Posted on

Spring wine tastings….

Book online on the online page and search for the £25 wine voucher.

Plan your personal tasting with Mr Whirly. Book online £25 p/p inclusive of snacks, 5 wines, 75 ml. 7.00pm-9.00pm1

18th April: 

“ Wines from the New, Old world” An array of wines from the new world countries of  Eastern Europe.

25th April: 

. “A taste of Pinot noir from around the World”: some fab ” Organic Pinot” from the Languedoc, Oregon and Tasmania ( and Burgundy too!)

2nd May:

 “ Mediterranean Island wines”

9th May :

Wines with Altitude”

[email protected] 0208 672 2572

Whirly wines, 22 Ritherdon road, SW17 8QD

Posted on

Autumn and Festive season wine tastings: Organic wines from the Wagram in Austria and Piedmont and Marche in Italy

Why not plan you own personalised wine tasting this Autumn and into the Festive season and utilise the expertise and individuality of your local wine shop and importer?

Organise your own wine tasting event at your local wine shop that imports all their own wines from the smaller producer.

Easy to organise:  Book online, get a group of 8-16 together for your party or event for this Autumn and Christmas. Fun and informative tastings ( not too serious don’t worry!)

What’s tasting good?

  • Autumnal wines, soft Austiran and Marche reds
  • Kick off with a lovely Nutty Sparkling from Nutbourne ( next door to Nyetimber) and then a couple of Whites from Nutbourne ( Bacchus and Chardonnay). Finish with a soft alluring ” Organic Zweigelt” from Austria and a big Syrah from Mount Barker, W. Australia. In December the focus will be on festive wines for Christmas.
  • 4-5 wines per tasting, 75ml measure and snacks for only £25.00

 

How to book?

email [email protected] then book online on the website

Posted on

May 2018: ” Organic” Pinot Noir from ” Ricardelle de Lautrec”, 2017, Languedoc

” Vignerons Independants” OR Concours 2018

Just arrived from the Languedoc this unusual  Organic Pinot Noir. I say unusual since this region is famous for big reds like Syrah, Mourvedre, Carignan. Pinot noir is normally grown a 200 miles north of here in Burgundy and this wine does a really good job of offering this King of varietals a place at the table at a sensible price yet with refinement and quality still intact. Very small vineyard and productions hence the award above at the 2018 wine contest for small vineyards.

Slightly richer than a Burgundy yet full of summer madness! Strawberry and raspberry dominate the nose and palate with some lovely fresh notes. This wine is sublime, a true wonder if you served it chilled and allow it to warm up an evolve. Well priced at £15.50 a bottle.

 

 

 

Posted on

Wine tastings start this Friday for Australia day! Details on the ” Events page”; New wines imported in December 2017, plan your own wine tasting event or party at whirly wines in 2018…

A very happy and prosperous  New year to all my lovely customers! Its 2018 and its January and everyone has stopped drinking wine! Why oh why!  Drink less and drink better. Mr whirly can help you there, 95% of the wines I have here are from the smaller producer, its all about quality not quantity in your local wine shop in SW17. This at least gives me a little time, amongst my office full of end of year accounts, to write to you about some new wines that we imported just before Christmas and plan some fabulous wine tasting events commencing with  Australia day this Friday 26th January (details on the events page) then kicking off February, on the 1st,  with some really delightful new imports from Ribeiro, Ribera del Duero and Castilla de Manche, followed two weeks later when we will look at some other new wines from Bordeaux, some revolutionary ” Organic” and Bio wines from Bordeaux, which is a rare thing to find since the Bordelais don’t like change and are pretty set in their ways.

So if you are looking to plan your own private wine tasting this year then get in touch with Mr Whirly and we can arrange it for you. Prices start from £25 per person and we need 8 people minimum to make it work, but we try to give you as much as possible for that, 5 X 75ml measures and snacks too! Try to avoid Thursdays since this is when we have our regular ” Open” wine tasting.

