August, that month of sunshine, holidays, outdoor dining, beach picnics…well only in part it seems, at least for most of us confined to the UK at this time. Hopefully I shall find some longer spell of warmth soon, but what I did find during August was a batch of excellent wines. Some, befitting the month, were very special too.

Sifting the wheat from the chaff, I’ve chosen fifteen wines and I will divide them into three short and sweet parts, rather than two parts which will take more of your precious time. So, in Part 1 we have a Scottish cider, a Moravian petnat, a fine English sparkling, a superb Mosel Riesling and a Sangiovese from one of my favourite Australians.

Wild Blend 2022, Fleming’s Fife Cider (Fife, Scotland)

I’ve always enjoyed the odd bottle of cider, few things being more refreshing on a hot summer’s day. They haven’t appeared so much on Wideworldofwine, excepting Tim Phillips’ “Perfect Strangers”. I suspect I shall be posting a few more ciders this year, not least after two visits to Aeble Cider Bar, also over in Fife, the county just to the north of me, over the Firth of Forth (for which see my article of 20 August 2024).

Robbie Fleming set up this micro-cider and perry operation at Leuchars in 2022, although he had already completed half-a-dozen harvests prior to becoming a small-scale commercial producer. The fruit for this “Wild Blend” came, as the label suggests, mostly from trees growing wild in fields, at the roadside and in hedgerows, in close to fifty different locations. It includes thirteen varieties of wild seedlings and crab apples, which were blended with some of Robbie’s own orchard fruit. These include eaters and cooking apples as well as traditional cider varieties.

As with natural wine, natural ciders see no additives during the process of making the cider, just as the trees are not sprayed. In this case, fermentation is with wild, naturally occurring, yeasts. When this sparkling cider is “bottle conditioned” no “dosage” of sugar is added. The result is dry, but not what you’d call bone dry, with bags of crisp apple fruit on its bouquet and palate, and plenty of tension and freshness. This was bottled in July 2023.

The similarity of these ciders to a petnat is in their drinkability, fun, and ability to quench a thirst. One difference is the alcohol content. Naturally, ciders vary in alcohol, like wine, but this bottle comes in at just 6.5% abv. This is towards the lower end of the scale, but the lightness and freshness you get, and indeed the pale colour, create a drink that is unbeatably thirst-quenching.

Robbie Fleming is fast getting a very good reputation. Since I first tasted his ciders a couple of years ago, at a Cork & Cask Winter Fair, he has now managed to sell through his production quite quickly. My bottle came from Aeble Cider in Anstruther (£11.50) but they had sold out when I visited last Saturday. Cork & Cask seem to have a single bottle of his “Le Marriage” for £16. That is drier and possibly more complex than “Wild Blend”. Hopefully they will both restock soon.

Pétillant Naturel André Rosé 2022, Syfany Winery (Moravia, Czechia)

This is my third bottle from this new (to me) producer from Southern Moravia, and perhaps my favourite of the three (though I certainly enjoyed the previous two, a Welschriesling and a still red from the same grape variety we have here). André is a pretty successful Moravian crossing between Blaufränkisch and Saint-Laurent from the 1960s.

This petnat is pink and, like the red, it is very easy to glug down. Colour-wise, it is a darker colour than many Rosé wines, but its low, 11.5%, alcohol makes it refreshing, simple but satisfying. You get bags of red fruits, but with a pleasing slightly sour edge that gives off a slight rhubarb flavour to go along with the cranberry and raspberry of the wine’s main body.

It comes with a little bit of grip as well. The bead is fine, and you can taste the carbon dioxide prickle even when the bubbles all look dissolved. This naturally adds to the wine’s refreshing quality. I’d say it’s simple but super-tasty. Syfany Wines are all very good value, most of the still wines sneaking in under £20.

