Wine tourism in Uruguay

Geoffrey Dean on the many vinous jewels to be found in Uruguay

“We are the New Zealand of South America.” This is how Uruguay sees itself with a wide diurnal range allowing wines to have a good balance between acid, alcohol, tannin and fruit. Geoffrey Dean went there and singles out a variety of top wineries and wines, plus samples a variety of Tannat wines – from vines planted in 1870, to super premium and also carbonic macerated – through to Riesling, Albariño and Cabernet Franc.

26th July 2025 by Geoffrey Dean,

To the traditional duo of Argentina and Chile can be added a third South American country with all the ingredients for top-end wine tourism: Uruguay. Its compact size – around two-thirds of the surface area of the United Kingdom – make it easy to travel around; its wineries’ cellar doors are most welcoming, invariably with superb cuisine and often with attractive accommodation options; and the quality of the wines keeps getting better and better.

Moreover, Uruguay can lay claim to possessing the most stable economy in South America. Although its population is small (around 3.4 million), it has the highest GDP in the continent and the best classification in the Corruption Perception Index in Latin America. It is also number 1 in the Prosperity Index.

“We are the New Zealand of South America,” declares Daniel Pisano, co-owner of the celebrated Pisano winery just north of the capital, Montevideo, that was founded by his grandfather in 1924. “We have high natural acidity thanks to the wide diurnal range in Uruguay. Cool nights allow us to retain acidity, and there is a good balance between acid, alcohol, tannin and fruit.”

Just as New Zealand is something of a kid brother to Australia, so Uruguay has a similar relationship with Argentina. Many wealthy Argentines invest in Uruguay, notably in its wineries. Indeed, the oldest one in Uruguay which dates back to 1854, Cerros de San Juan, and perhaps the best-known one, Bodega Garzón, are Argentine-owned.

One of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to arrive in Uruguay is the one-hour ferry ride from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento on the Colonia Express service. From Colonia, whose historic quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is a 35-km drive to Los Cerros de San Juan. The owners, who bought the winery in 2019, have invested heavily in its facilities, acquiring six 1800-litre clay amphorae and recruiting Michel Rolland as a consultant. A converted barn houses a handsome tasting-room and restaurant.

An hour’s drive west of Los Cerros de San Juan, just outside the town of Carmelo, is the Narbona Wine Lodge, home to both a first-rate winery and a delightful boutique hotel with seven large bedrooms that have nice vineyard views. Rolland also acted as a consultant here from 2011-14, helping winemaker Valeria Chiola to produce one of Uruguay’s best Tannats, Luz de Luna. Narbona’s first Tannat vines were planted in the 1870s.

Another winery with a very comfortable lodge that has four bedrooms opening onto the vines is Pizzorno, which is situated in the Canelones appellation north of Montevideo. Carlos Pizzorno is a third generation winemaker and a very innovative one, producing Uruguay’s only ice wine and a carbonic maceration Tannat. It is very much a family affair, with father Francisco still overseeing the estate and sister Maria-Clara chief financial officer. Just a few miles away is Pisano, where tasting is by appointment only.

A third winery with its own accommodation – a pair of delightful cabins in the middle of 11 hectares of vineyards – is Bracco Bosca in the Atlántida sub-appellation (named because of its proximity to the Atlantic). The owner-winemaker is the irrepressible Fabiana Bracco, an energetic ambassador for the Uruguayan wine industry as well as a famously hospitable host. Even if not staying there, the winery is a must-visit to taste a superb range that includes arguably the country’s finest Cabernet Franc.

There are too many outstanding Tannats in Uruguay to laud as the best, but one of the most revered is the Massimo Deicas label, made by Familia Deicas on their Juanicó estate. The cellar there, built in 1745 by the Jesuits, is well worth a visit as is their cellar door. Santiago Deicas makes the wines while sister Mercedes heads up the kitchen at their popular restaurant.

As far as fine lunchtime dining is concerned, nothing beats the cuisine at two of Uruguay’s top producers, Bodega Bouza and Bodega Garzón, who were founded as recently as 1999 and 2008 respectively. Bouza actually has two restaurants – at its Montevideo winery and also at its brand new Maldonado one, Las Espinas, on the Pan de Azúcar mountain. While the former also houses a remarkable collection of vintage cars, the latter must have the most spectacular 360-degree views in all of Uruguay. Bouza, the first winery to plant Albariño in Uruguay, also pioneered super-premium Tannat, and is making world-class Riesling.

Everything about Garzón is super-premium. Owned by Argentinian billionaire Alejandro Bulgheroni, it is a memorable place to visit. The state-of-the-art winery was built by dint of remarkable engineering enterprise into a rock face, and thanks to its 250 hectares under vine (on decomposed granite and sand), is Uruguay’s biggest exporter of wines – to nearly 50 markets. With as many as 1200 different plots, none bigger than 0.8h, head winemaker Germán Bruzzone vinifies each separately to craft multiple outstanding labels, including the iconic Balasto Tannat. Interestingly, he uses no new oak at all for any of them.

The outstanding Garzón restaurant, which has spectacular views over the estate’s vineyards, was established with the help of celebrated chef Francis Mallmann. The Argentinian developed the open-flame cooking technique and devised a so-called market menu, where only the best, local products of the day or season are used. The beef, the quality of which is extremely high as Uruguayan cattle are grass-fed, is one of chef Nicolas Acosta’s specialities.

Finally, for the more adventurous wine tourists, as it is situated in the north of Uruguay on the border with Brazil, the winery of Cerro Chapeu is one that should not be missed. Situated near the town of Rivera, it is built into a hill for gravity-flow purposes. Co-owner and winemaker, Francisco Carrau produces one of Uruguay’s top Tannats, Batovi T1, benefiting from the fact the grape ripens earlier here. The tasting-room tower, which has stunning views, is actually just in Brazil, but accessed without ado as there are no border controls. An anomalous gem in a country with no shortage of vinous jewels.

Isabel Estate, New Zealand

How Jeremy McKenzie is taking Isabel from strength to strength

Isabel Estate has always been regarded in the same breath as Cloudy Bay and Dog Point for producing world class wines from classic grape varieties in Marlborough. But it wasn’t until 2014, when the family-run estate was acquired by Pinnacle Drinks and installed ex-Villa Maria winemaker Jeremy McKenzie, that this estate reached the audience and received the accolades that it has always deserved. Geoffrey Dean caught up with McKenzie to taste through all the new wines but also to hear how he might well be the hardest man in Marlborough.

22nd July 2025 by Geoffrey Dean

There can be few winemakers who are fitter than Jeremy McKenzie of Isabel Estate in Marlborough. When I met him for a tasting of his wines over a lunch hosted by the winery’s importer, Bancroft Wines, in London recently, the svelte New Zealander let it slip that he had spent two hours on the bike in the gym that morning.

That was a doddle for him as he had been doing what he called “quite a few big stints these last few weeks” including five consecutive hours between 4am and 9am on the velodrome in Marlborough, averaging 31km per hour, to raise funds for a children’s charity.

Even during harvest, McKenzie barely relents on his rigorous training regime. “I nip across to the new mountain bike track the other side of the Wairau River at Storey’s Creek, blaze out for an hour, then jump in the river on the way back, shower at Isabel and rock into work ready for the next eight hours,” he mused.

Towards the end of this year, he will compete in the Godzone Ultra event on the South Island when 30 teams of four will cover 700 km in eight days across New Zealand’s wilderness in what event organisers call “the most technically challenging adventure race in the world.”

“It’s the ultimate race because of the terrain, a lot of which is mountainous,” McKenzie said. “The route is kept secret until it starts, and disciplines include mountain-biking, trekking, running, pack rafting and roping.” The event is an international one with teams from Australia and Brazil also taking part.

No ordinary estate

If McKenzie, then, is not your typical winemaker, nor is Isabel your average estate. Located in the Wairau Valley area, the site itself is unusual for Marlborough, combining free-draining gravels with a narrow layer of clay in the subsoil, preventing excess water loss from the gravel. Of Isabel’s 43 hectares, 16 are certified organic, with more in conversion and the rest farmed sustainably.

Indeed, Isabel is very much Marlborough aristocracy, with its vines planted as far back as 1980. Through the ‘80s, much of the fruit off them was bought by David Hohnen, who played such a big part in promoting New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to the world by founding Cloudy Bay in the mid-1980s.

“David said the Isabel Chardonnay was world-class,” McKenzie declared. “It was the Gin-Gin clone, aka Mendoza, from the Houghton estate in Western Australia. We’re really lucky to have that vine material, which is over 40-years old now, and old for Marlborough.”

“It’s part of the fabric of Marlborough that’s so key to the region – whether it’s Cloudy Bay or us or Dog Point. We’re the heart and soul of the region. We know there’s a lot of Sauvignon that’s got no name, no footprint, no bricks and mortar. But what we and other key producers have got should be looked after.”

We tasted the Isabel 2024 Sauvignon Blanc, which comes from a single vineyard and has been very well-received in competitions.

“It was a fantastic vintage,” McKenzie continued. “It’s estate-bottled and produced…quite different to a lot of properties in Marlborough now. It’s very much that provenance story, and the style of winemaking is very different as well. There’s a lot more going on in there - there’s 15% in old French oak that’s naturally fermented and left on the lees; a riper fruit profile with softer acidity. Not a sharp racy number, just really well-balanced and a great food wine.”

That softer acidity comes from a pH that is a little higher at 3.25 than in a lot of New Zealand Sauvignons which tend to hover around 3.15. According to McKenzie, that higher pH comes down to the lower cropping with 3.5 kilos of fruit per two-caned vine, and 4,000 vines per hectare compared to the norm of 8,000. Lower density also helps give better fruit ripeness.

“All that sort of stuff lends itself to what we’re aiming for – almost a house style that doesn’t have searing acidity and isn’t a fruit bomb.” McKenzie declared. “We’re always picking to land at 12.8% alcohol and 2.5g/l of residual sugar. That’s where we like it every year to be so that we have that richer fruit structure driving into the wine, with time on lees to keep that ageability as well. That’s the other thing about Isabel – the ageability not just of the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but also the Sauvignon. The ’23 still looks fantastic, and we have library stock going back years.”

