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After months of intensive champagne tasting, it’s a joy to pop an Australian sparkling that has matured to that wonderful place where silky texture and toasty complexity meld seamlessly with crisp, lively white fruits. Lovely purity and complexity of roast nuts and butter coast over a core of white peach and lemon zest fruit. The […]

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This must be one of the most affordable single vineyard, cool climate chardonnays going. It’s just the thing to please the masses when you’re entertaining on a grand scale, because it’s packed with ripe, up-front appeal of pretty frangipane blossom, fleshy yellow peach and generous rockmelon, yet structured with the backbone and grapefruit crunch of […]

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With a touch of petit verdot for fragrance, an almost fifty percent dose of merlot plumps up the blackcurrant and leaf fruit of cabernet with a juicy mulberry hit. Its primary, vibrant and accurate fruit-driven style, and supple, soft demeanour make for an immediate and approachable Margaret River blend. $22 at Dan’s.

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Clever name aside, this is in fact a blend from across the Vale. It’s a lovely textural and fruity style of fine tannins and impressive berry compote fruits, laced with mixed spice. The finish is long and well balanced. $25 at Discount Wines and Wine Box Warehouse.

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It’s refreshing to find Central Otago pinot of character and integrity for well under $30. Wild Rock is the second label of Craggy Range, and it’s clear that some of the wizardry of the parent has filtered down to the child. An impressive black fruits and liquorice profile is lifted by violet perfume and structured […]

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‘D’ is Te Whare Ra’s dry riesling from vines dating from the late seventies and early eighties (ancient by Marlborough standards). Impressively poised and immaculately clean, with a mid-palate generosity that makes for an enticingly approachable alternative to Australia’s more steely dry riesling style. It’s accented with precise granny smith apple, lemon zest and lime […]

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The tension and focus of the cool 2011 season are on show here in exact, honed white fruits and well-textured grapefruit-pith-like structure. Layers of classy, spicy cashew nut French oak overlay a backdrop of pristine white peach and grapefruit. It lingers long and true, with fruit and oak propelling each other forward, neither dominating. $22 […]

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Refined and fragrant, John Hancock’s latest syrah tactically includes just two percent of viognier skins and stalks to inject spice, cleverly avoiding the tropical pungency of viognier juice. A beautifully fragrant pepper and violet bouquet announces a seamless palate of fine, textural tannins and lingering elegance of pepper, plum skin and blackberry fruit flavours. $34 […]

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A refined style of brightness and detail, this is one of Taltarni’s top Heathcote wines yet. The bouquet exudes a succulent dark berry fruit profile, fragranced with violets and notes of sarsaparilla and liquorice. The palate presents a shiraz of impressively concentrated, ripe black fruit and black pastille presence, pulling into a classic Heathcote finish, […]

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A delightful bouquet at once epitomises the pristine lemon blossom, white peach, grapefruit and fig of Upper Yarra chardonnay and at the same time the beautiful nutmeg and vanilla overlay of sensitively handled French oak. The palate is a spectacular continuation of the same show, strung together by an intricate, silver thread of cool season […]

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