Latest News
San Francisco Chronicle – 15th January 2012
Winemaker Christo Versfeld and the team at Springfontein must be thrilled with their Double Gold award at the Michelangelo International Wine Awards...
Our congratulations go to Anja Weber and her team at Springfontein in South Africa for their latest accolade:
We were thrilled to see that Harry Eyres recommended our newly arrived Morellino di Scansano Podere 414 in The Telegraph on 14th July:
We were thrilled that three of our wines were chosen by Jane MacQuitty for her annual Top 100 Wines of Summer feature...
In Decanter Magazine's Bordeaux 2010 supplement, James Lawther MW goes off the beaten track to find "producers making top quality generic Bordeaux"...
Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year. Here he writes in Money Week following a visit to Château de Sours...
This months GQ Magazine includes a recommendation for our 1er Cru Chablis from Domaine Pommier
In the Autumn 2010 edition of Spectator Scoff, Jonathan Ray teamed our Bourgogne Chardonnay from Matrot with a delicious sounding steamed Brill with cider Sabayon...
"Magnums of wine look magnificent on the festive table..." says Jane MacQuitty in the Times (4th December 2010)...
Decanter Magazine reports today (06-12-2010) that "Vintners in Napa are reporting ‘excellent quality’ across the region in reds and whites – though the season wasn't without significant challenges."
In her latest Times Top 100 series, Jane MacQuitty chooses her 50 best reds over £8...
On Thursday 18th November 2010, Private Cellar was delighted to support an event organised at Gidleigh Park in support of Families for Children.
Want unusual bargains? Head for an independent - says Fiona Beckett in the Guardian Weekend Magazine (27.11.10)
As Johnny Ray says in the Telegraph (3rd September 2010), "small wine sellers have a knack for uncovering some gems..."
If you haven't come across the Wine Gang before, their website is well worth a visit.
Jonathan Ray's column in The Field magazine always provides great entertainment...
Recently Château de Sours 2009 Rosé has caught the eye of Jonathan Ray, writing in the Telegraph:
Every year we look forward to Jane’s top 100 series, and we were thrilled that no less than five of our wines were chosen this year for her summer selection:
Renowned UK wine writer Matthew Jukes has just published his top 100 Australian wines for 2010...
Johnathan Ray is celebrating a big birthday in April, with imperials of Château de Sours Rosé. Here's what he had to say about it in the April edition of the Field Magazine:
Did you know that white wine is a great partner for Cheese...?
A Burgundy pretender, Bishop's Head Pinot Noir is really catching the attention of the UK's wine writers...
We were very excited to introduce the wines from Freestone Winery on California's Sonoma Coast towards the end of last year and they have caught the attention of Linda Murphy too...
We were thrilled to see this fantastic write up for Freestone Winery in the Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine...
In their recent round up of the fabled 2007 Châteauneuf vintage, Decanter Magazine's tasters singled out Château Beauchêne's Vignoble de la Serrière for a three star award...
Justin Keay has chosen two Private Cellar wines for his website www.oldandnewworld.co.uk to cheer up these long, dark evenings...
Jonathan Ray chooses some classy clarets in his Telegraph column (Saturday 16th January 2010).
Our congratulations go to the team at Joseph Phelps Vineyards, whose Insignia 2006 has just been awarded a coveted 95+ points from Robert Parker in his wine Advocate issue number 186, dated 23rd December 2009...
"Thoughtful 2010 purchases bring some of the flavour of a grand wine, at a fraction of the price"...
In her article "Savour the next best vintage", Jane MacQuitty guides her readers on how to drink well and cheaply in 2010 by not looking to the "big expensive obvious names ... but for the next best thing".
Posted by Tim Fish on the Wine Spectator's website, 5th January 2010...
"Quality tannins, freshness and balance were the buzzwords from our experts..." Decanter Magazine, February 2010 Edition
Jane MacQuitty made an excellent round up of last minute festive vintages in The Times on 19th December, including our 2006 Volnay from Lucien Boillot as her "keeper" of the week...
Jonathan Ray's "Top tipples, from festive fizz and classy claret to perfect port and aged ales" included the delicious 2006 Château Laurette, Sainte Croix du Mont - perfect for Christmas but also throughout the year...
The Institute of Masters of Wine recently held a tasting of the coveted 2005 Bordeaux vintage and, needless to say, it was a complete sell out...
