New World Wines

This Chenin Blanc is different from all the other Chenins in our range: it comes from Elgin, one of the coolest grape-growing regions in South Africa. Planted on Bokkeveld Shale - not all that dissimilar to the soils of the Loire’s Savennières - this is as cool and precise as South African Chenin gets.

The 2020 Raaigras is a beautiful Grenache, coming from just twelve long rows of the vineyard in front of the estate, planted in 1952, making it the oldest Grenache in the Cape. It’s delicate and floral on the nose, with a power and intensity that builds over the palate. There’s stunning freshness here, and a long and mineral finish. Beautifully done.

Dubbed the ‘baby Grange’, this blend of Cabernet and Shiraz creates a massive complexity of dark fruit flavours, with large oak barrels adding delicate sweet spice flavours. Mouthwatering acidity and the tannins are approachable and silky. The perfect way to enjoy what makes Penfolds so celebrated.

While the Epilogue Syrah gets all the plaudits, the Sons of Sugarland is arguably just as good, if not even better. It sees no oak, and is a peppery, suave, floral expression of the grape. With bottlings like this, it's no wonder that Reenen is regarded as one of the Cape's Syrah masters.

The 2021 Romance Pinot Noir opens with subtle spiced notes of pepper and dried wild herbs. There is a delicate undertone of earth which goes on to reveal floral notes of violets and rose petal. The palate is bright and focused with sinewy, delicate tannins and a lift of pomegranate and wild cherry on the finish.

A very bold style of New World Cabernet Sauvignon, the Bin 707 is fermented and matured in new American oak barrels, giving the wine powerful flavours of vanilla and coconut. Linear tannins typical of Cabernet provide the structure for long ageing.

Subtle and brooding, with wild cherry, black plum and dried herbs. There's decent structure here with linear, densely-packed tannins.

The 2019 Seña is a vibrant, ripe, yet incredibly refined red from this iconic estate. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Malbec, 15% Carmenère, and 4% Petit Verdot, it shows refinement of tannins, poise, and a long and stony finish. There’s tons of energy here, and a slightly smoky finish. This is quintessentially Chilean, but with real poise.

Torbreck's classic and traditional Barossa Shiraz. Very dark fruit profile with soy, coffee, dark chocolate and star anise. This has 2 years in 50% new French oak barriques. This drought vintage in particular is textural and grippy on the palate. This has an earthy, iron-rich feel to it, almost Hermitage-esque.

The most improved wine in Franco’s cellar, this is a stunner in 2020. It’s a blend of 44% Grenache Noir, 31% Cinsault, and 25% Syrah, and is floral, lifted, and so light on its feet. There’s such perfume here, as well as incredible energy. Just such a delight.

This single vineyard expression of Merlot from Steve and Jill Matthiasson is elegant and perfectly balanced, with dark cherry notes and a herbal lift. The Ashes & Diamonds vineyard was planted on silty loam and alluvial gravel in the 1980s and the mature vines are now showing a stunnning purity of fruit. This is an absolute delight.

A vineyard planted in 1996, this is the last bushvine Stellenbosch Syrah left. Dense and saline, this has a lot of tannin, but also the fruit inteensity to balance. This will age brilliantly.

This is an ageing Cabernet Franc bushvine on the edge of the Paarl appellation, that’s grown on weathered sandstone and decomposed granite soil. It’s a very silky, elegant expression, with lots of top floral notes, and then very silky tannins, too.

A classic Aussie blend of 73% Shiraz and 27% Cabernet. Rich and concentrated with savoury spice character from long maturation in old large-format oak.

Fellom Ranch sits on the Santa Clara Valley side of the Santa Cruz Mountains on the famed Monte Bello Ridge at an elevation of 2,200 feet. This Cabernet has an intense nose of blackberries and cassis rounded out with with smoke, graphite, tobacco, and dried herbs. Whole cluster fermentation adds a savoury freshness that makes this wine so distinctive.

The Kweekamp Chardonnay comes from a high altitude vineyard, planted on limestone. Limestone, the top pick for Chardonnay plantations throughout the world, is a rarity in the Cape, and this is a tense, mineral yet pleasingly open expression of the grape, with a lovely lick of oak spice. Just five barrels are made. In recent years, as well as being bottled by the Bruwers, this vineyard is also around one third of the blend of Capensis, South Africa’s most expensive Chardonnay, made by Jackson Family Wines.

