SEASIDE SIPS

The perfect complement to fun in the sun, Jean Luc Colombo’s Cape Bleue Rosé is one you can sip slowly as you chill on your lounger, or take with you when you adjourn for lunch. With a refreshing purity and subtlenotes of peach, bubble gum and wild raspberry, it pairs beautifully with seafood and poultry dishes.

It’s hot and you need something cool and refreshing: Rochioli’s estate-grown California Sauvignon Blanc is bright and sunny, yet almost water-white in the glass. Once poured, it shows off a scintillating bouquet of gooseberries, passion fruit and papaya and has an excellent balance and structure. Perfection.

WINE & DINE

You want to present your host with a bottle that is downright delectable: enter Rombauer’s Carneros Chardonnay. Often sold out before the next vintage even peeks out of the barrel, this is a Chardonnay to die for: brimming with tropical fruit, honeyed melon and mango notes, it’s smooth on the palate  and round with creamy vanilla textures.

When you need a wine that can stand up to exquisite cuisine, Antinori’s Guado Al Tasso Bolgheri is the only choice. Backed by 600 years of winemaking know-how, the blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot is astoundingly complex, with dark berry flavours, chocolate accents and hints of raw tobacco. Exceptional with a New York Striploin.

WORK IT

Sometimes you have to be bold when it comes to business. A vino that fumes with exuberance and confidence, Orin Swift’s ‘Palermo’ Cabernet Sauvignon is your perfect partner in crime. Full-bodied and ripe, the nose is dominated by dark spices and cherries, and on the palate it’s bursting with cassis, blackberries and tea. With a long and powerful finish this is a wine that takes no prisoners.

Schloss Johannisberg’s Silberlack Riesling is a wine that has both class and style. Drawing on nine centuries of German winemaking tradition, and dressed to impress in a stunning bottle, it is savoury, dry, and breathtakingly potent. Once uncorked, notes of green apple, saffron and lime are released. Your colleagues will be bowled over by your discerning palate.

CAUSE FOR CHEER

Nothing says ‘celebration’ quite like the sound of a Champagne cork popping. And no Champagne is more renowned and admired than Roederer’s Cristal. Deliciously decadent, the flavours of white citrus, buttered bread, pineapple and stone fruit are perfectly interlaced into the Champagne’s framework, giving it an endlessly silky profile. Pour carefully – you won’t want to waste a drop.

Sometimes you need a special wine, just for you. Robert Foley’s Claret is one such wine. A blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Petit Verdot, it’s lush and supple, with layer after layer of wicked dark fruit exploding from the palate. Refined and polished, it evolves over the hours, leaving you to ponder its spicy and intrepid depths.  You’ll have a hard time not getting lost.

WELL PRESENTED

When you need a gift that makes a statement, make it a bottle of Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron. A monumental achievement in winemaking, this second growth Bordeaux has all the concentration and structure of a classic Pauillac Bordeaux and perfect acidity, giving it seamless balance in the glass. A gift that won’t be forgotten.

Want to impress with a bottle of fizz, but don’t know which? An all-time favourite and brilliant wine from conception to finish is the Billecart-Salmon Rosé Brut. Pale salmon in colour, it’s a dry wine that hides all manner of fruity delights and tingles on the tongue. Totally drinkable and absolutely delicious.