Latest Releases

Twenty-nineteen will go down in the books as one of the great years for Albino Rocca’s suite of Barbaresco. But at this address the entire portfolio is laced with quality. There is no dead weight as the old-school merchants might like to say—nor should there be. Rocca’s first-rate holdings are impeccably managed, and you get the impression that the family are really turning the screw, eking out any and every ounce of purity and finesse wherever and whenever they can find it.

A low-yielding, intensely flavoured vintage like 2022 can “easily throw your balances out of whack”, so eternal equity-seeker Barney adopted a more subtle approach, which included a reduction in the whole bunch component in the Merricks Pinot Noir and a slight decrease in time in oak for the Chardonnays. Despite the lack of bottles, today we offer a pitch-perfect release, perhaps one of the very finest, from a wine grower who goes from strength to strength. As such, our standard Garagiste advice applies: do not hesitate.

the UK’s Académie du Vin Library has appointed Ex Vinum as its exclusive partner in Australia. In a nutshell, Académie du Vin is a boutique publishing house dedicated to issuing the finest wine writing of the past, present and future. It was established in 2018 by wine industry legend Steven Spurrier and wine-focussed publisher Simon McMurtrie, and takes its name from Spurrier’s famous Paris wine school of the 1970s.

Last year we promised you a set of single-vineyard Pyramid Valley wines drawn from some of the most respected old-vine vineyards in Waipara, and today we deliver. According to Smith, North Canterbury has always had the right conditions for world class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. “We love the rawness and genuine coolness of North Canterbury; the slopes, the limestone and rocks, the mountain backdrop. And now more than ever, the passion of the local winemakers and growers (and vineyards now getting some age on them) push the boundaries.”

Off the bat, we’re delighted to offer a new parcel of righteous Gaillac. The latest release notes are a mere scroll away for those familiar with this pioneering organic grower. For curious souls, we also include an account of the domaine and the history of the region with which it is so closely entwined. Welcome to Mauzac country.

Today we offer a set of perfumed, lacy and smoky-mineral Mencías (and a Trousseau) alongside a brace of Galicia’s most limpid, crystalline whites from a producer whose wines go toe-to-toe with the most authentic wines of western Europe.

New Releases from Adelina, Bannockburn, Blind Corner, Bondar, Laughing Jack, Murdoch Hill, Quealy & Spinifex

For those who have been working with the Boulay wines for some time, 2021 marks a return to the more classic, restrained, crystalline Boulay expressions, similar in style to the brilliant 2014s. The single-site wines from La Grande Côte, Le Cul de Beaujeu, La Côte, and Chavignol’s mineral generator par excellence, Les Monts-Damnés, are stellar; pristine and lucid, bustling with pulpy white fruit, racy citrus, mineral energy and rocky textures. Brace your palates, friends. And finally, we offer Boulay’s most extraordinary (and rare) wine, La Comtesse, from 2020.

Suppose we posit 2018-2020 as a trio of southern vintages for Beaujolais that resulted in deliciously ripe and saturated Gamays. In that case, we should label 2021 as a northern year—a return to a cooler, brighter, lower-alcohol style to which William Kelley alludes in the quote above. And yet, unlike many, this is an address where the stylistic dial has not shifted to the extent that the broadly painted vintage reports would have us believe.

Each year Hélène Thibon sends her clients a newsletter recounting the theme of the past vintage and a roundup of exciting news at her domaine. “It’s a vintage from my childhood”, starts Thibon, referring to the classical leanings of 2021 before almost raining on her own parade with tales of frost, hail and torrential downpours. Fortunately, Thibon’s story has a happy ending, signing off; “We have no reason to lament because the vats are full of very pretty wines!”

The World of Fine Wine’s 78th Issue is a many splendoured thing. A few highlights, if we may. In Then and Now, Preserving Pleasure, Stuart Walton looks back at sumptuary laws enacted throughout history to limit conspicuous consumption. Simon J Woolf looks at the ‘rebirth of cool’ in Slovakia, arguing that “if there is a new holy grail in wine, it’s cool-climate regions”, and The Last Catalog is a typically poetic account from importer/writer Terry Theise on visiting his European growers following a three-year absence. Then, Harry Eyres tackles the thorny issue of ‘Minerality’ in Learning to live with undefinability. 

The selection of wines in this offer includes the cream of Australian wine talent—from Bondar’s sublimely elegant Grenache-based rosé; to Lambert Wines’ savoury and stony Shiraz; to Garagiste’s mouth-watering and invigorating single vineyard Pinot; and to Murdoch Hill’s lip-smacking ‘Super Tuscan’ blend. And there’s a last chance to take a look at Swinney’s inaugural, showstopping Mourvèdre Rosé.