SPARKLING WINE TROPHY
Champagne André Robert Les Jardins du Mesnil Extra Brut Harvest 18 Grand Cru
Champagne, France NV
Vindependents appears to have a knack for uncovering under-the-radar Champagne growers that offer top-flight wines which appeal to the UK independent trade. This superb blanc de blancs Champagne from André Robert, for example, gave the group its second successive Top 100 Sparkling Wine Trophy, after Champagne Germar Breton took top fizz honours in the 2023 competition.
This year’s winner is made by the Robert family, who have been winegrowers in Champagne since the early 1900s, and who currently have 14ha of vineyards in Le Mesnil sur Ogier. A 100% Chardonnay sourced exclusively from grand cru vineyards, it is a blend of 60% fruit from the 2018 harvest, and 40% reserve wines from the family’s solera, with 60% of the base wine aged in barrique, and 40% in stainless tanks on the fine lees.
It impressed the judges at all stages of the competition with its “beautiful balance … there’s lovely chalky minerality, energy, depth and delightful texture. First class.”
Vindependents
RRP £57.50 ABV 12%
WHITE WINE TROPHY
Gaia Wines Assyrtiko Wild Ferment
Santorini, Greece 2022
Gaia Estate’s agenda-setting Santorini Assyrtiko has been a favourite of adventurous independent wine merchants for years. It’s also been a repeat high performer in the Top 100, this year collecting another White Wine Trophy award.
As ever, the 2022 vintage is a showcase of the distinctive charms of the volcanic Greek island, with the Assyrtiko fruit sourced from 80-year-old vines grown on their own roots in poor, sandy, phylloxera-free soils. The juice is then fermented with indigenous yeasts in a mixture of stainless steel, wooden casks (French and American oak and acacia) and ceramic vats.
“It’s a terroir-driven wine, that represents the volcanic soil,” the judges said. “Lovely salinity balanced beautifully with ripe fruits, a hint of richness and a good finish. Gastronomic Assyrtiko of excellent quality – this is an outstanding wine.”
Hallgarten & Novum Wines
RRP £38.49 ABV 13.5%
RED WINE TROPHY
Bodegas Viñátigo Negramoll
Tenerife, Islas Canarias, Spain 2022
After a triumph for the Aegean in the White Wine Trophy, it’s a matter of going from one fascinating volcanic island wine to another for the red equivalent, with a “heart-stoppingly beautiful” wine from Atlantic Tenerife drawing the attention of the Top 100 judges, who made it a clear winner of the 2024 Red Wine Trophy.
A 100% Negramoll, it’s the work of Bodegas Viñátigo, which has been a key player in the modern revival of Tenerife’s remarkable vinous heritage since it was founded in the 1990s. Produced from fruit sourced from ungrafted Negramoll vines in a vineyard in north west Tenerife with a marked ocean-influence at less than 200m altitude, the wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged for six months in French oak.
“Just a beautiful wine: haunting and perfumed, pale and elegant but full of distinctive flavours – red fruits and some sweet spicing,” the judges said. “It’s exactly the sort of wine you want to find in a competition like this.”
Hallgarten & Novum Wines
RRP £33.49 ABV 13%
ROSÉ & ORANGE WINE TROPHY
Theopetra Estate Xinomavro Rosé
Meteroa, Greece 2022
The runaway success of Provencal rosé has led to a rash of imitations of the pale style of pink. But it’s also created an appetite for rosé wines that offer something a bit different, with more character and flavour than is generally on offer in the south of France, such as this year’s outstanding winner of the Top 100 Rosé & Orange Wine Trophy.
It comes from Theopetra Estate, a family-owned producer which has been working its own 15ha of organic vineyards on hilly slopes at the foot of the Meteora Rocks in north western Greece since 1996. The wine is given a pre-fermentation maceration of four hours, before gentle pressing and cold fermentation in stainless steel. Three months on lees adds texture.
“The onion skin pink colour is hiding the most exciting pink in the room,” the judges said. “There is a party of the senses and all the berry fruit is invited: the intensity of strawberry is amazing.”
Hallgarten & Novum Wines
RRP £21.45 ABV 12%
FORTIFIED WINE TROPHY
Valdespino Don Gonzalo VOS Oloroso Sherry
Jerez, Spain NV
The sheer extent of Valdespino’s vineyard holdings is really quite something. The historic bodega, which has roots in Jerez going back more than six centuries, today owns 750ha of vines, an unheard-of position of strength for a producer that has always understood the importance of terroir, and specifically sherry’s famed “albariza” soils, and which today makes a consistently impressive selection of sherries.
Winemaking skill is also paramount of course, not least for this Very Old Oloroso Sherry, a worthy winner of the Fortified Wine Trophy. The Palomino grapes are fermented in 600-litre American oak barrels, and fortified when the alcohol reaches 13% to 18%, before ageing oxidatively in a solera. The final blend has an average age of 20 years, and evaporation takes the finished abv up to 21% abv.
The result, the judges said, is an “extraordinarily complex and well-made wine. With roasted pineapple and toasted crumble flavours, it’s deliciously intense and richly satisfying with amazing length. Hard to think of a better after-dinner sherry.”
