Past Offers
Please note that these offers have now closed.
However, we have found that many of our customers enjoy looking back at past offers to compare opening prices and tasting notes.
If you would like to purchase any of the wines featured here, please don't hesitate to contact us by calling 01353 721 999 or emailing laura@privatecellar.co.uk for current availablity and pricing.
Click on the links by each item to open the offers in PDF format or link through to a special offer page.
Bordeaux 2024: Château Le Tertre Roteboeuf and the Mitjavile family of wines
When we visit Château Le Tertre Roteboeuf to taste the new vintage, we never know which Mitjavile from this tight-knit family will be in the cellar – they are all brilliant winemakers, following in François’ mould, yet not afraid to give you their own take on the vintage. This year we tasted with sons Louis and Henri, who is slated to take over from his father eventually – although François was very much in evidence in the cellar too.
Bordeaux 2024: Ets Jean Pierre Moueix
Tasting with the Moueix family across the generations remains one of the most enjoyable and instructive visits of our primeur campaign. Despite their focus being on the Right Bank, both Edouard and his father Christian hold a wide-angle lens to the region and give us detailed information about goings-on from both sides of the river which helps us better understand the wines. We taste Bélair-Monange solo at the wonderfully futuristic new chai in St Emilion, where we can pump Edouard for information on the vintage, with the balance of the wines tasted in their offices in Libourne where the wines are reviewed in almost monastic silence.
Bordeaux 2024 En Primeur: THE KRAJEWSKI FAMILY WINES
We love our visits to Martin and Charlotte Krajewski, the father and daughter team behind Clos Cantenac and Séraphine. Having known them for years, they pull no punches when it comes to discussing the current vintage, giving us the opportunity to really get under the skin of the year without the spin found elsewhere. Martin, aka Mr Positive, will tell you the good bits, whilst Charlotte is disarmingly honest about how the year panned out in both the vineyard and the cellar, whether good or bad – and with a year like 2024 under the microscope, frank talking was vital.
View our offer below.
2024 Bordeaux Vintage Report
Bordeaux 2024 Vintage report
By Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW
Sort, sort, sort!
Much has been written about the 2024 Bordeaux primeur campaign, and plenty of it before many tasters had visited the region, focusing on the far from perfect weather during the early growing season, rather than the vintage as a whole, with entire sunny weeks all but ignored in favour of the more negative picture. Having spent an intensive week in and around Bordeaux just before Easter, we would like to switch up the narrative and bring you a factual, unmelodramatic summary.
Hamilton Russell Vineyards - Celebrating 50 years
“Last month, I visited Anthony at his beautiful winery in the Cape. He was very generous with his time and I came away with a renewed enthusiasm for his great wines. He is thoughtful, ambitious, determined, and a great host. Truly a ‘legend in his own lunchtime’, and a man who’s wines I am very happy to sell.” - Andrew Gordon
Rhône 2023
Vintage reports for the Rhône are frequently focused on water – either the lack or the surfeit of it. Summers in the region are hot, with growers relying on sufficient rainfall over the winter months to replenish aquifers and set the vines up for the summer heat, but in 2023 the start of the season was notably dry, with no rainfall at all from the end of January to the end of February. In the South, sporadic showers arrived in May to refresh the vines but in the North the rain was heavier and more persistent, putting growers on their toes to fight the subsequent excessive vegetative growth and associated vineyard complications.
Early bird rosé offer: The 2024 Vintage
As the days get longer and the mornings are crisp and sunny – well, at least occasionally – with bulbs pushing up through the grass, it suddenly seems possible that Spring is not so far away. So it is, of course, time to ‘think pink’ with our traditional Early Bird Rosé offer.
We are great believers that rosé should taste of the red fruits from which it is made, and all of the wines in our offer meet that criteria. Most are Provence pale, but Esther Pinuaga’s delicious rosé is several shades darker, as is traditional in Spain, dry in style and bursting with fresh red fruits which reflect its jaunty colour.
We will ship these wines as soon as the orders are in, and the majority will arrive in time for Easter so you can be prepared for whatever the weather might throw your way.
Dive in and dream!
Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW, February 2025
Bin End Offer - HUGE January 2025 Sale
Welcome to our HUGE January Sale! This is a one-off opportunity to buy single bottles and last available cases as we make way for our latest discoveries. Now is the time to take advantage of some fantastic discounts and to beat the Duty increase before the end of the month. Prices have been reduced by up to 40% on 217 lines in total.
There are some real hidden gems here – don’t miss the mystery mixed cases – and these wines do not all feature on our website, so once you have made your selection, please call us on 01353 721 999 to place your order and avoid disappointment.
When it’s gone… it’s gone…!
Domaine Joseph Roty 2022
~ PURITY AND PERSISTENCE ~
Pierre-Jean Roty is delighted with his 2022 wines. The growing season rewarded him with both exceptional quality and generous quantity, a long-term vintage which will repay some maturation in bottle yet, at the same time, the villages wines will be a pleasure to broach relatively early. Roty enthusiasts will remember that the wines are only offered when they are in bottle, so we must always exercise patience before we can taste them, and when we visited Pierre-Jean in Gevrey Chambertin just before Christmas we were struck by the purity and persistence of his 2022s, right across the range.
Burgundy 2023 En Primeur
Marion Javillier – ‘C’est un bon millésime – voila!’
Normally we go to Burgundy in the early autumn, before the first frosts lower the temperatures in the cellars and close the wines down. This year our visit was in early December so we were fully prepared for some sullen reds and truculent whites, disturbed from their winter élévage, but the reality couldn’t have been further from the case. Across the board we found juicily ripe Chardonnays, with ample acidities to balance their fruit, and wonderfully expressive, cool and poised Pinots – a positive joy to taste, and all the more unexpected having spent the first week of September 2023 in Burgundy in temperatures over 35C, watching growers frantically picking in the relative cool of the very early hours.
Burgundy 2023 - Vintage Report
Marion Javillier – ‘C’est un bon millésime – voila!’
Normally we go to Burgundy in the early autumn, before the first frosts lower the temperatures in the cellars and close the wines down. This year our visit was in early December so we were fully prepared for some sullen reds and truculent whites, disturbed from their winter élévage, but the reality couldn’t have been further from the case. Across the board we found juicily ripe Chardonnays, with ample acidities to balance their fruit, and wonderfully expressive, cool and poised Pinots – a positive joy to taste, and all the more unexpected having spent the first week of September 2023 in Burgundy in temperatures over 35C, watching growers frantically picking in the relative cool of the very early hours.
Domaine Faiveley 2023 En Primeur Offer
In 2018, Domaine Faiveley completely rebuilt their winery at the foot of the slopes in Nuits St Georges, their fermentation cellar acting as a stunning cathedral onto their Nuits vineyards. Even more striking are the extensive original cellars underground which were formerly designed to produce crémant and therefore have impressively high ceilings with beautiful lighting – a fantastically atmospheric place to taste. Read more...
Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW, November 2024
Domaine Pierre Vincent
Pierre Vincent must count as one of Burgundy’s best kept secrets. Whilst his name may not be well known to many, the wines he has been making for the past two decades are nothing short of legendary, their reputation intrinsically linked to him and his skill. After years of working at firstly Domaine de la Vougeraie and more recently Domaine Leflaive, Pierre Vincent has hung up his corporate boots and struck out on his own, buying a small Domaine in Auxey Duresses where he can be completely independent, in charge of his own decisions. Read more...
Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW, November 2024
*Cover photo courtesy of Bill Nanson
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Christmas 2024
Christmas calls for party wines, special treats, gifts, something to pour for unexpected guests, lots of sparkle and big bottles so let us guide you through the celebrations with our top picks.
Download our Christmas offer as a PDF.
The Spectator Wine Club
Bordeaux is much on our mind at Spectator Towers. Not only are we still sobering up from our riotous annual Clays, Claret and Cognac Cruise down the Thames but we’re also preparing our first determined assault on Bordeaux itself, with 20 readers joining me there for five wine-soaked days this month.
And, to top it all, this week, courtesy of Laura Taylor and our mates at Private Cellar, we’re offering six cracking clarets – all fantastic value and perfect for Christmas. Don’t laugh, the dread day is on its way.
Order online here
Right Bank Petits Châteaux 2023
Having offered a selection of our favourite Left Bank Petits Châteaux earlier this week, it is time to shine the spotlight on the Right Bank, where Merlot is king and gives rise to possibly the most successful easy drinkers. Here plump, ripe Merlot fruit tempers the more tannic Cabernets found on the other side of the river, giving wines which allow you to dive in earlier whilst still having the oomph and stuffing to evolve and mature over several years. It should be said that these are also the wines most likely to be found in many a Private Cellarer’s own stock as they offer such exceptional value for money.
The right bank stretches south from Blaye and Fronsac all the way to the Dordogne River, but its real heartland is St Emilion and Pomerol; here we are offering wines from Fronsac in the north right down to the southern edge of St Emilion.
The unmistakable DNA of Château Le Tertre Roteboeuf
As we chatted to Loulou Mitjavile in the warm sunshine, overlooking the Tertre Roteboeuf vineyard, we almost felt as though we were in the Mediterranean – a thought echoed by Loulou who describes their 6 hectare site as being the most Mediterranean in St Emilion. The vines here average 25 years of age but some were planted some 60-70 years ago, producing more concentrated fruit, and the clay and limestone soils are also home to olive trees, figs and poppies. It’s a stunning haven and this late terroir gives a dense, rich wine, rounded and opulent but sensual and balanced and this, allied to the Mitjavile trademark of later harvesting when the grapes are completely physiologically ripe, brings a unique sense of place. The wine always and unmistakably carries the Tertre Roteboeuf DNA and 2023 is no exception.
Château La Connivence, Pomerol 2023
Followers of this Private Cellar exclusive from Pomerol have started to drink the first vintages and we hear nothing but enthusiastic comments about how much they enjoy both La Connivence and second wine, La Belle Connivence. The vineyard is tiny, just 1.4 hectares planted to 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc.
Owned by Alexandre de Malet Roquefort of St Emilion superstar La Gaffelière, along with two friends, including former international footballer Johan Micoud, attention to detail is key here, with the tiny vineyard being harvested and vinified plot by plot and aged in 70% new French oak. It is no surprise that restaurants in South East Asia and the USA have been clamouring for Belle Connivence – which really lives up to its name in 2023 – thanks to is silky fruit and early drinking nature, whilst the grand vin is finding its way into vertical collections around the world.
Bordeaux 2023 En Primeur
The Bordeaux machine was unusually quiet in the run up to the 2023 en primeur tastings. As we packed our bags and read the weather reports, we might have been forgiven for having a sense of foreboding but as we drove around the region, visiting châteaux, talking and tasting with producers, our smiles grew as we discovered fresh, pure, intense wines with bright fruit and energetic acidity, ripe but with very little heaviness and sensible alcohols between 13% and 14%, leaving us with fresh palates.
Click below to view our full Bordeaux 2023 en primeur selection.
