These are a few of my favourite things MKIII - no whiskers on kittens, just wickedly delicious wines - a six bottle box set

Here are six wines we're loving at the moment, an unashamedly indulgent case for wine lovers looking for something fresh. If you were going to buy your lovely wine guy a present, these would be the wines he'd like please!

Most of these are produced in tiny quantities and available for only a limited period so the contents of this case will change but at the moment it's this. To order any of these individually, please contact us. 

White Wines:

Vina Zorzal, Sea of Dreams White, Navarra, Spain -

Vina Zorzal is a project three brothers inherited from their father, Antonio Sanz. It wasn’t long before Inaki, Mikel and Xavier were joined by their friend Rafael Regadera and the boys really made Vina Zorzal their own passion project.

Ungrafted Viura with a touch of Garnacha Blanca aged in concrete egg and old oak. Crystalline, pure and precise.

Producer - Vina Zorzal
Country - Spain
Region - Navarra
Variety / Blend - Viura, Garnacha Blanca
Wine Style - White Wine
Farming - Organic
Vegan

Domaine de Thalie, Les Cosmics, Bourgogne Aligoté -

Peter’s secluded corner of Southern Burgundy is striking for its biodiversity: polyculture, cattle farms, deep forests, and mixed agriculture, far from the monoculture that is more prevalent further North. The vines for this wine are between 300 and 400m in altitude with a wide diurnal range that preserves acidity and freshness even in hotter vintages. 

Aligoté is often seen as a secondary grape in Burgundy but it can be delicious. Like this one. A bit fresher and lighter in fruit than Chardonnay but great complexity, in this case, and that lightness makes this a joy to drink.

Producer - Domaine de Thalie
Country - France
Region - Burgundy
Appellation - Bourgogne Aligoté
Variety / Blend - Aligoté
Wine Style - White Wine
Farming - Organic and biodynamic principles
Vegan

Orange:

Jauma, Origins Arneis, Mclaren Vale, Australia -

This is a very drinkable orange, with great structure and power. 100% Arneis handcrafted by James Erskine and the Jauma team in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. Expect smooth pear aromatics with crazy rose and mouthwatering tannins.

Unfiltered and unfined with no added sulphites.

Producer - Jauma
Country - Australia
Region - Mclaren Vale, South Australia
Appellation - Peters Creek
Variety / Blend - Arneis
Wine Style - Orange Wine
Farming -  Organic 
Vegan

Red Wines:

L'Equinox Wines, Find Your Happy Place, Swartland, South Africa - 

L’Equinox is a young project created by MC Stander who, after a decade working for wineries across South Africa, decided to start his own project sourcing grapes from organic and biodynamic growers in Swartland, a region which is a lot less pretty than Stellenbosch or Franschoek but IMHO making many of South Africa’s most beautiful wines. He has always been drawn to a fresher style of winemaking, favouring lighter extractions, light skin contact on the whites, and a less-is-more approach and the mediterranean climate helps produce grapes that are perfect for this approach.

Find your happy place is a blend of two Mediterranean varieties, Grenache and Carignan, plus South Africa's own Pinotage (which is a cross between Pinot Noir and Med variety, Cinsault). Light in colour but deliciously, warmly fruity, like a great summer pudding in a glass, full of hedgerow berries. 

Try it with a traditional South African braai or a dish of Puy lentils and aubergine (there's a great recipe in Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi).

Producer - L'Equinox Wines
Country - South Africa
Region - Swartland
Variety / Blend - Grenache, Carignan, Pinotage
Wine Style - Red Wine
Farming - Biodynamic
Vegan

Scions of Sinai, Atlantikas Pinotage, Stellenbosch, South Africa - Scion refers to the top life bearing parts of a plant/vine or can also mean ‘the descendant of’. Sinai refers to ‘Sinai Hill’ – a granite hill in the region of lower Helderberg, to the south of Stellenbosch.

Bernhard is as low intervention as can be, he wants the wine to be a true expression of itself and so there is no manipulation, he says - “I’m not trying to be weird or funky – for me what’s most important is to have that line between vineyard and glass as uncompromised as possible,”

Producer - Scions of Sinai
Country - South Africa
Region - Stellenbosch
Variety / Blend -Pinotage
Farming - Uncertified Organic
Vegan

Vino Di Anna, Vendredi 13, Rosso 2021, Etna, Sicily, Italy

Anna Martens and Eric Narioo have been making wines on the side of Mt Etna since 2008, their wines reflect the individual terroir and is completely biodynamic. Anna and Eric also help protect and farm the rare Sicilian black bee. The vineyards are located on different Contrada (historic lava flows) and all grapes are tended to by hand with minimum intervention. A truly natural wine making approach creating super, natural wines

Friday 13th - unlucky for some, but for others it may be a day to celebrate... 2021 was an extremely hot and dry year on Etna, bringing a low yielding harvest of ripe, healthy grapes, yet with higher sugar levels than normal and the black grapes had thicker skins and were more tannic. With this in mind, vinification practices needed to be modified in order to make a balanced wine, so the grapes destined for Anna's Palmento Rosso (another one of our faves) and the Jeudi 15 Rosato were blended with a smidge of one of their white wines made from old bush vines of indigenous Etnaen white grapes; Grecanico, Carricante and Minneola.

The result is an energetic wine, full of fruit and plenty of trademark volcanic minerality. It brings aromas of cherries, strawberries and wild fennel. It's medium bodied with juicy, ripe tannins, red fruits and a touch of spice.

Producer - Vino Di Anna
Country - Italy
Region - Sicily     
Appellation - Etna       
Variety / Blend - Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Alicante, Grecanico, Minella Bianca, Carricante
Wine Style - Red Wine
Farming - Organic / Biodynamic
Vegan     

Fizz

Folias de Baco, Uivo PT Nat Curtido, Douro, Portugal  - We love a Pet Nat and this is an all round favourite. Tiago Sampaio farms in the Douro Valley, the home of Port and a very traditional area. However he's doing things a little bit differently. Rather than farming near the river he is growing at high altitude which helps slow down ripening, increase complexity and maintain freshness in the wines. He’s also growing on different soils, with his vines growing in a shist / clay / granite mix in contrast to the more usual shist / slate soils further down the hill.
This wine fermeneted for 6 days on skins, then pressed and bottled to complete the fermentation as per the pet nat / ancetstral method. Unfined, unfiltered, undisgorged.

Producer - Folias de Baco
Country - Portugal
Region - Douro
Variety - Moscatel Galego
Farming - Organic
Vegan
No added sulphites
 
This case contains one bottle of each of these wines. If any is out of stock or becomes unavailable it will be replaced by one of equal or greater value and deliciousness.