New Zealand Sauvignon with a fine wine twist, from Brancott Estate
Our culinary expert recommends wines to serve with the barbecue this summer.
Starting at just £11.50 a bottle in bond, the new releases of Bins 28, 150, 407 and 389 offer real value for money and, show immense potential for ageing - if you can resist.
With many lines of rare or old fine wines - and all available by the bottle.
Recent tastings have proved that it is, without a shadow of a doubt, a spectacular vintage and set to be seen as one of the great Port vintages of all time, creating wines of intensity, power and quite surprising poise.
Very lifted, fragrant Cabernet fruit, with wild violets and crushed hedgerow berries. Concentrated in the vineyard rather than the winery, with very fine tannins and crunchy acidity - it has an almost Burgundian feel. Very graceful, complex and long, this proves that there is still value to be found in Bordeaux.
£84 per Case
12 bottles In Bond
A fragrant nose with peach and honeydew melon. The palate is at once ripe with juicy white stone fruits and layers of sun-warmed hay and toasted almond. A deliciously balanced wine and the epitome of summer.
Only £90 per Case
12 bottles In Bond
From just £50 per month, the Fine Wine Plan builds a personally-tailored fine wine collection. Subscribe to the Fine Wine Plan and leave everything else to us, guaranteeing a growing collection of quality wines.
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En Primeur is a French wine trade term for wine which is sold prior to being bottled, for delivery at a future date.
Why buy En Primeur?
Bringing wine in from other merchants couldn't be easier! We provide drink dates, tasting notes and market values where available. What's more, for sealed original cases, there is no RHD charge.
While much of the wine sold today is designed for immediate drinking, a number of wines improve with age. Storing in a professional wine storage facility is ideal for serious collectors and investors alike.
Low Storage ChargesFrom just £9.36 per case per year, our leading fine wine storage service offers:
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As one of the largest managers of
private customer reserves in the UK, we are ideally placed to operate a flourishing trading service for fine
wines.
Selling wines on our customers' behalf for many years, our proactive wine-trading team are fully attuned to market conditions, and ready to provide up-to-the-minute advice about the wines in your cellar.
Wine Shop and Fine Wine Merchant > Wine Knowledge > En Primeur > Burgundy 2007
We believe that this is a must-buy vintage for any lover of fine wine, so we have drawn together the best and most exciting wines from this extraordinary vintage. The white wines are delicious, fresh and vibrant, and mark a return to a more elegant and refined style than the previous two vintages have offered. The reds wines are marked by beautiful pure, berry flavours, and are instantly appealing.
The growing season got off to an excellent start, with April and much of May being warm and sunny. Cool, overcast skies dominated much of July and August, a feature that slowed down growth to the point where, by mid-August growers, were in genuine fear of experiencing a vintage of mediocre standards. Then, around the 22nd August, the wind changed direction and began to blow from the north, bringing with it sunny skies, which kick-started the maturation of the berries. Ripening during the end of August and early September was rapid and potential alcohol rose rapidly.
Although the blessing of this fine spell of weather transformed the potential of the vintage, this is only part of the key to success in the 2007 vintage. Conditions during the summer prompted vigorous vine growth and it was crucial to dedicate as much as double the usual level of vineyard work during this period to keep excessive vegetation in check. Those who chose to follow this course of action have reaped the rewards in the resultant high quality of their wines; those who decided against this investment have, by and large, made weaker wines. The other crucial factor (applicable to the reds) was to take the risk of delaying the harvest to allow fruit to reach optimum ripeness.
Taken as a whole, quality was diverse. But generalised comments hide the detail, the news that the premier division estates have achieved good to very good results, a consensus of opinion shared by professional tasters. There are hidden gems in 2007, wines which will give genuine pleasure to consumers who appreciate red burgundy with pure, natural, elegant characteristics.
From our first tasting in Chassagne-Montrachet to the last in Corton-Charlemagne, we were hugely impressed with the white wines. Following two vintages of overt, broad whites, the region has produced wines with a more focussed, nervy, taut character; a style of Chardonnay that will appeal greatly to consumers in the UK. Indeed the phrase goût anglais was frequently used by vignerons during our visits.
From bourgogne blanc to grand cru, 2007 white burgundies display a stunningly pure character and an elegance and sophistication normally found only in wines of extremely high standard. Premier and grand cru cuvées from the leading estates display electrifying presence and precision.
The finest Pinots are marked by their gloriously pure aromas and juicy, ultra-fruity flavours. Whilst not as consistent as the region’s white wines, the majority of the Côte d’Or’s top addresses have made seductively fruity and, at their very best, luscious and generously rich wines. By and large, tannins are ripe and without aggression, allowing the delicious fruit, so obvious at this stage, to dominate both scents and flavours.
We were particularly pleased with many of the wines we tasted in the Côte de Nuits: from Nuits-St-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin and taking in Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée and Morey-St-Denis along the way. We have prioritised these communes in our purchasing list in 2007. However, throughout our visits it was apparent that there is no regular pattern in the wines from cellar to cellar, even within the same village. It really is a question of who dedicated time in the vineyards and who correctly called the harvest.
Established in 1854, Lay & wheeler is an international fine wine merchant specialising in en primeur, in bond and fine wine sales, cellerage and broking.
Lay & Wheeler Limited,
Holton Park,
Holton St Mary,
Suffolk CO7 6NN.
Email: sales@laywheeler.com
Tel: 01473 313 300
+44 (0)1473 313 300 (Monday to Friday 8:30am - 5:30pm) | sales@laywheeler.com
Registered company 5730318 (England) | VAT Registration No: GB 637 0806 39 | Data Protection Register: Z7042967
Contact Address: Lay & Wheeler Limited, Holton Park, Holton St Mary, Suffolk CO7 6NN
Registered Address: Lay & Wheeler Limited, Majestic House, Otterspool Way, Watford, WD25 8WW, England
