Eurocentric Wine Imports

09/12/2023

Proof you do not need brains to get a job delivering 25-tonne shipping containers.

07/12/2023

New York, New York! The ship has docked at last. Just need a red suit and I can deliver the pressies myself 🎅🏻 🥳

30/10/2023

Few tubs out there! Shipping movements around the world ... the circle in the south of Italy marks APL New York, carrying our important container from France.

15/09/2023

More great Chablis on the way! 🙌

Today’s harvest is in Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesirs to pick some perfects fruits!

14/08/2023

Chavost and Frick enjoying their day in the sun with the legends at Winespeake in Daylesford.

Some special bottles consumed on the weekend!

The Chavost Pinot Meunière Champagne 🥂, Chateau Simone exceptional rosé, Pierre Frick Riesling (one of my all time favourite producers) and a Lafarge from the cellar. Inspirational producers, happy drinking.

What’s on the menu this week? Don’t forget to stock up for the Wednesday night ⚽️!

31/05/2023

Believe it or not we’ve just freed up 27 pallet spaces, without the front rack, ready for the 40-foot re**er arriving from Germany tomorrow. There might be some double parking when the French 20 arrives three weeks later! Now to work on that new portfolio … .schaefer.graach .j.adam .wines bringing the noise. Plus our first offering

03/04/2023

When one customer drops the ball and lets you down it’s a lifesaver when others like and come to the rescue with a healthy order. Lots of and heading to Adelaide in time for Easter! 🥳🥳👏👏💥💥

16/01/2023

Escaping the 36-degree day in Melbourne for a day in the Sydney trade. Not ideal that the first two have postponed 🤦‍♂️ Got 16 bottles in my bag if anyone is free this morning. Also, … got a whole row!

03/12/2022

Beautiful pinot noir from a great vintage, available now – if you're quick.

Early adopters are now either drinking like kings or making a killing at auction. There really is gold in them thar hills of the Côte d'Or. I'm not blaming the producers: full harvests are few and far between, costs have been soaring, and why wouldn't you raise your prices when you see the feeding ...

11/11/2022

Lots of scary stories out of Europe about soaring costs for winemakers. When one Champagne producer's annual electricity contract ended, the supplier offered a new deal at an increase from 18,000 to 90,000 euros! He eventually secured a deal elsewhere for 54,000. The price of bottles has risen substantially, and many are faced with shortages because bigger companies bought two years' worth of stock when supply issues were first floated. With transport costs still high, our shipments next year are looking costly. We're buying what we can now, to cushion the impact.

“At this rate, it will only be possible to sell at a loss or risk losing markets by increasing sales prices”, claims Jean-Marie Fabre, chairman

01/11/2022

For the first time in years
we'll be showing our wares
to the Brisbane trade
who can make the grade

A star-studded crew
Will be waiting for you
To share special drops
For all of your chops

There'll be Burgs and rizz
And plenty of fizz
Spanish and Italians
For mares and stallions

So lock in the date
Encourage a mate
Get on the phone
We can't do it alone

There'll be snacks if you hang
Bargains to bang
Labels to lick
Come take your pick

RSVP if you please
and if it's a squeeze
we'll be happy to say
Brisbane rules all the way!

Hope to see you there.

29/09/2022

It takes real skill to drive your forklift into a pallet of champagne and not break a bottle. 😳😱🤦‍♂️ This is the way the pallet arrived from our shipper, who also managed to leave another pallet of champagne behind and are yet to locate it. 🤬😭

31/08/2022

It’s about time! First trade launch since 2018 maybe … teaming up with the good guys, and , in just under two weeks. There’ll be new releases from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Slovenia, South Africa and Spain! We’ve got a container arriving from France tomorrow so we’ll probably have new Beaujolais, Burgundy, Chablis, Champagne and Rhones to show. Hope to see you there!

29/07/2022

Day 18 began with a bang! I left Ay at 6.50am and arrived 20 minutes early in Polisot in the Aube to catch on his way out on the tractor. Vineyard tours can be enlightening or they can be ho hum, but never have they been so action packed! We drove to two of Paul Bastien’s parcels, the second called Les Combes at the top of a hill. I heard the handbrake creaking but didn’t give it another thought because it was a fairly typical beat-up vineyard hack. We wandered into the vines and next minute the car is rolling downhill, backwards - through the vineyard! Fortunately we didn’t have to throw ourselves under the wheels to stop it ploughing 200m of his neighbour’s vines; it came to a stop after uprooting several old trunks and three trellising posts. Paul barely batted an eyelid and was just happy his jalopy was still driveable! We then checked out his experimental lab, ie winery, where he vinifies in stainless steel, oak, metal barrels that can breathe through one or both ends (the shape encourages more lees contact) and clay amphorae, new this year. Paul has 9ha in three villages but is working slowly to perfect the product of each plot before he moves on. First into bottle is a 2019 blanc de noirs from a vineyard in Polisot that always produces lean pinot noir. Paul uses the cuvee and the taille for flavour and body and reckons it’s best raised in cuve (stainless steel tank) but he also did a portion in oak to compare. It was fascinating to taste the cuve version, then the “fut” (barrel) bottling, then a coteau rouge and back to the champagnes. The cuve is a salty, minerally aperitif to smash down and the fut would better handle food. Thanks so much Paul! I’m glad we didn’t see your car end up in the Seine and I’m looking forward to shipping these wines and your future beauties over the following few years.

