Character. That’s what I enjoy in a wine. Whether it be natural, organic or conventional I want a wine that tells me a story and shows character. That could be the character of the grape, the winemaker, the place – preferably more than one of those. We have all had wines, often by the glass, which taste ok but could be anything – identifiable by only the most brilliant blind taster. Supermarkets sell these by the thousand. Nor do I want a wine recognisable by its faults, whether mousiness, cork taint or bad decisions by winemakers such as too much oak.

So, when I looked back through photos of the bottles I had enjoyed this year it was character that influenced my pick of wines which made most impact and which I enjoyed the most.

English (and Welsh) wines made a big impression on me in 2025. I have enjoyed a fair number in the past from producers such as Davenport and Westwell but this year I was able to enjoy more examples and I think that the quality is rising at a serious pace. My favourite bottle is one I have described here a number of times, Mountain People‘s TAM 2023, a Chardonnay made in Wales by the excellent David Morris. Actually produced from grapes grown in Somerset this would easily rival many a top Jura wine. I had a few bottles through the year including this one shared with Jeff Coutelou (background left) who liked it a lot.

Westwell sold a really lovely wine called A Little Bit, 2023, which I really enjoyed. Made from the third pressing of Pinot Noir and Meunier grapes and therefore the press had to be firm making the juice too tannic and coloured for sparkling wine. yet, it made a light but fruity rosé/red with a nice grip. A triumph of getting the most from your grapes. Blackbook winery is based in Battersea, London and makes grapes from within two hours of its base. I could choose a number of their wines but Pinot Meunier 2022 was my favourite. Nicely judged skin contact gave a lovely colour and mouthfeel as well as stone fruit flavours.

The New World continues to produce some great wines, South America included. I bought a bottle of Le Petit Voyage Criolla 2020 on a quick visit to a wine bar in Durham on a whim. It turned out to have bags of fresh red fruit flavour, a real treat from Argentina’s Uco Valley. A nice discovery. I enjoyed a few wines from Chile’s A Los Vinateros Bravos but especially the Pais Granitico 2022, nice acidity balanced by cherry fruit flavours. Both of these wines tell the story of early colonial vines imported into the continent by the Spanish but finding a home there which brings out a real sense of place, grape and enjoyment too!

Three wines from Australia and New Zealand complete this first section of my 2025 selections. I do think that Canterbury producer Hermit Ram‘s Theo Coles is one of the best winemakers around and any bottle of his is memorable but the Field Blend Amphora 2021 was particularly so. Riesling, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Gewurztraminer make for an unusual combination but the fruit of the red grapes is lifted by the freshness of the whites making for joyful aroma and flavour. The amphora gives texture to the mix too so that those flavours lingered long in the mouth.

Ochota Barrels is another excellent source from Down Under. Amber Ochota has continued the fine work of her husband Taras after his tragically early death and I thoroughly enjoyed The Price of Silence Gamay 2023 with its fruitiness and spice highlighting the pleasures of the grape. Also from the Adelaide Hills region came Commune of Buttons‘ Basketolo 2022 made from Nebbiolo and again so full of that grape’s character with its fresh acidity and bite as well as generous red fruits, a lovely food wine.

Wines from around the world rather than mainland Europe but it is to there I shall turn in my next article.

Time to get back to work. A thunderstorm overnight meant there was no picking on Monday September 1st and so I turned up on Tuesday ready for action. I popped over to Sainte Suzanne first as the newish parcel of whites, Maccabeu and Clairette were the focus for the day. On a clear morning with the sun not long risen it was fresh after the rain, a good time to be back. The vines showed ravages from mildew with the brown spots of the disease but the grapes were in good nick.

Into the cellar and the Maccabeu was beginning to arrive, pressed directly. Pièr, this year’s stagiaire, was the one loading the grapes into the press. He’s a bright, enthusiastic lad from the Anjou and has experience in the work, he is the son of Jean Christophe Garnier, so it’s a real help to Jeff to be able to leave him to do tasks along with Flora in the cellar.

