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You can now buy fine wines from us. For years people at events and courses have asked us where they can buy the wines they loved most from a particular presentation. We referred them to retailers where we could but so often the wines were from wholesalers or importers who did not deal with private buyers. We've changed all that with a very personal service. This list is short and will change quite often, but these are the wines our clients tell us they like best. And they're a pretty discerning bunch.
All of these producers have high reputations. They are almost all boutique family domaines with the owners passionately involved. There is a clear mission to make wine which conveys the character of the vineyard site, the varieties used and the conditions of the year. In most cases, work in the vineyard is as sustainable as possible, organic or biodynamic and reductive in the winery.
Please phone or email us from the Contact Us page to discuss any possible order. Or phone 020 7281 3040 to speak to us now. Minimum order is six bottles but they can be mixed in threes. All wines will arrive with full information notes and you will be contacted by the carrier to discuss delivery times. Click Terms of Business to see the fine print. We accept all major cards for payment. Please do not send card details by email but speak to us on the phone.
The list is not beautifully proportioned with offers from every important region, as you will see. We do not keep selling stocks for instance of fine claret or burgundy; I wish we did. Over time we will no doubt cover more bases. But tasters' preferences at our events or our own discoveries do not take the shape of a full merchant list. The fact we list seven champagnes reflects our personal passion for this region, particularly its top small growers emerging onto the international stage. We adore each wine on this list and they are endorsed by our clients.
The list is in this scroll-down order: CHAMPAGNE, WHITE, ROSÉ, RED
CHAMPAGNE
Champagne Aubry Blanc des Blancs '04 Le Nombre d'Or £39.10 bottle/ 234.60x6 / 469.20 x12
One of Champagne's secret gems from the creative and technically adept Aubry brothers. The village of Jouy-les-Reims is close to the city of Reims, on the Petite Montagne. This wine has 40% Chardonnay but 30% each too of Arbanne and Petit Meslier, ancient varieties now rarely planted. Made with a gentle texture, a deliberate lower pressure mousse, making a lovely aperitif or with seafood starters. This is so appetising, showing a purity of quite original flavours: begamot, juniper, quince and honeysuckle. A breathtaking freshness but ripe charm too, that owes much to the successful 2004 vintage. This will keep well but already makes elegant drinking. At the leading edge of what small estate champagne is achieving. The frosted bottle is beautiful in itself, and the label full of talking points for those who like to do that as well as drink! A precious Champagne rarity, and as Champagne commentator Peter Liem says, this is a producer 'very much on form' at the moment.
Champagne Vilmart Grand Cellier ds'Or '03 Premier Cru £47.00 bottle/ 282.00 x6 564.00 x12
Champagne Vilmart is right up there in the elite of small estate champagne, often called 'grower' champagne; perhaps a rather unfortunate term suggesting rustic when in fact the best are now known to be some of the most sohisticated and elegant wines of all Champagne. The compact 11+ha estate is owned and run by Laurent Champs and is based in Rilly on the Montagne de Reims yet unusually, Chardonnay is the majority grape, along with Pinot Noir. The Grand Cellier d'Or is the principal vintage wine sitting under the houses's prestige Coeur de Cuvee. Fermented in oak, this wine has had six years on the lees and shows sinew and vigour, tremendously alive and long. The malolactic softening conversion is always stopped at Vilmart, to preserve structure and compexity with age. This wine is just emerging from this period of austerity and shows the ripeness of 2003 with cream and a crystalline length. Vilmart's wines simply get better and better, the oak better-judged than ever and always supremely elegant.
Champagne Eric Rodez Ambonnay Grand Cru Cuvee Millesime '02 £42.95 bottle/ 257.70 x6 575.40 x12
Eric Rodez is unquestionably one of the most talented producers in Champagne today. He seems something of a recent arrival to the small estate superstar firmament, having worked a long apprenticeship making wine in Burgundy and working as an oenologist for Krug, yet he has been developing his 6ha of vines, wholly in Ambonnay, since 1984. There is a passionate commitment to sustainable viticulture with every parcel vinified separately by age of the plot and lieu-dit. In winemaking, his time at Krug developed his knowledge with oak and now most of his wines are fermented and aged in barrel. These wines have exquisite balance, a tugging presence in the mouth along with great complexity, a balletic touch and control and an array of flavours which develops in the glass. The low dosage of 5g/L seems just right given the ample fruit of the great year 2002. This is 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir and spent over six years on lees.