Cathy Corison stuck to her guns throughout the Parker era, keeping her wines elegant, charming and more medium-bodied than her neighbours, with capacity to age for decades. The price, relative to estates nearby, also remains restrained. It has sunny, ripe black fruit with a crunchy edge, and plenty of appetising, savoury cedar and sweet tobacco. There are plenty of fine, savoury tannins, but the 2020 has an effusive generosity and softness making it very approachable at this very early stage in its development.

100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford, crafted by Steve Matthiasson. This cuvée from Ashes and Diamonds is a tribute to what they consider to be the 'golden era' of the 1960s and 1970s in Napa: great wines made by farming in a traditional way, picking at lower sugar levels for lower final alcohol, and using gentler extraction. It's from the famous George III vineyard in Rutherford. A portion of it was planted in 1896 by Mrs Thomas Rutherford herself, and later used by André Tchelistcheff to make wine for legendary Beaulieu Vineyards. The wine has that classic 'Rutherford dust' in its texture, with elegant, gourmand, savoury notes. There's pretty red fruit with red currant and red plum, as well as some darker bramble alongside layers of tobacco, dried rose petals and exotic spice.

The Dry Red is inspired by the South African reds of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. At this time, wines labelled as Cabernet Sauvignon would frequently have a considerable proportion of Cinsault, and this is an equal blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Cinsault, and is a wine built for long ageing.

Rich, soft and full-flavoured Cabernet, from vineyards all adjacent to the Rifle Range Road. They use large old oak for maturation which has softened the tannins but kept the pure Cabernet fruit at the fore.

From Kaaimansgat, from the same vineyard as Peter-Allan Finlayson's Malabel, this is a cool climate Pinot Noir that dazzles with its freshness and purity. Jessica has to battle the baboons here for the grapes, but it's well worth it: this is floral, delicate, and very long. Not the most powerful, the finish lasts an age.

Grown close to the Pacific Ocean, this a mineral driven Chardonnay with lots of salinity and chalky texture. Fresh citrus and delicate white peach fruit.

Just a few hundred bottles of this single block are produced: for Matt, it's a play thing, something that informs the rest of his winemaking. Notes of ginger and fresh grapefruits swirl from the glass of this wine, that's all about texture and purity. South Africa's best Sauvignon Blanc?

The 2020 Bosberaad is from a single vineyard on the Paardeberg, planted on granite, with just 2,000 bottles produced. This is savoury and pure, with citrus lift, delicate spice, and a long and floral finish. Utterly delicious and sure to age well, it's not to be missed.

From the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, this is a wine that shows impressive freshness and intensity. A core of dark berry fruit, with lots of spice on the nose and the palate, and fine-grained tannins that linger, it's a very classy Pinot Noir. It's a shame there's so littler.

Block 382 is a single vineyard at the top of the Klein Constantia hillside, and the 2020 is intense and pure and remarkably textured. Just a few hundred bottles are produced this: we're thrilled to be able to offer it in the UK.

Grown close to the Pacific ocean, there's plenty of mineral, saline influence here, with some crunchy red fruit notes. Spicy with herbal notes, with precise red cherry and black cherry fruit. There's a chalky feel to the tannins, and a wonderful fresh finish.

Kashy Khaledi was once Creative Director for Capitol Records, before he founded Ashes & Diamonds, where he collaborates with superstar winemakers like Diana Snowden-Seysses (of Domaine Dujac and Snowden Vineyards) and Steve Matthiasson, using fruit from fantastic California vineyards. It's Diana who makes this, the Mountain Cuvée from Bates Ranch vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This is an historic, four-generation-old ranch in the same area of the famous Ridge Monte Bello. The Cabernet grows at 2,100 ft above sea level, and the steep slopes here, along with cool breezes, keep the vines in check, and the result is a vibrant, elegant, restrained style of wine, with plenty of herbal, savoury character alongside the plump black fruit. They use a combination of American and French oak to add layers of sweet spice and cedar notes.

The 2019 is a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 23% Cabernet Franc, with 5% of it aged in amphoras. Layers of ripe cassis, black plum, blueberries and sweet spices. There's a rich, chocolatey texture on the palate, with velvety tannins and lifted violet notes.

This comes from the legendary Skurfberg, from the Oudam farm. At this stage it's very tightly wound, with notes of thyme and fynbos, and incredible drive. Give this a couple of years, and it will be brilliant.

