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In a little less than two weeks, please join us at the lovely Buxton at the foot of Brick Lane on Monday, March 30 as we pour for the trade alongside our pals Otros Vinos and Sén.
We'll be pouring from 10am until 4pm, with new arrivals and wines currently drinking well in this spring sun.
Please send us an email with your preferred time you'd like to taste and group size to RSVP.
We’re really excited to share the debut release from our good friend Paris Barghchi! Working under the name From Paris, it's a joy to introduce the first fruits of a long journey: Of Love 2024.
Based in Somerset, Paris came to wine production in 2020 after years in hospitality, and this is her first solo project. Working nomadically, Of Love was made with fruit from Matt Gregory’s organically farmed vineyard in Leicestershire. Pinot Noir was picked in the very challenging 2024 vintage - some of the lowest recorded sunlight hours in a century, pressure from mildew, and vines already showing low reserves following an equally tricky 2023. Rigorous sorting in vineyard and winery was key, with fruit harvested late in October.
In the cellar, work is kept considered and gentle. The fruit was hand destemmed and split into two macerations. Two thirds macerated for 4 days, the remainder for 11, before basket pressing and blending into a 400l Burgundy barrel, where the wine spent 9 months ageing under flor. Bottled with no additions, no sulphur, no fining or filtration.
The result is a delicate, characterful rosé. Pink with a lovely orange hue, with crunchy red fruit, citrus lift and a stony minerality. There’s a brightness to it, but also a surprising texture and weight for its modest 8.5%. (The label features a painting by Jack Lewens of the Day Lilies that grow in Paris & Jack's garden.)
A special first release from Paris, and a lovely reflection of both the vintage and her intuitive approach, a wine absolutely primed for the season, announcing the arrival of spring with all the sunshine Paris brings!
Join us in two weeks on Monday, March 16 as we pour for the trade alongside our pals Otros Vinos and Sén.
We'll be at the lovely Isca from 10am, pouring new arrivals from Peltier Ravineau, Xaviere Hardy, Complemen'Terre and 2Naturkinder among others. Wines for sunshine!
Please drop us an email with your preferred time you'd like to taste and group size to RSVP.
We are privileged to release the 2024 vintage wines from Xaviere Hardy's uniquely personal project, Les Terres Bleues. 60km north of Nantes in the village of La Chappelle-Glain - with no other vineyards for miles around - Xaviere farms an isolated 1.5 hectares on blue schist, trained in the Albarello style. Farming organically and biodynamically, Xaviere prioritises a homoeopathic attitude to her human-scale farming utilising a library of plant-based treatments for the vines stress (nettle and comfrey teas, horsetail, oak bark and willow).
The 2024 releases are some of the most astonishing wines we have tried from Xaviere, with profound tension and energy.
Speaking with Xaviere recently, she said of 2024: "It was a true challenge. If I still needed to learn, 2024 taught me selflessness in the face of the elements. I fought but I didn't "win" against nature; rather, I chose to work alongside it. These wines are a true reflection of that struggle and what the earth gave us: vibration and a very particular energy."
Of the wines received, some are available in the smallest quantities - Xaviere was able to make less than 20% of her usual XH2 production for instance, with up to 60% losses to yields with incessant rain and cold - so we'd encourage fans of these to avoid hesitation!
ROSE
2024 - Baraka - Grolleau
Direct-pressed Grolleau, with drive and attack for 2024, Xaviere has been enjoying this with pan-fried cockles recently, salt and richness being a perfect foil for its vibrancy.
RED
2024 - Ma Garance Voyageuse - Grolleau
An assemblage of three macerations, bags of fresh, juicy fruit this year, a lighter version of the cuvée, with lovely structure.
2024 - XH² - Pinot Noir
A really complex and graceful expression of Xaviere's Pinot, lower in alcohol than recent years, fluid and nimble, black fruited and supple.
