Stockist/Retailer: Honest Grapes

(2024) From a vintage described as 'joyous' after a more difficult few years, this cuvée is a selection of the best quality Cabernet Sauvignon, with small berries and high skin-to-juice ratio. Fruit was optically sorted before a portion was fermented in new French oak barrels, the rest in stainless steel and concrete tanks. The wine was then blended with 6% Petit Verdot and aged 22 months in French oak, 95% of the barrels new. There's so much depth and lush, plump black fruit in the nose, with vanilla and spices, dark chocolate and yet a floral, violet and kirsch element that lifts the aromas too. The oak is sensitively and beautifully done. In the mouth the plush concentration of the black fruit is silky and velvet-rich, the creamy oak adding a light veneer of toast, and yet the cherry-skin bite of the acidity and dusty, very fine tannins adds savoury complexity. Really very impressive wine, which Beaulieu Vineyard suggests will cellar for 30 years. Note that this wine will not be available until September 2024.

(2022) A nicely balanced Brut Prosecco from the Rive de Refrontolo, a hillside in Valdobbiadene. I found this to be a particularly estery wine, with notes of banana and peach, and zesty lemon. In the mouth very clean, very precise, still a peachy and slightly tropical fruit quality mid-palate, before cleansing sour apple and citrus acidity gives a pleasingly crisp finish.

(2017) The fabulous toast and opulent depth that DP pulls out of the bag vintage after vintage - and after nine years of ageing of course - shines through, seductive coffee and chocolate notes underpin flashing bright fruit, a tinge of green herbs, then brioche on the palate, the thrilling blend of richness and layered texture with rapier-like, electrically-charged acidity.

(2016) The alpine twin of Sassicaia, this is a Bordeaux blend from the far north of Italy, and an estate owned by Marchese Carlo Guerrieri Gonzaga who spent time at Sassicaia and employed the same consultant to oversee this wine, winner of 13 consecutive 'Tre Bicchieri' awards from Gambero Rosso since its first vintage in 1982. At six years old it is still intense and youthful, a firm liquorice and bloody-edged keen black fruit on the nose. In the mouth the suppleness is impressive, with dry, fine but grippy tannins around a ripe fruit core. Balanced, with an elegant cherry freshness to the acidity, that does not detract from the seriousness and very Bordeaux-like combination of authoritative structure and yet hints of a charm that will unfold over 10 to 15 years.