Ten Minutes by Tractor - 'making waves'

Last week we were delighted to be visited by Martin Spedding from boutique Mornington Peninsula winery Ten Minutes by Tractor. For me especially, this is one producer visit that I always find particularly enjoyable, being one of my favourite wineries in the world. I 'discovered' it, and the rest of the Mornington, on a happy post-vintage trip when I was last in Australia, three years ago, as recommended by the winemaker I was working with at the time. Coming here and tasting at the cellar door then was a bit of a light-bulb moment for me. It was here when I finally 'got' Pinot Noir and Chardonnay - from this side of the world and from a cool climate, but it all suddenly made sense - over a taste of the 'difficult' 2011 vintage Pinot Noir.

This time, Martin was here for a 'Making Waves' tasting hosted at Australia House along with 11 other producers from the Mornington Peninsula. In the morning there was a masterclass in which Martin presented the McCutcheon Pinot Noir, and Coolart Road Pinot Noir - the latest edition to the Ten Minutes by Tractor portfolio - a whole bunch pressed Pinot Noir which offers an earthier style of wines relative to his others. A trade and press tasting followed where a number of friendly faces were in attendance.

Martin pouring at the Mornington Peninsula's Making Waves tasting, with an interested Oz Clarke in conversation

Bancroft Wines at the 2016 London Wine Fair

One of our favourite things to do here at Bancroft Wines is to hang out with our wine producers and once a year we get a chance to do that for three full days over the London Wine Fair.

Here's a summary of the show for us this year in pictures.... If you missed out on any of the wines or would like a sample, download, the tech sheets from our website, or get in touch with your Account Manager for more information. Thanks to all those who stopped by our stand to meet the faces behind the labels!

Bancroft's Johnny P and our favourite Mexican, Luis from Remirez de Ganuza (Rioja)

Newbie Trade Sales Simon Newbury and Christina from Lionello Marchesi (Chianti)

Bancroft's Wine fair Maestro, James Wainscott and Raf De Haan from Export Iberia showing off our recently much bolstered Spanish offering.

Bancroft Wines at the London International Wine Fair 2016

Come and visit Bancroft Wines this May at the London International Wine Fair 2016 at Stand X60. This will be our 12th consecutive year in attendance at London's leading wine event, where we will be joined by a selection of our favourite winemakers: Bouchon Family Wines, Bodega Luigi Bosca, Bodegas Altanza, Cederberg, Ataraxia, Bodega Hermanos Pérez Pascuas, Remírez de Ganuza, Marjan Simčič and a wide range of curiosities newly sourced from across Spain.

What's more, this year we will be featuring our oustanding range of sparkling wines from the world over and popping open a superb English sparkler from Westwell Wines, fine expressions of Grand Cru terroir from Champagne growers Pierre Moncuit and Pierre Paillard and some Italian bubbles to tickle your palate.

For more information, click here to view our exhibitor page.

Stand X60 - 3rd-5th May at London Olympia

The Wine Gang - reviews our Portfolio tasting "one of the UK's classiest distributor / agents"

A nice write up from The Wine Gang in their latest report of our recent portfolio tasting:

"Bancroft Wines is one of the UK's classiest distributor / agents, supplying hotels, restaurants and independent wine merchants as well as private clients with a host of fine wines. In a strong French range, Champagnes include Pierre Moncuit, Pierre Paillard, René Geoffroy and Gratiot-Pillière, the Loire and Burgundy are well-represented as well as the South and South West of France with star names such as Domaine de L'Hortus, Château du Cèdre and Château de la Négly. Bancroft has also recently taken on England's Westwell. Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy are all in the mix with what appears to be a growing emphasis on the New World too."

You can read the full report here: http://www.thewinegang.com/ 

Growing our growers - Bancroft Wines announces a new Champagne: Gratiot Pillière

We're happy to announce today that we've taken on Gratiot Pillière as exclusive UK agent this month as a new Champagne addition to our 2016 Portfolio.

 

This new addition to our list underlines our support of the grower Champagne industry and the quality that can be found outside of the grand-marques. We showed both wines at our Annual Portfolio Tasting last week and received very positive feedback all round. The other grower Champagnes we currently stock include Pierre Paillard (Grand Cru, Bouzy), Pierre Moncuit (Grand Cru, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger) and Champagne René Geoffory (1er Cru, AŸ).