The Krajewski Family wines - Clos Cantenac and Château Séraphine 2023
We were a little bleary eyed as we sat down to taste at Château Séraphine on the morning of 22nd April. Having landed in Bordeaux on the late flight the previous evening, temperatures had dipped overnight to levels which caused concerns for the nascent buds on precocious spring vines, and we were grateful to have been warned about the preventative frost fans which sounded something akin to a chinook landing nearby at 3am. But one taste of the Krajewski family’s 2023s woke us up with a jolt – these wines made by Charlotte Krajewski just keep getting better and better
The wines of Est Jean-Pierre Moueix 2023
We were ahead of schedule as we pulled up to the gates of Château Bélair-Monange on a beautiful crisp April morning during en primeur week, which allowed us a few moments to pause and take in the incredible new winery that the Moueix family has crafted with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. It is impossible to describe the detail that has gone into the design, a cathedral like place of calm, an homage to the great terroir that is Bélair-Monange with staircases that take you past views of the spacious and spotless grape reception area, the winery and barrel halls, all so elegant and, whilst impressive in size, so peaceful and awe-inspiring. Our early arrival meant that we could take this in before the conveyor belt of tastings started for Edouard Moueix allowing us to spend time with him to find out his views on the 2023 wines.
2023 Bordeaux Vintage Report
The Bordeaux machine was unusually quiet in the run up to the 2023 en primeur tastings. As we packed our bags and read the weather reports, we might have been forgiven for having a sense of foreboding but as we drove around the region, visiting châteaux, talking and tasting with producers, our smiles grew as we discovered fresh, pure, intense wines with bright fruit and energetic acidity, ripe but with very little heaviness and sensible alcohols between 13% and 14%, leaving us with fresh palates. As Tracey Dobbin MW told us while we tasted a particularly mouthwatering Ducru Beaucaillou, it is an elegant vintage with flesh rather than fat, and we noted that tasters were smacking their lips in appreciation of the fine textures rather than chewing on tannins or wincing on acidity. In other words, in most of our tastings we experienced a shift from the heavy, over extracted wines of recent decades back to the classic style of fresh, well fruited, Bordeaux which we love to drink.
Rhône 2022
“The best wines are generous, with moderate alcohol levels, rich without being over-powering and with attractive purity and freshness of fruit. There is good news on pricing too, with no or little increase from the 2021 opening prices.”
It is very hard to generalise about the 2022 red wine vintage in the Rhône. As with many classic European regions, it was the driest vintage in the region since 1950 with both the north and the south suffering extreme drought, so this year we have slimmed down our offer to focus on three growers who succeeded in making top quality wines thanks to the age of their vines, their topographies and terroirs...
Early bird rosé offer: The 2023 Vintage
Welcome to our Early Bird Rosé offer, our regular March dose of optimism to stock up on your favourite pinks at a snip of a price so when the sun does come out you are completely rosé-ready. After this particularly soggy, mild winter, the occasional sunny day allows us to imagine that Spring and Summer are not so far away, which in turn leads us to dream of sun-drenched, rosé-filled days.
Domaine Joseph Roty 2021
It never ceases to amaze us how the Burgundians remain so upbeat in the face of the regularly contrary seasons which conspire, year after year, to throw something into the mix which has the potential to derail their harvest. Yet despite whatever Mother Nature threw at them, when tasting these 2021s with Pierre-Jean Roty in early December, I was struck by just how pure and individual each wine is, with the different terroirs clearly visible, showing that the right vines and soils in – crucially – the right hands have the ability to produce beguilingly delicious wines.
Burgundy 2022
The ‘dream year’ that made the difference
After several short vintages in Burgundy, culminating in the shocking frost of 2021, Burgundy’s wine growers felt vindicated to be granted a spectacular 2022, both from the point of view of the growing season and the resulting fruit, which was both plentiful and perfectly ripe. A dream year, to be followed by an equally bountiful 2023, so finally the cellars are full, with barrels right up to the ceiling in many places where previously there was just a single half row, and there are huge smiles aplenty...
Burgundy 2022 - Vintage Report
The ‘dream year’ that made the difference
After several short vintages in Burgundy, culminating in the shocking frost of 2021, Burgundy’s wine growers felt vindicated to be granted a spectacular 2022, both from the point of view of the growing season and the resulting fruit, which was both plentiful and perfectly ripe. A dream year, to be followed by an equally bountiful 2023, so finally the cellars are full, with barrels right up to the ceiling in many places where previously there was just a single half row, and there are huge smiles aplenty...
Our Christmas 2023 Selections
Welcome to our Christmas recommendations for 2023, a year in which we have celebrated our 18th Birthday, opened an office in The Cotswolds for our growing team and coped with an incredibly complicated and unwelcome Duty hike. Undeterred, we continue to search for great wines from small producers at fair prices and focus on delivering these wines to you along with a big helping of impeccable personal service.
Our sales team has been busy selecting one wine each from our list which will definitely feature on their Christmas table. Whose choice appeals to you most?
The Private Cellar Selection 2024
Please click on the link below to download our new wine list! We are pleased to introduce our new Discovery Cases and 24 new wines to the Private Cellar Selection, marked throughout the list.
If you are not on our mailing list and would like a copy sent to you in the post, please don't hesitate to let us know by emailing hello@privatecellar.co.uk. Alternatively, you can download this eco-friendy version as a PDF.
For advice and assistance in choosing your wines, get in touch with our friendly and helpful team by calling 01353 721 999. We very much look forward to hearing from you.
The Krajewski Family wines - Clos Cantenac and Château Séraphine 2022
In the mayhem of the April primeurs jamboree, a visit to the Krajewski properties provides an oasis of relative calm. Martin and Charlotte are plain speaking, openly honest about the vintage conditions, and you feel you can really get under the skin of the wines rather than trying to work out what isn’t being said. Tasting with Charlotte is a challenge of rapid writing and even more rapid thinking, as she moves from one fact to another – all hugely relevant and interesting, and so much more than we often get elsewhere.
Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix 2022 - NEW RELEASE
Our visit to Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix during the primeur season always clarifies and sets the bar for our Saint Emilion and Pomerol tastings. Knowing the Moueix’s instinctively conservative approach in both the vineyard and winery, here we garner an overview, almost uninterrupted, of both vintage and soil influences on the wines alongside honest, open commentary about what worked well and what was challenging. Reading the weather reports throughout the growing season and knowing that Bordeaux had reached record high temperatures and record low rainfall, our thoughts instantly turned to the Right Bank, dominated by early ripening Merlot which accumulates sugar rapidly, putting it at particular risk in hot vintages. Our concerns were unfounded – Merlot is back with a vengeance, having shrugged off the high temperatures and produced wines of great finesse and elegance.
2022 Bordeaux Vintage Report
Whenever we visit a region to taste the new vintage, there are always certain buzz words which keep reappearing; in the case of Bordeaux 2022, the key words were energy, freshness and precision – the polar opposite of what we were expecting to find. We always try to keep an open mind and not pre-judge the wines but in 2022 it was hard to escape the unremitting headlines from across Europe – even in England – about the heat and lack of water. I will confess that we approached the primeur tastings with a certain amount of trepidation, wondering just how our palates (and indeed teeth) were going to react to the huge tannins, high alcohol and massive extract. But we found that, extraordinarily, most wines radiated freshness and energy – those words again – and in some cases with lower alcohol levels than in 2020, and by the end of a full day’s tasting not only were we not exhausted, we were fresh enough to carry on.
Private Cellar's Coronation Collection
Get ready for the Coronation (and all the other Bank Holiday drinking occasions for that matter) by stocking up now on our favourite special occasion wines. Find out what our team will be drinking on May 6th and feel free to mix yourself a case from our Coronation Collection to fuel your own celebrations. Delivery is free for 12 bottles (or equivalent) or more to mainland England and Wales with the code CELEBRATE.
Elegance Rosé du Clos Cantenac 2021 & L'Innocence de Séraphine, Pomerol 2020
“Charlotte Krajewski is a winemaker who knows her stuff.”
Tamlyn Currin, Jancisrobinson.com
You just can’t keep a good winemaker down when they have the energy and enthusiasm of a Krajewski. Martin Krajewski has broken many taboos around Bordeaux Rosé, firstly producing a sparkling version at Château de Sours and then a still pink from his St Emilion property, Clos Cantenac, an almost heretical move. Both, of course, have been rip-roaring successes despite the naysayers. However, it took his daughter, Charlotte, to rise to the next challenge, that of producing a rosé to rival the very best wines, one that is serious enough to age and improve over time and to be taken seriously.
2021 Rhône En Primeur
Given the distance covered by the Rhône appellation, vintages are often described as a game of two halves, between the Syrah-dominated North and the Grenache-dominated South. Weather conditions are often similar – but not the same – and more often than not, one end of the region has a better time of it than the other. Find out how 2021 played out in our en primeur offer here...
Introducing J Christopher from Oregon’s Willamette Valley
Jay Somers, a Portland native, discovered the similarities between Burgundian and Oregon Pinot Noir in the 1990s and decided that he wanted to make Burgundian style Pinot in Oregon, focusing on the vineyard rather than the winery and allowing the wines extended barrel ageing compared to the norm in the region at the time. Unbeknownst to him, one of his followers was Ernst Loosen, more familiar to us from his native Germany, but a true polymath when it comes to wine. Roll on several years and Loosen, a lifelong Pinot Noir fanatic, started to look for vineyards in the Willamette Valley and finding none as interesting as those being run by Jay Somers, signed up to a joint venture with him in 2010. Loosen is now the outright owner of the property which was introduced to us towards the end of last year.
Burgundy 2021
The 2021 wines are bright and racy – those who produced white wines have made some real gems, tinglingly citrussy as opposed to the plump, semi-tropical whites of recent years, whilst the reds are beautifully fresh, proper Pinot Noir with notes of strawberry and raspberry and will be delicious in the medium term. Individual vineyards and crus are clearly defined, each showing what makes them distinct from their neighbours.
Burgundy 2021 - Vintage Report
It’s hard to write anything about 2021 which doesn’t place excessive focus on the disastrous weather events of the growing season, yet these are what define the vintage, both good and bad. If we needed a year to remind us that wine is an agricultural product, hostage to the vagaries of the weather, 2021 obliged in spades.
Click on the link below to see Nicola and Laura discuss the vintage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdtnwXTSYVU
Our Christmas 2022 Selections
Welcome to our Christmas offer for 2022, a year in which we have celebrated travel, togetherness and truly tasty wines from around the world and this is reflected in our Christmas choices. With rising prices and small vintages (especially in Burgundy) a recurring theme at Private Cellar has been ‘alternatives to the classics’ and you will find both classic and exciting new wines that take you off the beaten track. Follow us on our travels around the world with our selections, including choices from our two new colleagues, James Virgin and Josh Morris Lowe. We’re delighted to welcome them to Team PC.
Château La Connivence, Pomerol 2021
With just one and a half hectares to its name, La Connivence remains particularly discreet, a wine for those in the know. For some, the lack of reassurance from the wine trade press is a concern, but for Alexandre de Malet Roquefort PR isn’t something he actively courts – he isn’t looking for high scores from renowned publications, preferring instead to focus on good distribution to wine enthusiasts who wants to drink and enjoy excellent Pomerol.