After visiting Arthur & Achille in the Loire a couple of weeks ago, we're very pleased to have a second tranche of wines from the two childhood friends working together under their own name as Peltier Ravineau in Cheverny.
A three-hour drive from Nantes to Cheverny, with a detour to hunt for a missing airbnb key meant we arrived in the dark, unable to walk the vines this year - but we were so pleased to be greeted by their wonderful hospitality - a shed full of new wines to taste and a dinner together around the wood-fired stove at Achille's home.
Tasting the wines together, we were struck by their versatility and layered profile. Highlights included their dynamic, textural whites, and nimble, characterful reds.
Arthur and Achille grew up in Cheverny and have known each other since they were teenagers. Both studied winemaking in Beaune from 2015 to 2019, and cut their teeth with mentors like Philippe Pacalet and Les Foulards Rouges. Returning home they furthered their education with local luminaries Hervé Villemade, and Clos du Tue Boeuf (Arthur's father had spent many years working with the Puzelats) before taking the leap into their own project.
They started their domaine, Peltier Ravineau in 2021 with one hectare, one barrel, and one tractor. The first couple of vintages were undertaken part-time, with the fruit sold to local growers, before bottling their first vintage in 2023.
They now farm 5 hectares organically on limestone and flint, planted to Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Gamay, Côt and old-vine Romorantin, alongside a little carefully chosen négoce fruit. It's a farming-led approach here, shaped by intuition and limited equipment "Most of the time we are in the vineyard," says Achille. "We don't have the luxury of over-complicating things, being just two of us and five hectares to look after."
Working delicately, they produce alive and direct wines with bags of character. Similar to the lads themselves, the wines boast a jubilant energy and a maturity beyond their years.
From their 2024 vintage - the second from their own space - we have the following wines:
WHITE
2024 - La Marnière - Sauvignon Blanc, Menu Pineau
An assemblage of 80% Sauvignon, 20% Menu Pineau, pressed slowly, aged in fibreglass for six months on the lees. Mineral and long, with crisp pear and spice, lovely texture and snappy acid.
2024 - Les Rosiers - Romorantin
From a 65-year-old half-hectare parcel of Romorantin that they have taken over from Hervé Villemade, the wine is pressed directly to barrel and aged for 8 months. A really beautiful expression of the regional variety - with lovely waxy reduction, herbal aromatics, and a profound mineral length. Drinking well but will reward patience too. We missed out on the Romorantin last time so are glad to have been able to take some tiny quantities on this order!
2024 - Les Bois ont Brûlés - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay
A co-planted parcel of 50% Sauvignon and 50% Chardonnay, planted over clay and flint, pressed slowly and aged for 12 months in barrel, great length and depth, with beautiful orchard fruit, crushed citrus and juicy acids. Only small quantities to go round.
RED
2024 - Balle dans le Pied - Gamay, Cot, Cab Franc
A welcome top-up of their perfect bistro red, negocé fruit from organic neighbours, 12 days of whole bunch maceration for the Gamay & Côt, together. Cab Franc pressed directly and added on top. Aged in a large truncated oak vat for 6 months. Delicate but bountiful fruit, bright aromatics and pepper.
After catching up with the pair at La Dive last week - in great spirits, positive energies, and pouring a dizzying array of delicious wines - we are excited to start this week with new wines from Melanie & Michael Voelker at 2Naturkinder!
Firstly, we welcome the return of their house white blend - Vater & Sohn - at a very nice new price - available in great volumes for those of you who need something delicious to pour by the glass. A pretty, pithy assemblage built around a vibrant core of their most vigorous Muller Thurgau parcels, this year fleshed out with macerated Pinot Gris, Sylvaner for complexity and a bright lick of Riesling.
Alongside the very last of the juicy '22 Black Betty arriving with this tranche, we have two more very special, limited releases from their Kitzingen batcave:
2024 Bat Nat is their hand-disgorged pet-nat of Pinot Meunier, pressed slowly but directly from the Fledermaus parcel very close to town - one with a remarkably biodiverse habitat and the first home of their bat boxes over 10 years ago. Showing beautiful, high-energy fruit before unfolding into a very pure, mineral finish, it's a really delicious vintage.
