De Fermo Pecorino d'Abruzzo Superiore 2015 This trip was the first time that I've been to the Abruzzo and what a joy it proved to be. The mountains, in particular, seem wilder and more contrasting than …
It's great to be home. Great, in particular, to be back on my own pillow. Italian pillows fall into one of two camps - a) stunted lumps or b) shapeless fluff balls. I then end up …
Happy Birthday Australian Wine Review! This website turns nine years old today (by my rubbish calculations) and I'm celebrating. This is the farthest from home that I've been for the website birthday, but in a wonderfully …
Australian Wine Review on Tour 2017 It's been a long time coming, but today I'm off for my first decent European trip in a good 18 months. For the next 3 odd weeks I'll be looking forward …
Balgownie Black Label Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2015 Discovered in the back of the tasting pile. Always smartly priced Pinot this, and no different in 2015. A light wine, but not in the underpowered way. Just mid-weight …
Hahndorf Hill Zsa Zsa Zweigelt Nouveau 2016 Beaujolais Nouveau meets the Austrian red grape Zweigelt in a juicy ball of light red fruit fun. Good work Larry & Hahndorf crew, I like. Light red, the colour doing …
Pizzini Nebbiolo 2012 No, it's not from Piedmont. That's the Nebbiolo caveat. It's the assumption that anything outside of the Langhe is ultimately inferior. I can only imagine how hard it is for winemaker's making Nebbiolo anywhere …
Even Keel Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2015 Even Keel is the second label of Mornington producer Polperro, which apparently has cellar door yoga classes. Diverse. Sam Coverdale's wines are pretty handy too. Wild fermented, and bottled without …
Georges Lignier Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru 2006 I'm not winning with top Burgundy lately. This has been sitting in my (climate controlled at Wine Ark Sydney) cellar cage since release, so no qualms with the storage. A …
Pizzini Lana Nebbiolo Barbera Blend 2015 'Lana' is Pizzini's new range and is named after the family's home town home in northern Italy. Classic Langhe blend (in a King Valley form) and looking good here. Bright ruby …
Tyrrell's Belford Semillon 2009 I've been smashed by the man flu this week, to the point where midweek (Anzac Day) I couldn't smell much at all. Thankfully I'm back to full faculties today, but gee it's …
Marko's Vineyard Point Eight Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2015 I was critical of the last release from Marko's Vineyard, but this Shiraz is much better. From a 23yr old Vineyard owned by Matthew Hill Smith in the …
At 18 I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, doing a degree that I didn't really like, and a liquor shop seemed like fun. Needless to say I discovered wine, my uni degree morphed into something completely different and wine/beer took over my life.
More than fifteen years later and I currently spend my days wearing many (wine) hats, mostly as a writer, presenter and marketer.
While wearing my writer hat I contribute to the likes of The Retiree; Gourmet Traveller WINE, National Liquor News and the RAS plus I'm a Lifestyle FOOD channel wine expert.
Crowned the 2009/10 WCA Wine Journalism 'Young Gun', in my spare time I'm a wine judge and recently graduated with a Masters in Wine Technology & Viticulture from Melbourne University.
This site (Australian Wine Review or ozwinereview for short) is dedicated to talking about wine, beer and other good things. Largely focused on Australian wine, but with a healthy dose of tasty vino from NZ, France, Italy, Spain.. oh hell, if it's good, I'm in.
Follow me also at twitter.com/ozwinereview or facebook.com/AustralianWineReview or Google+ or instagram.com/ozwinereview.
Also check out my other project, Sydney's best wine tasting business The Tasting Glass.