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We’re very pleased to be heading to the heart of Soho once more as we pour wines for the trade at the good ship Duck Soup.
Alongside our pals Otros Vinos & Sén, we’ll be pouring new arrivals and wines with an eye on a long, smooth slide from summer into the season lurking with warmer jackets round the corner. Won’t be mentioning the A word today.
From 10am - 4pm on Monday September 8. Drop us a message if you work in the trade and would like to taste.
Welcoming new wines from Chloelie & Matthieu at Les Chants Jumeaux, a trio of Melon de B that brim with life and just the right dose of wild character that make them so thrilling.
First making wine in an isolated shed with a loose-straw floor (or on occasion, a borrowed beach) Matthieu L'Hotelier's unique approach has been an inspiration since the earliest days of Under The Bonnet. Joined in the project by his partner, Chloélie Cholot-Louis in 2020, Les Chants Jumeaux continues on their journey from strength to strength.
With an approach to winemaking drawing parallels with the experimental art & music communities they're a strong part of, Chloélie & Matthieu are producing vivid, alternative expressions of the far-eastern zone of the Muscadet region.
Matt set up shop in 2012, first leasing 1.8 hectares of Chenin and tiny plantings of local red varieties outside Ancenis. Once Chloélie joined the project, the pair set their sights on a 17th-century farm they took over together in the summer of 2022, with 7 hectares of meadow outside the village of Montrelais. The farm was under vine until the 1950s, and they started re-planting in 2023 with 0.7ha of Pineau d'Aunis. The old cowshed is now their new cellar.
In Montrelais - equidistant between Ancenis and Angers - Matthieu & Chloelie are farming the last 2.5 hectares of vines of the 300ha once planted around the village. Since 2012, Matthieu has been as hands-off and low-input as is possible with viticulture, allowing nature to take its course and working with what is provided. The vines are ploughed and treated without synthetic products, using local plant concoctions instead.
Thanks to the cowshed affording them a little more cellar space, they have now started their négociant project to experiment with expressions of Melon de B that channel their vision of Muscadet's possibilities.
The three new wines are hand-harvested from two organic parcels in the hamlets of Loroux-Bottereau and La Rebourgère, over Mica-Schist, Gneiss and Granite. All the wines undergo their 12-hour 'Sailboat Press' for texture and complexity, a technique perfected over the last decade:
"For the whites, we like to press very gently in our horizontal Vaslin press from the 1980s. All the automatic systems & programs have been removed from the press, so it can only be controlled manually with an on/off switch. This gives us to total control of the detail in extraction- we taste the juices as they're pressed through the night, and this is all that guides us. We press in 20-30 minute intervals, sleeping in short bursts between like the watches organised through the night on a sailing boat."
Through the harvest, Chloelie & Matthieu alternate shifts between days in the vines and nights at the press, meaning one of them is always handling the two most important jobs: tasting and pressing, or having a keen eye on their picking.
The wines are detailed below the picture of the new arrivals, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
These are among our favourite expressions of a region and a variety we have worked with for the longest, one that will always surprise and delight us. Chloelie and Matthieu are certainly outliers in their approach, and all the better for it, a reminder of how alive Muscadet can be.
2022 - Melon B MBXXII - Melon de Bourgogne.
2022 - Melon B MBXXII Key Keg - Melon de Bourgogne.
Hand harvested from the terroir of Maisdon sur Sèvre, in the hamlet of La Rebourgère over mica schist and gneiss. 2022 was a very sunny vintage, making a richer Melon de Bourgogne. Fermentation was slow and complicated, which required great patience.
After their 12-hour 'Sailboat Press' the wine was fermented in tank. With problems due to slow fermentation and at risk of becoming volatile, they added 20mg/l of SO2 before the end of its ferment. Over a year later- with the 22 Melon still safe in tank - when racking and bottling the new vintage, they passed the 2023 Melon lees back over the 2022 to refresh the fermentation and help it finish its sugars. Bottling and keg filling was done in the spring of 2025 with no further additions.
Such a phenomenal little wine, intense and fresh, with concentrated orchard fruit, energetic salinity and serious mineral zip. ** 2023 - Granite MBGXXIII - Melon de Bourgogne.
Harvested by hand, MBGXXIII is from the Loroux-Bottereau terroir, over a granite-vein soil. 2023 was an easy vintage. 12-hour 'Sail Boat Press' aged in tank, racked in the spring and then aged on fine lees for several more months. Bottled in November 2024 - unfined & unfiltered with no additions.
