Featured Red Wine for June – 2018 Cape Chamonix Pinot Noir Reserve
The Franschhoek region of South Africa, a near neighbour of Stellenbosch, may be small but it has a heavy French influence and a big reputation for producing some of the finest wines in the country. Cool breezes in the hot summer months moderate growing conditions to produce ripe but balanced wines, a half-way house between […]
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What makes a Fine Wine fine?
We see the term fine wine used all the time in restaurant wine lists, in pubs and wine bar windows, in wine shops and supermarkets, in newspapers, magazines – everywhere. But what actually is fine wine? How is it different to regular wine? What should a fine wine taste like? Great questions! I tried to […]
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Featured White Wine for April – 2021 Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling
Riesling, the temperamental white grape, grows in cool climate wine-producing regions of the world. Its wine is both floral and fruity, with high acidity and a sweetness range that spans from bone-dry to lusciously sweet. Versatile, it can produce styles that range from light and crisp to rich and complex. Wine lovers revere Riesling for […]
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Featured Red Wine for April – 2016 Terrazze Dell’Etna `Carusu` Etna Rosso
Mount Etna wines are the product of a harsh but beautiful land. They are made from grapes grown on the slopes of Europe’s largest active volcano. The terrain is rough, but the wine it produces is refined and complex. The local red grape, Nerello Mascalese, is a light-bodied red wine with a taste profile that’s […]
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Featured White Wine for February – 2020 Gabriëlskloof Elodie Chenin Blanc
The west coast district of Swartland, 25 miles north of Cape Town, now ranks as the South Africa’s most exciting wine district. It is hot and dry here and its ancient geology has brought a mix of shale, sandstone and granite soils that are air-conditioned by the Atlantic Ocean nearby. Chenin Blanc and Shiraz grapes […]
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Featured Red Wine for February – 2014 Balnaves Coonawarra Cabernet Merlot
The Coonawarra Terra Rossa strip is a very odd patch of ground 250 miles south of Adelaide. It is a rectangle, 9 miles long and 1 mile wide of completely level, distinctively red soil, that was found in the 1960s to provide perfect conditions to grow Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Coonawarra’s soil was not the only […]
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Featured White Wine for January – 2020 Livio Felluga Friulano
The vineyards of the Livio Felluga estate straddle the famous Colli Orientali and Collio wine regions in Friuli situated in the Julian Alps, in northwest Italy, on the border with Slovenia. The estate takes its name from its founder, Livio Felluga who moved to Friuli in the late 1930s. Returning to Italy was not easy […]
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Featured Red Wine for January – 2017 Massolino Langhe Nebbiolo
Nebbiolo is the grape behind the great Barolo and Barbaresco wines of Piemonte in northern Italy. Langhe Nebbiolo is effectively the ‘second wine’ of Piemonte’s great Barolo and Barbarescos made in an early-drinking style. It typically offers great value. The Nebbiolo grape is an exceptionally finicky variety to grow and, like Pinot Noir, it takes […]
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Featured White Wine for November – 2018 Curly Flat Chardonnay
The Macedon Ranges in Victoria, Australia is known for quite a few things – its expansive native forests, vibrant arts scene, thriving food industries and natural attractions such as Hanging Rock and Mount Macedon. It is also the coolest viticultural area in mainland Australia. This unique site owes much to the combination of altitude (540 […]
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Featured Red Wine for November – 2018 Vigneti del Vulture `Piano del Cerro` Aglianico del Vulture
Located on volcanic soils, Aglianico del Vulture is considered the best quality wine region in Basilicata, in Southern Italy. The signature grape is Aglianico, a variety that exudes class. It makes firm red wines with great fruit and structure. In the past young Aglianico wines were often fiercely tannic and harsh – fortunately improved techniques […]
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Featured Red Wine for October – 2018 Franz Haas Pinot Nero
The Winecroft featured red wine for October is the 2018 Franz Haas Pinot Nero. It is a gorgeous light red from the mountainous Alto Adige region of northern Italy that simply must be tried. It is produced by Franz Haas who is emerging as one of the region’s greatest winemakers. It has the most delicate […]
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Featured White Wine for October – 2018 Terrazze Dell’Etna `Ciuri Etna` Bianco
Mount Etna is Europe’s largest active volcano. At an elevation of 3328m, it is also one of Italy’s tallest mountains. It is at the center of the Etna DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata), a wine appellation that arcs around the north, east and south slopes of the mountain. The wine producing region reaches 1200m and includes […]
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Featured Red Wine for September – 2020 Chatzivaritis Estate ‘Mus’ Xinomavro
It all started with love… when Vagelis Chatzivaritis met his soon-to-be wife Olga Iakovidou in 1981. She was from Goumenissa, a small traditional town in Central Macedonia, Greece, a place with a long tradition in winemaking. Being a wine lover himself, and a man who also appreciated fine food and the simple pleasures of life, […]
