Graft Wine held their Edinburgh Autumn Tasting on 15^th October, at Hawksmoor, conveniently in the centre of the city. It has been a long time since I tasted Graft’s portfolio and the ten producers on taste showcased a whole bunch of wines I’d never tried before. Graft Wine was a pre-Covid amalgamation between Red Squirrel and The Knotted Vine, both of whom sold some exceptional wines. Over time a lot of new producers have been introduced and the wines on show appear to me to be almost totally absent from retail shelves in Edinburgh.

I would suggest that any wine shop reading this should contemplate what I’ve written. Grab a few of these and you will have some wines that are different to the bottles, albeit amazing wines, that I see in quite a number of stores. I have included a “My Choice” note for each of the wines I’d definitely buy if I spotted them on your shelf, along with my much-debated Wine of the Day. However, there’s a whole host more I’d seriously consider, including either of the two Jura wines that don’t get a “my choice” mention, and all of the Ravensworth wines.

Most of the wines below are at minimum organic and also described as vegan.

The notes below will be brief. If any wines pique your interest, get in touch with Graft through Rob Woodhead (account manager) via robert@graftwine.co.uk , or Jenny Meutelet (Marketing) via hello@graftwine.co.uk .

CASA MONTE PÍO (Rias Baixas, Spain)

This is a small estate in the Salnès Valley (Rias Baixas) established in 1979 and run by Pablo Martinez. Albariño and Mencia are the varieties here. We had two of the former on show, Raixera 2023, raised in stainless steel, and the Monte Pío cuvée itself, made in wood. We get a clean and fresh wine of precision contrasting with a rounder wine with juicy fruit. The wood is a third new, and so the Monte Pío might benefit from further age. Whether by auto suggestion (salnès meaning salt), both wines display a nice salinity typical of much of Rias Baixas.

However, very good as those two white wines are, the wine that captured my imagination was actually the red. Benquerido 2021 is made from 100% Mencia. With relatively low alcohol (11.5%), this had a mineral freshness but smooth fruit. So many Mencia wines are over-extracted and too powerful these days, but this was lovely. I would buy this, for sure, so it gets a “My Choice” award. A gem!

CORVERS-KAUTER (Rheingau, Germany)

The name derives from the two families who have been making wine around Rudesheim, now with vineyards at Oestrich and Winkel, for a hundred years. Dr Matthias and Brigitte Corvers have 12 hectares on steep slopes above the Rhîne, farming organically and making vegan-friendly Riesling and Pinot Noir (mostly), with some very rare Röter Riesling.

Secco Rosé 2023 is a cheapish sparkling wine made from 90% Pinot Noir with a little Cabernet Sauvignon. It has CO2 added so it has a bit of a sekt vibe, but it’s soft, fun, and should be cheap.

Of two Rieslings shown R3 2023 (Rheingau Riesling Remastered) is off clay, loess and quartz across all three villages already mentioned. At 12.5% abv it is dry but has rounded fruit and a softness. Plump Riesling but still fresh. Schwerelos Kabinett 2023 is also 100% Riesling and at 11% abv not too shy for a Kabi, and is livelier than R3 with tension and a touch of minerality. This one gets a “My Choice”.

That said, their Rheingau Pinot Noir 2022 is a pale, cherry-scented wine with a touch of texture, tannin and smooth fruit. Quite accomplished in a field of increasingly fine German “Pinot”.

DOMAINE DES CARLINES (Jura, France)

We have a new name and a welcome addition to those Jura domaines available in the UK. I subscribe to Wink Lorch’s mantra of try anything and give every wine, no matter how they are produced, a fair crack of the whip.

Patrick Ligeron acquired vines at Menétru-le-Vignoble, just below Château-Châlon in 2015, and I think Covid got in the way of my coming across these, though I have seen the label to the first wine somewhere before. Eleven hectares are farmed organically, and the wines are also described as vegan. There’s the whole range of Jura varieties, including 3 ha of Savagnin in the Château-Châlon appellation itself, but here Graft presented just three grapes in four wines.

La Vouivre 2021 is a blend of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Savagnin from four plots, which sees 12-15 months in used Burgundy barrels before blending for a further three months. All these are unfined and unfiltered. The Chardonnay element is just so nice, but the blended proportions are spot on too. Lovely mouthfeel, a well-conceived blend. Despite being the cheapest, by a whisker, of the wines on show, this is another “My Choice” bottle.

