A Swiss producer I didn’t know, another brilliant Czech Sauvignon Blanc from a new favourite producer, my first Raul Perez Bierzo for what seems like a few years and then a brand-new Gamay, fruit from Beaujolais but made near Arbois. We finish with a perennial Auvergnat regular, this time a Chardonnay from someone whose wines I rate highly, ending Part 1 with another old favourite from Chianti’s Classico zone. Remember, all of the wines I include are wines worth reading about, and making a detour to find. Nothing here is as shockingly good as the one coming in Part 2 that is pretty much a certainty for wine of the month, but all but the most accidental visitor here would find these wines worth grabbing…and four of them are £30 or under.

La Bosse à Rousseau 2023, Domaine de la Pierre aux Dames (Geneva, Switzerland)

I’ve never seen this Geneva estate before. They also appear to go by the name of Maison Forte, not to be confused with Maison Forte in Southern Burgundy, in France. They are located at Trionex, east of St-Julien-en-Genevois, in the vineyards to the south of the city. Viticulture is organic, and this cuvée is a blend of Gamaret and Garanoir, aged in barrique. These are interesting Swiss-bred varieties which are beginning to be planted in the UK and are worth looking out for.

Despite its very dark colour the tannins have become well integrated after a couple of years in bottle. It’s only 12.5% abv, which is promising. The bouquet is a mix of pleasant red and darker fruits. The palate has that super-concentrated darker fruit flavour without any real complexity, though you do get a touch of leather and spice in there. Nice acids too.

In fact, I’d expected the wine to be way less approachable than it is. It went very nicely with a rich mushroom and pasta dish, to which a few glugs of the same wine were added. Just what we wanted for an early in the week bottle. It was a gift from Swiss friends so I’ve no idea what it costs and online searching didn’t help. Chances of finding it might be minimal, but we enjoyed it.

Sauvignon Blanc 2023, Mira Nestarcová (Moravia, Czechia)

Mira has been making her own wines for a few years now, alongside those of her husband, Milan Nestarec, and they seem to get better with every vintage (they were, to be fair, pretty good to start with). Milan may have seen the competition because I think he’s now making his best wines ever as well.

I’ve bought all of Mirka’s wines at some point, but among those I show them to it is her Sauvignon Blanc which seems to excite them most. I drank a couple of the wonderful 2022s, but this ’23 differs from that in one obvious respect: 13.5% alcohol. The ’22 had just 11%. I think the 2023 was still made in a mix of steel and concrete, just a very different growing season.

Where the 2022 was redolent of pear and gooseberry, this vintage has peaches right from the off, on both nose and palate. The peach shows very clearly and with purity through the wine’s acidity, which isn’t shy. As the wine warmed in the glass we got ginger on the finish, which is long and mouth-filling. Electric! It is at least as good as that wonderful 2022, even better, I think.

I have the 2024 in the cellar, but I might keep it a little longer. This ’23 seems to have benefitted from age. The importer, whose web site I bought it from, is Basket Press Wines. The 2024 costs around £36, I think.

Las Gundiñas, Lomas de Valtuille La Vizcaina 2019, Raul Pérez (Bierzo, Spain)

This should perhaps rather be called “La Vizcaina Las Gundiñas”, but in any case, it is a Bierzo made from mostly Mencia, with other local varieties Alicante Bouschet, Saison and Estaladiña. The latter variety is made as a varietal wine by Bodegas Mengoba, run by Gregory Pérez. There are a few Pérez’s in Bierzo, Raúl being the man who perhaps started the whole Bierzo thing a couple of decades ago. For a time, he seemed to be the most talked about winemaker in Spain.

The vines for this rendition of Bierzo are on clay, and although the vineyards are on slopes, they are not the old terraces which Raúl was famous for bringing back into production. The grapes see a whole-cluster fermentation with a long maceration, taking place in used French oak.

The bouquet has scented cherry, blackcurrant and liquorice. There are some tannins evident but the fruit on the palate is so silky that it smooths them considerably. Of all the sites Raúl bottles from Vizcaina, Las Gundiñas is considered the most sensual cuvée, and I’m not going to suggest that is wrong. For me, comparisons with Côte-Rôtie would not be far off the mark, but this is delicious despite being drunk quite young, and served almost cellar cool. A lovely bottle, this really hit the spot, both in terms of enjoyability, quality and value for money. Tastes like a fine wine to me.

I bought mine from The Solent Cellar (£28, still available).

“Love Will Tear Us Apart” [2021] Vin de France, Les Valseuses (Beaujolais fruit via Jura, France)

I cannot believe that the name which Antoine Le Court-Chedevergne and Julia Naar selected for their tiny domaine at Les Planches-près-Arbois was not chosen without being fully aware that “Les Valseuses” does not only mean innocently “the walzers” in French (insert shocked face emoji, perhaps). But their tiny domaine, of less than a hectare, is gaining plenty of attention for the wines they make, not for its potentially rude name.

Antoine and Julia met in Brazil. With such a tiny vineyard right now, they are also buying grapes from further afield and this “Joy Division” cuvée is made from Gamay sourced in Beaujolais. Some sources suggest a dash of Mauzac, but others don’t mention it.

Les Planches, where Antoine and Julia have their winery, and also a lovely-looking guest house called Casa Antolià, is just a few kilometres south of Arbois in great walking country. Here, the River Cuisance which flows (occasionally pretty swiftly) through Arbois, appears from beneath the limestone plateau. You have the famous Cirque du fer à Cheval and the Cascade des Tufs, and you also have some great walks, a couple of which I describe in a popular article for Arbois visitors, on this site. If you want to see how rivers work their way through limestone scenery like this, you can visit the underground cave system known as the Grottes des Moidons (when they eventually re-open).

Anyway, I digress. This Gamay, and maybe a little Mauzac or maybe not, is macerated as whole bunches, and spends ten months in tank to age. Nothing is added, including zero sulphur, and there’s no manipulation like pigeage or pumping over etc. Antoine worked for Alice Bouvot at L’Octavin and this only reinforced his natural wine philosophy. The result is supremely fresh and zippy, with great acidity. There was no volatility but you know it’s a natural wine with no sulphur muting the wild berry fruit. It’s kind of on a tightrope but not falling off. That tension is part of its appeal.

I found this bottle in the Dundee shop of Fife organic brewery, Futtle. Their wine range, all natural, is tiny but usually has a few gems. I don’t believe they have this any longer, so I’m glad I spotted it. Never pass a wine shop as you never know what you might miss. Beattie and Roberts may be the importer. They list a large number of wines from Les Valseuses on their web site. I don’t know them at all but I soon shall as they will be at a trade tasting at Montrose (Edinburgh) early next month.

Puy Long XXIII (Vin de France), Jean Maupertuis (Auvergne, France)

The Auvergne has been above the radar for a good while now, but it was once a remote and wild place, perfect for a few wild winemakers to make their mark away from too many people and chemicals. Some consider Jean Maupertuis the “original” natural wine maker in the region, via his first estate, Domaine de Peyra (now no longer operating), in the 1990s.

Jean moved on to farm around 3.5 hectares, mostly at Saint-Georges-sur-Allier. He works primarily with Gamay, both the famous local Gamay d’Auvergne and Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc (the Beaujolais strain). Expect Maupertuis wines to be wholly natural with no added sulfites, to be unfiltered and to be mostly made by whole berry fermentation. I can’t remember a year when I have not drunk at least one of his wines for a very long time, but this might be the first time I have bought this Puy Long.

We have a still Chardonnay off Jean’s mix of limestone and volcanic soils at Saint-Georges. The grapes see a direct, gentle, press and are both fermented and aged in used oak, on the lees. The bouquet is very aromatic and pure, mostly lemon citrus. The palate has both a lightness to it, as in a natural wine that seems to skip gently across the tongue, but also a bit of weight as well, nothing heavy, more a presence.

I’ve seen people suggest pairing it with sushi, which would work very well. We drank it with a stir-fry, with which I would usually be careful about pairing with Chardonnay, especially if it says 13% abv on the label. It doesn’t feel like a 13% wine. I think I can sum this up well by calling this “understated class”. It came from The Solent Cellar (£30), imported by Les Caves de Pyrene.

Chianti Classico 2022, Riecine (Tuscany, Italy)

Riecine produces organic and biodynamic wines from just north of Gaiole in Chianti, in the Classico Zone’s southeastern sector. Here, the vineyards are a little bit higher than the Classico norm. The estate is in the lee of Monte Grossi, which rises to just over 700 masl. It’s a much-used generalisation to say that the higher altitude in Chianti gives “fresher”, perhaps more acidic wines, but Riecine wines do always seem to have freshness. However, that is in part down to low intervention viticulture and winemaking, including using native yeasts rather than cultured ones.

The Riecine Classico is 100% Sangiovese, so no addition of minor varieties, or Merlot, heaven forbid. It is fermented in concrete and aged in oak, and the fruit is fully estate-grown from Gaiole. The bouquet is concentrated, with fine cherry fruit dominating, along with strawberry and redcurrant, but I also got a nice waft of tea leaf.

The palate has fine and grippy tannins, but paired with cherry fruit that has both depth and body. The thing I love about this wine, which I’ve drunk frequently if not recently, is that it will age well, without doubt, but it is also open to go for a nice youthful glass or two. We drank it with a haggis-based roast dinner and it went very well indeed, matching the peppery spice of the haggis. My bottle came from The Solent Cellar and I think cost around £24. The importer is Alliance Wine.

Posted in Arbois, Artisan Wines, Czech Wine, Italian Wine, Jura, Natural Wine, Spanish Wine, Swiss Wine, Tuscan Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants | Tagged #theglouthatbindsus, Antoine Le Court-Chedevergne and Julia Naar, Arbois Wine with Beaujolais Fruit, Auvergne Wine, Bierzo, Biodynamic Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Riecine 2022, Domaine de la Pierre aux Dames Geneva, Gamaret and Garanoir Blend, Geneva Wine, Jean Maupertuis Auvergne France, Jean Maupertuis Puy Long [2023], La Bosse a Rousseau 2023 Geneva, La Vizcaina Las Gundinas Raul Perez, Les Valseuses Jura, Les Valseuses Les Planches-près-Arbois, Love Will Tear us Apart Gamay, Maison Forte Geneva, Mencia Grape, Mira Nestarcova Czech Winemaker, Mira Nestarcová Velké Bilovice, Mira Sauvignon Blanc 2023, Moravian Wine, Puy Long Chardonnay XXIII, Raul Perez Bierzo, Recent Wines February 2026 Pt 1, Riecine Gaiole in Chianti, Vin Auvergnat, Wine | Leave a comment

Recent Wines January 2026 (Part 2) #theglouthatbindsus

Posted on 16/02/2026 by dccrossley

After Part 1 had some classic wines, and some classic regions, we begin here with a couple of leftfield offerings, a Polish Blaufränkisch and a Cretan Vidiano. The sandwich filling here is provided by a very good value Roero Nebbiolo and a Pinot Noir that will be hard to beat all year. That comes from Kelley Fox in Oregon. The final two wines here are a beautifully-aged Sauvignon Blanc from a Hampshire cult winery (you can probably guess), and a Merlot/Cabernet blend made by a small practitioner of permaculture and both regenerative and no-till viticulture in the Dordogne.