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Featured White Wine for September – 2021 La Giustiniana `Lugarara` Gavi di Gavi
While the Piemonte region in northeastern Italy tends to get the most attention for its fantastic red wines, it also produces gorgeous white wines. One of these is Gavi wine, which was one of the first Italian white wines to gain an international reputation. Gavi white wines are made exclusively from the Cortese grape and […]
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Featured Red Wine for August – 2014 Balnaves Coonawarra Carbernet/Merlot
The Coonawarra Terra Rossa strip is a very odd patch of ground 250 miles south of Adelaide. It is a rectangle, 9 miles long and 1 mile wide of completely level, distinctively red soil, that was found in the 1960s to provide perfect conditions to grow Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Coonawarra’s soil was not the only […]
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Featured White Wine for August – 2020 Smith + Shaw Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc
The Winecroft featured white wine for August is the 2020 Smith + Shaw Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc. This wine has become known as a benchmark for Australian Sauvignon Blanc. It is made exclusively from fruit grown in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, one of Australia’s coolest and most exciting regions. Made by Martin Shaw and […]
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Featured Red Wine for July – 2019 G.D. Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo
May 1968 – the outbreak of student protests in Europe. Aldo Vajra is 15 years old and joins the group of young protesters who flooded the streets of Turin. Perhaps the story would have taken another turn, if Aldo was not discovered by his father and immediately send to Barolo to spend the summer on […]
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Featured White Wine for July – 2020 Villa Bucci Verdicchio Classico Superiore
The Bucci family has been growing grapes in the Marche region of Central Italy, bordering the Adriatic sea, since the 1700s. The current custodian is Ampelio Bucci who has 26 hectares of organically cultivated vineyards focused on the local Verdicchio grape. Verdicchio has been grown in the region for 600 years. The old vines and […]
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Featured Red Wine for June – 2018 John Duval `Entity` Barossa Valley Shiraz
John Duval is one of the world’s best-known winemakers. He is most famous for the 29 years he spent at Penfolds, where from 1986–2002 he was Penfolds’ chief winemaker and the custodian of its great wine, Grange. In 2003 he started his own label, John Duval Wines, and now makes a small number of handcrafted wines […]
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Featured White Wine for June – 2019 Castell d’Encus Costers del Segre ‘Ekam’
Raul Bobet is one of the greatest winemakers in Spain. He established Castell D’Encus in 2001 to escape from the dramatic effects of global warming. The estate sits at 1000 meters above sea level, in the northern part of DO Costers del Segre, in the Pallars Jussà, an isolated, cool, and quiet place in Catalonia, […]
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Featured White Wine for May – 2018 Bouchard Finlayson Missionvale Chardonnay
Bouchard Finlayson is a world-class a family-owned estate situated in Walker Bay very near the most southerly tip of Africa. The estate is a groundbreaking partnership between acclaimed Burgundian winemaker Paul Bouchard and trailblazing local winemaker Peter Finlayson. The Hemel-en-Aarde valley is a remarkable location to grow vines, with a terroir influenced by the ancient […]
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Featured Red Wine for May – 2019 Tamar Ridge Pinot Noir
The island state of Tasmania, south of Victoria is home to the Tasmanian Devil but it is also Australia’s coolest wine region. Vineyards here benefit from many hours of summer sunlight, but average temperatures tend to be much lower than mainland Australia. In the era of climate change, this makes Tasmanian wine very cool indeed […]
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Featured White White for April – 2019 Ca’ Dei Frati Brolettino
For years, wine from the Lugana region was a secret shared among the thousands of tourists who flock annually to the delightful villages that surround Lake Garda, in northern Italy. But thanks to a continuous rise in quality, Lugana’s fame has finally spread beyond the region. Elegant, structured and delicious white wines made from Turbiana, […]
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Featured Red Wine for April – 2015 The Story Grampians Shiraz
Rory Lane started making wine with no family background in the industry, and a questionably vocational degree in ancient Greek tragedy, comparative literature and politics. “We named our winery The Story over a few drinks with friends back in 2003. I explained that we seemed to lack all the usual ingredients to a grand winery […]
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Featured Red Wine for March – 2018 Poggio al Tesoro ‘Il Seggio’ Bolgheri
Bolgheri is in the coastal Maremma region of Tuscany in northern Italy. The area first rose to prominence during the 1970s with the emergence of the Super Tuscan wines like Ornellaia and Sassicaia, non-traditional Bordeaux style blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The actions of the Super Tuscans inspired a generation in Italy. […]
