A Fun Family Christmas Box Set - A six bottle mixed case

A slightly alternative Christmas collection sure to impress your hip kids coming home from the big cities but not too natty to scare away your nan. Naturally delicious, fun for the whole family (who are of drinking age)

Sparkling Wine

Testalonga, El Bandito, I Wish I Was a Ninja, Swartland, South Africa - 

Craig and Carla Hawkins' wines seem to get better with every vintage. They make beautiful, poised, satisfying and utterly lovely wines from low yielding vines mainly growing on granitic soils in Swartland. Often using techniques including whole bunch ferments, extended skin contact and old oak foudres, with just a touch of sulphites at bottling, these are lovely, almost delicate wines that are a million miles from the stereotypical blockbuster South African wines you may be used too.

Craig's pet nats have been amongst our most popular bubbles. "Dance with me" it says on the back label of this one. A request or a demand?

This is a Pet Nat made from Colombard, just 10% alcohol but 110% fun.

Producer - Testalonga
Country - South Africa
Region - Swartland
Variety / Blend - Colombard
Wine Style - Sparkling Wine
Farming  - Organic    
Vegan

White Wine

Barouillet, Bergecrac, Bergerac Blanc Sec, France -

Hiding from the rain, dreaming of the Dordogne?
 This'll help. Made by Vincent Alexis, eighth generation winemaker at Barouillet, Bergecrac Blanc Sec is a blend of local South West France varietals that manages to stay fresh and supple when the warm, dry climate makes maintaining acidity a challenge. Organically grown Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Semillon and Chenin are hand harvested and pressed directly before undergoing a 4 month, temperature controlled fermentation with wild yeasts. Once fermentation is complete they are blended together to age in stainless steel on their fine lees before being bottles without filtration and zero sulphates. Brings back the sun with every glass.

Producer - Barouillet

Country - France

Region - South West

Sub-Region - Bergerac

Variety / Blend - Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Semillon, Chenin 

Farming - Organic
Wine Style - White Wine   

Vegan

Sulphate free

Orange Wine

Arianna Occhipinti, SP68 Bianco, Terre Siciliane, Italy -

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

Red Wine

William Downie, Cathedral, Victoria, Australia - 

Produced by winemaker, William Downie. In 2006 William was fortunate to buy a farm and plant a vineyard in Gippsland, just 20 minutes from where he grew up. The land is north facing, surprisingly the opposite of the usual hot Aussie weather, as the climate here is cool with high rainfall. You can even spot a ski resort in the distance! William farms with regenerative agriculture in mind, which means no cultivation, no synthetic chemicals or fertilisers. 

Producer - William Downie
Country - Australia
Region - Victoria     
Sub-Region - Victoria
Variety / Blend - Pinot Noir
Wine Style - Red Wine
Farming - Organic Principles

Mutiliana, Ibbola, Romagna Sangiovese Modigliana, Emilia-Romagna, Italy  - 

Few people know the varied terroir of Emilia-Romagna as well as Giorgio Melandri, who spent 20 years tasting and writing about the wines of this region for Gambera Rosso. Mutiliana is Giorgi's project focusing on the weathered sandstone soils above Modigliana where he claims "Sangiovese speaks a different language - less alcohol, fresher acidity and more herbal and floral notes". Working with winemaker, Francesco Bordini he aims to create wines made of pure Sangiovese, expressing the unique mineral style that highlights the terroir its valley of origin, as Giorgi says "the traditional style before oak and over-ripeness came in"

Floral and earthy with delicate fruit and minerality.

Producer - Mutiliana
Country - Italy
Region - Emilia-Romagna    
Sub-Region - Modigliana
Variety / Blend - Sangiovese
Wine Style - Red Wine
Farming - Sustainable with organic practices
Vegan

Judith Beck, Beck Ink, Burgenland, Austria - 

Who the heck is Judith Beck? Icon enough to be name checked in a rap. (Emidio Pepe by Slim Papi if you’re interested!)

There are quite a lot of women winemakers who set the bar very high for everyone and Judith Beck in Austria is definitely one of them. Her wines always delight with their balance, elegance and drinkability. As she says, they go for complexity over opulence, enjoyableness over power. Located in Burgenland in eastern Austria the climate is strongly continental but the vineyards are particularly influenced by the Neusiedlersee, a huge lake that tempers the climate and stores warmth from the long summer sunlight hours.

This wine is a blend of two local varieties and is surprisingly full bodied but with a lightness and minerality, full of summer berry flavours and a touch of spice. Brilliant value, as are all Judith's wines.

Producer  - Judith Beck

Country - Austria

Region - Burgenland
Variety / Blend - St Laurent, Zweigelt
Wine Style - Red Wine
Farming - Organic / Biodynamic

Vegan