It's a cliché, I know but this is the time of the year when people look back over the last 12 months and wonder if they have made good use of the time so I'll be no exception. Having got to the point where the website really wasn't fit for purpose (probably a long time ago but we eventually got the message), one of our biggest achievements was building a new one from scratch in a week (yes, I know it still needs a bit of tweaking). We're back in business! That said, the thing we are most pleased with from this year is the new discoveries we made on our trip to the south of Italy earlier in the year. More about these in a bit.
Inevitably, we get asked which wines we really like to drink ourselves. I know quite a few merchants who rarely drink any wines they don't import themselves but we are primarily wine lovers - on a recent vineyard visit, our host, after hearing our story, described us as wine adventurers - and we enjoy many wines made by people we don't work with as well as from those we do. A quick look at the list of producers featured on our website tells you we like Rhône-style wines but, also, Pinot Noir from Burgundy and beyond, and Italian wines from all over the peninsula.
What have we enjoyed in 2025 though? A recent bottle of Mark Haisma's 2018 Premier Cru Pommard was quite stunning but not something we bring into the country, except for our own consumption (only a few bottles; it's quite pricey although very good value for what it is). From our own past, some Château du Cédres Cahors wines from 2009 and 2010 are still going strong and, quite recently, we dropped in on Château Lamartine, finding their Particulière and Expression cuvées as good as ever. Things have moved on for us though and we have enjoyed finding new wines for the list.
Nonetheless, we have returned to some wines that have been on the list for a while and found them to be extremely good, from the dirt cheap Esteban Martin 2012 Crianza (who'd have thought it would be this good after 13 years?) to the more luxurious (but rather more expensive) Château Capucine's 2009 Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a simply beautiful old-vine 100% Grenache.
We made it all the way down to the wilds of Basilicata and the majesty of Puglia in May and made lots of new friends (people as well as wines!) so, perhaps, our wines of the year come from this trip. In that case, there are three standout wines, each with a more expensive, world class stable mate (but I want to encourage people to enjoy high quality, affordable wines where they exist): Rubino's Oltremé, Paternoster's Synthesi and Casisano's Rosso di Montalcino. Each of these wines punches well above its weight - or price tag - and shows off its grape variety (Susumaniello, Aglianico and Sangiovese) perfectly with expression and complexity.
We hope to bring some new wines to the UK market next year. In the meantime, do let us know what you have enjoyed too. Best wishes for 2026.
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