Jane MacQuitty tackled the controversial subject of screw cap bottles in her Times column on Saturday 31st October 2009 and we were thrilled to see that Bishop's Head Pinot Noir had caught her attention...
When the Spectator Magazine's website editor Henry Rymill called in to our London tasting in September, he met up with Anja Weber of Springfontein Estate in South Africa...
Master of wine Sally Easton helps readers of FRANCE MAGAZINE to find the perfect tipple for every occasion, at a price that won't break the bank...
We were delighted to welcome top UK wine writer Jane MacQuitty to our autumn tasting in London in September and even more pleased that she liked our wines so much that she recommended our Maison Mayol pairing as her "best buys" in her column in the Telegraph on 3rd October. With the hundreds of wines that Jane tastes, it is great to see these two wines standing out from the fierce competition.
Many congratulations to the Bernard family at Château Beauchêne on their inclusion in the new edition of "Behind the Label" - a swish coffee table book filled with vinous nuggets...
Every week in the Weekend section of the Saturday Telegraph, Jonathan Ray reviews his favourite wines, picking one for the honoured "what I've enjoyed most this week" spot.
As Jonathan Ray points out: "Splashing out on a decent drop is an ideal investment for a godchild - as they mature, so will the vintage"...
We were delighted to welcome Tamlyn Currin of Jancis Robinson's famous wine tasting team to our Press tasting earlier this year and are thrilled with the comments that she has made about our wines.
It hasn’t yet been released in the UK market but the 2006 vintage of Insignia is already catching the attention of America’s top wine critics.
Simon Woods’ First Taste column has moved to his website: www.simonwoods.com/firsttaste - wine lovers will enjoy his blog and his notes from his weekly tastings.
Our Trade magazine, Harpers Wine & Spirit, recently held “the ultimate rosé tasting in order to gauge the current mood within the trade about the pink phenomenon. Tasters were invited to assess both premium and entry level wines” and the Star Buy was our very own Château de Sours Rosé.
Liz Morcom MW kindly promoted our autumn tasting in the September edition of House & Garden Magazine
We were thrilled to see two of our wines as top picks in Steven Spurrier’s Decanter Magazine column: “Spurrier’s World”.
You will already know of wine writer Jonathan Ray if you read The Telegraph, The Field or the brilliant Scoff! newsletter. Here he tells us what he thinks about Private Cellar...
Private Cellar is now tweeting...
Private Cellar's wines have been attracting the attention of the UK's top wine writers recently. Here is a round up of our favourite comments...
Top UK wine writer, Jane MacQuitty, was impressed enough by two more of our Private Cellar wines to include them in her Times Top 100 wines of Summer 2009...
Steven Spurrier recently picked out 50 of his favourite French wines for an article in the British publication Decanter recently, including two Private Cellar wines in his selection...
Château de Marsan has been receiving a lot of attention recently - and rightly so. Here it features in Joanna Simon's latest round up in Decanter Magazine...
Jane MacQuitty's Top 100 Wines of Summer series is back with a bang and we were thrilled to see our Château de Marsan Bordeaux Blanc in the under £8 selection...
Bob Tyrer recently reviewed a selection of Australian wines in the Sunday Times and hailed our Bylines Chardonnay as being "as far from an oaky over-the-top Oz chardy as it's possible to get" - why not try some and find out for yourself?
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Matthew Jukes recently gave Château de Sours Rosé a glowing review in Money Week. Dubbed by Matthew as "Britain's Favourite Rosé", this is a real favourite amongst our own customers - in fact we have made more shipments than ever this year!
The Get a-head Charity Dinner
As one of the Spectator Magazine’s six wine partners, Private Cellar was very pleased to team up with our Australian suppliers Songlines Estates, The Spectator and the Bleeding Heart on 17th June 2009 to host a winemaker dinner for Spectator readers in the lovely surroundings of the Crypt of St Ethelreda’s in London’s Ely Place...
John Stimpfig explores the ups and downs of on board wine storage in his article "Tipples with Ripples" in the Weekend FT and he asked Andrew for his views...
Jonathan Ray's 50 top wines for summer feature was published on Saturday (20/06/09) and we were thrilled to see two of our own wines making the grade amongst the hundreds of bottles he tastes...
Amanda was recently asked to submit an article for the Sprial Cellars website on the 2008 Bordeaux Campaign...