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Featured White Wine for March – 2020 Franz Haas Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio can be insipid and uninspiring, but in the right hands, it can be a revelation. Unfortunately, there is a huge amount of indifferent, weak and watery Pinot Grigio around, made from grapes grown in the hot valley floors of the Italian Veneto region. However, Pinot Grigio – the good stuff, is completely different […]
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Featured Red Wine for February – 2018 Kevin White Blue Label
A delicious addition to the Winecroft Club List, the Kevin White Blue Label is a Southern Rhone-style red from Washington State in the North West United States. Kevin White lives in Seattle and works for Microsoft. So how come he produces such delicious Rhone-style red wines? It all started in 2006, when Kevin became a […]
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Featured White Wine for February – 2017 Cullen Mangan Vineyard Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon
A perfect winter white. The classic white grape blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon is synonymous with the Bordeaux region of France. The grapes work so well together because Sémillon brings body and rounds out Sauvignon Blanc’s tart acidity and herbal notes. The featured white wine for Winecroft members for February is not from Bordeaux […]
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Featured Red Wine for July – 2018 G.D.Vajra Barbera d’Alba
At your next BBQ when it is time to switch to red, the tangy, cherry-like Barbera from Piemonte in north-western Italy always hit the spot. The 2018 G.D. Vajra Barbera d’Alba from the Winecroft club list is a high quality example from a world famous producer. It is concentrated, smooth, rich, and fruity, all black […]
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Featured White Wine for July – 2020 Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling
A glass of dry Riesling is perfect to quench your thirst now our summer evenings are longer and warmer. For many of us though, the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Riesling is sweetness – and yes there are many rich sweet styles out there, however, a top-notch dry Riesling is […]
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Burgundy, California?
Many of us confess to a love of red Burgundy, however, for most of us, it is a conditional love. There are too many occasions when an expensive bottle is opened with high expectations and the first taste brings a feeling of well, disappointment. The wine often feels insubstantial, thin and acidic. At the best […]
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Wine and Lockdown 3.0
The sound of a cork being pulled from a bottle of good wine is once again the highlight of the day for many of us currently in Lockdown 3.0. With no way of escaping and no alternative venues for socialising other than your own front room, these January days can be long and hard. It’s […]
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Featured Red Wine for December – 2015 Bodegas Jimenez-Landi Piélago
Grenache is a red-wine grape grown extensively in France, Spain, Australia and the United States. It is most commonly found alongside Syrah and Mourvedre in the classic Cotes du Rhone blends and is dubbed ‘the Pinot Noir of the south’. It is low in tannins but high in alcohol – often reaching above 14% abv. […]
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Christmas wine thoughts
Christmas calls for special wines, maybe even more so in 2020 after the year we have had. We may not be having many (any?) special lunches or dinners at our favourite restaurants this Christmas, but we can still enjoy some great bottles at home. We can do so feeling a little smug since we will […]
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Give a gift that never stops pouring
This Christmas, give your loved one or that difficult to buy for friend or family member, a Winecroft wine subscription. Change their wine world and let them drink superb bottles from the wine lists of Michelin starred restaurants. Gift amounts start at £100 and that lucky someone who receives the gift can continue with the […]
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A New Hope
The good news is that some of the UK’s Michelin-starred restaurants in Tier 1 and Tier 2 will reopen and be able to operate in some capacity from 2 December. Further good news is that Winecroft members can now drink even more great wines from their wine lists, at a fraction of the cost, even […]
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Featured Red Wine for November – 2016 Carmignano Villa di Capezzana
If you hear Chianti, you probably think of, well, Chianti, the area of Tuscany between Florence and Siena where the famous wine is produced. You may think of the classic bottle in a straw basket, known as a fiasco, made famous by old school Italian restaurants back in the day or of Anthony Hopkins in Silence […]
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The bigger and bolder the better
“In life, you tend to be straightforward and decisive. You enjoy intense flavours. A big, bold red wine would be your go-to wine.” If this is you, and there are many Winecroft members like you, the needle on your Winecroft Wine Style Meter will be pointing very much towards the full-bodied direction. In this case, […]
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Featured Red Wine for September – 2015 John Duval `Entity` Barossa Valley Shiraz