Best kept secret

Even though Hohnen recognised its quality long ago, Isabel’s Chardonnay was perhaps Marlborough’s best-kept secret until relatively recently. From 2016 when the estate Chardonnay won Air New Zealand’s Chardonnay award, it has consistently picked up trophies. Then, in 2022, when McKenzie was voted NZ winemaker of the year, the Isabel Estate Wild Barrique Chardonnay ’22 was ‘wine of the year’ at the London Wine Competition.

“It was really good for the team as most of the guys have been with us since inception [more than a decade ago], with many coming over from Villa Maria with me,” McKenzie said of that award.

“We’re a very close-knit team of five or six, all super-passionate about Chardonnay. For me, it’s more about the brand, and wanting to see it thrive and get it back to its global status.” As much as 90% of Isabel Estate’s overall production is exported, with Australia a key market, as well as Japan, Korea and the UK.

Isabel has eight hectares of Chardonnay, the majority of which is certified organic or in organic conversion. Crucially, it has really good clonal material, with three clones – 548, 95 and 15 – added to the original Mendoza one. The latter is found in two blocks from which the Wild Barrique is made.

“It’s such a cool site, with that heavier clay soil,’ McKenzie said. “Viticulture is the key thing - we don't like to have a lot of exposure through the leaf area and fruit zone so that we maintain that acidity. We start with over 10g/l of TA and a pH of 2.95/98, so we put it through 100% malolactic fermentation. We shake some acidity out by giving it extended time on the lees, which allows the fruit and oak notes to intertwine well. We use 30% new French puncheons.”

“As the Mendoza Chardonnay comes out early in October, and you can get frosts through till November, we have a month when we’re on tenterhooks, hoping no frosts and chopper bills of 25-grand.”

If the Wild Barrique Chardonnay 2022, with its melange of lime, white peach and grapefruit flavours as well as saline and mineral notes, wowed the judges, then the Isabel Estate ‘Aratoro’ Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2021 raises the bar yet higher. Translated as ‘Path of Discovery’ this is only released in exceptional vintages, and is made in small quantities (1800 bottles in that year).

Six parcels of Chardonnay (Mendoza clone) and Pinot Noir (Abel and 777 clones) on silty clay soil in a valley between the Wither Hills to the south and the Richmond Ranges to the north are home to 45-year old Chardonnay and 30-plus year old Pinot vines, all farmed organically. “Both wines are about provenance and place,” McKenzie said, “with their expression equally as good as Martinborough or Central Otago.”

The Aratoro Chardonnay 2021 (13.5% abv) is a wine of sublime balance and poise with pristine, crystalline fruit framed by a scintillating citrus acid line and powder-fine mineral notes. White peach, nectarine, flinty grapefruit, lemon curd, roasted almond and ginger spice are all there. Pithy and saline, the wine is supremely elegant and harmonious, yet wrapped in layers of complexity with dramatic intensity and length. A sensational Chardonnay.

The Aratoro Pinot Noir 2021 (13.5% abv) came from a great vintage for the varietal in Marlborough that has the potential to evolve over many years. McKenzie revealed it had “quite a bit of whole bunch, with some parcels at 100%.”

Beautifully fragrant on the nose with aromas of fresh thyme, violet and red-berried fruit, these mingle with more earthy notes. So vibrant and fresh on the palate, it is blessed with fine-grained tannins that are both silky and plentiful, providing structure. A concentrated, complex core of raspberry, cherry and darker fruits, as well as exotic spice from well-handled oak (30% new, 70% second fill) all stand out. Throw in refined poise, quiet intensity and a compellingly persistent finish, and you have a world-class Pinot.

Sustainability is key

Isabel Estate’s embrace of sustainability is a key driver for them.

“We’re doing a lot of different stuff to most producers in Marlborough,” McKenzie said. “Dog Point is an exception in that they’re 100% organic but we’re nearly 50% organic, which is where we want to get to. We probably won’t go fully organic with all our Sauvignon but we will still be sustainably farmed. All our skins are composted and go back on the vineyard. All our packaging and plastic is recycled, and 70% of our glass too.”

“NZ$10,000 worth of native plants are going in to support the waterways. We have a collaboration with the local primary school where we supply seedlings, they grow them up and use 50% in the school creek, and the other 50% is planted back at Isabel Estate. I’m driving all that. Whoever’s working in the vineyard is accredited, so the people-side of it is well looked after. That’s becoming a more and more talked about thing with suppliers and customers. Our own solar power currently accounts for 20% of our needs, and our aim is 50% renewables by 2030. All our stormwater off roofs and concrete is recycled into the vineyard.”

Damian Carrington, managing director of Bancroft Wines, was at pains to point out the importance of sustainability to his clients.

“It’s commercially imperative as more and more of our customers are asking, if not insisting, on sustainable practices,” he said. “We try to make sure everything we bring over is sustainable. With regard to the Aratoro labels [RRP £72], we have limited access to these special wines, which are available on allocation for the on-trade and independent retailers.”

Buyers and consumers alike may notice a label change for the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from the 2024 vintage that are designed to highlight Isabel Estate’s single vineyard productions and the Marlborough appellation and Wairau Valley sub-district. The idea is to add both more of the provenance story and some cachet, but the wines of Isabel Estate are so good that the labels barely matter. Take a bow chief winemaker Jeremy McKenzie, senior winemaker Nick Lamain and the team.

Ventisquero's Tara Project

The taste of the Atacama Desert - Ventisquero's unique Tara wines

Ventisquero was named ‘New World Winery of the Year’ by Wine Enthusiast this year and no small part of that was down to the extraordinary Tara project it is operating in the Atacama desert. Here, where it hasn’t rained in 50 years, the challenges to Alejandro Galaz, the estate’s specialist oenologist for cool climate wines, are off the scale. Only 2% of the first plantings survived here, but the wines they produced were extraordinary – as are all the subsequent Tara wines. In a special visit to the vineyards Geoffrey Dean discovers how these unique soils produce minerality and saline characters in the wines that were tasted, naturally enough, in a large hole in the ground.

18th July 2025 by Geoffrey Dean ,

It is one of the more unique places to taste a range of wines...a three-metre deep pit in the middle of the Nicolasa vineyard at the southern end of the Atacama Desert. But then Ventisquero’s Tara Project is nothing if not highly unusual. Most bizarrely, the two vineyards – Nicolasa and Longomilla – which lie around 20km from the Pacific Ocean near the town of Huasco in Chile’s far north, have saline soil, and yet produce world-class wine. Fittingly, the project was named after the biggest salt lake in Chile, Tara.

Extraordinary tasting – Geoffrey Dean six foot under tasting the Tara wines

Pushing boundaries

In confounding viticulture’s received wisdom, Ventisquero Wine Estates has kept on pushing the boundaries of winemaking, a key reason why at this year’s Wine Enthusiast’s annual awards, they were crowned ‘New World Winery of the Year.’ Four other wineries were nominated but were pipped by Ventisquero - Kumeu River (New Zealand), Yangarra (Australia), Otronia (Argentina) and Sena (Chile).

Huge credit for the success of Tara must go to Alejandro Galaz, who has been making wine for Ventisquero since 2006 and is its specialist oenologist for cool climate wines. Tara is very much cool climate, although it has been a joint enterprise between him and Felipe Tosso, Ventisquero's head winemaker. I spent a fascinating day with Galaz in Huasco, driving up and back with him from La Serena, which is 260km to the south.

"This is the Atacama desert ... in the second year, all the vines died except 2-3% of them." Alejandro Galaz.

Galaz recalled both the dilemma he and Tosso faced at the start of the project, and how it was nearly abandoned after a year. Initially, they scratched their heads when it came to deciding what varieties to plant.

“This is the Atacama Desert where it hasn't rained for 50 years,” he chuckled. “Because of the ‘camanchaca’ - the thick fog that comes in off the ocean at 10am and 6pm every day - we realised this wasn’t the place for warm climate varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot or Carmenere but cool climate ones.”

The first vines were planted in the middle of 2007 after digging deep for soil analysis.

“It was white, and we looked at each other a little bit nervous. 90% of soils in Chile are alluvial, and granite mainly. We have some limestone soils here which is rare in Chile, but we couldn’t see the salt. So in the second year, all the vines died except 2-3% of them. Why those didn't die we didn’t know as the salt content was ten times what the literature says a vine can survive.”

The few wines that did survive, however, produced outstanding quality grapes.

“In the third year, we had the possibility to taste the wines and they were fantastic,” Galaz declared. “That flavour wasn't present in the central valley. The grapes were so good and different - that pushed us to carry on with the project. So we continued and finally got in touch with a consultant viticulturist who worked with table grapes. He said you have to make long irrigations of 18-20 hours to move the salt to between the rows, and you must do it every 9-10 days.”

Ever since, therefore, the vines have been irrigated every 9-10 days. This required a lot of water, and was only possible due to a reservoir Ventisquero created by the vineyard thanks to water rights from the Huasco River that came with the land purchase. Recently, the company has done trials with sprinklers that use one third of the water with better results. In the last five years, not a vine has been lost although a lot were in the early years, prompting replanting.

“When you smell and taste the Tara wines, you get the minerality coming from the limestone soil but you find a saltiness at the end of the aftertaste,” Galaz purred. “So the wines are unique. Nowhere else in Chile has this combination. The character of the Chardonnay was so strong that it made no sense to blend in any other varieties.”

Right varieties and rootstock are key

"Both vineyards have the same personality and exhibit the characters of the Atacama Desert - minerality and saltiness.”

Chardonnay is planted on both the Nicolasa and Longomilla vineyards, which are a few kilometres apart. While Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are found on both, Viognier is only on Nicolasa. Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet Franc are only on Longomilla, which has less salt content. Before being put under vine, Longomilla was planted with vegetables and olive trees. “So the soil was much more ‘washed’ than Nicolasa,” Galaz explained. “Nicolasa was wild with no crops on it, meaning more salt and a higher salty taste.”

Despite the fact Chile has never had any cases of phylloxera, the vines were grafted onto American rootstock.

“Not as insurance against potential phylloxera in the future but because American rootstock like Richter 110 will explore much deeper, which is what we want,” Galaz added. “The Grenache was grafted five years ago onto a new Australian rootstock that’s resistant to salt. It’s doing well. Both vineyards have the same personality and exhibit the characters of the Atacama Desert - minerality and saltiness.”

No green harvest is effected as Galaz wants to maximise production, with the soil condition reducing yield naturally. Density has been restricted to no more than 4,000 vines per hectare, with the Syrah set at 3,000 and some whites at 2,667.

