Italian Summer Dozen

We all need an easy-going, fuss-free red – cue this juicy, bright barbera from north-west Italy. Light to medium-bodied, this has cherry and blackberry flavours, and a crisp, refreshing finish.

Our members love this bold yet balanced nero d'Avola, and its winning performance in our 2026 Wine Champions tastings showed why. ‘Soft, full and ripe’ with ‘plump black fruit and a hint of coffee’, it performs a brilliant balancing act between fruity generosity and oak-influenced spice and structure. Brilliant value.

Generously flavoured, spicy red with the balance and structure to age well. 85% sangiovese and 15% bacca rossa, it's from a small organically farmed estate and offers red-berry fruit framed with cedar and a long silky finish. This is a great wine to pair with sausage and mash or mushroom risotto.

One of Italy's best buys, verdicchio makes vibrant, crisp and refreshing wines. This is from a beautiful and organic single vineyard and has a full, dry style, with grapefruit, lemon and mineral notes that slip down easily with or without food.

A very fine expression of Soave Classico with a complex array of pear, citrus and flinty-mineral flavours, and a long, intense finish. The 2024 vintage has beautiful tension, linearity and energy, and promises to age gracefully. Made from a selection of this organic estate's best grapes - 75% garganega and 25% trebbiano di Soave - this takes Soave Classico as you know it to a whole new level and has remarkable ageing potential. The Coffele family has farmed organically for many years, taking a whole-farm approach that combines vineyards, livestock and olive groves. Sheep and goats form part of the system, helping reduce the need for machinery while contributing to a more diverse agricultural landscape. Alongside their environmental work, the family has also developed projects that support the local community, reflecting a long-standing belief that successful farming should benefit both the land and the people connected to it.

This Chianti Classico is made exclusively for members by Baron Francesco Ricasoli, in the winery that adjoins the historic Castello di Brolio. Ricasoli is often seen as the benchmark for the region as their history dates to the 11th century, with preserved original documents discussing the best ways to make red wine. With its gentle hills, vineyard-scattered valleys and thick woodlands of oaks and chestnuts, the 1,200 hectares here include almost 240 hectares of vineyards and 26 of olive groves. It’s a haven for biodiversity. This specially selected wine is 100% sangiovese and has the classic character of the Chianti's from Gaiole - a richer darker cherry and plum flavour, with firm full tannins that well support the red apple, raspberry, leather and spice that develop on the medium body. There is a lovely length that has a refreshing lift making this wine very well suited to pairing with all manner of foods. Enjoy this wine with a special introductory saving of £1.50 per bottle until 14th August 2026.

With grapefruit, white peach and lemongrass aromas, this dry and vibrant white - with its slightly saline finish - is wonderfully refreshing. Relatively full-bodied in style, it has the weight to match up to creamy pasta dishes and flavoursome seafood. Verdeca is a rare white grape variety from Puglia in the heel of Italy, and this is made by the excellent Produttori di Manduria co-operative.

From an Italian producer focused on the production of timorasso, this has an immediate and gorgeous intensity on the palate of white and yellow peach, orchard fruit and alpine herbs, with a beautiful salty freshness on the long finish. This is quite full-bodied and rich, balanced with refreshing acidity. Luigi Boveri was one of a small number of pioneers who put the historic, indigenous timorasso grape firmly back on the map, in the latter part of the 20th century.

Made from organically cultivated grapes on a beautiful hillside vineyard overlooking the sea, this is a delightful peach, lemon and oyster-shell-scented white with a clean, dry finish. Seafood pasta would be perfect.

A pioneer of the independent winemaker movement, Matilde Poggi makes the best Bardolino we know, with a light and gentle touch. Her 2025 is as fragrant as ever, and brilliantly refreshing with a herbal, fennel-like perfume and wild strawberries on the palate. This is a red that could be chilled a little, and is perfect with mixed antipasti or a picnic.

A delightful, original, full-flavoured white made from organically grown trebbiano, pecorino, passerina, chardonnay and a little fiano. Dry, bright, and crisp and very vibrant with yellow peach, citrus zest and lemon verbena character. The Saladini Pilastri farm was established 300 years ago and is the largest private estate in the southern Marche. The limestone hills of Spinetoli and the rolling sunny hills around Ascoli, where the 140 hectares of vineyards extend, create wines of high quality. Saladini Pilastri is one of the earliest exponents of organic practices which have been in place since 1995.

This wine is a union between the most important red grape varieties of Trentino, teroldego (50%) and lagrein (50%). Teroldego is best grown in the Piana Rotaliana, which gives all the elements for rich, well-structured wine. Lagrein is grown along the hills above the Adige river, where rocky well-drained soil gives a fragrant and juicy wine with a delicate structure which balances the teroldego tannins. After fermentation half the wine is aged for six months in three-year-old, lightly toasted French oak barrels which allow the wine to develop without dominating oak flavours