Liberty Wines
RRP £49.99 ABV 21%
BEST VALUE SPARKLING WINE TROPHY
Calçada Wines
Portal da Calçada Espumante de Vinho Verde DOC Brut
Vinho Verde, Portugal NV
The region is known for producing some of Europe’s freshest white wines in a lighter style (often with a touch of spritz), so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Vinho Verde is also capable of producing some seriously high-quality sparkling wines.
Of course, in an increasingly crowded fizz market, its under-the-radar status also helps when it comes to price – and there’s certainly no reputation-based price inflation when it comes to this year’s clear winner of the Best Value Sparkling Wine Trophy.
Made from Loureiro and Arinto grapes, Portal da Calçada Brut was a big hit with the judges who called it a “fresh, fun and lively sparkler.
“There’s a touch of something herbal on the finish to go with the lime and lemon, making this a fine alternative to prosecco and cava. Great value for money and very easy to sell.”
North South Wines
RRP £12.99 ABV 12.5%
BEST VAUE WHITE TROPHY
Santo Isidro de Pegões Sobreiro de Pegões Colheita Branco
Península de Setúbal, Portugal 2022
Portugal has a reputation for making some of the world’s best-value wines, and the second of the country’s Top 100 Best Value Trophy winners this year fully lives up to that billing.
It’s made by Santo Isidro de Pegões, a leading winery in one of the country’s rising-star regions, the Setúbal Peninsula. Founded in 1958, Santo Isidro is a co-operative with more than 100 winegrower members who between them have more than 1,200ha in the Atlantic-cooled Terras do Sado sub-region, including the Pegões vineyard, where the “Pliocenico de Pegões” sandy soils are ideally suited for the trio of indigenous varieties (Fernão Pires, Arinto and Moscatel Graúdo) that make up this white blend.
Made by star winemaker Jaime Quendera, the wine is fermented and aged in stainless steel, creating a wine that tastes of “herbs and toffee apples, with a subtle, shadowy sweetness,” the judges said. “It offers a harmonious interplay of several things, and is, quite simply, great value.”
Hallgarten & Novum Wines
RRP £9.99 ABV 12.5%
BEST VALUE RED WINE TROPHY
The Wine People Integro Primitivo BIO
Puglia, Italy 2022
The idea behind Integro sounds simple enough in theory: in the words of the brand’s website it’s a matter of producing wines that are “integrated and in perfect harmony with nature, to intervene only when absolutely necessary”.
In practice, of course, that’s not so easy, and certainly not at the sort of competitive price offered by this 100% Primitivo: as we all know, it’s very hard to find high-quality, fully accredited organic wines that offer very much change from £20.
But those canny operators at The Wine People have managed all that and more here. With the grapes sourced from the San Donaci area of the Salento Peninsula in Puglia, the winemaking is all about protecting the fruit, with a gentle fermentation and no oak. And it’s that purity and richness that won over the judges. “Beautiful concentration,” they said. “Delightful soft black fruits and a lovely spicy aniseed finish. Lovely wine and great value.”
North South Wines
RRP £11.49 ABV 14%
BEST VALUE FORTIFIED WINE TROPHY
Equipo Navazos I Think Amontillado
Montilla-Moriles, Spain NV
The story behind Equipo Navazos is one of the more heartening tales to emerge from the wine world in recent years. Effectively a kind of sherry appreciation club that got out of hand, it was formed by a group of friends who sought out neglected casks and soleras hidden away in some of the most famous bodegas in Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Montilla, with the idea of bottling them and making them available to wine lovers all over the world.
For the I Think Amontillado, they teamed up with Alliance’s man in Spain Paul Shinnie for an exclusive bottling of just 1,000 37.5cl bottles. It’s sourced in the Montilla-Moriles appellation in the province of Córdoba 200 km away from Jerez, and is taken from a single cask of unfortified Amontillado with an average age of 15 years.
“It’s rich in marzipan and toasty walnuts, with a long, complex, citrus-filled finish,” the judges said.
Alliance Wine
RRP £22.99 ABV 16.5%
BEST VALUE ROSÉ & ORANGE WINE TROPHY
Domaines Paul Mas Arrogant Frog Orange Organic
Vin de France, 2023
Eagle-eyed followers of The Wine Merchant Top 100 will have noticed a subtle change in our Trophy categories this year, with the rosé section now expanded to include orange wines. That reflects the greater number, and quality, of skin-contact entries in what is a growing and established part of the market – and if the trend persists there’s every chance orange wines will have their own category next year.
The first orange wine to take home a Top 100 Trophy comes from the ever-agile Domaines Paul Mas, which is one of the first companies of scale to make an affordable and accessible success of what has hitherto been for largelybeen a trend led by small producers.
It’s a blend of macerated Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris and Macabeu that our judges loved for its “freshness and immediacy. It’s deliciously drinkable with just a touch of grip,” the judges said, “and it is full of fresh tropical fruit, citrus, pear and ginger.”
Domaines Paul Mas
RRP £13.50 ABV 13.5%
The Wine Merchant Top 100 