Bring These Beautiful Wine Bottles To Your Next Dinner Party
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10 months ago
Bottles you'll proudly display
Wine cellar looking dusty? You’ll want to show off these bottles. Here are our top picks of the most pretty wine bottles and their pairing notes. Crack these bottles open, and make sure to pop a candle in after to make a gorgeous DIY candlestick holder – you will want to save these!
The Prettiest Wine Bottles For Your Wine Fridge
Fifty One Degrees North By Gusbourne
This bottle’s elegant pared back labelling guarantees it to be a dinner-party showstopper. The coordinates in its name and on its body point to the exact latitudinal position of the vineyard behind this 2016 vintage (Ashford, Kent). Display with pride but don’t shirk on getting the bottle open – the sparkling offers an intense glass from a very good year in English sparkling.
Characteristics: expect distinct minerality and maritime notes with a toasty, brioche profile.
Pair with: pan-fried halibut, according to Laura Rhys, Master Sommelier for Gusbourne wines – ‘the delicate sweetness of halibut pairs well with the elegant fruit characters in the wine.’
£195 per bottle, gusbourne.com
Domaine du Météore x Van Gogh Museum Sunflowers & Avenue Of Poplars In Autumn
Those cheerful sunflowers by Van Gogh are a timeless image – and they make a pretty bottle of wine. The Dutch artist spent over two years in the South of France, producing more than 350 paintings, two of which are depicted on these limited edition bottles by Domaine du Météore and the Van Gogh Museum.
Characteristics: Sunflowers is a punchy organic Languedoc Blanc 2022 with notes of fresh pineapple. Avenue of Poplars is a long finish Languedoc Rogue 2020 with a nose of intense blackcurrant.
Pair with: Sheep’s cheese from the same region, like pélardon, for the white; a herb-crusted steak for the red (syrah pairs easily with this or a charcuterie board).
£19 per bottle, domainedumeteore.com
LECAP’s Low-Cal, Low-Percentage Rosé
Bright, yellow, poppy – and a little bit less guilty than the usual vino. This rosé comes in at five percent alcohol content and 56kcal per glass (a typical glass of rosé comes in at 138kcal). Which means you can probably drink more of it.
Characteristics: A long finish with refreshing acidity, this is a light blush made from Merlot grapes grown on the sunny slopes of South Africa’s Paardeberg mountain.
Pair with: An al fresco dinner – we’re thinking tomato and bread salads, olives and picky bits.
£14.99 per bottle, lecapwine.com
Pasqua’s Hey French You Could Have Made This But You Didn’t
A gorgeous multi-vintage containing grapes from 2015 through to 2018, this bottle comes with a bit of attitude. The blend of types of grape give it a punchy and complex flavour.
Characteristics: Aromas include chamomile, almonds, citrus, plus tropical fruits and white pepper.
Pair with: Any food with ginger in.
£32 per bottle, harrods.com
Porte Noire’s 2010 Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs
A complex champagne with minerality typical of côté des blancs in Champagne, this beautiful bottle is elegant and timeless (much like its finish).
This champagne has the complexity of an aged grand cru blanc de blanc millésimé. It has notes of pear, toasted brioche and raisins. The bubbles are pleasantly round and held together by a fresh minerality typical of côté des blancs in Champagne. It has a very long finish.
Characteristics: Complex and with notes of pear, toasted brioche and raisins.
Pair with: Rich, simple dishes – perhaps seared scallops or creamy seafood dishes.
£89 per bottle, portenoire.co.uk
Domaine Lafage’s 2022 Miraflor Rosé
This bottle is a Barbiecore dream – the gentle pink tones of the glass make for a pretty decorpiece, and the slim bottle evinces a feminine feeling.
Characteristics: This is a blended wine with ‘ample minerality’, according to the winemakers, and while it’s as pale as it appears in the bottle, it’s medium-bodied.
Pair with: A perfectly in-season end of summer salad.
£14 per bottle, urbangrapes.co.uk
Emile Wines’ Bourgogne Blanc Côte Salines
Organically farmed wine in the village of Préhy (in the Chablis region), this bottle label is beautifully designed by London-based artist Frances Costelloe. This is also the first own-label from Emile Wines, an enoteca set up to ‘demystify the traditionally male dominated world of fine wine’.
Characteristics: Zesty and vibrant with ripe fruit, plenty of minerals and saline finish.
Pair with: Langoustines, clams and mussels – as a baby chablis this is best paired with sushi and shellfish.
£19 per bottle, emile-wines.myshopify.com
Nouveau’s White Lies
People will want to take a nosey at this bottle. Nouveau wines specialise in pretty low-fuss wines, so all of their bottles are beautiful to look at and their scribble-esque labels bring out our inner child.
Read about ‘inner child’ interiors
Characteristics: A skin-contact wine, crisp and clean, with ripe stone fruit flavours.
