Blanc de noirs step into their own as winter sets in, and the talented winegrower and mayor of the village of Ambonnay crafts one of the finest at this price. It’s a tremendously full-bodied and fleshy style that captures one of champagne’s most celebrated villages, cleverly utilising malic acidity to hone the finish and emphasise […]
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Everyone, it seems, has a squat old bottle of Para forgotten somewhere in the depths of a cupboard, but this wine bears little resemblance to those 21-year-old releases. Seppeltsfield is a treasure trove of special old fortified parcels, and this one has just been released after a magnificent thirty years in barrel, to the tune […]
readAs prices creep upward across Wynns’ portfolio, space is made to introduce new wines at the bottom end. Its entry cabernet is a value-for-money style that makes an honest representation of both variety and region. Crunchy mulberries, blackcurrants, capsicum, leaf and mint are all part of the equation, as are raw, primary tannins. A nicely […]
readThe Gables has landed in the most glorious magnum bottle I have ever seen. Its dark glass, deep punt and parallel forms are as breathtaking as A Space Odyssey monolith but the real game changer here is the screw cap. A new era of oversized bottles has dawned, with Wynns super premiums next in line. […]
readBlack Label is an institution and the refinement of recent vintages are the dividends of drastic vineyard makeovers with chainsaws a decade ago. 2010 is the wine to drink while the tightly wound 2009 slowly uncoils in the cellar. This early and generous vintage has been carefully handled, presenting accurate and vibrant red- and blackcurrants, […]
readA new Black Label has been born. A marketing stunt to trade off the fifty-five vintage success of Black Label Cabernet? The truth is far more compelling. Investment in smaller fermenters has allowed more batches to be kept separate at Wynns, accounting for a growing portfolio of ever more detailed styles. And the gap between […]
readWith each passing vintage, Wynns refines V&A Lane a little more intricately, and 2010 is my favourite release to date. This is a wine of consummate poise and balance, perfectly melding these two varieties in seamless coherence and impeccable polish. Oak, fruit and tannin unite in balanced measure, leaving sufficient airspace to let every detail […]
readMichael aside, this is one of the finest shiraz releases to emerge from the modern era of Wynns. Not far from the revered vineyards of Majella, Wynns lays claim to the lion’s share of vines along V&A Lane, the axis of Coonawarra and source of some of its more finely-structured wines, including a significant contribution […]
readI’ve always noted an edginess to the early-ripening Glengyle vineyard, packed with distinctive notes that venture into the greener spectrum of cabernet: capsicum, tobacco leaf, cedar, even fennel. There’s no question of its ripeness here, with the palate revving up to quite some fruit power of ripe blackcurrants. My reservation is based on oak, which […]
readThere is an element of elusive mystery in the infant years of the most revered and ageworthy of all cabernets. Distinction is denoted more by high-tensile, tightly-wound energy than by overt expressiveness. I cannot recall a Coonawarra cabernet of the past twenty-five years that embodied this as exactingly as John Riddoch 2009. This is, unreservedly, […]
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