Kevin Judd put NZ on the wine map with Cloudy Bay 25 years ago, and blow me down if he isn’t doing it again with Greywacke (‘Greywacky’). The most exciting Kiwi sauv this year, desperately honed, rippling with minerality, belying its age, its oak & – dare I say – the exuberance of its region.
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Adiós dried out, crusty Rioja! Hola tangy, vibrant black cherries, bitter dark chocolate and textural tannins! Restrained concentration, back-seat oak, enticing, but don’t rush. 100% glorious estate fruit. Carlos Martinez is working overtime in the vines to usher in the new Rioja. Bienvenida!
readMy goodness, Pizzini is flying so high this year it’s about to plough into the Victorian Alps! The aromatics going on here are mesmerising – strawberry, bouquet garni and a wisp of hearth. Gorgeous, light and textural; think ballerina, not biggest loser.
readPerfume and structure, sensitivity and backbone, enigmatic, articulate, fragile, daredevil. Does pinot noir tells us more about Jeffrey Grosset than riesling ever could? The new vintage speaks in hushed tones but it has much to reveal.
readSlender, sexy bottle, stunning wine from the instant they halved the sugar a few years back. Love love! Fresh as. More perfume than ground floor at Myer. When it’s time to talk Turkey, it’s $16 at myCellars.
readWinter’s coming – time to sink yourself into a big, fat, plush velvet sofa of Barossa plum juice! This is comfort wine of the highest order and it will leave you feeling snuggly and warm in a nanosecond. $17 at Dan Murphy’s.
readThis is a stonking price for an All Black noir. And it’s precisely that, packed with as much deep, rich black fruit as has ever been seen in the red zone of Marlborough, but with that regional elegance and poise that keeps its testosterone well out of harm’s way. $25 at WineStar.
readIf the greatness of rosé champagne is measured in the fairy-touch of delicacy and the whisper of finesse, Billecart is the greatest. Dollar-for-champagne-dollar, no other aperitif speaks with such haunting fidelity.
readBaby Noble One (Noble Two? Noble, too!) at half the price! It’s brimming with the same sweet surrender of honey, apricot jam and marmalade, but that cut of crispness on the finish leaves it looking dashingly sophisticated for $11 at WineStar.
readWhen you’re in the Hunter, don’t mention the war. Best wine of the Sydney show this year – Barossa Semillon, and it’s $25 at Kemeny’s this week! Rapier-tight, mineral, with white-knuckle adrenaline on every corner, this is a semillon on two wheels and it’s headed straight for the horizon. Hang on.
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