🍷 Discover the Enchantment of the Heartbreak Grape 🍷
Pinot Noir wine is the most highly prized wine in the world. Called "the noble grape" in France, for good reason as it has been coveted by kings and commoners in large part for its magical abilities with food. If you are ever ordering wine at a restuarant for a large crowd of people, Pinot Noir is a safe bet as it is most likely to compliment most people's meals!
Colloquillay known as the "heartbreak grape", it is a much riskier investment for both growers and winemakers than other wine varietals. The grape clusters are usually small and difficult to ripen evenly, the skins are thin and there is a propensity to suffer a variety of diseases!
That risk is one of the reasons it is highly sought after (and can be expensive). Andre Tchelistcheff, one of America’s most influential winemakers declared that “God made Cabernet Sauvignon whereas the devil made Pinot Noir.”
Having said that, however, we believe this varietal to be quite heavenly!
And until next Thursday 24th August,
save up to 12% on ALL PINOT NOIR Wines including their blends!
6 products
Champagne Gremillet Ambassadeur Brut NV
Regular price £34.29A stunning Champagne that delivers on all fronts!
Tasting Notes
Fresh floral aromas combine with characteristic sweet brioche overtones, balanced by peach skin and baked biscuit flavours with a crisp citrus finish.
Production
The vineyards, situated in the southern reaches of Troyes achieve greater ripeness which leads to a richer fruit and classic baked biscuit flavours mixed with characteristic toasty yeast overtones. Only the first, lightest pressings are used, as is usual for fine Champagne. Classic slow second fermentation in bottle followed by maturing on the lees for at least 18 months before being disgorged and released for sale.
Producer
The Gremillet estate was founded by Jean-Michel Gremillet in 1979 when he inherited a plot of vines from his mother, Lulu. Today, the house possesses over 40 hectares of vineyards and is situated in a small village 45 kilometres from Troyes - the historic capital of Champagne - and 180 kilometres south of Reims. The vines lie on steep, sun-drenched hillsides in Kimmeridgian clay-limestone soils. Pinot Noir is king here, and constitutes around 94% of Gremillet’s plantings, with the remainder dedicated to Chardonnay, ideal for creating a classic, baked biscuit, rich, fruit-flavoured Champagne.
A Note on Sustainability
This family-owned and run Champagne house is HVE 3 certified, and as much as possible it restricts its use of chemicals in the vineyards. One of its cuvées is certified organic by ECOCERT and hopefully, this is the start of a bigger process.
Awards
- Silver at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2021
- Silver at the IWSC 2021
- Silver at the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships 2020
- Gold at the Sommelier Wine Awards 2020
- Silver at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2019
Specifications
| Year | N/V |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| Cultivar | 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay |
| Country | France |
| Alcohol content | 12.5% alcohol |
| Units of Alcohol per Bottle | 9.4 units |
| Type | Champagne |
| Cellaring Potential | For immediate enjoyment |
| Matured on the Lees | 18 Months |
| Allergen Information | Contains Sulphites & Milk |
| Food Matches | Drinks very nicely well chilled on its own of course (but not on your own - this is the sociable drink par excellence after all!), but also recommended with light nibbles, salads and simple fish dishes. |
| Features | Vegetarian |
| Origin | Champagne - France |
| Appellation | AOC Champagne |
2017 Champagne Gremillet Brut Vintage (Gift Pack)
Regular price £65.59Approachable yet very proper vintage Champagne - perfectly expressing the very particular character of Pinot Noir from the Aube.
Tasting Notes
Fine persistent 'bulles', lovely nose - a mix of ripe Pinot fruit and classic baked biscuit, the palate has Gremillet's characteristic gentle, ripe fruit, some nice complexity balanced with a long fresh finish.
Production
Vines are mainly planted in the Côte des Bars on limestone-clay soil on steep, sun-drenched hillsides. The first-press juice is fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats (16° for the alcoholic and 18° for the malolactic) followed by secondary fermentation in bottle. The wine is then matured on lees for a minimum of 5 years, and disgorged with a 9g/l 'liquer de dosage' made from their own finished wine.
