The 2017 Giant Steps wines are magnificent. Pinot, Chardonnay, Gamay et al. All in ‘best ever’ territory. I haven’t liked the riper ‘18s as much, but hot dog this Giant …
Chapel Hill The Parson Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2018 Another McLaren Vale red under $20, and another value champion. GSM is so good at this sort of thing - reliable, bright, fruit-driven …
d'Arenberg d’Arry’s Original Shiraz Grenache 2016 A bargain. The original d'Arenberg red and in classic form. Career-best form. Labuschagne form. Red fruits aplenty, as usual, and carries plenty of that tilled …
Margaret River Tempranillo from Cath Oates, the ex-Plantagenet winemaker who now makes handy Margaret River wines tapping into fruit from her brother’s vineyard at Wilyabrup. I like Cath and I …
In a bid to catch up on 3 weeks MIA, I'm bulk posting a whole swathe of reviews over the next few weeks. Expect less of my shitty iPhone wine …
It's been a while between posts, I know. Over recent weeks I just haven't felt it - writing about wine seemed offensive as Australia burned. Who cares about fermented grape juice …
Petaluma, the forgotten icon. Once, a long time ago, Petaluma sat right at the pointy end of quality Australian wine. Driven by the relentlessness of Brian Croser, Petaluma had a reputation …
I miss eating at restaurants. Ever since our small child came along the ritual of going 'out' to dinner and lingering over a bottle or two (after a warmup beer or …
Here are 24 tasty white and pink wines for your immediate drinking pleasure. Wines that, to my tastes at least, are in the prime of their lives and should be consumed …
Today, the Geographical Indications Committee has made an 'interim determination' recognising Wilyabrup as a 'geographical indication' within Western Australia's Margaret River wine region. This would effectively make Wilyabrup the first sub-region …
You need to be drinking more German wines. For so long now, Germany has been known for Riesling. Riesling (50% of world production) and Henkell Trocken. But here's one country - …
Meta: An abstraction from a well-known concept It's easy to get jaded about Shiraz, and particularly Barossa Shiraz, when you're exposed to a lot of it. The singularity of 'plums, alcohol, …
It's that time again. We now have just a month until Christmas, which means one of the most crucial decisions of the year is upon us. What to drink on Xmas day. This …
Served alongside the Petaluma at the Tiers 40th celebrations I wrote about yesterday (and the Montrachet) comes another for the year's heavy-hitters file - the Armand Rousseau Ruchottes-Chambertin Clos des …
'71 Grange. '65 Lindemans Hunter Burgundy. Most of the real Maurice O'Shea wines. Penfolds Bin 60a. Australian wine legends, all of them. Old, glorious Aussie reds that, even at forty-plus years …
This is just a taste of the finest big reds that passed the desk this November. Background notes in italics. Oakridge Original Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 Spends 3 weeks on skins post …
Actually, there wasn't really a winner between these two. It was a tie. And what a talking point. This was one of several matchups served over lunch at the 40 year …
If ever I needed a reminder of how bloody big and variable Australia really is, then it came on Saturday morning's flight. Flying out of Sydney and it's hard to miss …
If you have just $50 to spend on a bottle of sparkling, then spend it on one of the glorious Adelaide Hills wines I talked about on Monday. But if you're …
Q: You have $50 to spend on sparkling wine. Do you: a) Buy a bottle of discounted, ‘big house’ NV Champagne? b) Spend the dollars on a premium, likely vintage Australian sparkling? It’s …
At 18 I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, slogging through physics and chemistry, 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.
Twenty years later and I currently spend my days wearing many (wine) hats, mostly as a writer, presenter and marketer.
While wearing my writer cap I write features for the likes of National Liquor News, Gourmet Traveller WINE and the RAS plus I'm a Lifestyle FOOD channel wine expert. Read more about me here or get in touch to book your next wine event with me here.