“If higher, plants will have less potential and possibility to explore the soil,” Galaz said. “With this soil, higher competition between vines we don’t think is good.” Around a kilo of fruit per vine is what he aims for.

Thanks to an omnipresent wind and the cold Humboldt current in the Pacific, daytime temperatures are no higher than 25°C in the growing season, while at night it falls to 8-9°C at Nicolasa and 10-12°C at Longimilla. Acid retention, therefore, is such that there is never any need for Galaz to add any tartaric acid. Not that anything but low intervention is part of his mantra (native yeasts, no fining, no filtration). Thanks to generally very low pHs of 3.1 to 3.15, just a little amount of sulphur dioxide is added prior to bottling, taking free SO2 levels to 20-23ppm and total SO2 to 70-75ppm.

How were the wines tasting?

Ventisquero Grey Glacier Sauvignon Blanc 2023, Valle de Atacama. 100% Longomilla vineyard but not part of the Tara Project (fermented with commercial yeasts in stainless steel 250l barrels and filtered). Low yields help give wonderful mineral, white stone intensity rather than the tropical fruit typical of the rest of Chile. Around 300 cases p.a. to the UK.

Ventisquero Kalfu Sumpai Sauvignon Blanc 2023, 13% abv. From Nicolasa vineyard (not part of Tara Project). A saltier finish than the first wine, but well balanced by minerality. Mouth-watering acidity (pH3.05) and very good length. Selling well to on-trade in US, UK, Brazil and Japan (fine match for latter’s food)

Ventisquero Tara Sauvignon Blanc 2023, DO Atacama, 13% abv. From vines planted on higher content of limestone soil than the Kalfu. Even saltier, with chalky, mineral notes as well as great intensity. and precision. Cloudy from extended lees contact.

Ventisquero Tara Chardonnay 2022, DO Atacama, 13% abv. Some batonnage but no malolactic fermentation. 50% in foudres, 50% in concrete eggs. Strong citrus notes with saline minerality and linear acidity. Precise focus with long clean finish.
Ventisquero Tara Viognier NV, DO Atacama, 13% abv. "A Solera kind of wine" in Galaz's words. "It has wine from the first vintage of 2011 until 2023. This is edition no 7." No Malolactic fermentation; initially aged in older oak and then in stainless steel barrels. Lees stirred every 2 months. A degree of oiliness helps give texture, with freshness from a low pH of 3.25. Layers of complexity, with apricot notes and some minerality. Very special.

Ventisquero Tara Garnacha 2022 DO Atacama, 13.5% abv. Very-low yield (100-150g per vine) gives extra concentration. Fermentation in open top vats; 18-20 months elevage in fifth use French barrels. Glorious expression of fruit, with chalky tannins. Freshness. Really good length.

Ventisquero Tara Cabernet Franc 2022, DO Atacama. 13.5% abv. "For us, some of the best Cab Franc comes from Chinon, which has the same soils as here," Galaz said. 100% elevage in untoasted foudres. Balsamic, herbal character with no jamminess. Fresh with fine, soft tannins. Superb.

Ventisquero Tara Pinot Noir 2022, DO Atacama, 13.5% abv. Seductive red fruit with cherry and raspberry notes (35% ex Nicolasa & 65% ex Longomilla). Meaty and olive hints. Aged 50% in concrete eggs and 50% in untoasted foudre, although Galaz revealed discussions ongoing whether to use up to 15% new oak. Fresh, savoury and long finish.

Ventisquero Tara Syrah 2021, DO Atacama, 13.5% abv. Northern Rhône in style. Chalky mid-palate with mouth-watering freshness. Tannin management beautifully judged. “All done in the vineyard - maybe I’m not necessary here,” Galaz quipped. “An opportunity for us winemakers to take out our egos and leave them behind. It makes you humble.” Such terroir expression.

Six Wines for Telegraph readers

Six wines that are a perfect match for a summer of cricket

Three whites, a rosé and a couple of reds for you to savour while watching England’s gripping Test series against India. From crisp whites for a sunny afternoon of play to rich reds for a post-match barbecue, here is your essential cricket wine list

Geoffrey Dean

14 July 2025 12:30pm BST

The offers contained within this article have been provided by advertisers or selected by Telegraph Media Group's commerce content team. Affiliate links are in use, which means that TMG will earn a commission if you click a link, buy a product, or subscribe to a service.

Cricket lovers enjoying this summer’s Test matches between England and India can savour a wide selection of Laithwaites wines that are perfect for drinking during and after play. 

Lord’s, which hosts the third Test from July 10, remains the only ground in England where spectators are allowed to bring in a bottle of their own wine. With that in mind, here are half a dozen Laithwaites wines you could take to the Test – or drink while watching all the action from home.

With the hot weather forecast to last well into July, I have gone for a classic mid-summer combination of three white wines – all made from different varietals – a Provençal rosé and two reds that will pair well with barbecued food. France, Italy, Portugal and Australia are all represented to satisfy both Old and New World devotees. Four of the wines are in a six-bottle selection case that is available to Telegraph readers.

1. Abbesse Sauvignon Blanc 2024

The Abbesse Sauvignon Blanc 2024 (11 per cent ABV), although classified as a Vin de France, is a really good example from a region that is best known for the varietal. Made by experienced vigneron Noel Bougrier, it is fragrant with grassy, citrus aromas as well as hints of pear, herbs and elderflower. Blessed with vibrant acidity, it is crisp and fresh with some stoniness and ripe peachiness on the palate, and a zesty, limey finish. Drink it either as an aperitif or with vegetable salads, goat cheese and fusion cuisine. It is a perfect match for Thai and Chinese dishes as well as grilled fish and seafood. 

2. Vigne del Pareto Gavi 2024

The Vigne del Pareto Gavi 2024 (12 per cent ABV) is another white wine that is aromatic with refreshing acidity. Made from the Cortese grape in the Gavi DOCG in Piedmont, it has scents of lime and green apple, as well as some delicate floral notes. This elegant, light-bodied wine really expresses its terroir, with minerality and stony freshness emanating from the limestone-rich soils of Gavi. Citrus and slightly bitter almond notes assail the palate. This is an ideal pairing with white fish, calamari, poultry and light pasta.

3. Esulé Chardonnay 2022

For a ripper of a refreshing Chardonnay from Down Under, the Esulé Chardonnay 2022 (12.5 per cent ABV)  is a splendid New World example of the varietal. The fruit comes from a single vineyard in the cooler climate Adelaide Hills region that overlooks the South Australian capital. Vinification took place not far away in the Barossa Valley, where RedHeads, which was founded by Tony Laithwaite in 2003, has established a new, solar-powered winery. Crisp and with a core of vibrant acidity, the wine has appealing fruit-forward notes of green apple and citrus as well as a pleasing finish. It is an ideal accompaniment to chicken or fish dishes, but can also be enjoyed as an aperitif.

4. Domaine du Mas Ensoleillé Rosé Sélection Parcellaire 2024

Bringing a taste of the Mediterranean to your glass is the delightful Domaine du Mas Ensoleillé Rosé Sélection Parcellaire 2024 (12 per cent ABV). Made predominantly from Grenache, it has the classic pale pink colour associated with the region, and is a crisp, dry and refreshing wine. The fruit came from a parcel of vines just outside the celebrated town of Aix-en-Provence, and was fermented in a single vat, hence the label descriptor of 'parcellaire'. Red berry fruit and a touch of citrus dance on the palate of this delicately made rosé that is good value at £14.99, and a steal at £11.99 if you take up Laithwaites’ subscription offer. A Méditerranée IGP production, it can be enjoyed as an aperitif at midday or early evening, or with seafood and lighter meat dishes.

5. Vinha do Fava Touriga Nacional 2023

Setúbal, in the celebrated peninsula of the south of Lisbon, is where the Vinha do Fava’s premium Touriga Nacional vineyard is situated. Planted on warm, sandy soils when Leonor Freitas acquired it in 2000, it is a superb site for the varietal, being four miles from the Atlantic, whose sea breezes cool the vines. Freitas was awarded the prestigious title of Comendadora, the Portuguese equivalent of a knighthood, for services to the wine industry. The 2023 vintage (13.5 per cent ABV) has complex hints of herbal and violet aromas, with wonderfully intense notes of black cherry, blackcurrant and brambles as well as silky, smooth tannins. Leathery and long, it goes well with any barbecued meats or gamey dishes.

6. Pillastro Primitivo Puglia IGP 2022

Another red wine with both approachability and quality is the Pillastro Primitivo Puglia IGP 2022 (13.5 per cent ABV). It is produced from Primitivo in the ‘heel’ of Italy in the southern province of Puglia, the grape’s spiritual home. In America, it is known as Zinfandel, being grown principally in California. The wine is made by Cantine Due Palme, a co-operative that was adjudged best in its class in both 2021 and 2023. Rich and full-bodied, it has terrific concentration from very old, flavour-boosting vines. Red berry fruit, with spiced plum and raspberry notes, as well as velvety tannins, make this wine so appealing. Perfect with steak, sausages, lamb chops or barbecued chicken, it completes Laithwaites’ sextet of wines to accompany high summer viewing or post-match festivities. 

The Vik winery, Chile

Why Stone VIK can lay claim to being the 'ultimate natural wine'

Granted a rare visit to a secret location 1000 metres up in Chile’s Millahue Valley, Geoffrey Dean witnesses the unique place where Viña VIK has set out to make the ‘ultimate natural wine’. With nods to Stonehenge and local mysticism this new super-premium cuvée, called Stone VIK, is made with what winemaker Cristián Vallejo calls ‘circular winemaking’, where almost everything from the grape to the bottle comes from the estate, and homemade amphorae age the Cab Franc-driven blend in a cool circle of trees created by a fault line, which also vibrates the wine as it ages. The wine is fabulous, writes Dean, with an incredible genesis. Dean also recommends a number of hotels to stay at in the region and lists some wineries to visit including Vinos LOF, Viñedos de Alcohuaz and Viña Primavento.

21st June 2025 by Geoffrey Dean

Cristián Vallejo approached the entrance to the locked forested enclosure with deference, as if respectful of a burial site within. Which in a way it was, though not with any human connection. The Viña VIK winemaker spoke in almost reverential tones, as if paying homage to the location – high up in the coastal range between the Andes and the Pacific at 1,000 metres above sea-level.

“What happens if we make nature take care of our wines? – that was the primary idea,” he pronounced while unlocking the gate to the tree-ringed enclosure. “What if we make the beautiful forest be the guardian of our wine? That was the idea I had at the beginning in 2023. And the family said yes, let’s do it.”

