Day Three

There's a Pinot Noir character on the nose of the 2019 Roc de Cambes, with dark cherries, and lots of floral notes. There's a sweetness to the fruit, and such a delicacy to the tannins. This is beautifully balanced, and incredibly refined: such a good wine, it's not to be missed.

A blend of Nebbiolo and Barbera, this shows just the right amount of grip, with savoury tannins, pure fruit, and a nicely balanced, fragrant finish. This will age beautifully, if you can keep your hands off it.

Château Thénac is undoubtedly the finest wine from Bergerac that we’ve come across. The 2015 is deep in colour with notes of ripe plum, dark chocolate, and bramble. There’s plenty of grip here, with vanilla spice and a hint of cedar, and fresh, lifted acidity. This really punches above its modest price tag.

The value pick from master winemaker François Mitjavile, this is a stunner in 2019. It’s almost Pinot Noir like in its character, with wild berries and plenty of freshly picked herbs. So silky and elegant, it’s a real beauty of a wine.

Tasted April 2023. 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot. 14.2% abv. Very tightly wound at this early stage with some a very firm structure for ageing. Once it opens up it is powerful and concentrated, with cassis, bramble and dark cherry. The tannins are bold and imposing at this stage, but there are more appetising savoury, cedar, menthol, licorice and tobacco flavours building on the palate. This is built to age, and will develop into a seriously impressive Pauillac.

Tasted April 2022. The 2021 Tertre de la Mouleyre is very fine, with pretty, bright fruits and floral notes. It's very elegant, and has plenty of depth to the dark fruit flavours. The texture is silky and there's an appetising, crushed rock sensation on the finish. Another brilliant vintage from a true gem of St-Emilion.

From a vineyard in Serralunga, this shows incredible poise and lift in 2018. There’s notes of blood orange and a floral lift, alongside plenty of cool fruit, and an incredible density on the finish. This is such a charming, juicy, energetic wine.

From the Ginestra cru, there’s a salinity here, with beautiful tannins that are powdery and refined. There’s brilliant elegance here, but also a coolness and a sense of balance. A hint of bitterness on the finish makes it savoury, mouth watering, and moreish.

This is a great site for Grenache, which loves its sandy, pebbly soils. The vines have an average age of 75 years, and the wine is concentrated but poised, with spice, floral notes, and fresh focus. Forget about it for a few years to enjoy at its best.

This cru vineyard site makes up just under a third of Manuel’s holdings and is situated on the western edge of the region. Attractive rose and crushed raspberry perfume combine with cranberry, damsons and cinnamon spice. The tannins are chalky and firm and woven into the wine’s concentrated core.

Tasted April 2023. Bursting with aromatic fruit like black cherry, damson and bramble. Opulent and rounded on the palate, it nevertheless remains elegant and lifted with a saline finish.

Bright, expressive and perfumed with precise dark berry fruit, black plum, dark chocolate, and savoury spice. More lifted floral notes and sappier fruit character create a refreshing feel on the palate. Well balanced, with fresh acidity cutting through concentrated fruit flavours, and an appetising spicy note on the finish.

A single vineyard Chardonnay from Stellenbosch taken on in 2022 making this the second vintage for Pieter. The wine sees 40% untoasted new oak giving a faint acacia and vanilla pod note with fresh stone fruit. The vineyard faces into False Bay accounting for the real purity and salinity on the finish.

This is a bold yet refined Chianti with notes of wild herbs, dark cherry and liquorice spice. There is vibrant acidity, with a sense of refinement and detail here. Quite aromatic too, with aromas of violets and lavender this is a delicious Chianti with a delicious dark fruited finish.

Tasted April 2023. The 99th vintage for the Delmas family here. Dark and powerful with blackberry, black plum fruit, as well as some more aromatic blueberry notes, and tons of spice with incense and clove. There's a saline, mineral, stony feel on the palate too and grainy, grippy tannins. This gets more complex and focused as time goes on.

This elegant, ethereal Pinot Noir is sourced from the Ferguson vineyard in the Woori Yallock sub-region of the Yarra Valley. It’s the plot for which Mac has become best known. In 2020, strawberry, redcurrant, and red cherry aromas leap from the glass, while the finely grained tannins provide grip and structure. The breadth and depth of flavour belie its modest 11% alcohol, and this is unquestionably among the Yarra Valley’s finest Pinots.