The next two wines separate the two varieties. La Trémoulette 2019 (Chardonnay) comes from one of the plots used for the above blend. It sees a very similar élèvage, with good depth of fruit and a certain plumpness (14% abv). En Beaumont 2021 is 100% Savagnin from within the Château-Châlon AOC. It’s a tiny half-hectare plot with 40-y-o hillside vines on grey marl. The barrels are topped-up (ouillé). Smooth Savagnin with a bit of grip and texture. The most expensive wine here, it should age well.

Last, but by no means least, is the 2022 Poulsard. Destemmed and macerated at six degrees for ten days, fermentation lasted thirteen days with daily pump-overs. Aged in large 500-litre oak for eight months, it was then blended into stainless steel where it rested for three months before bottling. Pale, but with bite. I’m a sucker for a characterful Poulsard, so this also gets a “My Choice” sticker.

DOMAINE THIBERT (Burgundy, France)

The Thibert family has been in and around Fuissé since 1668. Christophe Thibert came back in 1991 to work the vines his parents had planted in 1967. His sister joined him in 1999. They make a range of local appellation wines, all of the below being 100% Chardonnay, with a freshness typical of the region, and the nuanced terroir from where the wines derive.

Macon-Fuissé 2019 is our entry point. The grapes are on volcanic soils with some clay-limestone. This is mostly aged in stainless steel, 10% in oak, for a little under a year. It is clean and fruity in a medium to lighter style. For an extra £3-£4 you get the Saint-Véran 2018, off Triassic clays with mineral deposits, and Bajocian limestone. Slightly more mineral, this also has an extra level of salinity.

The village Pouilly-Vinzelles « Les Longeays » 2018 sees eleven months in barrel and then a similar spell in stainless steel. It has a bit more weight and signs of nascent complexity, more so than the previous two wines. The weight may be in part due to the clay composition of the soils.

Top wine here is the Pouilly-Fuissé 2018 “Les Cras”. I have to hold my hand up here. I was first to taste this (and almost all the wines on show) and I failed to spot a corked bottle. In my defence it was faint and building. Still, judging the new bottle, I think this wine definitely needs age as it was quite tight. Also, rounder and fatter than the other three, but also much more expensive, as Fuissé has become. I’m sure it will become very fine.

HOLDER (Western Cape & Stellenbosch, South Africa)

Reg Holder worked at Denheim until he decided to go it alone in 2017 in collaboration with viticulturist Etienne Terreblanche. They first created the Pinotage tasted below, adding the Chenin in 2020. Their reputation has soared and these wines are often amongst the best in the country. The Wabi Sabi range was created as a kind of entry level selection, inexpensive, yet the top wines are hardly what one would call expensive and they represent excellent value to my mind.

Wabi Sabi gives us a dry farmed Chenin Blanc (2024) from Western Cape and a Cinsault-Grenache blend (2023) from Swartland. Both well made, to my mind they are obvious restaurant choices. The labels are a bit dull, not wines to draw the eye on a shelf. A lot of producers of similarly inexpensive wines are quite savvy about the labels, as I’m sure you know.

For me, the estate wines are a good step up. Dorper Chenin Blanc 2022 (“My Choice”) comes from two sites in the Bottelary Hills. Whole bunch pressed, fermentation is with the lees in used French oak, some barrels being fermented at lower temperatures. Ageing is nine months on lees, just 2,400 bottles produced.

Dorper Pinotage 2022 does live up to its reputation. Not a variety I’ve been much excited by in the past, this is grippy and characterful, and very good. The fruit comes from two granite sites, one in the Helderberg Mountains and the other up in the Simonsberg. Open-top fermenters with regular punch-downs, then aged twelve months in used French oak of various sizes. 2,800 bottles made.

LAS PEDRERAS (Sierra de Gredos, Spain)

Gredos, west of Madrid, has become a star wine region in little more than twenty-or-so years thanks to a couple of very famous producers. The sweet spot here is Grenache, although this high-altitude vineyard (rising to 1,200 masl) is not a one-trick pony. Bárbara Requero and her husband, Guzmán Sánchez began with 3 ha in the 2021 vintage, so the wines below are only from their second harvest. The results are impressive, definitely a couple to watch.

Burbujas de Arquitón 2022 is dry-farmed, organic Garnacha using vines over 70 years old grown at just over 900 masl in the village of Navatalgordo. Using the ancestral method, they make a delicious sparkling Rosé with 18 months lees ageing. Garnacha can make very good sparkling wine, and trust me, this is very nice. Unlike many petnats, it boasts 13% alcohol, but don’t let that put you off. It’s still very fresh.