The second edition of their Brutal!!! cuvée* comes this year from the steep slope of the vineyard picked for Weinschwarmer. In 2023, they decided to pick a separate section where the Pinot Gris begins to struggle on the steepest rows with the poorest soils. The bunches here are smaller, and the yields lower, and fruit was pressed directly to a single 600L barrel and aged for two years before bottling in the summer of 2025. The wine is dynamic, layered and driving, a unique and textural expression of their Pinot Gris, one we're lucky to share with you.
Melanie & Michael's relationship with La Sorga’s Antony Tortul goes back 10 years, and they are very proud that he asked them (also the first in Germany) to join the limited list of domaines invited to use the new gold Brutal!!! labels, a way of refocusing the project as originally intended - a celebration of true zero-additions winemakers.
2NATURKINDER - MELANIE & MICHAEL VOELKER GERMANY, FRANCONIA, KITZINGEN
SPARKLING
NEW 2024 - Bat Nat
WHITE
NEW 2023 - Brutal!! - Pinot Gris
NEW NV - Vater & Sohn 6 - Muller Thurgau, Silvaner, Riesling, Pinot Gris
RED
2022 - Black Betty - Domina, Regent, Pinot Noir
Back to Soho! We'll be pouring for the trade in London on Monday, March 2.
We'll be showing new arrivals, and joined by Ham Street with a tranche of their latest releases, alongside our pals Otros Vinos and Sén (themselves joined by Belloca Vini) - all from 10am at our beloved Ducksoup.
To RSVP, please send us an email with your group size & preferred time you'd like to taste.
See you there!
Lucy Chilvers is coming to town! Next week, working our way down from Edinburgh to Brighton, we’re looking at a pretty effective bit of tour-mapping here and can’t wait to hit the road (railways).
Lucy will be pouring at these lovely venues:
A big date for your diary for those in the north (or looking for an excuse for an Edinburgh trip) - we'll be pouring for the trade at the beautiful Montrose alongside many of our pals: Roland Wines, Beattie & Roberts, Wright's, Wayward and Otros Vinos - themselves joined by JB from La Voluta. What a lineup!
Over two floors we'll have a wide array of optimistic spring wines from across our six portfolios, so it should make for a productive visit.
If you're keen to come and taste please drop us an email with your group size and preferred time you'd like to taste.
New arrivals courtesy of our man in Monferrato, Francesco Pozzobon at Tenuta Foresto.
Available now are Leuto & Favonio from the 2023 vintage - by Francesco's measure, his best for his white varieties - alongside a new (to us) micro-cuvéee from the same year - Br4ch3tto - and from 2022 comes a barrel-aged edition of his sparkling La Comedie and his beloved Barbera, IDEAle.
The new arrivals are detailed in full below and we'll be pouring them for the trade Antidote on Monday Jan, 26.
With eight hectares planted over clay and the chalky limestone, Francesco practices a zero-input farming method inspired by Fukuoka, growing mostly Barbera, with a little Moscato, Cortese, Dolcetto & Brachetto.
Each wine walks the line between Francesco's meticulous attention to detail, and intent to not interfere with the vines, the fruit, or the wines. Work in the cellar is delicate and considered, producing wines of great depth without sacrificing freshness and tension.
SPARKLING
NEW 2022 - Comedie v2 - Barbera
Comedie V2 takes a two-year barrel-aged Barbera from a younger parcel (the first pick each vintage. Macerated for 24 hours.) After its long rest, the resulting wine is sparked for secondary fermentation in bottle with the fermenting must of the 2024 vintage. A really vinous, elegant expression of Barbera.
WHITE
NEW 2023 - Leuto - Cortese
With great cropping in 2023 for his whites despite another year of drought, Francesco took the risk to try a completely different vinification for Leuto, one he'd been hoping to try for a few years, to soften the extraction. A 20-day carbonic maceration in an oak fermenter, aged for 18 months in acacia barriques. Less orange than in previous years, but with great structure that will age beautifully. Tense and characterful.