Mayacamas is one of the most historic estates in the entire US, founded in the 1880s and rising the prominence in the famous Judgement of Paris tasting. Their Chardonnay eschews the usual richness of Napa, instead showing plenty of fresh citrus, steely mineral notes as well as some riper stone fruit. These wines age beautifully, if you can resist.

Dog Point own many of the vineyards that went into the original Cloudy Bay, the wine that put Marlborough on the global wine map. Ivan Sutherland and his team now use this fruit to make the celebrated Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc and it's really a cut above your average Marlborough Sauvignon. There's restraint and subtle complexity from wild fermentation, they also use plenty of lees to promote flinty, reductive notes which are especially present at this early stage in its development. Within there's a core of gooseberry, guava and grapefruit flavours.

The Tolpuddle vineyard was planted back in 1988, and purchased by Martin Shaw and Michael Hill-Smith in 2011. It's a prime spot in the Coal River Valley, on one of the many slopes. It's north-facing in a rain shadow, and is a brilliant cool, dry place to grow quality grapes. Originally planted to clones more suitable for sparkling wines, Martin and Michael have gradually re-planted the vineyard to Burgundy clones, and the results in these recent vintages speak for themselves. Their Pinot Noir contains a decent proportion of whole bunches, and around a third new oak. It's full of black cherry, bramble and five spice aromas, with some lift from the whole bunch. Fine soft tannins, luxurious texture and bright, concentrated black cherry and wild strawberry flavours.

The Granite Syrah comes from the Paardeberg, from 24 year old vines, and is incredibly elegant and floral in style, with real focus.

The Caley is Yalumba’s flagship wine, and they began blending Coonawarra cabernet with Barossa shiraz more than 50 years ago. This is now a hallmark of the great Australian blend of Cabernet and Shiraz, quite rightly regarded next to Penfolds Grange in terms of quality but made in tiny quantities. Densely packed, fragrant black berries with a chalky minerality and complex creamy, nutty notes from oak. There’s plenty of fine tannin and a beautiful long finish.

The only Cinsault Blanc we know about, with just a few hundred bottles made. This is apple-fruited, textured, and saline, and is so much more than a curiosity. Long and pithy, and incredibly delicious, you'll be reaching for another glass.

A vineyard planted on Kalmoesfontein in 1954, this is a beautifully complex, savoury, well-balanced Cinsault. There’s notes of rose petal and a core of blue fruit. Delicious.

From a parcel planted in 1900, this is an incredible Cinsault of depth and power, and remarkable structure. Tiny quantities produced.

Agricola is the brainchild of Callum Powell, the son of Torbreck founder Dave Powell, who worked in the Northern Rhône with Jean-Louis Chave before striking out on his own. There's a clear nod to the Northern Rhône here. Its 'low hi', hands off winemaking, and all that, combined with some excellent vineyard sources, makes Callum's wines some of the most exciting we've found in the Barossa. This has all the bold, expressive black fruit you would expect from the powerful subregion of Ebenezer, but with a bright energetic acidity and relatively restrained 13.9% alcohol.

By Farr Shiraz is from the original vineyard planted in 1994. It's co-fermented with 2-4% Viognier and is matured in 20% new oak. There's a bit of whole bunch bringing a lift to the nose, but on the palate it's deeply concentrated with dark fruit and aromatic spice. Complex and structured.

Mainly a 1988 parcel, but with some 1968 vines, too. The wind is key for this wine, Bernhard explains. It's an energetic Cinsault, that's all about lift and brightness, and red berries and spice. The finish is saline and has you reaching for another glass right away.

Tin Soldier is 100% Semillon Gris from a vineyard propagated from cuttings from the Paper Kite vineyard, and planted just eight years ago. It’s fermented on the skins, and is copper-coloured and stunningly complex. Notes of orange pith and fresh ginger swirl from the glass, while the palate is wonderfully saline and brilliantly long. A favourite, the 2020 is taking this wine to a whole new level.

A brilliant cool climate Shiraz from the By Farr team in 2019. Bright and fresh with sappy berries alongside some riper black fruit. There’s some black pepper and earthiness and a silky texture.

Only 100 cases of this were made this vintage. This is 100% Piccadilly Pinot Noir fruit, and winemaker Michael Downer uses 40% whole bunch to add savoury, herbal complexity. There are spicy notes of clove and five spice, with light complexity from maturation in oak.