Producer
The Gremillet estate was founded by Jean-Michel Gremillet in 1979 when he inherited a plot of vines from his mother, Lulu. Today, the house possesses over 40 hectares of vineyards and is situated in a small village 45 kilometres from Troyes - the historic capital of Champagne - and 180 kilometres south of Reims. The vines lie on steep, sun-drenched hillsides in Kimmeridgian clay-limestone soils. Pinot Noir is king here, and constitutes around 94% of Gremillet’s plantings, with the remainder dedicated to Chardonnay, ideal for creating a classic, baked biscuit, rich, fruit-flavoured Champagne.
A Note on Sustainability
This family-owned and run Champagne house is HVE 3 certified, and as much as possible it restricts its use of chemicals in the vineyards. One of its cuvées is certified organic by ECOCERT and hopefully, this is the start of a bigger process.
Specifications
| Year | 2017 |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| Cultivar | 100% Pinot Noir |
| Country | France |
| Alcohol content | 12.5% alcohol |
| Units of Alcohol per Bottle | 9.4 units |
| Type | Champagne |
| Cellaring Potential | For immediate enjoyment |
| Matured on the Lees | 22 Months minimum |
| Allergen Information | Contains Sulphites & Milk |
| Food Matches | Pair with rich fish dishes |
| Features | Vegetarian |
| Origin | Champagne - France |
| Appellation | AOC Champagne |
NV Nieto Senetiner Camila Sangria Aperitivo Malbec Bonarda
Regular price £10.49A wine cocktail made with Mendoza grapes and infused with natural botanicals, and a touch of fine bubbles. This low alcohol spritz is a blend of Malbec and Bonarda, serve chilled over ice and a slice.
Tasting Notes
Orange, classic botanicals and lemon.
Production
This blend of Malbec and Bonarda is low in alcohol, and sweetened with white must and a dosage of natural flavourings. Lightly sparkling. Serve very cold with ice and a slice of orange. It can also be combined with herbs such as rosemary to enhance aromas.
Producer
Nieto Senetiner has grown to become one of the leading stars of Mendoza. Although the vineyards and winery were founded by Italian immigrants and date back to 1888, they were acquired by the Nieto and Senetiner families in 1969.
Nieto has some 400 hectares of vineyards in virtually all of the best sub-districts of Mendoza from which it produces classic and modern wines characterised by the uniquely appealing balance of power and finesse that defines the best wines of the region. The top wines come from very old vineyards in the famed sub-district of Agrelo, and are fully deserving of their status.
Since joining the estate, winemaker Santiago Mayorga has taken the wines to another level and was named 'Young Winemaker of the Year 2017' by Tim Atkin.
Sustainability
Nieto Senetiner have a deep commitment to regenerating the soil, reducing the use of pesticides and strengthening the communities at their facilities and vineyards. Their Don Nicanor brand is moving to Organic production and they have been audited and passed the Argentine Winery Sustainability Protocol with Villa Blanca, Vistalba Estate and Las Torcazas Estate now certified. The grapes grown here are used for the Nieto Senetiner Malbec DOC and Don Nicanor wines. They will continue this process and go on to certify 100% of their estates and wineries.
This protocol has been collaboratively developed and adapted for Argentinian winemaking from the California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Workbook. This provides educational and awareness tools to increase the application of sustainable practices in vineyards and wineries and consists of a self-evaluation of their vineyards – soils, canopy management, irrigation, study of climatic variables, etc. – to determine practices that can be improved upon. Water consumption (in cubic metres consumed per month) is also tracked and recorded in the winery's sustainability report. For Nieto Senetiner, sustainability isn’t just an environmental concept though, it’s sustained on four fundamental pillars: ethics and business transparency, economic development, the health and wellbeing of the community, and community development.
To fight vineyard pests and diseases Nieto Senetiner uses environmentally-friendly treatments, several of which are permitted in organic agriculture. It is registered in the ISCAMEN Agro-Clean Programme in which empty plastic agrochemical containers, previously washed and destroyed, are safely recycled. They have implemented practices such as vegetable coverage to conserve the microbiota and microfauna of the soil. The use of drip irrigation systems to preserve water is a key means of managing a scarce resource, especially in Mendoza.
