After several years of experimentation with varying toast levels and various barrel producers, Susana Balbo has created a Torrontés that takes this varietal into a whole new sphere of influence. The exuberant floral and fruity notes that we know and love have become delicately muted and are complemented with the most ethereal and subtle oak influences. Although still distinctly Torrontés, this actually noses a little like a great Viognier, dare we say it something akin to Condrieu from a very good vintage?

Produced in tiny quantities this wine is layered with heady notes of violet, plum, red currant, and chocolate. It is silky smooth and bursts onto the palate with a bounty of ultra ripe dark fruits and wild herbs. Its location at such an altitude ensures the wine is ultra fresh with racy acidity to hold this glorious wine together.

Pale in colour, as you’d expect from a wine with no skin contact during fermentation. A lovely attack of wild raspberries on the nose. Wonderful fresh acidity on the palate along with more of that juicy burst of red fruits. A wine full of delicious tension and poise which, like all these amazing wines, has an unbelievably long finish. 50% of the wine is aged on the lees in concrete eggs for 6 months; 50% in 3rd use French oak casks of 225 litres, followed by 8 months in bottle.

Syrah is one of Mauricio Lorca's favourite grape varieties; he loves its fickle nature, the bold influence it can bring to a blend and, most of all, the song it sings flying solo. This delicious Syrah packs a big, spicy, chocolate-infused punch in its youth but after a few years in bottle, as here, it mellows into a most sultry and complex wine, a delight if you fancy an askew take on the northern Rhône.
95% Syrah, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon

Aromas of red mature fruit combined with touches of vanilla and chocolate. Smooth in the mouthfeel, balanced, with velvety and sweet tannins

From grapes grown at the family’s Finca La Encerrada vineyard in the Uco Valley where sandy, calcareous soils are known to imbue the wine with a subtle mineral complexity, this superb Malbec represents something of a stylistic bridge in terms of the Benegas story past and present. The power and concentration that we have always associated with this great old producer are there in spades, but so too is a new level of elegance and poise, with a deft touch of carefully balanced oak (12 months in new French) and a freshness which is simply joyous. Malbec has come a long way in the last 10 – 15 years and no wine tells the story better than this.

In each of the three ranges from this winery - Serbal, Catalpa and Atamisque - there is a blend, an assemblage. Catalpa Assemblage is comprised of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec in varying proportions depending on the vintage. 60% of this wine is aged for 12 months in new French oak barrels, 40% in stainless steel prior to blending and a further 6 months in bottle prior to release. Crafted in a fairly extravagant style this is a lovely, plump, velvet textured delight with clever use of oak in evidence, capable of developing very nicely for 8 - 10 years.

On the nose, bounteous wild red fruits and the unmistakable whiff of forest floor; in the mouth silky tannins and fresh juicy fruit with a long finish. This is definitely New World Pinot Noir approaching its South American best and sees Argentina taking a seat at the top table.

From one of Argentina's foremost winemakers, Susanna Balbo leads the field with this superbly crafted malbec. Terrific quality of fruit, with a light touch of oak. Classy.

Deep ruby red in colour, lovely aromas of plums and sweet red berries, silky-textured in the mouth with incredible length. Elegant yet intense, fresh, complex, superbly balanced and, best of all, very moreish.

This is the flag-bearing Malbec from Bodega Atamisque, a winery that has come from nowhere in recent years to gain real respect and admiration from its peers, and no wonder with wines like this on show. Winemaker Philippe Caraguel has triumphed with this wine, which is so good and consistently good from vintage to vintage, perhaps due in part to the vines being 100% owned and managed by Atamisque. We sell much more of this, not inexpensive Malbec, to the UK trade than we do many others at significantly lower prices. Excellent is the word.

Expresivo is harvested from Gualtallary Terroir, which translates in mineral notes, firm fine grained tannins and great length. This wine has aromas
of blackberry, peppercorn tree with balanced natural acidity.

From a high quality, old vine block in higher Agrelo, this is a serious expression of Malbec which is characterised by its rocky terroir and small batch wine making. Award winning Malbec from Argentinean specialists of this native grape. High altitude, single vineyard quality that is truly of place.

Appealing, lively and spine-tingling to its core, the palate perfectly balances the flavours of lime juice, lemon curd and subtle tropical notes with naturally occurring acidity in a generous, yet tightly wound, persistent finish. A wine with a long cellaring potential ahead of it.

This wine is bright ruby red in colour with a vivid purple rim in the glass. Aromas of ripe dark fruits such as blood plum and blackberry are complemented by savoury notes of black olives and oak char. On the palate, it is a full-bodied, mouth-filling wine with fine grained tannins and concentrated dark fruits, and a hint of coffee and mocha on the long finish.

Dense, inky red colour with a purple rim. The nose is layered, complex and seductive with great intensity and balance between ripe red to dark fruit and spicy undertones. The wine is upfront in its every aspect but elegantly put together so that the palate remains fresh and incredibly drinkable. The tannins are persistent
and savoury, the finish long and rounded.

The Dreamer is light straw yellow with hues of green. Fresh apricots and violets on the nose with lifts of lemon.
The palate is bright and fresh with vivid acid and juicy fruits. The balance of fruit and acid give the wine depth and vibrancy.

The Bird in Hand range is a limited release of premium quality wines created from the best parcels of fruit from every vintage.

A beautiful lemon and lime sherbet style classic Riesling. Very fresh and crisp with layers of waxy stone fruit and floral notes finishing on a lovely almost toasty note.
A bouquet reminiscent of red apple and white peach, with mineral overtones. White stone fruit flavours follow through on the palate, with a subtle texture and a tight knit acidity lingering in the background, which provides length and persistence.

This wine showcases the strength of Margaret River for Chardonnay with a restrained, modern, elegantly structured wine from one of the great Margaret River vineyards.

Colour: Dark garnet red
Bouquet: dark berry fruits with undertones of dried herbs and cigar box.
Palate: Elegant and refined with lovely berry fruits framed by supple savory tannins.
Grapes were destemmed, sorted and crushed into small batches for ferment. Wines were fermented with wild yeast, gaining layered complexity. Extended time on skins post fermentation gave the wine greater depth and savoury characteristics. The wine was pressed, and racked to oak for maturation. It was then left to evolve in oak for 16 months before blending for bottling.

The gundog winnery take pride with the wild Semillon by pushing boundaries of conventional winemaking by fermenting a portion of the wine on skins (like a red wine) using natural or “indigenous” yeast. The aim is to create a very textural and complex style of Semillon that showcases another side of this great wine grape.

With tasting notes of very aromatic lemongrass, peach and some herbal tea notes. The palate is bright and fleshy with some residual sweetness there to offset phenolics (tannin) and acidity.

From the coolest and highest vineyard in the Watervale sub-region comes this vibrant and aromatic Riesling.

The Old Adam Shiraz is a combination of parcels of wine from the best blocks of Shiraz from the Bremerton vineyards.

From 'The King of Riesling', this hard rock site is overlaid with silty, low fertility soils, producing restrained, steely, pure wines. The Polish Hill vineyard was planted in 1996, following years of research into the effect of soil, rock and altitude on Riesling.