27/07/2022

Some nice people I bumped into this week!

22/07/2022

What a day! Tasting the 14th vintage since I started with , the 10th with Pascal of Domaine Gerard Mugneret, the 13th with and the fifth with , although I haven’t tried the Mugneret and Arnaud 20s yet. Honoured to work with such nice people who happen to be brilliant winemakers.

20/07/2022

You know what a tough start to a new life looks like? ventured out to the Jura after eight years as the apprentice to renowned Champagne artisan Vincent Laval. So far his new world has given him a brutal welcome, with a decent crop in 2018 offset by frost, hail, torrential rain, mildew or all of the above in 2017, 2019 and 2021, the latest cruelly leaving him with just one barrique of chardonnay and one blended of pinot noir and trousseau. And yet he generously shared glasses of them with myself and two Italian merchants a year before they will even be bottled. They look great but regional officials are warning he’s on thin ice, so they may end up as vin de france. The three 100-litre barrels contain a heavenly nectar of savagnin destined to stay there for 10 years. It’s hard to imagine it could get any better than it already is, but Bruno is cut from granite and will stay the course. So when you have 600 bottles to show for a year’s work, what do you do? Knuckle down for another round, hope for the best, and chase an extra 3.5ha to make your dream more viable. Keep your fingers crossed for another 4-6 weeks for this region to replenish their stocks that nourish the soul. Right now, most of the barrels in Bruno’s little cave are as empty as his bank account? 🤷‍♂️ the promise of political action on climate change? 🤦‍♂️ but not his heart, full of kindness, grace, humility and courage. Even the sun on a 40-degree day could not cast him into the shadows. New vintage, new hope. So much riding on the next few weeks. 👊

18/07/2022

Huge 24 hours in Beaujolais. It was 37C here today and I rattled off six visits including 1) Clos de la Roilette 2) with winemaker Alain Coudert and a 2005 Fleurie 3) Brouilly La Folie looking at Mont Brouilly 4 and 5) Maxime Barrot’s energetic reds from bottle and whites from barrel 6) terroir for days 7) Domaine du Clos du Fief deep dive with some top crus 8) Angela and Hugo of Jeunes Pousses soon to be Obora 9) Paul-Henri Thillardon killing it as usual, and Jean-Marc Burgaud’s new star in 2021, a parcel of Morgon Corcelette.

16/07/2022

Visited some great young producers in Germany this week who we will introduce before the end of the year, including this Pfalz domaine that is creating quite the buzz.

14/07/2022

Just popped out for a bit. Business as usual at home while I reconnect with key German and French producers for the first time in three years plus accidentally add some incredible new guys. The future is in good hands!

16/06/2022

Wondering why Burgundy is more expensive and harder to find? The area under vine has been growing by 1% a year for 10 years but the average yields are 30% lower than where they "should be". Producers have finally been jolted into action.

Last year's frosts were a "wake-up call" for Burgundy producers, the head of the BIVB has told the drinks business, prompting the organisation to shake up its budget and triple investment into R&D to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change.

06/06/2022

Hang on WA, help is on the way! Lots of .benoit_ .harel.beaujolais and more! Going to have to send another pallet within a week. Hit up and interrupt his Adelaide junket ;)

01/06/2022

Nice little flock/herd of Mark and unicorns from Ferme de la Sansonniere going to a loving cellar in Sydney. ?

01/06/2022

Just packing orders. Would rather keep them all but spreading them far and wide and hoping they sparkle on the finest wine lists in the land.

19/05/2022

Chablis, Burgundy anyone? 😍😍😍

18/05/2022

Let the games commence! Our most expensive and overdue container yet! Just arrived six hours earlier than scheduled!

17/05/2022

I knew there was room for one more pallet! Ramping up the shipping schedule starting with this re**er packed and due to sail from Italy on Friday, with new releases from Bovio, Ca di Rajo, Giacomo Centanni, Cupano, Fattoria di Sammontana, Venchiarezza, Franz Weninger and Herbert Zillinger. Due into Melbourne late June.

15/05/2022

15/04/2022

Happy 14th birthday to us!