A zip through that list might leave some infrequent readers scratching their heads as to what the fuss is about for these wines, but their diversity proves that brilliant wines are being made pretty much everywhere, and that you don’t need to pay fine wine prices for genuine excitement in the glass.

Dobre Modre 2022, Kamil Barczentewicz (Lublín, Poland)

Kamil Barczentewicz farms 12 hectares of vines on a limestone hill at Wilców, close to the River Vistula in a region called Lublín, in southeast Poland. This cuvée is 100% Blaufränkisch, a natural wine made via spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts in open-top vats, and then seeing eleven months ageing in oak (a mix of Hungarian, Slavonian and French). It is rested in stainless steel for a further six months before bottling.

The result has that gorgeous sheen of reddish purple you expect from the variety. The bouquet is all peppery blackcurrant, and the palate is fruity and crisp. It is also developing some autumnal notes and the fine tannins are retreating. It’s very good for £18 from The Wine Society. They are sold out but their web site says it’s due back soon. They do currently have some of Kamil’s 2022 Pinot Noir left. The importer is Élevage Wines.

This is by no means the first good Polish wine I’ve drunk. Unless my senility has really kicked-in now, I don’t see any entry for Poland in the World Atlas of Wine’s current (8^th) edition. It’s about time we had one, and I wonder whether Poland will get a mention in the new 9^th edition, due out later this year. Perhaps if anyone at Mitchell Beazley, or one of the contributing team, reads this they could let us all know.

I would also like to give a shout-out for The Wine Society. I think it is the same buyer who brought this to TWS as is the buyer for Jura, Savoie and Switzerland (among others). If so, they are on fire, and deserve a pay rise for their sense of adventure as much as their obviously good palate. They probably brought in the recent Ukrainian Chardonnay too? More from Switzerland, artisan Alsace and Jura, and far-flung countries are always welcome in my cellar.

Vidiano Young Vines 2023, Shima Winery (Crete, Greece)

Iliana Malíhin established a winery at Melambes (also spelt Melampes) in 2019, whilst in her mid-20s. Using Vidiano, one of the best of the Cretan white varieties, for this cuvée, the grapes come from the IGP of Rethymno in Northern Crete, where Iliana farms or oversees around ten hectares of organically-farmed vines on clay and schist terraces. Not yet made an appellation (PDO), the vineyards here are packed with an array of “heritage” grape varieties rarely seen outside of Crete.

This is, as you will see, a young vines cuvée. The same shop/importer also had an “old vines”, which judging by how good this is, might be truly amazing…but it costs more. This sees skin contact and six months on lees, both giving a bit more colour and texture. The vines are only between five-to-fifteen years old, so the winemaking gives the wine a little extra personality. Growing up at around 650 masl helps add some brilliant freshness too.

The bouquet reminded me of peach and apricots and the palate has a slightly oily stone fruit texture. The expected herbal note joins in after a minute or two warming up. The other thing to note is the salinity. It has good depth and body but is balanced. For me, young vines or not, it is very impressive.

Keeling & Andrew imports this, and I found it in their shop, Shrine to the Vine. It cost £35. The Old Vines cuvée costs £57 but I’d love to try it as this wine was superb. They also have a varietal Liatiko, a field blend and a Rosé (also made from Liatiko). The latter is the cheapest of Iliana’s wines at £29. Definitely worth heading to Lamb’s Conduit Street, Stoke Newington Church Street or Broadway Market to check out this excellent producer.

Roero “Roccapalea” 2021, Tibaldi (Piemonte, Italy)

Roero has been a source for some rather good Nebbiolo on my table for a good decade or so. Some is now eye-wateringly expensive where famous names have smelt the coffee and bought-in. However, the region has traditionally been one with many family wineries, making wines in many cases of exceptional value for money. At least for those of us who cherish that grape variety.

Roero is, for those who don’t go deep into Piemonte, to the north of Alba. You reach it by crossing to the left bank of the Tanaro River and heading up into the hills towards Canale. The soils here differ from the Langhe in being more sandy in nature. It’s not all about Nebbiolo. Roero Arneis is an increasingly attractive aromatic and crisp white wine, and Favorita (aka Vermentino) can be a good insider pick too.

The Tibaldi Roero, made by Monica and Daniela Tibaldi, is certainly a lighter style of Nebbiolo than you might find in Barolo. The soils have their influence, but equally, this cuvée is made using 30% whole bunches. Its deep ruby red colour betrays ripe sweet cherry fruit on the palate, with a finish that to me hinted at both liquorice and soy sauce, and definitely mint leaf. The bouquet is quite beguiling in its own way, very perfumed in the ways you hope for in Nebbiolo.

The alcohol sits at 14%, but for a wine like this, being well balanced, it seems just right. It was well matched with a winter stew, and to be frank there’s a big call for winter stew wines here right now. Just ones that have some degree of subtlety, as this one has, rather than jammy fruit and brawn.

Another purchase from The Wine Society, and another wine that has all gone (because, contrary to what the online requests for reviews right after I’ve bought a bottle expect, I tend to keep even modest wines a month or two, to rest, before opening). I wouldn’t be surprised to see it back at some point. It cost £20, and who doesn’t want good, drinkable, Nebbiolo for that kind of price? Tanners of Shrewsbury has the 2019 Roccapalea for £33 along with several other wines from this producer, so they may well be the importer.

Mirabai Pinot Noir 2017, Kelley Fox Wines (Oregon, USA)

Kelley Fox works from the ADEA Wine Company facility, four minutes out of Gaston, down the Tualatin Valley Highway, in Northeast Oregon. Some of her wines come from highly acclaimed single vineyards, around nine of them including Freedom Hill and Maresh. Mirabai, Named after a sixteenth century Hindu mystic poet-saint from India, a devotee of Krishna, is labelled from the broad Willamette Valley AVA, but the fruit comes largely from the Dundee Hills AVA, centred on the historic Maresh Vineyard with its volcanic terroir. Fruit for the blend is also usually sourced from the Weber Vineyard and sometimes Momtazi.

Kelley’s vines are all dry-farmed and she follows organic and certified biodynamic practices. Winemaking is gentle and hands-off and every wine I’ve drunk from Kelley has had a natural elegance, and a characteristic I’d call fluidity. The fruit is perfumed and abundant, strawberry, cherry and redcurrant. The nose really has that ethereal quality that is what hooked me onto Burgundy all those decades ago. The palate is so delicate and there’s real depth. It’s a wine to meditate on, so I guess it is well-named, after a poet.

What really needs to be said is that this blend is not one of Kelley’s more expensive red wines, although it does have one of her most beautiful labels. I suspect little of it gets the chance to age for eight-or-so years, as this bottle has, but it has aged wonderfully. I promise that I will be pushed to enjoy a wine more this year, though I hope many may match it.

Imported by Les Caves de Pyrene, from whom I purchased this direct some years ago. A recent vintage might be had for around £40 (some retailers seem to sell it for more).

“A Fermament” Sauvignon Blanc 2019, Charlie Herring Wines (Hampshire, England)

After visiting Tim last month, I had to delve into my dwindling stash of Charlie Herring wines. I’m quite well off in the sparkling department, but opening this puts me down to just two still wines. If I am slow to open them, it isn’t only because of their scarcity. They also like to spend time sleeping in the cellar.

This is, of course, a low-intervention wine made from fruit grown in Tim’s walled “clos” near Lymington. It is also a wine made with skin contact. The bouquet is initially less direct than most Sauvignon Blanc, but I got quite ethereal dessert apple. The palate is quite grassy with nettles and herbs, and definite texture and added phenolics from the skin contact (though I’m not sure how long it saw on skins?). There’s also a mineral streak which is shockingly Riesling-like for a moment.

Over time the bouquet develops and evolves to a level of complexity you don’t often get with this variety, although it reminds me more, once it has opened-up, of a SB from Austria’s Styria than any I know from France (or New Zealand, which it does not remotely resemble). These wines are aged before release but I would suggest further ageing if you can. The complexity will increase, as it will if not served too chilled and allowed air. It has not lost any freshness, but it has gained plenty of depth. A remarkable wine. I mentioned the Kelley Fox label above, but you have to admit that Tim’s labels also excel, each and every one of them being too good to throw away.

Although Tim’s wines are pretty hard to source, other than directly on an open day, occasionally via Les Caves de Pyrene, or from local wine store The Solent Cellar, Londoners might be in luck. The latest release seems to be in stock at to Shrine to the Vine. The largest number of bottles (12) appears to be in the Lamb’s Conduit Street store, with just a couple in each of their other two locations (Stoke Newington and Broadway Market). Good hunting.

Scribbly Gum 2023, Ferme L’Apogee (Dordogne, France)

« Scribbly Gum » is not an Australian blend such as you might find in a supermarket, indeed far from it. Ferme L’Apogee is a permaculture project, set up by Vincent Lebon and Millie Dominy, the French owners of Brighton’s famous Plateau natural wine bar, who returned to the French countryside after Brexit and the Covid pandemic. The farm is at Sainte-Croix, which is south of the Dordogne River, off the road to the beautiful (but super-touristy) bastide town of Monpazier. We are talking southeast of Bergerac.

They practice biodynamic, no-till, agriculture and viticulture and make a range of natural wines alongside growing fruit and vegetables, whilst also experimenting with beers and ciders. This is my second wine from L’Apogee, and my first red. It blends Merlot (65%) with Cabernet Sauvignon (35%), made in sandstone amphora where it is aged, post-fermentation, for twelve months.

It’s a deep and dark wine with a minty bouquet and a palate showing depth of fruit (with 13% abv), zippy fresh fruit acids and a bit of grippy tannin. Like the white Sauvignon Gris which I drank last summer (“Nasturtium”), this is superb drinking, a lovely “country wine” (meant in a very positive sense, a wine with no pretensions). A totally natural wine which will go well with a range of food, including, I dare say, some permaculture veg from the farm.

Imported by Basket Press Wines. They seem to be out of this on their web site, though doubtless they will re-stock. Otherwise, they may be able to point you to other retail or on-trade sources.