Big salty tropical fruit, pineapple, grapefruit, ripe pear, and a hint of honey. Wild and alive, wonderful natural Muscadet.
2023 - Vielle Vigne VVMBXXIII - Melon de Bourgogne.
Harvested by hand, VVMBXXIII is picked from old vines- 70 to 80 years old - on the terroir of Maisdon sur Sèvre, the hamlet of La Rebourgère over mica schist and gneiss. 12-hour 'sail boat press' - the wine is aged in tank, racked in the spring and then aged on fine lees for several more months. Also bottled November 2024 unfined & unfiltered with no additions.
Soft stone fruits and pithy citrus crushed in hand, layered and complex, with a long mineral line providing beautiful tension.
We're very pleased to introduce two new wines that we're very pleased to have with us here from Lucie & Jules' 2023 vintage on the edge of the Romney Marshes. Farming biodynamically, with all movements in the cellar aligning with the lunar calendar and undertaken by gravity alone. Both of the new wines are bottled unfined, unfiltered and with no additions.
Firstly - and not to be confused with its twin (the 23 Carboy Carbonnay - the same base wine, aged in glass demijohn) CARBONNAY is a 31-day carbonic maceration of Chardonnay, aged in terracotta amphora for 10 months.. Carbonnay is juicy and bright, packed with tropical fruit, quite the magic trick to coax something so vibrant and colourful from that rainy year!
Alongside it is the thrillingly electric and nimble MEUNIER CHARDONNAY, it's a co-ferment of the two varieties (80% of the blend being Pinot Meunier) whole bunches macerating for 25 days in tank. Basket pressed to stainless steel and aged for 8 months. Landing in the special intersection of the venn-diagram between light red and rosé, it chills very happily, framing detailed fruit and opulent aromatics in the finest frame of structure.
Photos are from a great visit to Lucie & Jules at the end of July - a huge thanks to them for hosting us and so many wonderful teams from the trade. A special shout out to our St Leonards power-trio: Mish, Kacper (Bistro Albo) & chief-shucker extraordinaire Eliot (Collected Fictions) for a beautiful lunch in the vines: Maldon oysters with pickled sea herbs; tomatoes with apricot, smoked sausage, mackerel & harissa, flat iron steak, grilled courgettes.. endless summer riches. A huge privilege to have a gathering of enthusiastic and curious folk learning all about biodynamic farming and UK winemaking together.
We're glad to make available a special one-off cuvée from Domaine Dandelion.
Pinot de Zinc* 2022 is the result of Christian seizing an opportunity he was offered, to swap fruit with a friend farming biodynamically near Pouligny, a unique chance he didn't want to miss. 2022 was a warm, dry year - and even more so down from the hills of Beaune where Morgane & Christian are - so it's a little more concentrated and brooding than the '22 Dandelions. It's a 50/50 blend of this Pouligny fruit, and a 'Dessus de Lies' from the 2022 Dandelion fruit. After two years ageing separately, the two spent another 6 months ageing together before bottling with no additions, unfined & unfiltered.
A deeper wine from Dandelion, with good structure and concentration, it plays beautifully with food.
Pinot de Zinc 2022: The 'Dessus De Lies' is a barrel collecting the final 10L of clear wine saved when racking off barrels for the Hautes-Cotes Nature, aged for longer to settle out into a clearer wine but still a little cloudy. Aged for 2 years in barrel.
The Pouligny fruit had three weeks maceration as whole bunches before a manual basket pressing, aged for 2 years in barrel. The two barrels were assembled in tank for a further 6 months ageing together before bottling with no additions, unfined & unfiltered. All movements in the cellar are by gravity.
Following an earlier visit this summer, we are pleased to make these new wines available from Jean-Pierre Rietsch.
Tasting these on JP's terrace overlooking the vines, (alongside Knack d'Alsace sausage, an excellent potato salad, good mustard and a healthy chunk of Tomme Fermière) we were particularly excited by the energy and balance of the 2024 cuvées, not to mention the new multi-vintage Riesling Jean-Pierre has bottled as an active response to climate change and its effects in extreme vintage variation.
2024 itself was an incredibly wet year, as much as three to four times more rain than 2023, but with a warm August helping ripening, the wines have great balance. The new releases are detailed below, we hope you'll enjoy them as much as we are. Photos from our visit in May 2024.
Jean-Pierre has been at the helm of his family vineyards in the historic village for over 37 years now. Diligently organic, but working above and beyond in the parcels to ensure the resulting wines channel their terroir with both complexity and drinkability in equal measure.
