Harriet_Tindal, Author at Tindal Wine

Artemis announce changes to Domaine Bouchard Pere et Fils with a new domaine

Burgundy, News, ProducerOctober 28, 2025October 28, 2025 by Harriet_Tindal

Iconic monopole ‘Vigne de l’Enfant Jesus’ is to be moved away from Bouchard Pere et Fils under Artemis’ plans to restructure some vineyards to new Domaine des Cabottes. In the words of their press release:

Artémis Domaines is reorganizing Bouchard Père & Fils into two distinct and autonomous estates in order to highlight the full value of its exceptional winegrowing heritage.

This is officially the end of an era for drinkers of Bouchard. The monopole ‘Vigne de l’Enfant Jesus’ refers to an old story, a miracle around the birth of the future King, Louis XIV. The founding Carmelite nun of the ‘Domestiques de la famille du Saint Enfant Jesus’ predicted Louis’ birth, despite the Queen having struggled for years with infertility. After he was born, this exceptional vineyard adopted the name ‘Vigne de l’Enfant Jesus’. Thereafter purchased by the Bouchard family in 1791, remaining within their holdings until today.

As you can see in our latest post, the quality coming from the cellars of Frederic Weber is consistently recognised as some of the best in the region. These changes will direct that pursuit of perfection into the new Domaine des Cabottes. Mickael Baroin, who has been working with Frederic for the last 10 years will become the new Technical Director at Bouchard. Both will remain under the ownership of Artemis Domaines.

In line with Artemis’ principals the vintage releases from these domaines will be 1 year behind other Burgundies. 2026 will see the release of the ’23 vintage with restructure fully in place and the first vintage emerging from Domaine des Cabottes. 2022, in stock now will be the last time you will see this vineyard featured on a Bouchard bottle. Our advice: buy your last bottles today!

You can see the full separation of domaines in these pdfs. Domaine des Cabottes is focussed on the top level with Bouchard continuing to produce the much appreciated Beaune du Chateau amongst other Irish favourites.

Burgundy 2021 revisited.

UncategorizedOctober 28, 2025 by Harriet_Tindal

When was the last time you opened a bottle that made you sit down and contemplate? Sometimes we forget just how good the classics are. Burgundy has gone through tough times of late with the mildew issues of 2024, periods of drought in 2023, frost in 2021, alongside inconsistent weather patterns wreaking havoc on the fragile progress of Pinot Noir.

Journalists and experts have just tasted the 2021 reds and earlier this year, the whites at Burgfest – an exclusive snapshot of wines 4 years after their production. Many of our producers were represented here and faired well in the mix. In the words of Jasper Morris MW ‘2021 was a wretchedly difficult growing season’. Four years on and he found the reds to be:

‘less fragile than I feared, and some producers, even some communes managed to produced a number of delicious wines which I would very much enjoy to drink – medium bodied, elegant, very occasionally ethereal.’

Jasper’s report spotlights Pommard and the increased interest in this commune. The advise: to ‘increase representation’ from here, something we have been working on with Comte Armand but also Domaine Lejeune, new to our listings this year.

Below is a focus on our producer’s 2021s pulled from Jasper’s report. We have limited stocks on a number of these wines.

Simon Tyrrell – Rhone 2025 vintage update

Rhone Valley, Vintage reportSeptember 4, 2025 by Harriet_Tindal

Simon Tyrrell's update on Vintage 2025 so far....

As an intro, Simon works with us in his downtime from making excellent wines in the Rhone with Les Deux Cols. An 8ha property they purchased in 2016 in the northern Gard. This is his report on 2025 in his vineyards.

If 2024 was a rough ride in terms of disease pressure and the eventual yield, it did result in some pretty outstanding wine, particularly, the reds. 2025, on the other hand, has yet to reveal itself fully in a qualitative sense but it has certainly been even more of a roller coaster ride from spring through to the beginning of September.

Everything looked well set with constant periods of rain over winter and into early spring and rarely has the land in this part of the world looked so green and lush. Of course, instead of stopping when we wanted it to, the rain continued through budbreak and into flowering and at one point in May, it looked as though we might be set for another 2024 when, as organic growers, we were forced to spray eleven times. However, by the end of the first week in June, all this changed with the onset of a prolonged hot, dry spell which finally ended on the 28^th July with 25mm of rain. We ultimately only did five treatments this year. By this point any sense of a later harvest had started to evaporate and a second heatwave that lasted almost until the end of the 3^rd week of August saw the vines start to stress from a lack of water. Interestingly, whilst the acidity levels remained very good, the grapes contained little juice and low levels of nitrogen, essential for a smooth alcoholic fermentation. In spite of some small downfalls of rain, by the week of the 25^th August some of the vines had begun to take water from their bunches as they went into survival mode, resulting in some dried out, raisin-like grapes and there were many hours spent nervously looking at weather apps in the hope of seeing rain on the horizon.

