The Edit - Robin's picks for this month - a three bottle box set. March 2024.

The Edit is our monthly selection of what's exciting and drinking well, chosen by Robin, founder of Iron & Rose and still a wine obsessive. The three bottles selected change each month to reflect the season, the food we're enjoying, and often to introduce new arrivals. Three wines to introduce you to our world of natural wine, to encourage you to delve deeper, or for a treat to yourself or as a gift.

Subscribe for regular deliveries and save even further. Although the price of The Edit will vary according to the wines chosen each month, (this month it is £79.95) it will always be between £60 and £90 and by subscribing you'll save an additional £3.50 off each box set - enough to buy yourself a V60 pour-over coffee from PetitGlou to enjoy while you scan the shelves in Iron & Rose or relax after some intensive market shopping.

In March we are celebrating International Women's Day with a trio of wines made by three women making exceptional wines and setting the bar very high for high. Join us on a vinous adventure. 

This box set contains three bottles, one of each of the following wines, made by inspirational producers, the kind of wines which inspired Robin to start Iron & Rose back in 2016 - 

Barco Del Corneta, Verdejo, Castilla y Leon, Spain (white) 

Beatriz Herranz has put her heat and soul into truly getting to know verdejo. From small beginnings in 2008, planting 5 hectares of verdejo on old family land in the village of Seca, two years later she loaded up a van with verdejo and some friends and took them to Gredos to make 300 bottles of her first wine. Since she has bought plots of old vines in nearby villages and has her own space in La Seca allowing her project to grow. The benign climate allows her to work organically in the vineyards. She describes her wines as 'swimming against the current'.

This verdejo is taken from a single old family vineyard that Beatriz has regenerated in La Seca, Vallalodid which is 750m above sea level and on sandy and stony soil. After being handpicked, the grapes are left to macerate for 24 hours before a gentle press and a further 24 hours to naturally settle. It's then put in oak barrels to ferment with natural yeasts then aged on its lees for a further 8 months in 300 litre French barrels.

Silky, chalky and complex.

Producer - Barco Del Corneta
Country - Spain
Region - Castilla Y Leon
Appellation - Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon
Variety / Blend - Verdejo
Wine Style - White Wine
Farming - Organic
Vegan

Arianna Occhipinti, SP68 Bianco, Terre Siciliane, Italy (orange) 

You’ll know about our slight obsession with Sicily at Iron and Rose, and the amazing wines and food that come from that beautiful island.

You may not know about my secret, slightly obsessive, fandom of Stanley Tucci. (Not so secret now I guess!)

Mix those two together into the recent TV series, Searching for Italy, and frankly it was an hour of bliss.

To top it off Stanley went to interview Arianna Occhipinti whose wines I fell head over heals with back when I first tasted them on a visit to Sicily in 2016. We’ve been selling and drinking them (when we can get hold of them) ever since. 

Arianna Occhipinti got involved in wine at the young age of sixteen, working with her uncle Giusto at COS, in Sicily, but stands in no-one's shadow now making wine which in her words, "in its harmonies and roughness, talks about the land where it comes from and also about me. "

SP68 Bianco is a blend of Zibibbo (aka Muscat d'Alexandria) and Albanello fermented on skins. It is tropically aromatic and light and very low in sulphates. Grown in the unique soils and climate of Ragusa.

Want to know more? Do yourself a favour, get on iPlayer, find Stanley and immerse yourself in an hour of virtual travel, preferably with a glass of this to hand.

Producer - Arianna Occhipinti
Country - Italy
Region - Sicily 
Sub-Region - Ragusa
Variety / Blend - Zibibbo (Muscat de Alexandria), Albanello
Wine Style - Orange Wine   
Farming - Organic / Biodynamic
Vegan 
Low Sulphates

Domaine Elodie Jaume, Coudoulet 2023, Côtes-du-Rhône, France (red) 

Elodie Jaume (pictured above) splits her time between her eponymous domaine and her generational family estate, Domaine des Chanssaud, in the heart of Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône, France). ⁣Change is afoot at the family domaine, Elodie having recently taken over from her father Patrick. The estate was certified organic in 2012 though the vines have been farmed organically since 1996. The house style focuses on fruit purity, using pretty much no wood at all and instead favouring large concrete tanks for fermentation and maturation. This ensures the maximum expression of these very old vineyards which are for the most part over 70 years old.⁣
⁣
In 2017 Elodie took over 5 hectares of the family domaine to vinify wines under her own Domaine Elodie Jaume label. Here she pushes the boundaries of farming and vinification even further, using biodynamic principles, working by horse in the vines, using sheep to graze, keeping bees, and reintroducing native flora (and thereby fauna) to bring diversity back to this heavily farmed, often mono-cultural landscape. ⁣This wine is from this project and is a wonderful expression of place, eschewing big hitting alcohol and heavy punching for a more delicate and subtle style.  

Producer - Elodie Jaume
Country - France
Region - Southern Rhône
Appellation - Côtes du Rhône
Variety / Blend - Grenache, Mouvedre, Syrah
Wine Style - Red Wine
Farming - Biodynamic
Vegan

The wines in this box set are available in limited quantities, so we may need to offer alternatives but these will be of similar price and equal value!