This came from importer Basket Press Wines. I forget what I paid. I see that Winekraft (Edinburgh) has it on the shelf for £29. Forest Wines (Walthamstow, London E17) appears to list it for only £20. Maybe one of those prices is an error? Definitely recommended to add to your petnat list. Czechia, judging by what Basket Press usually lists, is a brilliant source for petnats and I do urge everyone to try them, especially those made by Petr Koráb, and including this one from Syfany too.

Cuvée Marraine Pooks Seyval Blanc Brut 2016, Breaky Bottom (Sussex, England)

I suppose I don’t need to say a lot about Peter Hall’s Breaky Bottom any more. It will be clear to regular readers that I revere these wines. They are pretty easily available, and the only reason they may not be more widely known is that this is a small artisan operation lacking (and I’m sure, not wanting) the large marketing budgets of some of the bigger players.

Part of the allure of Breaky Bottom lies in its location, nestled in a fold (Bottom) in the chalky South Downs, close to Rodmell. Most of the allure, however, lies in the wines. They somehow manage to blend technical brilliance with a soul and personality which totally dominate the winemaking. Peter makes sparkling wine (and only sparkling wine) from the “Champagne” varieties, but the other string to his bow that is Seyval Blanc has something quite unique to it.

As a hybrid, the variety was somewhat looked down upon once the trio of Chardonnay and the two Pinots began to be touted as the future of English sparkling wine. And yet this crossing made by Bertille Seyve and his son-in-law, between Seibel 5656 and Rayon d’Or (Seibel 4986), is gaining some wider recognition for its ability to combat diseases, especially mildews, in colder, wetter, climates.

So, we have Seyval Blanc (also sometimes called Seyve-Villard after its propagators) grown in New York State, Ohio, Virginia, and Oregon. Within the EU it is not allowed in AOP wines, but as I wrote in my last article, it has been planted (and “found”) in vineyards in the Jura, where those making wines labelled Vin de France can and willingly do use it, albeit currently in the vineyards of just a small number of growers. If Bacchus has become a go-to variety for still white wines for many English producers, Seyval Blanc (there is in fact also a Seyval Noir) is slowly becoming an English alternative for wine with bubbles.

Peter Hall has a head start on most others, as his vines are genuinely old. I think this makes a big difference with this variety. He first planted Seyval in the early 1970s, when he was making still wines. Tim Phillips may be curating an older vineyard, but he is just getting to grips with the neglected vines there, much work still to be done before he reaches near-perfection.

At eight years old, this 2016 cuvée from Breaky Bottom is just starting to show how magnificent this misunderstood variety can be. The high acids of youth are beginning to tone down considerably, but you never want that rapier-like thrust to disappear. What you do get is some underlying complexity, which if you try Peter’s still available 2010 Seyval, Cuvée Koizumi Yakumo, you will find amplified even further. Now, in this 2016, we have fresh lemon and apple, but that is perhaps confit Sicilian lemon, and apple with a biscuit crumble and a small spoon of clotted cream. Whatever you find yourself, this is undoubtedly remarkably fine for a hybrid grape variety.

Each Breaky Bottom release is named after a friend or family member. Of course, the Halls have some famous friends and family. This cuvée is named after Peter’s French godmother (“marraine” means godmother) who was a journalist, author and cookery correspondent, writing in The Tatler and The Evening Standard under the name Helen Burke. This cuvée also won a Gold Medal at the International Wine Challenge.

I always purchase Breaky Bottom from Butlers Wine Cellar in East Brighton. They are friends with Peter and his wife and almost always have a very wide selection. Currently they don’t list a full range, but as prices lag behind other sources right now, I suggest taking a swift peek at what they do have. Corney & Barrow is the UK agent. Waitrose sells Breaky Bottom in some local stores, and through their online wine department too. They tend to sell the latest releases, and list two at £36/bottle.