In December we imported some really exciting new wines from Spain and France. Some old favourites like Val de Souto and Meloso from Ribeiro and Ribera del Duero and some new delights from Bordeaux, yes ” Organic and Bio” Merlot based wines from ” Chateau Grand Francais”.  All in all we imported twelve new wines with a range of pricing here in the shop from £8.75 up to £22.50. Let me, if I may, give you a brief synopsis of these new wines:

From Verona,  some simple yet delightfully made wines that drink very well from Villa Aganoor. Their Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot are all well made and have their own character and individuality and show that at this price point wines can be enjoyed. ( £8.95). From  Chateau Molhiere in Cote de Duras, their lovely soft Cabernet Franc/Merlot 2015.  Top wine, no oak, earthy and an old favourite and well priced at £10.50. A little north west of here, near St Emilion, some ground breaking ” Organic” Bordeaux from “Chateau Grand Francais“. I say this since its rare to find this new style of wine here in Bordeaux, since of all appellations in France, this is the most traditional.  Further South in Languedoc, and bottled under ” Vin  de France” the very exciting Pinot Noir 2015 from “Domaine de Ricardelle” as well as their Un-oaked Chardonnay. ( £15.50 & £14.50) The Pinot Noir in particular has been a great hit so far sellimng very well in the shop. Further south still, from Ribera del Duero, another old favourite, the juicy and delicious  Meloso Joyen 2016 Tempranillo, ( £14.50). Further south, below Madrid in the wide ranging ‘Castilla la Mancha` wine area, Dionisos are making some Amphorae aged ” Organic and Bio” Tempranillo, silky smooth and made in the ancient Roman way. Then finally north- west to Ribeiro, “Val de Souto”and the oh so passionate wine maker, Jose Manuel Blanco Perez, who makes wines of such feeling and intensity, being one of the smallest vineyards I work with. His Val de souto 2016 is Godello based with some Loureira and Trixudeira and his “Benedictus Fructus” is quality and beauty all rolled into one, 5 months on the lee’s Godello and Albarino.

For tasting notes on all these wines please look at the ” New wines” page, which will updated in the coming day (written 20.01.18).

I look forward to welcoming you to the Whirly wine shop soon. Remember, drink less and better and come into Whirly wines for your wines, since i can vouch for every single bottle of wine in the shop, its not a pick and mix here!

Mr Whirly

Posted on

Sicily wines arrive September 2nd 2017……

Mr Whirly is very excited to present you ten new wines from his recent trip to Sicily in May this year, from the small “Cantine Gulino” in Siracusa, where the boot of Sicily kicks the football of Sicily and the place where civilisation was born in 800BC, we have an abundance of grapes specific to this small wine region; then from Castelvetrano, famous for its olives as well as its vines  that are very close to Port Palo, an old destination for myself, Simon and Becky Thomas and Bob Parkinson ( Owns ” Food by Bob” in Cirencester) from a few decades ago, since it has a great beach and restaurant called ” Vittorio’s”, we have some delicious low alcohol wines that offer wonderful value for money for the 750ml bottled Vermentino and Syrah as well as “Bag in Box” Cattarato and Syrah-Nero D’Avola from only £8.25 a 750ml bottle.

Pictured at the bottom of this post, the very special “Moscato de Siracusa” wines ( ” Don Nuzzo” and ” Jaraya”)  from this vineyard, grapes that are specific to Siracusa, sun dried off and on the vine and pure deliciousness in a glass, full of fresh figs and apricots. Then we have the ” Pretiosa” label, 100% Albanello, another grape specific to this delightful town,  this wine had really interesting palate of ripe Melon and Mediterranean sea salt and would be perfect with Scallops or some other shellfish. “Cantine Gulino” are the only producer that make the Albanello grape in a single varietal wine. Its beautifully different, therefore a great ” Whirly wine”. The Next white is ” Fania” a gorgeous Aperitif style wine, blending Fiano from Napoli and the ” King of Grapes from Sicily”, Insolia, to make a summer flower wine perfect as an Aperitif wine and with a light lunches. On a recent wine tasting tour with restaurant clients in Scotland and Wales this wine was the most popular of the white wines we tasted. Two reds wrap up this array of wines, the ” Fanus” which is an un-oaked wine, Nero D’Avola and Syrah, very earthy and natural in its style, very much a wine that allows both grapes to express themselves as they are and the “Dru’s”, 100% Nero D’Avola, the main red grape of Sicily and again the home of which is here; 12 Months on oak and seriously big yet refined juice. The reason why I am writing about these wines is because of this wine, tasted in London in January and now imported to the UK 6 months later. Buy it and enjoy it. Needs a nice steak or possibly Grouse, now that they are in season.