Well, when the rain did eventually come, it did so in buckets and across the valley. We recorded 138mm between 10.30pm and 5.00am on the night of the 31^st August/1^st September and other parts of the Southern Rhone reached up to 160mm. Unfortunately, some areas were hit by hail with losses of up to 80% in certain vineyards.

If the weather now stays fair and the Mistral starts to blow, it could be a very interesting vintage, particularly for Grenache based wines. There were already some lovely aromas developing and with the good acidity levels. Now with a softening of the skins and an increase in volume, it finally looks hopeful. Of course, there’s along way to go and a lot could happen, as it already has in this topsy-turvy year.

Giuseppe Quintarelli – what legends are made of

Producer, ValpolicellaSeptember 3, 2025September 3, 2025 by Harriet_Tindal

The hills above Verona are home to a network of windy roads taking you past the terraced rows of vines elevated by the Veronese pergola system. Rocky white precipices project the limestone rock sitting close to the clay surface, lending that chalky mineral perfume to the best wines. These intensely planted hillsides produce the various styles of Valpolicella. 7ha of this belongs to the legendary Quintarelli estate.

A family winery made famous by the efforts of Giuseppe Quintarelli. A leader in the region, broadcasting to the world the undeniable quality of the top wines from, here. His only ambition – to raise the quality of the region and leave behind the difficult times of low prices endured by his grandparents in the 1930s. Living at the winery, Giuseppe and his family worked hard to prove that the traditionally dried wines of Valpolicella had the ability to compete with the best on the world stage.

Summers at Quintarelli saw the 9 grandchildren running round the vines, helping in true Italian style. With the generational shift in 2010, Giuseppe’s daughter Franca took over, moving into the house with her family. There followed a renovation of the house and winery with a new cellar underground extending the original one. Quintarelli’s wines are aged for a number of years prior to release, 7 years for the Amarones, 6 for the Valpolicella. The cellars are home to huge oval Slavonian oak foudres, enhanced by carvings illustrating the family history and winemaking process. The biggest barrel of 12000 litres is carved in honour of Giuseppe and illustrates the family values of religion and work. A second foudre of 5,300 litres stands ode to Franca Giuseppe’s wife. The carving shows four birds in a nest representing their children.

Recioto is the father of Amarone, the first wine of the region to use dried grapes in fermentation in the 1930s. An accidental refermentation of the skins produced the first example of what is now known as Amarone. The grapes are dried in special rooms with the shoulders or the ears as locally known saved for the Recioto. Oriot means ear in Italian. 6 months drying for Recioto, 4 for Amarone. The winemaking at Quintarelli has been overseen by Ricardo Ferralini for many years.

The tasting room, deep in the bowels of the cellar immediately calms. A combination of history and respect are driven by the barrel lined walls, broken with a photo of Giuseppe and Ricardo above a quote in Italian, translated as ‘Tradition that stands the test of time’.

Francesco gathered glasses and slowly took me through the wines. In the past each label was handwritten, by friend and original owner of the 12 Apostles restaurant in Verona. After 12 years Giuseppe’s daughter Sylvia mastered the script and took over the detail. Now they are printed, but dedicated labels written by Francesco’s mother are available for special occasions.

Each wine is unique, they do however all share the distinctive finesse and elegance of this property. Perhaps it was the effect of the room, the wines carried a mystical quality dancing over the enduring persistence on the palate.

*Harriet’s tasting notes are below. Our full offer can be requested by emailing sales@tindalwine.com

Sugrue South Downs, an English winery run by a Limerick man.

ProducerSeptember 1, 2025September 3, 2025 by Harriet_Tindal

It’s more than just speculation….

The English wine industry is flying high at the moment with global recognition putting their efforts front and centre in terms of visibility on the wine scene. If the rain stays away, 2025 could be as good as 2018 for the growers over there. Excitement builds as beautifully ripe grapes wax and bloom in readiness for picking this month.

The noise is never louder than when standing with Dermot and Ana Sugrue and their project in the South, Sugrue South Downs. Having left well known Champagne houses in the stalls with their recent win in Decanter’s 2025 ranking of Sparkling wine in magnums. The first blind tasting competition to mix Champagne with other regions. Sugrue is the most exciting producer in the UK at the moment.

Not afraid to think outside the box, Dermot’s tinkering in the winery has moved them outside the ‘safe zone’ and into an innovative and exciting realm with Bonkers Chardonnay. A self-confessed Chardonnay nut, Dermot produced the first release from the 2022 vintage, this is the product of a rainy day and the discovery of a half full barrel of resolute Chardonnay, defying expectations by the clarity and stability exposed post oxidation. Blended with some other small parcels and plonked in American oak for a little ‘je ne c’est quoi’, we have a unique and delicious English Chardonnay making waves wherever it’s tasted. So popular is ‘Bonkers’ that Dermot is already taking orders for the next vintage, still in barrel.

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