The Matthew Jukes Mixed Case
I have been buying wine from Jeroboams (and its Laytons arm back in the day) since the late Eighties in my capacity as a wine buyer and as a regular punter. Over the years, I have hosted memorable events in the beautiful shops, and many of my pals have worked for this famous merchant over the years, most notably my wife, Amelia, who worked there when we first started dating nearly two decades ago. Jeroboams has a remarkable capacity to retain its gravitas and respect as a pioneering, independent wine merchant while relentlessly moving forward in the modern and ever-changing wine world. There are a few essential criteria for me to uncover in wine for a bottle to be worthy of an enthusiastic write-up.
The most obvious of all is sheer deliciousness, but it is rare to find wines that tick my complete checklist of desirable attributes. Jeroboams specialises in tracking down wines that taste fabulous and exhibit superb value for money. They also, more often than not, have great stories, epitomising the direction and talent the finest winemakers in the world exhibit. There is no resting on laurels here, as my selection of twelve stunning wines shows. Each pushes its category forward, and while all are drinking beautifully now, every bottle in this dozen will evolve and gather even more complexity over the near future. I hope you enjoy every bottle in this magical dozen and see what I do in the wines. If so, you may like to read more about my favourite wines, including my five annual, in-depth reports, on matthewjukes.com by taking advantage of a discounted membership, exclusively for Jeroboams members, here.
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2021 Kaesler, The Bogan Shiraz, Barossa Valley, South Australia
I have followed the Kaesler wines for decades, but this loyalty pales when you learn the oldest vines on this estate date back to the 1890s. Like many of the greatest wineries in Australia, the desire to improve year after year is all-consuming here, and the constant refinement of the wines is apparent in the glass. There is as much focus on vineyard health as there is on sensitive winemaking, and while historically, these were blockbuster creations, these days, the fruit integrity is unquestionable and yet the delivery on the palate is sensual, pervasive and all-encompassing as this ‘Bogan’ shows. Included in my as-yet-unpublished 100 Best Australian Wines Report 2025, this is a stellar Barossa Shiraz that is already charming and hypnotic in the glass, and the value for money here is simply staggering, bearing in mind the raw materials and talent in this operation.
2024 Kaesler, Old Vine Semillon, Barossa Valley, South Australia
This is another storming Kaesler wine, and it’s unlike any other. Australia is spoilt for choice with dry, keen, energetic, old-vine Semillon; almost all of it is untroubled by oak. This means the wines bear no resemblance to those from Bordeaux, or anywhere else for that matter and within the country, the pendulum of style swings all over the place, too. Skinnier than any Sauvignon Blanc, this balletic wine possesses a malevolent edge, manifesting itself in the brightest and raspiest pith and zest notes, underpinned by nerve-jangling acidity. It is ever so slightly masochistic, and this flavour stance means it can take on a plateau de fruits de mer with more alacrity than any swaggering Loire white while spearing a mountain of sushi faster than a Sake master in full flow. Line up your finest seafood and let OVS get to work!
2023 Port Phillip, Quartier Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
The New Year in the wine trade means it’s Burgundy time, and while Jero’s offering is undoubtedly one of the most complete, I doubt many wines can compete with the delicacy, charm and complexity, let alone the value, of this refined creation. Another member of my 100 Best Australian Wines 2025 fraternity, this is a Pouilly-Fuissé-shaped wine but without the heft and with a little more momentum and dynamism on display than found in many of its French cousins. Mornington is a haven for elite Chardonnay and Pinot, and Port Phillip is a sensitive purveyor of these rare arts.
2021 Pavette, Zinfandel, California
While I know some of the people behind the wines in this collection, I am a relative newbie to the charms of Pavette. Funnily enough, I wrote up the 2020 Pinot from this winery in my Finest Fifty list last year and, like this Zin, showed uncommon value for money. I only drink a couple of bottles of Zinfandel each year, and I prefer the lighter, more fragrant wines to the old-school head-bangers. It makes perfect sense that Pavette manages to make both red grapes in a similar fashion. I often think the word ‘charming’ has both a welcoming or cordial meaning and also a slightly smarmy one, so please take it the right way when I say that Pavette is a thoroughly charming wine and one that could convert any Zin-avoider to an ardent acolyte in just a couple of sips.
NV Laytons Brut Réserve, Champagne, France
I cannot imagine that anyone reading these notes has not tasted this wine. If this is the case, then shame on you! While most serious independent expert merchants give up on the Sisyphean task of creating a fabulous own-label Champagne, Jeroboams puts its head down and charges forward. The result is one of the great wines in our country. Forget the High Street and its ‘extra special’, ‘different tasting’, ‘best’ and ‘finest’ versions and stick to this perpetually reliable and downright delicious sparkler. It is a definitive aperitif style, given its freshness and bounce, and you are guaranteed a knowing nod of approval when your guests spot the label, too!
