NZ First Growth: Te Mata Estate Coleraine vertical 1982-2016
Usually, verticals have a purpose. An excuse for the winery to show off a wine, launch a new one, or just to remind everyone how good something used to be. …
Usually, verticals have a purpose. An excuse for the winery to show off a wine, launch a new one, or just to remind everyone how good something used to be. …
Chateau Petit Village 1998 I want to love Pomerol more. I like Merlot, and there's something noble about the singular focus of the region on Merlot dominant styles. Yet the inconsistency …
I'm more in the Krug camp than Dom Perignon (give me richness any day). But still, I wasn't going to turn down a glass of the Dom Perignon P2 1998 when …
Lindemans St George Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 I imagine there's still loads of '98 reds sitting out there dormant in wine cellar land; everyone convinced that the wines will live forever. This …
100 years of Henschke Mt Edelstone - The Century tasting'2012 has been a year of milestones for us here at Henschke. Not only have we celebrated the 50th vintage of …
Wolf Blass - old, new and better? To be honest, I'm historically not a massive Wolf Blass fan. Or, at least I've not always been a fan of the 'house style', …
Orlando St Hugo 1998 (Coonawarra, SA) 13%, Cork Source: Dinner guest www.orlandowines.com I must admit to not being the biggest fan of St Hugo, preferring the charms of Wynns Black Label over it. That's …
Dom Oenothèque – the best from ‘the library’ Superb packaing on this special Dom. Have your platinum Amex at the ready sir (I wrote this article a little over a year ago …
Champagne: 30 tasted I was struggling for inspiration tonight and so, instead of just writing something half-heartedly, decided to attack the pile of papers here on my 'work desk'. Whilst the …
Old Maurice would be proud... A mini Hunter Shiraz vertical I'm a little tardy in writing up these notes, but the following Hunter Shiraz vertical was held in Sydney a few months …
Premium Shiraz Night June 2010 63 Wyns Hermitage. Amazing. As ever I'm playing catchup at the moment, discovering random forgotten tasting notes in equally random places. These notes have been sitting in …
More old goodies: 98 Petit Cheval, 90 Montrose, 83 Unico + more.... As mentioned here, I've been helping to 'drink out a cellar' recently, a task that is - given the …
Coonawarra Roadshow 2010 - quick snapshot I was particularly slack at this years Coonawarra Roadshow (an annual Coonawarra fest that moves around Australia, spreading the word on all things Coonawarra wine, via …
I've been a bit slack in transcribing my notes from the messy scribbles of my wine wankerish notepad into electronic form, so this is the first of a few compilations …
Tasted recently over dinner at Rubyo's in Newtown (Sydney), this vertical tasting reminded, quite simply, why this wine is considered to be one of Australia's best (and we didn't even …
Meerea Park Alexander Munro Cellar Release Shiraz 1998 (Hunter, NSW) $100, Cork, 13.5%Winery WebsiteThis was released as a 10 yr old wine last year and the 99 is the current …
Chapel Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 (Mclaren Vale/Coonawarra)Cork, $20ish at releaseThis comes from my less than perfect old cellar (underneath my parents house), so I always open these with a sense …
St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz 1998 (Barossa, SA) .Cork, $25 on releaseI swear this wine is released much earlier these days, as this would have been current vintage no more than …
Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay 2001 (Margaret River, WA)Cork, $7oish on releaseAn icon wine from a top MR vintage this is in need of some serious time in the cellar. …
Being a long weekend, and the Anzac Day long weekend at that, the booze seemed never ending - Everywhere you go someone is keen to thrust a beer/glass into your …
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, so a liquor shop seemed like fun. Needless to say, I discovered wine, and my life evolved with a unique dual focus - wine and environment.
Twenty years later and I spend my days wearing many (wine) hats, mostly as a writer, presenter and marketer.
I now judge at wine shows around the world, sit on the Australian Wine List of the Year awards panel and was once a Wine Journalism Young Gun (but baby that was years ago).
Currently, I write features for a variety of publications including National Liquor News, Gourmet Traveller WINE and the RAS, plus I'm a former Lifestyle FOOD channel wine expert.
In 2019 and 2020 I was voted in the Top 30 Best Wine Critics in The World, and in my spare time, I'm a sucker for punishment and run trail ultra marathons, much to the delight of my long-suffering family. Read more about me here or get in touch to book your next wine event with me here