In Margaret River cabernet hailing from the great vintages of recent times, there’s nothing unusual about impressively pronounced black- and redcurrant fruit, well-defined tobacco, cigar box and capsicum, and signature regional high cocoa dark chocolate, coffee and graphite-fine tannins – except that you’d expect to find all this in wines starting at $30, not one […]

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Cellaring special at a bargain price. Melding the generosity of black plum and liquorice fruit with the savoury restraint of carefully monitored ripeness, this is a wine constructed for a considerable future. Tightly clenched oak tannins pull the finish into a honed tail of impressive persistence. $20 at My Cellars, WineStar, No Frills Wine, Aussie […]

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The cool 2011 season has done wonderful things for Mount Horrocks Semillon, making for an impressively chiselled style. Semillon doesn’t always respond well to full barrel fermentation, but here the buttered toast and roast nut characters imparted serve to balance the taut, primary, zesty lemon drive of this high-tensile season, pulling into a honed finish […]

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Bruce Tyrrell reckons this single vineyard may contain the oldest vines still in production in the Hunter. Regardless, this wine is a bargain, and 2010 is one of its great seasons. A pure, primary focus of blackberry, mulberry and plum fruit is textured with fine-grained fruit tannins, wonderfully massaged by the subtle influence of large […]

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In Spain, ‘Crianza’ is a wine that has spent a year in oak, half that of ‘Reserva’ – and not infrequently all the better for it. Baigorri was founded by Jesus (Baigorri) himself, and at six years of age his blend of tempranillo and friends displays a fine-grained texture unusual in Spain, reflecting a focus […]

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BOAW’s 2010 Chardonnay was one of the discoveries of last year, and her successor is every bit as beautifully crafted. Intricate poise meets fruit concentration and structural drive, with darting suggestions of orange blossom amidst layers of flinty, funky complexity, over a core of calm, controlled grapefruit and pear. The palate is understated and restrained, […]

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The refinement unfolding here is a joy to behold. I cannot recall a Brookland Valley of such consummate restraint and low alcohol elegance, boasting a beautiful bouquet of fresh violet perfume and a palate that provides space for varietal and regional definition to sing with full voice. Pure black- and redcurrants, tobacco and cedar meet […]

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Never has Mount Mary declassified its flagship Quintet. Until 2009. If there is any influence of bushfire here, it is an exceedingly subtle wisp of smoke. The warm, dry conditions of the season clearly did not stress cabernet and its friends like they did pinot noir, and the result is a triumph for the vintage […]

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The 2010 vintage shone on one of the Yarra Valley’s most revered vineyards, nurturing a chardonnay of profound and generous complexity. Struck flint and lees funk form a seamless veil over a core of concentrated white peach and grapefruit pith. A deep, mouthfilling, textural structure carries with relentless persistence, confidently pulling the finish in honed […]

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There is an effortless, harmonious, silky, graceful approachability to Quintet that makes it enticingly appealing and instantly recognisable. This is cabernet sauvignon (almost half) and friends (one third merlot, a good dose of cabernet franc and a dash of petit verdot and malbec) of perfectly ripe, deep black fruit character, yet utterly restrained at a […]

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