From there upstairs into the courtyard of the house leading into the upper cellar where the sorting table has been positioned since 2020 when being outside was a healthy option for all. It works very well, there is more space for everyone there and in the cellar itself. Plus the fresh air and dappled sunshine make it a pleasant place to be. Alongside me on the table were Boris, who has been coming to help Jeff for many years now, Mari from the village and Jean-Jacques from nearby Bédarieux. These two have worked together before in wine, with Didier Barral for example. So we form an experienced team and they are good company as we chat over the course of the day.

The Clairette was in good order other than a few dried stems from mildew and the morning passed swiftly. The Clairette from Segrairals also arrived including the attractive pink Clairette Rose which brightens the mix. These grapes have been making the eponymous cuvée for the last few years and it has become one of my favourite bottles from Jeff, the Clairette has a lovely freshness but a bitter note too to add a touch of grown up complexity. A year or two in bottle is recommended, at least to my taste.

It was a hot day and my body was aching after my first day. I have chosen to just work some days this year, I am now officially a pensioner! Wednesday went ahead without me at the winery and Jeff told me that evening there’d been one calamity (not because I wasn’t there I hasten to add). One of the pumps had broken down and couldn’t be repaired for a few days therefore he was having to redraft plans. The day was given to the Cinsault from Segrairals, now one of the biggest crops of all and the source of fruit for cuvées 5SO and Vin Des Amis.

I returned on Thursday and again the early grapes were going directly into press. This was still the Cinsault but from a part of the vineyard which had suffered a little so the grapes were fragile and Jeff wanted to extract the juice without the skins. When that couple of rows had gone into the press the rest of the Cinsault was taken back to sorting table for fermentation on skins.

Cinsault is so generous, the big open leaves seem to hint at the friendly fruitiness of the juice, the typically big sized grapes almost bursting through the thin skins. It has to be picked at the right moment or it will cross over into over ripe and flabby. These bunches were good sized and healthy. Well the vast majority. Frustratingly some of the bigger, tighter packed bunches have to be checked carefully, breaking them open because ver de la grappe, the grape moth larva loves these bunches. The moth lays its eggs in the young bunch and the larva eat their way through the centre leaving a powdery black mess. Not what you want in your wine. Careful selection, in the vineyard and sorting table, is needed to ensure only good grapes go into the tank.

The afternoon brought a change of grape variety, Grenache from La Garrigue. I had noted the bunches when touring the vineyards last week and they arrived in good order. Hardly any ver de la grappe thankfully, the major issue was effects from mildew. The leaf marking is unsightly but not serious however, when the mildew affects the bunches it dries out the fruit causing buds not to develop into grapes and leaving gaps on the stalks or hard, dried grains.

Fortunately the vast majority of bunches were in very good condition and the tanks began to fill with Pièr keeping a close watch. After that, everyone’s full effort is given to cleaning the equipment thoroughly, none spared in ensuring that cleanliness rules so that we make wine in healthy, optimal conditions. This is essential for any winemaking but particularly when no chemical additions are made to the wine, the wine has to look after itself.

Two good days of work, encouraging signs from the grapes and the infant wines. It was a pleasure to be back even if I am not as involved as previous years. And all supervised by another old chap.

With or without you. A bad year for me with bereavements and serious operations for family and friends and then, to crown it, a car accident prevented us from getting out to the Languedoc for the start of vendanges as intended. To continue the metaphor, an annus horribilis.

Was it a tale of woe for Jeff Coutelou? Well, no. Abundant rain in Spring went a long way to restoring the water table but that was followed by extreme heat for a long period over the summer. Rain and heat bring disease and downy mildew in particular. Temperatures over 40c which endured for a significant time also stress the vines and cause then to go into survival mode rather than ripening fruit. Nonetheless Jeff told me that he was reasonably content with how things were looking as vendanges loomed close. The start date was August 26th which is in line with recent vintages. Sadly, that accident meant that I would not be part of the team for the first week as I’d hoped.

