France

Intense spicy fruit flavours, supple, soft, sometimes sweet tannins and a fresh acid core, which makes this wine from the Languedoc irresistible with all the hearty rustic fare of autumn - a rich cassoulet, or meaty slow-cooked ox cheek with garlicky mashed potato - the kind of stuff that makes you feel like Henry VIII.

Cherry, tobacco, herbaceous notes with silky tannins showing good weight and concentration, showing flesh and balance. A superb vintage!

Not to be confused with Dufouleur Père et Fils whose cellars are also found on the main route out towards Dijon, Dufouleur Frères is an artisan family domaine and winery who operate from their Château in Nuits-Saint-Georges. It’s not that the two cellars aren’t historically connected in some way – both claim proof of ancestry dating back to 1596 – spanning some 12 generations. For over 250 years (and before the family went their separate ways) the Dufouleur’s existed as a family of vignerons, but after the creation of Maison Dufouleur in 1848, the name became also synonymous as a négociant house.

Immediately impressive, this wine reveals its class from the start. Brambly fruit underpinned by subtle oaky nuances, lovely sweet spice - warm star anise with a touch of cinnamon. This classic Côtes du Rhône Villages is enriched with specially-selected parcels from the cru vineyards of Séguret, Sablet and Cairanne.

Grenache Noir and Syrah make a bold and interesting blend typical to Southern Rhone. Full bodied, fruit forward and very well priced for the quality. Even though Grenache Noir is one of the worlds most widely planted grapes, there's definitely a unique spine to this beautiful red!

Common practice in the Côtes du Rhône is to bottle the best cuvées as a single, named, village wine and the rest as more basic Côtes du Rhône Villages. Boutinot’s philosophy, on the other hand, is to start with the intention of making the very best Côtes du Rhône Villages possible by sourcing wine from the vineyards of named villages, and enriching them with a small proportion of barrel-aged wine from Sablet, Séguret and Cairanne. Boutinot's Côtes du Rhône Villages 'Les Coteaux' is therefore a selection of the best Grenache Noir and Syrah from some of the 17 named Côtes du Rhône Villages. We source wine from a number of growers with exceptional terroir and so have the flexibility to select only the very best fruit each vintage (rejecting parcels which do not meet our high standards). Mostly unoaked, a small proportion (20%) is part-aged for 22 months in a few new, but mostly older, oak barrels to bring depth and subtle notes of complexity.

A delicious accompaniment to grilled meats, herby Sausages, casseroles or a classic shepherd's pie, red meats, tomato-based pasta dishes and oven roasted vegetables.

VEGETARIAN, VEGAN

Gigondas is a single village 'cru' of the southern Rhône valley whose vineyards nestle under the jagged, lacy peaks of the Dentelles de Montmirail mountains.

Intense aromas of black cherries, then a wisp of smoke creeps in along with some hints of toasted cocoa beans. Deep and intense, this wine slowly reveals its secrets - black cherries, dark chocolate, a hint of clove and nutmeg - hugely rich and enveloping but with elegance.

Ideal with a good Provençale daube or game dishes. Also a treat with hard cheeses, particularly farmhouse cheddar.

Château Tour de Capet has 10 hectares of vineyard located at Saint Hippolyte, at the gateway to Saint-Emilion.The ripe, full-flavoured wine is exceptional value, packed with mouth-filling dark plum fruit and hints of sweet spice.

This wine is intense purple in colour, with a bouquet of ripe dark berries, tobacco and mint with hints of cinnamon, vanilla and cloves. On the palate, it is full bodied with soft, velvety tannins and a long, juicy finish.

Château Tour de Capet is a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru. The property lies to the south of Saint-Émilion, close to the village of Saint-Hippolyte. The 10 hectares of vines enjoy an excellent position with good southerly exposure, making a ripe, full-flavoured wine that offers exceptional value. The vineyard is next to those of Château Capet-Guillier and the two wines are made in the same cellar, by the same winemaking team led by Stéphane Derenoncourt. Since 2009 the property has been run by Antoine Moueix Propriétés, a producer with over a century’s experience on the Right Bank of Bordeaux.

Located in Saint-Hippolyte at the foot of the southern end of the Saint-Émilion plateau, the vineyards sit at an altitude of 60 metres. The fertile clay and silt soils result in an open, forward style of wine. Crop thinning in the spring and leaf plucking in the summer ensures the fruit ripens evenly. Yields from the 30-year-old vines are 45 hectolitres per hectare.

The outstanding weather conditions in August and subsequent Indian summer resulted in red wine grapes with a particularly high sugar content, satisfactory levels of tartaric acid and promising aromatic potential. The thick skins and concentration of tannins required meticulous care during extraction. The Merlot wines are deep and concentrated, while maintaining freshness in spite of their relatively high alcohol level. Harvest took place between 24th September to 3rd October.

The berries were sorted upon arrival to the winery. After gentle destemming, the berries were placed into small concrete vats for a cold, pre-fermentation maceration. Temperature-controlled fermentation took place at temperatures rising from 24° to 28°C with four to five weeks maceration and gentle extraction by manual punching down three to four times a day. This is then followed by light vertical pressing in wooden cages and malolactic fermentation in thermo-regulated vats. Each batch was then aged for 12 months in 225-litre French oak casks (one third new, two thirds in one or two year old barrels), before the final blend was assembled.

As befits the Alpine grape variety Mondeuse, this is a characterful and distinctive red with a little wildnesss to it, a glorious perfume, a berry scent and slight bitter-sweet finish. Glowing purple, with the most glorious heady perfume - peonies and mulberries, violets and hibiscus juice, all sprinkled with crushed pink peppercorn, a soft tinge of peppery tree bark and gentle bittersweet finish with soft, chalky tannins.

It firmly sits in the "natural wine" camp, with very low added SO2, and just the right amount of VA that brings such lift. Serve on the cool side.

Grape: Mondeuse, Roussanne, Viognier

Run by brothers Denis and Didier Berthollier, we were drawn to La Combe des Grand'Vignes not only for their entrancing wines, but for the brothers unrelenting commitment to regenerative and organic farming. Appalled by Big Agriculture and the mega-corporation companies behind it who favour progress and increased production over environmental destruction, the brothers made a conscious decision to prioritise qulity over quantity and working with nature rather dominating it. They are on a mission to produce wines that reflect the healthy soils of the land following on from their return to the farming ways of their grandfather Marius pre-Green Revolution. Like many estates in the area, their vineyard parcels are small and scattered across the steep hillside with only narrow paths for access.

A blend of Syrah and Grenache made in memory of Tom Simpson, one of Britain's greatest cyclists.
Very easy drinking red, with lots of red fruits and a hint of spice.