WHITE
NEW 2024 - Tout Blanc Litre - Auxerrois, Riesling
Fresh acidity and lovely tension, a nice bit of texture from its time on lees, all press-direct after an overnight maceration to kickstart fermentation.
NEW 2024 - Les Mains Libres - Savagnin Rose
The wine Jean-Pierre makes every other year when not producing the perpetual Pas-a-Pas from this parcel. 50% whole bunch in direct-press juice, great detail, layered fruit, long and mineral with the lightest savoury oxidative note.
20/23 - Stein - Riesling
A top-up of the Riesling from the vines beside the house that JP planted with his father 30 years ago, the Leu dit Stein grown on Grey Marl and Limestone. A true terroir Riesling expression, multi-dimensional, long and mineral, ageing beautifully.
NEW 21/22/23/24 - La Nef Des Fou
A beautiful expression of Riesling, hand harvested from the south/south-east facing Grand Cru vineyard, planted over marl, limestone and compacted sandstone. Seeing such extreme variability in vintages with the mood swings of climate change, Jean-Pierre has been saving barrels each year from this parcel as a way of finding true balance in the wine. Stone fruit, grapefruit, cultured butter, this one continues unfolding along its mineral line for quite a while.
SKINS
NEW 2023 - Demoiselle - Gewurztraminer
A really bright & expressive edition of this wine, alive with fruit and acid, very immediate - macerated Gewurz at its best.
RED
NEW 2024 - Tout Rouge Litre - Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris
60/40 Noir to Gris, half kept whole bunch and half is pressed directly. An excellent chillable red that we're very pleased to have here for the rest of summer.
NEW 2024 - Pinot Noir - Pinot Noir
Light and alive, brambly fruit and bags of cherry alongside pithy bit of grapefruit, juicy and on the fruit in 2024. Drinking very well.
Back in 2022, Emile Pasquier returned to Vouvray to take over at Château Gaudrelle, the 16-hectare domaine his father Eric had been running since 2008. Emile hadn't initially intended to move into winemaking but after a life-changing tasting in the cellar of Nicolas Renard and trying endless natural wines at his older brother's restaurant in Tours, a spark was lit. Moving to the Jura to study winemaking,his eyes were opened further to the possibilities afforded to him, and he returned home ready to express his impression of the Vouvray terroir.
The vines sit on the Vouvray plateau, around 100m above sea level, on flint and clay soils over limestone. Below them, a 50m chalk cliff drops to the banks of the Loire, where the winery and cellars are cut directly into the rock. Close to the cliff edge, topsoil is almost nonexistent for the vines; inland, it deepens to several metres of clay. The site spans 16 hectares, all hand-harvested, with careful sorting in both the vineyard and cellar. Currently in biodynamic conversion, Demeter certification is expected in 2026.
Planted mainly to Chenin Blanc, Emile is working across a range of styles to paint a full picture of Vouvray and its strengths. Some wines are fresh and snappy, bottled early from stainless steel, stone jars and concrete eggs. Others from older vines, or riper parcels, he prefers to keep long in barrel. We're seeing the first releases of some of these, but many will rest for up to 10 years. Everything is indigenous fermentation; some wines are bottled with no additions, others see a touch of sulphur at bottling only. Drawing on his time in the Jura as a stylistic reference point, Emile is nevertheless seeking a local vernacular that balances structure and drinkability.
Farming has been organic for over a decade, and increasingly shaped by biodynamic thinking. Roughly 15% of work is now also done by horse, and in Emile’s words: “everything changed” with the move to biodynamic agriculture. It hasn't been easy and in 2022 - their first year practising biodynamics, they suffered huge losses thanks to climate change. "This was hard for business, and hard for me but - everything in the winery was more intense, more acid, more fruit, so much more fun to work with. The wines were alive, and I knew it was the right decision." As the soils and vines found new life, resilience returned, and production has now steadied.
These are keen-eyed wines of both tension and generosity from a young grower working incredibly hard to capture the best of his terroir.
SPARKLING
2022 - Notre Methode - Chenin Blanc Traditional method sparkling. A blend from two flint-heavy plots - one shallow, one deeper - harvested by hand. Fermented in steel, aged 9 months on light lees, then bottled in June 2023 for secondary fermentation using selected yeast. Aged for 2 years in bottle before release. 15mg/l sulphur at bottling.
For Emile, the Chenin on Flint is more aromatic and crisp compared to the wines on limestone.
2021 - Extra Brut - Chenin Blanc
Traditional method sparkling. Always hand harvested from one limestone parcel near the Vouvray cliffside, very little topsoil here, and much drier - the first 'grand-cru' site in Vouvray.