Posted in Artisan Wines, Eastern European Wine, English Wine, Greek Wine, Italian Wine, Natural Wine, North American Wine, Piemonte, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wines of Southwest France, | Tagged #theglouthatbindsus, Bergerac Wine, Charlie Herring Wines A Fermament Sauvignon Blanc, Cretan Natural Wine, Cretan Wine, Dobre Modre, English Natural Wine, Ferme L'Apogee Dordogne France, Ferme L'Apogee Scribbly Gum Red Wine, Hampshire Sauvignon Blanc, Iliana Malihin Winemaker Crete, Kamil Barczentewicz Dobre Modre 2022, Kamil Barczentewicz Winemaker Lublin Poland, Kelley Fox Wines Oregon, Maresh Vineyard Dundee Hills Oregon, Mirabai Pinot Noir 2017 Kelley Fox, Monica and Daniela Tibaldi Roero, Oregon Natural Wine from Kelley Fox, Oregon Pinot Noir, Piemonte Wine, Polish Blaufränkisch, Polish Wine, Recent Wines January 2026 Pt 2, Roero Nebbiolo, Shima Winery Crete, Tibaldi Roero Roccapalea 2021, Tim Phillips Charlie Herring Wines, Vidiano, Vidiano Young Vines Iliana Malihin, Willamette Valley Wines, Wine | Leave a comment

Recent Wines January 2026 (Part 1) #theglouthatbindsus

Posted on 10/02/2026 by dccrossley

January tends to be a quiet month for many in wine, although I seem to have heard more “Try January” than “Dry January” this year. Of course, I’m trying new stuff all the time, almost as if it is my wine raison d’Être, but some might say I’m not trying hard enough in Part 1 of my Recent Wines for January. I mean, two Alsace, a Jura, a Rioja, a Burgenland sweet wine and a Savoie Mondeuse do not seem very out there compared to my usual drinking. Well, if you are drinking these six wines you won’t be going wrong, “every 1’s a winner baby” as they said back in the decade of nostalgia…and anyway, Part 2 will kick of with Poland and Crete, so hopefully everyone will end up satisfied.

Pinot Noir 2024, Jean-Pierre Rietsch (Alsace, France)

I was thrilled to find this on a shelf in Edinburgh a little before Christmas, and even more thrilled that it was my recommendation which apparently put it there. Jean-Pierre has his cellar in the middle of Mittelbergheim and if you can get an appointment there is not one single address in the region that I can recommend more highly.

The fruit here sees a fifteen-day maceration of whole bunches, with a spontaneous fermentation using indigenous yeasts. As with all Jean-Pierre’s wines, it is “natural”, with the only input being a very small addition of sulphur. It saw only eight months ageing in tank after fermentation.

The result is a pale wine with just 11.5% abv. The bouquet is all bright strawberry fruit, with a little cherry, which expresses itself more on the palate. When you taste it, you can’t help thinking “wow!”. Light and easy to glug, but zippy with concentrated fruit acids. Not a wine for those who habitually drink South American Malbec (though of course there’s a place for those wines as well). This is more of a subtle fruit juice of a wine. I love it.

The importer is Wines Under the Bonnet, my bottle coming from Communiqué Wines in Stockbridge (Edinburgh), for £32. Normally I’d comment on the price, because £30+ is quite a lot for a glouglou bottle, but as it’s JPR, as with wines from folks like Alice Bouvot or the Renners, I shall just suck it up.

Côtes du Jura “De L’Avant” 2020, Maison Maenad (Jura, France)

If you can’t drink wines from your favourite regions at New Year, when can you drink them? This is only my third bottle of this cuvée and also it is the only cuvée I’ve been able to try so far from Katie Worobeck, who tends around three hectares on limestone near Orbagna and Grusse. We are in the south of the Jura region, known as the Sud Révermont. Katie moved there from Canada to work with the Ganevats and now makes her own sought-after natural wine in the cave under her home in Orbagna, whilst taking her “natural” approach to the next level through agroecology and regenerative farming.

De L’Avant is a Chardonnay made from vines over forty years old growing in a site called “Au Carré” in the hills above nearby Grusse. Winemaking involves direct pressing of the fruit, maturation using a mix of demi-muid and foudre for two years.

You can tell Katie is a winemaker with a gentle touch. This is delicate and nuanced, especially with some bottle age. It is no lightweight though, picking up 13% alcohol. 2020 was a warm vintage and that seems to have been managed perfectly because the result has bags of finesse. The fruit is mainly in the apples and melon spectrum, but it also has a lot of minerality. Acids are there, but more gentle in nature than you might expect. The salinity is soft. The wine is brilliant!

In the UK you should be able to pick this up from importer Tutto Wines. I think it may be around £75. Feral Art et Vin in Bordeaux had a range of Maenad cuvées but I think they are mostly gone. They are still listing a brilliant deal of De L’Avant paired with Alice Bouvot’s L’Octavin “P’tit Poussot” for €100, but before you grab a cheap flight, in any event worth doing to visit this amazing natural wine shop in the centre of the old city, they are closed right now until 26 February. Always check their web site.

Lindes de Remelluri Rivas de Teresso Rioja 2020, Remelluri (Rioja, Spain)

Telmo Rodriguez’s « Lindes » wines focus on growers around the Remelluri estate who are farming, in the words of Telmo, traditionally. “Rivas” is a blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha, farmed organically, off a mix of clay and limestone. Vines aged between 30-to-90 years old are sited up at between 634-702 masl. Fermentation, using indigenous yeasts, is in stainless steel, with twelve months ageing in French oak.

Rivas de Teresso is a hamlet close to the tenth century hilltop fortress town of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, from where tourists can walk to see 1,000-year-old stone wine presses of Zabala carved from the rock. As an aside, from the same place I read about the wine troughs, Fintan Kerr’s dining rec (from his Rioja Smart Traveller’s Guide, Académie du Vin) for dining in San Vicente is Casa Toni. Do not “roasted pig’s feet, sausages, potatoes and chorizo” just make you want to head there now?

At the moment this 2020 is still grippy and quite youthful, but red cherries and violets on the nose make it very expressive. The tannins are pretty silky and there’s a bit of texture beside the tannins too. The wine is, metaphorically speaking, dark and deep, and gorgeous with food, which can be quite rich. Especially as the alcohol is 14% abv, although don’t let that put you off. This is very good.

This wine, imported by Indigo Wines, has reasonably good distribution. My bottle came from Communiqué Wines in Edinburgh, but I’ve also seen it (no longer in stock, I think) at Cork & Cask. In London, The Sourcing Table seems to have some. Pay circa £30. I’d definitely buy this again.

Muscat Ottonel TbA Nummer 6 Zwischen den Seen 2005, Kracher (Burgenland, Austria)

This is a blast from the past, being my penultimate bottle of a load of Kracher wines I bought many years ago in Brighton. The Kracher Winery was founded in 1959, on the eastern shore of the Neusiedlersee at Illmitz. Alois Kracher took over from his father in 1970, and made this estate perhaps Austria’s most famous producer of sweet wines.

The number of cuvées developed in the Alois years was almost bewildering, with different sweetness levels (this wine here is Trockenbeerenauslese), different styles (Zwischen den Seen for stainless steel or old neutral oak, Nouvelle Vague for new oak) and different grape varieties. Then there are the numbers, principally on the TbA’s (here we have 6) which denote concentration and sweetness, and can go up to at least 10.

The grapes grow close to the lake and its famous reed beds, creating the right degree of humidity and heat to ripen the grapes. 100% botrytized fruit is harvested by hand in several passes. This wine spent 18 months in stainless steel. Gerhard Kracher, Alois’s son, has now taken over the domaine, assisted by his wife, Yvonne.

This 2005 is quite dark in colour but the bouquet is lifted, concentrated, honey with orange marmalade, lemon curd and ginger. Nose and palate are pretty complex. It still has enough acidity to keep it going and to balance the richness that has developed. Time brings complexity, and more complexity here than I’d expect from Muscat Ottonel. 10% abv.

This came from Butlers Wine Cellar in Brighton. When I put a pic on Instagram Henry Butler did comment that these are long gone. He originally got them from Noel Young Wines. You might find some of the sweet wines, along with the newer Kracher dry wines Gerhard now produces, at Corney & Barrow.

“Terres Rouge” Mondeuse 2023 Vin de Savoie, Domaine AS & J-F Quénard (Savoie, France)

There are quite a number of Quénards in Savoie, but most of them, and certainly all of those I’ve seen in the UK, are at the very least sound. This is a relief because it is only perhaps in Arbois and Burgundy where such profusion of winemakers with the same surname exists to confuse the unwary wine buyer. This domaine, with 22 hectares, is at Chignin, where vines grow on steep slopes close to Chambéry. The white Chignin-Bergeron here is worth seeking out, but so too is Mondeuse, the best-known of the autochthonous Savoie red varieties.

This is a low-intervention wine, organic fruit hand-harvested and vinified using indigenous wild yeasts. Aged in concrete egg (“béton” in fact means raw concrete), it has a low sulphur addition, and quite low alcohol (11.5% abv).

The result is a dark and savoury red, characteristic of the variety, with concentrated dark fruits on both nose and palate. This is one of those wines that has fruit concentration that is sappy and refreshing, no doubt assisted by that lowish alcohol. As easy to drink as a glass of Ribena, but obviously dry. Nice in winter, but could be served cool as a wild card too. Good value.

£21 from The Wine Society.

Cuvée Frédéric Emile 2004, Trimbach (Alsace, France)

Although Clos St-Hune, which I must admit I have never drunk, is Trimbach’s most famous dry Riesling, from the Clos near the famous fortified church at Hunawihr, their “CFE” is a flagship wine which combines quality, with a degree of slightly more accessible pricing by comparison. CFE comes from two Grand Cru sites, Geisberg and Osterberg, on the northern edge of Ribeauvillé. This is superb terroir.

Made from 100% Riesling, this is a wine famed for its steeliness, and that steely quality is still there even after 22 years. The bouquet is classic Riesling, but there is a peachy richness in this dry wine. Mineral texture and citrus acids can also be found in a wine which has retained much of that structure. Although this is now certainly a mature wine, I definitely take issue with the vintage charts which suggest 2004 is past its peak.

Finding a 2004 might not be easy. Shrine to the Vine recently had some 2006 and may still have 2001 (£190). Various classic sources have other vintages. The 2018 seems to be £120 at both Berry Brothers and, in Edinburgh, at Valvona & Crolla. The 2015 was listed for £77 at Hedonism a while ago, and they are still listing 1998 for £120. 2018 may be a classic because Valvona & Crolla also seem to have the 2019 for a mere £67. For a wine which was once very easy to find in the UK it seems somewhat harder now. Try Berry Brothers and VINVM.

Posted in Alsace, Artisan Wines, Austrian Wine, Jura, Natural Wine, Neusiedlersee, Rioja, Savoie Wine, Spanish Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Merchants, Wine Shops | Tagged #theglouthatbindsus, Aged Alsace Riesling, Alsace Pinot Noir, Austrian Sweet Wine, Côtes du Jura Chardonnay, Chignin Mondeuse, Domaine AS and J-F Quénard Chignin, Gerhard Kracher Illmitz, Jean-Pierre Rietsch Mittelbergheim, Katie Worobeck Vigneronne, Lindes de Remelluri Rivas de Teresso, Maison Maenad De L'Avant 2020, Maison Maenad Orbagna, Mondeuse, Muscat Ottonel TBA 2005 Kracher, Neusiedlersee, Recent Wines January 2026 Pt 1, Remelluri Rioja, Savoie Mondeuse, Sud Révermont Chardonnay, Telmo Rodriguez Remelluri, Terres Rouge Mondeuse 2023 J-F Quénard, Trimbach Frédéric Emile 2004, Trimbach Ribeauvillé, Wine, Zwischen den Seen Muscat Ottonel TBA Nummer 6 | Leave a comment

Wines of Greece Highlights Tasting, Edinburgh (February 2026)

Posted on 05/02/2026 by dccrossley

The Wines of Greece Tasting finally made its way up to Edinburgh and took place at Smith + Gertrude’s wine bar in Stockbridge on 2^nd February. I’d been very much looking forward to this event. You don’t find a lot of Greek wines in the UK, especially not on retail shelves. I know this to be a travesty because the country is making exciting wines from a diverse array of grape varieties. Wines of Greece, through UK Wine PR company, Westbury Communications, showed 64 wines from 32 producers, with a spotlight largely on Greek autochthonous varieties. In my opinion those are the varieties, such as Assyrtiko, Malagousia, Xinomavro, Robola, Roditis and a host more, which make the most interesting wines.

