Philipponnat 0 Dosage Royal Reserve 2017
$92.99
This prestigous domaine and family has been producing Champagne for over 500 years. The name of Royal Réserve goes back to the ancestors of the Philipponnat family, vineyard owners, wine-merchants and winemakers, suppliers to Louis XIV, magistrates and Royal Mayors of Ay. Ity's a blend of 65% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, 5% Pinot Meunier. First press juice of mainly Grand and Premier Crus grapes from the heart of the Champagne wine-growing area. 20 to 30% of reserve wines are aged in wooden barrels using the solera system to incorporate older wines without losing freshness.
Mas Gabriel Lievres
$41.99
A blend of 75% Syrah and Grenache from plots located on three terraces, facing east at an altitude of 120m in Caux. The soil is basalt scree, silt and Villafranchian gravel. It's de-stemmed (without crushing), with vatting by gravity. Separate vinification of each grape variety in traditional fermentation with two delestages and pigeage. Post-fermentation maceration lasts for 20 days. It's aged in 500L barrels (15% new wood) for another 12 months.
Testalonga Stay Brave Chenin Blanc
$36.99
Testalonga Baby Bandito Stay Brave Chenin, skin contact fresh and unfined orange wine. - fermented on the skins for 11 days before being pressed off into old oak Foudre and barrels. No yeast or other additives apart from a small amount of SO2 shortly before bottling. Ambient fermentation and 100% malolactic fermentation. Unfined and only lightly filtered
Planted in 1981, bush vine (un-trellised), farmed organically. This is a 1.5ha block which was abandoned in 2014, they approached the farmer Rick Mcgrindle and asked if they could try and revive it. The first vintage in 2016 resulted in no grapes but in 2017 showed tremendous growth and yielded nicely.
Winemaker Craig says: 'Baby Bandito is a project we started in 2015. We wanted to work with vineyards that deliver wines that can be drunk young yet still “over deliver” in quality one would expect from our most affordable wine. There was a heavy influence from street artists (the good ones, not just your drunk student defacing someone’s wall, unless it was good) in the labels and the idea of a “series” using different and bright colours. The names of the wines come from expressions that we use as if giving encouragement to a child. Stay Brave is our “Baby” skin contact Chenin.'
Dormilona Orenji
$38.99
This is the perfect 'training-wheels' wine if you're just getting into skin-contact white wines.
Orenji is a cheeky little number. A blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, hand-harvested from an organic vineyard in Margaret River. Jo let the fruit hang out on skins for six weeks before pressing it and putting it to bed in barrel.
She wants this to be a friendly style of orange wine, not a big, scary, chewy number.
It's something you can knock back without thinking too much about. And if you're keen to get your head around skinsy whites, it's a terrific place to start.
Josephine Perry is one of the most exciting emerging producers in Margaret River. Her Dormilona label is setting a new tone for the region.
A self-confessed 'lazy-bones' winemaker, Jo is low-intervention in the winery, instead focusing her energies on the quality of fruit that she brings in the winery.
She uses only organically and biodynamically farmed fruit from high-quality vineyards across Margaret River, and is bringing an alt-styling to the way she produces the hero varieties of this famous region.
These are Margaret River wines with flair and originality. From vineyard to glass, Jo handcrafts each wine with love and tender hands. An authentic producer who's rightfully gaining plenty of attention.
Mas Del Perie Skin Contact
$36.99
At Mas Del Périé, Fabien Jouves is making delicious biodynamic wines in the mountains of Cahors, southwest France, working not just with the region's famous grape Malbec, but with a full roster of native grapes.
Fabien's family has been farming in their village of Causse for generations. After embarking on life as a winemaker in 2006, he set up shop on the highest slopes of Cahors looking to make the vibrant wines he loved drinking. The property is farmed as an ecosystem with horse-plowing, bees, grains, and some very cute pigs! These wines are full of life, but classically delicious enough to trick your conservative friends into loving. Fabien is part of a new generation of winemakers looking to revitalize the wines of south-west France.
Tears of Vulcan
$56.99
Founded by winemaker and owner Brianne Day in the 2012 vintage, Day Wines is a producer of boutique, artisanal bottlings made from fruit sourced exclusively from a small group of Oregon growers who utilize Biodynamic, Organic and/or Sustainable vineyard practices. To create distinct expressions of our corner of the world, we focus on fruit harvested from the esteemed Willamette Valley to exotic varietals found in Southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley AVA. We think think this wine is called Tears of Vulcan is because it's so good it could actually make Spock cry, and as Trekkies know, Vulcans do not cry easily.
Pepin Orange
$49.99
Pepin is about establishing a network of committed winemakers. All are certified organic, respecting strict specifications and applying no synthetic pesticides, insecticides or weedkillers to their vines. The grapes are harvested by hand to promote quality, as well as the social ties, human energy and festivities that harvesting creates. After systematic maceration for reds and oranges, and occasional maceration for whites, the grapes are pressed. The juice is simply put into tanks, foudres and barrels, and then we let the wine do its own thing. Six individuals are the roots of this project: Pierre and Jean, founders of the Achillée estate in Alsace, Xavier and Pierre, consultant oenologists to over 200 winegrowers, and Arnaud and Raphaël, orchestrating the whole operation. Pépin also includes numerous partner winemakers and a team that bridges the gap from vineyards to your glass, crafting various cuvées of natural wine