(2024) Sangiovese spends around four months on the lees in stainless steel, then into French oak barriques for 12 months, 20% new oak. Cherry dominates the aromatics, but the oak has given a lovely tobacco and vanilla roundness, a warming chestnut character in the background too. Once again that touch of lift to the aromas. The palate has a creamy ripeness to the tannins, which along with the oak-enriched red fruits that are also ripe and fleshy, gives the wine a chocolaty texture. The juicy plum-skin grip of the acidity balances the finish with a welcome touch of bitterness.

(2024) An organic certified partner to the regular Roggiano Morellino, this is just redolent of ripe, juicy cherries. There's a savoury edge that emerges, slightly cedary, smoky and meaty, moving on to the palate where that plump cherry ripeness reasserts. There's a delightful axis of ripe tannins and pin-sharp acidity here, adding a bittersweet, grown-up firmness to the fleshy mid-palate fruit.

(2024) From an organic estate just outside the Brunello di Montalcino appellation, this is 100% Sangiovese, fermented and aged in French oak for 24 months. I find the paler colour of this eight-year-old wine to be attractive, maybe just a hint of amber on the rim. On the nose there's a developed character, moving into an autumnal phase with dried leaves, truffle and a little chestnut. It's Sangiovese in a Burgundy mould, with a little sour cherry added. The palate has that same briary, mushroom and truffle softness, the tannins are resolved and elegant and the balance of the acidity is very good, giving this clarity into the gently spicy finish. The opposite of blockbuster, it's a lovely wine of individual style.

(2024) A 10-year-old 'super-Tuscan', the vineyard here is run organically and biodymanically. The blend is Sangiovese with the Bordeaux trio of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. It is aged in older 500-litre barrels for a year before 10 months in concrete and large wooden vats. It's great that FromVineyardsDirect offers these mature wines at reasonable prices - two years ago they had an 18-year-old version of this same cuvée that was superb. This is no slouch either. Aromas are delightfully Bordeaux-like, with some pencil-shaving and graphite over black fruits and a gamy nuance, the Sangiovese perhaps adding a little brighter cherry. In the mouth it is medium-bodied, has good fruit, and tertiary development with a little spice and grainy tannin adding grip and elegant acidity. This is drinking well now.  

(2024) Made by Château Clinet of Pomerol, but from Right Bank vineyards outside of the appellation, this Merlot-based wine is another I've enjoyed in various vintages. There's a smooth and plush plum and chocolate character on the nose, dark and touched by espresso. It's all about swirling darkness really, but there are delightful little perfumed violet hints. On the palate the creamy, suave depth of the black fruit cashes the cheque promised by the nose: crushed black berries, a meaty and charry edge but well into the background, and a lovely support from the quite richly-framed tannins and acidity. Well-priced. Watch the video for more information.

(2024) From the Macedon Ranges. More youthful colour than the Levantine Hill. Fragrant, a little more perfumed with a floral and herbal character, crunchy cranberry touching into pomegranate. Lovely palate, the supple, harmonious mid-weight gently filled with red fruit, supported by a little chocolate oak, and balanced beautifully into the finish. Apparently about one-seventh the price of the Levantine Hill, but I really liked this.

(2024) A limited production wine made from 100-year-old Tempranillo from a single vineyard at 550 metres in the Rioja Alta region. It spent seven months in French oak barrels and 10 more in bottle before release. Vanilla, rich black fruit and a racy suggestion of gravel and cedar are the opening impressions. There's a little hint of violet lift too. In the mouth it is firm and structured. A vinous black plum, blackcurrant intensity of fruit floods the mid-palate, but mouth-coating, sandy tannins combine with spicy, mocha coffee oak and pert cherry acidity to give a long, fresh but powerful finish with a bit of gravitas. Should cellar well. Watch the video for more information.

(2024) I'm a big fan of Riverby's Syrah, even though it is not available in the UK and Syrah as a variety is almost unheard of in Marlborough. There's a lively quality of black fruit touched by exotic spices like caraway, with a gloss of balsamic oak. The palate has medium weight and ripe black fruit, smooth as silk and finishing with excellent balance. For me, another very fine expression of Syrah from the region.

(2024) Fermented in stainless steel, but this unfiltered cuvée is a selection of fruit. I am not sure if it sees a touch of oak, but if so, very much in the background. Dark dense and vivid purple. The nose has a little more brooding character than the more expressive entry level wine, but there's gloss and depth, a slightly more black-fruited character too with just a hint of sweet earth. In the mouth certainly more rounded and textural through the mid-palate, the fruit like blackberries and damsons with hints of smoke and spice. Still that good juiciness and enough tannic grip into the finish. 25,000 bottles were produced.

(2024) Made in Teliani's qvevri winery, in the clay amphora-like pots traditional to the region. Grapes from the village of Kisiskhevi in Kakheti are selected for this bottling, which has skins removed from the qvevri after nine days or so, before continuing to mature. The first thing that strikes as different is the herb and dried twig character of the aroma. These are light forest floor aromas, with a meaty and gamy undertone. In the mouth the fruit is dense and in the blackberry and damson plum spectrum, but that very dry character - twigs and briar again - has a completely different tannic structure, coating the mouth in dusty tannin with fine acid too. There is ripeness here, the mid-palate showing that, but the mouth-watering dry finish is striking. Only 6,500 bottles produced.