Los Linarejos 2022 is 94% Albillo Real with 6% Palomino Fino. The vines at Cebreros are 100 years old. The grapes undergo a short maceration before pressing. Ageing is seven months in oak, then a tiny quantity of Sherry is added. This is dry with extract and minerality, and, I would say, superb (if potentially pricey).

Arquitón Rosé 2022 is Garnacha from Navatalgordo and Burgohondo aged only six months in a mix of 500l and 225l casks. Just 2,100 bottles were made. It has a grapefruit freshness and seems to combine both an impressive structure with sheer enjoyability.

Los Arroyuelos 2022 is a bigger (14%)Garnacha, from close to the winery. 70-year-old vines are planted between 900 and 1,170 masl on granite and sand. Each of three parcels is fermented separately (some destemmed bunches, some whole clusters), with ageing in a mix of used French oak and stainless steel. I loved the wine’s “meaty” nature and it has that amazing bright colour of fine Garnacha/Grenache.

All of the wines from Las Pedreras would get my vote. It will be interesting to see how the critics view them in a few years.

LÉO CHARRUAU (Loire, France)

Léo manages 6.5 ha of his family’s Domaine du Valbrun at Parnay, south of the Loire near Saumur. He farms organically, using an array of wood, amphora and concrete vats, combining tradition with the desire to innovate and experiment. Four of his wines were on taste.

First up a petnat called Bullula, a non-vintage Rosé made from Cabernet Franc. Picked, fermented, then six months in bottle on lees with 16g/l residual sugar. Light, fresh and simple but certainly tasty. There’s a nice savoury bite on the finish to contrast with the reddish fruit.

The white wine is a 2022 Chenin Blanc, from 80-year-old vines in the Clos du Moulin. Fermented in large oak (500- and 600-litre casks), it ages for around a year in these vessels before bottling with minimal added sulphur. It is clean, with apple freshness, greengage on the palate and a hint of white peach.

The first of the Cabernet Franc reds is Bois Pivain Saumur-Champigny 2023. The vines, on clay, silica and tuffeau sit among alternate rows sown with wild flowers. Fermentation takes three weeks with gentle pumping over. Ageing is in stainless steel for eight months. Minimal sulphur. It has a classic Loire Cabernet Franc nose, mostly deeper red fruit with some tannin and a tart finish. An easy-going red which you can cool down in summer (though 13% abv).

Les Pouges Saumur-Champigny 2022 is what I presume is a flagship red. Soils are similar to the above, as is the winemaking. I’m not sure what makes this a slightly darker, deeper, red wine and sweeter fruit on the nose comes through. Nice length, young but tasty/sappy now and with potential.

MAISON ALTISOLIS Burgundy, France)

Vincent Quenard may be a name familiar to some readers, but in a different context. Savoie has a few winemakers with this surname, and Vincent indeed left that region to study at Beaune. He decided to stay and began Altisolis in 2023. He doesn’t yet own vines but he has a tiny cellar in Savigny-lès-Beaune, making a tiny amount of low-intervention wines with grapes from the southern end of the Côte de Beaune.

His Aligoté, like his other two wines here, uses grapes harvested in 2022. I said tiny production and there were just 900 bottles of this. It is fresh but not too acidic. Of course, as someone who likes this variety, I’ve tasted finer, and more complex (for what is considered a simple variety by the old folks), but this is still pretty good.

Maranges 2022 shows how far this small appellation based on three villages at the very farthest south of the Côte has come since its creation in 1989. Soils mix clay and limestone. Whole clusters are given a three-week maceration and then a year in old Burgundy barrels. It’s simple, but nice and juicy. It’s a shame Burgundy is so expensive now. I’d be happy to pay £30 for this but its trade price is not much less than that. A shame as it’s a very tasty wine.

Santenay 2022 comes from a lieu-dit called Les Saunières which sits next to one of Santenay’s 1er Crus. Another tiny 900-bottle cuvée, this has a little extra weight and is slightly more serious. Santenay was once “poor man’s Burgundy”, back in the 1980s. Now its stature has grown, especially in the hands of producers like Andrew and Emma Nielsen (Le Grappin). This is worth its price in Burgundy terms, and here I will say that at least it will still be cheaper than the villages like Volnay and Pommard, to the north in the Côte de Beaune.

MIRA DO Ó/SOU (Dão, Alentejo and Vinho Verde)

Nuno Mira do Ó makes well known wines all over Portugal. His Druida range aims to reflect the druidic past of the country. Sou is a separate project with Quinta de Santiago in Vinho Verde country. Druida Branco 2022 is 100% Encruzado fermented in oak (20% new), aged on lees for ten months. It’s a clean and fresh white Dão with zippy acids, yet that new oak element gives a nice bit of weight and structure.