From Castelvetrano and ” Azienda Marzuco” we have four more wines that also show themselves off in a sunset over Mendocino light, but at a price point of £8.25 & £11.95 a bottle. Their Vermentino, a grape originally from Sardinia, is a more linear and tight version of the mould found in the island a few hundreds miles north of Sicily, but with a little time once you pull the cork it really begins to open up and blossom, with honeysuckle and flowers on the palate and nose. Their Syrah is at £11.95,

another great find, since its extremely rare to find a Syrah at only 12.5% Alc vol. It has hints of white pepper spice, but the colour and taste is more like a richer Pinot Noir to be honest. It also had some lovely spiced berry fruit, cherries and blackberries and really expresses itself very brightly and happily. Then the find of all the wines at the moment in your local SW17 wine shop is the Nero D’Avola and Syrah from Cantina Gulino out of the ” Barrel”, another light wine in colour and alcohol at 12.5% alc vol, simply bright red cherries in a glass and quite the most deliciously drinkable wine you will find in London at the moment at £8.25 a bottle. Their Cattarato- Trebbiano out of the barrel is pretty damn good too, at the same price, spicy stoned fruit wine, clean and zingy and so easy to drink. So Whirly wine now serves 5 wines for you from the barrel at an affordable price of under £10 a bottle so please come in, taste before you buy and there are not many wine shops you can do that in whatever city you are living in around the world, and support your local wine business. I am not in anyway expensive, no one can say that of Whirly wines and yet the quality of the wine, I can guarantee you, will far surpass anything from my supermarket friends around each corner of Ritherdon road. So come into your local wine business, support Whirly wines NOW….


Posted on

Sicily, a whole array of delights in your local wine shop in SW17…..Now serving 5 wines from the barrel from only £8.25 a 750ml bottle ( please bring one with you)

Mr Whirly is very excited to present you ten new wines from his recent trip to Sicily in May this year, from the small “Cantine Gulino” in Siracusa, where the boot of Sicily kicks the football of Sicily and the place where civilisation was born in 800BC, we have an abundance of grapes specific to this small wine region; then from Castelvetrano, famous for its olives as well as its vines  that are very close to Port Palo, an old destination for myself, Simon and Becky Thomas and Bob Parkinson ( Owns ” Food by Bob” in Cirencester) from a few decades ago, since it has a great beach and restaurant called ” Vittorio’s”, we have some delicious low alcohol wines that offer wonderful value for money for the 750ml bottled Vermentino and Syrah ( £11.95) as well as “Bag in Box” Cattarato and Syrah-Nero D’Avola from only £8.25 a 750ml bottle.

