Organic Wine

For complexity, depth of flavour, and interest, it’s hard to beat this ancestral method sparkling wine from Vincent Carême. So vinous and lively, it’s delicious in youth, and fascinating with some age. It’s made by transferring the still sweet and fermenting grape juice into bottle, and then trapping the subsequent carbon dioxide as it continues to ferment to dryness in the bottle. No dosage is added, though the spent yeast cells are expelled, leaving a brilliant, crystalline sparkling wine behind. It has such a wonderful depth and complexity on the nose, with a vinous structure on the palate, and a salty zing. The creamy mousse wraps around crunchy apple fruit. Experience from tasting back vintages of this cuvée shows me this wine ages brilliantly, and will develop complex depth, and savoury precision with a few years in bottle.

"This smells just like membrillo. Delicious! Exciting depth of fruit that seems to go on and on. The longest wine so far. Tiny traces of spice are folded like secret love notes into the fruit, and the acidity envelops every sip with its chalky lemon-sherbet ribbons. Apricots and golden figs. Fragrant with lime. This is truly thrilling." 17.5 points, Tamlyn Curran, jancisrobinson.com

Claudie makes this in exactly the same way as her Rully Montagne la Folie, but the expression couldn’t be more different. It comes from a parcel in the south-east of the appellation, near Mercurey, and makes a wine with an amplitude and volume that gives the wine weight and power. The fruit leans to nectarines and mangoes and there’s a lusciousness to the length of this wine.

100% whole-bunch lifts this village Pommard up a notch or two. It’s such a fragrant and appetising style, and the best we’ve seen from Joannes since he took over in 2019. It is a great entry point for one of Pommard’s most promising new voices.

This sparkling wine is made by transferring the still sweet and fermenting grape juice into bottle, and then trapping the subsequent carbon dioxide as it continues to ferment to dryness in the bottle. No dosage is added, though the spent yeast cells are expelled, leaving a brilliant, crystalline sparkling wine behind. It has such a wonderful depth and complexity on the nose, with a vinous structure on the palate, and a salty zing. The creamy mousse wraps around crunchy apple fruit. Experience from tasting back vintages of this cuvée shows me this wine ages brilliantly, and will develop complex depth, and savoury precision with a few years in bottle. It’s one of the most exciting wines on the list this year.

Thibaud Chevré is a seriously exciting young talent in the Loire. His father spent a magnificent career working with Thierry Germain, and this wonderful vineyard - Clos de l'Ecotard - was the first parcel the father-and-son team bought. It's found right on the edge of the Saumur’s border with Anjou, and its highly active limestone and clay soil produces taut and nervous wines that reverberate with tension and energy, even in warmer years. They only use horses to plough it, but the extra hard work is worth it. The 2021 sees them realising the toil of the past decade, bringing to fruition a truly magnificent Chenin Blanc. It is so expressive, bursting with chalky, saline drive, and a flash of green pineapple freshness. A brilliant Chenin Blanc from a formidably good year for Loire whites. Exclusive to Lay & Wheeler in the UK.

This classic, old-school Châteauneuf from Jean-Paul Versino is one of the bargains of the list. It comes from a blend of 27 plots, making for a balanced, complete, and inviting Grenache-based Châteauneuf. It is dry and savoury, with the gorgeous combination of red berry fruit, dried herbs, spice and just a hint of licorice. It will drink well from early on, and evolve into an earthy, complex wine in the cellar.

Made from a selection from the San Marcellino vineyard, this wine is only produced in high quality vintages. A small vineyard that is majority old vines, the wine has 5-10% of the indigenous Pugnitello grape added, a Tuscan grape that brings colour and perfume to the wine. Aged for 24 months in barrel, the wine has leather, coffee and spice at the forefront with wild flowers, brambles and blood orange notes that support it in the background. Tannins are evident, however there is a lot of concentration and matter on the palate to balance this.