Vallejo was referring to Alexander and Carrie Vik from Norway, the proactive owners of the stunning 4,400-hectare Cachapoal Valley estate near Millahue, which houses not just one of Chile’s top wineries but also one of its most iconic hotels.

Vallejo’s idea was all part of producing what he terms a ‘circular’ wine, whereby it is made “only within the resources available in our terroir.” Apart from harvesting flowers from the estate and adding their yeast strains to musts for fermentation, that also means using amphorae made from clay dug on the estate, and wood from dead Chilean oak trees on it.

There is a natural energy to the site says Vallejo

“Our used and new French oak barrels are toasted using wood from centennial oak trees that have completed their life cycle and fallen on our estate,” he explained. “The resulting barrels have been personalised in our own cooperage and give our wines the flavour of our terroir. Chilean oak trees are very mild in terms of the vanilla, coconut flavour – even less than the French oak.”

The last piece in the jigsaw was transporting the amphorae into the forested enclosure where, as Vallejo asserted, “we have this natural energy like Stonehenge and we connect the wine with the stars, the moon and the sun.” The wine spends eight months in the amphorae before being racked off – in another nod to Stonehenge – on the day of the southern hemisphere’s summer solstice, December 21.

The perceived connection with Stonehenge was the reason the new wine was called Stone VIK. How though, I asked Vallejo, did they select the site for the amphorae?

“We found a very special spot where the oak trees were forming a circle but we needed to know why, so we brought a geologist in. He identified the intersection of a natural fault and a water vein. That crossing creates what is called magnetic resonance."

After the geologist came an astronomer.

"He gave us the information where to place the amphorae – half of them buried, half not," Vallejo continued. "This wine – from a vineyard that is organically and sustainably farmed – is now 100% connected with nature. The trees communicate with themselves and form a community. They are connected through the roots, and as the amphorae are in the middle of the forest and are touching the roots, they became part of this community. So this wine is connected with the soil, with the wind, with the sun, with the moon, with the forests.”

Buoyed by the professionals' findings and his own convictions, Vallejo brought in a Chilean shaman, or witch doctor.

“They are a native person who lives in the middle of the forest and has this connection with it,” he revealed. “We didn't tell him anything but when he came into this ring, he stopped right there and said, ‘This is the energy of mother earth that is protecting this forest. To activate that energy we need to place something heavy here.’ ” A giant granitic rock from the estate was, therefore, selected and transported to the site and hauled into the exact spot the shaman recommended.

Soon after, in April 2023, the amphorae were filled with the first vintage of Stone VIK – predominantly Cabernet Franc (77%), with Cabernet Sauvignon making up 18% and Carménère 5%. The varietals were blended at the winery after a month in barrel and the completion of malolactic fermentation. The positioning of the amphorae was, though, considered very important by Vallejo.

“This giant granitic rock is the point of central energy where the magnetic resonance starts,” he explained. “Each amphora had a different distance from the energy point. That means that each one receives different energy and therefore different vibration. And thanks to this, we found when we tasted that each amphora has a different flavour. So it’s all about the energy of the place.”

It was time now to taste the first vintage of Stone VIK, a bottle of which Vallejo had brought with him.

“You see how it’s round and soft, very energetic with beautiful perfume, mouthfeel and fruit,” he purred. “The colour is amazing, very intense; it’s juicy and vibrant but it’s elegant and mineral. It hasn’t been in oak but you can feel the concentration of the tannins. They are round and soft.”

For those keen for some technical reasoning to go with his more philosophical beliefs, Vallejo made some key observations.

“The explanation for soft tannins is that micro-oxygenation is faster as the pores in amphorae are bigger and polymerisation is faster,” he said. “Second, because of the shape of the amphorae, the wine when circulating is moving faster as pressure is less at this altitude of 1,000 metres. Thirdly, this place is naturally vibrating because of this fault. Some wineries play music because of the vibration, but this is natural vibration. That explains why the wine is so round and soft, even though only bottled 10 months after the vintage.”

While Stone VIK 2023 (500 cases of which were made with around 30 going to the UK), is the winery’s most expensive label at US$180 retail, the flagship Vik wine ($160), is put through a very different élevage (24-26 months in oak, 50% new and 50% second fill). “Stone VIK looks like a young wine but tastes like the tannins have been aged for two years,” Vallejo mused.

Despite the temptation to increase the number of amphorae, he will not do so.

“We will keep just 14,” he said. “This is so special that we want to keep it like that. If we put one where the water table is, the water will run to another place, and the energy of the place will change. You feel the wind here, it is amazing. It can be 28°C here in summer but because of the wind and the forest, it is never more than 23°C. So the amphorae don’t get too hot, and similarly in winter when it can be minus 2°C, it never gets below 5°C in the amphorae as the wine is always moving.”

He added that, during the four months of the year when no Stone VIK is in the amphorae, they are filled with rosé to stop them cracking.

The rosé is one of nine Viña VIK labels produced from the estate’s 320 hectares of vines.

Catering for the wine tourist

As outstanding as the VIK portfolio is the 'Vik Chile' Hotel, with its titanium roof, stupendous 360-degree views and celebrated culinary garden. Its 22 bedrooms are individually decorated with multiple artworks, notably by one of Chile’s most famous artists, Gonzalo Cienfuegos, and have floor-to-ceiling windows. Riding out through the vines on horseback, or having a spa treatment, is one of the many extras the hotel offers. The cuisine matches both the excellence of the wines and the imagination of the winery design – underground with a water-cooled roof.

In complete contrast to the Vik Hotel’s go-ahead modernity is another special place for the wine tourist to stay, Hotel Casa Real, just south of Santiago. Lying within the Santa Rita estate in Maipo Valley, it is a beautiful old manor house with colonial architecture, built in the late nineteenth century and only converted to a hotel in the 1990s. It is set in 40 hectares of parkland, with extensive gardens through which you walk to get to the impressive cellar door for both the Santa Rita and Carmen wines. The latter represents the oldest wine brand in Chile (1850). Right next door is the Andean Museum which, with its 3,000 archaeological and ethnographic pieces, is one of the most important private collections in Chile.

Those wine tourists wanting a delightful bed-and-breakfast option in the Maipo Valley should look no further than Vinos LOF, a few miles from Hotel Casa Real. This is the boutique winery belonging to Perez Cruz winemaker, Germán Lyon and his wife Francisca. The tastefully-furnished bedroom in the winery building is so close to their three hectares of vines that you open your French windows and walk straight into them. You can have a tasting of the two excellent Vinos LOF labels - a single varietal Syrah and a single varietal Cabernet Sauvignon.

If you head north of Santiago to the spectacular Elqui Valley, home to Chile’s second highest vineyards, you get the added bonus of one of the best locations in the world to stargaze multiple constellations and the Milky Way. The place to base yourself is Vicuña, a charming little town which is within striking distance of the valley’s wineries, Pisco distilleries and a number of observatories. And a particularly nice hotel there is Solar Madariaga, a converted manor house whose fine restaurant lists only wines from Elqui Valley wineries.

Viñedos de Alcohuaz uses no electricity or pumps

These include two of the most dramatically beautiful wineries in all Chile: Viñedos de Alcohuaz and Viña Primavento. The former’s highest vineyard of 2208m is eclipsed for altitude only by a small cooperative in the far north at 2,450m. Viñedos de Alcohuaz, named after the nearby village, is extraordinary in that it uses no electricity or pumps, with all its red grapes being foot-trodden in lagares before being matured in concrete eggs, foudres, stainless steel barrels and qvevris. The wines have great personality, with higher radiation leading to thicker skins and with it massive concentration. An ultra wide diurnal range (an average of 20°C in the ripening period) helps provide higher natural acidity and fresher aromas.

Lower down the Elqui Valley, ten kilometres east of Vicuña, but in no less stunning a setting, can be found Primavento. The Porfiri family have been on the property for over a hundred years, but only went into wine production ten years ago after discovering a pocket of limestone on which they planted Syrah, Mourvedre and Malbec vines. A new cellar door with magnificent views is opening in mid-2025, and will be a superb location to taste its characterful boutique wines, made by Giacomo Porfiri and his wife Dani. They, along with the winemaking duo at Viñedos de Alcohuaz, Marcelo Retamal and Rosario Fillol, are a brilliant advert for the Elqui Valley, while further south in the Cachapoal Valley, Vallejo’s reputation as a trailblazer grows inexorably.

Tor Kenward Wines, Napa Valley

Tor Kenward - the king of Napa and the quest for Cabernet perfection

Despite his 77 years of age, and five decades as a vintner, industry icon Tor Kenward refuses to rest on his laurels – working at innovations in the vineyard and cellar to make his world class Cabernet Sauvignons even more ethereal. Wines, which in a recent ‘Judgment’ tasting, managed to beat First Growths from both Bordeaux and Napa. In a fascinating, in-depth interview Kenward tells Geoffrey Dean in detail about the fires, the diversity in Napa Cab, climate change and how he coped with the challenging but brilliant 2022 vintage (where many others failed). With almost all his wines going direct to consumer in the US, he explains how on-trade can get them through Pol Roger Portfolio in the UK and why.

13th June 2025by Geoffrey Dean

posted in People,People: Producer,

You would think Tor Kenward had seen it all after making wine in the Napa Valley for close on half a century, but the 2022 growing season brought with it an altogether new challenge. After the fires and smoke taint of 2020 ruled out a vintage, the outstanding 2021 harvest was a boost, as was the so-called Judgment of Napa in October that year when Kenward’s Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 was rated ahead of nine other global icon wines. But then some freak weather in the 2022 summer came along….

"The secret was don't panic – just hang in there while you’re getting through the heat.” Tor Kenward

Three or four-day stretches of very hot weather in the Napa Valley are not uncommon, but a ten-day heatwave of around 40°C was not something Kenward had ever encountered. That, though, was precisely what his vines were confronted with in the late summer of 2022, leading to their shutdown. This was a major worry, given that the cost of Cabernet Sauvignon fruit in the famous To Kalon vineyard can exceed $50,000 per ton. For the 11 blocks of the varietal he farms in do not belong to him, but to Andy Beckstoffer, whose vineyard management company owns 1100 acres in Napa, including a good portion of To Kalon.

But Kenward, a Vietnam War veteran and onetime bodyguard for Elvis Presley, has never been one to lose his head in a crisis.