Pair with: A spicy dish like coconut curry.
£17.45 per bottle, nouveauwine.co
Sea Change’s Whale Merlot
An artful label adorns this purpose-driven wine bottle – for every bottle purchased, a minimum of €0.25 is donated to the winemaker’s ocean conservation partners. To date, they’ve raised €350,000.
Characteristics: Hints of green pepper on the nose, and its soft tannins are full of spice.
Pair with: A Sunday roast rib of beef.
£13.99 per bottle, seachangewine.com
Château De Berne La Grande Cuvée 2021
This bottle means business – but it’s oh-so-flirty at the same time. This smartly dressed rosé is also reportedly ‘the ideal rosé for red wine drinkers’.
Characteristics: The grapes are a blend of Grenache Noir, Carignan, Syrah and Cinsault grapes, so it’s crisp and refreshing, with a balanced roundness.
Pair with: A floral salad.
£29 per bottle, thewinecaverns.co.uk
Pedra No.3 By Quinta Da Pedra Alta
A white port from the Douro Valley, the grapes for this blended wine are picked early in the morning to keep them as fresh (and aromatic) as possible. The bottle looks equally as fresh.
Characteristics: A full-bodied port with citrus and apple aromas, alongside tropical notes.
Pair with: Nothing – this is enjoyed best as an aperitif.
£18 per bottle, masterofmalt.com
Symington’s Altano (Rewilding Edition)
This bottle is uber-pretty but also meaningful: Symington Family Estates are a B Corp business and collaborating with Rewilding Portugal to create a positive future for the Douro region. The bottle depicts animals that are increasingly in decline in Portugal, like the Britango and the Iberian Lynx and Wolf.
Read about more British B Corp brands
Characteristics: Rich red fruits and hints of floral aromatics.
Pair with: Anything smoky and seasoned with oregano.
£35.99 for limited edition bag-in-tube, tauruswines.co.uk
Gérard Bertrand’s Côte des Roses
The Côte des Roses is a blush wine with a beautiful sculpted bottle that you’ll want to use as a centre-piece well after the last drop is finished.
Characteristics: Think summer fruits and florals, with a hint of grapefruit.
Pair with: Baked white fish and fresh seasonal salad.
£12.99 per bottle, majestic.co.uk
Champagne Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé, Petal Robe Edition
This rosé champagne was created in 1968 – but it’s been reimagined this year, with a gorgeous new robe for the bottle. The petal effect is made up of individual enamel strokes in the colour palette of the drink itself.
Characteristics: It has an aromatic depth with ripe red fruit aromas.
Pair with: Marinated fish or grilled prawns.
£97.99 per bottle, buy in Selfridges.
Bolney Wine Estate’s Sussex Rosso Vermouth
Crafted in Sussex, the label reflects the estate’s gardens. Not only is this wine bottle pretty, but the winery is accredited by Sustainable Wines of Great Britain.
Characteristics: Faint hints of rose and elderflower.
Pair with: A moreish cheese board.
£19 per bottle, bolneywineestate.com
Pasqua’s 11 Minutes Rosé
A shapely bottle for a shapely blended wine – this is a skin contact rosé from Lake Garda that’ll sit very gracefully on your wine shelf.
Characteristics: The dominating grape is Corvina, so expect floral aromas mixed with acidity – it’s followed by a long finish.
Pair with: Something with a little spice, perhaps a fish stew.
£16.50 per bottle, jeroboams.com
Ultimate Provence’s Côte de Provence Rosé
This embossed bottle proudly displays a tangled rose… And with no paper labels on the bottle, this one is ripe for upcycling (we think popping fairy lights inside would look dreamy).
Characteristics: Ultra-crisp and clear, with raspberry notes throughout.
Pair with: Prawns.
£20.50, vinatis.co.uk
Mollie
A Côte de Provence-grown rosé that’s popular in the likes of Ibiza and Marbella, Mollie is a pretty number for the party set. We’re a bit enamoured by its sunset pale pinks.
Characteristics: Notes of ripe red berries, pomegranate and tangerine, with a oily-fruity length.
Pair with: Calamari (preferably on a Greek island).
£19.99 per bottle, thebottleclub.com
Le Faite Blanc, and Le Faite Rouge by Plaimont
You almost feel like you’re getting a message in a bottle with Plaimont’s Le Faite. The actual bottle is pared back in design, foregoing a label in favour of a hanging wooden tag – and the details are cute: the wax stamp is a little nod to generations of winemakers who stored their wine in clay.
Characteristics: These are iconic Saint-Mont wines, and the wine is notably dry and saline, while the red is very, very full with subtly toasted notes.
Pair with: Duck breast (preferably stuffed with mushrooms, Plaimont suggests) for the red, and we think mushrooms might be a good bet for the white, too – the minerality of the taste should pair well with umami.
£22.05 per bottle, corneyandbarrow.com