Champagne Dehours Grande Reserve Extra Brut NV £29.15 bottle/ 174.90 x6 349.80 x 12
Jerome Dehours' wines come from a 14ha domaine in the Marne Valley west of Epernay, with vines in several communes surrounding his base in Cerseuil, many of them on valley slopes of the Flagot, a tributary of the Marne. Since taking control of the family domaine in 1996 he has developed a viticulture rejecting pesticides and herbicides and his plots often bear grass in the rows to force the vine roots deeper and reduce the use of tractors and thus compaction of the soil. The strategy has paid off; the Dehours wines are a scintellating phoenix compared to what the house made 15 years ago. The predominant variety is Pinot Meunier (40%, with 35% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay) but Dehours seems to conjure more finesse and elegance from this variety than most others. There is ripeness and generosity of fruit but allied to a delicacy and purity Meunier rarely shows. This cuvee, the Extra Brut, has zero dosage but the fruit is so ripe and the extra ageing it has been given on lees so complexing, that the result is impressive either as aperitif or food wine.
Champagne Henri Giraud Brut Esprit Rosé £39.72 bottle/ 238.32 x6 476.64 x12
Henri Giraud have achieved their place in the last 30 years among the iconic small-producer elite in Champagne. The current head of a family based in Champagne since 1625 is Claude Giraud and it is his meticulous vision which has taken this small house to the top. With some 9ha owned in Ay and a proportion of fruit bought in from other family members for the Esprit range there's no lack of top raw materials. Claude Giraud is a great believer in using Argonne oak for at least some of the maturation and this rosé's added red wine, some 8%, was made in oak. 70% Pinot Noir and 22% Chardonnay, this has uncommon subtelty, absolutely refusing to play the hackneyed rosé card of being 'pretty', 'all easy fruit'. There is a gorgeous pale copper colour and a tug of crunched rose petal on the nose and some mushroomy Pinot development. A very sophisticated, mild oxidative style, a creamy sticky toffee pudding note and a firm Ay finish.
WHITES
Domaine Vaquer Blanc de Blancs '86, Vin de Pays Catalan, Fernand and Frederique Vaquer £17.99 bottle/ 107.94 x6 215.88 x12
Fernand Vaquer's estate, admired by Languedoc insiders for some time, has deliberately kept out of the Roussillon mainstream. For a start it's somewhat off the beaten track, in Tresserre, a tiny village only 9kms from the Spanish border. It has always bottled its wines as Vins de Pays not wanting the restrictions of the appellation rules. There has always been a tradition here of wines with tremendous longevity - perhaps the estate with most staying power in the region. The genial Fernand is long retired but wines he has made are still available - we sell two of them. And they have appeared on a starry number of top Catalan restaurant lists - not least El Bulli and El Celler de Can Roca. A recent listing in France is at the 2* Les Puits St Jacques near Toulouse. The estate is run today by Frederique Vaquer, Fernand's daughter-in-law. Her classical Burgundy training in Dijon shines through in the elegance of the wines. This Blanc de Blancs is actually 100% Macabeo, a Catalan variety now recognised as able to age well. There are lovely developed notes, showing honeysuckle, citrus and a nutty depth. Remarkably light-textured for its origins.
Inama Soave Classico, Vigneto du Lot '09, Italy £22.90 bottle/ 137.40 x6 274.80 x12
Stefano Inama's famous estate makes wines light years away from the industrial swill passing as most Soave. Vigneto du Lot is from a single 2ha plot set high on Monte Foscarino, at 300m the absolute prize core of the prized Classico volcanic hills east of Verona. The vines face south but cool air from the northern mountains, along with the elevation, create the diurnal range of temperature which coaxes intense flavours of honeysuckle, citrus and almonds from the 100% Garganega grapes. This uncommon concentration is given added complexity from barrel fermentation and careful oak aging. This wine has won a string of 'Three Glass' awards from Gambero Rosso's annual prestigious Italian classification. The wine will develop and improve up to and after 2017. Quite remarkable.
Zoltan Demeter Dry Furmint '08, Tokaji, Hungary £39.90 bottle/ 239.40 x6 478.80 x12
This is a recent discovery but that hardly describes the joyful realisation as soon as it was tasted, that this is indubitably fine wine. Furmint is of course the main grape of Tokaj, the famous botrytised sweet wine of north-east Hungary. In the hands of a very committed and talented winemaker such as Zoltan Demeter, who has emerged as one of the leading winemakers from the 90s, it can make a profound wine, very different from the tooth-stripping wines that used to be made from grapes that did not nobly rot. From my first visit to the region in 1998, I would not have dreamed this wine possible, but this painstakingly acquired small estate clearly has ambition and vision. Lapis is the name of a single grand cru plot. Quite simply, an oustanding wine which will develop over 9-15 years. The firm acidity is sumptuously bolstered by complex flavours of honey, minerals, herb tisanes and quince. There is a sense of weight but nervily held in place by the pure, fresh acidity. Tremendously long. A true competitor to Chablis and champagne as best match for seafood. You will not be disappointed.