There is no wine variety more synonymous with Australia than Shiraz. It’s the nation’s greatest wine export and the most widely planted grape. Aussie Shiraz has, however, taken a fashion bashing from wine writers over recent years. The heavy, oaky, alcoholic blockbuster style so popular ten years or so ago has fallen out of favour. […]
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Featured White Wine for September – 2017 Pieropan Calvarino Soave Classico
Does anyone remember drinking Soave in the 1980s? Everyone did – it was the Pinot Grigio of the day. It was mostly awful. The Winecroft featured white wine for September is also a Soave but a world away from the Soave drunk in 1980s winebars. For over a century, the Pieropan family has revolutionized winemaking […]
Read more Featured Red Wine for August – 2018 G.D. Vajra Barbera d’Alba
At your summer BBQ when your friends ask to switch to red, you need the wine to make an impact and for them to nod appreciatively with perhaps even a “Really good!”, “Nice!”, “That’s lovely!”. The tangy, cherry-like Barbera wines from Piemonte in north-western Italy always hit the spot on these occasions. The 2018 G.D. […]
Read more Featured White Wine for August – 2019 Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling
A glass of dry Riesling is perfect to quench your thirst during these warm summer evenings. For many of us though, the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Riesling is sweetness – and yes there are many rich sweet styles out there. However, a top-notch dry Riesling is very different and […]
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New Winecroft website features
There are a couple of new features of the Winecroft website that are worth highlighting. Both came about following feedback from members. Search Wines – the Winecroft Clublist now has over 60 wines so this feature, available from the main menu, allows members to search for a particular wine by name or range of wines […]
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Super Saturday – Match Report
A week on from 4 July or “Super Saturday”, the day that the UK government permitted bars, restaurants, pubs and hotels to reopen, how’s it all going in the dining rooms of our Michelin-starred restaurants? The FT reported this week that at Veeraswamy, London’s oldest Indian restaurant, which has been open for 94 years and […]
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The house wine at your local Italian restaurant in 2020 could be…Vodka!
Bars and restaurants are just starting to open up across Europe after the COVID-19 lockdown but what has happened to the millions of bottles of wine that would have been enjoyed by customers during the time the lockdown has been in place and what will that mean for the 2020 vintage? The global wine market […]
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The world is locked down but there are new bottles on the Winecroft club winelist
Even though the doors of the world’s top restaurants are closed, Winecroft members can still drink great wines from their winelists. And from May we have 28 brilliant new additions to the Winecroft club list. Among the new white wines chosen for the club list, from the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, we have […]
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Will restaurants ever be the same again?
Since the world went into lock-down in March, the doors of the 25,000+ restaurants in the UK have remained firmly shut. The key questions now being asked by many of us are “How many will ever open again?” and for those that do manage to open, “Will it be the same as it was before?” […]
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Drinking less but better
Drinking wine has been a constant and positive feature in society, central to many cultures around the world. But while the enduring place of drinking wine within human history is well documented, it’s also true that the relationship we have with alcohol has changed many times. Each generation has its own habits and styles and […]
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Wine in self-isolation
The sound of a cork being pulled from a bottle of good wine is the highlight of the day for many of us currently in self-isolation. When you’ve been trying to work from home while persuading bored teenagers to knuckle down with their school work or balancing toddlers on your knees with one hand and […]
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Chez Bruce – The Michelin starred restaurant where chefs eat
Chez Bruce, a smart French restaurant on the corner of Wandsworth Common in London, has great credentials. It is a staple every year on the top lists of restaurants where chefs go to eat. It is also one of the Top 100 London Restaurants for Wine Lovers, as voted recently by the drinksbusiness industry publication. […]
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The Dirty Secret of the £5 bottle of wine
When it comes to buying wine, how much should you pay. According to a recent study by drinks specialist, Harpers, over half of UK wines drinkers wouldn’t spend more than £5-6 on a bottle of wine. Are they right? Are we paying too much for a decent bottle? Does quality always increase in line with price? […]
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Wine makes you skinny
We already know that wine makes us wise (Winecroft insights). More great news – wine also makes you lose weight! A study from Oregon State University, where they have been looking into which dietary choices we can make to maintain and improve health, found that ellagic acid in wine helps reduce fatty liver (a leading cause […]
