Category: Featured Producer

Frontier Fine Wines are delighted to be stocking a new range of Chilean wines from Viña Ventisquero – the V9 Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon from the Colchagua Valley and the V9 Reserva Sauvignon Blanc from the Casablanca Valley.

Nine vineyards are involved in the creation process of the V9 range, giving birth to excellent complex wines.

Viña Ventisquero was founded in 1998 and began winemaking in 2000. Today the winery is led by a young creative team of entrepreneurs whose aim is to create distinctive, high quality wines. True to their philosophy of going “a step beyond”, Viña Ventisquero’s modern, avant-garde wines reflect the sheer perfection of the Chilean wine craft, showing character of balance between fruit and oak.

Viña Ventisquero is completely committed to caring for their environment.   Not only do all of their productive processes involve rigorous quality control; they also comply with the strictest environmental protection standards. Independent auditors have granted Viña Ventisquero “Certified Sustainable Wine of Chile” status, Chile’s first ever certification exclusively for the wine industry.

We are offering an introductory 10% discount on our new Viña Ventisquero V9 Reserva range by entering discount code VVV910 at checkout. This offer is valid until Sunday 1^st April 2018 and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers.

 

Pikes Wines can trace the history of the family winery back to 1878, when Henry Pike emigrated from Dorset to South Australia aboard the HMS Oakland. He settled in the Adelaide Hills and in 1886 established Pikes Dorset Brewery, which later changed its name to H. Pike & Co., producing beer, ales, soft drinks and cordials, including its famous Tonic Ale, all of which displayed the Pike fish symbol that Pikes Wines use to this day.

The current winery was established by third generation brothers Andrew and Neil Pike, with their parents Edgar and Merle, in 1984 in the Polish Hill River sub-region of the beautiful Clare Valley in South Australia, due north of Adelaide. The first Pikes wines were released in the spring of 1985, with a focus on aromatic, fresh wines that reflect the region, the vintage season and the varieties grown.

The ideal pairing of Andrew, viticulturist, and Neil, winemaker, have achieved considerable success with their Riesling cuvées, Riesling Traditionale and the Merle Riesling; 2016 Riesling Traditionale has just been awarded the Trophies for Best Clare Valley Riesling and Best Australian Riesling in the 2017 International Wine Challenge – an incredible achievement!

Speaking about the 2016 vintage at the time of harvest, Neil described conditions as being ‘pretty much ideal for achieving concentrated flavours and the sugar levels we require. Good weather for grapes. It will possibly come as no surprise to many that the backbone varieties of Clare such as Riesling, Shiraz and Cabernet are showing early promise. Riesling in particular has great flavour, low pH and good levels of natural acidity. While perhaps still too early to start proclaiming it as another “vintage of the century” we are really confident we will produce some terrific wines from 2016.’

On winning the IWC trophies, Pete Bentley, Sales and Marketing Manager, told us: ‘At Pikes we pride ourselves on the consistency, and continuity of our Riesling. The Riesling grape allows for very few, or zero faults, and has a transparency that many other grape varieties don’t have. The genius of our Traditionale Riesling is balance, in both style and rationality. The best free run juice marries with just enough residual sugar, and a wonderful spine of natural acid. The combination of the austere Polish Hill fruit, connecting with a lick of Watervale gives us lemon/lime, orange blossom and talcum powder on the nose, and slippery mandarin flavours on the palate, all cleaned up by crunchy acidity. We love drinking this wine, and we love that the IWC have acknowledged this Clare classic with two trophies. Sometimes it takes 32 years to become an overnight success.’

For the month of July you can receive a 10% discount on Riesling Traditionale and its red blend partner, Los Compañeros Shiraz/Tempranillo. Please enter code PIKE17 at checkout to take advantage of this offer.

Thorn-Clarke are something special. A winegrower of such pedigree, tradition and self-assurance that you are left wondering how on earth they have passed you by, unnoticed, for so long. Though passing like proverbial ships in the night, I am overjoyed to acknowledge they have now registered a sizable ‘blip’ on my radar! My red wine of 2015, from their fair hand, was the exceptional 2012 Shotfire Quartage; a Bordeaux blend with so much to say…

So let me tell you more about this historic grandee of South Australia’s most famous wine region – The Barossa Valley.

