This is a wine case for anyone looking for red wines with clear personality, individual style, and flavours that genuinely stay with you. Red wines worth talking about is all about bottles that are not only delicious, but also spark curiosity around the table – wines with character, origin, and an expression that makes you want to pour another glass and keep the conversation going. Here, southern Italian warmth, Umbrian power, cool Tasmanian elegance, alpine finesse, and Jura originality come together in a case that feels both thoughtful and exciting.
Schola Sarmenti – Antièri Susumaniello
A dark and expressive wine with plenty of personality. The palate offers blueberries, ripe dark fruit, and a dense, juicy core, while the tannins bring structure and energy without taking away the wine’s southern Italian charm. It pairs especially well with grilled meat, lamb, richly flavoured pasta dishes, and aged cheeses. The wine is made from 100 percent Susumaniello, the grapes are hand-harvested and placed in ventilated crates, and the wine is then aged for 12 months in large oak casks, giving depth and roundness without overshadowing the fruit.
Plani Arche – Montefalco Sagrantino
This is a wine with power, depth, and clear structure – exactly the kind of wine that leaves an impression. The flavour profile leans toward intense red berries, dark fruit, leather, and tar, with a marked but well-built tannic structure that gives both length and a sense of ageing potential. It is best suited to game, lamb, grilled beef, and aged hard cheeses. The wine is made from 100 percent Sagrantino grown on limestone and clay soils in Umbria and is aged for a total of 37 months, including at least 12 months in wood, followed by extended bottle ageing that rounds out the tannins and adds further complexity.
Dalrymple Pipers River Tasmania Pinot Noir
An elegant and nuanced Pinot Noir with a clear cool-climate feel. Here you find wild strawberries, dark cherries, plums, cranberries, dried citrus notes, herbs, and a light earthy tone, with fresh acidity and silky tannins that keep the wine long and precise. It pairs beautifully with duck breast, mushroom dishes, veal, and poultry. The wine comes from a single vineyard in Pipers River in Tasmania, where sea breezes and a long growing season allow slow ripening. After fermentation, it is aged for 10 months in French barriques, around 30 percent of which are new, and undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrel.
Schola Sarmenti – Diciotto Primitivo
A powerful and generous Primitivo with clear concentration and a warm, velvety style. The palate is filled with ripe fruit, blueberries, cherries, tobacco, dark chocolate, and coffee, with dense texture, soft yet present tannins, and a long finish. It pairs especially well with grilled meat, slow-cooked dishes, hearty pasta dishes, and aged cheeses. The wine is made from 100 percent Primitivo from around 85-year-old vines trained according to the Alberello Pugliese system. The grapes are hand-picked in ventilated crates, and the wine is then aged for 14 months in French tonneaux followed by 12 months in bottle.
Terrazzi Alti Valtellina Superiore Sassella Chiavennasca
This is the most alpine and fine-boned wine in the case – elegant, firm, and highly food-friendly. The palate moves toward cherry, raspberry, dried flowers, herbs, tea, liquorice, and distinct stony minerality, with fresh acidity and a long, precise finish. It works wonderfully with mushroom dishes, veal, lamb, duck breast, polenta, and aged hard cheeses. The wine comes from steep, hand-tended terraces in Sassella at 420–600 metres of altitude, with southern exposure and poor stony soils, giving a more mountain-driven, vibrant, and mineral style of Chiavennasca, the local name for Nebbiolo.
Arbois Poulsard Vieilles Vignes
A wine that truly stands out – pale in colour, yet with surprisingly much flavour and personality. There is a light and fresh feel here, but also clear flavour intensity that makes the wine both charming and unusual. It pairs especially well with smoked charcuterie, sausages, lighter meat dishes, poultry, and rustic French cooking. The wine is made in Jura from the local Poulsard grape grown on old vines. Fermentation takes place at low temperature over three weeks, after which the wine is aged for 15 months in older large oak casks, preserving the grape’s distinctive character while adding extra depth and softness.
