This adorable blend captures the savoury complexity of Margaret River in its layers of pepper and mixed spice, while rippling with the succulence of black plum and black cherry fruit. Mike Kerrigan’s talent is on show in fine-grained, textural tannins and fantastic persistence. A delicious wine that would keep for the medium-term if it weren’t […]

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Paul Smith clearly said his prayers for the perfect vintage for the fortieth release of Church Block, and the good Lord certainly delivered! Disciples of this fabled label will fondly recall the precision of 2004, the concentration of 1990 and the savoury appeal of 1987 and 1989. 2010 encapsulates all there is to love about […]

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When Antonio Fattori visited recently, I discovered the secrets to the deep mineral structure, pure citrus profile and tremendous persistence of his three Soaves (of which this was my pick). Elevated hillside vineyards yield just half the crop of the vast vineyards on the plains. Thirty years of practise in the winery have led him […]

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What will the Marlborough of the future look like? You’re looking at it. Kevin Judd was ahead of his time at Cloudy Bay in putting New Zealand on the wine map. Now in Greywacke he’s again setting the pace for the Marlborough of the future. This is a sauvignon of great intrigue, focus, craftsmanship and […]

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McLaren Vale is never lacking for colour, density or concentration of all-encompassing black fruits, but the thing that elevates Chapel Hill to a position among the gods has nothing to do with any of these. This is a wine of structure, first and foremost, of deep, all-pervading, ultra-fine, firm, textural tannins that promise a devastating […]

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Everything Franco D’Anna crafts is made with single vineyard precision, but his 1er Yarra Valley flagships receive his undivided affection. 1.3kg of fruit per vine, treated to an exactingly gauged touch of stalks in the ferment, produces a wine of perfumed refinement and elegant restraint like Hoddles Creek has never seen. This is pinot noir […]

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Over the past five years we have watched in wonder as LEASCS grew up from a scruffy schoolboy of clunky oak, assertive tannins and haphazard ripeness into a perfectly articulate young man. Little did anyone expect that in 2007 he would transform into a prince. This is the wine that will put Art Series Cabernet […]

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Forget everything you’ve ever expected of champagne rosé and venture to a place that could best be described as somewhere between elegant champagne rosé and expressive red cherry pinot noir. This is a profoundly vinous champagne of full crimson hue, bouncing with red cherries, raspberries, cherry kernel and soft spice. Remarkably pure, wonderfully complex, utterly […]

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The revered village of Ambonnay is one of Champagne’s finest and most powerful. A majority of chardonnay is tactically employed to bring poise and finesse to the extroverted tendencies of the pinot noir of the village. The result is a creamy and seamless champagne of epic concentration, mind-blowing length and dizzying depth, all the while […]

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Never discovered great dessert wine? Here’s your ticket. De Bortoli set the standard for the finest botrytis semillon in the country with Vat 1, then established the benchmark for value in Vat 5. The 2007 made such a storm that I could not imagine that it could be replicated. But here it is, in its […]

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