My overall impressions were very positive. For example, I liked the regional differences between examples of the well-known Greek varieties (or at least I mean well known to trade insiders). The lesser-known varieties, I’m thinking grapes like Monemvasia, Savatiano or Limniona etc, were shown to bring interesting flavours to the table. Some of the wines here were exceptional, and I would love to buy my favourites.

One negative was tannin management. Some wines showed big tannins which would need some years in bottle to mellow. Fair enough if that’s the wine you want to make, but some producers did show they were able to make more approachable wines with the same varieties, which seems an approach more in keeping with how the pendulum has swung towards less heavy reds, and less oaky whites as well.

My caveat regarding oak-fermented and -aged whites is that my wine of the tasting was made that way. Also, remarkably, it was the first wine I tasted, Wine #1 on the table. At the end I had to go back to taste it again, just to confirm I was right. I was almost tempted to take the bottle home, but to be fair it is not super-expensive, if I can find it.

The notes on the 30+ wines below are often very brief. All those I have written something about were well made. Some were definitely more immediately appealing than others. The dilemma for the winemaker is which style to go for. Prestige on the domestic market may be sought via wines set for the long haul, whereas for Greek wine to sell in this market I suspect consumers are looking for wines they can drink now. At least initially. For this reason, many of the whites will be an easier sell.

That said, if you take some producers which were not present, for example Thymiopoulos, whose Jeunes Vignes hits the spot, or Tetramythos, you can find a different style of red. It should also be noted that as with these big tastings you always find some exceptional artisans don’t get represented. My favourite Greek producers, Ligas and Kalathas were not represented, but it can be hard to convince national wine bodies of the sheer brilliance, and international standing, of such fine Natural wines. To be fair, those two producers probably don’t need to pay an industry body to hawk their small production.

The standard of white winemaking in Greece seems pretty high, on this showing. There’s nothing wrong with the red winemaking but you need to pick and choose if you prefer accessibility over oak and tannin. Some red wines are good wines, and may be even better in time, but they occasionally remind me of a mindset I’ve seen before, in Tuscany and in Ribera del Duero for example.

Prices are suggested retail, as given in the tasting booklet. Spellings are mostly as printed and may differ from those you see in, for example, the “World Atlas of Wine”. Where a common anglicised version exists, I may have used that, or given both spellings (eg Corinth/Korinthos).

I am aware that this article is long and there are a lot of wines. See how far you can get. Although I feel it is unfair to single out any importer, because there are many other wines here which merit support, I can’t help but notice that Hallgarten and Novum seems to have a larger Greek range than I was aware, and they do import a number of my favourite wines here. So, if you are a retailer for whom the current economy has not killed your sense of adventure and you want to dip a toe into these wines, they may be part of your solution.

Alpha Estate (Macedonia, imported by Hallgarten and Novum)

“Latipes” 2024 is a single block varietal wine made as a PGI Florina from Malagousia (the variety spelt with the alternative “z” on the label). Fermented in foudre and aged in French Nevers and American oak for 12 months, the fruit is grown at around 650 masl on limestone. It sees some skin contact and they used indigenous yeasts. This is a modern-looking winery established in 1997, which I remember back in the day. Their wines were, I always thought, quite “modern” but exceptionally well made. I loved this white. As I said, wine of the tasting for its perfumed bouquet, and balance of purity, richness, minerality and acidity, all carried on a long palate. RRP £29.50.

Barba Yannis 2022 is 100% Xinomavro. This classic autochthone can be made in many styles, some which emphasise the “mavro”. Its PDO, or appellation, is Amyndeon (aka Amindeo) on the Northwest-facing slopes of Mount Vermio, where Xinomavro is often more elegant and maybe a touch lighter that the better known, potentially fine, wines of Naoussa, so often compared to Barolo, which sits to the southeast. From a 3.7 ha site, again on limestone, it is aged in French oak, giving sweet cherry fruit with a bit of tannin, but not too much, though I’d maybe keep it a year or two. It doesn’t feel like a wine with 14.6% abv. £34.

I’d go out of my way to buy both.

Château Nico Lazaridi (Macedonia, imported by Agora Greek Delicacies)

Cavalieri Assyrtiko 2024 is a PGI Drama wine with a nice balance of 12.5% alcohol. Floral, with jasmine and citrus on the nose and a palate showing dry stone fruits. A clean wine without the richness of the Alpha Estate. It was matured in oak, but only for a short time, on lees. £22.

Cavalieri Xinomavro 2022 is also from Drama. It saw 24 months in oak but was less tannic than many reds on show here and had decent red fruits with a bit of spice. Nice. £28.

Estates Costa Lazaridi (also Macedonia and same importer)

Amethystos 2023 from the same PGI, Drama, is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 10% Agiorgitiko. This is a bit more tannic and it’s up at 14% alcohol. It’s going to take a while to come around, I think. Not sure how long it saw in oak, and whether that oak was new, but the tannins are currently chunky. Also, quite “international”. £25.

Foundi Estate (Macedonia, Imp Clark Foyster)

Naoussa 2019 is a good example of what the fuss is all about for this northern PDO, but at an affordable price. Alcohol is a sensitive 13%, and we have some nice age here too. The bouquet is consequently mellow. There is certainly still some tannin, but there’s freshness too. £29.

Ktima Gerovassiliou (Macedonia, Imp Hallgarten and Novum)

Avaton 2022 comes from one of Macedonia’s less-known appellations, Epanomi (a PGI, not PDO). The winery is close to Thessaloniki, and they farm a large 70+ hectare domaine. It’s another winery, like Alpha, which I remember from the first wave of Greek wines to hit our shores in the 1990s (Oddbins was the catalyst). This red wine blends 85% Limnio with 10% Mavrotragano and 5% Mavroudi, both indigenous Macedonian varieties. It shows it’s not all about Xinomavro here. Cherry fruit gives a bit of depth and interest. It has spice too, and a bitter (as in “Italianate”) finish. £30.

Ktima Kir Yianni (Macedonia, Imp Liberty Wines)

Assyrtiko “The North” 2025 is PGI Florina and the winery is based in Andymion. This is a less mineral, richer and more fruity expression of this variety than most of those from Santorini. It was pleasant and very fresh, though not as complex as some more expensive Assyrtiko can be. £19.

Naoussa Cuvée Villages 2022 has a nice freshness, despite the alcohol level (14%). In fact, you don’t expect that, nor the bags of juicy fruit. There’s a bit of minerality you don’t always find in Xinomavro, but it is all currently held in-check by a tannic structure. But food and time to breath should soften this enough to enjoy with richer food. £20.

Ktima Pavlidis (Macedonia, Imp The Greek Delicatessen)

Thema 2025 is another wine from PGI Drama, from a producer close to the two Lazaridis estates previously covered. This is a white wine, an equal blend of Assyrtiko and Sauvignon Blanc. The nose is very much Sauvignon Blanc, more European than New Zealand. The palate shows the Assyrtiko’s mineral nature. 13.5% alcohol adds a bit of richness and a plumper mouthfeel. A versatile wine, to either sip of drink with food. £16.

Ktima Voyatzi Proposis 2024 is a slightly more complex blend, adding Chardonnay to the Assyrtiko/Sauvignon Blanc mix of the previous wine. This Macedonian wine is from the PGI of Macedonia this time. The Chardonnay seems to push the Sauvignon Blanc back a little, and perhaps some might like that. Enjoyable for £20 (imported by Vindependents).

Karamitros Winery Moi Je M’En Fous 2024 looks, from its label, like a “fun wine”, though whether at around £19 it will attract those willing to spend this much remains to be seen. Here we move away from Macedonia, to PGI Karditsa, in Thessaly (to the southwest, a little closer to the Peloponnese). This is a very easy drinking white wine made from Malagousia. It tastes lighter than its 13.5% abv suggests, and I’d be happier if it sat between £12-£15 myself. But it is well made. £19 from The Greek Delicatessen).

Theopetra Estate Limniona 2022 is PGI Meteora. Finally, a wine just named after its grape variety. Limniona (aka Limnio) usually makes quite firm reds. This has seen 12 months in American oak, but it also has a bit of bottle age. It’s consequently lighter than many, and only 12.5% abv. The cherry fruit is nice. Again, my only criticism, not for quality but for shiftability, is price. £28.50 from Hallgarten and Novum. But otherwise, a nice wine.

Nikolou Winery Botanic Sparkling 2022. Made solely from the Savatiano grape variety, the grapes sourced across Central Greece, this floral bottle-fermented wine saw zero dosage so is very dry. There’s a bit of depth and although still young (as in firm and steely), it seems to be good value and good quality too. £26.50, imported by Southern Wine Roads.

Papagiannakos Winery Old Vines 2024 is from PGI Markopoulo, and is also made from Savatiano. If you don’t know Savatiano you’ve probably tasted it, as it is a major variety in Retsina. This means it is one of Greece’s most widely planted grapes. One of its attributes is supposed to be its low acidity, though how that works with the sparkling wine above, I don’t know? This still wine is nevertheless attractive, as in fruity, mineral, and has a nice mouthfeel. I quite liked it and for only £18 it would be worth trying a bottle. Imported by Boutinot.

Assyrtiko 2024 from the same estate is PGI Attiki. This is the region around Athens which we know more commonly as Attica. If you want to try Assyrtiko that is quite different to Santorini Assyrtiko, have a sniff of this. Orange blossom and lime citrus with some herbs. Less intensely mineral, but still textured. £20, also from Boutinot.

Gaia Winery Moschofilero 2024 takes us into the Pelopponese, and to the PGI of that name. Gaia is well known in the UK, and their Notios blend was on show. It may have been the first Greek wine I bought in the UK, back in that first wave of Greek wine introduced by Oddbins in the (was it?) late 1990s. Their main wineries are on Santorini, and in the appellation of Nemea, in the Eastern Peloponnese. This varietal Moschofilero is from the latter, of course. It is fermented with indigenous yeasts and rocks only 12% abv. It’s savoury and food-friendly and well-priced if it is on the shelf at £25-£26. Another wine from Hallgarten and Novum.

Ktima Dio Ipsi Dialogos 2024 is an interesting blend of Syrah and Agiorgitiko in equal proportions. Agiorgitiko is the great red grape of Nemea, one that shows potential up until now mostly not fully realised. This wine, however, comes from the northeast of the Peloponnese. Aged in oak, it is savoury but also fruit-forward, and with a bit of bottle age it showed here nicely. The importer, Cava Spiliadis UK, has the 2020 vintage for £27, but I can’t vouch for that vintage.

