BEST SELLERS

Cornas is the northern Rhone's most uncompromising appellation — pure Syrah on granite, dark and savage in youth.

Gevrey produces the most structured reds in the Cote de Nuits, and even at village level the wines carry weight the rest of Burgundy doesn't.

Lalande sits directly across the stream from Pomerol, on similar ground, at a fraction of the price its neighbour commands.

All Chardonnay from a house that has been making Champagne since 1757 and advertising it almost never.

Sur lie means the wine rests on its yeast over winter, which gives Muscadet its texture and faint spritz.

Mazis sits directly alongside Chambertin itself and is widely held to be the closest in character to it, at a fraction of the price.

Jaboulet are one of the Rhone's historic names, and this is a single-estate Syrah in their more modern register.

The most recognised Champagne in the world, and made in volumes that make that possible.

No sugar added at any point, which strips away the softening most Champagne relies on and leaves the fruit and chalk fully exposed.

Made by blending red wine into the base, the standard method, giving a straightforwardly fruity style.

Brezza are among the last genuinely traditional Barolo houses, working the Sarmassa cru in Barolo village itself with long macerations an...

Sangiovese from Romagna rather than Tuscany, a region usually dismissed as Chianti's poor relation.

Grenache rose from northern Greece, made in a pale Provencal register but with more substance.

Riserva means longer ageing and stricter selection.

Lismore is a single estate in Greyton, high and cool, built from nothing by an American who arrived in 2003.

Bolgheri is the coastal appellation where Bordeaux varieties were planted in Tuscany, producing the wines that became known as Super Tuscans.

Pinotage carries a difficult reputation, largely earned in the 1990s by wines that were rustic and overworked.

White Port is Portugal's best-kept secret, served long over ice with tonic in Porto itself.

Soave's reputation was destroyed by industrial bottlings in the 1970s, and growers like this have spent forty years rebuilding it.

Declared only in exceptional years, bottled unfiltered, and made to be laid down for decades.

Turkish wine from the Aegean highlands, made from indigenous varieties.

Leyda sits a few kilometres from the Pacific, cold enough that ripening takes months longer than inland.

VIK is a purpose-built estate in Millahue, where the owners bought 4,000 hectares and planted only the small fraction that soil mapping justified.

Limari is semi-desert with limestone soils — unusual in Chile — on the edge of the Atacama.