SIZE

6 PACK, 750ml BOTTLES, $45.99 EACH

PRODUCER

Staete Landt Winery

VINTAGE

2016

COLOUR

Red

SUB-REGION, REGION, COUNTRY

Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand

GRAPE

Syrah

Staete Landt's Syrah expresses the unique terroir of the old stony riverbed site beautifully. The wine has an attractive nose of ripe black cherries and blackberries. On the palate this wine shows spice, white pepper, dark ripe plums and bay leaf/liquorice characters. A well-balanced, complex and sophisticated typical cool climate style Syrah, with excellent structure and elegant tannins. Cellar up to 7 years.

SIZE

12 PACK, 750ml BOTTLES, $129.99 EACH

PRODUCER

BURGRESS CELLARS

VINTAGE

2016

COLOUR

Red

SUB-REGION, REGION, COUNTRY

NAPA VALLEY, California, USA

GRAPE

Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker Notes

A dense and concentrated cabernet with aromas and flavors of confectionary blackberry and stewed cassis. The lush fruit is brought into balance by high tone herbal aromatics of mint, sage, and sweet tobacco. The distinctively thick-skinned Cabernet grapes provide a long velvety finish.

Blend: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petite Verdot, 4% Malbec

93 Points, Wine & Spirits

Meghan Zobeck makes this wine with cabernet from Burgess’s Sorenson Vineyard, a west-facing parcel on Howell Mountain, blending in a small amount of petit verdot and malbec from Haymaker, an eastfacing vineyard slightly higher in elevation. Aged mostly in neutral French oak barrels (15 percent were new), this developed a textural grace without the weight of oak tannins, feeling airy in its richness. There’s darkness to the fruit and a marrow-bone savor, ending light and breezy.

SIZE

6 PACK, 750ml BOTTLES, $149.99 EACH [ON SALE: WAS $169.99]

PRODUCER

Chateau Haut Batailley

VINTAGE

2018

COLOUR

RED

SUB-REGION, REGION, COUNTRY

Bordeaux, France

GRAPE

BORDEAUX BLEND

94 points, James Suckling

The blackcurrants and blueberries with violets on the nose are fascinating. Full-bodied and very tightly wound with gorgeous tannins and a linear and bright finish. Needs two to four years to come together. Try after 2023.

93 points, Vinous

The 2016 Haut Batailley can be seen as a transitional wine. The property was sold to the Cazes family at the end of March 2017, so the Borie family made the wines and the Cazes family essentially finished the barrel maturation. As a consequence, the label will probably not be the new design that will adorn vintages henceforth. This has a tightly wound bouquet of blackberry, bilberry and subtle floral notes (pressed iris petals and a touch of violet). The palate is medium-bodied with fine, slightly chalky tannins. What I love about this Haut-Batailley, caught in limbo, is that it responds with so much freshness, vitality and tension, especially on the finish. Excellent.

SIZE

6 PACK, 750ml BOTTLES, $88.99 EACH [on sale: was $99.99]

PRODUCER

Gigi Rosso

VINTAGE

2016

COLOUR

Red

SUB-REGION, REGION, COUNTRY

Barolo, Piedmont, Italy

GRAPE

Nebbiolo

Winemaker Notes

In Castiglione Falletto, the Rocche Moriondino cru is considered the most important mention of the municipal area, the one that over the decades has always given harmonious and elegant wines, destined to maintain its features for a long time. The Rocche hills have a steeper slope facing south-east and another, gentler, facing south-west. It is precisely on this side that the Bricco Rocche and Rocche Moriondino cru are found.

The Riserva dell’Ulivo is produced only in the best vintages, when the grapes reach the perfect degree of ripeness and intensity of perfume, giving the wine its extraordinary bouquet and lasting power. It is aged for more than four years in barrel, then 12 months  in bottle, only in the fifth year can the wine legally become a Riserva.

Warm and dry, but pleasantly fruity. It reminds of caramelized fruits and cherry compote.  The sweet tannins and great structure, give it elegance and balance.