Yabby Lake Vineyard Chardonny '08, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia £24 bottle/ 144.00 x6 288.00 x12
Sea-enclosed Mornington, produces Australia's most sleek and elegant wines, apparently showing a maritime European pedigree but with a richness and persistence rooted in Australia all along. This north-facing estate captures bright-sunlight by day and cool sea-beeezes by night, both conspiring a gradual accumulation of subtle flavour before harvest. Yabby Lake has won huge recognition since its 1998 beginning. Tod Dexter of Stonier, Larry McKenna of Martinborough and now Tom Carson are the distinguished winemaking line. At nearly three years old this shimmers with energy and class. There is a lovely herbal and yellow plum nose, a poised palate and a savoury tang with a faint hint of brine. The sun is shining, the breeze ruffles and the sails break out. These kinds of Chardonnay, a far cry from the molten oak-oiled melon bombs of the past, set a new standard for Australia. And it's a classy standard too. This is most certainly not upside down Burgundy. It's an original statement about the future of Australia's best wines.
Churchill's Estates Branco Douro '10 £15.96 bottle/ 95.76 x6 191.52 x12
We've known for some time that high quality red table wines were emerging from the Douro Valley - traditional Port country. There are fewer of them, but now some equally impressive white wines are here. They can show a very distinctive nerve and race, with a lemony tangy minerality and yet quite generous fruit. All making for a savoury and intense balancing act. This wine, from the Churchill's Port house, is no exception. Made from indiginous varieties Ribagato (70%) and Viosinho (30%) and aged 6 months in used oak barrels, this wine was the pick of the bunch for us when shown in London last year. In this its inaugural vintage, only 1000 bottles were made. This will be a tremendous success with great and original appeal.
ROSÉ
Spätburgunder Rosé Trocken 2009, Weingut Meyer-Nakël , Ahr, Germany £15.49 bottle/ 92.94 x6 185.88 x12
Meyer-Näkel are top flight for German Pinot Noir, which is gradually sloughing off its reputation for too much coffee-chocolate extraction and oak. But this estate's wines have always shown a special elegance, if anything nowadays even more accented. And then we tasted this rosé. It's all very well thinking rosé is about fun, sunshine, picnics and definitely not analysing wine. So it is, but now and again one turns up that ticks all those boxes and yet nags in the mind. It looks lovely, outside in the sun, or on a white tablecoth indoors when it's cold. It has a glorious copper-pinkness, very refined. And the wine gives a rewarding crunch of raspberry and citrus cream with a glorious fresh finish. It is dry but suits as a very smart aperitif or alongside most starters, including seafood. The coolest unserious wine we've found for ages. This is new for us and the one wine we've not had much chance to show at tastings yet, but I have no doubt the reaction will be enthusiastic.
REDS
Cotes du Rhone 2005, Guigal £9.99 bottle/ 59.94 x6 119.88 x12
Consistently requested by our clients as a great match with light food after a corporate wine tasting event, this is one of our most popular wines. Guigal of course, from Ampuis, are one of the top producers of the Rhone and their wines enjoy a huge reputation even though they make many different lines and a total volume which puts them in the region's driving seat. It is their single vineyard Cote Roties that have the top reputation (and prices) but quality runs through the whole range. This wine has far more Syrah to Grenache (55% to 35%) than most top CdRs but they are often twice the price at this level. Gorgeous now, this will drink well to 2013 and currently shows lovely juiciness, elegant structure from the Syrah and some developed warm leather character from its several years of bottle age.
 Fescenino '08, Juan Manuel Burgos, Ribera del Duero, Spain £12.35 bottle/ 74.10 x6 148.20 x12
Spain's Ribera del Duero, for some time an established counterpoint to Rioja, has its fair share of stars. At their very best these wines have shaken off the shadow of Vega Sicilia and show their own character. Even so, too many often seem to be trying too hard, with a stifling patina of new oak. Fescenino was one of the most pleasant wine shocks we've ever had, ordered on spec in a restaurant. The next day we were discussing our order for Scala with the importer. And here it is. This wine, made from 100% Tempranillo, has a thrilling freshness and energy which really turned our heads. It's warm days on the vine are balanced brilliantly by the lovely nuance and acidity that comes from being grown at 850m. Juan Manuel Burgos limits the oak influence to 6 months in French and American oak for just half of the wine; the rest stays in stainless steel vats. The calcareous clay soils,in the south-east of the Denominacion create a grace and poise and sense of neat scale which suggests a good site and real skill. The methods used are very 'natural', quuasi-bio and with minimal SO2. Lovely berry flavours with a whiff of smoke and eerbs; focused but not at all drying or grippy on the finish.