Thorn-Clarke’s ancestors were originally drawn to the region by the great Australian gold rush of the late 19^th Century. The name Thorn-Clarke derives from the relationship between two long time Barossa families; husband and wife, David and Cheryl Clarke both have (if you’ll pardon the pun) deep family roots in the Barossa. Cheryl Clarke’s family, the Thorns, have a long tradition of grape growing in Barossa whereas David Clarke’s family, became famous in the region through the mining of gold. Together David and Cheryl have established and grown Thorn-Clarke into the successful winery it is today.

Location wise, Thorn-Clarke are in an enviable position. With a firm understanding of the region’s geology though their established mining link, they have over time amassed four prime single vineyards across the Barossa; from Mount Crawford in the cool southern Eden Valley to the dry and warm St Kitts vineyard in northern Barossa.

There is freshness present in the estate’s wines which show pedigree, elegance and an assurance that few growers in the region can match. In the glass their wines deliver the exceptional fruit flavours one would expect from this iconic wine region, however there is also structure, character and exceptional value for money.

The latter point is really Thorn-Clarke’s calling card. I guess the American critic Robert Parker might refer to it as “bang for your buck”. One thing is for certain – these are wines which offer satisfaction on so many levels, from the fresh and vibrant Mount Crawford Riesling, full of zingy lemon and lime notes, right through to the true icons of the range, in the form of William Randell Shiraz and single vineyard Ron Thorne Shiraz, both of which are bold and full of spice plum and black cherry fruit. Capable of long term aging, the 2012 Ron Thorne Shiraz was recently awarded the International Wine and Spirit Competition’s trophy for the world’s best Shiraz/Syrah! With so many accolades over the years and a perpetual reference to the value for money their wines offer the drinker… surely it is time to introduce your palate to the wonderful Thorn-Clarke portfolio?!

Bremerton isn’t just another Aussie winery; it is the pulse and heartbeat of South Australia’s Langhorne Creek. Owned and run by the Willson family since its inception in 1988, Bremerton has forged an enviable reputation for quality and value whilst at the same time supporting development into new varietal plantings and figure-heading innovation within the region.

I was lucky enough to visit Bremerton last year and had a rare opportunity to meet the Willson family. What I found was a group of people committed to promoting the fruits of their labour, with drive and ambition but at the same time a humble appreciation of their unique terroir in Langhorne Creek. It is unquestionable that winemaker Bec Willson and her sister Lucy steer the Bremerton ship under the guiding eyes of father Craig and mother Mignonne. It really is a family affair combined with genuine pride of place.

Langhorne Creek is south east of Adelaide, not far from the famed vineyards of McLaren Vale. It is a unique region as it sits on the rich soil of the Bremer River flood plain. Fresh cool evening breezes from Lake Alexandrina provide a micro climate of mild to warm summer days and cool evenings, perfect for the long ripening of the grapes. The resultant harvest produces intense and sought after cool climate flavours in the Bremerton wines, which are very much on-trend and beautifully suited to the palates of many modern wine drinkers. The predominant varieties grown are Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, with plantings of Sauvignon Blanc, Verdelho, Chardonnay, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

The winemaking team, headed by family winemaker Rebecca ‘Bec’ Willson has taken the quality of the Bremerton portfolio to new highs. Bec seeks the finest possible estate-grown fruit to craft traditional, full-bodied, full-flavoured, mouth-filling wines that show a consistency of style whilst encouraging the true varietal characteristics to be expressed.

In the cellar, the winery has invested heavily in a premium French and American oak programme using 220 litre barriques to ensure subtle and complementary oak influences. The winery utilises traditional open top fermenters, made from stainless steel and a purpose-built barrel cellar for maturation.

Bec and her Marketing Manager sister Lucy, have focused the family’s wine range on high quality and individual wines. They have given Bremerton a strong foothold in the highly competitive Aussie wine market, with Rebecca’s first label at age 25 (the 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon) winning a trophy and rated Third Best Cabernet in Australia by Winestate magazine. Since then the Willson sisters have worked tirelessly to anchor Bremerton as Langhorne Creek’s strongest force – with exceptional quality Malbec and Fiano coming through the ranks, there is no suggestion they plan to put their feet up any time soon!