Upon arrival I did a tour of the vines and received quite a surprise. I knew that Jeff had given up on Flower Power vineyard (Font D’Oulette) the imaginative field co-plantation of over 20 grape varieties. Sadly, after a promising start and favourable reviews in magazines the Flower Power project was fatally damaged back in 2016 when snails ravaged the vineyard. The vines never properly recovered from that episode. I recall spending a whole day collecting snails from the vines and still they came! Recent harvests had seen tiny quantities from the parcel, a few cases and Jeff finally lost patience. So the vines were grubbed up, that I expected.

What I didn’t know was that Jeff had also decided to pull up (arrachage) other parcels too. The original red grape section of Peilhan with varieties such as Carignan and the rare Castets were gone. The area above it was planted in 2015 with a range of unusual, local varieties such as Piquepoul Gris and Noir, Terret Gris and Noir and Monastrell. They are now producing good quantities of interesting wine and the new Xarel-lo parcel made its first wines last year too from Peilhan. Add on the two year old plantation of Parellada, Malvasia de Sitges and Maccabeu and the vineyard will actually be producing greater quantities than before but I was sad to see Castets disappear.

Disease, particularly in the trunks of the vines, was the main reasoning for pulling out that red section and also for grubbing out the old Mourvedre vines in Segrairals vineyard. In truth I never liked the grapes much from there, a small amount of rain would often send them over the edge to rot. And then..

Sainte Suzanne is a vineyard I always liked a lot. It was where I did a lot of my early picking back in 2014 and 2015 and the Syrah and Grenache were usually the source of Vin des Amis, the cuvée which first hooked me to Jeff’s wines. Standing on top of the ridge in La Garrigue you get a good view across to Ste. Suzanne and I was astonished to see that the original parcel is empty too!

The newer white parcel of Clairette and Maccabeu is in fine form but the big empty space made me sad. Jeff told me that the Grenache vines were starting to develop too much wood disease and the Syrah had become problematic. I knew of the latter, Syrah tends to be the first variety to ripen for us and Jeff has found it gets too ripe too soon in that parcel which has a south facing slope. Contrasting with the Syrah of La Garrigue which was deliberately planted on a north facing slope.

There will be a significant change to white grape production from red as a result of all these changes, with the plantations in the main three vineyard of Peilhan, Segrairals and Sainte Suzanne. Much has changed in my 12 year of vendanges here.

As for the vines still there. Mildew was evident in the leaves but I have to say I was pleased to see that there were a lot of very healthy looking bunches with good sized grapes. In the first few days the team had been flat out. The pickers arrived, fifteen rather than the usual eight! They made short shrift of much of the crop in the first few days and it was the team in the cellar which had to try to keep up, working until 7pm on the first day for example. I regretted missing out and offering a helping hand.

Then I was due to start today Monday September 1st, only for a thunderstorm to cancel picking. Damp grapes and very muddy soils do not make for good winemaking. It was time to press the first of the red grapes, the whites already harvested were pressed quickly. Fair to say that fermentations have started well as you can see in the video.

So, much of the harvest is in. Still plenty for me to help out with in coming days. Congrats to the team who have been busy as you can see below.

Regular readers will know that Jeff Coutelou’s wines are my favourites, for personal and vinous reasons. The last article described some of those wines as well as others from my homeland. In the last few weeks I have enjoyed wines from other parts of France and the rest of the world.

Nicolas Carmarans has been the source of excellent examples from the emerging wine region of the Aveyron in the northern Languedoc / Central Massif. The two bottles I opened were both based on the Fer Servadou grape, most famously grown in the Marcillac AOC, further west towards Bordeaux. Good examples from there produce a peppery, light red with a nice fresh tannic grip. the bell pepper notes may come from its genetic connections to Cabernet Franc and Carmenere. Carmarans (curious tie in of names) is a former Parisian wine bar owner who turned to wine making in the Aveyron, not far from where the famous Laguiole cutlery is made. Altitude and cooler climate gives his wines a lovely freshness and lighter profile whilst still carrying serious flavour and complexity. The Mauvais Temps 19 and Maximus 18 were both showing the benefits of time in bottle, delicious with food and on their own.

