A bonfire-night-scented beauty

2012 Ctes-du-Rhne Villages, Arbouse, Massif d'Uchaux, Southern Rhne, France (£8.20, Tanners, 01743-234455 and www.tanners-wines.co.uk).

Last autumn, I wrote up a wine on this page, the 2011 Les Grenaches de Sixte, Domaine Giraud, from the esteemed Shropshire merchant Tanners. It hit a collective nerve and the Tanners phone line turned white hot. I recently visited Shrewsbury to meet some of their most enthusiastic customers, investigate the range, and tour one of the country's oldest and most celebrated specialist wine companies.

I was delighted to uncover a host of worthy wines for your cellar. This year, Sixte is simply called 2012 Ctes-du-Rhne Vieilles Vignes (£14.95). It is as lusty and imposing as ever, with broad swathes of blackberry, soot and heady Southern Rhne scrubland. It is youthful and brooding and will last for five years with ease.

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If you would like to partner this beast with a more genial, everyday, black-cherry and bonfire-night-scented beauty, then my featured Arbouse is another spectacular creation. Awarding it 18/20 in my notes and packing in more flavour than any inexpensive Ctes-du-Rhne I can remember, this is a must for the autumn/winter season. It's so refreshing to see inspired independent merchants kicking supermarket butt on flavour, value and authenticity!

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.