Pictured at the bottom of this post, the very special “Moscato de Siracusa” wines ( ” Don Nuzzo” and ” Jaraya”)  from this vineyard, grapes that are specific to Siracusa, sun dried off and on the vine and pure deliciousness in a glass, full of fresh figs and apricots but too syrupy at all, very fresh and acidic.  Then we have the ” Pretiosa” label, 100% Albanello, another grape specific to this delightful city,  this wine had really interesting palate of ripe Melon and Mediterranean sea salt and would be perfect with Scallops or some other shellfish. “Cantine Gulino” are the only producer that make the Albanello grape in a single varietal wine. Its beautifully different, therefore a great ” Whirly wine”. The Next white is ” Fania” a gorgeous Aperitif style wine, blending Fiano from Napoli and the ” King of Grapes from Sicily”, Insolia, to make a summer flower wine, perfect as an Aperitif wine. On a recent tasting tour of Scotland and Wales this wine was the most popular of the white wines we tasted. Two reds wrap up this array of wines, the ” Fanus” which is an un-oaked wine, Nero D’Avola and Syrah, very earthy and natural in its style, very much a wine that allows both grapes to express themselves as they are and the “Dru’s”, 100% Nero D’Avola, the main red grape of Sicily and again the home of  this grape is here in Siracusa; 12 Months on oak and seriously big yet refined juice. The reason why I am writing about these wines is because of this wine, tasted in London in January and now imported to the UK six months. Buy it and enjoy it. Needs a nice steak or possibly Grouse, now that they are in season.

From Castelvetrano and ” Azienda Marzuco” we have four more wines that also show themselves off in a sunset over Mendocino light, but at a price point of £8.25 and £11.95 a bottle. Their Vermentino, a grape originally from Sardinia, is a more linear and tight version of the mould found in the island a few hundreds miles north of Sicily, but with a little time once you pull the cork it really begins to open up and blossom, with honeysuckle and flowers on the palate and nose. Their Syrah is at £11.95,

another great find, since its extremely rare to find a Syrah at only 12.5% Alc vol. It has hints of white pepper spice, but the colour and taste is more like a richer Pinot Noir to be honest. It also had some lovely spiced berry fruit, cherries and blackberries and really expresses itself very brightly and happily. Then the find of all the wines at the moment in your local SW17 wine shop is the Nero D’Avola and Syrah from Cantina Gulino out of the ” Barrel”, another light wine in colour and alcohol at 12.5% alc vol, simply bright red cherries in a glass and quite the most drinkable wine you will find in London at the moment at £8.25 a bottle. Their Cattarato- Trebbiano out of the barrel is pretty damn good too, at the same price, spicy stoned fruit, clean and zingy and so easy to drink. So Whirly wine now serves 5 wines for you from the barrel at an affordable price of under £10 a bottle so please come in, taste before you buy and there are not many wine shops you can do that in, whatever city you are living in around the world, and support your local wines business. I am not in anyway expensive, no one can say that of Whirly wines and yet the quality of the wine, I can guarantee you, will far surpass anything from my supermarket friends around each corner of Ritherdon road. So come into your local wine business, support Whirly wines NOW….I need your support….


Posted on

WHIRLY WINES NOW SERVING LUNCH THURSDAY TO SUNDAY, 12-3PM as well as Ice creams from Ice cream union now back on the menu!

Following a recent trip to Sicily, written up below I was inspired by the street food in Palermo which is the best in Italy, or so they say! So from the 1st June we are serving lunch from Thursday through to Sunday and we will of course be open for Mr Whirly’s Italian inspired farmhouse menu in the early evening too.

The Menu this week!

Piedmontese Peppers: £5.00

Sicilian Pepper stew: £6.00

Caponata: £6.00

Sicilian Salad: £5.00

Napoli Salami with Capers: £7.50

Pecorino Cheese with Truffles: £7.50

All the dishes are handmade by Mr Whirly and with some great Whirly wines by the glass that start from £2.00 for a 75 ml measure of Organic and Bio Viognier or Carignan from La Bouysse in Corbiere, the same wine you can fill up your 1 litre bottle for only £10.50, it really does go to show that Whirly wines is not in anyway an expensive place to eat and drink wines that have been carefully chosen for you from the smaller producer.

I look forward to welcoming you to the Whirly wine shop soon!

 

Posted on

“Whirly’s gig”, 30th April 2016, 2-10pm: Book tickets online in the Voucher link at the top of the home page.

 

 

So What’s It All About?

