The Wine Twit

29/10/2026

Tomorrow night the shop turns American, and the final list is better than I’d let myself hope.

Chloe from Cellars W**es is bringing six bottles: three producers, and from each of them a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon. That’s not a random selection, it’s a proper experiment. The same two grapes, grown in three very different corners of California. Lodi, inland and hot. Paso Robles and Monterey, down on the central coast. Sonoma, up north where the fog does the work.

Taste the three Chardonnays one after the other and the differences aren’t subtle. Then do the same with the Cabernets. By the end you’ll have a far better sense of why one Californian w**e tastes nothing like the next, and you’ll have worked it out yourself rather than having someone tell you.

On the table: Michael David Freakshow Chardonnay from Lodi, 92 points and a Best Buy from W**e Enthusiast. J. Lohr Riverstone Chardonnay, which was Jancis Robinson’s W**e of the Week earlier this month. Rodney Strong Chalk Hill Chardonnay, off vines Rod Strong planted in 1965, eighteen years before the Chalk Hill AVA officially existed. Then the Freakshow Cabernet, which is only 81% Cabernet with Petite Sirah and Tannat doing the heavy lifting underneath. J. Lohr Seven Oaks, the w**e that helped put Paso Robles on the map. And Rodney Strong Sonoma County Cabernet, the county showing a richer, darker side than it usually gets credit for.

Chloe will be pouring and answering anything you fancy asking, and there’s a proper discount on the night if something grabs you. If nothing does, you’ve still spent an hour tasting six w**es and working out which bit of California you actually like.

Free. No ticket, no booking. Friday 30th October, 5pm until 7.30pm. 85 Nightingale Lane, Balham, SW12.

**e **eTasting **eTwit

28/10/2026

Ask almost anyone which is the oldest house in Ch*****ne and they’ll say Ruinart. Founded 1729, first to properly commit to sparkling w**e, and entirely deserving of the title.

Here’s the bit most people miss. There’s a house that was already making w**e in 1584, a hundred and forty five years earlier, when Elizabeth I was on the throne and the Armada was still four years off. Back then the w**e of Ch*****ne was still, usually red, and nobody had yet had the bright idea of putting bubbles in it.

It’s Gosset, founded by Pierre Gosset, an alderman and w**e-grower in the village of Aÿ. Four hundred and forty two years later they’re still going.

So why haven’t you heard of them? It isn’t the w**e. Most of the Ch*****ne names you could reel off without thinking now sit inside luxury conglomerates with marketing budgets that would buy this shop several times over. Gosset is owned by the Renaud-Cointreau family and makes a fraction of the volume. That’s the whole explanation, and it means you’re paying for what’s in the bottle rather than a television campaign.

Their Grande Réserve is the w**e the house is judged on. Mostly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with a little Meunier, three to four years on the lees, no oak. And unlike almost every other house, Gosset block the malolactic fermentation, so the w**e keeps its acidity and its nerve. Bright orchard fruit and citrus at the front, fine persistent bead, toast and brioche underneath.

£54.99 a bottle. £240 for a case of six, which works out at £40 a bottle.

If you’re buying one case of Ch*****ne before Christmas, we’d make it this one. Link in the comments.

*****ne **eOffer **eShop **eTwit

27/10/2026

This Friday the shop turns American.

Chloe from Cellars W**es joins us with six w**es open on the table, and before anyone asks again, no, the orange one will not be here.

It’s exactly the same format as the Australian night a fortnight ago, which turned into one of the best evenings we’ve had in here and ran a good deal later than any of us had planned. Six w**es open, the person who actually imports them standing right there to answer anything you fancy asking, and nobody hovering over your shoulder waiting for you to make a decision.

American w**e in this country still carries a reputation it earned about twenty years ago and has spent every year since outgrowing. Friday is a decent chance to find out whether that reputation still stands up. Chloe knows these w**es properly, so bring your questions and your scepticism in equal measure.

