This is a dashingly refined and pristine Michael, a wine of resolute definition and substantial longevity, exemplifying Coonawarra shiraz of the highest order. Layers of complexity ripple with expressive blackberry and deep-set plum fruits, pristine black pepper, sizzling pan juices, roast game and a backdrop of milk chocolate oak. It uncoils to reveal a breathtaking […]
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Loaded with crunchy lemon and lime, a pretty lift of lemon blossom and a long finish of grapefruit and nashi pear, this is a sauvignon ready to pour for the masses. A touch of lees contact accents its finely textured and refreshing style. $10 direct.
readThe first 2012 to make the cut for Wine Taste Weekly has been early all its life – picked in early January, three weeks earlier than usual and bottled in March, the earliest current vintage wine the bottling line has ever handled. It’s all the better for it, too, taking Teusner Sauvignon far from tropical […]
readThe reason this benchmark value-for-money Margaret River cabernet has such unusual levels of regional and varietal integrity for its miniscule price is that the philosophy is very much the same as that of its big brothers. 55% estate grown Wallcliffe fruit spends fourteen months in French oak, one-third of which is new. The selection here […]
readUnrelenting diligence in The Menzies estate vineyard has enabled the Yalumba wizards to pull a wine of astonishingly delicate refinement from a warm, early and ripe vintage. This is a beautifully fragrant cabernet of lifted violet perfume and accurate red- and blackcurrants, with nuances of cedar and tobacco, underlined by subtle dark chocolate oak. It […]
readKen Bray’s Hunter vineyard is one of the finest sites for single vineyard semillon in the world today. Period. While it has supplied many of the great winemakers of the Hunter, it’s taken the genius of Andrew Thomas to unveil its true pedigree. His Cellar Release Semillon has long been revered, but when the 2007 […]
readIf fruit, alcohol, oak and tannin could fade to reveal nothing but the pure essence of Margaret River cabernet at its most distinctive, what remains would be characterised in both texture and flavour by gravel, wet slate, graphite and high cocoa dark chocolate. In this ideal, Xanadu’s new single vineyard cabernet is more articulate than […]
readThe question of precisely how the great vineyards of the world are able to translate their mineral personality directly into the texture and structure of their wines is one that eludes even the most clever of winemakers. Yet there is an unmistakable chalky seasalt minerality to this wine, a character that I noted before I […]
readA brand new wine is about to be unleashed from the House of Arras, marrying the high-tensile acidity of southern Tasmania with the buttery smoothness of almost a decade on lees. It upholds a beautifully pale straw hue considering its considerable age, promising the freshness of primary, zesty lemon fruit and taut lemon acidity amidst […]
readIf Stevens represents Xanadu’s most refined expression of cabernet, Reserve is its most concentrated style, a wine of intense blackcurrants and black pastilles, yet maintaining impressive structural poise and stamina. Hints of mint and menthol are likely a reflection of the eucalypt trees surrounding the Timber Creek single vineyard in Wilyabrup. Considerable structural presence of […]
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