White Wine

Expert Review - Vintage 2021 

Tim Atkin MW 92 Points | Kara-Tara is Stark-Condé winemaker Rudger van Wyk’s own project, entirely focused on Burgundian grapes. This stylish Chardonnay marries grapes from Elgin, the Overberg and Paarl. Poised between citrus and stone fruit flavours, with subtle toast and wet stone undertones. 2022-27′.

Producer Description 

Kara-Tara is a joint-venture between Rüdger van Wyk (2018 Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year) and José Conde of Stark-Condé Wines. Translated from the Khoisan, the language from the first people in Southern Africa, it means “deep dark shadows” and refers to the Karatara river that runs through Rüdger’s home town, near Knysna which is located in South Africa, on the Cape South Coast, facing the Indian Ocean.

This wine has the classic notes of lemon and grapefruit you’d expect from Chardonnay, with hints of almond and a fine mineral finish.

Our Professional Review

Bart of 67Wine.com writes | Pale golden colored with a fresh and lively bouquet of lime blossoms and tropical fruits highlighted by a note of  toasty oak. Creamy and complex in the mouth with a delicious exotic richness and beautiful balance. Food friendly and drinking perfectly now!

Winemaker Description 

Pale lemon in colour. On the nose aromas of lime and tropical fruits are married with a well integrated toastiness from the oak. Deliciously mouthwatering on the palate with a creamy texture from the lees ageing. As you would expect from this producer, the wine has a Côte d’Or sensibility and exceptional balance.

Expert Reviews

James Suckling 94 Points | Offers fresh lemon, apple and pear, as well as sweetly fragrant spice. Pure and sleek palate with crisp apple, pear and lemon building into the long finish. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

The Wine Advocate 93 Points | The 2021 Gun Metal Riesling is tasted from magnum. I should mention that, as magnums are a magnificent way of storing wine. The wines stay fresher, for longer, and the only trouble is storing them. And working out when to drink them (of course, the magnum format has saved a great many bottles of mine from being opened, so it's a worthy investment). This is pithy and rocky, with florals, minerals and talc in equal measure. The fruit is frothy and soft, yet the acidity is like a coiled spring within. What a lovely, mineral wine; it's expansive and tight at once.

Wine Enthusiast 92 Points | This is a bright and bouncy Riesling with aromas of apple skins and fresh squeezed lime, with bass notes of kerosene and honey. The mouthfeel is chalky and pithy with razor's edge acidity and a long, limey finish. Balanced and varietal, this may be a bit austere for those unaccustomed to the bone dry Aussie Riesling style, but paired with the right cheese or seafood, or aged in bottle a few years for more honeyed complexity, and it should win over most hearts and palates.

Winemaker Description 

Pale straw with green tinges. Citrus, especially lime, predominates the flavor profile while carrying the trademark minerality that Gun Metal is renowned for. Petals, minerals and talc. The palate is delicate, refined and intense, with a firm, dry finish and lingering aftertaste. Citrus, mineral and powder-dry finish.

Expert Review - Vintage 2023 

Jesica Vargas of the Wine Enthusiast writes 90 Points | The nose of this white wine leans toward tropical, offering aromas of sweet peach and citrus fruit. The palate has texture, lifting acidity and fine tannins. Balanced flavors of chamomile, lemon, green apple and white peach slide through the lingering finish.  

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2020

Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points |  The 2020 Chardonnay Sanford & Benedict Vineyard (20% new French oak) has a touch of chamomile in its perfumed aromatics of golden apple, honeyed toast, spice, and subtle green almonds. Complex and nuanced aromatically, it's medium-bodied on the palate, has high yet nicely integrated acidity, terrific balance, and outstanding length.

91 Wine Spectator | Displays wonderful density, offering nectarine and lemon sorbet notes at the core, with a touch of salted, roasted almond. This white shows a hint of crunchy sea salt, with lemon verbena and lemon blossom aromatics. Firming acidity adds a refreshing punctuation point. Drink now. 331 cases made

Producer Description 

This Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay is bright, beautifully layered, and nuanced. Meyer lemon, candle wax, and cut straw all grace this very savory Chardonnay. Orange marmalade, stone fruits, and chamomile work seamlessly with the rich textures on the palate. This wine is natural with richer dishes and even light game.

