Stockist/Retailer: Joseph Barnes

(2024) This unoaked blend of 50% Carignan, 23% Mourvèdre, 23% Grenache and 4% Syrah comes from 50-year-old vines in Boutenac, one of the prime terroirs of Corbières. It is certified organic. There's an interesting combination of fresh, pomegranate and cherry/floral aromas balanced by a deeper undercurrent of something plummy and black-fruited. In the mouth the flood of abundant sweet, fleshy and ripe black fruit fill the mid-palate, a real hedonistic mouthful of luscious and deep fruit. The tannins here are genuinely soft and silky, with the acid balancing nicely into a gentle, long finish.

(2024) From limestone-clay soils rich in deposits from the ancient Piave glacier, this is 100% Glera with a low 6.5g/l dosage. Umberto Cosmo points out that this level of sugar was once standard, but as some people made wine from less ripe fruit, they upped the sugar to compensate, and led to the higher levels that are now common. Here the fresh pear-like fruit sings from the glass, with some higher, floral notes, but then I find a touch of umami that along with very good acidity gives a gastronomic facet than many Proseccos lack. This is kept on the lees a little longer than many, which may account for that.

(2021) Moristel is a variety found only in the Somontano region of northern Spain, and rarely seen bottled as a single varietal wine. Just 5000 bottles are produced, from vines averaging 20 years of age. Fermented with ambient yeasts, it is a vivid and saturated crimson, with buoyant and lifted aromas of kirsch and violet, perhaps a little Beaujolais Nouveau-like, there's a wild scrubland a garrigue character too. In the mouth it is creamy, fruity and forward, with no oak influence its the combination of very ripe, juicy summer berry fruit and a certain rusticity to the tannins that drives this. Acidity, however, is also keen, giving this a really racy edge and making for an authentically different drop. There are several independent suppliers.

(2016) The soils of the single vineyard which grew the grapes for this organic wine are slate, with a high proportion of iron and manganese, which explain it's particularly mineral, dry, earthy and powerful appeal, so different to the general image of the Gamay grape and the fruitier wines of Beaujolais. Though there is cherry and plum, there's also a bloody, oxide note, dry earthy extraction and concentration, and a definite impression that this is one Beaujolais Cru that will cellar well and improve over 10 years or more. Watch the video for more information and food-matching suggestions.

(2014) Planted on granite soils at 250 metres elevation, de Raousset's Fleurie is fermented in cement tanks before eight months ageing in old oak barrels. A very dark, saturated crimson, it is a touch reductive at first, a little struck match note detracting, then deep and vinous, spicy fruit does come through. On the palate it is earthy and spicy. Maybe it is the relative rusticity after the smoothly appealing Régnié, but the fruit is not quite shining.