Lafite Rothschild’s Réserve Spéciale, Pauillac 2019
SOLD OUT
The Réserve Spéciale Pauillac from Domaines Barons de Rothschild is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot, sourced from various plots across the appellation with the express intention of offering a snapshot of Pauillac in the glass. 2019 was a superb vintage in Bordeaux, and particularly in the Médoc, and this really shines through in the wine – for a little slice of greatness, we can’t recommend it highly enough.
The Private Cellar Selection 2023
Please click on the link below to download our 2023 list.
If you are not on our mailing list and would like a copy sent to you in the post, please don't hesitate to let us know by emailing finewine@privatecellar.co.uk. Alternatively, you can download this eco-friendy version as a PDF.
For advice and assistance in choosing your wines, get in touch with our friendly and helpful team by calling 01353 721 999. We very much look forward to hearing from you.
German Releases 2022
SOLD OUT
The new generation of winemakers in Germany has wrought seismic changes in both vineyards and cellars, successfully attracting a more curious, open-minded audience. Although the spotlight remains on white wines, with the emphasis rightly on Riesling in a wider range of styles than in previous decades, there is a growing understanding that Germany is home to some particularly successful Pinot Noir, especially in the more southerly regions. Spätburgunder, to give it its correct name, is beginning to give Burgundy a run for its money, with incredibly precise, poised, well-structured wines.
2021 Releases of Joseph Phelps Freestone Vineyards
This time last year, we were watching developments in Napa with bated breath as the devastating Glass Fire marched through California’s vineyards, consuming vines and buildings in its path, pausing at Phelps’ back door before changing direction. Flames, however, are only part of the story, their damage is obvious and dramatic; smoke is every bit as destructive, its impact directly correlated to the distance between the hanging fruit and the heart of the fire. The white wines, harvested before the fires began, fermented away undisturbed in the winery as the fires burned but the team at Joseph Phelps took the incredibly difficult decision to abandon all their 2020 red fruit to avoid the possibility of any smoke taint in their wines.
The Krajewski Family wines - Clos Cantenac and Château Séraphine 2021
In 2021, more than any recent year in Bordeaux, it was important to know your vines inside out, to be on the ground ready to anticipate and react to weather events and vineyard pressures with precision and speed. With just 6 hectares at Clos Cantenac and 2.3 hectares at Château Séraphine, Charlotte Krajewski was perfectly placed to do just that. Working almost in a Burgundian fashion – checking the vines several times a day, deploying candles to combat frost and dealing with an unusual cicadel bug explosion – Charlotte’s 7th vintage at Clos Cantenac and 5th at Château Séraphine has produced three lovely wines, albeit in smaller volumes than last year (the yield at Clos Cantenac was down by roughly 50%).
Bordeaux 2021: Read our Vintage Report
After three very hot years, it was clear that climate change is here to stay and everyone in Bordeaux, from vineyard managers to winemakers, was embracing the new normal, working out how to mitigate the effects of heat and drought. And then along came 2021. After a dreary spring and early summer, followed by a cool, if slightly drier August, things didn’t look great, leading some commentators to write the vintage off even before tasting the wines. However, this is a vintage, more than any recent one, which demands to be tasted before making any sweeping statements.
Bordeaux 2021: Ets Jean Pierre Moueix
We tasted the wines twice with the family in Libourne, firstly during a week of truly miserable spring weather and again under blue skies in 22C heat. They showed consistently well at both tastings and we found wines which will give enormous pleasure relatively soon, with bags of juicy yet cool red and black fruits, really vibrant with lighter structures than in recent vintages, however the bigger wines will also have a decent life ahead of them too. A great combination.
Rhône: the 2020 paradox
Like many other regions in Europe, 2020 in the Rhône was bakingly hot, yet the wines produced have a freshness and vibrancy not seen in the region for several years and, for us, this paradox defines 2020. With such a great distance between the most northerly and southerly vineyards, vintage reports for the Rhône often appear to be describing two unrelated regions, but in 2020 the conditions were universal – dry, hot, with sporadic rain leading to an early harvest.
Burgundy 2020
The thirst for Burgundy, at every quality level, shows no sign of abating, and already during lockdown there was immense pressure on Burgundy stocks across most markets – our 2019 opening offer sold out in record time, mainly because prices remained stable despite the small harvest. 2020 represents, for many growers, little more than half a normal crop because of the heat but despite its diminutive size, quality in both reds and whites is indisputable and we expect strong demand.
Burgundy 2020 - Vintage Report
When writing about the 2020 wines from Burgundy, the challenge is to try and judge the vintage on its own merits rather than seeing it through the lens of 2021, a game changer if ever there was one. Marion Javillier commented that in her mind’s eye the year 2020 was terrible because we were all locked up for the first time, something unthinkable in 2019, yet in reality there is much to celebrate. As if to mitigate the pressure of lockdowns, the weather gods smiled benignly on most of Europe, with glorious weather from March persisting right through until the autumn; vignerons were allowed to work their vines as normal, and the rhythm of the vineyard continued much as it always does.
Our Christmas 2021 Selections
When we launched our 2021 Selection in the Spring, crammed full of new wines chosen by our Master of Wine, we were unable to get together to taste them with you. Now that tastings have started again, we have really enjoyed showcasing them around the country, in person and on-line, and this offer gives us another perfect opportunity to introduce our individual favourites to you.
Our warehouse is well stocked and our drivers are ready to deliver to you. Please let us have your Christmas orders by 10th December so that we can ensure your wines reach you in good time.
Don’t hesitate to call upon us to help you make your selection and we urge you to place your orders as soon as possible so that we can supply you with your first choices and to make sure you are well-stocked for the Christmas holidays.
Petits Châteaux 2020 - a reality check on pricing
Sometimes, in the heat of the Bordeaux primeur silly season, we lose touch with reality as prices rise ever further into the stratosphere, so we are bringing ourselves back down to earth with an offer of the so called 'petits châteaux', which may be small in size but which punch well above their price point.
Here you will find a selection of wines which make perfect daily drinking without burning a hole in your pocket, which don’t require the patience of a saint before you can open them and, even more importantly, which offer fabulous value for money. Many are packed in cases of 6 bottles, making it easy to mix and match for drinking variety too.
The Private Cellar 2021 Selection
Please click on the link below to download our new wine list! We are pleased to introduce 45 new wines to the Private Cellar Selection, marked throughout the list.
If you are not on our mailing list and would like a copy sent to you in the post, please don't hesitate to let us know by emailing finewine@privatecellar.co.uk. Alternatively, you can download this eco-friendy version as a PDF.
For advice and assistance in choosing your wines, get in touch with our friendly and helpful team by calling 01353 721 999. We very much look forward to hearing from you.
Château La Connivence, Pomerol 2020
Extensive soil research on this tiny 1.4-hectare slice of Pomerol revealed myriad clay and limestone soil combinations and resulted in a vineyard planted to 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, meticulously farmed. Indeed owner Alexandre de Malet Roquefort, more used to his larger-scale property – 1er Cru Classé La Gaffeliére – in St Emilion, thinks of this more as a small garden, an enormous advantage in the early part of 2020 when vegetative growth was incredibly rapid, the rainy spring bringing with it the pressure of mildew. Yields were compromised but with such a small area to tend, the team ensured that the fruit from an even flowering matured perfectly, the clay and limestone soils retaining all-important moisture during the drought period. Harvest for the Merlot began around 10 days ahead of the norm on 14th September, while the Cabernet Franc came in later, on 1st October.
The Mitjavile Family Wines 2020
Our annual visit to Tertre Roteboeuf is always one of the most anticipated by the team – lightning speed commentary from François Mitjavile, covering all the crucial elements for his wines, not necessarily related to vineyards or winemaking, together with the Stygian gloom of the cellar combine to give not only an atmospheric tasting but more importantly an insight into a unique style of wine. In the absence of travel, yet again, we have been reduced to gleaning fragments of the story from phone calls and emails, a poor replacement for the normal stream-of-consciousness information but the tasting samples lined up before us, with their unique aromas and flavours, magically transport us straight back to the St Emilion cellar.
Château Séraphine, Pomerol 2020
At just 2.2 hectares, Château Séraphine is small, even by Pomerol standards, where the average property is around six hectares. Martin Krajewski’s Pomerol adventure, perhaps the inevitable follow-up to his St Emilion incursion at Clos Cantenac, began in 2017 when he bought a couple of plots of land, one on the northern edge of the appellation and the other southwest of the village of Pomerol itself, where the new cellars and château are located. The wines here and at Clos Cantenac are made by Charlotte Krajewski, Martin’s daughter, who honed her skills in South Africa and New Zealand before settling into the Right Bank, bringing a wealth of knowledge to bear in these very traditional sites.
Clos Cantenac 2020 - the new release from Martin and Charlotte Krajewski
The Clos Cantenac wines just keep on getting better, with dynamic father and daughter team Martin and Charlotte Krajewski taking the wines to yet another level in 2020. Martin often jokes that he is the ‘odd job man’ to Charlotte’s Technical Director and Chief Winemaker, but his incredible energy, drive and continuing investment in this property that he loves so much are key to its success.
Having followed these wines since the very first vintage, it is a joy for us to see Team Krajewski working so closely together and receiving the international recognition they deserve. We wholeheartedly recommend the 2020 vintage to you today. Read more about them by clicking on the link below.
Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix 2020 - NEW RELEASE
2020 was a year of challenges for vine growers, starting off with too much water and the threat of mildew and other diseases, followed by unbroken sunshine for more than 50 days. For the Moueix team, the mildew of the early season was readily combatted thanks to their policy of housing their vineyard teams on site, meaning they could react to and treat any outbreaks in very short order, without having to wait for a team to be found or lose a weekend; as a result, their losses from mildew were lower than elsewhere. In the later drought period, their prime soils showed their worth with the water-retaining limestone and clay keeping the older vines refreshed and nourished throughout the summer. Where they have vineyards with a high sand content, the vines did suffer, closing down for some days prior to the reviving mid-August rain which got everything going again.
Bordeaux 2020
The Bordeaux 2020 en primeur campaign will start on 5th May and we look forward to sharing our updates with you. Please click on the link below to read our vintage report and if you would like to be added to our en primeur mailing list, don't hesitate to let us know by calling 01353 977 995 or emailing laura@privatecellar.co.uk.
2020 is yet another good year, the third in a row; this is becoming Bordeaux’s 21st Century reality; Bruno Borie of Ducru Beaucaillou calls it a ‘glorious triptych’. As truly awful vintages become ever rarer, thanks to warmer summers, new vineyard management and better technology in the cellars, the differences are more a question of nuance, of good / better / best; by our reading, 2020 is good / better, but not consistent enough across the board to qualify as best. What does seem to be apparent, both on tasting and talking with owners, is that 2020 is a terroir year, one in which the wines really show where they come from, where their soils and location speak more loudly than the vintage itself.
Our Famous Early Bird Rosé Offer
Given the current weather – one day hot and sunny, the next foggy and near freezing – it is no surprise that our thoughts have turned to that true harbinger of summer, real or imagined – Rosé. Spring in the UK brings so much promise – longer days, warmer temperatures, gambolling lambs – and in 2021 it brings the even more exciting prospect of lockdowns receding and of finally being able to meet up and share a glass or two with friends wherever we wish. Hooray!