Expert Review - Vintage 2023 

Vinous 90 Points | The 2023 Pinot Grigio is a total pleasure on the nose, blending crushed almonds with white flowers, wet stone and freshly sliced nectarines. It’s soft and round with a stimulating core of acidity to balance. A sour lime tinge nicely offsets ripe orchard fruits. The 2023 leaves a mineral note lingering, finishing crisp, refreshing and with medium length.

Winemaker Description 

Terlato Family Vineyards Friuli Pinot Grigio is a light gold color. Bright notes of white peach, pear and spring flowers. Complex and layered with ripe peach, pear, citrus and a mouth filling texture with crisp mineral finish.

Winemaker Description

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2023 

Wine Enthusiast 94 Points | With the most upfront fruit in the Vasse Chard trio, Filius is immediately comforting in a favorite T-shirt kind of way, with bright, fleshy lime and peach blossom, a flicker of nougat and something stony, a bit salty. It flows seamlessly to a palate of mouth-watering acidity that balances the toasty oak and malolactic influences.

Wine Spectator 93 Points | Bright and expressive, with plenty of precision to the detailed notes of lemon sherbet, lemongrass, pear, lemon verbena, white pepper and green apple. Hints of tangerine, lemon oil and tarragon linger on a juicy frame.

James Suckling 92 Points | The nose is fruit-driven, with generous aromas of peaches, white nectarines and orange blossoms. The palate is medium-bodied with focused acidity, giving notes of lemon pith, pink grapefruit and flint. Very refined and polished, being a classic style of Margaret River chardonnay.

Expert Review - Vintage 2022 

Wine Spectator 92 Points | A ripe style, displaying pineapple, mango, peach, orange peel and toasty oak flavors. Juicy and broad, this shows power and length. A bit funky, yet there's a lot to like here. Drink now through 2028. 125 cases made, 10 cases imported.

Jasper Morris 92 Points

Alain Chavy owns over 17 acres of prime vineyard in Puligny-Montrachet, including several premier crus. His winemaking reputation precedes itself with wines of class and distinction, so it comes as no surprise that the release of his 2022s have created some vinous excitement. His exquisitely styled premier cru Les Champs Gain is a tour de force effort par excellence! Elegant, precise and beautifully detailed with exquisite orchard and stone fruit aromas, delicately framed by subtle oak nuances. In the mouth, the flavors unfold with lively intensity. Layers of golden apple, lime zest and apricot emerging graciously on the palate with a quartz like mineral complexity. Perfectly balanced acidity brings harmony and purity to the lasting finish. This magnificent Puligny drinks beautifully now, living up to its high expectation, and will age gracefully for years to come.

Bart Hopkins

Winemaker Description 

Alain Chavy produces restrained, structured, and long-lived white Burgundies from 17 acres of vineyards in Puligny-Montrachet, with small holdings in the neighboring villages of Chassagne and Meursault. Alain established Domaine Alain Chavy in 2003 with vineyards inherited from his father and includes some of Puligny's top premier crus.

The Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru 'Les Champs Gains' comes from two parcels planted between 1958 and 1962. Located below 1er Cru 'Les Folatieres', 'Les Champs Gains' is more sheltered by surrounding hedges. The limestone soils are 20cm in depth which lend a particular salinity to the finished wine.

Characterised by precise acidity and notes of peach and ripe lemon, the palate displays a mineral freshness and a long intense finish.

Winemaker Description 

Our family winery has hand-crafted fine wines for four generations. We harvest grapes at their peak of ripeness from our 1,850 acres and prime California vineyards creating wines to be enjoyed every day – whatever the occasion. Our Chardonnay is a delightfully crisp wine with aromas of lemon and citrus.

• Flavors of apple and pear mingle with a hint of oak in this medium-bodied wine that is smooth and refreshing

Winemaker Description 

Observing careful cultivation and vinification techniques, Domaine Matrot wines offer purity of fruit and terroir-driven character. The beautifully textured 2021 Meursault is made from a blend of grapes from 12 different plots, which creates a classic representative of village Meursault. A lovely bouquet of peaches, pears and golden apples fills the glass with creamy elegance, with a lovely touch of citrus fruit on the detailed finish. Excellent purity, precision and expression of place.