Vines aged between 60 to 15 years old, occasionally blended with a splash from flint plots to lift freshness. Fermented and aged 9 months in 15 to 25-year-old barrels on the lees, then aged 2 years in bottle. Richer lees profile than Notre Méthode.
WHITE
2023 - Turonien Unf - Chenin Blanc
Hand harvested from parcels mostly on deeper clay and flint soils, from 25–35-year-old vines with lots of energy & vigour. Pressed directly and fermented in stainless steel, bottled unfiltered in early (February) to preserve freshness.
"This is a wine all about freshness, the vines are less concentrated and produce a fruiter wine, so we aim for something easy & refreshing rather than the parcels picked for the longer-ageing wines. It's about primary fruit instead of autolysis."
2023 - Le Sec - Chenin Blanc
Hand harvested from the same 'Grand Cru' limestone plot as Extra Brut, mainly from the 60-year-old vines, with some younger vines. A site very close to the cliff, much drier, less soil here and producing more concentrated wines.
Pressed directly to barrels, fermented partly in 20% new oak and the rest old. Aged 12 months on heavy lees before bottling.
2020 - Oxy - Chenin Blanc
An experiment inspired by Vin Jaune that Emile produced back home whilst studying in the Jura. Hand-harvested from both the flint & limestone soils, Emile sourced one barrel from the cellar that was too powerful and wasn't bringing balance to the other wines, an outlier that was interesting enough to see how it would develop.
Fermented dry in barrel, then decanted off its lees. The clear wine was seeded with live yeast from a Domaine Macle Vin Jaune barrel, and aged sous voile in Burgundy barrel outdoors for three years. No sulphur added; protected by its 17% alcohol and oxidative strength.
"I was studying in the Jura, and as the final experiment you need to have in to finish your diploma, I wanted to examine what components make Vin Jaune so special - Is it the yeast? The climate, or the Savagnin itself? I see a lot of similarities between Chenin & Savagnin - obviously our climate is very different - so I was keen to take this at the start of my experiment."
"We had one barrel at home that was too strong to blend, it was knocking other wines out of balance when we tried it, so I asked if I could use it for this, it seemed perfect. I was lucky to be friendly with Domaine Macle- who have been producing Vin Jaune for 300 years - and they gave me some live yeast using sediment from one of their Vin Jaune barrels."
I added this to my wine and left it outside for three years, where the temperature and humidity would vary as much as possible. This is the idea in the Jura, and it's these strong fluctuations in humidity and temperature that contribute to the character. The more variation you have, the more oxidation impacts the wine. The colder it gets, the more oxygen the wine breathes. The idea was to make something really strong, really powerful. We learnt so much from it. Now I aim for more balance, but that wine was something I really wanted to do."
We're delighted to have new wines from Lucy Chilvers, direct from her project in the hills of El Penedès.
These are the next round of wines from her 2023 vintage - a third consecutive year of drought in Catalunya - nonetheless producing wines of great tension and finesse. Sourced from Lucy's 4.5 hectares of old indigenous vines around the surrounding hills, fruit is farmed organically, worked very gently in the cellar, and bottled with no additions.
Photos are from our beautiful visit to Lucy in October 2024 - now located in the picturesque village of El Bardoc, dining outside the 400-year-old cellar Lucy has been lucky enough to find. A long table stretched across the courtyard: cheese, pan con tomate, peppers & aubergine from her garden, iberico salami, chorizo - and the crowing achievement - Lucy's moussaka.
(This was also the introduction of Lucy's iconic macrame glass holders - red, orange, green, violet, and for the serious, black.)
In this tranche we have the following:
Toca'M is her ancestral sparkling of direct-pressed Sumoll, picked at 400m - wild strawberry & lemon rind with a profoundly mineral line, great saline tension.
Sasa is a very special wine for Lucy - and the first time we've received it - named for her mentor Sasa Radikon, it's the result of a 3 week maceration of 100 year old Xarel•lo. Completists among you will be pleased to know this is the press juice from the same maceration whose free-run juice creates Flor De Maeve. Aged in one 225l chestnut barrel for 6 months, Sasa is incredibly gastronomic, complex and long. Fleshy stone fruit and herbal lift tethered by a tightly wound grip of tannin. Beautiful balance.
El Nen Sam, another of Lucy's longer-aged wines, is the result of a 9 day carbonic maceration of 30 year old Merlot aged in old French oak barrel for 14 months - a real dance between vibrant, electric fruit and the gentle, earthy structure of its upbringing. Opens beautifully, one we can't wait to be drinking with pretty much anything pulled off a hot grill this summer.