So, this year we have decided to broaden our Rosé offering, with three very different wines from our old friends Château Sainte Croix in the Var, GrandRosé from Pierrefeu and Lolly Krajewski’s magnificent Exuberance from Clos Cantenac in St Emilion. New to the offer this year is Château Thuerry’s Côtes de Provence Le Château, a great counterpoint to our other Provençal Rosés which comes highly recommended and will be available only via this early bird offer.
Stock up for Easter with free delivery on selected cases
The glimmer of sunshine in recent weeks has turned everyone’s thoughts to rosé and the promise of sunnier times. We will be releasing our famous early bird rosé offer next week but as those wines will not be here until late April, I thought you might enjoy this offer on the last stocks of the much-loved Figuière Mediterranée Rosé 2019 in both bottle and Bag in Box (BIB). With Easter on the horizon and an offer of free delivery* on single cases and single BIBs, don’t miss out while we still have some in the cellar!
* Click on the link to read more and see our terms and conditions
The Field Wine Club
Our latest offer from The Field Wine Club, featuring a brilliant value mixed case of Spanish and Italian wines to re-stock the lockdown cellar, and some glorious magnums of Le Volte dell'Ornellaia. As recommended by Jonathan Ray.
Rhône 2019
Across the board the wines have depth and power with an unexpected and welcome zip of freshness on the palate. The tannins are omnipresent but super-ripe and supple, making for wines which will give pleasure in relative youth, but which will also make fine old bones. Download our offer to read more!
The 2018 Port Declaration - it's three-in-a-row for Taylor's
The Douro has seen a particularly good run of vintages in the second half of the current decade after just one declaration in the first half, the textbook 2011. 2015 was good but not universally declared, then 2016 and 2017 became the first back-to-back general declaration for 144 years, so unusual that all the houses found themselves justifying their motives. For Taylor’s, releasing the 2018 marks a three-in-a-row, leading Adrian Bridge to state that if the wine is good enough, they will declare – and wonder why no-one made a big deal out of the fact that they declared nothing between 2012 and 2016!
Head winemaker, David Guimaraens, believes that the cool early season has contributed to a lively freshness in the wines whilst the hotter end of summer helped complete the ripening, concentrating the juice in the berries – the best of both worlds. The best conditions were in the Upper Douro, where Taylor’s largest vineyard, Quinta de Vargellas, is to be found, whilst conditions were more mixed in Cima Corgo, around Pinhão, where the majority of both Fonseca and Croft’s vineyards are, and this is what has led the company to declare a full vintage only for Taylor’s, releasing single or blended quintas for the other properties. All three of the wines have an astonishing, vibrant freshness allied to lovely rich fruit, but there is no doubt that the Taylor’s stands head and shoulders above the other two – as should be expected.
Domaine Joseph Roty 2018 Vintage
For Pierre-Jean Roty, the concentration and balance of 2018 makes it potentially greater than their 2015s, a stellar vintage.
Although 2018 was a hot vintage, it avoided the fate of other hot years like 2003 because there was no underlying lack of water in the soil and the grapes continued ripening uninterrupted. The wines all exhibit very deep colours, unusually for the Domaine, with high toned fruit and refreshingly modest alcohol levels despite the vintage, underlining Pierre-Jean’s comments about the steady ripening. These really are long term wines, from the Coteaux Bourguignons up.
Burgundy 2019 - our full offer
That the past twelve months have been anything but normal is an understatement with which we are all familiar but, for us, the lack of travel has raised challenges previously not contemplated, such as how to taste the hundreds of young wines which a primeur offer demands, both so we can make our assessment on the vintage in general and for the specifics of each wine from each grower. We have been incredibly lucky that the majority of our Burgundy growers, some of whom are truly tiny, were prepared to send samples of their unfinished wines. Previously this would have been unthinkable because of the risk of spoilage but, when the alternative was being left behind, it became the logical option. Bottles of every shape and size arrived, from full bottles to halves, from quarters to 5cls, including some which looked as if they were straight out of a hospital lab, and, to a wine, they were stunning. It made us think: if samples which had been subjected to rapid courier delivery could taste so good, it clearly indicated a superlative vintage. And it is indeed just that.
Burgundy 2019 - Vintage Report
Our Burgundy offer is coming soon! Please contact your salesperson for more information. Meanwhile, please enjoy our vintage report from this superb vintage.
Christmas 2020
Of all the Christmases since we launched Private Cellar fifteen years ago, this is the one for which we need to spread the most comfort and cheer, with beautifully made wines that will bring smiles to our faces. We are determined that, however many people we will be allowed around our tables, Christmas is not cancelled!
Checkmate!
"... some of the best young wines coming out of Canada today"- Bruce Sanderson, Wine Spectator
CheckMate Artisanal Winery lies at the southern end of the Okanagan Valley, a mere 15 miles from the US Border and Washington State, and has been owned by the von Mandl family for over forty years; so convinced is Anthony von Mandl of the Okanagan’s potential that he has five wineries in the Valley, including the renowned Mission Hill. It has been a slow process, from the first vines being planted in the 1980s to now, but the award for the Top Chardonnay, competing blind against all the classic regions, in 1994’s International Wine & Spirit competition showed that they were on the right track.
NEW RELEASES from Joseph Phelps Freestone Vineyards on California's Sonoma Coast
When Joseph Phelps invested in California’s Sonoma Coast in 1999, his sights were set squarely on producing wines to rival Burgundy, a region he particularly admired, and he truly believed that the climate of the coastal strip with its almost daily fog would be cool enough to make great wines. With steep hillsides and the cool damp climate, it was a very different prospect to his Napa winery and it took trial and error to find the right clones to tolerate the weather, as well as altering the vineyard management to ensure a decent crop of healthy grapes could be brought in. Two decades on, he has been fully vindicated, with these wines of extraordinary precision, depth and finesse yet not ignoring their Californian roots – a real achievement. Joe Phelps died in 2015 and to honour his legacy the family have produced a superb, one-off méthode traditionelle sparkling wine, Ovation, made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Freestone, released this year after three years on lees.
This offer closes on 30th November 2020 for shipment next Spring. It represents the only opportunity to buy the new vintages of Pastorale, Quarter Moon and Ovation and you will save over £60 per case on our shipped and landed price by ordering Freestone Chardonnay and Pinot Noir before the end of November, so please don’t delay in calling us on 01353 721 999 to order.
Autumn Flash Sale 2020
SOLD OUT
Welcome to October! Ordinarily, we would be publishing a new wine list, hosting tastings around the country and enjoying catching up with you all at this time of year. We have decided not to print a new list just yet, and without mentioning the "B" word out loud ... until we know what the end of the year has in store for the movement of wine, we think it is wise to hold off for now. However, that doesn't mean we are not seeking out exciting new wines to share with you. As a team, we are constantly tasting and have lots of new gems to introduce you to in the coming months, so we are having a clear-out of past vintages and wines where we hold smaller volumes with our Autumn Sale. You will find a list of delicious wines below - 145 lines in total - from all over the globe, offered at excellent prices. As you can see, stocks are very limited and the Autumn Sale prices do not always feature on our website so please call us on 01353 721 999 to place your order and avoid disappointment. Terms & conditions apply, as detailed on the PDF offer.
Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix 2019
“Power and precision hand in hand, a rare combination”
This year, for the first time, the Moueix family are releasing both the petits châteaux and their grands vins at the same time; this was always the plan, pre-pandemic, and, despite the reduction in yield, they have brought their prices down across the board to reflect the current trading climate.
In terms of quality, Edouard really likes the 2019s; his father, Christian, said that 2018 was the best vintage of his career, and for Edouard the 2019s are just below that mark, completely different in style with a little more acidity giving better tension in the wines and with an accompanying fleshiness. He compares it to 2005 because of the similarity of the ripe, integrated, plentiful tannins and dark fruit notes, but is keen to point out that 2019 has its own individual character.
Domaine de Chevalier 2019 En Primeur
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“These are wines at the top of their game”
Olivier Bernard is a veritable dynamo, a total enthusiast, and he has almost completely replanted the vineyards as well as extending them, and built what was, at the time, an avantgarde circular cellar full of gleaming stainless steel to complement the existing concrete tanks and barrel cellars. Winemaking is traditional and the quality is consistently excellent; these are wines at the top of their game.
Download our offer as a PDF
The wines of François Mitjavile 2019 NEW RELEASE
- Domaine de Cambes, Bordeaux 2019 @ £184 per 6 in bond
- Roc de Cambes, Côtes de Bourg 2019 @ £260 per 6 in bond
- Château Le Tertre Roteboeuf, Grand Cru St Emilion 2019 @ £790 per 6 in bond
François Mitjavile came to wine through his wife, Milout, who had inherited the small patch of vines at Tertre Roteboeuf and it was only in the late 1970s that he took over running the estate after his studies and a stage at Figeac. François is a thinker; no visit to Tertre Roteboeuf is complete without a conversation in his book-lined sitting room on any subject, art, philosophy, history – anything but wine – before eventually going to the cellar to taste the wines. The effect is to allow the palate some r & r, to reset the tasting memory, before moving onto François’ wines, and it really works. Nowadays, we are as likely to meet Nina, François and Milout’s daughter, who is working with her father both at Tertre Roteboeuf and at Roc de Cambes, where she lives.
In 2019, the very hot summer had all but blocked the vines from photosynthesising, but heavy rain in mid-September allowed the fruit to press on to ripeness, with the bonus, from his point of view, of the final ripening taking place under cooler autumnal conditions which, in turn, bring their own flavours at the same time as degrading the harsher tannins and acidity. The result is wines which are more voluptuous, with grace and charm, and, in the case of Roc de Cambes, even spectacular but without any brutish power showing through.
Annonce de Bélair Monange, Grand Cru St Emilion 2017
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“It’s hard to believe that this is a second wine” - Jane Anson, Decanter.com
Premier Grand Cru Classé Château Bélair-Monange sits on a commanding site, high on the Saint Emilion plateau, alongside Ausone, and is home to Edouard Moueix and his family. Formerly known as Château Bélair, the Monange addition honours Edouard’s great grandmother – Adèle Monange – mother of Jean-Pierre Moueix who was, of course, famous for his ownership of the great Château Pétrus and for founding the eponymous Libourne-based négociant business. Annonce de Bélair is the second wine of the estate, its first vintage was 2014 and it enjoys the same attention as the grand vin in both vineyard and cellar.
The true function of a second wine is to allow the first wine to shine, whatever the growing season, whilst remaining true to both the terroir and vintage. As a result, in exceptionally good years very little second wine may be produced, but in vintages which are more challenging there will be more to go around. These are the years to dive into the second wine pool, given that the prices are usually way below that of the grand vin and the quality is never so far behind.
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Our Full Wine List
Many of you have been asking for a link to our wine list so please find this below. We have made some additions since this list was published and some items are, inevitably running low, or out of stock due to increased demand. With this in mind, do check availability by calling us on 01353 721 999 or use our on-line search box. We will always be delighted to offer suitable alternatives for your favourite wines.