Expert Review - Vintage 2021 

Allen Meadows of Burghound | ...a discreet touch of wood can be found on the pretty aromas of mineral reduction, zest and a similar floral top note. There is a bit more volume and richness to the solidly concentrated medium-bodied flavors that flash evident minerality on very clean, bone-dry and nicely complex and persistent finale. This is a quality Meursault villages.

Winemaker Description - Vintage 2021 

Jeb Dunnuck 90 Points | The 2021 Côtes Du Rhône Blanc sports a light gold hue as well as bright peach, honeyed flowers, and chalky mineral-like nuances. With a tight, focused, almost reductive style, it's beautifully done and a gorgeous white.

Winemaker Description 

Color: Yellowish green. Nose: Thick bouquet of yellow fruit, gooseberry, elderflower and ripe currant. Taste: Crisp acidity, soft fullness and elegant fullness.

Expert Review - 2023 Vintage 

Winemaker Description 

Lively and intense, this Sancerre is dry and classic in style with aromas and flavors of peaches, green apples, gooseberries and quince with a backbone of stony minerality. Perfectly balanced acidity makes this a perfect pairing to grilled fish, poultry and vegetable based dishes.

The Montrachet glass is perfect to reveal the intensity of full-bodied white wines, including the wine's multi-layered aromas. With a larger volume, the wide open-mouthed bowl enables the rich bouquet to develop its wonderfully diverse range of aromas, emphasizing the finesse while minimizing the risk of richer style white wines becoming over-concentrated.

This product is made of clear crystal glass.

Sommeliers was the world’s first wine friendly glass collection and a design revolution created by Claus J. Riedel (9th generation). The range adheres to the Bauhaus design principle of form follows function, as Claus J. Riedel had discovered that certain wines showed more depth and better balance when enjoyed from certain shapes. Thin-blown and unadorned, Sommeliers was the beginning of RIEDEL's dominance of the global wine glass market.

This product is handmade.

Our master glassmakers individually craft each item so every piece has a unique character. Due to the nature of crafting, small tolerances in the size and weight of each product, tiny bubbles, imperfections, or slight surface variations are an acceptable part of the process.

This pack contains a single piece. 

The Water glass is perfect for complimenting any table setting, from elegant to casual.
Thin yet durable, this design classic provides the finishing touch.

This product is made of clear crystal glass.

Vinum is RIEDEL's basic varietal specific stemmed series. Designed in 1986 by 10th generation glassmaker Georg J. Riedel, Vinum was created to ensure every wine lover could afford varietal-specific glassware. Based on the handmade Sommeliers range, machine production means Vinum can be offered at a more accessible price.

This product is machine-made.

This item is dishwasher safe.

This pack contains 2 pieces. 

Winemaker Description 

This wine features bright and sunny fruit aromas with flavors of baked apple and pear. Hints of melon and citrus peel with toasted sweet oak, butterscotch, and baking spice complement a rich, round mouthfeel and a creamy, long finish.

Our Professional Review

Bart Hopkins of 67Wine.com | Here is a perfect example of just how good Chardonnay can be! Refreshing flavors of white peach, lively citrus, stone fruit and pear drop cascade across the palate with fleshy richness and energetic balance. There is plenty of zip and clean acidity on the long, delicious and very happy finish. Great with a wide variety of foods, but also just by itself.

Expert Review

Sam Kim of Wine Orbit 95 Points |  Gorgeously composed and expressed, the wine shows golden peach, lemon peel, nougat and hazelnut aromas with a hint of brioche complexity. The concentrated palate delivers terrific weight and persistency, wonderfully complemented by creamy texture and beautifully pitched acidity.

Lock up every drop with our Lockdown™ Flip-Top Stopper. For an air-tight seal, flip the chrome lever down: two-tone rubber will expand and plug the bottle.

• Chrome, plastic & rubber
• Fits standard bottles
• Push down to seal
• For still wine only, not for use with champagne or sparkling bottles. 

