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.

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.

Simpsons Wine Estate

Simpsons Wine Estate owners Charles & Ruth Simpson have been making award-winning wines at Domaine Sainte Rose, their stunning, southern French property, for the past 17 years. Combining Old World terroir with New World techniques in the vineyard and winery, they produce an eclectic range of award-winning wines, which have won international acclaim and are sold around the world.

In 2014, they bought their expertise and savoir-faire back to the UK, establishing Simpsons Wine Estate in Barham, Kent, with an aspiration to create the finest quality Traditional Method English sparkling wine. Simpsons Wine Estate now has 30 hectares of vineyard, planted with the grape varieties, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The vineyards occupy glorious positions on the sunny, sheltered slopes of the North Downs, protected from the whimsy of the English climate by ancient woodlands and anchored in the iconic, free-draining, chalky soils, so revered in the world of sparkling wine.

In 2016 a state-of-the-art winery was created in Barham in preparation for their first harvest and a modern tasting room was completed during 2017, complete with a helter skelter slide.

From 2018, Simpson's estate has also begun to produce a range of still wines from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Crucially, these are produced from Burgundian clones, specifically intended for still wine production. This gives their still wines a ripeness and complexity often lacking in those made by other English producers, whose wines are made from clones better suited to sparkling wine.