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.

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.

Old, extremely low-yielding McLaren Vale vines are responsible for d'Arenberg's Dead Arm Shiraz - a wine of enormous power, intensity and real complexity - an absolute must for any serious wine cellar and d'Arenberg lover. One of the flagships for McLaren Vale for many years, this wine continues to shine with a balanced between tradition and Chester Osborne driven innovation.

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.

"Faintly pinkish hue, as expected given some skin contact winemaking with this variety, as appears to be the case here. True to type aromas of brown-skinned pear and red-skinned apple with a savoury element providing some complexity. Clean and crisp on the palate, the sweetish fruit is well balanced by the acidity and a textural astringency which sits comfortably." 92 points, James Halliday Wine Companion, August 2017.