Jonathon Hesketh’s wild rosé is elegant, savoury, dry and textural. A backbone of cabernet franc is reflected in hints of tomato bush, providing a savoury air to pink pepper, watermelon and redcurrant fruit. A bargain quaffer for $14.50 at Nicks.
readArticles
The blessing of a slow-ripening season is a stylishly textural and elegant wine of lifted pepper notes and subtle nashi pear flavours, built more on mouthfeel than fruit. This makes it delightfully food-versatile, ready for action with sushi and sashimi. $16 direct.
readTim Adams makes the most reliable $20 riesling on the shelves, perhaps even the most consistent of any wine at this price: it hasn’t dipped below 94 points in my score book in five vintages running! My advice this year is to stock up and stand back because this searing backbone of pure lime juice […]
readThis 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 […]
readPaul 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 […]
readWhen 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 […]
readWhat 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 […]
readMcLaren 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 […]
readEverything 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 […]
readOver 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 […]
read