Our warehouse and transport partners, London City Bond, are doing an amazing job getting wine out to you all. Due to reduced staff, to comply with social distancing guidelines, please be aware that deliveries are taking a little longer than usual but we will get your wine to you in a way that is safe for everyone.
Thank you for your continued support - we appreciate it!
Chablis, Lamblin et Fils 2018
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In 2018 the Lamblin family have made deliciously tasty wines at all levels, with great individuality between each cru, just as it should be. They have 14 different wines in the Chablis appellation, and we are pleased to offer our regular villages Chablis alongside two premiers and two grands crus. The wines are juicy and fresh, with lovely plump fruit more reminiscent of the Côte d’Or thanks to the warm summer, but all the while retaining all the minerality for which Chablis is rightly known. These are wines for the medium rather than long term which will drink well now and over the next few years. We recommend you buy lots of them!
The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir
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When David Lett planted his first vines in the Willamette Valley on 22nd February 1965, Oregon was best known for its orchards of plums, walnuts and hazelnuts but Lett had a theory that Oregon could offer Pinot Noir its best home, outside Burgundy.
Here, we are delighted to offer the Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir 2015, a beautiful pale and jewel-like wine with an incredibly vibrant nose of red fruit, savoury and earthy too, leading to a palate of delicious red, floral fruit, focused and pure with light tannins and an ethereal concentration on the mid-palate, a savoury, umami note underlining its Oregon provenance.
Limited stocks available!
Our Famous Early Bird Rosé Offer
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It’s that time of year again, when the days might be getting longer but the mornings are just as dark and dank. At the time of writing Storms Ciara and Dennis have just wreaked havoc, bringing rain, wind and snow, so it is obviously the perfect moment to offer a ray of brightness in the form of our perennially optimistic Early Bird Rosé offer.
We are offering three different rosés this year, each very different from the other. Château Sainte Croix’s IGP Var is wonderfully light and fresh, a wine which can (and will) be quaffed in volume. GrandRosé, from further west in Provence, is rich and ripe enough to stand up to food, whilst barrel-fermented L’Exuberance from Clos Cantenac, in St Emilion, stands high above the others, with a richness and depth not normally found in rosé which allows it to age rather well too. Read more in our PDF offer and call 01353 721 999 to order!
Spectator Wine Club, Jonathan Ray
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The Spectator - 14th February 2020 edition
"The Spectator Winemaker Lunches are famously entertaining. We can fit a maximum 16 around the table so the events are intimate and casual and everyone gets to meet fellow readers, chat to the winemaker, ask questions and, well, paddle in plenty of vino.
... Laura Taylor of Private Cellar has been especially supportive of these lunches, introducing some first rate winemakers, and she and I thought it would be apt to offer a selection of wines that have been enjoyed round the table recently."
Read the full offer here or click on the link below for the wines.
Rhône 2018
For the top growers, north and south, 2018 is the fourth great vintage in a row in the Rhône. The very nature of the Rhône valley, over 200km in length, means that generalisations are hard to make. Apart from sharing the river, there are few similarities between the northern and southern wine growing regions, from topography to grape varieties to climate, and in 2018 these differences were thrown into stark relief. Read our offer for more information and please call 01353 721 999 to order.
Burgundy 2018
"The best whites, from regional bourgognes blancs up to the grands crus have a purity and tension, a mineral note which underscores the ripe fruit and brings balance to the wines. They are incredibly approachable already but have the ingredients to evolve and mature for several years.
For the reds, the picture is more complicated and more dominated by the choice of harvest date, with the best wines showing incredibly ripe, pure red and black fruits with a refreshing cranberry sourness and no jammy notes."
Download our full Burgundy 2018 offer for information on the vintage, insights into the growing season from our vignerons and in-depth tasting notes by our Master of Wine, Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW.
January Sale 2020
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A big thank you to all of you who contributed to our very busy trading period in the run up to Christmas. It's now time to re-stock the cellar with new vintages and clear out smaller quantities of remaining wines with our January Sale.
Our sale features delicious wines from all over the globe, offered at excellent prices. Stocks are very limited and the January Sale prices do not feature on our website so please call us on 01353 721 999 to place your order and avoid disappointment. Any wines listed below £10 per bottle are marked with an asterisk.
NEW from Burgundy! Introducing Domaine Jean Vaudoisey
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So rarely does a new Burgundy Domaine come to our attention, with wines that positively sing from the glass, that half of us wants to shout it from the rooftops and the other half wants to swear you all to secrecy. And so it is with our new discovery: Domaine Jean Vaudoisey. Download our PDF to find out more!
Burgundy 2018 Vintage Report
‘A Crystalline Vintage – the year of precision’ - Pierre Boillot.
The opinion is universal – it is a good year – but the devil, as always, is in the detail; with sixty kilometres between the top and bottom of the Côte d’Or, and with two grape varieties with very different requirements, generalisations serve a purpose but remain superficial. With a few exceptions, the growers were very happy with their lot in 2018, having harvested a decent amount of ripe fruit for the second year running after a relatively benign growing season. Once again, Marion Javillier was proud to pronounce ‘on est contente!’. Read our full report here.
Domaine Joseph Roty 2017
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As our on-line world continues to dominate our lives, racing past at high speed, a visit to Roty is a bit like a digital detox, with our computers for note-taking looking distinctly out of place. I have been visiting Roty for more than 25 years and everything remains unchanged – no high tech, no new tasting room, just a wonderfully honest appraisal of the vintage by Pierre-Jean Roty, accompanied by wonderfully honest wines which speak for themselves. Yields were good for the Pinot Noir, although less generous for the whites, with all the fruit perfectly ripe, allowing Pierre-Jean to work his musts as much (or as little) as he wanted to during the relatively easy fermentations; he compares the resulting wines to a blend of 2014 and 2009, rather decent bedfellows. Read more by downloading the PDF and call us on 01353 721 999 to order.
Christmas 2019
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Please note that our offer is open until the end of the year but we can no longer guarantee pre-Christmas delivery. We all wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Competition is fierce when it comes to the Private Cellar team bagging their favourite wines to showcase in our Christmas offer and it’s always a challenge – a bit like trying to choose your favourite child as we have such a wide selection of delicious wines on our list that we want you to try them all!
Thankfully, there are eight of us in the running to whittle the selection down to 16 wines, which we are thrilled to recommend here at special prices until 31st December 2019. Alongside these, we have a selection of our fabulous grower Champagnes and sparkling wines and new to the listing, Fonseca’s Crusted Port, the perfect way to round off the celebrations.
Offer closes 31st December 2019 but please let us have your Christmas orders by 15th December (or 9th December for deliveries to the furthest corners of the country).
The Magic of Moueix - a special offer of their private label wines
Private Cellar customers will be familiar with our very strong relationship with the Moueix family whose company, Etablissements Jean-Pierre Moueix, was established in 1937 and which is run today by Jean-Pierre’s son, Christian, and grandson, Edouard.
The family pours their passion into the vineyards and wines produced on their famous terroirs, but they also place an equal emphasis on their traditional wine merchant (négociant) business, using their experience to source wines directly from châteaux across the Bordeaux region for the wider market. It is through this side of the business that we first came across the wines listed here – four Jean-Pierre Moueix private labels clarets designed to capture the spirit of each area of Bordeaux that they represent – sourced and blended under the watchful eye of Christian Moueix and his technical team. The wines are blended and matured in the company’s cellars in Libourne, receiving the same care and attention as the family-owned wines.
Always immensely popular at our tastings, we are pleased to offer the range to you today at our special tasting prices until Friday 22nd November, or while stocks last.
Joseph Phelps Freestone Vineyards
Loving the precision and elegance that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay achieve in their native Burgundian soils, Joseph Phelps’ vision in investing in the Sonoma Coast was to make wines as close to the Burgundy style as possible. They had grown Pinot and Chardonnay in Napa but were looking for something more; this they found in Freestone, identifying its huge potential with the right – if challenging – climate and soils. Having purchased land in 1999, by 2000 the first Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines were planted on the Pastorale site, formerly used for grazing, with the Quarter Moon vineyard added in 2001, now planted entirely to Pinot Noir.
Download our offer to read more about our latest releases, including an EXCLUSIVE release of the Single Vineyard wines in the UK.
Aristea - New Releases
The beauty about South Africa, in wine terms, is that is has such a wide variety of climates and soils pretty well any style of wine can be made, if you only put your mind to it. And if there is one thing Martin Krajewski does brilliantly, it is putting his mind to it. The result is the continued growth and expansion of Aristea, his Cape adventure, with winemaker Matthew Krone and oenologist Florent Dumeau holding on tight for the ride. Read more about our latest releases here.
Spectator Wine Club
Spectator Wine Club Readers should click here to be directed to the current offer.
Bin End Offer - Great Savings!
Our new wine list, The Private Cellar 2020 Selection, is beginning to take shape and it’s time to make way for exciting new wines and vintages with our Bin End Sale. Click here for a list of wines from all over the globe, offered at excellent prices and as some stocks are very limited and not all wines are featured on our website, we advise that you call us on 01353 721 999 to place your order and for any assistance in choosing from the list.
This offer is valid until FRIDAY 4th October 2019, or while stocks last, and wines are offered on a ‘first come, first served’ and caveat emptor basis, subject to remaining unsold. Prices include VAT and please note that these prices cannot be used in conjunction with any other Private Cellar offer but you may, of course, top up your order with wines from our list and online at www.privatecellar.co.uk. Cases may be mixed in multiples of 12 bottles and delivery is free for 24 bottles or more within mainland England and Wales. Smaller deliveries to mainland England and Wales are charged at £15 and please ask us for a quotation for delivery outside of these areas. Visit www.privatecellar.co.uk for our full terms and conditions.
The Petits Châteaux of Bordeaux
These are soul food wines, made by people who are passionate about their inconveniently small plots; growers who have no delusions of grandeur and just want to make the best possible wine and serve it to delighted drinkers. What’s not to like about that? These are wines we can put away for a couple of years and enjoy over kitchen supper, at shoot lunches, watching the news; delicious wines for every day drinking.
Vintage Port 2017
The Port houses are a restrained lot - declarations of a vintage year happen, on average, three times a decade; universal declarations, when all the houses consider the vintage great, are rarer. It is therefore exceptional, with the release of the 2017s, that we have two universal declarations one year after another – the last time was in the 19th Century. Read more by downloading our offer here.
Château La Connivence, Pomerol 2018
SOLD OUT
Ten years on from the first vintage of La Connivence, and Alexandre de Malet Roquefort is still tinkering with the vineyard and the blends, exchanging Merlot clones for better ones, altering the balance between Cabernet and Merlot, and although this is very clearly still a work in progress – what wine isn’t? – the family pedigree shines through. With just 1.1 hectares of vines to play with, Alexandre and his team always have their work cut out, so the contrary 2018 growing season was just one more challenge to be faced and overcome; and overcome it they did. Read more by clicking on the link.