“If you look at Napa Valley as a whole, 2022 was probably one of the most challenging vintages,” he reflected. “It was close to perfect before and after the ten-day heat spell. That changed everything. The secret was don't panic – check to see how the vine behaves to ensure the shoot tips remain alive. Just hang in there while you’re getting through the heat.”

Three factors in Kenward’s favour were to prove crucial.

“It became an issue of canopy management,” he revealed. “Did you have misters? If yes, you were definitely ahead of the game. If you had shade cloth, you were also ahead. Water management – did you have access to it? We had all three. If you didn't have all three, or at least the water, then it was very difficult. The vines shut down, the stomatas shut up, and the vine says ‘I’m done’. So from a wine-making point of view, this ended up being a real winemakers' vintage. I’m extremely proud of it as I think you’ll discover these were excellent wines.”

Tasting the TOR Wines

Tor Kenward at a London tasting of TOR Wines, May 20, 2025

And, sure enough, when tasted over lunch at a central London restaurant, four of the TOR Wines Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 labels – Oakville, Vaca Ridge, Vine Hill Ranch and Beckstoffer To Kalon – were typically compelling.

A couple of older vintages also showed beautifully – a Tierra Roja Cabernet 2019 and an Oakville Cabernet 2016. So too did the Cuvee Torchiana Chardonnay 2022, a classic Napa example of the varietal that went through 100% malolactic fermentation and saw 40% new oak. The reds get 70% new French oak, apart from the To Kalon which receives 80-90%, absorbing it effortlessly (‘why it’s so amazing’ in Kenward’s words).

Despite the prolonged heat spell, the acidities of Kenward’s 2022s did not drop off, exhibiting freshness, and coming in with pHs that were much lower than expected.

“The pHs were not high, which was the crazy thing, most between 3.4 to 3.5 with only a couple getting up to 3.8,” he mused. “The acidity was good, and I didn’t have to add any tartaric acid. Only once in 50 years have I done that. So the pHs and acidities were not wiped out. The grapes came in perfect, reaching both physiological and phenolic ripeness.”

Masterful winemaking

Any heat in what are beautifully balanced wines was noticeably lacking. The quality and approachability of the tannins was also clear, with Kenward paying homage to his co-winemaker, Jeff Ames.

Tor Kenward and Jeff Ames

“Jeff is the master of tannin management,” he purred. “We had discussions on pre-soaks, post-soaks and whether to do pumpovers and the rest. But he makes the important calls. He knows where he wants to be on tannin management. We take free run mainly and don't use a heavy press.”

It was evident that the 2022s will drink earlier than some older vintages.

“Every vineyard was different with one picked at 22.5 brix before the heatwave, and To Kalon and other grapes probably at around 25,” Kenward said. “If you take the entire vintage together, harvest was probably on the early side because of the heat, although not dramatically. There are going to be a lot of really really good wines. I think they are going to be a little showier than a lot of previous. Who knows the ageability but it’s an excellent vintage to enjoy much earlier than 2021 or 2019.”

To Kalon vineyard - "unassuming ... but then start digging and it makes sense."

“We didn’t take the gamble of making any wines in 2020 because of the fires and smoke. Fires do worry me generally. Up till ’17, we had had some fires but all of a sudden they are a serious problem that we have to pay close attention to now. We’re spending millions of dollars trying to get early detection, and how, if we do get smoke again, we can protect the grapes.”

Diversity of TOR's Cabernet Sauvignon

What also impressed was the diversity of the five Cabernet Sauvignons (the fifth being a Tierra Roja 2019). This is something that Kenward is particularly keen to stress.

Tierra Roja Vineyard

“People say that Napa Cabernets all taste the same but the diversity is dramatically different,” he declared. “I think the diversity is unbelievable, mind-boggling – the site, the clonal material, the farming practices, soil and elevation. Napa Valley has far more soil type diversity than a lot of the Old World sites.”

Kenward elaborated on how the vineyards vary. His Oakville label, he said, is sourced from two vineyards on the east side where soils are redder than on the west, giving more red fruits with darker ones on the latter.

“Vine Hill Ranch is in west Oakville, and one of its coolest sites, having first been planted in the 1880s. Vaca Ridge is an incredible site at 1200 feet, with soil that is so rocky. To me, it is a more elegant, prettier wine than the others. I have a block of Petit Verdot in there I covet as well as some lovely Cab Franc, which makes up around 25% of the Vaca Ridge blend. As for Tierra Roja, the soil is literally red from a volcanic landslide that took place millions of years ago. Cabernet loves that red soil, which has a lot of iron.”

Vine Hill Ranch is, for Kenward, on a par with To Kalon, both being valley floor at around 600 feet.

“Vine Hill Ranch is an amazing site,” he enthused. “You look at To Kalon and it’s a very unassuming vineyard but when you start digging into the earth, it starts making a lot of sense. You walk it and it’s kind of unremarkable – a gradual sloping vineyard that goes up into the foothills. Its soils are more of a gravelly loam without a huge amount of decomposed granite, although some other sites I work with do.”

The Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 victory in the Judgement of Napa in 2021 was, Kenward said, “a thrill as I was just hoping to get into fifth place.” Organised to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris, its nine judges put Kenward’s label ahead of three iconic Bordeaux chateaux – Mouton Rothschild, Leoville Las Cases and Montrose – as well as the Super Tuscan Ornellaia, Penfolds Bin 707, Chile’s Almaviva and three other Napa big hitters – Ridge Monte Bello, Colgin and Scarecrow. “There weren’t that many French this time,” Kenward observed. “I think they basically said ‘what tasting?’ ”

Not surprisingly, Kenward says the Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 is very hard to get hold of now. Indeed, only 3-4,000 cases of each of his labels are made every year, with about 80% going direct-to-consumer.

“If I wanted to produce more, then I’d have to hire people,” he declared. “I’d rather stay very focussed. I feel I know every barrel and I’d hate to get to a point where I don't feel that connected to the wines I’m making.”

The TOR wines are imported, sold and distributed in the UK by Pol Roger Portfolio. “Very little is exported,” Kenward revealed. “Mostly to the mailing list. Some are international collectors and somehow we find a way of getting the wine to them. I like Pol Roger as they're fun to deal with. I think it’s important to have your brand abroad. Japan and the UK are my two biggest overseas markets.”

Yields were down for the 2022 vintage but up for 2023, which is receiving some high praise.

“Some critics are comparing ’23, which is getting a lot of hype, to Bordeaux 1961,” Kenward said. “I think it has the potential to be on a par with ’16. The vintage nobody is talking about yet is ’24, which tastes awfully good in barrel. There is less of ’22, but a bit more of ’23 and ’24. And ’18 is maybe even better than 16.”

“You can’t put your hands in your pockets and think you have solved it.” Tor Kenward.

Kenward believes Napa has had some of its greatest vintages over the course of the last 20 years.

“Why? It’s a complex answer,” he mused. “A bunch of things – the way we farm now, really it’s a major revolution. You had California Sprawl [when vines were planted wide apart with shoots growing aggressively across rows into each other] and head-pruned vines up until the last 30 years; this whole VSP; even fruit zones – getting a little sunlight into them. That’s all modern farming. The equipment we have now is gentler and basically handles the grapes in as gentle a way as we possibly can. We have optical sorting and manual labour still but there have been huge changes in the vineyard.”

As for global warming, Kenward admits it is a huge concern.

“It’s something I’m trying to address the best I can,” he added. “It’s going to be more of a critical issue with my children and grand-children. I’m 77, and for the rest of my lifetime, I will find ways of working with it, but unless something reverses the situation, it’s going to change everything. Viticulture will change – shade cloths, misters, there’ll be ways of working with warmer years. 2023 was a cool year with no heat spikes, so you can still have those.”

Despite his age, and after five decades as a vintner, Tor Kenward refuses to rest on his laurels.

“You can’t put your hands in your pockets and think you have solved it,” he concluded. “There will always be ways to tweak and to improve both the growing and winemaking. I still think the greatest producers are the ones who keep an open mind and are willing to change if they need to change.” It is a key reason the septuagenarian vintner is still an industry icon.

The wines of Tor Kenward are available in the UK through Pol Roger Portfolio, which is a commercial partner of The Buyer.

Business France dinner, London Wine Fair

Business France and the fine art of matching producers with importers

It's a fine art setting up the opportunity for French wine producers, who have yet to find the right UK distribution for their wines, with importers in this country who are looking for both the same style of wines, and prices that make commercial sense. But that's what the wine arm of Business France did with an intimate, and fruitful dinner at a South Kensington restaurant on the opening night of the London Wine Fair. These match-ups don't always work out, but both the chemistry and the wines proved to be a big hit, with one importer placing an order the next day. Genuine expressions of interest from others also materialised as The Buyer's Geoffrey Dean, who attended the dinner, discovered. In his account of the evening, he reveals the candid thoughts of both parties, and how face-to-face meetings in the right setting and atmosphere can transcend electronic communication.

3rd June 2025 by Geoffrey Dean

It took John Chapman, managing director of the Oxford Wine Company, very little time to make his decision. The Château Bellini Rosé 2024 was just the Provençal label he was looking for this summer. In went the 500-strong order for the bottle he had taken back to the office after it was given to him at a special dinner on the Monday evening of the London Wine Fair.

Credit to Business France, the organisers, and the five French producers, the sponsors of the dinner, who brought their wines to the South Kensington restaurant. Each sent representatives – either winemakers or sales managers – to join half a dozen invited UK importers.

“As events go, it was exceptionally worthwhile," Chapman mused. “Normally you go along to these and wonder what calibre of producer you are going to get. It can be a complete waste of time, but this was one fruitful and well-positioned as Business France got some interesting wineries, who were genuinely looking for distribution and not just there to tick an EU-funding box.”

On the back of the dinner, Chapman is also in email contact with the biodynamic Beaujolais estate, Le Crêt de Bine.

One of the wines shown by Le Crêt de Bine at the event

Chapman's Château Bellini Rosé order is scheduled for early June delivery.

“It’s a proper example of a full-blown Provençal Rosé,” Chapman continued. “It will go into our shops and be very popular with our private clientele, and will also be in restaurants by the end of July hopefully. The thing with Provence Rosé, from our perspective, is you’re always looking for wines that are on the way up. This will be £19.50 retail as it’s lower-end upmarket quality. We already have a £14 Rose from Provence, which doesn’t have the same complexity and length.”

