Wine Producers

Piedrasassi

Writing for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Jeb Dunnuck describes the range from Piedrasassi as “serious wines that merit attention,” – no wonder, since Piedrasassi’s wines offer a fascinating blend of turbo-charged fruit and classical (almost European-style) structure.

Owners Sashi Moorman and Melissa Sorongon have extremely eclectic tastes in wine – and it shows in their produce, which ranges from cool climate-style Syrah made with native yeasts and low sulphur, through richly-textured Sauvignon Blanc created by extended skin contact during fermentation, to fresh, juicy and lively Sangiovese vinified in whole berry clusters.

The common thread is authenticity – wines that represent a time and place – honest wines made with great love and care by an extremely passionate group of people.

Romain Duvernay

The Duvernay family founded their négociant business in 1904 and over the years have become one of the most reliable and well-known in the Rhône, supplying the best part of the base wine for the Côtes-du-Rhônes of many famous producers, including Etienne Guigal.

Based at Châteauneuf-du-Pape with his father Roland, Romain Duvernay decided a few years ago that the quality of fruit he was sourcing was so good that he would rather keep the best parcels and produce wine under his own label. Since they have always sold their fruit on in the past, their name is not currently well-known in the U.K.. That keeps the price down despite the truly exceptional quality. These wines are bargains.

Domaine de la Côte

Domaine de la Côte is a project in the Santa Rita Hills, born out of the Evening Land Vineyards. When Evening Land decided to back out of Southern California, they sold the vineyards to Sashi Mooman, its winemaker in Santa Rita, plus Sandhi’s Rajat Parr and a number of investors. A collection of 6 vineyards planted over 40 acres, their aim is to produce a Pinot Noir with distinct expression of terroir.

The Domaine farms its vineyards organically and makes its wines with the philosophy of ‘add nothing; take nothing away.’ All the wines are produced and bottled at the winery in the town of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County, three miles from the Domaine.

Their wines are helping to redefine how people think about Californian Pinot Noir.

Coeur Clémentine

Coeur Clémentine is the vinous project of two childhood friends, Steve Veytia and Pierre Arosteguy. Pierre is the 5th generation owner of one of the oldest épiceries in France, and joined a mutual passion for the Côtes de Provence with California native Steve, by starting Coeur Clémentine back in 2005. The fruit for Coeur Clémentine's dry rosé is sourced from several family growers in what’s called ‘The Golden Triangle’, an area of the Côtes de Provence that is said to have the best vineyards in the region. It’s taken 10 years to build relationships with families growing the Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvedre, Tibouren, Carignan and Syrah grapes, which make up the blend for this rosé wine. Grapes are harvested in the early hours of the morning when the temperature is at its coolest, allowing the grapes to retain their freshness while reaching the winery. Clementine also makes an elegant, bone dry, sparkling rosé, 100% from Provence, named ‘La Pétillante’. Made using a natural secondary fermentation method, the body of the wine is pure and delicate, with light and fine bubbles. Coeur Clémentine is one of just a handful of producers making quality sparkling Provence rosé from Grenache.

Weingut Carl Koch

Weingut Carl Koch is a certified organic producer located near the town of Oppenheim, right by the region’s most famous vineyard location, the Oppenheimer Sackträger. In the mid 19th century Friedrich Koch founded the world’s first quinine factory on his family’s generations old estate, with his son Carl directing operations. By 1888, global competition in the production of quinine became so intense that the family decided to sell close that business down and concentrate entirely on their other commercial interest, viticulture.

The whole range of wines has a signature elegance, classic varietal and stylistic traits and all offer incredible value, the Spätburgunder in particular is a wine that does everything that a Burgundy does but at a fraction of the price. The estate is also blessed with a large library of old vintages going back decades, small quantities of which are released to us throughout the year.

Rheinhessen is Germany's largest quality wine producing region. For years, it was an area associated with bulk wines blends but the region has recently been transformed by energetic, forward thinking winemakers like Carl Koch, who use traditional wine making methods to focus on quality.