Krettnacher Euchariusberg Riesling Kabinett Alte Reben 2018, Hofgut Falkenstein (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany)

Over the past several years Hofgut Falkenstein has become one of the wider Mosel’s most sought-after estates. Even their regular bottlings sell out quickly, and are sometimes on allocation on the UK market. Erich Weber and his son Johannes are responsible for creating this fine estate at Konz Niedermennig, the Euchariusberg vineyard rising above the village of Konz not far from where the Saar joins the Mosel, on the road to Trier.

Erich started out in 1985. The family now farms around nine hectares organically on soils of predominantly grey slate with quartz and sandstone. Everything is, of course, hand harvested, with a gravity-fed winery using naturally occurring yeasts to start a spontaneous fermentation. Wines are all lees-aged, usually in large oak (here, 1,000-litre fuders).

This is the old vine version of the Euchariusberg Kabinett, made from vines aged between 75-to-80 years old in a part of the vineyard called “Gross Schock”. With 9% alcohol there is slightly less sugar than in some Kabinetts, and there is certainly plenty of steely acidity. After six years that acidity has toned down a little, and it is now super-refreshing. I would suggest that this wine is thrilling now, but it will probably mature in a classical sense with more time in bottle.

What I found was candied lime peel and ginger spice accompanying grapefruit on the bouquet. The palate has a lot going on. Definitely red fruits (in Riesling), a sort of damson-plum flavour. The fruit was ripe when picked, for sure. But minerality is what you really notice, softly grainy and rock-hard to a degree. So, this wine won’t be at its technical best for 5-10 years I suppose, yet for me it was brilliant enough right now.

This bottle came through Solent Cellar (Lymington). They list some excellent German wines right now, but they don’t seem to have any Falkenstein left. But do inquire. They may have bought some bottles at the Trier Auction? Feral Art & Vin in Bordeaux is always a good source for Falkenstein, with whom Russell has a good relationship.

“La Chiave” 2018, Castagna (Beechworth, Victoria, Australia)

Beechworth is in the far Northeast of the state of Victoria, just south of Rutherglen. Here we are up towards the border with New South Wales, and in fact it’s a fairly short hop from Castagna to the M31 Melbourne to Sydney motorway. This part of Australia avoided the ravages of phylloxera, and Rutherglen, a hot region, became famous for its wonderful fortified Muscats and “Tokays”.

Beechworth is somewhat cooler, and has begun to gain a reputation for mostly Chardonnay and Shiraz/Syrah. However, the region has a host of less-sung varieties, not least with Sorrenberg making very possibly Australia’s best Gamay, plus a number of other varieties being grown by Julian Castagna and his sons near Wangaratta (including a rather good Chenin which I tasted this year). Beechworth in general is a region to watch. In addition to the two producers already mentioned, and let’s not forget Giaconda too, among others, there are now several producers from outside the region eyeing the possibilities here.

If Castagna is perhaps best known for that Aussie classic from a cooler climate, Syrah seasoned with a little Viognier (their “Genesis” Syrah), this cuvée with its Italian name shows the family’s interest in the Tuscan variety, Sangiovese. La Chiave is 100% Sangiovese, which shows the vibrancy of cool-climate fruit and genuine expressive depth and ripeness. It is indeed a very happy marriage between Tuscany and Victoria. There is undoubtedly structure here, and clearly this will age for many years.

I suspect few will allow it the full expression that time will give it. Right now, it is freshly herbal, that unmistakable Italian herb mix despite the Australian terroir and climate. You also get sandalwood, lavender and even a hint of chilli. Of course, you can take for granted the cherry fruit, here, as I have said, as ripe as you’d expect.

I enjoyed tasting this at Real Wine 2024, but it is only when you sit down with a bottle that a wine like this truly shines, as it did here despite its undoubted youth. Mike Bennie, Australian wine judge, joint-owner of P+V Wines in Sydney and all-round Aussie vino supremo said of the 2019 vintage, “triumphant”. That is the vibe of La Chiave. Contact importer Les Caves de Pyrene for availability. Solent Cellar has this for £60, one of three Castagna lines, including the famous Genesis Syrah and Ingenue (Viognier).