Tinta Barocca has huge potential in the Swartland, this parcel, planted in 1972, shows it beautifully. There’s notes of iron oxide and black pudding, with a core of dark fruit. Structured and intense, this will age brilliantly.

Ultra, meanwhile, takes its name from the farmer’s love of trance music - and more specifically a gig named Ultra. It’s a Chenin Blanc from the Swartland, and is generous, textured, and astonishingly good value.

Freshness, elegance and silky texture are the hallmarks of the Favia estate's wines. Indeed, the Cabernet Franc-led 2018 Cerro Sur wouldn’t be out of place in a line-up of the Right Bank’s top estates. Made in minisule quantities, it's an exercise in elegance with laser-like focus, freshness, and layer upon layer of mineral-laced black fruits. It's a welcome addition to our range, and is sure to provide drinking pleasure for years to come.

The first single vineyard they made was the Skaliekop, from a vineyard planted in 1985 on the Paardebosch farm. This vineyard is an anomaly: an island of schist on the normally granite Paardeberg. Indeed, the name means hill of Shale, and this gives a mineral, reserved character to the wine. This has notes of fennel and lime blossom, and the potential here is outstanding.

This, from the Voor Paardeberg, from really young vines, is just spectacularly delicious. Red apple and wild roses swirl from the glass, while it’s the salinity and texture of the palate that really blew us away. Such an individual wine; such a wonderful wine.

Howard John is in honour of Franco’s dad, and is a red blend that comes, from 2019, entirely from the Swartland. Lovely fruit. So much delicate energy, lovely mouthfeel. Plenty of perfume, then grip and a long and pure finish. Very detailed and very long.

From deep red iron-rich soils, this is a rich, expressive wine with ripe plum, blueberry, cassis fruit. The tannins are typical of Cabernet, linear and tightly-packed with a slight drying quality at this early stage. There's a seam of fresh acid running through the wine, cutting through the richness on the palate, and subtle spicy notes are developing on the long finish.

The 2019 Taaibosch Crescendo is a Cabernet Franc led blend, that's utterly stunning in its second vintage. This has floral lift, plenty of body, and a lovely, saline, long, expressive finish. Delicious: this will age brilliantly, too.

The baby Monte Bello in 2020 is delicious, and thankfully the devastating fires of the vintage bypassed Ridge's vineyard here is the Santa Cruz Mountains. Yields of Petit Verdot and Merlot were poor this year, leaving the 2020 with a high 94% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. This has Monte Bello's characteristic balance, with fresh black berry fruit and delicate earthy spice. It offers a taste of the finesse this site can produce.

The 2019 IX Estate is one of the finest wines from Napa Valley, situated in Pritchard Hill on volcanic soils. Rich, christmas cake aromas, blackberry jam, baked plum and cassis, with lots of savoury, wild sage character so typical of Pritchard Hill. Some graphite and incense developing. Dense, ripe, chocolatey tannins and a lovely lifted acid line.

Intensely perfumed with pure aromas of raspberry, black cherry and red cherry. Light mineral hints of reduction on the nose, and a firm structure at this young age. Incredible concentration and intensity for its modest 11% alcohol.

Arguably the longest consecutively-produced single vineyard wine in Australia, Mt Edelstone was planted in 1912. It now represents incredible value in Henschke's portfolio. Made entirely from Shiraz vines that average over 100 years old, the 2017 expression is full of ripe blackcurrant, spiced plum and fine pepper. There's a distinct sage leaf aroma and a little creaminess on the nose from oak ageing. This vintage is beautifully fresh, energetic, with clean fresh fruit flavours and long, fine tannins.

Made by brothers Jim and Bob Varner, we love this Central Coast Pinot Noir for its bright and exuberant red fruit and mid-weight, refreshing style. It's uncomplicated and approachable, focused on the quality of the fruit and careful winemaking.

From the Voor Paardeberg, this is a complex and well-balanced Grenache Blanc. It has notes of yellow fruit and plenty of spice and herbal notes. In no way overblown, this is a masterclass in balance from Marelise.

A blend of Chenin, Viognier, Verdelho, Semillon Gris and a few other grapes. A lovely nose that is saline and fine, with plenty of reduction. Really nice savoury finish. Punches above its weight