Battle of the Italians - Friday 28th October

Italy for me has to be one of the most fascinating wine producing countries, with so many indigenous grape varieties, and such differences in the wines that are produced from the north to right down in the heel, and then you get the islands surrounding its coast.

Vistorta, is a 500 acre estate in the western Friuli-Venezia Giulia region and has been owned since the 1980 by Count Brandino Brandolini d’Adda, on discovering the similarities between the estate and Bordeaux took the decision to almost exclusively plant Merlot, with the aim to produce the greatest Merlot’s from Italy.

The 2011 Merlot Vistorta is the estates top wine and shows such great depth and complexity, giving you lovely forest fruit aromas and flavours, hints of spices and rich coffee beans, combined with beautifully silky tannin creates a wine to rival most of the wines produced on Bordeaux’s right bank.

Moving into central Italy and on its east coast you come to the Marche region and you find Umani Ronchi, who since 1959 have focused solely on the regions indigenous varieties of Verdicchio and Montepulciano.

The 2014 Verdicchio Classico Superior Casal di Serra shows all the classic traits of wild flowers, Peaches and Apricots, combined with a lovely refreshingly soft acidity, showing how great and delicious these wines can be.

Then down to Puglia in the heel of Italy you find Botromagno who produce many of the classic wines from this region, Primitivo, Salice Salentino and many more, they are also the only producer of the historic wine Gravina Bianco.

The 2015 Gravina Bianca is produced using 100% organic grapes and is a blend of Greco and Malvasia. You get lovely aromatics of Apples, Peaches, Apricots and hints of Pineapple, combine this with a crisp and bountiful acidity and you get a stunning and beautifully refreshing wines that you don’t find from anywhere else.

This Friday the 28^th, we will have the pleasure of hosting Beniamino and Alberto D’Agostino from Botromagno, Alessandra Fadda from Vistorta and Giorgio Pasanisi from Umani Ronchi for a fantastic tasting, where you will be able to taste the wines above and many more.

A selection of the wines on tasting this Friday

A Weekend of Antipodean Wines on Tasting

This weekend we're going to have quite the selection of wines on tasting from Australia and a great new Pinot Noir from New Zealand.

The Pinot Noir we're going to have on tasting is the 2014 Ward Valley Estate from Marlborough, this wine is produced by the same guys who produce the Snapper Rock wines that we stock, James Leary and winemaker David Coulston and is produced in tiny quantities, only 250 cases!

 I first came across this at last years London International Wine Fair, and I've managed to grab a couple of cases of this stunning vintage before they move on to the 2015.

This has that lovely pale bright cherry red colour to it, with amazing aromas of red berry and red currant fruit. On the palate these come through wonderfully with a real savoury character it that combine perfectly with a touch of acidity and very soft elegant tannin's, that just produce a stunning glass of wine and even more so when you find out how much it costs. For this weekend there will also be a special introductory offer, so don't miss out!

We'll also have a selection of Australian wines imported by the guys at Aussie Rules on tasting, with the Reverend V wines, Richard Hamilton, Riposte and the one I'm really excited about, the Mornington Peninsular Chardonnay from Dexter. These wines unfortunately won't be in stock for this weekend but we will be taking pre-orders and again there will be a special offer on them as well.

A Look At Whats On Tasting This Weekend

For this weekend I've decided to put on tasting a wonderful big, rich and spicy red from northern Italy, and lovely crisp and fruity white from Burgundy.

For the red we've got the 2011 Travaglini Gattinara from Piedmont open this weekend, apart from having a really cool and interesting bottle this is an amazing wine. Produced from 100% Nebbiolo, the same grape that produces the wonderful wines from Barbaresco and Barolo, The commune of Gattinara was granted it's DOC status in 1967 and DOCG 1990, it's situated in the northern part Piedmont about 50 miles north east of Turin, with the Alps as it's back drop to the north.

The design of the bottle, apart from standing out on the shelf and looking really different from anything else, has been designed to help catch the sediment that this wine sheds as it ages. The wine is fermented in Stainless Steel tanks and then transferred to various size of oak barrels for 36 months, and then a further 2 years in bottle, which gives the wine time to take on extra dimensions from the oak and for it then to have a chance to integrate together beautifully.

The wine itself is wonderfully complex, with aromas and flavours of red berries, blackberries and plums, combined with the sweet spice spices of liquorice and vanilla followed by hints of leather. These all combine beautifully in the glass creating a wonderfully complex, rich full bodied wine for you to enjoy, but just take my word for it, pop in the shop this weekend for a taste.

On the white front we have a very classy 2015 Petit Chablis from Chateau de Chemilly. The main Kimmeridgean clay, where as in the Petit Chablis vineyards the soil is more Portlandian soil types.
difference between Chablis and the extended area Petit Chablis is the soil type, the soil in Chablis is predominantly

The estate is now managed by brothers Loic and Yannick Vilain who are breathing new life into this 50 year old domaine in the south eastern corner of Chablis. They take considerable care with the vines to help the fruit to generate that mineral character you'd expect from this region.

Thi wine has all the classic characteristics that you'd expect, lovely fruit ranging from green apples to hints of white peaches, a crisp minerality and beautifully balanced acidity just combine to create a beautiful glass of wine. Definitely worth popping in this weekend for a taste.

Launch Weekend

A Home To Call My Own - We Are OPEN!

So, as you can see from my last couple of posts, I've been a little busy over the last couple of weeks with the refurb, but we've finally made it and we're OPEN! There is no way, that I would have been able to get this project turned around so quickly if it wasn't for the huge amount of help and support I've had from family and friends over the last couple of weeks, so to them I say a massive thank you!

The wine, beer and spirits have steadily been arriving with more to come in over the next couple weeks, so keep popping in to see what we've got new in. I'm, also busy planning our opening weekend which is going to be pretty fun day, with plenty of interesting things on tasting

A Home To Call My Own Pt 2

So, we've been in the shop for nearly two weeks now, and we've been working round the clock to get us open as quickly as possible. The inside and outside of the shop has all been painted, the shelving has been built, although one of the units still needs to fixed into place. The Sofa and other furniture has been collected and is in the shop, The joys of painting our own sign has been done, it looks great but don't want to do that again, when it needs re-doing, I think I'll get a professional in to that one.

From This

To this

Speaking of stock, suppliers have been contacted and accounts setup, orders are being placed, with stock hopefully arriving this Friday, so I'm going to be having a busy weekend filling the shelves and labelling them all up, ready to open from next week!

Inside is nearly finished

We may have had a little too much fun ocasionally

Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everybody over the last two weeks days who helped me clean, sand, clean, paint, clean, build furniture and clean some more, without your help I would not be anywhere ready to open!

A Home To Call My Own!

After much procrastination I've finally done it, and by 'it', I mean open my own shop (well nearly) and finally put my money where my mouth is.

I've spent the last five years working for a great independent merchant based down Surrey, where I've learnt a huge amount and been introduced to so many great wines and now I'm hoping to bring to the residents of SW12.

At the moment in between decorating, contacting suppliers, choosing wines and hundreds of other jobs that will crop up over the coming weeks, I'll attempt to update the blog with my progress over the coming weeks.

Don't forget, if your passing 85 Nightingale Lane, stick your head in and say hello!