Still in France, no idea where I purchased Céline 2020 from Charlotte et Cyril Delval. They are a young Belgian couple based in Poligny in the Jura and I know little more. Searches don’t seem to uncover many more wines which is a shame as this macerated Pinot Gris was very enjoyable. Light red from the grape’s pink skins it had nice tannins whilst still showing red fruit flavours. Only downside was the very heavy bottle. If anyone knows anymore about them, drop a comment. More Pinot Gris, along with Muscat, Klavner, Sylvaner, Riesling and Auxerrois – of course it’s Alsace. Achillee Pépin is a non vintage collaboration of friends who grow grapes organically and make a lovely fresh orange wine from their shared work, nice aromatics and fruit.

Another orange wine and, another example of why I like them based on aromatic grapes, this time a bottle from Spain. Casa Balaguer in the Valencia region makes Salicornio 23 from Moscatel grapes, a variety of Muscat. The grapes spend 6 months in old concrete tanks and produce a fragrant orange blossom aroma with lovely yellow fruit flavours and dusty tannins. One of the tastiest orange wines for some time. Commando G is a well known producer from the Sierra De Gredos mountains near Madrid. Their speciality is Garnacha and the 900m of altitude, as with Carmarans, mean that there is a freshness to the wine despite its proximity to a very hot climate. Bruja De Rozas 19 was very Pinot like in its aromas and flavours, almost meaty notes and saline too. Again bottle ageing proved a success, the tannins were soft and supportive. Lovely.

Still in the Iberian Peninsula but from Portugal two wines from Sem Igual which I tasted back at the Edinburgh tasting in Spring. I bought a few of thee white and red Vinho Verde and would like some more., they are right up my street. The white Vinho Verde 21 used Arinto and Azal grapes to produce a fresh, citrus and yellow fruit profile, simply delicious. The Tinto Vinho Verde 21 is made from Touriga Nacional and Baga grapes and is light, full of raspberry and red cherry fruit and freshness, lip smacking and yet full. These two have definitely made the shortlist for my wines of the year.

Finally to Australia and three excellent wines, two from my favourite region of the Adelaide Hills. Ochota Barrels was the project of Taras Ochota before his tragically early death and it is his wife Amber who has continued his fine work. Out Of My Head 23 (named after a song by a local Adelaide group), is pure Grenache and fizzes with energy. Very unlike the Commander G version it is lighter and fresher still. I sometimes read about wines described as having tension and this is definitely one. Acidity, fruit, tannins merge seamlessly but then one pops up its head for a time to dominate before settling back down. Quite something.

Jasper and Sophie Button run Commune Of Buttons in the Hills and I was fortunate to meet them back in 2018 when visiting the area for the first time. Influenced by the remarkable Anton van Klopper Jasper has quickly established himself as one of the country’s best winemakers. Gloria Pinot Noir 21 was everything I had hoped for. Generous but not over ripe fruit, aromatic and fresh – a classic example of top Pinot Noir, not much gets better in a bottle than that.

Talking of top Ozzie producers, Luke Lambert. I heard so much praise for his wines that I almost wanted to dislike them but I remember drinking one in Sydney in 2018 and it was terrific. Syrah 22 from the Yarra Valley was too. It’s Syrah not Shiraz, fresh, fruit but just ripe not overdone. Lovely acidity, opening up in glass from first glass to last a few hours later. My advice , don’t be daft like me, leave it for a couple of years no matter how delicious it is now.

My friend David Crossley has an excellent website called wideworldofwine and I hope that I have emulated his spirit and shown that I am not single minded in my wine drinking. There are fabulous wines being made around the globe from producers growing vines with care and attention to the environment. Support them please.