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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
Case only
Red
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $14.25
Alta Vita embodies the spirit and purpose-driven lifestyle of the Sardinians. The wine is full-bodied, robust and...
12 FREE
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...
12 FREE
WS
89
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $26.89 $27.59
12 bottles: $26.35
Grilled Pineapple, Citrus Blossom, Olive Oil, Stone Fruit, Butterscotch.
Red
750ml
Bottle: $19.93
12 bottles: $19.53
Ruby red in color with aromas of wild blackberry and ripe plum. Intense and elegant on the palate with notes of red...
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Red
750ml
Bottle: $15.00
12 bottles: $14.25
Intense aromas of marasca cherry and redcurrant with hints of blackberry jelly. Dynamic and enveloping on the palate...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $24.90
Cannonau is a typical grapevine in Sardinia that here in Usini assumes unique organoleptic nuances that are found in...
12 FREE
Case only
Spirits
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle: $45.03
12 FREE
Sale
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: $42.00
12 bottles: $41.16
Attractive and nervy nose with white pepper funk, wild berries and grapefruit. Full-bodied and flavorful for a rosé...
12 FREE
JS
94
WA
93
White
750ml
Bottle: $24.00
12 bottles: $23.52
• 100% Listán Blanco (Palomino). • Sourced from ungrafted centenary vines at 500-600m altitude in the village of...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $45.00
• 100% Palomino. • From a less-than-one-hectare parcel of 80-year-old vines planted in slate at high altitude....
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White
750ml
Bottle: $29.94
12 bottles: $29.34
Color: Straw yellow with golden highlights. Nose: White flowers and white-fleshed stone fruits evolving into notes...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $11.70
12 bottles: $11.12
Color: Pale yellow with green hints. Nose: Aromas of exotic fruits, white flowers and citrus fruits. Palate:...
White
750ml
Bottle: $14.94
12 bottles: $14.64
Color: Pale yellow with green hints. Nose: Aromas of exotic fruits, white flowers and citrus fruits. Palate:...
White
750ml
Bottle: $14.20
12 bottles: $13.92
The effusive nose of apple, sliced pear and white peach pulls you into this bold dry white that has some positive...
JS
90
Red
750ml
Bottle: $32.94
12 bottles: $32.28
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Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.25
12 bottles: $15.93
Known in France as Grenache, this classic Cannonau is full-bodied, pure and authentic. It is a brilliant Ruby red and...
White
750ml
Bottle: $12.94
12 bottles: $12.68
A white blend of 80% Grenache Blanc and 20% Viognier. Peachy and perfumed on the nose and palate with exotic herbs...
12 FREE
DC
89
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White

Grenache Japanese Whiskey Sherry Pinot Nero White Rhone Blend

The Grenache grape holds the honor of being the most widely planted wine grape varietal on earth. It has a long and impressive history, and has been the backbone of the some of the planet’s most respected and famed wine regions, blended with Syrah in regions such as Chateauneuf du Pape, and in certain other Loire and Languedoc regions where it reigns supreme as a single varietal wine grape. In other key areas, such as Spain’s La Rioja (where it is known as Garnacha Tinta), it is blended with Tempranillo to make that country’s signature red wine, and is widely used as a blending grape in other old and new world countries, due to its unique character and jammy, fruit forward character.


For a long time, the Grenache grape was somewhat looked down upon as an ignoble varietal, incapable of producing wines of any particular interest. However, times are very much changing - in the right hands, Grenache grapes result in astonishingly intense and complex wines, full of fascinating features, and capable of achieving plenty of expression. For a while now, Grenache has been a major player in Australian wines. While not yet quite as extensively planted down under as Shiraz is, the Barossa Valley is bringing out some of the finest examples of this grape’s wines in recent years.

Whisky might not be the first thing that springs to mind when we think of Japanese fine produce, but over the past one hundred years, this fascinating and multi-faceted country has diligently forged a unique whisky identity which is growing in popularity, and which is entirely its own.

The story of Japanese whisky begins in 1918, when Masataka Taketsuru was sent to Scotland to undertake a tour of single malt distilleries in the Highlands, and bring home a knowledge of whisky and distillation skills. He returned full of inspiration, helped no doubt by his new Scottish wife, and alongside his friend, Shinjiro Torii, set up what would become a successful whisky industry.

Today, the Japanese whisky industry is spread over a relatively small handful of distilleries, which continue to use Scottish techniques and recipes, but with a hefty dose of distinctly Japanese experimentalism. This is displayed most obviously in the barrelling techniques the Japanese use - to create a distinctly Oriental set of tasting notes, native Japanese oakwood casks are used for ageing, alongside casks taken from plum wine producers, which impart a beautiful set of floral flavors to the whisky.

While some distilleries produce some excellent single malts, the majority of Japanese whiskies are blended, which reveals a unique set of flavors and aromas ranging from honeysuckle and orange blossom, to toffee and acetone.

Sherry is made in a unique way using the solera system, which blends fractional shares of young wine from oak barrels with older, more mature wines. Sherry has no vintage date because it is blended from a variety of years. Rare, old sherries can contain wine that dates back 25 to 50 years or more, the date the solera was begun. If a bottle has a date on it, it probably refers to the date the company was founded.

Most sherries begin with the Palomino grape, which enjoys a generally mild climate in and around the triad of towns known as the "Sherry Triangle" and grows in white, limestone and clay soils that look like beach sand. The Pedro Ximenez type of sweet sherry comes from the Pedro Ximenez grape.

Sherry is a "fortified" wine, which means that distilled, neutral spirits are used to fortify the sherry. The added liquor means that the final sherry will be 16 to 20 percent alcohol (higher than table wines) and that it will have a longer shelf life than table wines.

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.