Château Le Tertre Rotboeuf and the stunning 2018 wines from François Mitjavile 2018
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We visit François Mitjavile at Tertre Roteboeuf as often as we can throughout the year and each time he greets us with ever more little nuggets of wisdom about philosophy, art and wine. When we went in June last year, in what turned out to be the first week of sun after the appalling spring, we were treated to a masterclass on vineyards, aspect and soil from the vantage point of the Château’s garden which overlooks the sweeping vineyards of St Laurent des Combes and it brought so much to life. In April this year, we tasted with Nina Mitjavile, François’s daughter – every bit as rapier sharp as her father, her heart is in the Côtes de Bourg at Roc de Cambes so you get a brilliantly different perspective from her father’s. Please note that these wines are on allocation and may have sold out.
Clos & Petit Cantenac and Château Séraphine 2018 - stunning wines from St Emilion and Pomerol
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“Charlotte Krajewski is full of ideas yet respectful of tradition, she is making some incredibly pure, vibrant wines which are all about their terroir.” Since her return from New Zealand in 2017, the wines of Clos Cantenac and Château Séraphine have been made by Charlotte Krajewski, Martin’s daughter. Full of ideas yet respectful of tradition, Charlotte – or Lolly as she is known to her friends – is making incredibly pure, vibrant wines which are all about their terroir. In 2018, the grands vins for both properties are 100% Merlot and, despite being less than five kilometres apart, they couldn’t be more different – a fabulous lesson in why place matters so much.
Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix 2018
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“A huge depth of fruit is underscored by super-ripe, supple tannins and a freshness and elegance which we found missing in many other places; there is a lot of power in the wines yet it is beautifully restrained.” Read more about how and why the Moueix wines form our benchmark in any vintage by clicking on the link to our PDF.
Bordeaux 2018 - Vintage Report
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Faced once again with the prospect of a spectacular vintage – at least the fourth of this current decade – the 2018 Bordeaux harvest requires some rigorous behind-the-scenes investigation to better understand its future. As befits a region which is over 100km from top to bottom and almost as wide, with over 42,000 hectares under vine, there are huge differences in microclimates and localised weather, depending on proximity to the sea, hills and rivers, and in 2018 these differences were starkly evident, with dramatic differences in fortune even within the same commune, depending in part on weather and in part on individual choices during the season and regarding harvest time. Read our full report here.
The Private Cellar Early Bird Offer is back!
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Once again, we are offering the delicious bottles and magnums from GrandRosé in Provence and double magnums – three whole litres! – from Château Sainte Croix in the Var. Both growers are generously offering ‘early bird’ prices to take advantage of the lull before the Brexit storm, and the wines will be in the warehouse before the end of March.
Tuscan wines from the great estate of Sassicaia
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Nicolò Incisa della Rocchetta’s Sassicaia needs little introduction. The estate has been a major player on the international fine wine stage for half a century, crafting wines which have a real sense of place and reflecting beautifully the unique terroir of Bolgheri - no more so than in the 2017 vintage.
Rhône 2017 - small but perfectly formed
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Following stellar vintages in 2015 and 2016, it was hard to believe that 2017 could continue the trend, but continue it did, with superb quality and tantalisingly small quantities. In contrast to the two previous vintages, 2017 saw a hard-fought meteorological battle, with Mother Nature throwing a great deal of her armoury in the direction of either the North or South Rhône, and sometimes both, but a fine late summer saw everything come together at the right time.
Burgundy 2017 en primeur
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‘On est contente – it is a long time since we said that!’ These were Marion Javillier’s opening words when we visited in late November and, with this in mind, we’re delighted to publish our Burgundy 2017 en primeur offer.
Domaine Joseph Roty 2016
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We visited Pierre-Jean Roty with Bill Nanson (www.burgundy-report.com) in December 2018 to taste the Domaine’s wines from the 2016 vintage, a harvest that will forever be associated with frost and the devastation it wrought on three consecutive April nights. At Domaine Roty it was no different to anywhere else; Pierre-Jean Roty, a man of few words, when asked to summarise the year simply replied ‘Le gel. Le printemps’ – the frost, the spring. With this in mind, it is inevetable that these lovely wines will sell out more quickly than usual so an early response is highly recommended...
Burgundy 2017 - Vintage Report
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Our Master of Wine, Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW, spent a week in Burgundy at the beginning of December, catching up with our growers throughout the region, finding out more about the 2017 vintage and tasting extensively. We will be making a wide offer of wines in January and we're pleased to publish Nicola's vintage report here. For advice and assistance in building up your Burgundy 2017 wish list, please call us on 01353 721 999 or contact your salesperson direct.
Burgundy 2017 - the wines of Domaine Faiveley - En Primeur Offer
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We cannot tell you how exciting it is to start the introduction to a Burgundy offer with good news of a plentiful and healthy harvest! Reflecting the more abundant nature of the vintage, Faiveley have reduced their prices almost across the board, from Grands Crus right down to humble villages wines – a very welcome move which we hope will be taken up by others.
We are delighted to recommend these wines to you and to order, please call us on 01353 721 999 or contact your usual salesperson by 10th January 2019.
Christmas at Private Cellar
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Our offer has increased to ten pairs of wine this year, with impressionist and comedian Rory Bremner adding celebrity sparkle to our offer. Rory discovered South Africa’s Springfontein Estate a few years ago and has been so impressed with their wines that he called in to 67 Pall Mall to meet winemaker and viticulturist / husband and wife team Tariro Masayiti and Hildegard Witbooi when they visited London in May. He had them in stitches with his impressions and we are thrilled to include two of their wines in this offer, along with a very joyful picture of the three of them.
The German Selection
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Today’s German wine scene is a hugely vibrant one, with the younger generation kicking off the shackles of the ponderous German wine laws which reward quantity over quality and doing that very un-Germanic thing of not following the rules. That said, its acolytes are not yet as numerous as any of us would like but things are changing and ever more people are discovering the extraordinarily wide range of wines they produce from so many different terroirs. Here we are offering a mix of wines ranging from the classic to the new, some for instant gratification and some which will repay the wait, both red and white. And not all Riesling.
Limited Edition Wines from Springfontein
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We are delighted to be able to offer now the new iterations from Springfontein’s extraordinarily skilled and talented winemaker, Tariro Masayiti. Tariro is not only not afraid of challenging accepted wisdom or techniques, he positively relishes pushing the boundaries of what both he and the vineyards can produce; he calls it extreme winemaking.
Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix 2017
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One of the highlights of any Bordeaux buying trip, perhaps counterintuitively we try to ensure that our annual primeur tastings don’t start at Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix; instead we like to go to a few tastings first to see which communes have had more or less success before going to taste Christian and Edouard Moueix’s wines. Here we find our baseline, the real heartbeat of Pomerol and St Emilion and the true expression of the vintage, which allows us to evaluate other producers’ wines against a known measure, one where the vineyard and the vintage are allowed equal prominence, not necessarily the case elsewhere.
Château Guillot Clauzel, Pomerol 2017
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A Pomerol to watch, made by the team at Vieux Château Certan, Guillot Clauzel is flanked by Le Pin, Trotanoy, Vieux Château Certan and Nenin. It remains exceptionally good value, and all the more so when its neighbours' stratospheric prices are taken into account.
Château Séraphine - "a rising star in Pomerol"
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100% Merlot, 50% new barrels. Deep purple black with some red tints, with a wonderfully perfumed black fruit nose, hints of cedar and red berry too, spiced with new wood, leading to a palate of gorgeous floral black fruit, very elegant and fresh, with a substantial structure without being overbearing and a big tannic backbone, very ripe, spiced, rich and intense going to an immensely long, creamed finish. A real triumph. Drink 2022 - 2030
Bordeaux 2017
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Download our Bordeaux 2017 Vintage Report for information on the growing season, harvest and market on release.
Clos Cantenac 2017
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"This wine has a remarkable handmade feel about it and there is more vibrancy and depth here than found in many of the GCC. 18+/20" Matthew Jukes
We tasted these deliciously elegant and fresh wines with Martin and his talented daughter Charlotte, who has been making the wines at Clos Cantenac since 2014, and we are not the only ones to rate both wines extremely highly – take a look at the press comments on our PDF offer for additional tasting notes.
Our Famous Early Bird Rosé Offer!
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Preparing our Early Bird Rosé offer is one of our favourite moments of the year – despite the sleet and snow outside, the days are lengthening, albeit almost imperceptibly, which is a cause for optimism. Spring is on its way!
Burgundy 2016
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The 2016 vintage will be forever associated with the ‘black frost’ of late April which decimated vines across much of Burgundy over three consecutive nights. The frost was more in keeping with the deep freeze one gets in the midst of winter, and the vines, which had had a brilliant early start to the season, didn’t stand a chance against the combined efforts of hard sub-zero temperatures followed by bright spring sunshine the next morning.
Burgundy 2016 - The Drinkers
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We will be stocking up on these!
Rhône - the 2016 Vintage
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For many, the Rhône remains a hidden jewel, held close to the chest by those in the know, greatly underestimated and even misunderstood by those brought up on Bordeaux and Burgundy, which is exactly how the passionate Rhônistas would like to keep it. However, after yet another fabulous vintage in 2016 this will surely change – it seems that the Rhône can do no wrong having enjoyed a sustained run of good and even better vintages from the beginning of the century, something not many regions can boast.
Christmas 2017
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Traditions can be comforting at this time of year and, ordinarily, we would now be sending you the top picks of Team Private Cellar for Christmas and the New Year – the wines that we will be sharing and enjoying with our families and friends during the holiday season.
We have, however, come across a small conundrum... We have been merrily adding to our ranks in 2017 and to include all of our recommendations would not only require a tome of an offer but would probably cause a scrap as we all clamoured to secure our favourites, so we’re ringing the changes and offering a selection of wines chosen by you. These wines have been swirled, slurped, tasted and ordered again and again at our tastings across the country and we can’t find a recommendation stronger than the sales figures, so stock up now at these special prices and we will deliver direct to your door. As it happens, they are our favourites too so that’s one more thing ticked off the list
Port 2015
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Good Port vintages are rather like buses – you wait some time for one to come along, and then two come along together, as is the case with 2015 and 2016... These wines all have a delicious degree of freshness about them, a hallmark of the 2015 Port vintage, with vibrant acidity and fine, supple, substantial tannins. Surprisingly approachable in youth, they will be delicious in the medium or long term, depending on the vineyard. But the most important thing to note about these wines is their fabulous value for money – nowhere else do you get this concentration and quality in a wine at such a snip, promising so much pleasure over such a long period.
We strongly recommend that you dive in rapidly!
Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix 2016
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Every year, we find our Right Bank benchmarks being set when we taste with Christian and Edouard Moueix as they unfailingly translate both the vintage and the vineyard in each of their wines and this year was no exception. Here we tasted wines right across the price spectrum and all shared the same traits of understatement, finesse and intensity.
Aristea - against the odds
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The aim of Aristea is to produce exceptional wines which speak of their terroir and reflect the Cape itself, from its harsh landscape to its raw beauty; even the name, Aristea, reflects one of the many plants found only in the Cape which requires the brutality of fire to allow it to flower on just one day each year. The company owns no vineyards but draws on long-established relationships to source some of the best fruit from around Stellenbosch. It is an extraordinary venture, and if the passion of the partners is anything to go by, it has a great future ahead.
