Le Grand Verdus Bordeaux Rouge
$24.99
Great value for a red Bordeaux! This easy-to-drink blend is made of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. It comes from a lovely Bordeaux estate located in the heart of the AOC Bordeaux Supérieur, between Médoc, Graves and Saint-Emilion. The Le Grix de la Salle family started their winemaking business after the Second World War, but the estate dates back to Renaissance times.
Dumangin Ratafia Craft
$74.99
This bottling of Ratafia Champenois from Gilles Dumangin is made of 2/3 Pinot Meunier and 1/3 Pinot Noir. Multiple vintages with a minimum age of 6 years were chosen to be married together before a further 9 years of maturation took place in casks that previously held wine from Northern Rhone. Bottled at 18% ABV.
Ratafia Champenois is a fortified wine from the Champagne region of France typically made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Brandy or a neutral grape spirit is added to the grape juice before fermentation. The Ratafia has a lovely tawny colour and rich, complex dried fruit flavours. Gilles recommends serving it with melon, cheese and chocolate desserts.
Podere Forte Guardavigna 2018
$274.99
Podere Forte's top-end wine is made from 100% estate-grown Cabernet Franc, nurtured in vineyards above 525m. “The name comes from the rock that used to guard the vines. I mix up – I have to mix up – History and Fable. The Fable of a great Tuscan wine.” - Pasquale Forte
The Val d’Orcia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004, encircles the Podere Forte. The estate was founded in 1997 by Pasquale Forte, a visionary entrepreneur who has created a balanced system where every element complements the others, following the principles of organic and biodynamic agriculture. The old concept of the corte romana has been recreated on the 500-ha estate: a place where people, plants and animals coexist in harmony and sustainable self-sufficiency. Wine is the main focus, but Podere Forte is also synonymous with the breeding of Cinta Senese pigs, Chianina cattle and Suffolk sheep, as well as various other farm animals, all living on biodynamic feed. Podere Forte produces its own fertilizers and compost using vine prunings and fallen timber from the woods. The pigs eat acorns and chestnuts in the woods where they roam freely, the bees pollinate the flowers and aromatic herbs in the botanic garden where the hives are. The olive groves cover around 26 hectares and in 2020 production of the first varietal oil, from the Frantoio variety, started.
Samsara Priorat Magnum
$113.99
Samsara is a new project from Priorat produced by the team of enologists Eva Escudé, Coca i Fitó and Trossos del Priorat in Gratallops. Samsara is an approachable, modern wine that brings Priorat to the palates of the world. Samsara is made from Garnacha (50%) and Cariñena (35%), with small amounts of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, all of them from the Gratallops and Vilella Alta areas. The vines are 15 to 70 years old! The nose offers aromas of ripe red fruit, tangerine, light balsamic, and delicate spice.The palate is fresh and nervy with ripe supple tannins.
Marie Courtin Efflorescence Jeroboam
$634.99
A Kensington Wine Market exclusive! The champagnes from Marie-Courtin are truly something special. An ultra-fine, elegant style with amazing freshness. Delicate and racy, yet absolutely unique in style thanks in part to biodynamic viticulture. All her grapes are grown in a single plot of 2.5 hectares, which is also the total size of the domain that Dominique Moreau founded in 2000. Because all her wines come from a single vineyard, she has decided to emphasize the differences in champagnes through vinification. There are wines matured in barrique, amphorae, enamel tanks and one without sulfur. All come from the 2.5 hectares of single vineyard on the Kimmeridge marl soil of the Soden, on the Côte des Bar. Winemaker Dominique Moreau, who named the estate after her grandmother, is a master of purism. Her champagnes are delicate and elegant, yet with underlying power and a high degree of drinking pleasure.
Haritz Carbonica
$24.99
Benetakoa Winery was founded in 1985 by Carlos Martínez de Cañas in Villabuena de Álava. Viticulture has been a centuries-old tradition in their family, and for several generations, they have dedicated themselves to pampering and learning from the land and the vine. In 1997, they expanded their facilities and moved to a new winery built in the upper part of Villabuena. They preserved the tradition and the artisan concept that was incorporated into the first winery, and continued with innovation as the basis of their wines. Since 2001, Gorka Martínez de Cañas, son of the winery’s founder, has taken charge of the family project.
Marie Courtin Efflorescence Brut 2014
$154.99
A Kensington Wine Market exclusive! The champagnes from Marie-Courtin are truly something special. An ultra-fine, elegant style with amazing freshness. Delicate and racy, yet absolutely unique in style thanks in part to biodynamic viticulture. All her grapes are grown in a single plot of 2.5 hectares, which is also the total size of the domain that Dominique Moreau founded in 2000. Because all her wines come from a single vineyard, she has decided to emphasize the differences in champagnes through vinification. There are wines matured in barrique, amphorae, enamel tanks and one without sulfur. All come from the 2.5 hectares of single vineyard on the Kimmeridge marl soil of the Soden, on the Côte des Bar. Winemaker Dominique Moreau, who named the estate after her grandmother, is a master of purism. Her champagnes are delicate and elegant, yet with underlying power and a high degree of drinking pleasure.
Greenock Creek Apricot Block
$86.99
Thrust into the international wine spotlight thanks to an unmatched eight perfect 100-point scores from the world’s leading wine publication, The Wine Advocate, Greenock Creek remains the proud standard-bearer for long-lived Barossa Valley red wines of deep colour, abundant flavour and great structure.
Their vineyards are situated in the sub-regions of Seppeltsfield, Marananga and Moppa located along the Barossa Valley’s western edge and are some of the oldest vines in the world. Thin, sandy loam topsoil's lie sparsely scattered over ancient deposits of bluestone, marble stone, limestone, quartz and ironstone. Rainfall is limited, often to less than 400 millimetres a year falling through winter and early spring. Subsurface clay retains valuable moisture, sustaining the vines through the long, warm and dry summers and autumns. The perfect, low-disease-pressure conditions in which to grow small, healthy bunches of compact, flavour-packed berries.
93 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate! The review: "Deep garnet-purple coloured, the Apricot Block Shiraz opens with aromas of crushed wild blueberries and mulberries with underlying touches of roses, black olives, cigar boxes and anise. Medium to full-bodied and generously fruited in the mouth, it gives a great concentration of blue and black fruit flavors with a crisp acid line, medium levels of rounded tannins and a long finish with a little pepper coming through. It is still just a little tightly wound.
Le Clos des Cazaux Gigondas Sarrasine
$54.99
This powerful wine is the result of a selection of exceptional terroirs from Gigondas vineyards situated on the arid slopes of the Dentelles de Montmirail. The Mistral wind blows regularly on those hillsides providing a cool balance to the heat of summer.
The poor, rocky soils force the vines to struggle down deep for moisture, keeping yields low but delivering high-quality fruit. This terroir produces a robust wine that can be kept for up to 10 years in the cellar. It's a blend of 70% Grenache, 15% Syrah, and 15% Mourvèdre, with a core of dark ripe cherries, garrigues and spice. It would go nicely with ham or prime rib.