Skilly’s sustainably farmed high altitude vineyard is one of my favourite places in the Clare. This wine captures both its generosity and its definition in its violets, blueberries, black pastilles, dark choc and liquorice. Fine, textural tannins make it appealing from the outset. $25 at Dan’s.
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If Sandro Moselle were a sculptor he would be Michelangelo. As a winemaker on the Mornington Peninsula, he is an intricate craftsman who hones his skill with each vintage. The detail he has worked into this wine makes it one of the most complex on the shelves and yet it pulls into an impeccably sculpted […]
readThe cool 2011 vintage has blessed the Kirks with some of their finest riesling fruit yet. Precise, pretty, and long-lived, with a pink lady apple, lemon blossom and fresh lime air and a fine-boned, structured, taut palate of soft, graphite-like minerality. $25 at Winestar and www.clonakilla.com.au, $28 at Dan’s.
readClonale has hit the big time! Auditioned next to Pierro Chardonnay 09 for inclusion this week and Clonale got the gig – it’s a better wine! Ooh, aah! Ricocheting with grapefruit, fig and persimmon exoticity, nuanced with smoked ham, pulling into a clean-crafted finish. $22 at Kemeny’s, $23 at Dan’s.
readI stood up at the TempraNeo! roadshow and declared that if this is what twenty-year-old vines can do, I look forward to Australian tempranillo in a decade or two! Truth is, as much credit is due to the talented duo of Narelle and Don as to their crusty old vines for this perfumed, poised and […]
readPinot is the grape behind some of my favourite rosés (and red and sparkling wines, too – there’s a theme here!) for its beguiling fragrance and captivating spice. The cool Adelaide Hills has infused this bird with watermelon, pink grapefruit and strawberry, finishing taut and dry. $17 at Dan’s.
readThis is not the finest Oxford Landing Sauvignon of the past five years (it may just be the least) but at $6.65 at First Choice and Dan’s it’s so far above everything else on the bottom shelf that even the vintage ravaged by climactic Armageddon is worthy of your table! More crunchy and green-edged than […]
readThe new age of Burgundy is here! Rémi is on about clean, pure fruit and restrained alcohol without the distraction of winemaking tricks or oak (unusually favouring the more subtle Austrian oak and rare 4000L Fudres). Les Chevalières is just a village wine, but from old vines near the heart of Meursault, it way overperforms […]
readPreviously blended into Shiraz Viognier, now for the first time, pure, unadulterated Clonakilla shiraz! It sings with the vineyard, determined, directioned, flawlessly linear, hugging rails of fine, taut tannins that carry its opulent black fruits, anise and violets into an unrelenting finish. $90@Winestar, $85@ www.clonakilla.com.au
readJust when I thought the greatest champagne vintage of my lifetime was all over, one of the best bargain vintage wines of all appeared in the Dan’s catalogue at $75 this week. Be careful – there are plenty of lesser vintages on Dan’s shelves at the moment, but 96 has the most power and structure […]
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