The Sartirano family has been making fine wine in Piedmont for four generations, since 1871. They've gradually built up the estate, adding 27 hectares of Barolo's finest, south-facing vineyards in 1988. In 2002, they purchased the Ghercina property in Langhe's Novello, building a modern cellar, 70% underground to ensure coolness! This wine is pure Pinot Nero, a variety that loves the cool, mountain air of Piedmont’s Langhe region. Paolo Sartirano is the 4th generation winemaker, ageing this delicate, midweight red in French oak barrels for a year to lend light spice notes to the fresh red berry fruit and floral notes. Silky, elegant and long. An ideal red to enjoy alongside white meats, meatier fish like fresh tuna or risotto.

Argentine Malbec doesn't get much finer than this. From a Bordeaux wine family, Hervé came to South America to look for a vineyard and fell in love with old vine Malbec. He not only bought vineyards but also made his home there. Having started in Mendoza, he now has an estate in Patagonia too. He runs his properties like a top Bordeaux château, with impressive barrel cellar and meticulous attention to detail. This hugely impressive cuvée comes from 30 year old Malbec vines grown in Patagonia's Río Negro. Made like a fine claret, the juice was pumped over to extract colour from grape skins during fermentation then aged for 12 months in French oak barriques. Silky with violet and liquorice aromas and dense black fruit, it's perfect with beef.

Aromas of violets, black berries, cloves. The palate shows mulberries, blueberry, choc-mint biscuits. A touch of malbec brings some brown earth and provides a rustic edge to the tannin. Still very soft and juicy, delicious and youthful drinkingwhich was the aim, even from older vines.

Grenache is enjoying a well-deserved moment, with a new generation of talented Aussie winemakers delivering deliciously fresh, approachable wines. This McLaren Vale Grenache is a superb example, from the exciting small-batch project Marsc Wine Co. Bringing acclaimed winemakers and prestige vineyards together covertly under a ‘masked’ label, they’re able to deliver great quality wines for brilliantly low prices. We can’t reveal who made this Grenache, but we can say that they have picked up some of Australia’s highest winemaking honours – namely, TWO Bushing Kings and a Jimmy Watson.

Estate grown from the spectacular hillside vineyard in the Ferguson Valley of the Geographe wine region, fruit is sourced predominately from the Blinman block which was planted in 1998. Soil is typically a deep layer of ironstone gravelly loam over red and yellow friable clay with slight westerly aspects at elevations of 220 to 250m above sea level.

This luscious red comes from Zuccardi - an outstanding, third generation family cellar founded in the 1960s by Don Alberto Zuccardi. A decade before, he'd started an irrigation company, then planted a vineyard to demonstrate to other producers how his system could benefit grape quality. The rest, as they say, is history, and Zuccardi have become one of the leading cellars in Mendoza. Today his grandson Sebastián is winemaker, assisted by Rubén Ruffo. This is a silky, elegant red, with Syrah adding spicy red fruits and structure to Malbec's darker velvety berry notes. Recommended with chilli, a beef stir-fry or on its own.