Mega Spileo Estate Assyrtiko 2022 is from the PGI of Achaia (still in the Peloponnese). A slightly cheaper Malagousia was shown, but I preferred this Assyrtiko. It had a more complex bouquet, citrus but also pineapple. The palate is dry with some texture and it is refreshing. About £16, imported by Agora Greek Delicacies.

Novus Winery (Peloponnese, imp Eclectic Wines)

Optimum 2023 is from the PDO (appellation) of Mantinia, in the Central Peloponnese, near to Tripoli. It’s a white varietal Moschofilero from a single vineyard, old vines. It has a nice peachy flavour, good mouthfeel and nice length. The fruit is juicy and the stone fruit texture grounds the wine but doesn’t dominate it. £25.

Acquarella 2024 was the only Rosé I tasted and I thought it was really good, like the white from Novus. I heard other appreciative noises too. A fresh and fruity bouquet translates to the palate. Not too much acidity. A bit of orange citrus there. Labelled as 12.8% abv. I think this would be enjoyable in warmer weather, though you might need to hand-sell it. £20.

Rouvalis Winery (Peloponnese, imp Maltby & Greek)

Assyrtiko 2024 comes from a PGI/IGP called Slopes of Aigialeia in the north of the Peloponnese. Appellation wines here are usually Patra, but we are in the mountains (several rise above 2,000 masl), so cool climate viticulture dominates. This Assyrtiko is a nice, distinctive, rendition aged on lees from several small parcels at altitude. Well worth seeking out. £22.

Tsigello 2024 is made from the well-known local red variety, Mavrodaphne. Although the variety is the named mainstay of the Patra appellation (Mavrodaphne of Patras), here we are once more in PGI territory (Aigialeia, in those mountains). The wine is dry and earthy with an interesting profile – fruity but also savoury. There’s a bit of texture and tannin but not too much for a 2024. It is made in amphora, which you might well guess. £23. Both of these wines from Maltby & Greek are worth a punt.

Semeli Estate Nemea Reserve 2022 comes from one of Greece’s seminal estates, founded in 1979, and obviously named after Handel’s finest opera-oratorio (only joking). They are up in the mountains west of Corinth/Korinthos in a region, Nemea, synonymous with one of the country’s potentially finest varieties, Agiorgitiko. This is a tannic wine, built to age, but like a young Bordeaux, there’s bags of fruit and potential if it is allowed to mature. The importer is Boutinot. It is listed as “POA”, and may well be expensive, although the winery’s attractive white Moschofilero from the Mantinia appellation is only £17.

Orealios Gaea (Cephalonia, imp Maltby & Greek)

Truth 2024 is made from the Robola variety, DNA profiling confirming that it is a separate variety from the NE Italian autochthone, Ribolla, as once thought. Cephalonia is the largest of the islands set in the Ionian Sea to the east of the mainland and the Peloponnese. Until recently it may have been better known for the portrayal of its wartime occupation in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières than for its wine. This organic Ribola is clean, fresh and mineral, hailing from the island’s highest vineyards. At £19.50 it is pretty good value.

San Gerasimo 2024 is also Robola, and the same price as the wine above. Both are 12.5% abv and both are from the Robola of Kephalonia appellation (PDO). This version seems slightly more mineral and less fruity. It is clean, with a little texture and more salinity. There’s definitely a rocky island set in a warm blue sea vibe. Take your pick between the two. Both are fascinating yet tasty wines. There is no technical information to differentiate them.

Venetsanos Winery (Santorini, imp Cava Spilidis UK)

Assyrtiko 2024 is labelled “Santorini” which is surely the best-known appellation for white wine in the whole of Greece. One can ponder the reasons why only one Santorini producer appeared at the tasting. This varietal Assyrtiko was fully in character, saline, clean and fresh with lemon citrus and a dry herbal note. It showed surprising hints of complexity in a wine so young, so it should age.

Nykteri 2023 shows Assyrtiko (95%) in a blend with a little Athiri and Aidani. The profile is very similar. Perhaps this is a touch more savoury. My slight preference was for the 100% Assyrtiko for its salinity and mineral texture on a clean palate, but either would do me.

However, take a look at the prices. RRP £40.50 for the varietal and £44.25 for the blend. That’s Santorini for you. Superb wines, but you will find plenty of Assyrtiko from other regions if these are too steep for your wallet.

Paros Farming Community (Paros, imp Woodwinters)

Paros sits in the middle of the Aegean, part of the Cyclades, north of Santorini and just west of Naxos. This cooperative, also known by the acronym SEIRADI, has been going for a hundred years. They cannot, however, be accused of being old-fashioned as this is a modern co-op in all respects. As on Santorini, vines are often grown low to the ground to protect them from high winds. Those vines are the local varieties, Monemvasia and Mandilaria.

Cuvée Topos White 2023 is 100% Monemvasia, a variety presumably named after the small ancient town on a promontory on the eastern finger of the Peloponnese, and which is well worth a few days of your time in my humble opinion. Just 3,800 bottles made. The nose starts out a little lactic (unusual) but the palate is savoury and dry, and clean. Almost feels a hint of some Swiss Chasselas, that kind of vibe. Dried herbs but with salty seawater here, perhaps.

Cuvée Topos Red 2022 blends 55% of the white variety, Monemvasia, with 45% of the red Mandilaria. The result is a lighter-style red with 12.6% alcohol. Again, the initial nose seemed a little lactic, but a shake and a swirl allowed fruit (raspberry and cherry) and pepper to come through. There are broad (ie not harsh) tannins underlying the fruit.

Both wines have a RRP of £26.

Idaia Winery (Crete, importer Hallgarten and Novum)

Ocean 2024 is made from a Cretan variety I am not sure I know, Thrapsathiri. Once only found blended with Vilana, it is now prized for its drought-resistant qualities. It’s also a late-ripener. Here, it combines minerality and elegance on the palate with a nice aromatic bouquet. Nice texture too, and another nice wine I would buy at the listed £22.50. To be honest, Crete is making some superb wines now, and I was surprised not to see more at the tasting.

So there, all done. I make that 31 wines, and I thought it better to paint a broad-brush selection than focus on just a few wines. If the best here are somewhat subsumed in a larger selection, it would have been unfair to exclude the rest to focus only on the very best.

In all, as I said at the beginning, 64 wines were on show. I’m not sure whether anyone tasted them all, and I’ll be surprised if anyone writes about them all. I had been eagerly awaiting this tasting and whilst I’m not saying these wines are the best thing since sliced Jura, they did deliver plenty of interest and not a little excitement. Now it’s up to the wine shops to, as one Brighton wine retailer might say, “get involved” with Greece.

Posted in Artisan Wines, Greek Wine, Wine, Wine Agencies, Wine Tastings | Tagged Alpha Estate Macedonia, Assyrtiko, Chateau Nico Lazaridi, Costa Lazaridi, Foundi Estate Naoussa, Gaia Winery Peloponnese, Greek Wines in Edinburgh 2026, Idaia Winery Crete, Karamitros Winery Moi Je M'En Fous, Ktima Dio Ipsi Dialogos 2024, Ktima Gerovassiliou Macedonia, Ktima Kir Yianni, Ktima Pavlidis Thema 2025, Ktima Voyatzi Proposis 2024, Latipes 2024 Malagouzia 2024, Mandilaria Grape, Mega Spileo Estate Achaia, Monemvasia Grape, Moschofilero Grape, Nikolou Winery Botanic Sparkling Savatiano 2022, Novas Winery Peloponnese, Orealios Gaea Cephalonia, Papagiannakos Winery Old Vines Savatiano, Paros Farming Community Cooperative, Rouvalis Winery Assyrtiko and Mavrodaphne, SEIRADI Paros, Semeli Estate Nemea Peloponnese, Tasting Greek Wines in Edinburgh, Theopetra Estate Limniona 2022, Thrapsathiri Grape on Crete, Topos Red and White Wines, Venetsanos Winery Santorini, Wine, Wines of Greece, Wines of Greece Highlights Tasting Edinburgh 2026, Xinomavro | Leave a comment

Holiday Wines in Lymington, January 2026

Posted on 03/02/2026 by dccrossley

I couldn’t leave Hampshire without writing about all the wines we drank on our long weekend away, and there were many. As always, plenty of variety, and I would say we did pretty well to put this many away over four nights.

I want to say something about Lymington. This seaside Georgian town is somewhere that some people I know couldn’t wait to leave when they were younger, and it has become a kind of dormitory for the rich and elderly who spend their grandchildren’s inheritance on nearly impossible-to-sell retirement flats or eye-wateringly expensive care homes. However, it does have a lot going for it for the casual visitor. A pleasant ambience is bolstered by the excellent Saturday market in the main street, which does have the feel of a French market.

The New Forest is great for walking and cycling, as is Lymington Sea Wall, which traverses the edge of a wetland nature reserve usually packed with bird life. Getting over to the Isle of Wight is easy via the Lymington Ferry to Yarmouth (half an hour, cheaper as a foot passenger), or if you want a shorter trip, the Hurst Castle ferry runs from Keyhaven. For other exercise activities try the Seawater Baths, or cycle hire from Figgures (Henderson Court, off the High Street).

Food lovers have so many options in and around the Forest, from Lime Wood (Angela Hartnett is the proprietor) near Lyndhurst and an outpost of The Pig near Brockenhurst, to the wonderful The Gun Inn at Keyhaven. The Gun has been an inn since the 1600s and is now owned by Chris and Kitty Cecil-Wright, Kitty being perhaps known to some readers as the daughter of wine writer Hugh Johnson. That’s about half of the good places to eat. We also found a new restaurant.

The High Street Kitchen (68 High Street, Lymington) was excellent, and had a big advantage of being a five-minute walk from the Airbnb we stayed in. This was probably just as well as we rolled out at ten o’clock having drunk a few bottles. You will see them below, along with a piece of turbot good enough to satisfy this particular turbot fan. This is also a restaurant capable of satisfying an ardent T-bone steak lover and equally, with notice, a vegan guest. I also enjoyed a partridge starter and a prune and Armagnac tart for dessert.

We stayed in the Airbnb owned by The Solent Cellar, and it’s right above the shop. Very comfortable, warm and a location which could not be bettered. There’s a parking space if you drive down, a precious thing in Lymington, and it means you can stick some wine in the boot from downstairs. Travelling by train, I merely selected some bottles and had a box delivered the day after we got home. There’s always so much here that I want…need to buy.

Here’s a link to the flat on Airbnb.

Anyway, onto the wines…

On arrival, after a day on three trains, we managed to knock back a perfect bottle of Jura. Bas de la Chaux 2022 is a Côtes du Jura Chardonnay from Jean-Luc Mouillard. Based at Mantry, west of Poligny, you might recognise this as Etoile territory, and in fact I’ve bought this producer’s L’Etoile before. Mouillard isn’t one of the sexy young natural wine names (though his son Mathieu might become one), but the estate has been organic since 2020 and quietly makes some tasty wines. This Chardonnay hit the spot perfectly, and costs £28 at Solent Cellar. It’s made with 12 months in oak, ouillé (topped up), and shows a balanced 13.5% abv.