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Wine makes you wise
Wine makes you wise. It also makes you happy. It makes you healthy. It also makes you skinny. This is not fake news put out by wine drinkers to justify their favourite hobby. These are facts based on extensive scientific research. As the public health experts turn their sights on the perils of alcohol, to […]
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Wine is getting warmer
Vines for wine production have traditionally been grown between 30 and 50 degrees north and south of the equator. Have a look at a globe and you will see that all the major wine producing areas are in these bands – Europe, California, Australia, Argentina/Chile, South Africa are all there. Note the UK is north […]
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Don’t be a Turkey with your Christmas wine choices
It’s several centuries since turkey began replacing peacock and goose to be the centrepiece of Christmas dinner in the UK. King Henry VIII is believed to have been an early adopter in 16th Century England. These days, not everyone eats turkey on Christmas Day. There are now a lot of challengers including steak and venison […]
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Winecroft FAQs
Winecroft members are part of one of the best wine clubs in UK and Europe and have access to a selection of fantastic fine wines from the best restaurant wine lists in the world. Not only are they able to explore fine wines that are served in top Michelin starred restaurants for a fraction of […]
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The Cheapest Michelin
The cheapest Michelin-starred meal in the UK has been revealed. It’s the London restaurant, Leroy, in Shoreditch. Leroy offers a three-course meal for just £23, according to new research by cookware brand Kitchen Knives. The research looked at the evening meal offerings for 163 Michelin-starred restaurants from across the UK. After discounting 12 locations for […]
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Age before beauty?
A lot of people think that all wine improves with age, but this isn’t the case. Some of us drink wine that is 10, 20 or even 30 years old, however around 98% of all wine out there is not meant to last this long. In fact, most of the wine we buy in our […]
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Red wine – to chill or not to chill?
You most definitely can drink red wines chilled and they can be perfect for late summer drinks. But not all red wines are suited to a good chilling. So how do you decide? The first thing to consider is the body of the wine. A full-bodied Australian Shiraz or a Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the southern Rhône […]
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Why wine is not grape flavoured!
Why do wines smell and taste like nearly every fruit you can think of except for grapes? How can a wine taste like lemons and honey on toast? To answer these questions, we must be more precise with our definitions. Most of us use the terms “taste” and “flavour” interchangeably, but physiologists define these as […]
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Bobal – Spain’s hidden gem of a grape
Ever heard of Bobal? Probably not. Until a few years ago, very few of the most ardent Spanish wine lovers would have done so. Planted only in one small corner of Spain, it barely rated a mention in most wine books and even then was dismissed by commentators as a workhorse grape suitable only for […]
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That bassline tastes so good!
Ever wondered why a glass of wine tasted so good on one occasion while the same wine really didn’t hit the mark on another. It could have been due to the music you were listening to! Music can change your perception of food and drink, according to research carried out by Professor Charles Spence, professor of […]
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Premier League Pinot Grigio
The rise of Pinot Grigio from local varietal wine to international star has been dramatic. Its commercial success can be traced back to Anthony Terlato, a Chicago importer who, in the 1970s, looking for a single varietal wine for the US market, found Santa Margherita and became the winery’s US importer. Terlato invested heavily in […]
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Little Calvary
There’s a story behind every bottle on the Winecroft wine list. This one begins in the medieval village of Soave in the Veneto in north east Italy. Here for over a century, the Pieropan family has revolutionized winemaking, becoming one of the most acclaimed Italian wine families. In 1971, Nino Pieropan made a bold experiment […]
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Organic vs. Biodynamic vs. Natural Wine – What’s the Difference?
Organic vs. Biodynamic vs. Natural Wine—What’s the Difference? Increasingly, wine drinkers are conscious not only about their own health but also the health of the planet. They are looking out for more ethical, sustainable and responsible products. This has led to an expanding range of wines labelled as organic, biodynamic and natural wines. But what […]
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Winecroft launched!
Winecroft – the new wine subscription club, offering the wines of Michelin starred restaurants at a fraction of the price, has been launched Winecroft is a new subscription service that is set to disrupt the world of wine in the UK and Europe by delivering a personalised selection of bottles, taken from the lists of […]
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