You may have noticed that The Field Magazine has a new wine writer in Jonathan Ray - famous for his weekly column in The Telegraph...
Joanna Simon's wine of the week for Anne-Sophie Debavelaere's Rully Clos du Moulin à Vent...
It is all very well us extolling the virtues of the wines that we buy for Private Cellar but we are excited that the world's wine press seems to agree with us, certainly where the iconic Insignia is concerned.
Many congratulations to the team at Joseph Phelps Vineyards who have received an excellent review in Robert Parker's Wine Advocate for their latest releases.
What Michael Broadbent MW has been drinking this month...
In his Decanter Magazine column, Michael Broadbent MW was pleased to write about his discovery of our Italian wine Sasso Arso:
Amandine Bernard from Château Beauchêne contacted us recently with the latest news from her family property, which has been gaining international acclaim from some of the world's best known wine-writers.
The team at Bodega Foster are rightly very proud of their latest review by Jay Miller in Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. The wines, made by rising star Mauricio Lorca, received fantastic scores and notes.
The Wine Gang, a group of the country's most respected wine critics, launched their new website towards the end of 2008 and we were thrilled that they chose to write up Champagne Chauvet in their Christmas round up, awarding it 90 out of 100 points.
Artisanal champagnes from small owner-growers are proving to be the hidden gems in a brand-led market, says John Stimpfig in his article on Champagne in the December edition of the FT's How to Spend it magazine.
We were very pleased to welcome the latest recruit to Jancis Robinson's Purple Pages, Richard Hemming, to our London wine tasting in September. Here is what he thought of some of our wines. To order any of the wines listed below, simply click on the wine name.
"If I had to give two words of advice to lovers of French wine today, scouting in any price range, they would be ‘o’ and ‘five’.The 2005 vintage seemed exceptional at the time virtually throughout France and especially in the classic regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Now that we can judge the wines in bottle, it continues to shine brilliantly."
The July edition of Decanter Magazine, which deals with all matters vinous, asked a host of experts to recommend ageworthy New World wines to lay down alongside their Bordeaux and Burgundy, the focus of most cellars. We were delighted to see that Master Sommelier Vincent Gasnier recommended a wonderful wine that we are lucky enough to be the UK agents for: Insignia 2004 from Joseph Phelps Vineyards.
Château Beauchêne continues to receive excellent reviews, this time from John Livingstone-Learmonth on his website www.drinkrhone.com:
The 2005 vintage of Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon has been given a whopping 90 point score in the Wine Spectator's first look at editor Marvin Shanken's most exciting new wines. Of the 2005 vintage the magazine says:
Many congratulations go to the Bernard family and their team at Château Beauchêne. Their Côtes du Rhône Premier Terroir 2006 has just been awarded a much coveted Gold Medal at the Concours des Grands vins de France de Macon 2008.
Each week in his Saturday Telegraph column, Jonathan Ray picks the wine that he most enjoyed that week and on 12th April it was our very own Château de Sours Rosé.
We all think that La Monastière Blanc, made by Château Grinou, is utterly delicious so we weren't surprised to see that Robert Parker thinks so too! His tasting note is below:
We were thrilled to read Simon Woods' review of Mas Franch Negre 2004 in the February edition of Wine & Spirit Magazine.
Simon Woods, of Wine & Spirit Magazine's "Tasting Zone" recently tasted our Leylines Shiraz from South Australia and was impressed with what he found in his glass, awarding the wine 90 points
We were thrilled to hear the news that Springfontein's wines have received excellent ratings in the new John Platter Guide for 2008.
Our congratulations to Bodega Foster who are celebrating after receiving some fabulous scores from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.
We were delighted to hear from Miquel Coca at Natur Montsant that the two wines we represent in the UK have received outstanding reviews in the 18th Edition of Spain's Guía Peñín - a guide to Spanish wines.
Jancis Robinson MW was recently impressed by Elgin Sauvignon Blanc, writing it up in the Weekend FT as follows:
Andrew Gordon talks to Edwin Soon about wine investment for Singapore's Appetite Magazine.
Master of Wine and Private Cellar buyer Nicola has recently returned from a trip to Bordeaux - where she was not watching the rugby, but where she spent a week serious digging around to find out more about the 2007 harvest.
In the April edition of the US magazine Wine & Sprits, our Muscadet Sèvre et Maine from Sauvion scored an impressive 88 points with the following note:
We were thrilled to see Guy Cuisset's wines from Château Grinou reviewed on the website French Duck - a great source of information about all things French, particularly wine and food.