Lymington has a good fish & chip shop, down the bottom end of the High Street hill, on the left. We were not up for cooking, and also needed an early night, so a half bottle of Fino en Rama Peña del Águila, Bodegas César Florido at Chipiona served us perfectly (15% abv). I’m sure you know what it tastes like, fresh and saline, with a bit of “chalky” texture and a bit of body too. This might have been the last bottle from the shop. It’s obviously unfined and unfiltered, but it is not hard to imagine that its salty taste is because the cellar in which the solera is housed is a mere 25 metres from the Atlantic. I hope they are on top of their coastal erosion maps!

Next up, a couple of wines drunk with Tim Phillips (Charlie Herring Wines) after a day of vineyard visits. I’m glad I had been (mostly) spitting, though the B58 Wines Vin de Paille stayed down, I can tell you. First, the wonderful Bourgogne Aligoté “Plantation 1902” 2019, Alice and Olivier De Moor. As Jamie Goode said on his list of top Chablis producers, for De Moor “drink anything you can get”. They are equally masters of Aligoté, and as a fan of this variety, the “Plantation 1902” is nowadays the finest I know, though it has the odd rival. In some ways this behaves almost like fine Chardonnay. A natural wine made from extremely old vines, it has citrus freshness, wet pebble mouthfeel and a salty/savoury finish. Rather magical. From Les Caves de Pyrene.

Château Latour 1958 Pauillac – what can I say? I did say to Tim that whatever it tastes like it would be a wonderful experience. The fact that it tasted great immediately on opening was just a bonus, and the decision to decant was the right one (certainly lots of sediment). The best thing was experiencing this wine evolve in the glass over a half-hour, pretty much all it took for three of us to finish the bottle. It began smoky, then the fruit appeared, bags of it, after which there was more bonfire and leaf litter.

No indication of alcohol content appeared on the label (Tim guessed around 11%), though the merchant neck label was still there (Eschenauer). 1958 never had the kudos of 1959, but so often fine Bordeaux from a lesser (so-called) vintage does deliver. I once drank a beautiful Haut-Brion 1984 (not a vintage anyone raved about) which was similarly good. A reminder of how sophisticated Bordeaux used to be pre-Parkerisation, both fruity and savoury, moving from one to the other in the glass, and both gentle but strong.

Saturday Night’s Alright for Drinking, to mess with one of Elton’s finest. This was our trip to The High Street Kitchen. I should say that we arranged BYO. If I were to make one suggestion to the team there, I think maybe a few more middle-end wines on the list, but at a moderately affordable level. The food is amazingly good here though.

For a pre-restaurant aperitif we drank the first of two bottles from Champagne Marie-Courtin. This is Dominique Moreau’s natural wine domaine at Polisot on the Côte des Bar. Eloquence is a vintage (here 2018) special cuvée made from 100% Chardonnay emanating from a very tiny parcel. Brut Nature (zero dosage), it is dry and very mineral. It somehow combines Chardonnay generosity with a tautness that must be wound up in the minerality. Even young, it is complex. Peter Liem has called it “one of the most exciting Champagnes being made in the Aube today”. £90 at The Solent Cellar, via Les Caves de Pyrene.

Over at The High Street Kitchen we tucked into our second Marie Courtin of the night, but this was Dominique’s “Le Blanc du Tremble” 2018 Coteaux Champenois. This is a rare still wine made from 100% Pinot Noir vinified in amphora. Both biodynamic, and a natural wine, this is one of the finest still white wines from the Aube I have tasted. It sees zero added sulphur and its stone fruit and lemon flavours seem really expressive right now. The acids have softened a little, adding complexity, but it still hints at the wound minerality that it has when young. Les Caves de Pyrene once more imports, though my bottle came from the much–lamented Littlewine online shop, my Covid-era lifesaver. Expect to pay between £65 to £70 for a newer vintage these days.

Second-up with dinner, Cabernet Sauvignon Cyril Henschke 1990, Henschke (Eden Valley). I don’t often get to drink Henschke wines these days, but they are surely one of the finest Australian producers. Based at Kyneton in South Australia’s Eden Valley, Stephen and Prue Henschke made this winery what it is today, arguably still the finest medium-sized producer in the country, but the wines of Henschke go back to 1868 and the famous Hill of Grace vineyard (a wine I have never tried, unfortunately).

This wine (it actually contains 5% Merlot along with the Cab), comes from just over three hectares on sandy loam, picked as three parcels and fermented in open-top vats. Ageing was in French Nevers hogsheads and American oak for 18 months. Blackcurrant and a perfumed violet bouquet with notes of wood and leaf litter, now smooth, elegant, complex and majestic on the palate. I think Liberty Wines now bring in Henschke to the UK.

La Bota de Fino 135, Equipo Navazos is I think the most recent release, which I’d not tried before. It comes from the bodega of Chano Aragón at Chiclana. This is a mature Fino with real salty Atlantic influence. It had the lightest of filtering so it is pretty zippy but there’s a chalky texture to soften it a little. Served cold, it has bags of freshness, but as it warms in the glass, we get greater complexity and richness coming through. Superb.

Something very different next, two wines from Cheverny that The Solent Cellar is considering bringing in. I’ve no idea of the price points they will hit but I enjoyed both and kind of hope they do…their Loire imports are growing and I have no doubt that The Loire is one of the best regions in France for quality versus value for money. The wines in question were from Maxime Cadoux’s Domaine des Brissettes at Saint-Claude-de-Diray, which is in the northeastern part of the Cheverny appellation, not far from Blois, but on the opposite (left) bank of the Loire.

Cheverny Rouge 2023 is 80% Pinot Noir with 20% Gamay. It’s fruity, for sure, but a bit more than just simple. The vines are over 30 years old. I’d call it bright, with a bit of a stony texture. Cheverny Blanc 2024 is a blend again, but this time 80% Sauvignon Blanc with 20% Chardonnay. It’s a fresh Sauvignon Blanc with added depth, from both the Chardonnay and once more, some 30-year-old vines. I do like decent Sancerre, but some of the other Loire appellations making Sauvignon Blanc can churn out wines with which I lose interest quickly (though certainly not all). Here, however, the Chardonnay definitely adds something. If these are imported by Solent Cellar, and cost let’s say around £20, I’m likely to buy a few.

Finally, a treat, and thankfully my brave acceptance of a glass did not cause me too many problems on the way home…which involved just under an hour’s walk, though a beautiful walk it was. Jean-Marc Roulot obviously makes stunning wines at every level (even his Bourgogne Rouge tops quite a few Meursaults I’ve tried, different as it is), but did you know he makes spirits? His liqueurs are legendary, if you are able to find any. Well, I’ve drunk his “Abricot” a few times before, but this was my introduction to the Liqueur de Mirabelle.

The brandy is distilled on the estate, and the result is very fine and pure. In fact, I could talk about the plum fruit, their stones and the floral elements which make up this liqueur but it is the elegant purity that makes it so good, so fine. The alcohol is 25%, which seems just enough to hit the spot and leave you standing (despite that Fino aperitif and a couple of bottles of wine on a Sunday lunchtime) for the long walk back to our Airbnb.

We did sensibly decide to have an alcohol-free night before the long train journey home but no heads were harmed in the making of this short trip south.

Posted in Artisan Wines, Bordeaux Wine, Champagne, Fine Wine, Restaurants, Wine Agencies, Wine and Food, Wine Merchants, Wine Shops, Wine Tourism, Wine Travel | Tagged Bodegas César Florido Fino en Rama, Bourgogne Aligoté Plantation 1902, Champagne Marie Courtin Côte de Bars, Château Latour 1958, Domaine des Brissettes Cheverny, Domaine Jean-Luc Mouillard Mantry, Henschke Cyril Henschke 1990, High Street Kitchen Lymington, Jean-Marc Roulot Liqueur de Mirabelle, Jura Chardonnay, La Bota de Fino 135 Equipo Navazos, Lymington, Lymington Airbnb Recommendation, Lymington January 2026, Marie-Courtin Eloquence 2018, Marie-Courtin Le Blanc du Tremble 2018, Maxime Cadoux Cheverny, Solent Cellar Lymington, Wine Trips New Forest | Leave a comment

Hampshire Wines 3 – Tim Phillips (Charlie Herring Wines)

Posted on 29/01/2026 by dccrossley

This is the third vineyard and winery visit of the day from our long weekend down in Hampshire. You may remember, if you read the two preceding articles, that I spent this day of visits with Tim Phillips (Charlie Herring Wines), and it was at his place we naturally ended up. This article may be the shortest of the three. It wasn’t a time for extensive tasting, but I did manage to visit the vineyard to talk about what he’s planning there, and to visit the winery, close to which I saw where he’s planning to introduce some goats later in the year.

Tim is English Wine’s great thinker. Another great thinker, though someone I’ve yet to meet, is the young winemaker Sophie Evans, who has started out with a small vineyard in Kent. I vaguely remembered a quote from her in Honey Spencer’s Natural Wine No Drama (Pavilion 2024), so I looked it up. She talked about visiting Tim, who she’d heard about, because he was “the only person I knew of in the UK using essential oils like lavender to slow the development of unwanted fungal diseases…”.

Again, after reading the Second Edition of Jamie Goode’s Regenerative Viticulture (2025), I get to see so many of the ideas expressed in that book put into practice. In fact, Tim is doing so much “regeneration”, not just in the vineyard but on the land surrounding the winery (much of it being rewilded before the goats arrive), that it is all too much to list. Hopefully the photos I took will tell at bit of the story.

The best part about the day was that, for once, I spent most of it with Tim. In fact, we managed to get together socially in the evening, a rare thing these days. I think we are on the same wavelength about most things, and it was good to have a chance to chat about things other than wine (not least, Mull, and innovative design). But we did talk about wine an awful lot.

At Tim’s walled vineyard his chickens add more than a nice visual touch to a stroll in the vines. They fertilize them too. I can’t remember how much weight in chicken shit Tim reckons they poop out year round, but it sounded impressive. At the moment three structures take up room in the vines. One is the shed, which now has a green roof. Second, the Victorian greenhouse, which you can just see in the photo to the right. That provides Tim and his family with an impressive amount of produce. The third is the chicken coop.

This is going to be moved elsewhere, giving Tim room for seven or eight more rows of vines, and guess what Tim plans to plant? Ever the experimenter, he wants to put in Souvignier Gris, the Piwi variety that you may have read about in my previous article, on Guillaume Lagger, at Wharie Wines. Tim did say that it was nice having another experimental winemaker nearby to chat to, and bounce ideas off. To be honest, when I look at Jamie Goode’s “Regenerative Toolkit” (see his book mentioned above), I think there were only two things listed that Tim isn’t currently doing, Piwis and biochar (unless Tim is doing biochar and hasn’t mentioned it).

Tim has plenty of trees already, although in the adjoining orchard, not inter-planted among the rows, but he’s been wanting a nice hedge for a long time. Finally it is done. It will fill out over the years, but this beautifully laid boundary hedge is another piece in the biodiversity jigsaw.

