Aromas of exotic spice, dried aromatic herb, camphor and wood shop shape the nose. The austere palate shows dried cherry, prune and licorice alongside close-grained tannins that clench the lean finish. Give it a few more years so the tannins can unwind then drink sooner rather than later to capture the remaining fruit.

Aromas of blue flower, spiced plum, new leather and sunbaked earth form the inviting nose on this pure Sangiovese. Made with organically farmed grapes, the smooth, savory palate doles out fleshy black cherry, baking spice and chopped mint alongside velvety tannins that give it a polished texture. Drink through 2025.

An elegant style, displaying cherry, licorice, menthol and tar aromas and flavors, this is harmonious and very approachable now, yet there is sufficient structure for this red to age well too. Fine length. Best from 2022 through 2037. 2,160 cases made.

Camphor, cherry, plum and tar notes highlight this brawny Barbaresco. There is a core of ripe fruit, and the lively acidity keeps this focused on the long aftertaste. Tips to the tannins in the balance. Best from 2023 through 2040. 360 cases made.

Valter Fissore's Ravera is highlight of the vintage, combining elegance, freshness and power in a superbly balanced wine. It opens like a bouquet of rose petals and bursts with flavors of fresh cherry, mulberry and menthol. Fissore likes vintages in which the vines find their own balance, and that's what happened in 2016, a year that required minimal green harvesting. He works hard to manage tannins by picking at the optimal moment, and he clearly nailed it in 2016 with a wine that is tautly structured and built for aging, yet so juicy and accessible that it's difficult to resist now....

The 2015 vintage was warmer than 2016, and you can feel it in Bricco Pernice's penetrating flavors of ripe cherry and raspberry as they glide over powerful, ferrous tannins. Impressively vibrant for the vintage, with detailed scents of rose petals, lavender and orange zest, the wine remains fresh and balanced days after it was opened, indicating a long life ahead.

Vigna Elena is a single, sandy plot in the Ravera cru that is planted exclusively to nebbiolo rosé, a late-ripening variety once thought to be a clone of nebbiolo but now considered distinct yet closely related. In a growing season like 2014, with a cool and rainy summer followed by a spectacular September, its late ripening worked to the wine's advantage, giving the fruit an extra two weeks to soak up the autumn sunshine. The wine smells of roses = petals, leaves and stems - and tastes of tart cherry and pomegranate with undercurrents of fresh tobacco. Lithe and lively with supple tannins and

Valter Fissore makes this wine from a 2.5 acre plot in the Neive commune. It comes across as broad-shouldered in the warm 2017 vintage, the dark-cherry flavors accented by subtle spice and supported by firm, mineral tannins.

The 2016 vintage is the first since 2008 in which Royal Tokaji has released the full range of its aszú wines, including single-vineyard bottlings from its top parcels. The season's warm, humid summer allowed for ample botrytis to develop on the grapes the Royal Tokaji team then made multiple passes through the vineyards over the course of several weeks, picking the fruit a berry at a time to ensure only healthy botrytis. This bottling comes from one of the region's most hallowed vineyards, where the volcanic subsoil is covered with a deep layer of loess. the wine is as complex...

Royal Tokaji's portion of the crescent-shaped Betsek vineyard is toward the bottom of the slope, where cool air collects and the rich clay soil holds that chill. Perhaps you can taste the contrast of rich and cool in this 2016, the wine filled with creamy apricot-and-peach density of flavor, yet lifted by brisk spice, citrus and floral notes. It feels vivacious and pretty, carrying itself with an ease that belies its sweetness (it's richest of Royal Tokaji's 2016 aszús, at 185 grams per liter of residual sugar).

This feels youthful and lean, the peach and lemon flavors pinned to the wine's broad texture by sharp acidity. While it's succulent and almost refreshing now, this is sure to build in complexity with time in bottle.

Tempranillo grapes for this classic Rioja Reserva are cherry-picked from Torres' best terriors, then aged for 16 months in French oak and a further 20 months in bottle before release. It's drinking beautifully now, showing secondary, savoury characters of leather along with ripe red fruits and sweet oak spice.

This beautifully labelled wine draws on Torres’s own 35ha of Ribera del Duero vineyards, sited at 895m, complemented by further grape purchases. The aim is that the wine will eventually be made from Torres-grown fruit alone. It’s still more of an exercise in blackcurrant and black plum purity than the Manso de Velasco: lean, lunging, sculpted and vividly balanced, with prominent acidity but restrained oak.

This manages to marry the boldness and freshness of Ribera del Duero reds with some charm and is already so harmonious that it’s delicious now, but has the structure to hold through to at least 2023.

A tart and bright white with sliced apple and lemon character. White flower. Some apple and pear. Medium body. Orange peel. Crisp finish. Drink now.

Very fresh and sumptuous. Very unlike most Priorats. Polished. Very long and exceptionally fresh. Miguel Torres Maczassek is clearly very proud of this new, fresh style: 'it's all about fruit character'. The wine comes in a burgundy bottle.

The herbal 2015 Mas La Plana is one of the oldest Cabernet Sauvignons from Spain. It's sleek and polished, with varietal character intermixed with a Mediterranean side. The palate is medium to full-bodied with the fine-grained and elegant textbook tannins of the variety. This is from a warm and dry year, and the wine is ripe and powerful but in the Torres style, which is always nicely crafted, balanced and polished. 103,000 bottles and some large formats produced. It was bottled in September 2017.

From a dry vintage, with Cabernet Sauvignon vines planted on deep alluvial soils, winemaker Miguel Torres describes this as: 'A very classic vintage of Mas La Plana.' Black fruit aromas – blackberry, blackcurrant – some blackcurrant leaf, coffee and dark chocolate hints. Complex, layered palate, with mouth-filling black fruit, plum, liquorice, very elegant tannins and well integrated oak (18 months in French oak, 85% new). Very smooth and balanced, showing considerable freshness and finesse.

This Chardonnay vineyard is planted outside the walls of the medieval Milmanda Castle on silt-rich calcareous clay soil. Decreasing use of new oak means the 2016 vintage was aged for six months in barrel, then 10 months in stainless steel, with lees stirring to create texture. The result is a lovely silkiness to the mid-palate, cut through with laser-sharp acidity. There's an attractive tautness here, with fresh grapefruit and lime balancing the ripe citrus and preserved lemon notes, plus an underlying mineral backbone. Mediterranean aromas of honeyed citrus and dried herbs with fresh thyme...

Elegant and complex nose of dark bramble and blueberry fruit. Rounded in the mouth with well-integrated wood. Tannins are in the background, as the lively acidity loads up the palate with sparkle and zing. Great stuff.