2022 Newfound, Gravels, Napa Valley, California
I found myself getting a little overheated back in November when I wrote up the 2019 vintage of this wine. I made a point of reserving it for this curated dozen, only to find it had sold out. Before a deep depression set in, I was informed by those in the know that the new vintage was in the cellar, so I called in a bottle, and what a good decision that was. While I fondly remember the cheeky 2019, this 2022 is a different game altogether. After tasting it and writing this note, I decided to pour it for a few like-minded wine crazies. They found it utterly mesmerising, and the consensus was that it was Pinot Noir-shaped but not a Pinot! I cannot improve on this off-kilter note. Certainly, the texture is silky and sensual, and the fruit palette shows reds and purples, but the spice, earth and fresh herb notes are somewhat confusing, and this is because Gravels is a ‘Southern Rhône blend’ of Grenache, Carignan and Mourvèdre (as far as I can tell). It has the generosity and tenderness of a truly beautiful wine, and I would have been hard-pressed to guess it was Californian if it were served blind! Get in quick because this is a remarkable discovery.
2021 Rocafosca, Priorat, Costers del Priorat, Spain
This is another relatively new find for me and another benchmark Jeroboams-style wine. It is GPS-accurate, utterly delicious, and drinking now, but it has enough energy to blossom further, and the value for money is unquestionable. Spicy, smooth, bright, plummy and floral, Rocafosca is the kindly face of Priorat and I like what I see. I have twenty-year-old bottles of Priorat in my cellar that still look terrifyingly young, and I think they will never find equilibrium. By contrast, this wine is harmonious and swarthy – now that’s a rare combo! You do not need to cook a haunch of brontosaurus to get through a bottle either because the tannins are completely assimilated into the core of this wine, leaving gleaming flanks of glossy blackberry and plum fruit studded with clove, thyme and liquorice details. While I sit in Battersea twiddling my thumbs, the Jeroboams warriors are scouring the earth, finding wines like this. I feel lucky, and you should, too.
2022 Maranges, 1er Cru La Fussière, Bachelet-Monnot, Burgundy, France
Now you might think this is a fairly predictable wine in the line-up, but this time the story is mine, not Jeroboams’. I was one of the first, if not the first, wine buyers to take the plunge and order pallets of Marc and Alexandre’s wines. They were very young lads who made awesomely beautiful and stunning value wines at the time. Today, they are experienced men with even finer wines and a messianic following among the cognoscenti. Yet, they have still, to my mind, kept the wines within a reasonable price band, considering the madness that is happening all around them. They were among the first to put the once little-known village of Maranges (just south of Santenay) on the map! This is elite Pinot Noir, perfectly balanced and starting out on a ten-year journey. Order some without delay – I already have mine in my cellar!
2022 Alma de Cattleya, Chardonnay, Sonoma County, California
Californian Chardonnay is vanishingly thin on the ground in my cellar, as I am ridiculously keen on elite versions from Australia (like the Port Phillip), and I keep the faith ticking over with carefully selected Burgundies. But, and this is a big but, when a quiet, detailed, soothing and refreshing Sonoma Chardonnay hits my glass, I am the first to admit I could be converted. The Alma de Cattleya wines appeared on my radar a couple of years ago when Jeroboams first tracked them down, and I was struck by the unruffled calm in the glass. There was none of the brash oak or the orange curd and lard notes found in chubby Cali-Chardies, and I felt that I was tasting wines made with Zen-like palates at the controls. This 2022 is the finest to date, and it provides a complete Chardonnay experience without tiring the senses. It also sends you back to the glass with reassuring regularity!
2022 Moss Wood, Amy’s, Margaret River, Western Australia
Heaven! I have yet to meet a more ardent fan of Moss Wood wines than yours truly, and this is another epic Aussie wine which is featured in my 100 Best Australian Wines Report 2025. Silky, honed, blackberry-soaked and seamless, Amy’s is one of the most incredible Cabernets on earth, and while it embodies the hallowed turf of Margaret River, it also manages to wink at the Médoc and nudge Bolgheri in the ribs, too, such is the class and detail here. I know the price looks too cheap for it to be a genuinely serious wine, but I can assure you that this is one of the finest value Cabs on planet Earth.
2024 Kelly Washington, Organic Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand
Before you continue with this tasting note, please banish all thoughts of fruit salady, guava-tinged, cat’s pee Marlborough ‘Savvies’. This wine is a world away from the oceans of mediocre white wine made from this ubiquitous grape. Instead, this organic Sauvignon is slender, high-tensile, vital and aromatherapeutic, with grassy tones and raw citrus energy the length of its palate. It feels like a cross between a flinty Menetou-Salon, a chilly Friuli Bianco and a racy Vinho Verde, such is the rapier-sharp attack and the mouth-watering cleanliness on the palate. Interestingly, a smattering of oak is used here, as well as some concrete eggs and a dribble of laser-like Semillon. I hear Dr Spock reporting, ‘It’s Sauvignon, but not as we know it’! And do you know what? It works like a dream.
2022 Achaval Ferrer, Cabernet Franc, Mendoza, Argentina
There is just about every flavour covered in these twelve wines apart from the haunting violet and graphite perfume of Cabernet Franc, so I have just the candidate for your perusal. With a similar chassis to a Right Bank claret, and a price tag that Right Bank clarets could never in their wildest dreams drop to, this gorgeous Mendoza red combines earthy traction, purple highlights, mulberry and rhubarb nuances, and then, just when you expect muscle, oak and tannin to swarm in and spoil the show, the fruit notes assume a full-flavoured stance without ever pressing the turbo button. There is a lot of action here; all of it is civilised, ordered and rather dashing. Only Cab Franc can play this card and it does it so well, making Merlots and Malbecs slink away into the shadows. Well done, Achaval Ferrer, for making such a polished wine at this competitive price!