Tim’s winery sits on some wonderful land. It seems remote, although in truth it is merely hidden from the habitation around it. I had never really realised how close it is to Lymington as the crow flies, merely because to drive there is fiddly. It’s where his family live now, and he’s been creating a lovely environment there. He began with a large pond behind the winery, big enough to paddle a coracle if you wanted, but it’s also a lure for wildlife. Not just the small creatures. Next to it is a stand of trees which Tim copices, and deer are frequent visitors. It’s amazing how the pond and its surroundings have matured over the years I’ve known it, and it is a model, albeit on a smaller scale, for what we are attempting ourselves (though I’m not expecting deer, despite their ubiquity around here).

Further from the house and winery is a field which was once pretty much a normal field. It now has scrub, and fruit trees, suitably protected for when the goats arrive. Their shed is the perfect structure for the solar panels which provide electricity for the house and winery. Tim isn’t just a winemaker. He makes wonderful cider, and he’s very happy to admit that the cashflow this gives him is very useful for a man who likes to release his wines with proper age.

Here are a few photos of the winery. It is small, and at first it looks cramped. However, Tim has it very well organised, as you’d expect if you know him. It is just nice to show you where the artisan gems he crafts come into being. Check out his use of glass bonbons (he has several), the pupitres, and his egg, which has a great layer of yeast cells on the top. The large cask (bottom right) is a Stockinger, which Tim is naturally excited about. The wines he made in South Africa (same photo, boxed) are quite different to what he’s doing now, yet they are probably no less exciting, and available.

My only regret when visiting Tim is how little wine he has to sell, though there is always something. I did manage to bring home two very different bottles, but I am still wishing I could have got some cider (Perfect Strangers), and I was annoyed that I forgot to buy some from The Solent Cellar to stick in the box I had sent up to arrive after we got home. Still, we shall hopefully be down in the summer.

Spending time with Tim is always inspiring. Hopefully those making wine who I know have visited him will agree with me. I would urge anyone in wine who can get to see him to do so. Listen, and then drink his wines (as I did last night). You just have to remember, as this small article might hint at, that he’s always a very busy man.

Posted in Artisan Cider, Artisan Wines, English Wine, Natural Wine, Regenerative Viticulture, Sparkling Wine, Vineyard Visits and Tastings, Wine | Tagged Charlie Herring Wines, Chickens in the Vines, English Natural Wine, Hampshire Wine, Regenerative Viticulture in England, Tim Phillips winemaker, Wine, Winemaker Rewilding Projects, winery | Leave a comment

Hampshire Wines 2 – Guillaume Lagger and the Wharie Vineyard

Posted on 27/01/2026 by dccrossley

Guillaume Lagger is originally from Switzerland, studying at Switzerland’s best known wine university, the Haut Ecole de Viticulture et Oenologie, Changins, based on the edge of Nyon, the attractive small town in the Vaud on the north shore of the lake, between Geneva and Lausanne.

Guillaume worked at the Domaine Château du Crest. This large 25-hectare domaine is at Jussy, not far from Annemasse. Here we are on the south side of Lac Léman, just east of the city, in that part of the Geneva AOC known as Entre Arve et Lac.

However, Guillaume is quoted thus (on the web site of B58 Wines, for whom he is winemaker and oenologist): “I want to cultivate vines to their full potential by keeping my intervention to a strict minimum”. That is what Guillaume is doing at his own Wharie Vineyard at The Wharie Experience, on a small farm his wife’s family owns near Sway in Hampshire.

Guillaume has 1.8 ha of vines currently planted, plus 1 ha of fruit trees on the 6.5 ha farm. It’s a beautiful piece of land, bucolic not being too strong a description. Fields surrounded by mature trees, birdlife in abundance and a view of nearby Sway Tower from the crest of the vineyard. The vines are planted on free-draining gravels, avoiding the clays which are too soft and retain too much water. The vines went into the ground in May 2021, and the orchard was planted over the following two years.

Vines and Young Fruit Trees at Wharie Vineyard

Nine varieties are planted in all, and they are all PIWI varieties (pilzwilderstandsfähig to give their full name). These are the new hybrids bred mostly in Switzerland. They are all, by law, at least 85% vinifera, but they are crossed and bred for a resistance to fungal diseases, especially the two mildews (downy and powdery) which can blight grapes in a wet spring and summer, of which England still has many. For this, they use the genetic advantages of more resistant American and Asian species.

I’m repeating what I said about these grapes very recently in my review of Jamie Goode’s Regenerative Viticulture (2^nd edn), but the whole reason for developing these varieties is to minimise, or even do without completely, the systemic and contact chemical sprays used to combat these diseases. The result, you hope, is that you get more sustainable viticulture through less poisoning and compaction of the soil, plus other environmental benefits (the sprays kill birds and insects, all beneficial, except where the birds eat your all grapes).

The nine varieties Guillaume has planted are (white varieties) Solaris, Muscaris, Sauvignac, Souvignier Gris and Soyhières, and (red varieties) Divico, Pinotine, Cabaret Noir (formerly known as Cabernet Noir), and Cal 128-a (known by number as it does not yet have a name).

The first harvest at Wharie was 2025, and Guillaume hopes to bottle around 8,000 units, including some contract-purchased fruit. He’s also making still wine for Chilcomb Valley Wines, near Winchester.

First the obligatory vineyard tour. This was instructive. The two main blocks of vines are on higher ground, sloping gently. They appeared well-drained. Where the fruit trees are planted, on the clay, the ground was quite moist, and boggy in places. We went down on the train so I was without wellies, but I got away with it…much of the New Forest is quite badly flooded but Wharie is raised just enough to avoid any pooling.

The vines are trellised on a Geneva Double Curtain (which I was seriously pleased to have identified to Guillaume). This takes the fruiting canes higher off the ground, to avoid the damp, and also spreads them sideways to get more light exposure. GDC (as it is known) used to be more popular than it is now in the UK. It had one advantage, being that it takes fewer man-hours work in the vines, but it can crop too high for many.

Stephen Skelton in The Wines of Great Britain (Infinite Ideas, now Académie du Vin Library, 2019) says that “I have never felt that the quality of fruit coming from GDC-trained vines was as good as that coming from VSP Guyot vines”, but he admits that may well be down to pruning, shoot positioning and leaf removal issues.

Guillaume has adapted his own GDC to a more classic (less widely spaced) planting density. That may keep yields per vine in check. He mows between the vines every other row, in rotation, during the growing season. He said that in five years he has only sprayed once, that with yeast extract (which could underline the effective resistance of the Piwis). He has never used any copper. His low intervention approach extends to sulphur, where he uses 30-40 mg/l at bottling, but he says he is currently using mostly commercial yeasts. Hopefully good yeast colonies will become established, but he is trying indigenous yeasts too, as you will see below. This is what he’s working towards.

In the Tiny Winery. As at B58 Guillaume likes his François Frères

We started off by tasting samples from barrel or tank of the 2025 wines, before sampling bottles from previous vintages, made if you remember from the bought-in fruit. I tried a lot of wines, so my notes will be very brief.

First the aforementioned Chilcomb wines. A Chardonnay which saw 60% oak-aged wine with 40% in stainless steel was picked on 10 October last year, and reached 13% abv. It had nice fresh apple and citrus notes. Another Chardonnay, from 2024, is to be used as base wine for a sparkler. That came in at just 9% so Guillaume decided to chaptalize half a percent. It should eventually reach 11%. It had a flinty reduction.

Of the Wharie wines we tried the Souvignier Gris first. It had seen one month in oak and this was actually fermented with wild yeasts, as was the very characterful Muscaris, a variety perhaps a bit out there for all but the obsessive oenophile like me. I liked it. It is a bit different, enough so to spark my interest. Solaris had six days on skins, which have given it a striking colour. Then a 2024 Bacchus orange wine, one barrel made. No grapefruit here, something even slightly savoury, but light and fresh.

The most extreme of the whites, though I agree with Guillaume that it is also the most exciting, is the Sauvignon Soyhières (aka Ravel Blanc). This is one of Valentin Blattner’s crossings from the Jura Canton (Switzerland), where this esteemed breeder has his nursery and lab. As well as resistance to fungal diseases it also withstands frosts quite well. Guillaume gave it 14 days on skins and it has an orange/gold colour. It is apparently not easy to grow, with lots of side shoots and many small bunches, but this displays the variety’s noted aromatics (baked spicy apple and honey) with a savoury palate. Again, some might find it a bit strange, others (like me) fascinating.

Shelf Needs Restocking

Finally, from the barrel, some later-harvested Pinot Noir, which Guillaume bought a ton of from Essex last November. He thought long and hard about it, because he’d already cleaned down the winery post-harvest. He made a good call, I think. This has potential, as you’d expect from a 2025 PN from Essex. It has good colour, plenty of freshness in the fruit, but also some nice tannins.

Now to the bottles. Guillaume is developing his entry level, blends priced accordingly, sub-£20. The white blends Chardonnay, Bacchus and Ortega, picking up a faint hint of colour from a barrel previously filled with Divico. The Rosé 2023 is mostly purchased Rondo and costs just £13.50. There’s a Rosé Reserve at £16.50 with an extra year in bottle (2022).

Guillaume Grabbing a Sample

Orion, an early German Piwi cross from the 1960s, between Optima and Vidal Blanc, was purchased from a vineyard at Bradford-on-Avon. It only hits 10% abv, but it is fresh and zippy. Ortega is much better known in the UK (Westwell makes a benchmark bottling). This one saw 100% oak, half on skins. It makes a nice summer wine with a savoury twist.

Guillaume’s best seller is his Bacchus Orange (here 2023). It’s a style Guillaume sticks to (if you read my previous article on B58 Wines, where he is the oenologist). Quite impactful…I mean that as a positive. I’ve said before, Bacchus can be a little one-dimensional, if admittedly super refreshing, but skin contact does have the potential to elevate it.

Some bottled reds to Finish. “The Red” 2023 is the third entry-level wine, after the white and pink, 85% Cabaret Noir (sic) with Rondo and Pinot Noir. There’s a 100% Cabaret Noir cuvée from the warmer 2022, which is a step up. It saw 100% new oak and shows blueberry and beetroot notes with nettle. Quite Genevois in style, perhaps? Fresh now, it will age, for sure. Certainly a grape variety with UK potential.

The last bottle was called Chou Chen No 1. It’s an apple and honey wine, Somerset apples blended with heather honey from nearby Hordle. Some was aged in an Islay whisky barrel, some in a Bourbon cask. I’m sure I got a little smoke and iodine from the Islay cask. It’s very moreish, and a nice note to end on.

Chou Chen – Sweet Apple & Honey

What Guillaume Lagger is doing here is early days, selling wine in bottle from bought-in fruit whilst waiting for wine from his own grapes to be ready to bottle. As to the latter, Wharie is one of the few places you can come (by appointment) to try a wide range of Piwi varieties in the UK. Guillaume is a very thoughtful winemaker, and what he is doing, like B58 but in a different way, is very interesting indeed.

I do wish this young guy every success, as he seems very much on top of both his winemaking and the viticulture here. When the orchard comes on stream he will, like Tim Phillips, who we shall visit next, have a supplement to his income. As Tim once said to me, it’s the cashflow from the cider that enables me to make the wines I want to make.