Congratulations to Château de Sours who recently gained a four star recommendation in Decanter Magazine for their 2006 vintage:
Jay Miller wrote in the Wine Advocate (December 2008) about America's love affair with the wines from Argentina, particularly Malbecs: "In short, it's hard to go wrong these days even if you choose a bottle blind-folded." We were delighted that he chose to showcase two of Enrique Foster's wines as follows...
The Telegraph, Saturday 24th January 2009
Joanna Simon identifies some "gems" amongst Champagne's top growers. The Sunday Times 30th November 2008
Congratulations to our friends at Château Beauchêne whose Premier Terroir Côtes du Rhône was included in Jonathan Ray's Christmas Wine List in the Saturday Telegraph.
Every single member of the Private Cellar team is a big fan of Chauvet's delicious champagne but if you need further convincing, just look at all the press attention this delicious fizz has been receiving recently!
As a partner in the new look Spectator Wine Club, we were thrilled to be the first company to offer our wines in a mini-bar with Simon Hoggart. His notes on our wines are below:
"The essential wine list, and indeed wine merchant, is one that informs, inspires and entertains, making you desperate to taste the wines discussed" writes Jane MacQuitty in the Times and her top six picks include no less than two from Private Cellar:
"Once seen as irredeemably naff, rosé is now de rigueur..."
We were really pleased to see a mention for Private Cellar for the second week in a row in Jonathan Ray's Weekend Telegraph column, this week in a feature about the very real financial benefits of buying wine en primeur.
On June 10 and 11, a team of 16 judges led by Tim Atkin MW tasted nearly 900 wines to select a line-up of the best Spanish wines available to the UK's consumers and we were thrilled to see that our own MAS FRANCH OPTIM made the grade!
"A small range and a personal touch are doing the business for a small wine merchant with big ideas..."
We were thrilled to learn that Jonathan Ray, wine writer for the Telegraph newspaper selected our Bordeaux Supérieur by Ets J-P Moueix this week for his "What I've Enjoyed Most this Week" column.
If we were thrilled with the recommendations for our Rully from Domaine Debavelaere and Bordeaux Supérieur from Ets J-P Mouiex in Jane MacQuitty's recent Times Top 100 Wines of Summer series, we were utterly bowled over by the results that we achieved in Jane's final selection to round off her favourite summer wines.
Following on from our success with our Bordeaux Supérieur from Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix in last weekend’s Times we were really pleased to read that Jane MacQuitty picked another Private Cellar exclusive wine to feature in her Top 100 Wines of Summer series on Saturday.
In Decanter Magazine's recent review of the white wines of Bordeaux, we were thrilled to see that Château de Sours received not only four stars but a "best value white" accolade as well.
We were thrilled that Jane MacQuitty, wine critic for The Times, featured our Bordeaux Supérieur, Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix on Saturday in the second part of her guide to the season’s best bottles.
Not only is our Buying Director, Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW, a superb taster and buyer, she is also an accomplished writer with many articles to her name. Here she writes on Riesling for the Gloucestershire review.
We were thrilled to see the delicious 2003 vintage of Château Cèdre d'Arthus receive the thumbs up from Joanna Simon in her "Affordable Bordeaux" article in the Sunday Times. Joanna describes this lovely claret as "velvety, round, St Emilion style. Ready for drinking".
We are all great fans of our house Champagne from Henri Chauvet so we were thrilled to see that Jane MacQuitty was also impressed, recommending it to readers of the Saturday Times Magazine on 15th March 2008:
We were thrilled to see no less than four of our wines featured in Neville Smith's Lloyd's List column on Friday 7th March 2008.
We were thrilled to hear from Springfontein's Anja Weber that their delicious Springfontein Estate Reserve from South Africa's Walker Bay was listed as one of the German wine journal WEIN GOURMET's best buys.
Following the success of our three mini bar offers, we were thrilled that Simon Hoggart "promoted" us to a full page offer this Spring.
We have always been proud to list Matrot's Bourgogne Chardonnay so we were thrilled when wine writer Simon Woods reviewed our the 2005 vintage in Wine & Spirit Magazine:
One of our newest additions to the Private Cellar range has just been listed as BEST NEW WORLD RED by Steven Spurrier in his Spurrier's World column (August Decanter).
