Bellvale Athena’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2015 From the Ellis families dry-grown Gippsland family vineyard. There's an intensity here that you often see in dry-grown vineyards - like the grapes hit another gear in the flavour-per-berry stakes. For …
Tucks Ridge now has new owners, with Montalto taking over. This Tucks Ridge Turramurra Chardonnay 2016 is one of the single vineyard releases from Tucks, from the Tuerong/Dromana area. There's a fullness and a broad edge …
Wine shows cop a lot of flack. You need only read the feedback to my post on the 2018 Sydney Royal Wine Show exhibitors tasting to see that. But is it justified? And indeed do …
From solid drinks to faulty train wrecks (and everything in between), the Almost Club is for wines that didn't hit the Australian Wine Review 'recommended' mark (17/20, 90/100) in August 2018. Note that there is friendly …
Oh yes, this is a big edition! As the name suggests, these are the 34 wines that almost made the Australian Wine Review top grade (of 17/20 or 90/100+) this month. Some missed the mark by a …
A self explanatory title, here are 12 of the best 12 Chardonnay to pass the desk in July 2018. If anything, this list just highlights the high standard of Chardonnay in Australia. Still our most planted white …
Sometimes, you get what you pay for. In the wine industry it doesn't happen as often as you'd like, but occasionally you pay for great wine and really get it. With these new single vineyard Shaw + …
There's always questions when the founder of a famous winery leaves. Will the wine style change? Prices go up? Labels disappear? No matter how many times the new owner says that it will be 'business as …
From great value quaffers to absolute train wrecks, this month's compilation of 'almost' wines is a biggun'. I'm always conscious of my prejudice against overripeness and heavy-handed oak, but I call both as symptoms of poor …
It's 3 days late I know, but here are a few wines that almost hit the mark this month. Some are just good, simple drinks. Others are genuinely average to poor... Hand Crafted Montepulciano 2016 From Geoff …
There a few wines that, when they land at Graham HQ, skip any sort of 'tasting' queue and go straight to the 'drinking' department. This Tolpuddle Chardonnay 2016 is such a beast. Again, the beauty of …
I can easily see why you'd want to make wines on the Mornington Peninsula. Close enough to Melbourne but still far enough away. Great beaches. A healthy local wine community. Distinctive terroir. In fact, the only …
Irrewarra. Mark that name down under your watch list. Irrewarra is the new winemaking project of Nick Farr (yes, son of Gary) focused on a vineyard near the town of Irrewarra in western Victoria. Planted in …
Following the Pommery I wrote about last week, this 2012 Piuze is the latest wine to escape from the Graham cellar. I bought this bottle back in 2013 when I visited Patrick in Chablis itself. He …
The title is pretty explanatory - here are 24 Chardies that hit the mark over the past few weeks, plus a few that almost made it but fell short. The Hits Bay of Fires Chardonnay 2016 What a …
Although I can't afford it, there is an awful lot of Chablis and white Burgundy consumed here at Graham HQ. Chardonnay, in general, is the choice grape, Pinot second, Riesling is up there and then …
As you can see the volume of posts has dropped off a bit lately as I'm still not feeling great. My ankle issues turned out to be an arthritis flare up, and the last few …
Life is so much easier when you have a great vineyard. That's not to say that winemaking is easy, in any way. But it certainly helps when you start with the best materials. Further, when you …
Here's a selection of wines that were almost great. Some are just good, solid wines that are occasionally unready, through to slightly underwhelming/unexciting, and rounded out with a few wines that miss the mark completely. Why post …
Well, I still can't drink, which makes it a little sad to be opening wines from one of my favourite Kiwi producers. It's the reminder that normally I'd prefer to be roadtesting these at dinner …
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.
Almost 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.