Top-class French Rhone: Domaine Aléofane Crozes-Hermitage from Natacha Chave, only £15.75 per bottle: Case of 12 bottles delivered: 2016 vintage, sold out

This lovely wine is recognised as matching the superb 2015—a wine which won superlatives and accolades from every one of the respected wine connoisseurs. Our Club Wine Tasting Panel are unanimously thrilled to have secured this delicious for our Members—and of course at the wholesale price of £15.75 a bottle instead of £27!

With every vintage Madame Chave stakes her claim as one of the region’s great producers and one to follow with excitement. Named one of Decanter’s ‘Six Winemakers to Watch’, she was brought up making wines with her renowned parents Nicole and Bernard Chave, and decided to go it alone in 2004 when her brother, Yann Chave, took over the family’s famous vineyards. She made a great success of a parcel of vines in St Joseph, then in 2007 turned to her home, Crozes Hermitage, where she became a hands-on producer of organic wines on only 5 acres. But what a 5 acres! Madame Chave chose some of the finest vineyards in the appellation, with vines up to 50 years old, making this 100% Shiraz in the Northern Rhone with elegance, beauty and finish—and gaining an almost cult following as well as the highest praise from such influential critics as Andrew Jefford (Financial Times and Decanter) and Jancis Robinson.

As with her much-praised 2015 vintage, this is a deep ruby wine, a perfumed nose evoking red and dark fruits and with a lively, full-bodied rich and concentrated palat, vibrant and juicy, with featherweight tannins and judicious length, it has flavours of dark berries, game and pepper. The Club Tasting Panel gave it top rating with rich game casserole, grouse and lamb, all of which pair perfectly, and it will be excellent with most red meats. It is drinking beautifully now, and will naturally improve over a decade or more. Our Tasting Panel suggest snapping up a case or more, enjoying a few bottles now—and when the grouse season opens again—and enjoying the wine more and more as the years progress.

Case of 12 bottles delivered (UK mainland).