Les Clos Perdus, Mire La Mer '06, Corbieres, Languedoc-Roussillon £19.70 bottle/ 118.20 x6 236.40 x12
Who would have thought? A Wiltshire farmer (pigs, wheat and barley) and his Australian modern dancer friend, making some of the best wine currently from the south of France? Hugo Stewart (he's the farmer) and Paul Old (he's now a highly qualified and skilled winemaker) live the dream, or rather, are now seeing the fruits of some very hard work. I first discovered the wine when a friend brought a bottle of their wine Prioundo over to dinner in 2006; the lights switched on. I knew this countryside near Narbonne already; it was in my mind's eye as we drank the wine. The rocks spoke. Since then I've visited and met the producers in Peyriac de Mer and a number of wine writers have been enthusiastic, including Jancis Robinson. Their wines appear at Gordon Ramsey (Claridges), Club Gascon and 1 Lombard St restaurants in the City of London. In toto, some 12ha of 20 parcels are farmed, spread out amongst old vines of the Corbieres and up into the Agly Valley.
From near the top of their range, Mire La Mer is an eponymous single vineyard wine, the lieu-dit meaning 'Sea View' in Catalan. It's a mainly Mourvedre (55%) blend with 35% Carignan amd 10% Grenache, made in large French oak and stainless steel. The nose exudes myrtille and damson with glorious topnotes of leather, tobacco and the distant whiff of hot boulders and tar. But two features make this uncommonly good: there's an elegant grace about the weight, far from being a big southern bruiser. And the texture of tannin is fine and etched with real skill. Drink now to 2015.
Domaine Vaquer 'L'Exception' 2001, Vins de Pays Catalans, Fernand & Frederique Vaquer £18.29 bottle/ 109.74 x6 219.48 x12
Vaquer's wines are one of Languedoc's vinous jewels. But who knows about this domaine? There was a mention in the 1992 'Wines of Languedoc-Roussillon' by Liz Berry MW and in 2001, the estate rated two pages in Rosemary George MW's book on Midi wines. In France and expecially in the Midi, these wines are revered and expensive, and appear on top restaurant lists such as El Bulli over the border in Spain. Yet the UK fine wine trade has ignored them. Perhaps we can put that right. The style is eccentric for a region noted for gutsy, tough wines. These are all silk and age, delicacy and grace, showing real complexity with age. On our first visit, we marvelled at a 1980 Blanc de Blancs which was very much alive. One reason for their hitherto obscurity may be isolation, from close to the Spanish border in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Fernand Vaquer, now in his 80s, has a maverick and sphynx-like refusal to court publicity and can seem more ready to talk about playing for and managing Perpignan Rugby Club in his youth, than about wine. The estate's wide use of the Vin de Pays Catalan appellation may be another reason for near invisibility of these wines in the UK up to now. Fernand's son Bernard, died tragically young in August 2001 and the business is now run by his daughter-in-law Frederique, who studied oenology in Dijon. This wine, from Grenache, Carignan and Syrah, is a great introduction to the style, with a lovely core of fruit and then the complexity of herbs and spice and that wonderful 'heat-and-dust' note of Roussillon's best wines. 'L'Exception' because it is the only wine of the range aged in oak.
 Chateau Cabezac, Carinu '06. Old vine Carignan, Vin de Pays du Val de Cesse (Minervois), Languedoc £15.90 bottle/ 95.40 x6, 190.80 x12
Carignan used to be the workhorse grape from the flat boiling valley floors of the S of France. It may have filled the glasses of the zinc top cafes of Paris once the railways came, but it also created much of the wine lake pumped full by the region's coops later when more sophisticated drinkers rejected it. But the new generation of independent producers like Chateau Cabezac, have discovered old parcels of vines set on higher slopes which can produce real interest and quality. This one is a real beauty: a warm, spicy briar and currant nose with plum and a touch of tar on the palate. The tannins are maturing and the wine shows real grace and balance. One of the most distinctive and pleasing new wines we've found from the Languedoc. Carinu is a play on words: meaning lovely, adorable, in Catalan and the bottle is adorned with the Cathar cross.