Visiting Lucy, it's clear the commitment to this project is deeply linked wth her commitment to hospitality - Lucy's raison d'être is that of a caregiver - of people, of vines.
At the end of our long lunch as the moussaka settles and music unfolds; cigarettes are rolled, neighbourhood cats join for strokes and Fernando naps on the gravel. A surprisingly moreish corrective of coffee & baileys breathes life into the group.
We climb the hill behind the cellar, passing a parcel of Xarel•lo that will soon be Lucy's to tend. Crunching through drought-cracked clay, we ascend to a picturesque garden vineyard of goblet vines. A parcel of old vine Sumoll Blanc - a project Lucy intends to take cuttings from, to graft and replant new vines from her massale selection - regenerating a forgotten vineyard (she has already done much work to tame and prune this abandoned parcel) to prove the worth of the variety - helping make her stamp on the region, paying it back to the locals who have taken her in.
13 - October 2024
CANTINA ORTACCIO
ITALY, LAZIO, GRADOLI
Since joining us for Bedrock at the start of the month and pouring their new arrivals for the first time in the UK, we're very glad to make available the new 2023 releases from Patrizia & Max at Cantina Ortaccio.
Perched above Lake Bolsena, Cantina Ortaccio is their project farming a total of four hectares of vines around Gradoli and Latera in Lazio. At 450–500m, on soils of tufa, volcanic rock and sand, Patrizia & Max tend parcels both old and new. Among the parcels are vines planted by Massimo's grandfather in 1948; other old vines abandoned by the village elders that the couple have restored; and their newer plantings of local varieties.
Working mostly with Procanico, Greghetto, Sangiovese, Grechetto, Malvasia, and Ciliegiolo: Ortaccio is a project dedicated to expressing the heart of the remarkable terroir of Latera and Gradoli. The memory of each harvest with his grandfather and the lightning bolt of those pure, humble wines has been an inspiration to Massimo since he was 12 years old.
Work in the vines is committed and minimises impact: 'less is more' is the motto here. Practising a no-till organic agriculture, the pair never work the soil, tasks are tended by hand and in recent vintages they have applied no treatments at all. Come springtime time the parcels explode with a cover of poppies, chamomile, St. John's wort, nettle and chicory.
In the cellar - located in the centre of town, beginning at ground level and descending directly into the limestone - Massimo is simply trying to get as close as he can to the wines he helped his Grandfather make as a young boy. Nothing is added at any stage, red and white varieties are all treated the same: de-stemmed and macerated gently then aged in chestnut and oak barrels for 10 months in the caves.
2023 was a cooler, wet vintage around Bolsena, producing delicate, detailed wines of real elegance and balance. Photos are from our visit shortly after harvest completed in November 2023
SKINS
2023 - Ortaccio Bianco - Procanico, Malvasia, Grechetto, Roschetto
2023 - Bianco Dritto - Procanico
ROSE
2023 - Poco Rosso - Malvasia, Grechetto, Roscetto, Procanico, Sangiovese
RED
2023 - Rosso Ortaccio - Sangiovese, Greghetto 2023 - Vecchi Filari - Sangiovese, Greghetto, Ciliegiolo
We've just received a very welcome top-up of the 2023 wines from Xavi & Andreu Padró - the brothers behind Larural - producing delicious, invigorating macerations from their indigenous Catalunyan varieties.
In October 2024, we visited Xavi & Andreu in the centre of Santes Creus to see the once-abandoned winemaking co-op that they will soon be moving their production into, just a few doors down from their cellar in the family home. Micro-winemaking in a cathedral for wine!
In a very memorable moment, the brothers and their childhood friend Albert cooked a beautiful pork and mushroom Arros a la Catalana - rice with pork, foraged mushrooms, and homemade aiolli. Perfect fare for the wines: juicy fruit, acidity and salinity playing beautifully with their big, smoky flavours.
A family feast before a visit to their little cellar beneath the family house to taste the nascent 2024 wines, and then later a trek up the hill into the vines to discuss soil health and Catalan indigenous varieties.
In 2018, Xavi & Andreu took over their family's vines 30km from the Mediterranean in the Alt Camp region of Tarragona. Farming organically, with 32 hectares under vine, the brothers only vinify a tiny portion of what they grow, with much of their fruit sold to other winemakers in the region.
They farm an array of indigenous varieties planted over clay-limestone, parcels comprised mostly of single varieties scattered through the hills around Santes Creus, up to 50 years old and between 240 to 420m above sea level: the Meditteranean influence is present!