On 30th April we kick off what I hope will be a series of summer music events here at Whirly Wines Shop, 22 Ritherdon road, Tooting. A few months ago I met Kinvara Jenkins at a wine tasting here at the shop. She was indeed a bundle of fun and during the evening I discovered she was a singer and actress. After a little chat (and a little wine) Kinvara revealed to me that she is the youngest of 7 children. She spoke about her father, Nigel, and his impressive career as a guitarist and about her mother, Marie-Eve , a music publisher. So it’s a family affair! Nigel and Kinvara will play two acoustic sessions, 45 minutes each with an interval between.

A few details…

  • Things will kick off at 2pm for a 3pm start.
  • Mr Whirly shall provide some fine wines, a lot of fun and a BBQ too!
  • Maximum tickets available: 50
  • Price: £30 Includes: 3 glasses of wine, BBQ and music! Please click on the link below to book tickets online.
  • Children are welcome as long as they are supervised. No children inside the shop for health and safety reasons.

 

 

Posted on

Wine tour of Slovenia and The Istrian Peninsula, Croatia, 23-35 March 2017

Day 1 Thursday 23rd March

After a fraught time at Marco Polo airport in Venice ( told by hire care company that the car I had booked through Car Rentals.com could not be taken out of Italy! Great! So be careful, you really do need to read the small print with car hire nowadays, they are changing their terms and conditions all the time) I grabbed another car and headed in the long curve east around to Trieste, whirled down the steep descent to this glorious city as fast as I was allowed to, stopped for a quick lunch and beer and then skipped across a little piece of Slovenia into the brown hills of the Istria where I am discovering some beautifully made wines.

Its all about one grape here really, Malvazia ( with a Z not an S here) which might sound boring but its not since they vary so much from vineyard to vineyard, but they do have one thing in common, they are dry, dry dry. Very much a style I like but i think they are very much food wines and are not in anyway like the Malvazia made just north of here in Collio in Friuli where I will be tonight.

Having ditched my Michelin map 736 that covers the whole of Slovenia down to Macedonia, so far too small a scale for Whirly’s liking, I found some lovely people in a garage who sold me a very large scale map of the Istrian peninsula ( we don’t use Sat Nav on whirly tours BTW) and a little advise we popped over a few hills to the most lovely little town called Groznjan. What a find this little town is, little cobbled streets, no cars and some more helpful people, Sasha and Tanya that were in running a wonderful hand made furniture shop as well as a cafe, who delight in telling me about their favourite little vineyards. From here I followed my fab large scale map to Momjan where Marino Markozic makes Organic wines of subtlety and finesse. I first of all tasted their RE Brut sparkling wine, made from a assemblage of 80% Malvasia, 10% Pinot  Noir and 10% Chardonnay. Bone dry, 6 grams of sugar, dried and candied stone fruit, but unlike anything I had tasted before. Next was a 100% Malvazia, so so dry, exquisite, refined, great strength. 100% steel fermentation, 2015, again stunning quality: dried, candied lemon peel, bitter fruits, needs food.

There were no reds made in 2015 due to lack of rain, so I could not taste the locally grown Teran grape which is a shame. The last wine I tasted was their Muscat Momjanski 2015, a great here only find here in Momjan, hence the name. Intense orange peel and zest on the nose, so intense with a little spice and kumquat. Again refined and so well made, 13.5% alc vol, quite spicy and punchy. I am heading back there this morning to try to taste the Teran out of the tank, 2016 with the owner since he’s back at the helm today.

Last night was spent in the coastal town of Umag at a wine restaurant called It Istria, run by 7 winemakers of the region. Top wines again tasted, the highlight for me was the wines from Coronica, both the Malvazia and Teran were poured from a newly opened magnum, right up Whirly’s straza and they were mind blowingly gorgeous. So you will forgive me I have to whirl and email Moreno form Coronica, Marino from Kabola and make tracks. I have to be in Slovenia soon after lunch so the map is going to come in great use for short cuts. Break a leg whirly and over and out! More soon, pictures to follow!

