(2024) Cerasuolo di Vittoria is Sicily's only DOCG, and specialises in red wines blended from Nero d'Avola and Frappato. Frappato often makes an appealingly soft, light, Beaujolais Nouvea-style wine, whereas the addition of Nero d'Avola adds a bit of structure and grip to the recipe. In this organic example around 15% of the Nero d'Avola is also is dried to add further intensity. It has brightness of cherry and red fruit, then a little inkiness and slightly more rustic grip comes through on the palate to leave it fruity but dry and quite savoury on the finish.
(2024) A slightly firmer style in this lees-aged wine, the nose hinting at passion fruit and lime peel, a ripe peachiness beneath, fermentation with wild yeast adding a savoury note. On the palate that concentrated, zesty concentration drives this, a pithy lemon grapefruit towards the finish making it gastronomic and dry, with good, precise length.
(2024) An organic certified wine that is apparently an everything but the kitchen sink blend of Auxerrois, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir and Riesling. It spends 18 to 24 months on the lees. The nose has sherbet and nettle, lemon too. The palate has a crispness to the mousse, and while there's a feeling of sweetness, there's a touch of sour plum and a grapefruit acidity, joined by a hint of toast. It's not the most elegant combination, but at £12, that can be forgiven.
(2024) From Champagne house Pommery's 100-acre vineyard planted in Hampshire in 2017, this blends Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The mousse is foamy and rich, with aromas of biscuit and a touch of nettle, a nicely nutty style. In the mouth this is properly dry, the apple core sense of dryness with an only slightly fatter, lemon rind overlay, pushes the wine through the mid-palate. It's a very nice, classically proportioned wine this and at £24.00 in Tesco if you have a club card, a decent buy.
(2024) A Chardonnay dominated blend along with Gamay and tiny amounts of Aligoté and Pinot Noir, this drinks well in a slightly more crowd-pleasing, soft and approachable style where the sweetness of the dosage is slightly too high for my palate, which tends towards drier sparkling wines. It's a simple but well-made wine with good fruit and freshness in the finish.
(2024) From vineyards in the Awatere and Wairau Valleys of Marlborough. This was fermented with a mix of indigenous and cultured yeasts and spent 10 months in French oak barriques, only 5% of which were new. Pale and translucent cherry colour, it is an intensely aromatic Pinot, lots of wild strawberry, herbs, vegetal mushroom notes and patchouli. A toasty background of oak is in there too. Sweet and creamy fruit, but the 12.5% alcohol means it is only medium-bodied, the oak filling in and acid a little soft but doing enough to keep this fresh and savoury. A pale and sweeter style of Pinot on offer at £12.99 at time of review (though not a buy at the full asking price for me).
(2024) Bright, feels a touch sweet despite being Brut - so less than 12g/l of sugar - with crisply defined ripe apple and touches of sweeter peach, a light and forthy mousse, and enough acidity to balance.£10.66 at time of review, which is a better price I think.
(2024) This Chilean wine is an unusual blend of mostly Sauvignon Blanc, the light peach/orange colour and hint of red berries coming from Pinot Noir. Aromatically, small redcurrant and cranberry notes join racier lemon withba touch of orange peel. The palate is fairly straightforward with citrus juiciness and a dry finish.
(2024) Lampe de Méduse in its striking genie's lamp bottle is a pale and attractive, organic certified rosé from clay and limestone soils. The blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Tibouren, Mourvèdre and Syrah has a strawberry shortcake nose, delightfully crammed with summery red berries. The palate has real vibrancy, ripe and punchy berries scythed through by salts and lemon acidity. Very good.
(2024) Another wine closed with the 'Vinolok' glass stopper on a rather romantic rose-embossed bottle, this blends Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan. It's a another finely detailed wine from Sainte Roseline, pale, peachy and fragrant, summer berries and herbs, a fresh and lightly grassy and floral aspect to this. On the palate the acidity and that grassiness give this gastronomic potential, those adding a bit of seriousness to the pretty peach and lime flavours.