Rocche Costamagna - NEW RELEASES
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Alessandro Locatelli, Rocche Costamagna’s owner and winemaker, had made some very enthusiastic pronouncements about the quality of his new vintage releases and so we had high expectations when we tasted the wines. Happily, we were not disappointed. He has now been at the helm of the family Domaine for over three decades and the hard work that he’s put in in the vineyards and the investment made in the winery are shining through in the excellence of his wines. Download the offer as a PDF.
Alvaro Palacios 2016
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Alvaro Palacios’ family roots are firmly in Rioja however, as a young winemaker, he left the area in order to broaden his vinous horizons and made his name with his stunning wines from Priorat, a region at that time unknown to all but a dedicated few Catalonians. Roll on a few years and the steep slopes of Bierzo in the far north west of Spain, with their poor slate soils and Mencía vines lured him and his nephew, Ricardo Perez, to investigate the potential.
Domaines Joseph Roty and Lamy Caillat 2014
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The wines of Domaines Joseph Roty and Lamy Caillat are completely complementary and almost as far apart from each other geographically as you can go in the classic heartlands of the Côte d’Or so at first glance this may seem a curious pairing. However Sébastien Caillat shares many of the same values as the Roty family, with an emphasis on traditional methods and only offering wines once they are finished and in bottle. Both Domaines have a very loyal following and we highly recommend their wines.
Chablis, Domaine William Fèvre 2015
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In terms of style, the 2015 Chablis are very different to the 2014s; plump, almost luscious, these are atypical yet they bear the classic hallmarks, shrouded in broader fruit than usual. For the more broadminded Chablis lovers they will be delicious, combining racy, mineral fruit with a little glint of richness and fat and they will drink well whilst we wait for the more austere 2014s to evolve.
Insignia 2013 *40th Anniversary Bottling*
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Hot on the heels of the brilliant 2012 vintage, Insignia 2013 looks to have even more of the right ingredients to make it a legendary wine. For the team at Joseph Phelps Vineyards to have such a stunning harvest to coincide with the 40th anniversary of their first bottling is nothing short of serendipity.
The Christmas Selection 2016
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What better recommendation can we give to you for Christmas drinking than the very wines that we have chosen to serve to our own families and friends? We've put together a selection of our favourite wines, which can be ordered as whole cases or mixed in multiples of twelve bottles to ensure that you have exactly the right wines to make your Christmas and New Year festivities run smoothly. The hardest part for each of us was choosing just two!
Splendid Magnums!
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Somehow, putting two bottles into one big one just seems so much more generous – it is a statement of intent; enjoyment is the order of the day, and there can be no time more appropriate to indulge one’s inner magnum than in the run-up to Christmas.
Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix 2015
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Our offer of the 2015 vintage from Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix.
Bordeaux 2015
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Read our Bordeaux 2015 Vintage Report here.
Clos Cantenac 2015
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A superb Clos Cantenac 2015, offered alongside Petit Cantenac in bottles, magnums, double magnums and imperials!
Burgundy 2014 En Primeur
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We tasted some truly energising wines during our visit to Burgundy in December 2015, wines so delicious that you wanted to sit down and drink them there and then and, even more importantly, at the end of each long day’s tasting we realised that we had not overdosed on bulky tannins and high alcohol, but were still fresh and raring to go – all signs of a classy vintage. Patrick Javillier, in Meursault, went so far as to call 2014 ‘un grand millésime en blanc’ – high praise indeed. Download the offer here. Call 01353 721 999 to order.
Dark Side of the Moon... Limited Release wines from Springfontein
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The jewels in the crown of any tasting at Springfontein are the two ranges of limited release wines: Limestone Rocks and Daredevils’ Drums. The Daredevils’ Drums wines are what winemaker Tariro Masayiti terms ‘extreme winemaking’ when he pushes experience and knowledge to the limits, following a similar path to natural winemakers but without risking the final quality of his wine; quantities are usually limited to around 900 bottles, or just three barrels.
Burgundy 2015
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Finally, a vintage where everything went according to the rule book, with a brilliant growing season, no extreme hail, frost or storms and perfect harvesting conditions.
Summer Sale!
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As Jane MacQuitty said in The Times on 20th August "One of wine’s many great attributes is its ability to draw sunny skies over your table, whatever the weather. So if this week’s mini-heatwave was all too short, look no further than the wine merchants’ summer sales."
Jane particularly recommends Private Cellar as "another independent merchant with good buys below £10" and recommends that you "cherry-pick the cedar and bilberry-spiced 2010 Château Jeandeman Fronsac Claret, just £11 here, plus a mature Kiwi riesling, the bold, kerosene, angelica and lemongrass-licked 2008 Bishops Head, given away at £8.54. Even the top 100-approved, smoky citrusy 2012 Rully, Clos du Moulin-à-Vent, is down £2.75 to £16."
Domaines Joseph & Philippe Roty 2013
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These wines surprised us in tasting, defying the vintage - charming, opulent and rich, they all but wrote their own tasting note and left us with smiles on our faces.
Château de Sours Rosé 2015
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There is no doubt that Rosé, once the preserve of sunny days and foreign holidays, is now a year-round wine in much the same way as white and red wine, and it is being taken more seriously as a result. That, however, should in no way detract from our fabulously generous, marginally frivolous, annual early-bird offer for Château de Sours’ new vintage when the Château gives us a special introductory price to kick start the year’s business.
Chablis, Domaine William Fèvre 2014
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The Fèvre wines are exceptionally good in 2014 and we recommend them most highly. As with their counterparts on the Côte d’Or the terroir definition is really marked in this vintage and that plays in to the hands of Fèvre “house style” which is all about precision, finesse and a fabulous freshness. Yields are, however, low especially amongst the premiers and grands crus so please let us know as soon as you can if there are wines of interest.
Domaine Leflaive 2014
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Very sadly, in 2015 we announced the untimely death of Anne-Claude Leflaive. 2014 was her last vintage and she remained involved in the day to day running of the Domaine as long as she could, so she saw these delicious wines blossoming in the barrels as they matured.
Lamy Caillat 2013
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Sébastien Caillat’s audacious move to offer the wines from his tiny 1.2 hectare vineyard only once they are in bottle seems to have paid off, as when you have such a small production you need to be sure that the wines are going to be placed in the right hands, preferably those of Burgundy lovers and drinkers. These wines are exceptional, and we wholeheartedly recommend them.
Our Bumper Burgundy Sale!
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January marks the time of year when our Burgundian growers step into the limelight and while we put the finishing touches to our offer of the 2014 vintage, we are excited to offer you an opportunity to buy from our fabulous sale of red and white burgundies from 1996 through to 2013 at really great prices. This offer is not available on-line as stocks will move very quickly so please download it here and call us on 01353 721 999 to order! If you would like us to email a copy to you, please let us know.
Christmas Selection 2015
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Download our Christmas offer as a PDF. Christmas calls for party wines, special treats, gifts, something to pour for unexpected guests, lots of sparkle and big bottles so let us guide you through the celebrations with our top picks.
Magnums
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Magnums are so eloquent; they are merely two bottles, yet they say so much. Welcoming and generous, they set the scene beautifully and whether it’s a kitchen supper with friends or a more formal lunch or dinner, one invariably starts with two bottles, so why not welcome people with a magnum of fizz, have a magnum of Sancerre or Pouilly Fuissé at the start of the meal before moving onto some Claret or Burgundy?
Lamy Caillat 2012, Chassagne Montrachet
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With just 1.2 hectares, Lamy Caillat it is a true micro-operation comprising four different cuvées: Premiers Crus les Caillerets, la Romanée and Champs Gains and a Chassagne Montrachet Village which comes from a steep vineyard called ‘Pot Bois’, at the top of the village.
Germany 2014 en primeur
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Ernst Loosen loves the 2014 vintage. Although challenging from a growers’ point of view, the hard work in the vineyards brought the reward of good yields of perfect grapes at Kabinett level in particular.
Champagne Ruinart - a special offer
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Maison Ruinart is the oldest Champagne house, established in 1729 by Nicolas Ruinart, a Reims draper. Nicolas was inspired and encouraged to set up the family Champagne House by his Uncle, a Benedictine monk.
Rhône 2013 - En Primeur
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Visiting the Rhône in early November 2013, all appeared to be well with the world – late autumn sunshine, easily warm enough to sit outside in shirtsleeves, cool and misty at either end of the day, giving no indication of how turbulent the earlier weather had been...
Chablis, Domaine William Fèvre 2013
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The style of Domaine William Fèvre’s 2013s is fresh and relatively full-bodied, wines which will drink well both early and in the mid-plus term, with the differences between the individual vineyards very clearly marked.
Domaines Joseph & Philippe Roty 2012
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For the Roty family, vintage variation presents a challenge to be risen to rather than a crisis to be sorted out, and in 2012, not the easiest of years (and not to be the hardest, as they were to find out the following year), their wines are, once again, unashamedly delicious. As ever, we had a punishingly early appointment when tannins aren’t always the taster’s best friend, yet their wines completely wowed us and virtually wrote their own tasting notes.
Italy's answer to Burgundy?
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At Rocche Costamagna in Piedmont, with vines now averaging 50 years plus, and a new winery built in 2008, Alessandro Locatelli is reaping the rewards with stunningly well-defined wines which beautifully illustrate what is so great about Piedmont. We have found the winemaker who suits our tastes – and we have yet to be disappointed!
2013 Burgundy
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2013 has turned out to be one of those years where generalisations just cannot sum up everything that contributed to what is an extraordinary vintage, where we found producers somewhat shyly admitting that their wines are so much better than they had dared hope for. For our full tasting notes and vintage report, please download the offer here or call us on 01353 721 999 for a copy. File size: 2MB
Domaine Leflaive 2013
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"Whether from force of habit or just ingrained tasting … no matter whether it is an easy vintage or one where my conclusion about the wines is totally confused, a visit to Domaine Leflaive always clears it up, setting my benchmark for the vintage in a way no other Domaine does." Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW.
Drinking Claret in all shapes and sizes
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Over the past year we have tasted a huge number of wines for our 10th Anniversary list – the usual frog kissing exercise which accompanies any new selection. Amongst these wines were some absolutely brilliant Clarets with insufficient stock for a year-long listing but far too good to risk losing, so we bought them anyway, giving ourselves the perfect excuse to offer them now, for delivery to you in time for Christmas.
La Source Rosé 2012
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Judging by the huge number of vibrant pink boxes that are being loaded on to our vans, Château de Sours’ iconic rosé is being enjoyed across the country in this glorious summer sunshine.But have you taken a detour to the inside track and discovered the Château’s super-cuvée: La Source?
Bumper Burgundy Offer
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Our recent Burgundy tasting in London highlighted to us the genuine interest that our customers have in this fascinating region, its growers and their gorgeously fine wines that produce such a wide spectrum of flavours from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. With this in mind, we have put together a very special offer from our current Burgundy stocks - starting with odd bottles (listed here Duty Paid and available as mixed cases) and moving on to wines by the case (offered here in bond). All of the wines are available for delivery so we hope that you will be tempted to delve even deeper into the region that captures so many hearts...