Stephen Goodchild, Château Bellini’s UK representative who was at the dinner, revealed it had been a very useful exercise.

“We’ve worked with John Chapman before, and I’m pleased that he was so confident with the wine that he placed the order straightaway,” Goodchild said. “I’ve also had five or six expressions of interest in the Bellini Côtes de Provence 2022 Syrah which paired very well with the steak. The dinner was great as I ended up next to Megan of Ellis Wines, who I will follow up with as they are perfect to distribute into restaurants and wine shops. The buyers from Guy Anderson Wines and Vagabond Wines also tasted through. I’m looking for not one importer but several.”

Elie Gauthier of Laurent Gauthier Wines - one of two winemakers showcasing Beaujolais wines

Laurent Gauthier – ridiculously priced wines for the quality

Ellis already imports some labels from Terroirs Originels, a group of 45 independent Beaujolais producers, one of whom, Elie Gauthier of Laurent Gauthier Wines was present. His Côte du Py Vieilles Vignes AOC Morgon 2018 had sumptuous fruit and vibrant acidity.

“The most important things,” he said, “are that we work eco friendly in the vineyard, mainly by hand and without herbicides. We have a really low intervention way to produce our wine, with whole cluster grapes, no pumping over and low sulphites.” All of the Gauthier Gamay are bush vines.

Pierre Anderson, the UK sales manager for Terroirs Originels, was full of praise for Gauthier.

“It was fantastic to have Elie there – as he’s such an exciting young talent in the winemaking – and to champion all of the producers, not just his domaine,” Anderson declared. “We are not a co-op but take away that commercial burden and help find them different avenues to market. One meeting that came out of the event was for a large distribution channel; another for a more specialist channel. I will say the challenge we face is that the UK market is not buying very heavily or as much new wine as it has in the past.

“We showcase the north of Beaujolais in particular. To find Crus like Morgon and Fleurie at under €5 ex-cellar is very, very competitive. Our producers are able to offer that price because they don’t have to incur high overheads. Elie and his father and brother have 23 hectares, and are the only people managing that. They are in the vines taking care of them; it’s why a lot of our producers are either organic or undergoing organic conversion, and yet we’re still able to be competitive with price.”

“The 2018 and 2020 Morgon from Elie are astounding quality wines. At the time of release they were €5 ex-cellar; now they're only €5.80 ex-cellar. These are ridiculously priced wines for the amazing quality. Beaujolais is such an exciting, welcoming region; the fact that there were two winemakers at dinner showcasing different styles was great.”

Florence Subrin of Le Crêt de Bine - looking for a second UK importer

Le Crêt de Bine and mindful winemaking

That second Beaujolais owner-winemaker was Florence Subrin of Le Crêt de Bine, which has been certified biodynamic since 2008. Her La Cuvée de Francois 2022, from vines on granitic soil planted between 1951-7, caught the eye of Noel Reid of Rediscover Wines, an Oldham-based independent importer.

“I thought that was tremendous and something to consider,” he said. “Not right now but over a period of time when I’m looking to bring in a wine to balance the portfolio. People like lighter, fresher styles but that also had some lovely complexity.”

Subrin, who has 12 hectares of vines in the south of the Beaujolais region, Beaujolais AOP, also makes white Beaujolais (from Chardonnay) and sparkling Rose (from Gamay). St. JOHN brings in some of her labels but she is looking for a second importer.

“Our family is very keen to reveal the typicity of our granite terroir,” she told The Buyer. “The commitment to organic and biodynamic agriculture is very important for us: to balance and stimulate our environment by taking great care of soil life and biodiversity in particular. Our gentle vinifications without inputs, at low temperatures are there to transmute what our grapes reveal to us. We hope that our wines transmit this approach through their aroma, freshness, length in the mouth and energy.”

Reid was also taken by the two white wines that went well with a salmon ceviche starter. The first was an AOP Vire Clessé from Macon, namely Les Vignes D’Adélie 2022 by Christian Terrier; the second was a Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg 2022 from the second biggest producer in Alsace, the Bestheim co-op.

“Delicious,” was Reid’s verdict of the latter, “but we know Alsace has a very limited market in the UK. Loved by us buyers but perhaps not the wine public, and they’re two different things. The Vire-Clessé was very nice to see on the table - two different styles to go with the fish.”

The final wine we drank was a splendid Banyuls from Les Vignes du Vent - with 120 g/l of residual sugar, from the Roussillon co-operative, Vica. This was €7 ex-cellar, although its many other labels range from €3.50-5.50. Representing over 1,000 growers, it produces 11 million bottles per annum. It is looking for a UK importer that supplies restaurants, bars and retailers in and around the Manchester area. That is because it sponsors 11 rugby league clubs that play in the Super League, where the Vignes du Vent branding is visible in all games. Vica also sponsors the Catalan Dragons rugby league club in Perpignan.

A special thankyou to the UK buyers who attended the event:

John Chapman, managing director, Oxford Wine Company.

Megan Clarke, head wine buyer, Ellis Wines.

Noel Reid, founder, Rediscover Wines.

Matt Ward, head of commercial and finance, Guy Anderson Wines.

William Stephens, head of wine, Nectar Wine/ Asahi Direct.

Colin Thorne, wine buyer, Vagabond Wines.

Wine Tourism in Czechia

Geoffrey Dean on why we need to explore Czechia and its wines

With over 1300 vineyard sites, 18,500 hectares under vine and an array of impressive mid-market and premium wines, many utilising fascinating and original hybrids, Czechia is a wine-producing country that is more than just a friend and near-neighbour of Austria. Quite apart from the fast-emerging wine scene the country is also a cornucopia of things to do and see for travellers, not all involving wine and beer! As Geoffrey Dean discovered.

30th May 2025 by Geoffrey Dean

Drinkers and importers on the lookout for a little-known gem of a wine-producing country should look no further than the Czech Republic. While reputed for the quality of its beer, Czechia, as it likes to be called, has a long history of wine-making dating back to Roman times, and produces a good deal of mid-market and premium labels from its 18,504 hectares under vine.

While domestic demand accounts for the majority of consumption, it has slipped to 19 litres per head per annum (compared to 146 litres for beer), and winemakers are keen to expand and develop sales in foreign markets.

Increasing wine tourism is also another focus, with Czechia’s two wine regions - Moravia and Bohemia - offering excellent value-for-money and a plethora of things to do and see for travellers, as I discovered on a trip this spring. For, Czechia has 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites, 200 castles that are open, 44,000 kms of marked hiking trails, 37,000 kms of cycling routes and over 100 golf courses. Vineyard sites number as many as 1,313, with white grapes making up 72% and black 28%.

Two main wine regions - Moravia and Bohemia

Moravia, which lies in the south-east of Czechia just over the border from Austria, is home to as much as 96% of the country’s vineyards. Bohemia, known locally as Cechy, has only 710 ha under vine, scattered within a 100 km radius of Prague. To get to Moravia, it is actually quicker to fly to Vienna and drive to the postcard-pretty town of Mikulov, an hour away just over the border. From Prague, it is a 250-km drive. One of Moravia’s four wine regions, Mikulovska, is named after the town, with the other three being Znojemska, Velkopavlovicka and Slovacka.

Znojmo Enoteca manager Petra Pokorna

The National Wine Centre, in the neighbouring town of Valtice, is housed in an old chateau once owned by the Liechtenstein family. Its ancient cellars contain 100 of Czechia’s better labels, with tasting samples possible from as many as you want during a two-hour period (at a cost of €29). A short drive away can be found the ultra-modern Obelisk winery, where visitors can stay in villas and dine at its excellent restaurant.

By contrast, the small-scale Plener winery in the nearby village of Pavlov has a rustic feel, with cellars dating back to the 17th century. It produces eleven labels, including two from Muller-Thurgau, the second most widely planted grape in Czechia behind Gruner Veltliner. Its Riesling and Welschriesling, the next most planted, showed well. So too did their Blaufrankisch (known locally as Frankovka), the most planted red varietal in Czechia ahead of Saint Laurent, Zweigelt and Pinot Noir. The influence of neighbouring Austria is unmistakable.

Vrbice wine cellars

The attractive little settlement of Vrbice houses a score of Hobbit-like cellars that were dug out over a hundred years ago from the loess soil beneath 130 hectares of vines surrounding the village. We met a local grower named Miroslav Gala, one of nearly 15,000 in Czechia, and tasted his Hibernal, a fresh and fruity white created by crossing Chancellor and Riesling.

Hibernal is a hybrid created in Germany in 1944 but is more commonly found in Czechia. Czechia has a notably good cross of its own, the amusingly-named Palava that was bred from Savagnin Rose and Muller-Thurgau. Pink-skinned, it produces an aromatic, spicy white with real character as we discovered with one premium example from the impressive Velke Bilovice winery.

Velke Bilovice winemaker Lubomira Hornakova.jpg

The Gloriette 2020 label (priced locally at €20), which won a bronze medal at Decanter World Wine Awards, was full-bodied thanks to some barrel-ageing, and had alluring lychee and pineapple notes. Winemaker Lubomira Hornakova has 20 hectares under vine on limestone soils, giving minerality to labels that also include Sauvignon Blanc and off-dry versions of Welschriesling and Pinot Blanc.

Thaya winemaker Jakub Smrcka with his Chardonnay 2023

Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay are planted in broadly equal amounts in Czechia. One of its leading wineries - Thaya - makes a complex example of the latter from vines whose average age is 20 years. Being in a cool climate region, the Thaya Chardonnay 2023 had a low pH of 3.1, encouraging winemaker Jakub Smrcka to put it through 100% malolactic fermentation.

“We make only 3,000 bottles of this wine, which sees 40% new oak,” he said. “Our soils are a combination of loess and granite, which gives both expression, tension and minerality. In total, we make around 230,000 bottles a year from 13 varieties on 105 hectares.”

Both his Pinot Noir, which sees 65% new oak, and his traditional method sparkling wines also showed well, with his Gruner Veltliner and Riesling exhibiting marked intensity of flavour.

Lednice Chateau - a 'must see'

While the spectacular blossom in spring of extensive almond orchards near Hustopece and the quaint village of nearby Kravi Hora, with its multiple wine cellars, are worth a visit, two must-sees in southern Moravia are the Lednice Chateau and the medieval town of Znojmo.

Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites. The former has the largest landscaped gardens in the world, while the latter has a warren of fourteenth century tunnels beneath it, not to mention the celebrated Church of St Nicholas and the stunning eleventh century Rotunda of St Catherine. A former monastery houses the splendid Enoteka, with its wonderfully varied selection of 120 Czech wines for tasting.

From there, it is a three-hour drive north-west to Central Bohemia and the historic town of Kutna Hora, another UNESCO World Heritage site that boasts two cathedrals. One of them, the Church of St Barbara, is regarded as one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic architecture in Europe.

Kutna Hora Wine Cellars winemaker Lukas Rudolfsky

The town is also home to one of Czechia’s best producers, Kutna Hora Wine Cellars. Lukas Rudolfsky, the charismatic piano-playing owner-winemaker of the only biodynamically-certified winery in Czechia, grows nine varieties on 43 hectares of gneiss, calcareous and clay soils.

Vinifying in an old Ursuline convent, Rudolfsky fashions a range of superb wines, including a fresh and mineral Muscat Ottonel, a delightful Pinot Gris and Chardonnay blend, an Ancestrale method (single fermentation) sparkling Riesling, a Rhine Riesling still wine and an orange wine.

The pick was his top Pinot Noir 2022 label, with its gloriously fresh raspberry fruit, soft tannins and low abv of 12%. Structure comes from 30% new oak. It was the best red wine I tasted in Czechia.

Lobkowicz Winery cellar master Karel Stejskal

Another Bohemian producer that impressed was the Lobkowicz Winery in the town of Roudnice. Cellar master Karel Stejskal makes some excellent Pinot Blanc and Riesling from organically-farmed vines as well as a cross of Saint Laurent and Blaufrankisch named Fratava. Spicy, with polished tannins, it has appealing blackberry and blackcurrant fruit. As a Czech creation, it is symbolic of how the country’s wine industry is looking forward and producing characterful wines of quality.

Noemia: a great Argentine Malbec

A rare visit to taste with Hans Vinding-Diers at Bodega Noemía

Hans Vinding-Diers is a maverick winemaker who can sniff out great terroir as second nature. But he had never seen a place as unique before as this little patch of Patagonia where Bodega Noemía is sited – a remote corner of the world where you can grow great Pinot and also great Cabernet, Malbec, Semillon, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. And there is a tiny vineyard from 1932 where own rootstock Malbec can be turned into one the great wines of the world. Geoffrey Dean travelled to the tip of Argentina to get a rare audience with Vinding-Diers, to hear the remarkable story of how the wines got off the ground and why the wines of Bodega Noemía de Patagonia are so special.

9th May 2025 by Geoffrey Dean

Like his celebrated father Peter, Hans Vinding-Diers is both a globe-trotting winemaker of note and natural story-teller. And his tale of how his newly-acquired Patagonian winery, Bodega Noemía, got a lucky break is a lovely one. It was the London Wine Fair of 2003, where he had brought with him from Argentina an unlabelled bottle of the first vintage (2001) of his flagship Malbec. It was a decision that had momentous consequences.

"She had the dosh. I blew it all on the barrels.” Hans Vinding Diers, Bodega Noemía de Patagonia, 2025

Hans Vinding Diers

“I only took it because my partner suggested it,” Vinding-Diers recalls as, some 21 years later, we walked through his vines near the village of Mainqué in the Río Negro province, 1000 or so kilometres south-west of Buenos Aires. Countess Noemi Cinzano was both his romantic and business partner of the time, the pair having founded the winery.

“2001 was the first vintage, and the year I also met Noemi,” Vinding-Diers says. “So we decided to make a company and name it after her: Bodega Noemía de Patagonia – 51% owned by her, and 49% by me. She had the dosh. I blew it all on the barrels.”

Not that the barrels were the making of the wine. Ungrafted vines planted in 1932 producing superlative fruit from an exceptional terroir were. More on them in due course but first back to what happened at the London Wine Fair in 2003.

“I bump into Stephen Spurrier, who knew my father and asks what bottle I’d got there,” he adds.

“So he brings me to David Gleave on the Liberty stand. Both of them drink my wine and I can see their reaction in their eyes. At the same time, two of the best sommeliers at that time walk past - from Aubergine and the Gavroche. They taste the wine and say they want it on their list. David then asks me how much of it I’d made and that he wants it all. Then to name my price. I come out with a figure of £56, and tell him I’ll only give him 85% of the wine. All this in 15 minutes - incredible.”

A good story got even better in the following months when Spurrier gave the Noemía 2001 five stars in Decanter, and Wine Spectator awarded it 94 points.

“This was in 2003 when 90 points was 90 points and Argentina wasn’t on the map,” says Vinding-Diers. “Only Catena got that kind of points. So that was extraordinary… and it just went boom from there. It was a true love story which still lives on. Noemi and I had a breakup but she sold me the winery in 2018 on very good terms. Now it’s my wife Belén who is at the heart of the winery. Spurrier had always had that flair – he knew where to scratch and find, and it wasn’t because we were family friends. He was dead serious about it. ‘It’s amazing what you're doing – pre-phylloxera, original rootstock.... do you realise?’ he asked me. I replied ‘yes I do realise.’ ”

Remarkable viticulture

Where it all started - the 1.2ha Noemía vineyard

In the past two decades, Noemía has gone on to produce what are some of the greatest wines in Argentina, and not just from Malbec. Its Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon are world-class, while the estate’s A Lisa label, a more affordable Malbec (at £35 with the flagship Noemía retailing at £140-160) is an outstanding ‘village’ wine, as Vinding-Diers puts it. “Then, you go on to the cru vineyards,” he chuckles. Named after his grandmother, A Lisa makes up two thirds of his annual production of 90,000 bottles. Just 2,000 bottles of the flagship Noemía label are produced - from its 1.5 hectare plot.

It is something of a miracle that viticulture is remotely feasible in this sun-drenched valley that receives only seven inches of rain a year, and is bordered by semi-desert terrain to the north and south. What makes grape-growing possible is the network of canals that run off the Negro river, whose source is in the Andes.

“All that irrigation is 100% gravity – there’s a drop of one metre every 10km,” adds Vinding-Diers, revealing he employs flood irrigation. “The valley goes east-west, and this water travels around 550 km from the Andes. It’s just translating the mountains to this place, and the vine gets it, captures it from minerally-charged water. This is extraordinary. I’ve made wine around the world and never seen anything like this… a place where you can grow great Pinot and also great Cabernet, Malbec, Semillon, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s very clean and pristine here – no pollution.”

Disease pressure is almost non-existent with no downy and powdery mildew to worry about, and humidity very low.

“No sulphur or copper needs spraying, and there’s not much trunk disease,” claims Vinding-Diers. “We might get deficiencies but we don't get diseases, which is incredible. Very little hail and no frost. The Humberto Canale vineyards down by the river are 120 years old, and our oldest are 93 years old. Basically, everyone in the valley is on own rootstock for the original vines, which make up about 1,000 hectares of the 1200 under vine.”

"My vineyard is my mistress..."

The bodega sits on alluvial soils both for the 1.5h Noemia plot (planted in 1930) and the other Malbec one of 4.5h, named J.Alberto after Noemi Cinzano’s father (and planted in 1955).

“Here on the Noemía plot, there's a bit more clay, but throughout we have gravel, sand and silt,” reveals Vinding-Diers. “It’s a beautiful combination, especially as water filters through with enough staying. So it’s wonderful - I’m very happy about this soil. This is a bit heavier than J Alberto, so it produces larger, more ample wines than J.Alberto, which is a bit leaner, more austere.”

With ideal soils and climate, Vinding-Diers farmed organically from the outset, as well as in an environmentally sensitive manner, which he is convinced affects the quality of the grapes. As not just winemaker but also viticulturist, he talks of ‘my intimate relationship’ with his vineyard.

“That’s what it’s all about - my vineyard is my mistress,” he muses. “Truly, I’m being very serious. It’s something spiritual. The density of the old vines is 3,000 to 3,500 per hectare, and I try to give them the minimal amount of water to survive. So I flood irrigate only five times per year, although it’s more like a trickle than a flood. We don’t give a damn about quantity as we’re all about quality. Yield is 25 to 30hl/ha which is low but that’s what we want.”

A wide diurnal range, with night-time temperatures in summer dropping into single figures, helps the old vines to retain their acidity. As a result, Vinding-Diers says he never has to add any tartaric acid to his Noemía or J.Alberto labels.

“When we harvest, we have pHs of 3.2 or 3.3, which is very low for Argentina. By the end of fermentation, it’s 3.4 to 3.6 max with a TA of 6.5 and abv of 13.5%, which is a dream.”

One viticultural practice with vine training that Vinding-Diers introduced four years ago for his prized Noemía parcel has had what he calls "amazing results". The apex of the vines is allowed to reach 2.10m in height rather than 1.70m. “Where you don't cut the apex off is something I’ve seen some producers do in Alsace and Burgundy,” he adds.

“I guess it is a response to the climate change we are experiencing these last years. We find that our pHs are much lower, the acidity is higher, the sugars don’t spike and the polyphenols also mature very slowly. I believe personally from our winery data and intuition that the vine is not stressed because of that particular way of training it. It’s a controlled wilderness and the plant auto-regulates as the more you touch her the more she stresses. And if she’s stressed, there’s very little reserves left and that’s when you get these sugar peaks and unbalanced results.”

Rows of strategically-planted poplars, ranging in age from 15 to 100 years, act as excellent windbreaks against the prevailing Patagonian south-westerlies. What wind does get through is a useful coolant on hot summer days when temperatures can exceed 40°C.

“The poplars are close to the vines but don’t take any nutrients from them as I give the poplars food in the form of compost and water,” Hans said. “The vines are thick and gnarly but wonderfully healthy-looking with very good polyphenols. They are loved for sure. We do only very basic shoot-thinning and don’t green harvest.”

Winemaking at Bodega Noemía de Patagonia

Minimal intervention in the vineyards is followed by careful vinification.

“After hand-picking fruit and destemming it, we pump over only to activate the yeasts, and we do very little extraction as we don’t need to,” says Vinding-Diers. “The tannins are perfectly ripe and our colours are amazing because of the thermal amplitude. We don’t do fermentation control – we don’t have a cooling system – and we open windows at night and we let the ferments go as they wish in order to let the yeasts express themselves truly. Our production is small, and so are our tanks, so they never really generate too much heat. We ferment in old wooden vessels, cement vessels and stainless steel.”