From the best sites of the Manetti family's Fontodi Estate, the 2019 Flaccianello della Pieve is another outstanding example of the Fontodi flagship wine. Black cherry and cranberry aromas are juxtaposed with sandalwood, spice and leather notes. The tannins are muscular, yet well-integrated and balanced with the freshness and fragrance of the fruit. A wonderful wine.

This is the pinnacle of the Balthazar cellar - a Cornas that defines Franck’s style for making complex and ethereal Cornas from old vine fruit, vinifying with 100% whole bunch. It shows impressive tension, with a superbly long, silky finish. This is Cornas at its very best.

This village wine is 100% destemmed and has a sapid, redcurrant, spiced pomegranate character, with long, lightly structured tannins holding it together. This is a great entry point for one of Pommard’s most promising new voices.

85% Garganega and 15% Trebbiano di Soave, this white is full of citrus and white stone fruit aromas, combined with a subtle herbal nose. The palate displays attractive white floral elements as well as lemon verbena and a saline quality that is supported by the wine’s zesty acidity. This wine is beautiful in its youth but is also well worth ageing where it will develop more savoury elements.

Fontodi’s 2021 Gran Selezione Vigna del Sorbo is a masterpiece. An intense, statuesque wine with so much complexity from the off. Spiced notes of espresso bean, violets and liquorice mingle with the plush, detailed hedgerow fruit. This coats the palate with its explosive power and charm in equal measure with a finish that lasts for minutes.

These vines are, almost unbelievably, 104 years old. Claudie has just 0.37 hectares in this premier cru, and admits that keeping it with the original vines is more sentimental than business-savvy, since the yields they produce are so low. But it’s wrapped up in her family history, and she just loves it too much to uproot it. Instead she works the tiny parcel by horse and hand, and makes from its fruit a floral and intense wine with surprisingly silky tannins that has the substance and poise to age with grace.

From the famed Springvale vineyard at altitude in the Clare Valley, that brings a beautiful fragrant, floral quality to the wine. Intense and aromatic with white flowers, fresh lemon and lavender. The sherbert-like acidity is perfectly balanced with a refreshing long finish.

The Pieropan family were the first to bottle and release a single vineyard wine in the region, recognising the potential of the region with its rolling hillsides and complex soils. La Rocca comes from a limestone dominant vineyard, truly unique to the region. Aged on its lees for 15 months in a mix of large oak casks and stainless steel the wine has a density to its palate as well as a hint of almonds and creaminess. Ginger spice, pink grapefruit and fresh mango notes are supported by verbena and floral aromas.

The top wine from Casa Lapostolle, this Clos Apalta is full of concentrated blackberry, black plum fruit, with light woody herbs and floral notes. It's rich and full bodied, with bags of potential to age, and at this early stage has lots of densely packed, ripe tannins. Focussed, polished and seriously impressive.

Franck Balthazar is making some of the most exciting and sought-after wines in the Northern Rhône, gaining an army of fans for his low-intervention, whole-bunch, cool and balanced Cornas Syrahs. Franck buys organically grown fruit for this Côtes du Rhône from the southern Rhône village of Séguret. It’s a classic blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Syrah. It shows incredible intensity for a wine of this level, and as a result is mind-bogglingly good value.

Made from 18 grape varieties, white and red, all picked when ready and fermented in the same tank, meaning a long continuous ferment. This results in a very complex wine with layers of spice, truffle and earth. One year in barrique before resting in concrete and bottle.

La Rocca from Pieropan is always a benchmark. Aromas of ripe peach, orange blossom, and ginger spice are finely balanced by citrus and crushed shell notes. Subtle hints of salted almonds, almond blossom and fresh cut herbs add complexity. The wine has racy, crystalline acidity with a saline, mineral finish that feels so refreshing and full of detail.

This is juicy, lightly peppery, bright and elegantly smooth Cabernet Franc which is wonderful in its youth. The fruit comes from the bottom part of the slope, hence 'Pied' - foot. This is in contrast to the mid-slope fruit goes into the age-worthy, denser 'Mi-Pente' cuvée. Some vines at the bottom are as old as 80 years, so although the wine is juicy, upfront, and invitingly drinkable, the finish is sustained and persistent with old vine intensity taking this above a simple easy-drinking wine. It’s got a wonderful sour cherry note, with lightly smoky notes.