Photos are from our October 2024 visit.
We are thrilled to announce the 2025 edition of Bedrock - a collaborative one-day wine fair - is returning to the Master Shipwright's House in Deptford for the first time since 2022!
On Sunday July 6 we'll be joined by over 30 winemakers in the beautiful courtyard garden beside the River Thames for a fun, informal wine fair that allows both the trade and the public to meet and taste with some of the most cutting-edge and committed growers working today. There will be food & coffee available throughout the day, alongside a very well-stocked bar.
The 2022 edition of the fair was such a beautiful day, and we're so excited to finally be able to return to this gorgeous venue with many friends in tow.
The full line-up of growers will be announced very soon – both trade & public tickets are available now via the button below.
Its always a privilege to make available new wines from Domaine Dandelion and after a good rest over winter we're thrilled to release two more 2023 cuvées: the latest edition of their Hautes Côtes Nature and a one-off named Fruit Defendu.
The Hautes-Côtes Nature 2023 – an assemblage of most of their seven micro-parcels across Meloisey on clay and limestone – this year includes fruit from their two highest elevation vineyards, which in rare years are vinified separately for 'Aube', bringing with them more mineral complexity to the wine. The parcels are organic, worked by hand, treated strictly with plants for their health and all movements in the cellar are by gravity.
Fruit Defendu 2023 is an old-vine cuvée, arising from a rare opportunity Christian had to swap & purchase some organic fruit with friends in Savigny and Puligny. Alongside Pinot Noir from these 70-year-old vines, half the blend comprises their own fruit: picked from some of their oldest, steepest vines – those in the Goutte d'Or parcel. Here the Pinot grows in small, concentrated bunches with a fairly high tannin profile. The resulting wine is dark fruited and broader than we've seen from Dandelion before, with soft tannins. This will most likely be the only year it is produced.
Both wines are macerated as whole bunches for two weeks, before being hand de-stemmed to keep the profile from being too green and continuing maceration for another week, before being basket-pressed directly to old barrels for 12 months ageing. Bottled with no additions, the wines are both drinking well now, but will undoubtedly reward patience in the cellar.
We’re very pleased to be heading back to Bristol for another summer trade tasting at the beautiful Marmo alongside our pals Beatti & Roberts, Otros Vinos, Roland Wines and Wright's Wines 🌞
On Monday, May 12 we’ll be pouring from 10am to 4pm with a brace of new arrivals and tips for the sun, email us to RSVP if you’d like to attend.
See you there!
We are so pleased to release a trio of new 2023 wines from Lucie & Jules at Ham Street, Kent.
These releases are a delicate, elegant expression of their biodynamic farmed vines at the edge of the Romney Marshes. Resplendent in new labels featuring the wildflowers found growing in the vines, it's a thrill to have these available for spring and summer. All movements in the cellar are by gravity, and all fruit was basket pressed.
CHARDONNAY BACCHUS is the result of direct-press Chardonnay blended with seven-day macerated Bacchus after they had both spent 10 months in fibreglass and barrel. Alive, mineral and with a lovely blast of ripe citrus. For the PINOT GRIS, fruit was hand de-stemmed and macerated for 11 days before being pressed to a single three year old burgundy barrel for nine months. Electric & saline, with a beautifully integrated twist of volatile acidity for lift, one that unfolds beautifully - only 299 bottles produced!
The new vintage of their FIELD BLEND is the most delicate iteration of the wine so far, intricate fruit, great length and with its signature acidity present & correct - Pinot Meunier & Noir make up 70% of the 2023 blend, with the remainder comprising Chardonnay (15%) Bacchus (10%) and a splash of Pinot Gris (5%). 9 days together as a semi-carbonic maceration, the wine was aged 8 months in old barrels. A thriller we can't wait to be drinking in the sun.
Join us on Monday April 28 as we pour new wines for the trade at the beautiful Goodbye Horses in De Beauvoir.
Alongside our good pals Otros Vinos, from 10am - 4pm we'll be pouring wines for the sun, including the new nourishing 2023 terroir Rieslings from Yann Durrmann in Alsace.
Drop us an email to RSVP, and we'll see you there!
Artwork by Ben Walker.
With spring arrives one of our favourite marks of the season: new Alsace wines from Yann Durrmann! We are thrilled to have a brace of new terroir-sourced Rieslings – each a direct representation of their soil – including a new parcel over limestone. With these, we also receive a full house of 2023 releases, available from tomorrow.