Elevage is in top-quality 600-litre French demi-muids but, significantly, only A Lisa gets any new oak (just 5% for 8-10 months). So keen is Vinding-Diers to allow the fullest possible fruit expression that his flagship Noemía, although it spends 24 months in oak, sees a combination of second, third and even fourth fill. It also spends 12 months in bottle before release, as does J.Alberto (with 12 months in oak).

Availability

Overseas demand for the labels is such that 85% of production is exported, although the Pinot Noir is held back for domestic sales only. Like the Cabernet (whose label is Due, the Italian for ‘two’), it’s only made in exceptional years, the most recent being 2021 and 2024. The A Lisa has been produced every year since 2004, and the J.Alberto every year since 2003.

There is, Vinding-Diers says, no number one export market, although James Doidge MW, managing director of leading UK importer, the Wine Treasury, takes as much as 15% of output to satisfy keen UK demand, including all labels apart from the Pinot. That pleases Vinding-Diers, who is half-British through his mother, and has English as a first language, having been born in South Africa where his Danish father began his winemaking career.

Ironically, Vinding-Diers, while fluent in Spanish and French, speaks little Danish even though he has a Danish passport. His young son, Juan Andreas, has dual Danish-Argentinian citizenship, while wife Belén is an Argentine national.

“Belén does all the Argentine domestic sales, and I do all the international,” he says. “We personally talk to our clients which makes a huge difference. The admin and accounts we do. There are not many true vignerons and sole owners in Argentina. You count them on one hand.”

It is another reason why the wines of Bodega Noemía de Patagonia are so special.

How were the new wines tasting?

Bodega Noemía, A Lisa 2023

90% Malbec, 9% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 13% abv, RRP £35.

Fermented and aged largely in stainless steel (with 5% new oak and 5% used oak). Deep purple with aromas of spice, violet and rose petals. Intense, exuberant red and black fruit with notes of bitter cherry and blackcurrant. Velvety texture with tight-knit acidity, soft tannins and a lengthy finish.

Bodega Noemía, J.Alberto 2022

95% Malbec, 5% Merlot, 13% abv, RRP £55.

Massale field blend selection from single vineyard planted on own roots in 1955. Elevage in second and third fill French oak (two thirds), with a third in cement. Inky colour with fragrant aromas of rosemary, creme de cassis and coffee. Glorious black fruit on the palate with saline backbone, invigorating freshness and smoky graphite minerality. Silky tannins and persistent length.

Bodega Noemía, “Noemía” 2022

100% Malbec, 13.5% abv, £160.

One of Argentina’s greatest Malbecs from 1932 vines on own roots. In contrast to altitude Argentinian Malbec, this is a latitude wine of fluvial origins, exhibiting minerality from Andean river water as well as a touch of salinity. A very elegant, harmonious wine with wild strawberry aromas and floral violet notes, as well as gloriously intense red fruit, blueberry, black cherry and balsamic hints. Such notable freshness and fine-grained powdery tannins, as well as a supremely long finish. Noemía Malbecs are more Old World in style than higher altitude ones from Mendoza and Salta, being lower in alcohol, arguably more complex and less in-your-face. Mendoza tends to be more herbal, with massive intensity, and Salta spicier.

* You can find out more about Bodega Noemía de Patagonia at its website here.

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Grand Cercle 2024 en primeur tasting

Geoffrey Dean at Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux's 2024 en primeur

Thirty of the 119 celebrated Bordeaux chateaux that make up the Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux held an En Primeur tasting of the latest 2024 vintage at the Dilly, London last month - giving wine buyers a first hand look at wines which have been very much in the press this last fortnight. 2024 Bordeaux was a tricky growing season as Geoffrey Dean discovered talking to producers, and yields were down but the end results are wines that are light, fleshy, modest in alcohol, made for early drinking and competitively priced.

7th May 2025 by Geoffrey Dean

What was clear after the primeurs tasting of the 2024 vintage of the Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux was that the wines are, as a general rule, light, fleshy and quite simple but with soft tannins, plenty of freshness and appealing fruit. Above all, and this will really please those who harp back to the days of lower alcohol levels, most of the wines were under 14% with some even under 13%. They are for early drinking, and should be competitively priced.

The downside is low yields, which were largely the result of rampant downy mildew, which struck as early as April in some vineyards after persistent spring rain. According to Jean-François Quenin, owner of Château de Pressac and Château Tour de Pressac in Saint-Émilion, some growers lost half or up to 90% of their crop.

"You cannot get a Ferrari for the price of a Peugeot.” Jean-Francois Quenin

“We had three periods of different weather,” he told The Buyer. “Before June, we had a year’s rainfall in six months, so mildew was a problem. A lot of people had it. We had sun and dry conditions in the middle of July until the end of August, although there was hail damage in the north of Pomerol in August. Then, for the harvest, it started to rain. So we had to pick a little earlier than we’d have liked."

"It was quite a difficult vintage – we had to sort the grapes very carefully as we had some rotten ones. However, the result is better than expected – a little lighter than normal, but fresh, fruity and no vegetal green aromas, which we were anxious about. But we had none at all.”

Benjamin Barreau of La Dauphine - 70% down in production

Benjamon Barreau of La Dauphine

Quenin was one of many who had to chaptalise – in his case for the first time in 20 years – but his own yields were almost 40hl/ha, not far off a normal return. Conversely, Château La Cardonne’s was down to 26hl/ha, while Benjamin Barreau of Château de La Dauphine revealed their typical annual production of 100,000 bottles was down to 30,000. “It will make an easy wine to drink, being lighter and less concentrated,” he said.

Guy Meslin of Laroze - The 2024s have elegant tannins and invigorating freshness

Talking to the growers and winemakers at the tasting revealed that they had all been very careful not to extract too much for fear of tannins that were not fully ripe, with some even being harsh. Punchdowns were consequently avoided in the main. All those I spoke to stressed they had employed the strictest selection of berries. Guy Meslin of Château Laroze declared “we have a very precise way to separate the berries - with a mechanical device which is better than optical sorting equipment.”

Meslin, who said they did not chaptalise at Laroze, professed they lost quite a bit of volume to downy mildew but more to ‘millanderage’ or ‘hens and chicks’, when bunches contain berries of different size and maturity. The 2024s nevertheless had elegant tannins and invigorating freshness. The 2019 vintage, he poured alomgside the 2024, showed very well, as might be expected of such a classic vintage.

Tariffs and prices

The potential effect of Trump’s tariffs was, unsurprisingly, a hot topic of conversation. Quenin revealed that the CIVB is expecting a decrease in sales of 20-30% to the USA on the back of the proposed tariffs. “For me, it’s actually better if the price goes up,” mused Quenin, who exports 10-15% of his production to the States. “I think that in the US my Tour de Pressac is not expensive enough as many Americans think the wine can’t be that good at $40. So if my wine goes up to $50, it may help me to sell more. But at the lower price points, I appreciate any increase could be a problem for our producers in America.”

As fas as prices are concerned for the UK market, Quenin does not feel they can go down much further. “Last year, prices went down a lot,” he continued, “so I am not sure they can go down again as people are losing money. In Bordeaux, we have taken out 20-30% of the vines in the last two years – mostly for entry level wines. We are selling those for less than half the cost of production, so people are suffering a lot. If people are obliged to reduce the price, then the quality will be reduced. Customers will get what they pay for. You cannot get a Ferrari for the price of a Peugeot.”

Pierre Rebaud of Siaurac - producers had to roll with the punches

Pierre Rebaud of Château Siaurac who, like Quenin, chaptalised in order to gain a degree of alcohol, was justifiably pleased with his 2024, which came in at 13.5% abv. “We lost a large part of the Merlot, which makes up only 53% of the blend when normally 80%. We traditionally use 30% new oak normally, but none in ’24. The structure is lighter but fresh. It’s for drinking within 5-6 years, not like the 2019 which is best drunk when 20 years old. I like the style, although it’s not the normal estate style. We got 33 hl/ha compared to 42-45 normally.”

How long the 2024s will age was a moot point. Julie Metifet of Clos Puy Arnaud thinks hers are best drunk immediately - within 3 years - while Pierre Delage, director-general of Lanessan, effectively concurred, saying that his 2024 “will be easy to drink soon.” At 12.5% abv, it is quite light in colour with supple tannins, the winemaking team having been very careful not to over-extract. As for the 2019, Delage gushed that “I love it and it is almost ready to drink.”

David Eads of Clos Dubreuil

David Eads, the American CEO of Saint-Émilion Grand Cru estate, Clos Dubreuil, declared he was “cautiously optimistic’ about his new winemaker Joel Elissalde’s first vintage (2024). “We harvested late in mid October, with the rain being quite scary in harvest,” he admitted, “but one of Joel’s sayings is that ‘We play to win, not not lose.’ The body and fruit was what we wanted to get out of the harvest.” The wine certainly showed more concentration than some other wines, which were a bit fleshy.

While praising his Chardonnay 2024 as “insanely good”, Eads felt his 2014 vintage was not dissimilar to the 2024. “Jeroboams have the 2014 in stock, and really liked it. It works better for a British palate, being classic in style,” he said, adding he considered Trump’s tariffs to be foolish. “But I don't think they will affect sales that much. American wines have such a high price tag, and I believe an extra 20% on French wines won’t scare people off.”

Bart de Winne, the plain-speaking Belgian export manager of organic producer, Château La Marzelle, was another who spoke favourably of the 2024s. “We’re pretty comfortable with the results in what was a complicated vintage,” he said. “We benefited from farming biodynamically - we gain our certification in two years. Maturation is in 80% new French oak for our first wine, with 20% in terracotta amphorae. All the Cab Franc goes into amphorae as it helps us develop its aromatic capacity. We used more Merlot (80%) and less Cab Franc (15%) than we normally do. We’re looking for elegance and silkiness. We only sell small quantities to the US, and got a palate in there before Trump was elected.”

Anthony Crameri

Anthony Crameri, export manager of the De Amour group which owns five Bordeaux châteaux, including Grand Cru Classé Saint-Emilion estates, Tour Baladoz and La Croizille, was brutally frank. “2024 is a small bad vintage,” he sighed. “The Merlots were very, very complicated. I’m quite happy with the Cabernets but very disappointed with the Merlot. There is a lack of structure in middle palate, which is quite weak; a good nose but a short finish. We had to do a lot of treatments in the vineyards against downy mildew. We didn’t have to chaptalise but the alcohol level is low.”