Buyers' New Discoveries - Mixed Six Spring 2026

As buyers, we’re always looking to fill gaps in our range, writes Stephen Crosland, Tanners Purchasing Director, but only with wines that we think are good enough. In recent months, our range from the South-West of France has particularly benefited from a number of new listings, with Cahors in particular seeing a boost. Historically, far too many wines from the area seemed to us to be overly acidic with hard tannins. We were therefore delighted to find the wines of Haut-Monplaisir which, grown on some of the best soils in the region, have masses of soft fruit and the tannins, while present, are ripe and fine. Staying in the southwest we also found the wines of Sylvain Dabadie at Domaine Laougué. His Pacherenc Sec is wonderfully complex with delightful citrus fruit flavours – not a particularly well-known wine but all the more worthwhile discovering. Sticking with the majority Gros Manseng grape theme is the Projoe from Plaimont. Again, it’s an interesting and complex wine, citrus and floral, but also with a touch of oak ageing which gives it a different flavour profile to the crisp and vibrant Pacherenc, making it full and soft.

From the Languedoc, we have always liked the wines of Pierre Clavel, based near Montpellier. Changes to his vineyards have led to changes to the wines being produced, now by his sons Antoine and Martin, and we loved the ripe, velvety fruit of their Liura, made from Grenache and Syrah. A FANTASTIC Rhône-style red.

Meanwhile, further afield, our interest was piqued with more esoteric additions! We have been slowly adding to our range of Greek wines with those from the immaculate winery of Skouras a particular favourite. Moscofilero with its aromatic style is very popular in Greece and well worth trying over here too! A trip to California last year just highlighted the wonderful and diverse range of wines being produced there with those of Andrew Murray a particular favourite, including this balanced, elegant, red-fruited Syrah which demonstrates perfectly the classy, modern wines being made here.