An excellent Prelude of poise and balance, capturing the gravitas of this great chardonnay estate at an accessible point. A wine of detail, complexity, richness and focus, seamlessly melding fig, white peach and cashew nut French oak (one-third new) with well focused grapefruit acidity. It will benefit from a few more months for oak to […]
readLeeuwin ceased production of shiraz from its home block years ago as the site didn’t seem to work. Today, its top shiraz comes from a site further south and further inland, with cooler night temperatures that benefitted this warmer vintage. The result is pretty and elegant, a beautifully fragrant shiraz, with violet and rose petal […]
readDon’t let the name, label or cork seal put you off, FDR-1A is one of my favourite Barossa wines right now, and 2010 is one of the greatest. Three-quarters cabernet lends delightful aromas of violets, capsicum, leaf and blackcurrant, emphasising the pretty character of cool climate Eden Valley fruit. One-third shiraz builds great depth and […]
read2005 FDR-1A was never released as a young wine, and this Museum Release is a different recipe to those vintages that are. Barossa Valley rather than Eden Valley fruit and American oak rather than French make this look more like a baby Yalumba The Reserve than an older FDR-1A to me, and at more than […]
readYalumba winemaker Louisa Rose is waxing lyrical about old vines these days, and puts a lot of viognier’s reputation for short-lived wines down to young vines, pointing out that even the variety’s spiritual home of Condrieu in the Rhône Valley was only planted since the 1980s. To Rose, it’s refinement, not proportions, that old vines […]
readTri-Centenary has been promoted to the Yalumba’s Rare and Fine tier for the first time (read: it’s now $15 more expensive). And it’s worth it. This is a grand statement of just what grenache can do in the right hands and the right place. That place is an 1889 planted vineyard in Vine Vale with […]
readSteeple Vineyard is the latest product of Yalumba’s increasing journey into regionality. This company hasn’t traditionally drawn on the northern parts of the Barossa, but has sourced from a 1919 planted plot next to the Light Pass church for some years for Octavius and The Reserve, and purchased the vineyard in 2008. Here it is, […]
readI have been a great admirer of the evolution toward refinement of Leeuwin Estate Art Series Margaret River Cabernet over the past five years, and 2010 is the pinnacle, the greatest red wine I have yet tasted from this revered estate. Sourced from vines 34 years of age and matured in 50% new French oak, […]
readArt Series sits at the bigger end of Margaret River’s chardonnay power set, unashamedly proclaiming grand fruit presence within a robust fram of 100% new French oak. It has done so with an admirable measure of finesse in recent years, though I feared the warmer 2011 vintage might trouble this style. To the contrary, sniper-like […]
readA true grigio, in a pretty, aromatic and zesty style. It’s tangy, lively and immediately engaging. Crunchy pear fruit is accented with zippy acidity and grippy phenolic structure that culminates in a mouth feel akin to grapefruit pith. $18 at Corkscrew Cellars.
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