The fall of communism in Hungary saw many new beginnings, and one of note for wine lovers was the formation of The Royal Tokaji Company by wine-writer Hugh Johnson, and a consortium of foreign investors with the sole vision of revitalising the magnificent sweet wines of Hungary. The Royal Tokaji Company today is a benchmark for the noble wines of the region, from their 3 Puttonyos wines at around 60-90 grams per litre of residual sugar through to the intense Essencia at 450-850 grams, they are wines that offer the drinker a unique insight to one of the great wine styles of the world. Fine quality Aszú berries with good structure and perfect botrytis were macerated in fermenting must for two days. After pressing and finishing fermentation the wines were filled into 300 and 500 litre Hungarian oak casks in our extensive, deep, underground cellars to mature for over two years. The final blends were carefully crafted in the spring of 2020. Bottled at 189 grams of residual sugar per litre. Rich intense nose with hints of orange peel and spice. Very fine and elegant wine, full-flavoured with vibrant acidity, citrus and peach on the palate with a long, balanced finish. Summer was hot, so we began the Aszú berry harvest in early September and continued to pick steadily in the ideal autumn weather. In particular October provided three textbook weeks for the development of fine quality Aszú, with day after day of early morning mists, afternoon sunshine and drying winds. The Aszú wines show great structure, plenty of botrytis, depth and freshness with excellent complexity, all attributes of long ageing potential.

Family owned Villa Maria Estate has been rated as New Zealands

On the nose it’s varietal and has aromas of pear, apple and citrus with a slight hint of floral characters. The palate is a burst of citrus underpinned by balanced sweetness and acidity. Try it chilled with a variety of seafood.

The Mader domaine is a very small quantity, high quality wine producer based in the picture postcard village of Hunawihr in the middle of vineyards on the Route des Vins. A fine dry Riesling with texture and depth. Intense floral citrus and lime aromas with mineral backing and wonderful acid backbone.

The Kevin John Chardonnay is Cullens flagship white from their biodynamic vineyards. A refined and elegant style brimming with white peach and citrus, showing bakery nutty complexity and deft oak integration. The wine is named in honour of Vanya Cullens father, the late Kevin John Cullen. Grapes are harvested on a flower or fruit day and whole-bunch pressed to obtain the highest quality juice. It is then barrel fermented with native yeasts in French oak barriques and matured for approximately 7 months in one- third new and two-thirds seasoned oak barrels.

The delicate perfume of lime blossom, jasmine and quince accompanies layers of spice, white peach and pear notes. There is great focus and fine phenolic texture through the palate, with juicy acidity lending persistence. Medium-dry in style, this is wine delicious now, but will also reward those who cellar it. Claire Mulholland, Burn Cottage

On the nose it shows yellow flowers, exotic fruit and white peach together with smoky and peaty notes. Juicy fruit palate accented with mineral, aromatic herbs and almond alongside crisp acidity. The finish is dry and very persistent. Made from 100% Garganega, this wine was first made in 1986. Whole grapes were pressed and fermented for 16 days in steel vats, followed by 15 months in contact with fine lees and then 5 months in bottle before release. For generations the life of the Tessari family has been dedicated to the cultivation of the vine in the Soave area, the oldest white wine production area in Italy. Since 1887 the family has owned vineyards at the very heart of the Soave Classica area. This is a restricted area with special soil, climatic and morphological conditions centred around the small village of Fittà. The Suavia wine farm is located in Fittà, in the municipality of Soave, at 296 metres above sea level. Suavias modern and efficient winery was designed to produce only white wines using the best technology available, in order to obtain the very best from the regions native grapes. There were two crucial points to the winery design: the first was to develop a structure capable of making the best possible use of gravity to reduce the movement of must and wine to a minimum, and the second was to create an architectural style that would blend seamlessly in with the surrounding wine producing landscape. The farms twelve hectares of vineyards are located in the centre of the Soave Classica area. To be more precise, they belong to two particular microzones with unique and unmistakeable characteristics, those of Fittà and Castellaro.