Producer Description 

In the bouquet, ripe aromas, dense, powerful, elegant spice, great play of warm, ripe and cool mineral aromas, opens up more and more with air and has a great arc of tension. Complex aromas, green sugar snap peas, sweet and fully ripe citrus fruits, overripe bananas, dried apricots, candied ginger. We always hand-pick the Tabor vineyard at the end of our harvest. Extremely ripe grapes without botrytis. A monumental and complex Grüner Veltliner that inspires with its concentration, complex aroma, clarity and youthfulness.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2020

Wine Enthusiast 92 Points | Whiff of sage honey on the nose gives you the wrong impression, as the palate introduces freshness with kumquat and lemon oil which mingle with ripe notes of apple and pear. It is silky in texture with a slight crunch towards the mouthwatering finish.

Decanter 91 Points | The Forstreiters claim that their Tabor vineyard, which overlooks the Danube, is planted on its own roots and is the oldest in Austria. In any event, it always produces an imposing wine. The nose has swagger with rich pear aromas. The wine is weighty, full-bodied and concentrated, with a long, tangy saline finish. Not much is produced but it's worth looking out for.

Producer Description 

The unique traits of Wiemer’s Magdalena Vineyard are featured in this lush Riesling. A beneficial air exchange with Seneca Lake moderates the temperatures, creating a warmer and more protective site in the colder months and a cooling effect throughout the summer. The airflow keeps the vineyard dry, and deep soil provides room for spreading root growth. The lime silt loam soil that the site is celebrated for is crucial to the development of flavor intensity in the grapes. Magdalena wines are striking and powerful, and develop very well over time– whether in the glass or in the cellar.

Critic Notes 

The Wine Enthusiast by Christina Pickard writes 95 Points | Still a spring chicken, this top Riesling—if drunk now—needs a few good swirls in the glass before releasing delicate orange citrus, jasmine and honeysuckle aromas from the clutch of more reductive ones. There's richness and intensity on the dry, slippery palate, cut with citrusy acidity and a chalk dust minerality to the ultralong finish. This is a wine of complexity and class that should cellar until 2032 or longer.

Producer Description 

Our elegant and refined Sauvignon Blanc incorporates small amounts of Sauvignon Musqu and Sauvignon Gris, which add a layer of depth and a fleshy, full-bodied mouthfeel. At first swirl, this wine presents tropical aromas of passionfruit, pineapple and melon with nuances of peach and jasmine.

 Stainless steel fermentation was supplemented with small amounts of acacia, French oak and chestnut barrels, adding additional character and nuance to this delicious wine.

Producer Description 

The wine opens with a very pure and fresh but intense nose of crushed limestone,
lime and lemon skins. Round and elegant on the palate, this full-bodied wine is powerful, juicy, very intense, citrusy and finishes with a refreshing, almost challenging acidity grip.

After being harvested meticulously by hand the grapes from the different parcels underwent a short maceration period and were then carefully pressed.

The pre-clarified must was fermented at cool temperatures in steel tanks, then matured to accentuate the racy, fruity character as best as possible. After ageing on the lees for a moderate length of time, the individual parts were blended together and bottled.

Producer Description 

Founded in 1171, Schloss Gobelsburg is one of the largest holders of “Grand Cru” vineyards in Austria.  This single vineyard Ried Heiligenstein is located on the the unique geological structure “Zöbinger Perm”, with the sandstone, silt and arkose giving the wine a unique herbed aroma with a washed-rind cheese quality. A crystalline texture with lemon grass, green apple and pear.  The acid is memorable and spicy without the tingle often found in high tension Austrian Riesling.

Expert Reviews

The Wine Advocate 96 Points |  Gobelsburg's 2020 Ried Heiligenstein 1ÖTW opens with a clear, bright and savory bouquet of sandstone, salt, ripe stone fruits and tea. Lush and round on the palate, this is a textured, very elegant and balanced Heiligenstein Riesling with a lingering, fine salinity on the highly elegant and aromatic finish. This is again an excellent, quiet and perfectly balanced Riesling from one of the greatest Riesling sites along the Danube River. The 2020 already drinks beautifully but can be aged for two or three decades. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in September 2022. (v.2020).

James Suckling 95 Points | #47 TOP 100 WINES OF AUSTRIA, 2022. This fascinating and extremely complex dry riesling has an incredibly wide aroma spectrum, from rhubarb and ripe gooseberry to wild flowers and herbs. At once rich and tense, with tons of wet stone minerality, this is precisely balanced on the blade of a razor-sharp knife. Drink or hold. (v.2020). 

