Agostino Pavia e Figli (Piedmont, Italy)

Agostino Pavia is a small family estate located in the heart of the production area of Barbera d'Asti, Piedmonte, Italy. Its seven hectares of vineyards – a mixture of owned and leased – are an average of fifty years old and so tend to give concentrated, minerally wines of considerable longevity.

We carry two wines from Agostino Pavia: Bricco Blina Barbera d’Asti, fermented in stainless steel tanks to preserve the juicy, fruity varietal character, and La Marescialla Barbera d'Asti, a premium cuvée made from selected grapes from one of the oldest vineyards and aged in barriques for one year before release.

Barbera d'Asti is is always made from barbera, Italy’s third-most-planted red grape variety (after sangiovese and montepulciano). It was given DOC (appellation) status in 1970, and was upgraded to the top DOCG tier in 2008. Under the rules, at least 85% barbera must be used; the balance may be made up with freisa, grignolino or dolcetto. 

Beaucastel / Perrin (Southern Rhöne, France)

One of the great estates of France, this bastion of traditionalism in the Southern Rhône has for decades produced superlative wines. Even though grenache, the pillar of Châteauneuf, plays second fiddle in Beaucastel’s atypical rendition, Robert Parker has suggested that the château has been “the most consistently great producer of Châteauneuf-du-Pape over the last three decades”, a success he attributes to Francois and Jean-Pierre Perrin, who are now being succeeded by a younger generation.

While demand for the estate wines is nearly impossible to satisfy, Beaucastel’s negotiant brand ‘Famille Perrin’, run by Jean-Pierre’s son Pierre, continues to make better and better wines, developing long-term contracts with growers and branching out in nearly every southern Rhône appellation.

Famille Perrin is the leading organic wine grower in the Southern Rhône. Its values have given them a worldwide reputation for excellence: absolute respect of the soil; a commitment to manual methods; and a deep belief that organic viticulture is the only way to express the true essence of the terroir. Nature and traditional methods are the key assets of Famille Perrin and this approach has continued seamlessly over five generations.

Mas des Bressades (Costières de Nîmes, France)

Costières de Nîmes was previously called Costières du Gard before a name change in 1989. Its vineyards cover the area between Nîmes and the Petit Rhône, one of the rivers of the delta rim in Camargue.

Mas de Bressades makes appellation-level wines from grenache, syrah, cinsault, and cabernet (reds and rosés); top-tier whites are produced from grenache blanc, marsanne, roussanne, and viognier.

Winemaker Cyril Mares is the latest of 6 generations of his family to make wine. After studying agronomy, viticulture, and oenology in Montpellier he did 18 months' military service in Germany and the former-Yugoslavia before returning to the field in 1996.

Robert Parker has said of him, "Young Cyril Mares crafts some well-concentrated bargains both red and white and an ambitious, flamboyant, but modestly-priced Cabernet-Syrah blend."

Costières de Nîmes was settled by veterans of Julius Caesar's campaigns in Egypt, and today's bottles of wines from the appellation bear the unlikely symbol of that time's Roman settlement - a crocodile chained to a palm tree.

Mount Langi Ghiran (Victoria, Australia)

Mount Langi Ghiran was established in 1970 in the Grampians by Don, Gino, and Sergio Fratin, with the planting of 15 hectares of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, and riesling.

While the vineyard was well chosen, winemaking was initially rustic and it wasn't until the early 1980s when Trevor Mast (recently deceased) started to assist as a consultant and then actually purchased the estate that its fortunes started to turn.

Under his stewardship quality improved quickly and dramatically to the point where Langi's various expressions of shiraz are widely regarded as being among the best cool-climate examples in Australia today.

Current production, including a range of single-vineyard shirazs, stands at 60,000 cases per annum, from 80 hectares, with many of the most venerable plots being covered by permanent, clear span netting to protect against hail and birds.

James Halliday, Australia's top wine critic, has described Langi's overall wine quality as 'outstanding'.

Pierre André (Burgundy, France)

With the arrival of Pierre Andre’s new team in 2003, the domaine changed its focus and today sees itself as a pure Burgundy specialist, with wines from most Burgundy appellations, as well as from Chablis and Beaujolais. There have been huge investments made in the intervening decade, both in the winery and in the quality of grapes and must (pre-fermentation grape juice). The range has become more market friendly, with the wines becoming more modern, supple and suited to early drinking.

Pierre André is owned by the Ballande Group, owners too of Sovex Woltner, Ballande & Meneret and Château Prieuré Lichine. Its business is spread out across three sites: (1) Savigny-les-Beaune and Sainte-Marie La Blanche for the wine-making; (2) Aloxe-Corton for bottling, storage, shipping, administration and marketing; and (3) Château de Corton-André, the heart of Pierre André.

Xanadu Estate (Margaret River, Australia)

Margaret River is Australia’s most strongly maritime-influenced major wine region and is associated with premium cabernet sauvignons, chardonnays, and semillon-sauvignon blanc blends. The climate is similar, temperature wise, to that of Bordeaux in a dry year.

Xanadu was established in 1977 by John and Eithne Lagan who planted their first vines in what is now one of the region’s oldest vineyards. They named their vineyard Xanadu after the poem Kubla Khan by the romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The 130 hectare estate now has a long and proud history of producing wines of distinction. By the early eighties it was already winning awards, and had begun establishing a reputation as one of the finest wineries in the region.

It has an annual production of 65,000 cases, exports to all major markets, and employs sustainable methods in all its practices to ensure harmony with the earth.

Bubble Brothers carries these Xanadu wines:

Xanadu Estate Chardonnay 08

Xanadu Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 08

Next of Kin Cabernet Sauvignon 08

Next of Kin Shiraz 08