Finely balanced and very aromatic with notes of lychee, rose and ginger. This is dry and with classic restraint, while at the same time expressing beautifully the variety’s exotic and spicy character. Has the intense aromatics to go brilliantly with Asian food but also extremely good with powerful cheeses. The Alsatians drink it with their brine-washed Munster, but it is equally at home with rich blue cheeses from Stilton to Roquefort.
Wine Heroes
This page is dedicated to our wine heroes – the wines, winery, winemakers that have shaped our vinous journey over the past 20 years.
We followed, bought and collected all the wines that feature on this page for many years and their quality vintage upon vintage is without question.
In short, these are the wines we drink, and we hope you will love them as much as we do.
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2018 Condrieu ‘Les Terrasses de l’Empire’, Georges Vernay
£7295Add to BasketA benchmark Condrieu – pure peach and apricot aromas are lifted with hints of acacia flowers. Full and creamy with a distinctive mineral expression and a subtle Condrieu saline complexity supporting the ripe stone fruit flavours. This is a pure expression of a very fine Viognier.
The grapes from this wine come from a patchwork of small plots covering four hectares in the lieu-dits of Sainte Agathe and La Caille located in the heart of Condrieu. The vines are planted on steep south-facing granite, biotite terraces where the use of machines is impossible; therefore the vineyard is maintained manually and sustainably, without the use of weed killers or insecticides. The average age of vines is 35 years.
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2019 Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru En Virondot, Domaine Marc Morey
£9500Add to BasketDomaine Marc Morey is one of our favourite producers and we think winemaker Sabine Mollard, Marc Morey’s granddaughter, is something rather special.
This 2019 Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru En Virondot opens in the glass with a very full, very intense nose, ripe fruit, refined and mineral, with a hint of butter, vanilla and well-integrated wood nuances. Full and quite powerful on the tongue, broad, complex and mineral, perfect balance, long and mouth-filling finish with pure minerality, all well wrapped in elegant wood nuances. AMAZING!
Marc Morey is the only domaine that farms and bottles the 2.1 hectares premier cru ‘En Virondot’. The vineyard is at one of the highest elevations in the Chassagne-Montrachet at 350 meters lying just west of some notable premier cru vineyards; Les Caillerets, Les Fairendes, and Les Champ Gains. Beneath the shallow topsoil, the vineyard sits on a bed of calcareous (chalk) soil that imparts a specific minerality and texture to the wines. Sabine Mollard, owner, and winemaker says this vineyard has the greatest ageing potential of all her premier cru bottlings.
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2017 Condrieu, Chaillées de l’Enfer, Georges Vernay
£10500Add to Basket“I liked the wines that came from the slopes, I found those from the plains very average”. These words of Georges Vernay sum up his contribution to Condrieu. Thanks to Georges, the abandoned, steep slopes here were given new life in the 1960s. In fact, this determined man had the genius intuition to cultivate vines on the “chaillées”, or terraces, aptly known as the “chaillées de l’Enfer” (terraces from hell)!
On the nose, the 2017 reveals exquisite floral notes, like old rose and peony, as well as a fruity side. The palate shows finesse and elegance, with the floral character of the nose accompanied by hints of spice. This is a balanced Condrieu with beautiful length, complexity and pureness. Drink now to 2030
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2020 Blanc Etc, Domaine Didier Dagueneau
£12700Add to BasketPouilly Fumé and Sancerre are the global benchmarks for Sauvignon Blanc, and there is no bigger name or more highly regarded producer in the area than Domaine Didier Dagueneau. Now under the guidance of Didier’s talented son Louis-Benjamin, the wines still follow his ethos that authentic Pouilly Fumé requires healthy fruit from low yielding, old vines to produce the purest, and most intense and vibrantly fresh wine. That’s not to say these wines are typical of the appellation. Given the severely low yields and approach to élevage, Dagueneau wines emphasise a creamy texture rather than bracing acidity, and combine mineral flavours with exotic fruits to supreme effect.
Previously labelled as Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, now reborn as Blanc Etc… and looking better than ever. Generally speaking this is the most approachable wine in the range, and since Louis-Benjamin came aboard the wine is now far closer in quality and class to the other releases. While each of the other wine focus on a single soil type or terroir, Blanc etc… blends some young vine parcels on their Saint-Andelain hill with two parcels planted on flinty clay and limestone white clay soils nearby. It was fermented in a mix of new and three-four year old barrels and then matured in both wood and tank.
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2020 Pouilly Fume Pur Sang, Domaine Didier Dagueneau
£14900Add to BasketPouilly Fumé and Sancerre are the global benchmarks for Sauvignon Blanc, and there is no bigger name or more highly regarded producer in the area than Domaine Didier Dagueneau. Now under the guidance of Didier’s talented son Louis-Benjamin, the wines still follow his ethos that authentic Pouilly Fumé requires healthy fruit from low yielding, old vines to produce the purest, and most intense and vibrantly fresh wine. That’s not to say these wines are typical of the appellation. Given the severely low yields and approach to élevage, Dagueneau wines emphasise a creamy texture rather than bracing acidity, and combine mineral flavours with exotic fruits to supreme effect.
Pur Sang is a superstar in the Dagueneau cellar, and is widely considered one of the great white wines of the world.
Pur Sang translates as thoroughbred, this wine coming from a densely planted, 30-year-old vineyard called La Folie, five kilometres north of Saint-Andélain. Hidden between two parcels of woodland, the vineyard – whose name literally translates as `madness` – is named for the local farmers who thought Didier Dagueneau was crazy when he purchased the land, which was not a vineyard and was full of huge boulders. It was not even registered as part of the Pouilly-Fumé appellation. But Didier had done his homework, as not only was La Folie an historical Pouilly vineyard, but its vein of pure flint, as well as its gently sloping, south/south-east exposure, made it potentially one of Pouilly’s finest. Very pale colour, aromas recall grilled pink grapefruit with a hint of white peach – beautifully expressive. Palate is full, having a rich, floral, complex, aromatic core, creamy texture, and a satisfyingly long finish.
