Editors’ picks: A range of great wines to try – July 2026

Oscars night with Clarendelle

Getting your wine poured in front of Hollywood’s biggest stars and a global TV audience is quite a coup. If any Bordeaux name could pull it off, it would be the Haut-Brion family.

For the fourth year running, Clarendelle and Domaine Clarence Dillon returned as the Academy’s official wine partner, their reds, whites and rosés served at several events during the 98th Oscars.

I enjoyed a more relaxed version at home, opening the Clarendelle Bordeaux Red 2018 (US$20-$22 Widely available) and Bordeaux White 2024 (£20.70 The Wine Shelf).

The 2018 red is lovely – bright ruby, with fresh cherry and blackcurrant fruit, a touch of spice and that classic, supple Bordeaux frame.

The 2024 white is crisp and bright, full of lemon and grapefruit zest, with pear and subtle lychee notes underneath.

Fresh, harmonious and moreish. Clarendelle is the approachable side of the Haut-Brion stable – inspired by the great estate and made with the same rigour and team, but for more everyday drinking.

A Bunch of great-value summer wines

It’s a common assumption that supermarkets have a monopoly on wines priced at the lower end, for everyday drinking.

The Bunch spring/ summer press tasting (which UK politician Michael Gove wandered into), held at a private member’s club near Westminster, showed that the terms ‘value wine’ and ‘independent merchant’ aren’t mutually exclusive.

The bunch of leading UK indies (Corney & Barrow, Haynes Hanson & Clark, Lea & Sandeman, Private Cellar, Tanners and Yapp Brothers) traditionally come together every autumn to show a small selection from their current range.

This was their first ever spring/ summer tasting and it naturally majored on whites, rosés and lighter reds. Standout whites for value included Moulin de Gassac’s Languedoc Viognier 2025 (£13.25) and Cuisine en Famille’s Les Bras m’en Tombent Blanc 2025, from the Rhône (£14.95), both from Yapp.

Haynes Hanson & Clark showed an expressive and aromatic 2025 Provence rosé from Domaine Pique Roque (£16.35); while on the lighter-red side,

Tanners fielded Braida’s deliciously fresh, strawberry-sweet, lightly sparkling 2025 Brachetto d’Acqui (£16.90) and a crunchy, rose-scented 2023 Criolla from the El-Bayeh estate in Argentina’s Jujuy region (£16.90), both ideal for balmy-evening sipping.

120 years of shared history

The Wine Society first bought sparkling wines from Alfred Gratien’s Saumur sister house, Gratien & Meyer, in 1906.

The Champagne maison would soon become the producer of Cuvée 33, now known as The Society’s Champagne Brut NV (£36.50).

Together, the two companies have weathered many – and ongoing – storms: two world wars, energy crises, a global pandemic, Brexit, insane duty increases… the list goes on.

Through it all, two unshakable foundations have remained: mutual commitment and the society’s members’ love for Gratien bubbles.

As the society prepares to release a collection of special cuvées to celebrate the 120th anniversary of this exceptional relationship – including late-disgorged magnums of Alfred Gratien Cuvée Paradis 2008 – I went up to Stevenage to meet Nicolas Jaeger and Pierre Charon, cellar masters at Alfred Gratien and Gratien & Meyer respectively.

What followed was more than a stand-out tasting – I was privileged to hear living history told through exceptional wines and enduring institutional and personal bonds; all of which should be celebrated and never taken for granted.

Judgement+50

To celebrate the 50-year legacy of the Judgement of Paris, the International Wine and Food Society hosted what it believes is the biggest ever coordinated blind tasting. In eight locations in the UK, Australia and South Africa, 221 people tasted and scored the same six Chardonnays and six Bordeaux red blends.

Another 800 people took part in events in Asia and the US. In London, Bella Spurrier, wife of the late Steven Spurrier – instigator of the Judgement of Paris and, for 27 years, Decanter’s consultant editor – joined the flagship tasting.

And, once again, French wines were denied the spoils.

Kumeu River’s Coddington Chardonnay 2024 (£43 EW Wines) from NZ prevailed in London and globally.

It pipped (in descending order by London score) Concha y Toro’s Amelia 2023 from Chile, Louis Jadot’s Puligny-Montrachet 2022, Chateau Montelena 2022 (whose 1973 Chardonnay triumphed in 1976), Domaine Leflaive’s Mâcon-Verzé 2022 and Restless River’s Ava Marie 2020 from South Africa.

Shafer’s TD-9 2019 from Napa (£82 Ad Hoc Wine Shop) won globally for the reds, but Kanonkop’s Paul Sauer 2019 from South Africa was the winner in London (with Shafer in second), seeing off Domaine de Chevalier 2017, Moss Wood 2021 from WA, Nicolás Catena Zapata 2020 from Argentina and Château Langoa Barton 2018.

Summer bliss at the English cellar door

Why not escape the urban heat and embark on a day trip to an English winery?

Maybe head for a tasting and lunch at Gusbourne’s cellar door, The Nest, which stays open late on Saturdays in summer.

Alongside the 51 Degrees North Brut 2016 (95 points, £195), the Blanc de Blancs 2020 (£65) is another must-try: precise and focused, with lemon-zest freshness, honeyed camomile and creamy brioche.

In Hampshire, the 2022 releases of Black Chalk’s top cuvées – Paragon Blanc de Blancs and Inversion Blanc de Noirs – are just out (both £65).

Savour the range’s signature razor-sharp acidity (thanks to the absence of malolactic conversion) and vivid fruit from the warm vintage when visiting the modern, industrial-style cellar door or attending events at the estate’s distinctive Circle Vineyard, where different grape varieties are planted in each quarter.

Meanwhile, in Sussex, Weyborne Estate’s historic manor house, draped in wisteria and gazing across the South Downs from an elevated vantage point, is worth keeping an eye on as its conversion into a luxury hotel gets underway.

Named after Lord Tennyson’s The Ballad of Oriana, the estate’s Oriana Golden Spur 2022 (£48) combines oxidative richness with a salted spiciness – a gastronomic delight.