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Rhone
01 July 2015

Rhone 2013

Our first Rhone 2013s have started to arrive in bond – these Cotes du Rhones Villages, Crozes Hermitages, St Perays and more are perfect for drinking now and many are immediately available. The more serious and age-worthy wines will start to arrive in the Autumn.
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France
24 June 2015

A Revelation from the Roussillon

We had heard good things about Clos des Fees. The name Robert Parker, though he himself no longer writes the reviews on his website, has that power – suddenly after years quietly making wine an estate can be catapulted from obscurity to celebrity. We were due to be in the region with a bit of time to spare, and though it was a bank holiday in France, the enigmatic Herve Bizuel agreed to receive us. Time was short, and as we pulled up to the winery near Rivesaltes we felt… apprehensive. A grouping of large, new buildings rose up in front of us, alien and strange in their provincial surroundings. We had visions of endless rows of brand new barrels inside, of showy modern wines, big price tags. We went inside to the reception area, freshly kitted out to receive tourists. It being a bank holiday in France, it was deserted. We gingerly walked around, calling for anyone who might be there. After a not-insignificant amount of time Herve Bizuel walked down the stairs.
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Spain
19 June 2015

Madeira through the ages

Madeira is one of the few places left on earth where there remains a treasure trove of historic wine, and Pereira d’Oliveira is without a doubt the best source. Founded in 1820, the estate has always been owned and run by the same family, meaning that whether you open a bottle from 1850 or 1993, the wine inside was made by a d’Oliveira. The wines have spent their whole lives slowly maturing in cask, only bottled when required. We have access to a wide range of vintages straight from the cellars near Funchal going back to 1850, all these vintages and all the different varietals maintain the house style of power, structure, richness and a unique tangy freshness. It allows for an incredibly exciting opportunity to not only own a piece of history, but to experience this astoundingly complex wine in a variety of different stages of life.
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Australia
16 June 2015

Rise of Australia

When the first wave of Australian wines hit the UK market in the 1980s, they were met with an abundant amount of success from the marketplace who welcomed their super-ripe and uncomplicated style as well as their even easier to understand labels which clearly identified the grape varietal (in English, no less!). With a highly favourable exchange rate and the reliability of trusted and easily identifiable “critter” brands, like Yellow Tail, wine buyers pushed their Australian suppliers for large volumes at lowest possible prices. The flaw in this cheap and cheerful strategy of selling bulk Australian wine was recognised in 2001 when a combination of factors began to deteriorate the strength of the Australian wine export market; including a massive over-production of bulk wine and the increase in value of the Australian dollar.
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Rhone
11 June 2015

Guided tasting from Vincent Avril of Clos des Papes

This week we had the pleasure of hosting Vincent Avril, current proprietor of the illustrious family owned Chateauneuf property Clos des Papes. The estate hardly needs much introduction, with a deserving reputation built on the focus of each generation in producing the best single expression of the multitude of terroirs under their stewardship. Indeed Vincent is right in stressing the importance of the scattered nature of their vineyard holdings. These allow him access to the fruit of twenty-four distinct plots; each with their own character from their particular cocktail of galet stones, gravel, sand, clay and limestone.
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How to Drink Well
04 June 2015

What we're drinking this Summer…

We are now entering that time that we look forward to all winter… leaving work when it is still light out, long, lazy evenings sitting outside with friends, eating asparagus, strawberries and steaks on the barbie. It’s summer, and we are just so glad it's back. Just as what’s on the menu changes at this time of year, so too should the wine in your glass. Fresh, vibrant, wines that show off the charms of warm-weather cuisine. Here is what we are especially enjoying at the moment…
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Spirits
21 May 2015

The Connoisseurs' Spirit Collection

One of the most exciting things about the trade of wine & spirits is the capacity of these products to age. A collector may gather wines and spirits for many reasons, but one of them is for the history. Wine, when bottled is a living, breathing thing which changes and develops over time, rarely successful in living beyond 20 years except in the most exceptional cases. With brandy and whisky however, the liquid in the bottle is like a snapshot in history. Virtually unchanged since the day the golden spirit flowed from the cask into the bottle, the oldest and rarest bottlings offer a rare glimpse into the past.
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Austria
13 May 2015

An Ode to the Wachau

Glorious, wondrous wine, desert-island wine, a cooling drink on a hot day, or a complex, contemplative masterpiece to rival any of the finest Burgundies, or a rich, botrytis-tinged, sticky-sweet number to end a banquet. Madeline Mehalko - Senior Buyer - champions Austrian wines as amongst the finest in the world.
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