Sybarine comes from the vines that surround the Garon cellar, nestled at the bottom of the Côte Blonde. Its granite soils make for an open, refined, and silky Côte-Rôtie. This was bottled before the other Côte-Rôties, and is easily the most approachable of the four cuvées, drinking well from early on. No new oak is used, with the emphasis on Syrah’s peppery and sappy style.

With fresh mountain strawberry notes, silky tannins, and so much minerality, the 2014 Ravera is simply stunning. The palate is so full of life, and there's a gorgeous coolness to the fruit. This is long and fine, with such excellent balance and drive. Brilliant.

Sybarine comes from vines very close to the Garon cellar on the Côte Blonde. Its granite soils make for an open, refined, and silky Côte-Rôtie, and is the earliest drinking of the four Garon cuvées. No new oak is used here, and the 2020 has 10% whole bunch fruit. It is peppery and sappy, it is an upfront and bold style of Syrah with black fruit character and savoury length.

A beautifully vibrant wine, this Roussanne has enticing aromatics of verbena, white grapefruit and quince. The palate is zesty with some wet stone minerality and subtle lemon peel bitterness. A very fine, charming white Rhone to enjoy in the next few years.

The Bussia comes from vines around 30 years old from certain south west facing plots (Cicala, Romirasco and Colonnello) within the famous and highly regarded Bussia vineyard. from the Cicala, plots within the Bussia vineyard. 2019 is a year for the Nebbiolo lovers, a vintage that showcases the grape perfectly and has been described by many as a classic vintage. Expect wild flowers, cherries and liquorice spice and concentration that is supported by firm, chalky tannins.

This comes from a selection of 100-year-old vines in some of Stéphane’s best parcels, Champelrose, Eygats, and Combe. It follows in the same vein as the Cornas, but with greater presence of tannins and drive. It will therefore need longer in bottle to reach its peak. Hugely elegant, mouth-coating, and intense.

Neblina is the flagship Pinot Noir for Radio Coteau, founded by Eric Sussman in 2002 after vintages in Bordeaux and at Comte Armand in Burgundy. They picked their 2020 before the wildfires. This is perfumed, mineral and complex, and is made from two organic vineyards in the west Sonoma Coast. There's crunchy red berry fruit flavours but a softness on the palate, complemented by rose petals and leather notes. Old World sensibilities with New World fruit.

There is something magical here: it is at once aromatically precise, and energised with a wildness, reminiscent of garrigue herbs. As usual, it is a blend of 15 different parcels around Cornas, which Stéphane vinified separately, only blending at the final moment before bottling. Great freshness and balance.

This is from the lowest slopes at Vieille Julienne, a great site for Grenache, which loves its sandy, pebbly soils. The vines have an average age of 75+ years, and the wine is concentrated but poised. The Grenache gives generosity and breafth, and 10% Counoise brings some softer notes, freshness and balances the natural power of the wine. Lots of plush dark fruit flavours and firm structure, with a crunchy, red fruit accent and a minerally, stony finish.

Tasted April 2023. From the Bécot family of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, who sought out this prime clay-limestone spot in Castillon in 2001. Castillon is often the hunting ground for under-the-radar but impressive terroir, and in the hands of this great St-Emilion family the results are on another level. In 2022 this is particularly good, with expressive blackberry, black plum fruit and minty notes adding lift and complexity.

Tasted April 2023. 4 hectare property. 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc. Plump, juicy black fruit. Lots of vanilla and sweet spice, clove and a subtle minty note. Mineral tension and chalky freshness on the finish.

Sourced from a 2.5 hectare parcel at the top of Falletto, the red label Le Rocche del Falletto Riserva is one of Barolo’s most iconic wines. Dark and layered, the 2017 iteration of the wine offers up an aromatic intensity that’s perfectly wrapped in suave, impeccably judged tannins. This year's top Barolo from Bruno Giacosa is outstanding, and yet again it’s well worth seeking out.

A blend of 15 lieux-dits across Côte Blonde and Côte Brune (in total 25 plots go into it). Really nice character here, fresh and lifted and pure with amazing density and a long and deep finish. René adores his son’s handiwork here.

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 brilliant vintage for Haut Bailly, made in their beautiful state of the art cellar. There’s so much aromatic complexity with tons of floral notes and fragrant berry fruit. The blackberry, currant and raspberry carries onto the palate with incense, violet, pepper, woody herbs and mineral tones. Smooth as silk on the palate with just a little minerally grip on the finish. Powerful and concentrated but in a lithe, vibrant, refreshing frame.