2023 was sunny and dry for Yann in Andlau, but with careful cultivation of the vineyard aimed at acidity retention (allowing grasses to grow wild, managing yields to keep vigour, and letting the vine’s canopy grow higher to create a shadow down the rows) the resulting wines have a real freshness and spring in their step. Fermentations were slower than usual for the Riesling, but showing no signs of volatility during their gestation, Yann was able to eschew any sulphur use as he prefers.
To taste these Rieslings with Yann is to gain an understanding of the impact of a soil type on a variety. Picked at more or less the same time and made identically (pressed directly to stainless steel tank, bottled just as fermentation completes) the variation between them is always exciting.
On Grés - compacted sandstone -the variety expresses itself with pithy citrus aromatics, usually the easiest drinking of Yann’s Rieslings, with a pleasing acidity. On Yann’s sandy Granite terroir, it expresses itself with more floral aromatics, and a pleasant white-almond bitterness, complex and long.
On Schist, Riesling makes its terroir apparent with a livewire acidity and snap, feeling chalky and mineral. A more tense style compared to the aromatic Grés and Granite, with white pepper and a very pleasing brittle tannin this year.
For the first time we have Yann’s Riesling sur Calcaire. A limestone parcel he planted 10 years ago that is finally at a high enough yield for its own terroir cuvée. Yann, forever humble despite his experience, speaks with curiosity about this wine to complete the set: “Riesling on Calacaire is new to me, the other soils I have been working with my whole life, so I understand these. I wouldn’t like to say definitively how calcaire shows itself, I’m still learning. It’s certainly on the citrus, perhaps lime, but has more acidity and salinity than the sandy Grés and Granite parcels.”
Available now, we will be pouring the beautiful new Rieslings at upcoming April trade tastings in Manchester & London - being the only occasion we will open the more limited Riesling sur Grés and Riesling sur Calcaire!
DOMAINE DURRMANN
FRANCE, ANDLAU, ALSACE
SPARKLING
2023 - Grizzling Négoce - Riesling
2023 - Gaz de Schiste - Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris
WHITE
2023 - ron-rond le litron blanc Négoce - Pinot blanc, Riesling, Gewurz, Sylvaner
2023 - Pinot blanc - Pinot Blanc
2023 - Zegwur - Gewurztraminer
2023 - Riesling Sur Grès
2023 - Riesling Sur Granit, Lieu-Dit Rebbuehl
2023 - Riesling Sur Calcaire
2023 - Riesling Sur Schistes, Lieu-Dit Rebberg
2022 - Grand Cru Kastelberg - Riesling
RED
2023 - ron-rond le litron rouge - Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris
2023 - Rouge de Pinot Noir - Pinot Noir
"we had a very nice time here and glorious weather"
Join us on Monday, April 14 for a spring trade tasting at the beautiful Flawd in Manchester beside the marina.
We'll be pouring alongside our good friends Otros Vinos, Wayward Imports and Wright's Wines from 10am to 4pm. For our part, we'll be pouring a tranche of new terroir-focused Rieslings from Yann Durrmann, sunshine-wines from Titch Hill & Quatro Mustachios, and the triumphant 2023 cuvées from Xaviere Hardy among others.
Drop us an email to RSVP, and we'll see you there.
Poster by Ben Walker
We're thrilled to release a new wine from Sophie Evans, the result of a summer jaunt in Franconia - her 2023 Rotling!
In August 2023, with the hard work of that year's sodden growing season mostly behind her in the UK and looking forward to helping her friend Emily Campeau (of Wein Goutte) with harvest, Sophie downed tools to make a trip back to Franconia.
Thankful for her friends (and the opportunity to stop worrying about the UK summer and her broken-down tractor) Sophie spent a week helping Emily with harvest and picked herself a few rows of organic Muller Thurgau & Domina to make a 'Rotling' - a rosé of red and white varieties (in Germany rosés are only allowed to be labelled as such when produced from red grapes exclusively, they coined the term Rotling for these outlaw red/white blends.) With the varieties growing side by side, it made sense to Sophie, who loves field blends, has great fondness for the secret potential of Domina, and with the two varieties growing beside a forest she wanted to capture that special feeling of the parcel rather than separate them.
Sophie's Rotling is an aromatic, textural delight - bags of fruit and alive with acidity, it's the result of macerating the varieties for just 2 days, then 6 months rest in old barrel before bottling. Pretty in pink, Rotling is available now and we're going to be drinking plenty of it whilst the sun shines.
Sophie will be joining us on Monday 24th to pour Rotling for the first time in the UK - drop us a reply to RSVP.
60km north of Nantes in the village of La Chappelle-Glain, Xaviere Hardy makes nuanced, delicate wines from an isolated 1.5 hectares on blue schist, (hence Les Terres Bleues).