Day 2…Friday 24th March

Big day ahead, tastings planned in three countries, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. After the wonders of Coronica last night I found the little village of Koreniki just south of Umag on my “very large scale map” and off I went at 8.30am to find the first of many vineyards today. In a little village with a circle of olives trees and perfectly manicured grass in the  foreground, I found the HQ of Coronica and Eva who went through the wines with me. I had already tasted their Malvasia 2015 which was more aromatic than other samples tasted so far as well as their ” Gran Teran 2012″ which was superb. Eva explained, the Gran Teran is two years on oak and has only just been released; it takes 4 years to get it ready for the market and is only produced in certain years. In 2014 there was too much rain and not enough sun, which is difficult to comprehend yes, so none was made. The 2015 Malvazia is finished here in the tasting room and I tasted the new 2016 which was good but not as rich as the 2015, I would imagine it needs some more time in bottle. Mareno is the third generation winemaker, his father started making modern technology winemaking in 1990 ( which means bottling of the wines). I also tasted here their ” Gran Malvazia 2015″ which has 1 year on the yeast and a few months on oak. I prefer this style of Malvazia, the oak helps open the wine up and since we are only 3000 metres from the sea here, there is a different feel to the wines from their terroir with a little salt at the end of the wine. “ We plough the field and scatter, the good seed of the land” is what sprung to mind this morning as I drove through the small patches of vineyards here and saw the red soil that had been newly ploughed up, incredibly rich in minerals.

On the way back to Umag I stopped at a little village on the coast and watched a sailing boat motor in and anchor. The apple blossom was was out on a tree and the bee’s and hornets were buzzing around it, the smell of the Adriatic combined with the blossom was evocative and joyful. I quick drive north to the corner of the peninsula to Savudrija and Degrassi proved fruitless since they were shut so I followed my large map back to Kabola and managed to meet Marino the owner very quickly, who is a winemaker of repute ( Kabola is the only Organic vineyard here in Croatian Istria) as well a truffle hunter too! Truffles! We love truffles. It was on the way back to Groznjan to say thank you to Sasha & Tanya for their help that I once again saw this old man tending two rows of vines in a village called Marusici. I asked to take a photo and this was the result: I am not holding a gun up to him don’t worry, just my i phone but the result is the same! What a lovely man, a lovely face and  notice, from his trousers at the back he has the cuttings of the vines hanging that he is pruning. Next stop the crazy Rojac from just across the border in Slovenia making stunning natural wines. Yes you heard it, the penny has dropped, Deeee- dunngg! Mr Whirly’s view on this style of wine has been changed forever.

Uros asked me to call him when I reached the first roundabout after the the Croatian border crossing. But I ignored this and almost found his vineyard myself until he whizzed around the corner on his scrambler motorbike. Yes I would say Uros lives life to the full was the first impression that he made on me. On the you tube video is the first wine we tasted, click on it and have a look please, its pretty exciting stuff, hand disgorging of his ” Moia” wine, ” Mine” into an ice bucket full of water, oh the theatre and excitement of wine and winemakers! He says to me as we taste the fizzy, frisky pink juice, “ I want sincerity, I want the grape variety, I want the terroir.” This wine showed me that winemaking this way can be exciting, fresh and vibrant and simply enjoyable to drink not something I have come across before with most natural wines. Next up was a 2016 Malvazia, selected yeasts and a delight! No label. I want it. Next a 2013 Orange wine, all about maceration here, indigenous yeast so that means natural from the skin like in Roman times man! Next, we are moving from one wine to the next in rapid succession, Malvazia Letnik 2013, 60 days skin contact, 2.5 years in oak, big barrels, completely bio-dynamic wine, old style.Then some Refosk: re means king, fosk means something dark. This is a very old grape from these parts. We taste a 2014 Refosk and even though there was a great deal of rain at the wrong time ( September) Uros has still managed to make a great wine, a very puristic wine. Next a Ronero 2016 out of tank; Max Ro-Nero! This is a big story wine: the grapes are dried naturally on the plant, picked at 8 gms of sugar, slightly sweet but delicious and it then spends 5 years in the bottle before being released to be drunk. As I drove Uros down the hill and dropped him off at that first roundabout and drove north to the Italian border, it struck me that I had just witnessed a man in his complete entity. Here was someone making his own style of wines, in a far flung country not recognised by the mass wine market but in a state of complete happiness. The penny had dropped for him and for Whirly.

