We've added some new wines to our portfolio

​Naturally Spanish and naturally great value

With continuing demand for natural and low intervention wines, especially in Birmingham, we’re delighted to be adding the popular Gran Cerdo pair of wines from Rioja.

Wii Gonzalo Gonzalo Grijalba not only has the coolest name in Rioja, he’s also the founder and winemaker extraordinaire who’s shaking up the old guard with his non-conformist, low interventionist approach. Rioja has one of the strictest, most regulated appellation systems on the planet so it took someone with a large pair of cojones to throw away the rulebook and do different!

He’s painstakingly restored his family’s vineyards ‘back to nature’ working them bio-dynamically, so nothing synthetic is applied and any required treatments are made using natural plant and mineral-based preparations.

The white is made predominantly from Viura (widely planted in Rioja) with around 20% of the wine made from various other varieties including Riesling, Muscat and Sauvignon Blanc. The red is 100% Tempranillo. Both wines are unoaked and made using native yeasts, no stabilisation, unfined, unfiltered and with minimal sulphur additions.

We were really impressed with how juicy and pure these wines are without the funkiness sometimes associated with these styles of wines. Arguably the best value natural wine pairing on the market right now.

No Greek Tragedies here

We’ve dabbled a little in Greek wines in the past on the back of limited demand but price and continuity was always its Achilles heel. With recent growing interest in wines from less familiar countries, availability and more commercially sound pricing are now making them much more accessible.

We’re delighted to be introducing three wines from Domaine Papagiannakos. Situated on the Attican coast, a region which encompasses the country’s capital of Athens, Vassilis Papagiannakos is the third-generation custodian of this family estate. He’s brought significant improvements with the construction of the country’s first bioclimatic winery which sits amidst his ageing vines and looks seriously cool!

Vassilis owns 10 hectares of vines and rents a further 20 hectares under long term leases and is devoted to both native grape varieties and several international grapes that are long established in this important viticultural region.

The Malagouzia is a mouth-watering, textural white full of exotic fruits and a citrus bite while the Assyrtiko, grown by the sea, shows more clementine and lime notes with the refreshing saline acidity usually associated with the classic examples from Santorini. The bold Erythros red blends Agiorgitiko with Cabernet Sauvignon (70/30) and is a mouth-filling, bramble fruit-dominated wine with well-integrated oak tannins. This got a big thumbs up with the guys!

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Taking Chile to a higher level

The Chileans have made a big push in recent years towards premiumisation, in order to prove that they’re not just a source of house-level wines, by focusing on regionality and more terroir-driven wines.

There’s some exciting stuff coming through and with all the uncertainty over supply of some of our long-standing favourite wines, the timing is right to broaden our options at the mid-tier level. The Ventopuro Single Vineyard range, made by cool climate specialists Matetic Vineyards, ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’. The emphasis is on showcasing the unique and diverse range of terroirs within the cool Casablanca and San Antonio valleys as well as the mecca for fuller-bodied reds that is Colchagua.

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The Sauvignon Blanc comes from San Antonio and makes a really good alternative to kiwi Sauv while the Chardonnay has the characteristic freshness of Casablanca and has the perfect balance between lifted fruit salad aromas and subtle vanilla spice.

The Pinot Noir, also from Casablanca, is smooth yet concentrated and lingers long on the finish while the Carmenère packs all the punch and sophistication that Colchagua is renowned for. We know you’re going to love these wines so don’t be shy in requesting samples from your account manager.

In fact, it goes without saying that we’d be happy to show you any of the new wines coming through as we’re confident your punters will enjoy them as much as we did.

Chin-chin!