Last week Domaine Wine Shippers lined up the big guns of Domaine Raveneau and Domaine Laroche with the new guy, Patrick Piuze, from precocious Petit Chablis to profound Grand Cru Les Clos. After an hour of intensive interrogation, Raveneau claimed three of my top five wines and Piuze snared two. Terroir de Courgis is a […]

read

I’ve been tracking a container of Dumangin destined for our shores for months, having seen a sneak preview of its contents last July. I spent the second half of last year pleading with Coles to treat us to the most refined sub-$60 champagne rosé around. The wait is finally over because the call came on […]

read

2010 is an Oscar of lush concentration yet consummate precision, a flagship for all that is wonderful about Barossa shiraz. In depth of colour and palate concentration, it is nothing less than immense, ricocheting with powerful blackberries, blueberries, plums and liquorice that seem to coast just under the surface. The crucial secret that elevates Oscar […]

read

If ever we needed proof that cabernet of unbridled Barossa power is capable of flattering beyond words, it’s no surprise that this might emerge from the masterful genius of Wayne Dutschke. More than this, this Single Barrel is one of the finest wines to ever hail from the hallowed vines of St Jakobi. How such […]

read

Benchmark 707, exact in every way, from the first waft of pristine violet fragrance to a finish that lingers into tomorrow. Such is the sheer determination of pure blackcurrant brilliance that flashes of eucalypt, mint and even 100% new American oak pale into the background. Sensational definition and intensity powers through a finish of epic […]

read

On paper, Bin 169 is to 707 what RWT is to Grange: single region in 100% new French oak rather than a multi-region blend in American oak. But the comparison strictly ends here because the style and aspiration of this wine hark to a more lofty place altogether. Bin 169 is baby Bin 620 – […]

read

Not released with the Penfolds so-called ‘Icon and Prestige’ brigade, Great Grandfather seems to elude all launch events and fanfare, yet the sheer grandeur of this wine deserves equal reverence. For a wine to capture such dizzying complexity of maturity after some thirty years in the cellar and yet such fresh, lively energy is a […]

read

2007 is a thoroughly worthy Grange and an outstanding expression of a hot drought year, albeit the least vintage of Grange since 2003. The season is generally characterised by the drying tannin finish of drought stressed vines, but it is a credit to Penfolds’ fruit sources and winemaking polish that this deficiency is but a […]

read

10A completes a trilogy of successive 97 point vintages – an unparalleled record in my score book! This alone must qualify Reserve Bin A as the finest Australian chardonnay of the modern era. 10A carries on the legacy as much by its ultra-fine Adelaide Hills fruit purity as its delightful lees-derived complexity of flint and […]

read

There is an immediacy to the vibrant and ripe fruit core of 2008 St Henri that makes it particularly enticing. The finest vintage since 2005 may prove to rank among the greats, certainly for the enjoyment it affords in the medium-term, even if it doesn’t qualify among the longest-lived. Hints of soy and dark chocolate, […]

read