OUR BLOG

We’ve grown our range of Malbec to showcase the diversity offered from Argentina’s best known grape. Added to this we could not ignore a couple of exciting new finds we made from Chile. However, alongside these old favourites we found stunning wines from both Uruguay and Brazil.

Uruguay is a fascinating - yet very small - wine country with its own profile, thanks to the Atlantic and the Río de la Plata maritime influence, which infuse such natural balance and freshness in the wines. The Tannat grape is the red wine star giving voluptuous and velvety wines; reminiscent of northern Italy but with a New World intensity of fruit and expression. The wines we have listed are not for the faint hearted (although Tannat is supposedly good for the heart!).

Brazil is the third most important wine producer in South America. Centred in Rio Grande do Sul, mainly in the high, hilly Serra Gaúcha region near Uruguay. Serra Gaúcha, the wine capital of Brazil, produces 80% of the country's wine. The region features low mountain ranges ‘serras’ (300m to 850m) and is populated by Gauchos, the cowboys of the Brazilian Pampas.

From Brazil we have listed two great wines made by the Pizzata family whose winery began in Brazil in 1879, part of an Italian emigration wave shaping modern Brazilian winemaking. Now, fifth-generation winemaker Flávio, awarded Brazil’s ‘Winemaker of the Year’ in 2020, produces renowned reds, and Brazils only white wine made from Semillon. The classy Semillon is multi-layered, showing notes of white flowers, camomile, green herbs and some tropical fruits, with gently toasty overtones. This had to be the wine of the month for June, a real team favourite.

Posted 28 May 2025

At Tetbury Wines, only the exceptional make the cut so after an exhaustive tasting with suppliers, (a tough job but someone has to do it), we selected a cracker of a wine called Preciso from our friends at Cantine Paolo Leo. It is far from shy at 14% but when a wine is this masterful the result is an impeccable bottle. A key component in the final wine comes in mid-August when the grapes reach perfect maturity, picked by hand they are then left to dry for around 12 days. During this natural drying process the grapes lose about 25-30% of their weight. This process called Appassimento allows for the concentration of flavours and a natural sweetness from the grapes.

This is an intense ruby red coloured wine. The nose is complex with aromas of cherries, raspberries and currants. The oak ageing adds a pleasant toasty, spicy character. The palate is full bodied with flavours of dried fruit, slight raisin character, plums, damsons, garrigue and a hint of spice. The finish is rich and full with good, sweet fruit flavours in an excellent balance.

Posted 28 May 2025

Gift Box with Champagne Gardet Brut NV - £49.99

A red gift box with a ribbon and wooden heart for your message containing one 75cl bottle of Gardet Brut NV, one 180g Baron Bigad Heart and one 125g box of Fig, Honey and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Crackers.

Gift Box with Louis Perrier Rose NV - £33.99

A red gift box with a ribbon and wooden heart for your message containing one 75cl bottle of Louis Perrier Rose NV, one 180g Baron Bigad Heart and one 125g box of Fig, Honey and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Crackers.

1st February 2025

A quick tour of Tetbury wines.

1) By country and region

Our shelving was custom made to fit seven bottles across each section (excluding the occasional absurdly tall bottle – we’re looking at you Germany!) and each represents a country or region. As of today, Austria, Romania and Bulgaria are sharing a space, Portugal gets one to itself and Italy gets five (one of which is just wine from Tuscany and one shared by Puglia and Sicily).

2) By type

Of course every rule has its exception and so sparkling, pudding and fortified are categorised by type. As is rose. Unless its English rose, then its with English wine.

3) By price (kind of)

Look down the centre of the shop and you’ll see the wines Paul calls “high days and holidays” but its less about price than it is about helping the customers shopping for specific villages, read the labels. Towards the back of the shop are cases of wine that there’s a discount on when bought by the case. They are there because we sell a lot of them. So we need a lot in the shop. All of these bottles are also on the shelves but people still like to look for themselves.

4) Vegetarian, Vegan, Organic, Natural Wine, No Added Sulphur and Biodynamic

These wines can be found in two ways. One way is to look closely at the tags on the bottles as we use a key (O = Organic and so on). There is also a list at the till so you can look through them, find the country and then head to that area.

5) By temperature

We have a chiller and especially on hot days we get customers choosing from what is ready to drink. Naturally our range of picnic wines in cans and plastic bottles live here.

6) By occasion

Beyond the fine wines classification there are larger bottles towards the back of the shop (our cigar humidor lives with the magnums), gift boxes of miniatures plus the aforementioned sparkling and English wine (which is a popular souvenir).

The shop makes sense to us and perhaps the only thing that can have us running circuits around the fine wines is when someone wants a particular grape such as a Chardonnay (since Southern France faces Australia).

1st November 2024