Producer Description 

Livingston Cellars Rhine is a pleasantly sweet California Rhine that balances a crisp mouthfeel with bright fruit flavors. Livingston Cellars offers affordable award-winning wines that consistently exceed expectations.

Producer Description 

This wine comes from the estate's two oldest Romorantin vineyards .It is fermented in stainless steel tanks and concrete vats and aged in stainless steel and fiberglass on the lees. Powerful, racy aromatics coupled with richness akin to polished white stones, sea salt and dried white nectarine—if drinking now, decant and serve with poached chicken, swordfish and decadent cheeses; will also cellar well for another five years.

Herve Villemade has been working his family's vines in Cellettes since taking over from his father in 1995. Today, the estate represents about 22 hectares of organically farmed fruit within the Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny AOCs, along with a negociant license to supplement production with local grapes.

Expert Review

James Suckling 94 Points | The wine opens with a very pure and fresh but intense nose of crushed limestone, lime and lemon skins. Round and elegant on the palate, this full-bodied wine is powerful, juicy, very intense, citrusy and finishes with a refreshing, almost challenging acidity grip. (v.2022)

Jancis Robinon | Ingrid Groiss tried to escape the vineyards and small-village life of Breitenwaida in the Weinviertel north west of Vienna but the call of the vines proved irresistible. 

Her parents and grandmother owned vineyards and made wine for their own Heuriger (a country wine tavern selling young wine on tap) and for private clients and at the age of 15 she wanted to leave home to study at the Klosterneuburg winemaking school. There was one insurmountable problem: there was no dormitory for girls and her parents felt, not surprisingly, that she was too young to live on her own in or near Vienna. So she studied tourism at a nearby college.

Having completed her studies, she started working with her parents and ‘felt like life had already ended … together with my parents in this really, really tiny village surrounded by nothing – here the chicken and foxes say good night to each other – ideally marrying my neighbour who is also a farmer (as an old saying goes: loves goes away, hectares stay) so I had to leave and explore the world.’

After a happy and properous few years working in marketing for Coca Cola and Anheuser Busch in the German cities of Bremen and Berlin, she still felt something was missing – ‘a great life, good payment, a company flat and company car … so what would you expect more from life?’ The inescapable conclusion: ‘What I really desire to do and what my heart beats for: making wine!’

Fortuitously and, from Ingrid’s point of view, ‘as a sign of destiny’, at this time the University of Vienna started a new natural sciences course in Weinbau, Önologie und Weinwirtschaft (viticulture, oenology and wine marketing). Alongside her studies she gained practical experience working with producers such as Domäne Wachau, Birgit Braunstein and Birgit Eichinger. She had started making wine at home but then began the generation game.

As she explains, ‘I had already started making wine at home but with my father, and it was always big discussions and fights because he had his own philosophy and I wanted to improve many things. It didn´t work and so I asked my granny to give me her Schablau vineyard to work and make wine out of it (this was my first own vintage 2010). I had a deal with my father. I said I would work this vineyard in my own philosophy and make the wine in my style and he is not allowed to discuss it. Then we taste all wines together blind and if my wine wins I run the vineyards and make the wines on my own with my philosophy in the next year. My wine won. Now he is happy that he is not responsible for the vineyards and the cellar any more and I´m happy as well (but of course both my mum and my father support me a lot and I´m thankful for this!). Also the philosophy of my parents changed – now we already work the first vineyards organically and my father is proud of this way!’

Groiss is particularly grateful for the ‘gorgeous’ vineyards planted by her granny. ‘Most of them are 50 years and older and in these times people put much more focus on which varieties fit on which appellations and on which soil. I´m also proud that I still have many old autochthonous varieties in my gemischter Satz vineyards like Hietl Rote, Silberweisse, Weisse Vöslauer and Graue Vöslauer (varieties that where planted everywhere in Weinviertel but now nobody knows them any more). And of course I learnt a lot from my granny (there are sooo many things you cannot learn from a book – it´s things you learn from a real long life and lot of experience). She couldn´t sit at home – she always wanted to go in the vineyards with me.’