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 […]
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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 […]
readILR 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 […]
read2011 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 […]
readTrue 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 […]
readAn outstanding vintage for the flagship of one of Margaret River’s most celebrated estates, this is a cabernet blend of pinpoint varietal definition and delightful fragrance, with themes of dusty capsicum, tobacco and beautiful, lifted violet and rose bud perfume. Tannins are at once firm and chalk fine, seamlessly crafted and beautifully integrated with lively […]
readOne of the great Johann’s, the outstanding 2010 season has captured an impressively effortless style, celebrating great concentration and depth of black fruits, yet never heavy or overbearing. A blend of 64% Barossa shiraz and 33% Coonawarra cabernet, seamlessly interlocking to capture character and poise within a frame of great depth and seamless intensity, impeccably […]
readAn impressive Art Series, a showcase of the power and control that defines this Margaret River icon. The bouquet proclaims its depth and richness from the outset, with ripe white peach fruit, grapefruit and even grilled pineapple. The palate is powerful in presence, deep and wide, yet held in impeccable shape thanks to a long […]
readThis single fermenter and 150 dozen bottles is a tiny yet loud proclamation that there’s more to Clonakilla than shiraz viognier. Intense white pepper is a character that earmarks some of the finest cool climate shiraz regions on earth, and it leaps in ethereal, exotic proportions from this Clonakilla. A glorious nose of pepper, fennel, […]
readTasmanian winemakers refer to Domaine A as the only true chateau of the island state, and its the sheer Bordeaux-like longevity of this remarkable cabernet blend that confirms it. Even the earliest vintages of this label from the early 1990s are still but half way through their life. The 2006 has a similar future before […]
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