This is such a juicy, inviting delight. It has wonderfully primary floral notes, and Cabernet Franc’s structured freshness. Zappy and delicious, and brilliant if served a little chilled.

Thibaud Chevré is a seriously exciting young talent in the Loire. His father spent a magnificent career working with Thierry Germain, and this is only the second year for this cuvee. 100% Chenin Blanc, this clos vineyard is planted with northerly exposure ensuring this is pure, mineral and fresh. Vinifed 50% in stainless steel and 50% in oak barrel - the palate is very focussed and precise with lots of elegant appley fruit, culminating in a long, mineral finish.

Thibaud Chevré is a seriously exciting young talent in the Loire. His father spent a magnificent career working with Thierry Germain, and this wonderful vineyard - Clos de l'Ecotard - was the first parcel the father-and-son team bought. It's found right on the edge of the Saumur’s border with Anjou, and its highly active limestone and clay soil produces taut and nervous wines that reverberate with tension and energy, even in warmer years. They only use horses to plough it, but the extra hard work is worth it. The 2022 continues to see them realising the toil of the past decade, bringing to fruition a truly magnificent Chenin Blanc. It is so pretty and expressive, bursting with chalky, saline focus and texture, and a flash of green pineapple freshness. A brilliant Chenin Blanc. Exclusive to Lay & Wheeler in the UK.

This is the sweet spot of Domaine de la Butte - from right in the middle of the slope - and as such, produces the most complex and ageworthy of this triptych. Jacky and Jean-Philippe hold the wine back for an extra six months in the cellar before bottling as they know: this wine needs time. Its huge concentration and tannic stature are matched to slightly more new oak than the other wines. The density of fruit is more than a match.

Pierre de Tuf is Jérôme's stand-out cuvée. It's made from a blend of two parcels of Cabernet Franc, both planted in the 1940s. He uses an incredible fifteenth-century tuffeau cuve, hewn into the wall of the old cellar, to do a long, slow fermentation. This method brings out the delicious complexity in this old vine Cabernet Franc. From 2020 onwards, Jérôme has increased the length of ageing from 18 to 24 months before bottling, giving the wine time to knit together, so that it feels composed, powerful, and elegant once in bottle. There is a succulent ripeness of black fruit behind the tannins, and the wine shows impressive balance. There's a whisper of smoke and violets on the nose, and a deep fruit core on the palate promising good ageing potential. It remains outstanding value for money.

The 2023 Châteauneuf from Jean-Paul Versino at Bois de Boursan is a classic and shows ample concentration and complexity, speaking of the old vines of the domaine and various soil types here. This year Jean-Paul has used around a quarter of whole bunches for vinification. This has given a fine garrigue and light pepper spice on the nose which draws you in to the ripe, dark berry fruit on the palate. This is fine and seamless on the palate with a hint of black tea and liquorice on the finish.

The Cuvée Felix sets itself apart immediately on the nose. Very fine, intense Grenache speaks loudly here with notes of blood orange, red cherry and violets. The palate shows power and a certain muscularity with a sinewy feel on the palate. Notes of pepper and wild herbs continue on the long and expansive finish.

100% whole-bunch lifts this village Pommard up a notch or two. It’s such a fragrant and appetising style, mineral with lacy tannins and the best we’ve seen from Joannes since he took over in 2019. It is a great entry point for one of Pommard’s most promising new voices.

100% Merlot from clay soils and the first year of Anne-Laurence in their new winery. The wine is vinified in concrete before ageing in foudre with no new oak influence. This has imbued the wine with a real sense of elegance and freshness. A very pretty wine, it offers notes of violets, wild hedgerow fruit and sapidity and energy. It is fine boned with an ethereal quality and a delicate and charming red fruit finish.

Dense dark fruit on the nose and palate, with complex mocha, floral and spicy notes. Dried herbs and a chalky note on the finish.