The Wharie Experience is on South Sway Lane near Sway. You can check them out via www.wharie.co.uk. The web site lists stockists, currently only local. They offer vineyard tours and tastings (cheese and wine), for a fee. Call 07517 492769. I travelled down with only a small suitcase, so I wasn’t able to head home with any bottles, but as with B58 Wines, I hope at some point I can get to buy some 2025s to taste from bottle later this year. Certainly the Cabaret Noir, Muscaris and the Soyhières might top my list, but the Bacchus Orange if I don’t get the one Guillaume makes at B58.

Posted in Artisan Wines, Grape Varieties, Natural Wine, Piwi Varieties, Vineyard Visits and Tastings, Wine | Tagged Cabaret Noir, Chilcomb Valley Wines Chardonnay, Chou Chen apple and honey, Guillaume Lagger The Wharie Experience, Hampshire Wine Tasting, Hampshire Wines, Hybrid Vines Hampshire, Muscaris Cuvée, Piwi Grapes in England, Soyhières Grape Variety, Wharie Wines Bacchus Orange 2023, Wharie Wines Hampshire, Wharie Wines Pinot Noir from Essex, Wine, Wine Tasting, winery | Leave a comment

Hampshire Wines 1 – B58 Wines Beaulieu

Posted on 25/01/2026 by dccrossley

I’ve just been down to Hampshire, and would you know it, it has gone and generated a whole raft of articles. With my first tasting of the year coming up in ten days, and some delicious wines being drunk in January, I need to crack on. Three articles detail vineyard visits. These vineyards are all a little different. Article three will cover a visit to Tim Phillips’ Charlie Herring Wines, which you probably know I try to visit at least once a year, but I had a day out with Tim visiting B58 Wines and Wharie Vineyard.

Both offer a very interesting take on English viticulture. B58 grows vines in polytunnels, but do not look away yet. What they are doing is very interesting indeed, especially when you see, and taste as I did, the varieties they have in the ground. The winemaker at B58 is Swiss national Guillaume Lagger, and at his own Wharie Vineyard he has only PIWI varieties planted.

Having just read and reviewed the second edition of Jamie Goode’s “Regenerative Viticulture” (see previous article published 22 January), everything these producers are doing is well worth exploring. I shall talk about B58 Wines here, followed by articles about Guillaume and Tim. My Hampshire visit will end with some “holiday wines”, because we drank many, some of which you will definitely enjoy reading about.

B58 Wines is at East Boldre in the New Forest National Park. They would sanely be called Beaulieu Wines, Beaulieu Vineyard, or some variation, because it is located on the ancient Beaulieu Estate near to the village of Beaulieu. However, there is already a Beaulieu Vineyard in Rutherford, California, so I’m guessing no one wanted to upset any lawyers, or maybe Sandy Booth just loves the BMW B58 engine whose straight-six turbo still powers several models more than ten years after its introduction.

For the benefit of my American audience George de Latour founded Beaulieu in Napa in 1900. The Beaulieu Estate in the New Forest was founded over 800 years earlier, after the Norman Conquest (that’s William I, not Norman Mailer), but to grant Napa fair precedence, the first vines were only planted here at Hampshire’s Beaulieu, by Baron Montagu, in 1958.

Sandy Booth is a fruit farmer. He comes from an experienced family of fruit farmers who still farm a wee bit north of me, in Fife, the UK’s finest soft fruit terroir. Sandy grows five thousand tons of strawberries a year, very fine strawberries (and raspberries and asparagus too) if his customers are anything to go by. He was asked by the Beaulieu estate to take over management of their vineyard, which probably needed some TLC.

Now, the UK is full of interesting small vineyards, some big, some small, some farming conventionally, and some making natural wines. Sandy likes wine, but he’s happy to admit he’s a red wine man. He wondered whether he could bring his deep knowledge and expertise in fruit growing to viticulture, and he has done.

What you get at B58 is an operation centred around polytunnels, but that is only really the start. Sandy’s soft fruit is grown in beds of coir, the fibrous outer husk of coconuts, which we doubtless all know better when woven into matting than as a growing medium. It isn’t revolutionary to use it for horticulture as well.

The setup at B58 – these are Shiraz vines

For viticulture, coir is just the initial medium in which the vines are planted. The coir sits in beds on top of the soil, so as the vines grow, very soon they are delving down into the soil. By this method, for example, they are able to grow asparagus without chemical inputs. The coir also mulches down to create a healthy soil structure. They get plenty of worms to accelerate this.

Obviously, water comes from drip irrigation, a nifty little system like they use on the fruit. They also have robots as part of that fruit technology which I was told “spray light at night to combat mildew”, which they expect to be able to apply with viticulture.

Mulched-down coir (coconut husk)

The tunnels obviously (I almost said “naturally” but if misunderstood it could make some readers choke) raise the temperature by a few degrees, and so the varieties they can grow are varieties I have not seen elsewhere in the UK. These include Grenache, Tempranillo and Syrah, although their full list also includes Bacchus, Gewurztraminer, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, plus PIWI varieties Pinotin and Cabernet Jura. They plan to put in some Cortese, Viognier and Albariño, and forgive my excitement, but they already have some Nebbiolo in the ground, if not yet producing.

We paid a visit to see the strawberry and asparagus operations. Everything was, of course, winter dormant, but impressive, especially the Spanish system of a rotating growing zone for strawberries which doubles the growing shelves and saves the backs of the pickers. Fear not, they can’t replicate that for the grapes.

Strawberry racks – since my visit a million strawberry plants have been placed on the two-tier racks in bags

In very cold weather the soil in the asparagus tents, albeit covered for now, felt warmer than outside by several degrees. At least there was more to see in the vine tunnels, the vines standing tall with the nascent fruiting canes trained quite high.

Back inside the winery we had quite an extensive tasting, myself and Tim being joined by Sandy and his son, Adam.

B58 Winery

We started with a Rosé ’24 made from Tempranillo, Grenache and Cabaret Noir. The latter is a PIWI variety, one of the famous Valentin Blattner’s creations in his Swiss nursery (in 1991), but a red variety which generally does well in the UK. It’s worth commenting on the name. It was originally called Cabernet Noir, having Cabernet Sauvignon as one vinifera parent.

Bottle sample

I know, from Jamie Goode’s Regenerative Viticulture book that the French won’t allow Piwis to be planted that have the name of a vinifera variety included. In one respect I can see the issue around confusion, but if Cabernet vinifera varieties (Sauvignon, Franc) become untenable in their most famous regions of production, then that parental link may become useful marketing. Remember that these Piwis do contain 85% of their parent’s vinifera genes in the crossing.

Beaulieu Orange 2024 was only bottled in December, but a bottle sample won a Gold Medal at the Wessex Wine Awards last year. It had sixteen days on skins. I’m finding that skin contact adds a nice extra dimension to Bacchus when practised, and more people are doing it, and this is good.

The Orange was nice, but the dry white I liked most was a Gewurztraminer. That grape makes up 100% of the Beaulieu White which is not yet bottled (we tasted a sample), but we then tasted their Gewurztraminer 2023, which was definitely evolving some personality. Quite lovely, and dry too.

Onto the Reds. B58 is the name of the entry level red wine, a blend of Shiraz, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc from 2024, coming in at 12.4% abv. Quite easy going. The B58 2023 has had fifteen months in bottle and is up at 13.5%. Some dried grapes were added, appassimento-style I guess, and it shows how a richer wine can be made from the same three varieties.

Then we got onto tasting the 2025 reds from barrel. Here it gets interesting. 2025 was a good vintage in general for English red wine, but in the tunnels the temperatures were elevated by a couple of degrees.

All of the following three wines were interesting enough that I would buy a bottle when released. We are not talking top Rioja, Châteauneuf or Côte-Rôtie, obviously, but unless you are a fundamentalist over the polytunnels, you’d find them pretty good for English renditions of these varieties.

About 2,000 litres of the 2025 Tempranillo sits in barrel. It has some tannins and good, fresh fruit. The Grenache has quite elegant, delicate fruit at the moment. The Shiraz came out of a large foudre (a lovely piece of kit from François Frères). It had quite a bit of reduction, much of which dissipated when given a ruthless shake. Underneath that initially reductive nose is another wine with the potential for lovely freshness. My own favourite on this showing of 2025 reds at this sample stage was the Tempranillo.

Tempranillo – nice colour

The last wine was a lovely surprise, and has the potential to make a big mark. It’s a Vin de Paille (2025), made from dried Gewurztraminer grapes. Ageing in oak, it probably won’t be bottled yet. It has a nice viscosity and combines good fruit with sweetness, but some balancing acidity too. I’m rather hoping they bottle it in halves because Sandy estimated that in 375ml it might cost around £22-24 but in bottle we are looking at double, so from affordable to much harder to shift. I would 100% be trying to get a half of this.

You might well dislike the idea of wine grown under plastic, finding it somehow inauthentic. I know many natural wine fundamentalists who would, and I make no judgement there. My own take is twofold. First, it is genuinely interesting for me to try grape varieties rarely seen commercially in the UK. That the wine tastes good is an even more interesting observation. Second, Guillaume Lagger, B58’s winemaker is passionate about low intervention wines. Can polytunnels have an acceptable place in English viticulture, or should we just stick to what grows in open vineyards? That, you have to decide, but when the 2025 wines are released I shall endeavour to explore that question further, from the bottle.

So, we end the first of three interesting visits on a damp, but thankfully not especially wet, January morning. After grabbing some of the dried strawberry and raspberry snacks, a sideline of Sandy’s New Forest Fruit Company, we headed off to Wharie Vineyard (or “The Wharie Experience” as it appears on Google Maps). This is the personal vineyard of the B58 Wines winemaker, Guillaume Lagger.

Alex and his dad, Sandy

Posted in Artisan Wines, English Wine, Grape Varieties, Vine Training, Viticulture, Wine | Tagged 2025 Barrel Samples at B58, B58 Beaulieu Red, B58 Wines Hampshire, English Gewurztraminer Vine de Paille, English Grenache, English Shiraz, English Tempranillo, Experimental Vineyards in Hampshire, Guillaume Lagger Winemaker B58 Wines, Sandy Booth B58 Wines, Vines in Coir Mulch, Vineyard Visits Hampshire, Wine, Wine in Polytunnels, Wine Tasting, winery | Leave a comment

David Crossley's Wide World of Wine

Clay Wine Fair 2026 (Part 2)

Clay Wine Fair 2026 (Part 1)

Recent Wines February 2026 (Part 1) #theglouthatbindsus

Recent Wines January 2026 (Part 2) #theglouthatbindsus

Recent Wines January 2026 (Part 1) #theglouthatbindsus

Wines of Greece Highlights Tasting, Edinburgh (February 2026)

Holiday Wines in Lymington, January 2026

Hampshire Wines 3 – Tim Phillips (Charlie Herring Wines)

Hampshire Wines 2 – Guillaume Lagger and the Wharie Vineyard

Hampshire Wines 1 – B58 Wines Beaulieu

Previous Posts

Top Posts & Pages

Follow Blog via Email

Top Posts & Pages

Previous Posts

Top Posts & Pages

Categories