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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Here’s your invitation to explore regionally distinctive shiraz for just $13.50, direct from the winery. With refreshingly low alcohol and fine, soft, supple tannins, this is an approachable and enticing rendition of Frankland shiraz to enjoy right away. Pretty reflections of pink pepper, fresh red plum, rhubarb and black pepper make this an intentionally fruity, […]

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Phillip Moraghan visited this week and pulled one of the most exciting rosés of the season out of his bag. Made in tiny quantities by hand and foot (yes, foot stomped), this is an unusually pale and gorgeously fragrant rosé with restrained wisps of pink pepper, pomegranate and rose petals. The palate is all about […]

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There is an ever-widening chasm between “those” Marlborough sauvignons and the select few that strive for an inherent sophistication and a calm sense of control. Thanks to low cropping, hand picking, whole bunch pressing, a portion of natural ferment and fanatical attention to every molecule, Dog Point ranks among the most reliable of the latter […]

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In the challenging 2011 season, Phillip Moraghan threw out his usual recipe and reinvented this wine from scratch, fine-tuning every nuance to suit the vintage and the fruit. It’s pressed slow, aged on lees long and kept away from barrels to preserve its delicacy. The result is a wine of tremendous textural presence, mineral expression […]

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Isolation Ridge is one of the most revered names in riesling from the west, a vineyard of effortless balance and a definitive mineral signature. The 2011 vintage possesses a sensational palate poise; energetic, sprightly and driven by acidity that tingles on the tongue like sherbet. It carries precise focus of kaffir lime, crunchy pear, granny […]

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There is a cracked pepper signature of Freycinet that is every bit as distinctive in Louis as it is in the estate’s top pinot noir. These vines are just half the age of the original estate plantings, but fifteen years is still more than respectable, and the seamless palate and lingering persistence that they bring […]

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A sensitively hand-crafted chardonnay that will go down among the greats of the Yarra Valley. Old Upper Yarra vines, wild fermented without malolactic makes for a brilliantly pure style, ringing with lemon blossom, grapefruit, fig, pear and a hint of wild honey. An understated intensity is underlined by high altitude acidity and mineral texture; silky […]

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