Dr Heger, Spatburgunder Mimus 07 trocken, Ihringer Winklerberg, Baden £33.00 bottle/ 198.00 x6 396.00 x12
Baden's wines from the warm south of Germany are usually dry, as is this. Pinot Noir from here is increasingly prized for a style slightly fuller than Burgundy but beautifully made with careful use of barriques. The best and famous terroir of the region is the Kaiserstuhl, a steep volcanic soil covered in sandy loess and this is the site for Dr Heger's wines - 'pre-ordained by nature' as Hugh Johnson has written. The present Heger in charge, Joachim, called this wine Mimus after his father's nickname. It shows a lovely chocolate, undergrowth and cherryish intensity but some fine-boned texture too, and a mild herbal twist to the finish that is very Kaiserstuhl. 13.5% alcohol and completely dry. The Weingut Dr Heger is a mewmber of the top VDP producers grouping.
 Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve 06, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA £46.00 bottle/ 276.00 x6 552.00 x12
Oregon spells Pinot Noir in winespeak. Along with New Zealand's Martinborough and (perhaps) Central Otago, it is the leading contender to Burgundy for wines made from this fussy grape. Pinot Noir needs to ripen slowly to capture its essence of truffles and berries and especially if it is to avoid clod-hopping high alcohol, its enemy in so many new world Pinots. Such was the early promise, that Burgundy's Domaine Drouhin was tempted to make wine here, and they are very good wines too. This wine, from the Evenstad family and the prime district of Dundee Hills, has now joined the Oregon elite. It has beaten Domaine de la Romenee-Conti in a blind tasting and been called the best Oregon Pinot by the Wall Street Journal. This is the estate's flagship wine, selected from the best showing barrels of the vintage and with 15 months in French oak, 48% new. At four years old, it is just approachable but will gain complexity over another six to nine years. There is impressive intensity and perfume, dense but gentle tannins and a beguiling sweet woodsmoke finish. Very sleek.
 Mitchelton Print Shiraz '06, Goulburn Valley, Central Victoria, Australia £25.99 bottle/ 155.94 x6 311.88 x12
We have admired this wine - the top bottling from Mitchelton Estate, for years; then for some reason it disappeared from the UK market. Now it's back and we can't wait to serve it at Scala tastings. Why do we love it so much? It's partly the loping ride to the estate in a couple of hours from Melbourne and discovering it's strange vineyard tower and intriguing atmosphere. But it's always had a cool, compact and pure elegance compared to so much Oz Shiraz in recent years. What used to be Australia's touchstone, with clear regional characters from the Barossa, McClaren Vale, Clare, Hunter and Coonwarra is too often nowadays a syrupy chocolate-berry general concoction with gargantuan tannins. There are notable exceptions of course, but Print Shiraz, since it was first made in the 1980s, has always kept the faith. Welcome back. 'Print' is made from the oldest vines in selected blocks and has spent 18 months in 40% new oak, the rest two years old. A mere toddler at five years but a long life and pleasure ahead. The '06 can be drunk now but will develop until 2017-19.
 Mas de L'Ecriture, L'Emotion '07, Terrasses du Larzac, Languedoc, France £18.00 bottle/ 108.00 x6 216.00 x12
You may have noticed, that apart from champagne, we are committed and excited fans of southern French wines. Our first trip there was 1976 when we knew nothing about wine; we know a little more now. In one way, this wine marks a modern turning point, because it is one of very few recent Languedoc estates whose wines may rival the longtime champ of the region: Mas de Daumas Gassac. 'The name to look out for is Terrasses du Larzac' wrote Andrew Jefford in the Financial Time (August 2009) and we then tasted the wines last year. This is a plateau soaring over 1000' above sea level, north of Montpellier, grazed by the sheep whose milk makes Roquefort.
The first thing to say about the top wines from here, is that like all fine wine, when they emerge, they break a prevailing mould. There is a streak of originality and energy about them. Remember one of the South of France's biggest difficulties in promoting its wines, is that even when well-made, too many taste similar. Pascal Fulla, an ex-lawyer, came to these stony hillsides in 1998 and admits his method is painstaking evaluation of each step in the growing and winemaking process. Eleven vintages later, with 10ha under vine, some 30,000 bottles per annum are made and the estate is on the way to organic certification. This wine, L'Emotion, is about equal parts Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan. Purple-crimson, there's a ripe damson start, quite luscious and then more thoughtful and arresting impressions of meat, savoury wood-cooking with dried rosemary and thyme and a full-bodied but elegant fine tannic end. Nothing overdone, but very focused and appetising. A great introduction to this estate whose wines are increasingly admired.
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