It's been a monumental month on the imports front, so let's start with that. A lot of conversations, laughs and tastings from our European trip in March this year have resulted in some amazing wines landing on these shores. Joining the portfolio this month are: Frédéric Mabileau of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil in the Loire Valley; Domaine Latour-Giraud from Meursault; Domaine Jacques Prieur, whose outstanding holdings span the very best addresses of the Côte d’Or; and Domaine Labruyère of Moulin-à-Vent in Beaujolais. These friendships have been building for…

Domaine Labruyère is the Beaujolais estate of the top-flight French vigneron family behind Champagne Labruyère and famed Burgundy producer Jacques Prieur. Now in its seventh generation, Domaine Labruyère is one of the oldest wineries in the Moulin-a-Vent appellation. Its history here dates back to 1850, when wine grower Jean-Marie Labruyère settled in les Thorins, a hamlet of Romanèche-Thorins. He acquired 25 acres of well-located vineyards. The later acquisition of the famous “Clos du Moulin-à-Vent”, a unique monopole, epitomises the restless quest for excellence of subsequent…

Frédéric Mabileau is famous in his region for producing stylish, reliable and affordable wines. Christelle Guibert, Decanter Magazine We had a thoroughly rewarding trip to ProWein earlier this year, much of it spent catching up with members of the CellarHand family, plus a chance to fruitfully follow up on promising conversations with other excellent growers who’ve since joined the fold. The one unexpected find was delightful domaine in the Loire. Frédéric Mabileau is an organic-certified, biodynamic grower based in Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. Run by Frédéric and Nathalie…

No questions here: this is a wine of outstanding quality. Campbell Mattinson on the ’17 Chardonnay Really elegant and long. Nick Stock on the same Quite impeccable from all angles. Campbell Mattinson on the ’17 Pinot The palate unleashes energetic, tangy flavours of red cherries with a thread of meaty, spicy oak. Nick Stock on the same It has a superbly fragrant perfume, multi-faceted and lifted, with charm and refinement. Huon Hooke on the 2017 Little Hampton An impressive, elegant and interesting Pinot. Nick Stock…

Corymbia is the deep-rooted, far-sighted vision of husband-and wife-team, Rob and Genevieve Mann. The Mann name is synonymous with Western Australia’s Swan Valley, where Rob’s pioneering grandfather Jack worked a remarkable 51 consecutive vintages for Houghton. Rob was just a boy when he joined his father - former Australian test cricketer Tony - in planting the vines on what is now the dry-grown, organically farmed Corymbia vineyard.  Rob was one of the crop of hotshots at Hardys during the reign of Stephen Pannell, before Rob…

It's the last newsletter of the Aussie winter, and it's Italy that hogs the limelight. We have a complete introductory offer from Barolo's brilliant G.D. Vajra, also including the wines from Luigi Baudana - the Serralunga-based garagiste estate of which the Vaira family is custodian. On top of that, we have new Barbera and Barbaresco from Piedmont's under-the-radar gem, Cigliuti, plus a range from La Spinetta. This latter, famous for its rhino-fronted label, has a new-release Tuscan Sangiovese alongside Langhe Nebbiolo, Barbaresco and Moscato d'Asti, not…

It’s a tremendous thrill to bring to you CellarHand’s opening offer from Barolo’s Vaira family. We’ve long been enormous fans of the wines and – through various personal means – enjoyed crossing paths with the Vaira family. It’s clear they share so much in common with CellarHand and the growers in our portfolio: tremendous pride in their origins and values; commitment to family and home; and a spirit of adventure. On top of that, as leaders in their field with open minds and broad horizons,…

“Beguiling – that’s probably the word that sums it up,” says Stephen Pannell of a grape variety with which he is, he confesses, obsessed. The beneficiary of this obsession is the winelover, with the S.C. Pannell range spanning several guises of Grenache - from rosé and the natural-feeling, super-slurpable Basso, via a traditional McLaren Vale blend and Mediterranean-inspired assemblage, right up to single-site expressions with exceptional transparency and definition. Such faith in the grape is rarer than you might think; despite Grenache’s versatility and universal…

“So lovely. You’d be mad not to.” That was how Gary Walsh of The Wine Front concluded his note on the ’16 Chardonnay, and it kind of sums up the ease with which you can settle into the wines made by Sam Middleton, Kaspar Hermann and Will Byron at Onannon. 2016 was the harvest from which the chaps added a top tier to the range with a Pinot each from Leongatha and Red Hill. So with a few vintage rolls, the reels have spun into…

Our visit to Domaine Jean Tardy in March was a highlight of a very fruitful European trip to see the growers in the CellarHand portfolio. It’s a tiny domaine with vanishingly small quantities of wine produced, and to have so much wiped out - 40% to 50% frosted everywhere except Echézeaux and Chambolle-Musigny, where losses were more like 70% - seems heartbreaking. But Guillaume, like his wines, was in vibrant, gracious and uplifting form. He’s always one of the first to pick, with acidity the…

“Romain Taupenot has been behind the ascent of Taupenot-Merme in recent years,” wrote Neal Martin for Wine Advocate on tasting these 2016s “It is almost as if fashion has caught up with them, traditionally furrowing their own path of slightly leaner, terroir-driven wines that were as much about texture as fruit, now many growers have changed back more to this style.” It’s obviously a great thing when an estate’s long-term methods, ethos and aesthetics find themselves en vogue, but it means a whole heap more…

2016 was the first harvest with Elsa and Adèle Matrot fully grasping the reins at this organic Meursault estate, having coaxed them from father Thierry.  A superb legacy to take on, but this wasn’t, to say the least, the kindest year in which to kick off the sisters’ reign; the estate lost up to 80% of its normal production to the spring frost. It is, unsurprisingly, a fine debut - they’re more than up to the challenge. Engaging, incisive and forthright, they joined the domaine…

There's an even spread of home and away fixtures this month, with some very fine shipments sailing in from Europe while the domestic scene is littered with new releases. From ye Olde Worlde, we have Burgundy from Domaines Matrot, Jean Tardy and Taupenot-Merme, plus a very handy Bourgogne Rouge et Blanc from Madame at Leroy. Staying in France, we have a new Côtes-du-Rhône white and red landing alongside a Cairanne and Gigondas from Pierre Amadieu. The Germans, bundled out of the World Cup in the…

“I call '17 a racy vintage for us,” says Nick Farr with a slight chuckle. Raciness is relative, and Bannockburn and Bernkastel, say, work off a different scale. But still it’s clear what he means when experiencing the purity and acid drive in the Chardonnay. The Viognier, too, has superb varietal complexity with a buoyancy and freshness that few manage to achieve with this grape. “I think you can see the fineness, texturally, and more detail because it was a really prolonged growing season,” he…

No signs of things cooling off on the home front this winter! We have warm celebrations for the wonderful Smith Cullam family at Frankland Estate, toasting 30 years since planting Isolation Ridge with a great set of '17 single-vineyard Riesling plus the '17 Isolation Ridge Shiraz and Olmo's Reward Cab Franc-dominant Bordeaux blend. Stephen Pannell, McLaren Vale-based maestro of contemporary Aussie wine shines a light on provenance with a deliciously diverse set of new releases, plus Burn Cottage of Central Otago has put out its…