Virginia Willcock infuses this wine with more poise and energy than the Australian ballet. One of the star performers of my World Wine Discovery nights last month, with breathtaking grapefruit and white peach fruit and classy French oak. Insane value at $17 at 1st Choice this week.
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Hello Flash Gordon! It takes all the Wonderwoman superpowers of Tash Mooney to conjure a red wine of such heroic precision, complexity and structure. You can snaffle it for $15 at 1st Choice. By George!
readTim Adams is my hero for his monumental gamble to save the Clare’s most historic winery this year, but more so for making some of the best value wine in the land. His riesling transcends a difficult vintage, exploding with crunchy green apples, zesty lime and rippling with minerality.
readHidden in the highest reaches of the Upper Yarra is an idyllic amphitheatre vineyard called Gembrook Hill. At this cool altitude, pinot grows fresh, floral and spicy, producing wines of profound perfume, finely tuned structure and astonishing longevity. 2008 was one of its finest seasons yet.
readDon’t let Penfold’s reds distract you from its tawnies – these rank among the fairest in the land! Club Reserve is the bargain. Five years in old barrels has drawn out complex toffee, mixed spice and dried fig flavours. Join the Club, but pass on the no frills version and sign up for a lifetime […]
readBillecart NV is one of champagne’s most precise house wines and my all time fave of the entry NVs. The house of Billecart is the finest fizz on the shelves this year, not by concentration, power or presence but by the fairy-touch of understated delicacy and crystal-clear fidelity. $70 at WineStar and Kemeny’s.
readShame on you, cheapo grigio! Overcropped, overpriced, overhyped – I’m over you! Thank goodness I still have Ninth Island to turn to. Its crunchy, fresh Tassie fruit and gorgeous fragrance of frangipani and linden blossom will transport you to an island in just one sip. $15 at 1st Choice.
readTen buck red is the toughest nut to crack in the wine world, and this is the last place you want to take your chances. McPherson delivers a veritable fruit cart of plush plums and dark berries and a generous shake of mixed spice. Climb on board, enjoy the ride!
readStonewell is the finest Barossa shiraz of the modern era. A monumental call, but no other comes close in its consistency across more than two decades, its core of profound longevity and the ever-escalating grandeur of its finest vintages. 2006 is a maelstrom of concentrated power and uncompromising composure like none that has gone before […]
readNo one in Australia has heard of it, but get ready, this delightfully peculiar and hauntingly brilliant wine is about to be unleashed on us. I discovered it and its maker, Lance Redgwell, over a long Martinborough lunch early last year, and I was floored by its perfume of pepper and violets and its concentrated […]
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