There’s a good discount on the night if something grabs you, and absolutely no obligation if nothing does. Free, no ticket, no booking, walk in whenever suits.

Friday 30th October, 5pm until 7.30pm. 85 Nightingale Lane, Balham, SW12.

And while we have you: Winter Tasting tickets on Friday 27th November are moving faster than expected, and there’s a hard ceiling on numbers because this is a shop and not a warehouse. Worth booking sooner rather than later.

**e **eTasting **eShop **eTwit

15/10/2026

Tomorrow night the shop turns Australian, and I think this is the best line-up we’ve had on the table in a while.

Vash and Michelle from Farm & Vine are coming back after turning up unannounced a fortnight ago with a boot full of w**e. When we booked it in I assumed we’d pour a few nice Aussie bottles and have a pleasant evening. Then I saw the final list.

There’s a Cabernet Franc Rosé from the Adelaide Hills, which almost nobody makes and which has far more backbone than the usual pale pink. There’s Grenache off Barossa vines planted by German and Silesian settlers in the mid-1800s, saved from phylloxera by sandy soil and sheer remoteness. There’s a Margaret River Bordeaux blend that puts Malbec first instead of Cabernet Sauvignon, which is genuinely unusual. There’s Picardy Pinot Noir from Pemberton, made by the Pannell family. And two from Rockcliffe in the Great Southern, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir grown with the Southern Ocean doing the air conditioning.

Free. No ticket, no booking, no obligation to buy a thing. There’s a proper discount on the night if something grabs you, and if nothing does you’ve still spent an hour tasting six good w**es and talking to the people who import them.

Friday 16th October, 5pm until 7.30pm. 85 Nightingale Lane, Balham, SW12.

**e **eTasting **eTwit

06/10/2026

Two single-vineyard Barbarescos. Both 96 points from Kerin O'Keefe, one of the world's leading authorities on Italian w**e. Both 94 from James Suckling and Jeb Dunnuck. Both from the 2021 vintage. Both in a six-bottle wooden box. Ten cases of each. That's the headline.

The fuller version: Fontanabianca is a family estate in Neive, in the heart of the Barbaresco zone, run by the Pola family since 1969. No outside fruit, no outside intervention — Aldo's guiding principle is to "preserve the taste of the grapes in the w**e, because w**e is alive." You can taste exactly that in both of these.

The Bordini is from the hillside the estate sits on — 50 to 60 year old vines, raspberry compote, red cherry, star anise and cake spice, with taut fine-grained tannins that feel completely at ease. The Serraboella is juicier and more structured — wild cherry, cinnamon, white pepper, bright acidity, and a grip that tells you this will keep going for years. Both are extraordinary right now.

We don't often get w**es at this level in this kind of quantity — and ten cases isn't many. If you're even slightly tempted, don't leave it.

https://mailchi.mp/83104838b565/two-barbarescos-96-points-each-10-cases-each-thats-your-lot

**e **eTwit

06/10/2026

03/10/2026

Busy week at The W**e Twit — two offer emails went out and both are still open until Sunday.

First up, three Rieslings from Weingut Klosterhof, a brand new Mosel estate we're very excited about. The estate sits on the site of a Franciscan convent that Napoleon dissolved in 1803, which is a brilliant piece of history, but honestly the w**es are the real story. An off-dry Feinherb, a fruity Kabinett, and a concentrated Alte Reben from old vines — all available as six-bottle cases, and all three are open in the shop today if you want to try before you order.

Second, the 2024 Felino Malbec from Viña Cobos in Mendoza. Paul Hobbs — the man who helped create Opus One — makes this w**e. It's his entry-level Malbec, and it's £15 a bottle on a six-pack, which tells you everything you need to know about why we took it on. Orders close Sunday.

And next Wednesday, Prams & Pinots is back. 1pm to 3pm, £15 a ticket, five w**es and a theme, plenty of buggy space. If you've got a little one and you're not coming to these, you're missing out.

Links for everything in the newsletter — or just reply to this post and we'll point you in the right direction. 🍷