DOMINUS & NAPANOOK 2010
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Dominus and Napanook have carved a niche of their own in the winescape. Even the very first vintages of Dominus in the ’80s were followed by those who know and trust Christian Moueix’s ability to spot a good vineyard wherever it may be and make an exceptional wine and so consistent have the wines been that the number of devotees now far exceeds the amount made; Dominus now finds itself in that rare stratosphere of those who need to allocate their wines year on year.
Rhône 2015
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“If you have any enthusiasm at all for red Rhône, 2015 is a vintage not to be missed” Jancis Robinson OBE, MW
After several good, sound vintages, the Rhône has bounced back with not one but two stunners in 2015 and 2016; very different one from another but with wines which will remain at the top of their trees for a long time and which are comparable to the 2009 and 2010 double act.
Insignia 2012 and New Releases from Joseph Phelps Vineyards
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The 2012 and 2013 vintages proved that California is all about sun and The Californian Dream, both vintages having a consistently warm and dry growing season with no record-busting heat spikes which are so damaging to young fruit.
Deliciously Versatile German Wines
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Ask any member of the wine trade what they’d like to drink on a hot summer’s day and, more often than not, the answer will be a chilled, refreshing Riesling – low in alcohol, full of flavour; great as an apéritif and equally enjoyable with food.
Álvaro Palacios - Decanter Man of the Year Priorat, Spain 2014
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Listening to Álvaro talk about his wines as he grasps for the right words to describe them is fascinating – it’s as if he is conjuring up an emotional, all-encompassing experience rather than searching for conventional aroma and flavour descriptors
Château de Sours Rosé 2014
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The new release! Beat the budget with our annual "early bird" offer of Château de Sours Rosé in bottles, magnums, double magnums and fabulous imperials.
"Stocking up on the new season's release at pre-Budget prices is eminently sensible as well as providing an excuse to dream about warmer days and lazy summer heat..."
DOMAINE LEFLAIVE
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Whether tasting at Pauillac’s Château Latour or Puligny’s Domaine Leflaive, the very reputation of the place gives you a form of writer’s block, or perhaps even stage fright, as you worry about how you can ever do justice to such legendary wines. Equally, there is the opposite concern that the reputation will awe you into writing a soaring tasting note which may perhaps be more based on fantasy than fact. Thankfully, at Domaine Leflaive the wines usually write their own tasting notes, supplying their own narrative through their different nuances, leaving the taster with the job of finding enough suitable adjectives to convey what is in the glass.
Domaine Faiveley 2013
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Twenty years ago, the vintage would have been a write-off, but aided by better knowledge and techniques alongside acute vigilance in the vineyards at all times, Burgundian producers have turned this potentially ugly duckling into what can only be called a swan of a year.
Joseph Phelps Vineyards 2014
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One of the oldest estates in Napa to remain in family ownership, Joseph Phelps Vineyards have just celebrated their 40th harvest. The continuing rise in the profile of their star wine, Insignia, is well-documented but far from resting on their laurels, the Phelps family continues to innovate and modernise, without fanfare or bombast. Whether changing the blends of their wines from Rhône Rangers to Bordeaux styles, bringing their fruit production in house or advancing their considered move towards biodynamic production across their different sites, their measured, evolutionary approach is reflected in the wines both in Napa and Sonoma.
Germany 2013
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We are very pleased to offer our first selection of 2013 German wines from Joseph Leitz, Weingut Dönnhoff and Dr. Loosen, who release earlier than the other German producers and who, understandably in a very small vintage, are trying to stretch their allocations as far as possible so that all their regular customers are able to get some of their superb wines.
Sparkling Summer Wines
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As the Great British Summer gets under way with all the weddings, christenings and parties in the diary, we thought it was an opportune moment to make you an offer of fabulous wines to ensure your celebrations go with a sparkle. Whether you’re partying in summer garb or wellies and raincoats, enjoy the sound of corks popping and relax in the knowledge that all of these wines will get the party going in true style.
2012 GERMAN RIESLING
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Riesling is one of the few grapes that can excel even in a difficult growing season. This is particularly true for German Rieslings; a theory which was put to the test during Northern Europe’s terrible summer in 2012. It is rare, in Germany, for a vintage to be a total write-off: it is more likely that in a difficult year fewer of the top Trockenbeerenauslesen are made and more of the everyday, hugely drinkable Kabinetts are made, which can be no bad thing for those of us who love to drink German wines.
La Rioja Alta
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This is what Rioja is and should be all about. Given how often the memory tricks us by gilding the past in a warm, rose-tinted vision, it was fantastic to taste some of the wines from La Rioja Alta a couple of weeks ago and realise that this time it was bang on the money – no false recall, just total clarity.
Domaine Matrot 2012
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Thierry and Pascale Matrot’s wines are irresistible to Burgundy lovers year on year. Their whites are reliably stunning - not in the overt, in-your-face way of some Domaines, but in a more subtle, creep-up-behind-you way. Intense, balanced, stylish, almost shy until you realise that the finish is still there and the imprint remains for ages. Their reds are pure, expressions of Pinot Noir, fresh with subtle smooth structures, firm favourites which get better all the time and offer fabulous value for money.
BURGUNDY 2012
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"Deeply fruited, fresh, with good levels of alcohol, amazingly supple tannins in the reds and wonderful, almost exotic yet racy fruit for the whites, these are wines which have defied the odds and will make lovely old bones."
Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW
BUMPER BURGUNDY BIN END OFFER!
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January is all about Burgundy for Private Cellar and with the very small yields in 2012, our En Primeur offering is going to be heavily over-subscribed. In order to keep our Burgundy lovers as happy as we can, we have delved into our stocks and reserves and bring you this offer of older vintages to make up for the shortfall in 2012s. We have over 100 wines on offer here for you.
CHRISTMAS AT PRIVATE CELLAR
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Here we have our top choices of wines to take you through the parties, dinners, lunches and ‘just because’ moments that fill the holidays. This year we have our usual selection of classics, every day wines, sparklers and New World choices, as well as the personal favourites that the Private Cellar sales team will be tucking in to. If you can’t make up your mind, try them as mixed cases and for help in choosing your wines for Christmas, don’t hesitate to call us on 01353 721 999. All prices represent a 10% discount from our regular list price and if you prefer to order online, simply add code FESTIVE when you check-out to add the discount to your basket. Prices include VAT.
2012 RHONE
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The recent run of superb vintages since the late 1990s has awoken interest in the Rhône, and although prices have risen slightly they are still incredibly modest given the quality of wines coming onto the market. For so long the Rhône was overlooked, seen as a source of inexpensive, mass produced wines, yet at the same time the top producers were selling unbelievably fine wines for a fraction of the price of their compatriots in Bordeaux and even Burgundy.
DOMAINES JOSEPH & PHILIPPE ROTY 2011 & DOMAINE FAIVELEY 2012
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In Burgundy, the 2011 and 2012 vintages present completely different styles of wine yet they share many common themes, not least chaotic growing seasons which required the growers to be constantly on their toes. They are, however, complementary vintages which work well together and we are proud to get the Burgundy en primeur season underway with our offer of these wines from the Roty family and Domaine Faiveley.
Joseph Phelps New Release
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1973 was the year in which it all began for Joseph Phelps Vineyards, when Joe Phelps bought a 600 acre cattle ranch in Napa’s Spring Valley and began to plant his first Syrah vines, with the first bottling in 1974. So much has changed since that time, both in terms of winemaking and the styles of wine people drink as well as viticulture and grape varieties. No-one, least of all Joe Phelps himself, could have predicted that forty years on Insignia would be one of the top Napa wines and, indeed, one of the most lauded wines in the world, nor, indeed, how many spectacular wines it would have to compete against to receive such recognition.
END OF YEAR SALE
SOLD OUT
The joy of being a young business is that we don’t end up with lots of ancient, undrinkable bottles cluttering up our cellar. However, with the arrival of each new list, heralding new vintages and exciting discoveries, we inevitably end up with some odd bottles of delicious wines in quantities that are too small to publish in our annual Selection.Here you will find a choice of “bin ends” that we offer on a first come, first served basis.
DELICIOUSLY AFFORDABLE 2005 CLARET
SOLD OUT
The 2005 vintage in Bordeaux was the stuff of legend and much of it was snapped up in 2006 in a very successful en primeur campaign. Subsequently, it has become a challenge to find good, approachable 2005s at prices we can all afford but thanks to our friends and contacts in Bordeaux, we are able to offer you two exemplary wines which tick all boxes and will be perfect for winter drinking and a real treat this Christmas: Château Capbern Gasqueton 2005 from the Calon Ségur stable and Château Tour Baladoz 2005 a St Emilion Grand Cru, also available in splendid double magnums.
BIG BOTTLES
SOLD OUT
Order now for Christmas and winter drinking! At our London tasting in September we were thrilled to receive so many requests for our wines in magnums and larger formats. The allure of big bottles is definitely not waning - they look great, feel generous and make guests feel hugely welcome and it galvanised us to put this special offer together for Christmas drinking. But to make sure you are ready to wield your wines in these impressive bottles over the holidays, you will have to be quick as the offer closes on Tuesday 22nd October, after which we will start the shipping process.
MACON VERZE 2010 - DOMAINES LEFLAIVE
SOLD OUT
The Private Cellar team has a long association with Anne-Claude Leflaive dating back well before our own company’s conception. Last year we had a lot of fun introducing another wine from her portfolio - the delicious Mâcon-Verzé, Domaines Leflaive - with great succes and we are thrilled to now be able to offer the 2010 vintage to you. The 9-hectare vineyard, 12 kilometres west of Verzé, was snapped up by Anne-Claude in 2004, and has been managed by the Leflaive team ever since, employing biodynamic cultivation from the start, as they so famously do in their Puligny-Montrachet holdings.
CHATEAU MUSAR
SOLD OUT
Chateau Musar is one of the best known Lebanese wine producers, established by the Hochar family in the 1930s. Their vineyards are in the Bekaa Valley, squeezed between two mountain ranges, where the vines grow at around 1,000m above sea level, an altitude that allows them to avoid the intense summer heat and ensures that the vines are well rested over the winter – often coated in snow. Their wines have a delicious blend of Old World classicism, New World fruit and an enticing touch of the exotic which reminds you that these wines come from the Middle East, not Europe.
VINTAGE PORT 2011
SOLD OUT
Despite producing wine every year, it is only in the very best vintages that a Port house declares the wine to be good enough to make the cut as Vintage Port – on average only three times a decade. Rarer still is a general declaration, when all of the Houses pronounce the vintage to be an outstanding success. The 2011 vintage ports show a fabulous degree of freshness and elegance whilst being complex and layered too. These are wines for the long term and we recommend them highly at all quality levels.
DOM PERIGNON 2004
SOLD OUT
For many, Dom Pérignon is synonymous with the word Champagne and each new release is eagerly awaited. We are delighted to offer the 2004 Vintage, launched in London by Vincent Chaperon, Dom Pérignon’s chief oenologist. This blend of 53% Pinot Noir and 47% Chardonnay is already receiving fabulous reviews for its great length and ageing ability.
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