For grapes supplied by contracted growers, each year Nieto Senetiner provides a manual of good agricultural practices listing the preferred agrochemicals to use to treat each pest and disease. This includes the time that these compounds take to break down so that grapes arrive at the winery without any chemical residue. Growers are also given sustainability guidelines to which they should adhere, and they are requested to document and record any treatments made during the growing season.
Bottle weights have been reduced to help lower the carbon footprint of the wine.
Specifications
| Year | NV |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| Cultivar | Pinot Noir 50%, Malbec 50% |
| Country | Argentina |
|
Alcohol content
|
7% alc vol
|
| Units of Alcohol per Bottle | 5.2 units |
| Type | Red Wine Sparkling |
| Cellaring Potential | Awaiting info |
| Allergen Information | Contains sulphites |
| Dietary Information | Vegan, Vegetarian, sustainable |
| Food Matches | On it's own with ice and a slice. The perfect spritz! |
| Origin |
Mendoza
|
2025 Bazar Pinot Noir Gewurztraminer Blouge
Regular price £11.99Two grape-filled trailers one red, one white, one chaotic winery and an inevitable oops... et voilà - Quel Bazar! A happy accident turned liquid masterpiece. This collision created Blouge, a juicy, aromatic, unexpected wine with a little wild side - because the best things in life aren't predictable.
Tasting Notes
Red cherry notes from the Pinot Noir meet with lychee and tropical fruit notes from the Gewurztraminer to create a flavour that's both charming and enjoyable. Juicy and aromatic with refreshing acidity.
Production
Blouge' is a combination of 'Blanc' and 'Rouge'. For Bazar, Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer co-fermented to make a wine that's fun, bright, and bouncy
Producer
We had one simple job back in 1990; to make sure that the quality of the wine we had started to vinify, bottle, and label ourselves was delicious … oh, and commercial enough for our customers. Paul Boutinot had already started to find those growers, negotiants, courtiers who could find us the grapes and cuvées that helped us produce a bottle of wine that we’d all enjoy drinking and selling.
He kept their addresses and telephone numbers in a blue box. Thank God we took a picture.
But we needed someone on the ground, out there in France, so Jane Hunt MW put the word out (no recruitment consultants, no Indeed) and someone told us about someone working in the marketing department of the Wine Society but who had an amazing palate and could “find finesse and complexity” in any wine she tasted. That person is Samantha Bailey. Her interview was “held” over the kitchen sink (no posh spittoons then) with small bottles comprising different tanks, and she put about blending them. She passed.
So, Sam left for France, on her own, with Paul’s blue box and Deb’s redundant textbook.
We couldn’t afford an office so she “cuckooed” in the offices of Jacques Depagneux, a grower in the heart of Beaujolais. We imported his wines (remember Chateau de Lacarelle Beaujolais Villages? A decent drop.) Instinctively, Sam would answer the phone “Bonjour, Maison Boutinot … “ and it went from there.
Now 35 years on, Sam’s still fussing over finding, blending and bottling our French wines with Guillaume Letang. Luckily, we’ve now got an office, still situated in the Beaujolais region. It’s called Boutinot France.
Sustainability
Maison Boutinot wines are sourced from across France. As part of this sourcing process we not only look for outstanding quality from our grower partners, but where possible we source from sustainably certified vineyards. Many of the Maison Boutinot wines have HVE Level 3 Certification. This recognises a high level of commitment to protecting and enriching the environment with the focus on biodiversity conservation, plant protection strategy, management of fertiliser use and management of water. Alongside this, some of the wines are formerly certified Organic.
Specifications
| Year | 2025 |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
| Cultivar | Pinot Noir 80%, Gewurztraminer 20% |
| Country | France |
|
Alcohol content
|
13% alc vol
|
| Units of Alcohol per Bottle | 9.75 units |
| Type | Red Wine (Chillable) |
| Cellaring Potential | Awaiting info |
| Allergen Information | Contains sulphites |
| Dietary Information | Vegan, Vegetarian, sustainable |
| Food Matches | Even more enjoyable lightly chilled, this wine pair perfectly with Asian dishes like sticky plum duck or a fragrant Thai curry. It also shines alongside creamy salmon risotto. |
| Origin |
IGP Pays dOc
|
