With a pale salmon, Provencale hue, the Barons Lane Rose is packed full of summer fruits, red apple, white peach with a slight creaminess and a tart balanced finish. This corner of Essex is one of the warmest paces in the UK, and is also blessed with London Clay and areas of gravel left over from the retreating ice shelf some years back – both of which make for happy grapes. The acreage under vine is huge by UK standards. They have been selling grapes to larger, well-known and very commercial English wineries around England but are now determined to concentrate on their own production.

Slinky smooth with ruby-bright fruit

Beautifully resolved and brilliant Faugeres in a handy lunch time 50cl format. A dreamy bin-end offer. Snap it up!

Natural Petit Verdot raised in amphora by vigneron Simon Bertschinger. The winery is based in Fos, but the vineyards are just south of Faugeres in the clay foothills. Simon is doing some remarkabke stuff with some interesting grape varieties. Bright and vigourous but with depth and focus. Brilliant wine.

Aromatic wine with fruity and floral notes and a lot of delicacies in the mouth. A lot of freshness and minerality. Seductive and dynamic wine.

Final assemblage: 55% Syrah, 35% Carignan & Cinsault and 15% Grenache Noir. Organically grown on schist, basalt and grés (sandstone) that yielded beautifully balanced fruit but at a very low 15 hl per ha. Manual harvest into small caskets. The Syrah and Grenache were both destemmed and vinified separately in 2yr and 5yr old 500l barrels (Saury). The Carignan was vinified on stems and in steel tank. The Cinsault was destemmed and vinified in steel tank. Natural yeast (no inoculated yeast used). Breeding took place in 2yr and 5yr old 500l barrels (Saury) for the Syrah and Grenache, and in steel tank for the Cinsault and Carignan, for a total time of 32 months with no batonnage. Bottled without fining or filtration. Bottled with a very, very low addition of sulphites (no sulphite additions at any point previously). No other additions at all. The wine has interest, complexity and depth, it is beautifully resolved - an elegant and pretty red-fruited wine with delightful freshness and length. With this quality and with the wines age, it’s a very nice offer indeed. The wine was selected (with one of the very highest scores) as one of 80 ‘Coups de Coeur’ by Guide Gault & Millau for the year 2020 Review below - "The colour appears black, intense with purple reflections. The nose presents an elegant maturity with predominantly fruity cherry and blackberry punctuated by spicy notes (pepper, cinnamon). In the mouth, the cherry is very present with other stone fruits (plum, prune). The leather and cocoa prolong a very fresh and digestible finish. The texture is dense and velvety. A complex and racy wine that evolves beautifully without losing its beautiful tension".