Varietal

Red Wine

There’s 1,000’s of red grape varieties grown around the world making a diverse range of wines.

Exploring the red wine world will take you from lighter more elegant wines to brash, bold wines.

There are infinite combinations of different colours, aromas, flavours, and, textures making for a lifelong pleasure fest for your senses.

A dozen varieties make up the majority of the red wines produced. Think Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, and, Merlot.

Are travels to Italy, Spain, and, France have seen more Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Sangiovese, Nerello Mascelese, Grenache, Carignan, and, Tempranillo red wines being poured into our glasses.

The wine world is producing better wines than ever before. In regions where laws permit broad experimentation with growing and making red wines is resulting in rapid evolution and refinement of styles.

In countries like Australia, cooler climate reds are really making a name for themselves.

Gobally, there’s been a welcome shift away for cumbersome, overripe, high alcohol, oaky wines, to red wines made with more restraint and freshness.

Our tip, celebrate the different personalities of each!

Filters & Sorting

Wendouree Shiraz Mataro 2022

Red Blend | South Australia, Australia

AP Birks Wendouree Cellars produce some of the very few wines I’ll buy without tasting! The wines are something special. A celebration of an incredible old vineyard with plantings from the late 1800s. Tony & Lita are custodians of something truly special!Ranges from 80-60% Shiraz and 20-40% Mataro from 1893 Central, 1919 Eastern, and 1920 Eastern bush vines.His Shiraz Mataro is delicious, more ethereal than the straight Shiraz, with some structure evident from the Mataro. There's a

Marcarini Barolo ‘La Serra’ 2021

Nebbiolo | Piedmont, Barolo

A very strong La Serra from Marcarini. Oppulent, generous, shows off the Commune of La Morra in full flight! Savoury, with a drip of salty blood over red fruit and blood orange. Flowing, plush, round & fine. Delicious. The best La Serra in years. Beautiful development. Ripe, fine tannins. A long, long finish. Incredibly moreish even at this youthful point in its life! Will make for a lovely comparison with Sordo’s 2021 La Serra.Paul Kaan, WINE DECODED Sept 2025The 2021 Barolo
$175
$168ea in any 3+
$161ea in any 6+

Vajra Barolo ‘Coste di Rose’ 2015

Nebbiolo | Piedmont, Barolo

Coste di Rose is possibly the most approachable cru of Barolo at this stage, with roses and a floral-dominated nose, combined with marasca cherry and hints of licorice and mint. A very elegant and pleasurable structure that flows gracefully on the palate with a lingering and sapid finish. Nomen omen.  Giuseppe Vaira
$176
$171ea in any 3+
$166ea in any 6+
A delicacy and perfume on the nose. Oyster shell and seaweed hint in the wine. The lowest of Passopisciaro’s contrada. Chiappemacine is typically fuller and richer by comparison The 2021 is a demonstration of Passopisciaro’s desire to tame the beast, pulling it back and achieving restraint.The core of fruit on the palate is one of the richer profiles for the 2021 Contrade. Red fruit, strawberry, a savoury layer and an earthiness. Still quite tight with slate and excellent tannins of gri
$176
$169ea in any 3+
$162ea in any 6+
Lower elevation builds more generosity into Porcaria. Such wonderful texture! More immediate generosity from Porcaria, a sub-contrada of Feudo di Mezzo. A little savoury, with a full round aroma profile. Rich and round on the palate with excellent acid, zippy and on the borderline of sour, countered by ripe, spiced fruit. Time will undoubtedly see the acid resolve. Excellent red and darker fruit with baking spice and slatey grip of tannin. Herbal and fine. Very good. NOTE: I tasted these 12
$176
$169ea in any 3+
$162ea in any 6+
The Highest Elevation Contrada owned by Passopisciaro making delicious Ethereal wines! The hardest of the Contrade wines to read straight away. Oyster shell and seaweed aromas remind me of the Passorosso 2021 when just off the boat. Elegant, fine and delicate. Tightly coiled, this is the dark horse with time in bottle it will build generosity and open. A loverly perfume with a savoury hit. Red fruits, a wine often paired with fish. Restrained.  Slatey, fine tannin with a little more grip a
$176
$169ea in any 3+
$162ea in any 6+
Meaning New Lava Flow it's young soils have not broken down to release as much nutrient as the olds flows. Treating the vines mean and keeping them lean! Such an interesting comparison in flavour profile with the Guardiola. Brooding, there’s something inviting and seductive about it.It has an incredible amount to offer. Beautifully balanaced. Earthier more secondary characters with savoury bits. Blossoming in the glass fruit comes through quickly with a lift of rose perfume. Just like the
$176
$169ea in any 3+
$162ea in any 6+
Guardiola higher elevation puts it on the more elegant side of the scales! Very together on the nose, seamless and complete. Long and fine, exceptional length, layering and balance with great depth of fruit. Perfume dancing over the top of red and darker fruit. Layers of excellent tannin with playful grip. Licks of spice, savoury bits and beyond. Camphor, fine tabacco, slate and liquorice. An absolute ripper! NOTE: I tasted these 12 months after Eric Guido in June 2024.The prestige of
$176
$169ea in any 3+
$162ea in any 6+

Luigi Pira Barolo ‘Margheria’ 2020

Nebbiolo | Serralunga d'Alba, Barolo

All south-facing and sitting at 340 metres, vinification is the same as the Barolo ‘Serralunga’. Intense and complex nose with notes of fruit and flowers and hints of leather and fresh hay, while on the palate it’s perfectly knit and very distinctive, red fruited in style with ironstone, choc-cherry, roses and some of the darker notes of cola and porcini, along with textural red plum-skin, grippy, black-tea tannins that underpin, but it’s still generous and very approachable now.
$177
$170ea in any 3+
$163ea in any 6+
Chassagne rouge is moving up in the world. Growers like Olivier Lamy, Thierry Pillot and Alex and Benoît Moreau (to mention only those producers we are following closely) show the heights this often-undervalued appellation can achieve through best-practice farming and excellent winemaking. The warmer seasons, too, have been helpful, bringing more approachable tannins when the wines are young. It’s from two small parcels of 50-year-old vines below the village. The 2022 fermented with 10% bunch
$177
$170ea in any 3+
$163ea in any 6+

Fèlsina Chianti Classio Riserva DOCG ‘Rancia’ 2016

Sangiovese | Tuscany, Castelnuovo Berardenga UGA

The layering of flavour, tannin in this is excellent! Everyone went nuts on the Fontalloro because of a couple of extra points, wow, this is stunning! Fèlsina have tamed the beast! While this is a powerful wine with incredible depth and length, it is beautifully balanced with excellent grape tannins. It will resolve and build sensuality over the coming years. Dark and incredibly complex there's a vitality to the mouthfeel. If you're going to crack one young give it loads of air in the morning a
$180
$175ea in any 3+
$170ea in any 6+
Giovanni Sordo Barolo 'Gabutti' 2016
The Bold!

Giovanni Sordo Barolo ‘Gabutti’ 2016

Nebbiolo | Serralunga d'Alba, Barolo

Ooh. Wow. So dense in aromatics that it’s hard to label them! Wait. Simply fabulous and the star of this first tasting. Insanely good, incredibly complete. Benchmark stuff.  Such a fragrance! This is mind boggling. Wonderful flow length+++. The sophistication of tannins here is insane. Here we see an incredibly complete wine. Such sophistication and power. There’s an elegance and lithe nature to this incredibly powerful beauty. The flowers are intoxicating. Again length +++. The sophisticat
$180
$173ea in any 3+
$166ea in any 6+