From here I headed to find Martin in a wine region of Slovenia called ‘ Kras”, a limestone plateau just to the east of Trieste. I had been here before and loved their salami which they make themselves from their own “sounder of swine.” However it was very much  a case of following my nose since my large scale Croatian map had run out at the border and the sat nav is not a thing we use on a Whirly tour as you already know. So it took me an hour or so to find  ( ok 2 hours) but the fun I had completing this journey was immense. In order for me to find the vineyard I had to stop in a little country town to ask directions called Trebiciano to ask directions to Sezana just across the border. A stop entailed a little expresso and a bombolino ( ok two) at a cafe and a chat to a local gentleman who pointed me in the right direction. After a Graci and a farewell I thought this would not have happened if I had been using a SN and I would have simply driven to the ” Ostirjeva Kmetija” without any interaction with the locals. By the time I reached the salami place just east of Dutovjle the sun was setting and I had still a tasting or three to finish. Martin showed me some of his wines I chomped gleefully through his salami that is daughter, who is still at school but was running the shop very efficiently, had carefully cut and laid out for us. His wines are honest wine and made in a lovely simple and old school way. I would import them, in fact they are the perfect wines for me since they would be at the right price and I would be able to sell them under the vital £10 mark. But lets see how we get on with his salami for the shop shall we!? Martin  is keen for me to taste some wines at another natural vineyard back in Dutovjle so he drives be back to Rencel, a vineyard that started in 1986. It is here that I am told that this area his the home of Teran ( another name for the refosco grape) and that Martin has indeed gone to Brussels to fight the Croatians who have stole the name for their wines. Josko Rencel, the owner makes wine in very small amounts, 500 or 1000 bottle parcels so he’s pretty damn tiny. His wines, like Rojac are not ” inexpensive” either but the quality cannot be denied.

Its all about Teran here as I have already explained. First off is the ” Kras Carso” 2013, natural yeast, only 1000 bottles made 75% Teran. Then a Pinot noir 2009, macerated for 8 days and then 5 years in barrel. Serious wine. 800 bottles made. Vincent 2013: Sauvignon, Malvazia and Chardonnay. Next the local grape. ” Vitovska Grganja”, ” Orange wine”, different process of maceration which is basically the opposite to rose wine which is creating a rose style wine from red grapes, goo but not me. Then a Sauvignon blanc 2012, malolactic, 3 days of maceration, yellow Sauvignon! Then a Cuvee 2009 Orange wine, same blend as above, no sulphites, 5 years in oak: ” Cameroe” 2003, 16.5% alc vol ( variation of Amarone, dried grapes): Negra 2006, Teran 2006, 6 months of drying the grapes, amazing wine: ” Malvazia 2003″ sweet wine, 6 days drying, 8 years in barrel 100% Malvazia….at this point given that it was now 8 pm and I still had to drive 1 hour without a sat nav my mind began to wander and my notes did not cover the reaming two wines. What I can say is that yet again my thoughts and feelings on Natural wines have been transformed: they can be fresh and enjoyable so drink.

In Friuli the next day after a late night drive to Cormons I tasted some really young but exciting wines from Buzzinelli.What was to me extraordinary was the fact that these wines were half the price of some of the wines I tasted on my last two day trip  but also only half as good, in my humble opinion. What have `I learnt from this trip? The wines from the smaller producer, in general, are increasingly difficult to find for that £10 bottle and that I will have to find these wines in future from slightly larger producers. Sad but true.