No shop front. No shelves to peruse. Frogitt & Vonkel Private Wine Merchants have been partners of The Wine Show since we started 5 years ago. They specialise in exclusive wines not normally found in the retail environment… usually due to low production levels, or the wines being targeted at wine lovers with specific tastes as opposed to the check-list retail wine buyers usually conform to.

But what is the fuss about? Are these “gems” any different to the mass produced leading wines? We decided to check out 6 of F&V’s best sellers and see what our very own Taste Team thought of them.

The line-up is seductive enough, covering 6 different varietals and every price point. Three of the wines are Catchpole & Co labels, F&V’s own in-house label often used for marketing exceptional wines at far lower prices than the identical product under it’s home brand. Then there’s one red and one white from Majors Hill, F&V’s flagship Estate in Robertson.

Surprisingly one of the Catchpole labels, the Merlot, failed to delight and we’ll be retasting it as it seems the samples supplied were tainted in some way. This Merlot has been a consistent best seller.

And Robyn even found a white she’d like to try with red meat!