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Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $12.60 $15.00
An inviting nose of peaches, sliced pears and dried orange peel. Medium-bodied with delightful texture. Bright and...
JS
90
White
750ml
Bottle: $17.94
12 bottles: $17.58
Our Vouvray is stunning with its elegancy and freshness which carry through the ripe fruity palate, marrying with...
White
750ml
Bottle: $35.88
12 bottles: $35.16
Delivers attractive pear, melon and chamomile notes that turn creamy on the medium-weight palate, with crushed stone...
12 FREE
WS
91
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $59.90 $63.19
The 2021 Fire By Night, formerly known as Broom Ridge, has a lovely, seductive bouquet with mirabelle, jasmine and...
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VM
94
WS
93
White
750ml
Bottle: $59.90
6 bottles: $58.70
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White
750ml
Bottle: $15.87
12 bottles: $15.55
Bright and juicy, with good energy to its mix of apricot, peach and nectarine flavors. Fresh acidity carries the...
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WS
89
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $26.89 $27.59
12 bottles: $26.35
Grilled Pineapple, Citrus Blossom, Olive Oil, Stone Fruit, Butterscotch.
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Spirits
750ml
Bottle: $20.04 $21.10
12 bottles: $18.91
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Spirits
750ml
Bottle: $33.06 $34.80
12 bottles: $31.92
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White
750ml
Bottle: $16.20 $18.00
12 bottles: $14.25
Crisp passion fruit and lemon leaf with a whiff of white pepper on the nose. The same flavours make an immediate...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $13.58 $14.30
12 bottles: $11.40
Dry, easy drinking wine with notes of quince, pear and granny smith apples.
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White
750ml
Bottle: $17.10 $18.00
12 bottles: $14.25
Brilliant clear yellow. Seductive nose with lovely fruit aromas (pear, pineapple) and delicate floral notes. Smooth...
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $34.84
Rated 95 -Year in, year out, this exceptional Chenin Blanc vineyard delivers the goods.... it produces a wine with...
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WNR
95
VM
91
Sale
White
1.5Ltr
Bottle: $25.81 $27.17
6 bottles: $16.68
The Basics This wine is meant to be enjoyed with a variety of foods, ranging from Asian to Mexican dishes. The Taste...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $12.43 $13.08
The Basics This wine is meant to be enjoyed with a variety of foods, ranging from Asian to Mexican dishes. The Taste...
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $25.84 $28.80
100% Chenin Blanc. From 10-15-year-old, certified-organic vines on clay-limestone soils. Fermented to dryness (2...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $13.94 $14.73
• Clairette, Grenache Blanc, and Roussanne. • From two parcels – One in the village of Montfrin and one in...
White
750ml
Bottle: $32.94
12 bottles: $32.28
Rated 96 - Intense, stony and layered, it's a wine that builds on the palate, with effortless concentration, Loire...
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Spirits
750ml
Bottle: $51.38 $54.08
6 bottles: $42.00
An impressive mix of savory and aromatic aromas is abundant on the nose. Baked white cherries, golden peach, raisins,...
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UBC
94
BTI
91
Spirits
750ml
Bottle: $108.08
3 bottles: $90.00
Big flavors of apple and pear cider, clearly holding their character through the influence of the cask, here bringing...
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UBC
95
WE
93

Calvados Chenin Blanc Mavrodaphne White Rhone Blend

Originating in France yet now grown in many parts of the New World, Chenin Blanc is one of the most versatile and highly regarded white wine grape varietals on earth. These green skinned grapes hold a relatively high acid content, and as such can be used for making still white wines of exceptional quality, as well as superb sparkling wines (such as the Crémant wines of the Loire Valley) and extremely aromatic dessert wines. Their natural transparency means that they are a fine grape for expressing their terroir in the bottle, and winemakers often experiment with this varietal to coax unusual and intense flavors from the grapes, such as allowing the development of noble rot on the fruit in order to make sweet and viscous wines of a unique character.

In the Archaea region, high in the Northern Peloponnese mountains, the predominant grape varietal grown is the prized Mavrodaphne. Meaning 'Black Laurel', the Mavrodaphne grapes have extremely dark skins, and ripen slowly under the Greek sunshine, helped by the mineral rich soils the vines thrive in. This grape varietal is mostly used to produce the opaque, inky fortified wine of the same name, which is popular all over Greece and elsewhere in the world. This fortified wine allows the grapes to really show off their complex and fascinating flavors, which range from a rich marzipan to flavors of bitter chocolate, sweet coffee, dried figs and prunes, as well as plenty of jammy fruit notes.

Mavrodaphne is produced in a traditional method which involves leaving the grape juice exposed to the sun in large vats, before having its fermentation halted by the addition of various distillates taken from previous successful vintages. This mixture contains plenty of residual sugar, which gives the end result its characteristic sticky sweetness, and also helps with the next fermentation process, which typically takes place in large underground cellars. The final product is a heady drink, absolutely bursting with unusual, rich and sweet flavors and carried in a dark and slightly viscous Port-like liquid.

Mavrodaphne grapes are also used for the production of still red wines, but are generally blended with varietals such as Agiorgitiko or imported grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon. Mavrodaphne grapes are excellent for mellowing more acidic varieties, and producing deliciously rounded wines, which have taken the international market by storm in recent decades.

Additional Information on Greek Wines


Greek Wines
Ancient Greek Wines – A Brief History of Wine in Greece
The Myth of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine
What is Retsina?

The Rhone region of France has been producing superb quality white blended wines for centuries, and is a region highly respected and esteemed around the world, with plenty of New World countries keen to emulate the styles and techniques displayed by the historic wineries and skilled vintners of the area. The secret to the Rhone's success when it comes to blended white wines is the careful and expert selection of certain grape varietals, which each lend special features to the blended wine and bring balance and harmony to the bottle. Most commonly, blended white Rhone wines feature no more than two grapes of either the Viognier, Rousanne, Marsanne or Grenache Blanc varietals, and are renowned for their exceptional flavors and highly aromatic, floral character.