Is the wine cask dead? The days of the goon bag may be numbered. Domestic sales of Australian casks are plummeting by six percent every year. Of the seven leading cask manufacturers I invited to be part of this feature, more than half responded that their priority is “premiumisation” so they’ve scratched casks completely. It […]

read

Any attempt to establish a rigorous, internally regulated system of endorsement of best practice is invariably a convoluted process for any wine region. Satisfying a diverse collection of stakeholders and agendas is always a delicate political process. Marlborough made a concerted attempt at setting up its own Wine Assurance Mark a few years ago, but […]

read

An unlikely bunch of young winemakers is redefining the cutting edge of Australian wine. It’s not as you’d expect. No new wine release was more controversial than the inaugural release of Thousand Candles Yarra Valley last year. Not only because a $100 wine appeared out of nowhere, but because young gun pinot noir specialist William […]

read

2010 is not just one of the greatest Mentors ever made, but it’s so much further ahead of all before it. The epitome of Barossa concentration but with definitive cabernet elegance, structure and longevity, this is one of the great Barossa cabernets of the modern era. The traditional Mentor recipe of Bordeaux blend meets the […]

read

2012 has given birth to one of the great Shaw + Smith Shirazes, and one of the benchmarks of the Adelaide Hills. Finely textured and immaculately poised, fleshy black cherries, black plums and liquorice unite in an elegantly medium-bodied style accented with layers of black pepper and game, reinforced by a small influence of whole […]

read

There was once a time when it took an uncharacteristically cool season to draw out cabernet’s varietal distinctiveness in the Barossa, but in the hands of the region’s most attentive makers, even the deep, intense 2010 season has delivered. Tash Mooney has captured aromas of crunchy blackcurrants, fresh coffee beans, lifted violets, dark chocolate and […]

read

De Bortoli’s legendary Reserve Chardonnay has received a makeover to emphasise its single vineyard qualifications (which it’s always enjoyed, but we all tended to forget). This is the company’s oldest chardonnay plot, in theory not the best site for this variety, but with fruit that always comes up “head and shoulders above everything else,” according […]

read

ILR has earned a revered position among the top semillons of the Hunter Valley, and hence of the world, and it’s vintages like 2007 that confirm it. Very backward for its release at six years of age, yet still generous and complex, with notes of quince, red apple and blood orange. Great concentration and intensity […]

read

2011 is one of the most precise and most compelling Yeringberg Chardonnays, set to go down among the longest lived. It’s still impeccably youthful and pure, singing with lemon blossom and grapefruit on the bouquet. The palate is remarkably honed, linear and focused, cut with citrus fruit and malic acid drive of delightful tension and […]

read

True to the elegance and structure of the cool 2011 season, this is a particularly long-lived rendition of Kooyong’s tiny 0.90ha Faultline patch. Complex struck match and gunpowder notes hover over grapefruit blossom fragrance and tightly focused lemon zest fruit. It’s poised and super tight, suspended on a highwire of beautifully focused acidity that draws […]

read