Armit Wines expands Californian wine offering

By Erin Smith

Published: 17 February, 2016

Armit Wines announced it will be expanding its California offering and adding four new wineries to its portfolio following the growth in the popularity of wines from the US in the UK.

Hanzell Vineyards in Sonoma, Stony Hill in Napa Valley, The Hobo Wine Company in Santa Rosa and Bien Nacido & Solomon Hills Estates in Santa Maria are helping to round out Armit's current wine offering, which includes Freemark Abbey and Diamond Creek.

"We are pleased to announce our recently strengthened Californian portfolio which includes some of the most celebrated and up and coming names from across the Golden State," said Edwina Watson, a buyer at Armit Wines.

Hanzell Vineyards in Sonoma Hanzell Vineyards in Sonoma

Armit Wines expansion of its California portfolio has been driven by the increase for demand for wines within the region. "We are constantly striving to improve our offering to our customers, sourcing quality wines from wineries with real pedigree and a sense of place. California was an area that we've been looking at for a couple of years; there is so much diversity in this category so the search was thorough and widespread," said Watson

Particularly the Napa wines have proven very successful according to Watson. She said: "We have worked with the fantastic Freemark Abbey for many years and these wines have always proved very popular with our on and off trade customers. Eighteen months ago, we added prestigious Diamond Creek which filled the premium Napa Cabernet spot and has proved extraordinarily popular with Private Clients and trade alike."

The diversity across the Golden State and how well it pairs with foods have worked well in the UK and the on-trade. Watson said: "I was struck by the sheer diversity, quality and regional identity on offer. All of these wineries extol the virtues of cool climate sites or single vineyard terroir. The wines are classic, very suited to the UK palate and to our customers' tastes".

Californian wine producers in recent years have had tremendous success with groups like 'In Pursuit of Balance'. IPOB members have stylistically diverged from what California wines have been known for in the past - powerful, full-bodied and higher alcohol wines. The group of wineries are pursuing styles that are using less oak and less over-ripe fruit.

Hanzell Vineyards will be presented at the In Pursuit of Balance tasting at the Milbank Tower in London on February, 22, 2016.

All four wineries will be shown at the Go West! tasting which is to be on March 10, 2016 at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre at Westminster, London.

The new wines will be available at the end of February.

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