SIZE

12 PACK, 750ml BOTTLES, $30.98 EACH

PRODUCER

Château Clément Saint-Jean

VINTAGE

2016

COLOUR

RED

SUB-REGION, REGION, COUNTRY

Bordeaux, France

GRAPE

CABERNET FRANC, merlot

Winemaker Notes

This cooperative wine was first produced in 1996, the result of bringing together a number of parcels. The wine's structure and freshness happily pair with firm tannins and black-currant fruits. That gives a wine with potential, ready to drink from 2022.

SIZE

1 PACK, 12000ml BOTTLES, $1,999.99 EACH

PRODUCER

Tenuta Il Poggione

VINTAGE

2016

COLOUR

Red

SUB-REGION, REGION, COUNTRY

Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy

GRAPE

Sangiovese

Winemaker Notes

Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna Paganelli is produced only in the best vintages and in limited quantity. This wine comes exclusively from "I Paganelli" vineyard, the oldest one in the estate, planted in 1964. Its vines, used as a clonal reference when planting new vineyards, produce high quality grapes which are picked by the individual selection of the best and ripest bunches. After the manual harvest, the must ferments at controlled temperature. Subsequently the wine spends a long time in large French oak casks and it is then aged in the bottle.

96 Points, Wine Advocate

This is the top-shelf wine from Il Poggione, and it's a must-have bottle for those who collect wines from this celebrated estate. From an icon vintage, the 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Vigna Paganelli is a beauty. It stands at the intersection of intensity, elegance and power. The fruit is shapely and dense with plenty of blackberry and black cherry, and you also get savory touches of campfire ash, tar, licorice, ferrous earth and balsam herb. Honestly, you get it all, including that distinctive Brunello power and abundance that is not easily achieved with such careful balance. The finish is structured, fresh and long, and with more time in the glass, the leathery or savory aromas become more pronounced (as does the alcohol). 

SIZE

6 PACK, 750ml BOTTLES, $54.99 EACH

PRODUCER

Drift Estate

VINTAGE

2016

COLOUR

sparkling rose

REGION, COUNTRY

Overberg Highlands, South Africa

GRAPE

Malbec

90 Points, James Suckling

A bright orange-pink sparkling with aromas of grapefruit peel, cherries, dried strawberries and biscuits. Saline undertones. Medium-bodied with sharp acidity and medium bubbles. Dry and savory. Drink now.

Winemaker Notes

The sun hesitated and hung above the western mountains, reluctant to lose sight of the valley. This caused earth to suddenly stop its wobbly spin and everything went flying. Cows and sheep and hay bales and trucks went hurtling overhead – flying off over the horizon.

But I was expecting this, because it had happened before. In fact, it happened a lot during spring when the valley was at its most beautiful. I had tied myself to a thick vineyard pole and fastened an ice bucket to my leg with some scrap trellis wire. Carefully placed in the ice bucket was a bottle of Penelope. A champagne flute was strapped to my hand with stretchy, white, electrical tape (because the only other colour I had in the toolbox was yellow and that was obviously going to clash with the colour of the wine). Now I know exactly what you are thinking… “when everything was flying around, how the hell did he keep the bottle in the ice bucket?”

Aha, great question! With an elastic rope tied around the neck, of course. It almost snapped and broke free when earth stopped. My plan would have been dashed had I not also cable-tied the bottle to the ice bucket handle!

Call me OCD, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Now the recent yoga practice came in handy as I bent down, loosened the wire with my spare hand and watched the cork fly out, followed by the wine. I was ready! I managed to catch about half a glass of the torrent, the rest spraying over the vineyard.

And I watched the sun sit there in the amazed sky and it watched me back. At that moment we both knew how beautiful the valley was, but the sun knew I could also taste it.

This wine is a great accompaniment to our Overberg Highland sunsets and as an aperitif before dinner. It is fresh, creamy, with soft red fruit flavours on the palate and aromas of mangosteen and strawberry. It also pairs brilliantly with seafood like sustainably-farmed oysters and abalone.

We pick the vines early to retain the lively natural acidity which will keep the eventual wine fresh for decades. After traditional whole-bunch basket-pressing, we allow the wine to ferment in old barrels. This allows us to build creamy mouthfeel without imparting any wood flavour to the wine. After a few months’ maturation in barrel, the wine is transferred to their bottles for the secondary fermentation, where the CO2 bubbles are entrapped into the wine in the traditional Champagne method.