SKINS
NEW 2023 - Favonio - Moscato
Francesco has stuck with his vinification technique for the new Favonio (a week of de-stemmed maceration in an oak fermenter) but decided to develop the wine in acacia tonneaux for 18 months - buffering the intense aromatics of Moscato beautifully, we're enjoying the balance of this vintage.
RED
NEW 2023 - Br4ch3tto - Brachetto
A new one for us - with only two barriques produced, there is rarely any spare for export - Francesco has roughly 50 plants of Brachetto growing in his Moscato vineyard (the two were traditionally co-planted) and in 2023 the fruit underwent a month of carbonic maceration in concrete before 18 months in barrique. Tiny volumes available!
NEW 2022 - La Ideale - Barbera
Francesco's expression of the grape that brought him from Veneto to Piedmont (via Highbury) - from a parcel of 25-30 year old vines, gently destemmed and macerated for two months in foudre with super low extraction, just a little juice occasionally to keep the cap wet. Aged in 20hl oak barrels for 18 months before bottling unfined and unfiltered. Great depth of fruit from a warm, dry vintage, a wine that has settled so nicely with a little age.
We're looking forward to getting 2026 started in earnest by opening new arrivals and optimistic bottles to coax back the sun from its sleep.
Join us alongside our pals Otros Vinos and Sén on Monday 26 January as we pour wines for the trade upstairs at Antidote from 10am - 4pm.
To RSVP please send an email with your group size & preferred time you'd like to taste. See you there!
Here's our pal Joe Gamble and our 2026 calendar he's illustrated for us: his take on a year in wine (in the northern hemisphere at least) in a three colour riso courtesy of the wonderful Pagemasters crew.
Talking about the project with Joe, and noting how we love to spot the calendars on growers' walls as we visit through the year, we found the idea particularly funny of a winemaker needing to turn to their calendar to remind themselves of that months important job, as if it wasn't just in their bones - and deciding to pass those important jobs through several layers of abstraction like a chaotic game of telephone.
Process is important to all of us, and we love that Joe decided to leave in all the artefacts of his process in the final product, just like in the wines we love - decisions upon decisions. Some shots from the project here courtesy of Joe and Pagemasters.
This is always a fun way to welcome the new year, and Pagemasters do such a wonderful job - for those unfamiliar, the Riso print process uses Soya and Rice-bran oil inks - better degradability properties than their petroleum-based counterparts - and the printer runs almost entirely without thermal energy - much more energy efficient than most digital printing processes such as laserjet and inkjet printing.
Both Pagemasters and Joe are available for future projects here:
Pagemasters - Deptford
Joe Gamble
Freija is back!
At the end of 2024 we received an excited message from Daniel & Jonas telling us about their new creation - inspired by their partners Pauline & Melanie becoming mothers and the result of lots of experimentation - they had finally cracked a properly delicious alcohol-free sparkling.
Since the first batch sold out we've been eagerly awaiting its return, and are very glad to say its now here.
Produced in collaboration with Jonas' partner Pauline Baumberger & her winemaking family - Freija No.1 is a complex sparkling, consisting of herbal teas made with foraged ingredients from both family vineyards, their own grapes and fruit, lacto-fermented raspberry, the results blended and carbonated. The ingredient list is short, and completely natural - a sight you rarely see on many no-alcohol alternatives.
With a huge focus on agroforestry in both families' vineyards, the Freija project allows an outlet to ensure this fruit production isn't wasted, and can be used in an exciting way, without sacrificing flavour and complexity, or compromising their philosophy.
Fruit for the 2025 batch was picked at the end of August, and the drink was bottled in mid-winter, no additions.
ZERO-ALC
NEW Freija NO.1 - Grape juice, lemon balm & wormwood, verjus and raspberry
