Three Red Wines for Christmas

(2022) This is made by Viña Ventisquero who are based in Maipo, but the 'Kalfu' labelling indicates that this range comes from their vineyards in the more northerly, coastal Leyda Valley, more recently put on the map for its Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and other cooler climate varieties. It's a Pinot from granite soils, matured in oak barrels - 10% new barrels - for 12 months. It wears its cooler climate credentials aromatically, with herbs and beetroot notes to savoury red fruit. In the mouth the sweetness and ripeness of the fruit does emerge, but it maintains that savoury, roasted chestnut and herb-touched sense of cool. Acids are bright and cherry-ripe, and tannins smooth and chocolaty, in a wine that will complement well-roasted poultry, but could take on beef too.

(2022) These vines truly are vieilles, or 'old', here in the high Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, at 70 years of age. Cinsault was the chosen variety for the Jesuit missionaries who planted cutting here in the 19th century, a slice of Lebanese history in more ways than one. The wine is fermented with wild yeasts, from organically-grown grapes, and is aged partly in large oak foudres, and partly in concrete vats. There's a swirling, smoky, tobacco character as well as classic cigar-box notes to keen but ripe red and black fruits. In the mouth there's loads of fleshy plum, but with a lean and muscular edge. Spices and the oak component adding savoury, smooth tannins and crisp cherry acids to balance the sweet and ripe mid-palate fruit. A lovely wine.

(2022) This Southern Rhône-style blend is mostly Grenache, with 10% Syrah and 5% Mataro (aka Mourvèdre) from a vineyard planted in 1999. Fermented with wild yeast and no temperature control, it was aged for almost year in large oak casks. It's a smoky, meaty and bramble-fruited wine, with a elegant lift that develops aromatically showing violet and kirsch top-notes. In the mouth, so much sweet-toned cherry and ripe red plum fruit, edged with savour, cedary oak and a very polished tannin structure. It has grip and finishes dry, tobacco spices bolstering the fruit.