After close analysis of the terroir, and lobbying the local council to allow her to do so: Xaviere planted her vines in 2013. Being the only vineyard for miles around and with no precedent to follow, she focused her efforts on Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Grolleau, trained in the seldom-seen (in the Loire) Albarello style to help with sun exposure.
Working in such a unique way isn't the easiest path, but the wines are clearly worth it.
Xaviere describes her 2023 vintage as a "true miracle" - especially in contrast to some of her neighbours who lost huge amounts in battles with mildew given such a wet growing season and a humid summer. Xaviere was blessed with quality and quantity - a reward that brought its own challenge: accommodating all that fruit in her tiny cellar.
She's thrilled to have had this challenge to handle, particularly as 2024 brought catastrophic losses after incessant rain and cold, losing up to 60% of her yield. This is the harsh reality of climate change and the dramatic swings it is presenting growers with, particularly in regions like the Loire.
But with plenty of juice in 2023 Xaviere was able to expand her range from her usual four cuvées to six. A joyful collection of wines with a sense of energy and generosity.
The new wines are all available now and detailed below:
WHITE
NEW 2023 - AWA - Pinot Gris
Pressed directly, with 60% of the blend aged in 5-10-year-old barrels, and the remainder in stainless steel tank for 10 months before assemblage and bottling with no additions. Incredibly long and mineral, elegant.
SKINS
NEW 2023 - Michel'Ange - Pinot Gris
From the same pick as AWA. A short 24-hour maceration of fruit destemmed by hand on a wicker de-stemmer. Aged in a combination of both barrel and tank before blending after 10 months. Usually a white but the warm, ripe vintage has yielded more colour from such a short maceration, a wine with body and complexity.
NEW 2023 - Jeannette - Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir
A direct pressing of Pinot Gris (two-thirds) & Pinot Noir picked and vinified together. Aged in tank and barrel for 10 months before bottling with no additions. Generous, complex, serious and long.
ROSE
NEW 2023 - Baraka - Grolleau
Grolleau pressed directly and fermented in tank to preserve the fruit before gently racking to barrel to fill out its edges and allow its complexity to develop. Taut, fleshy fruit, pithy citrus and salinity.
RED
NEW 2023 - Ma Garance Voyageuse - Grolleau
Continuing Xaviere's masterful blend of three vinifications she perfected for this wine in 2020 – one-third as a carbonic maceration aged in stainless steel, one-third de-stemmed and aged in old barrels, the final third comprises a tank layered with 30% whole bunch fruit to 70% destemmed – she believes it lends the wine balance and synergy. Deep with fruit, soft and easy with just the finest frame of tannin.
NEW 2023 - XH2 - Pinot Noir
An infusion maceration in tank: 30% whole bunch, 70% de-stemmed for eight days, with two thirds aged in old barrels and the remainder in stainless steel. The two vinifications are assembled after 10 months before bottlling with no additions. A generous and round Pinot with supple tannins and elegant length and minerality.
Join us in two weeks as we head once again to Ducksoup, Soho alongside our good friends Otros Vinos to pour spring wines for the trade from 10am til 4pm.
On Monday March 24 we'll be pouring new arrivals from Sophie Evans, Xaviere Hardy, plus sunshine wines courtesy of Andi Weigand, Roche Buissiere and more.
Drop us an email with the time you'd like to pop by to RSVP.
Look forward to seeing you there!
BRAND BROS & BAUMBERGER
At the end of December we received a message from Daniel & Jonas telling us excitedly about their new creation - inspired by their partners Pauline & Melanie becoming mothers and in collaboration with Pauline, her brother Carl & their Baumberger family - Freija is the first edition of their new alcohol-free sparkling!
Experimenting and tasting a lot over the last two years whilst both Melanie & Pauline were pregnant and on the search for something delicious to drink, they hoped to use their organic, regenerative agriculture and zero-additions approach in the cellar to create a drink without alcohol that didn't sacrifice on flavour and complexity, or compromise their philosophy. With a huge focus on agroforestry in both families' vineyards, Freija lends an outlet to the literal fruits of these labours, and acts as another talking point around production and consumption.
Freija No.1 is a complex & wild sparkling, consisting of herbal teas made with foraged ingredients from both the Baumberger and Brand family vineyards, their own grapes and fruit, lacto-fermented, blended and carbonated. The ingredient list is short, and completely natural - a sight you rarely see on many no-alcohol alternatives.
It's properly delicious, and we're so pleased to have it available on the list now.