Vidente Tinto 2022 comes from 30-y-o vines at São João de Lourosa, at 500 masl on the right bank of the Dão River. A blend of five red varieties, it ferments slowly in stainless steel at 28 Degrees with minimal extraction. Aged ten months in oak, but goes through malo in stainless steel. Very nice. It’s just that the next two wines are (IMHO) even better, even though the white is not cheap.

Sou Alvarinho 2021 is 100% Alvarinho from Quinta de Santiago’s 7.5ha of vines on the alluvial terraces at Monção. Quite a complex upbringing in different sized vats, some with malo, some not, then nine months on lees. The result is clean and precise, but that does not describe a sensational white wine. “My Choice”.

The red is hardly less good. Sou Dissidente 2021 is a blend of red and white grapes, Alvarinho, Alvarelhão, Vinhão, Pedral, Borraçal and Caínho. The grapes are fermented in tanks, 40% whole bunches with stems, aged 11 months in a mix of tank and old French oak. It has a lovely brick colour, a vibrant red with a savoury edge. It also gets a “My Choice”. The white pips it as perhaps the better wine, just, but this red is considerably cheaper by about £9 (trade price, so even more so retail).

RAVENSWORTH (NSW, Australia)

Bryan and Jocelyn Martin work with Bryan’s brother David to farm around Murrumbateman, starting out in 2001. Murrumbateman is close to Canberra, though it is within New South Wales, not the ACT. Bryan worked at Clonakilla and has brought that degree of excellence with him. This quote sums up his philosophy: “While we haven’t set up a tent in the natural wines campsite, we are very interested in using no chemicals or additives in the process, a gentle touch, just letting our fruit, along with the microflora, do their job…”

Ravensworth do make a rather good Shiraz/Viognier blend in the fashion of that great Clonakilla version, but they also produce a number of what the Australians call “alternative varieties” (and I shall be coming back to the subject of alt varieties in Australia at some point towards the end of the year). So, in an Australian context, we have some more than just interesting wines here. This is a fine producer, definitely on my list for a visit guys, when I’m next visiting family within striking distance (I shall be tapping the Graft folks for an intro).

Fiano & Trebbiano 2022 blends a grape that has become super-fashionable in Australia, even though little is produced, with one that is unfashionable there, as it is in most of its native Tuscany. The split is 70% Fiano from the Hilltops Region (NSW), 30% Trebbiano grown in the Swan Valley (WA). The grapes all had a little skin contact, none more than twelve hours, before fermenting in a mix of concrete, oak and ceramic vessels. The wine spent six months on lees before blending and bottling. Very juicy, fresh and balanced.

Ravensworth Pinot Gris 2022 is up next. Pinot Gris has done so well in Australia that it is no longer considered an Alt Variety (at least by those who run the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show). The grapes are from Long Rail Gulley in Murrumbateman and Freeman Vineyard in Prunevale (Hilltops). The fruit sees four weeks on skins so the wine is a pale pink, smoky on the nose, definitely showing the extraction on the palate. Nice acids though, and nice bite. I’d definitely grab one for myself…

But…Hilltops Nebbiolo 2021, here we have something of great interest. I’m quite a fan of Aussie Neb, but I’d not tasted this, or if I have, I don’t remember. Whole berries are fermented in oak for six months, then ageing in foudres lasts another two years. It has a lovely floral scent, the fruit being plump but it’s not a big wine despite 13.5% abv. It has an elegance, even at this youthful stage. This could be my “Wine of the Day”, so lovely is it. It’s certainly the wine I’d have liked longer to assess at home. Australian Nebbiolo (aside from a few cheaper versions) is always worth trying, although this won’t be cheap.

That leaves little room for the Shiraz + Viognier 2021, which I guess is the Ravensworth Classic. Vines are 25-y-o, planted at 650 masl on decomposed granite and red clay. Spontaneous fermentation in 10hl tanks, three-to-six weeks on skins. Ageing is in used and new 228 litre French barrique for one year, then another year in 27hl foudre. It’s an impressive wine, and one with a soul. It should age at least a decade and it’s cheaper than Clonakilla. Probably.

So, a great tasting with some very good wines, a few of which are truly exceptional. Actually, come to think of it, more than a few. Definitely you should consider Graft for a bit of something different, that others don’t have on the shelf or wine list. I was very happy indeed that I was able to make this tasting, and to sample this importer’s wines for the first time since the Covid lockdowns.