Happy New Year! I'm celebrating the start of 2019 with a little tasting note house cleaning, how about you? Actually I'm mainly at the beach. Before we crack out the towels for today, here are 15 …
I'm still working out what to drink on Christmas day. I've got most of the usual boxes ticked - Primo Joseph sparkling red, '12 Giaconda Chardonnay maybe and a stray bottle of Pra Monte Grande that …
From near misses to faulty junk. Here is a collection of the wines that almost won me over in October 2018. A special, frustrating mention to the two Leasingham wines. I grew up worshipping the mid …
This edition of the Almost Club is a few days late as I was busily not doing much in Noosa (photo attached. We love Noosa). Here than are 20 wines that almost hit the mark in …
Tim Adams Semillon 2014 Nice to see an aged Semillon from somewhere not the Hunter. Likely a tricky sell though. A textural style that hasn't lost its lustre, there's lots of lemon citrus, it's broad through …
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 …
The title says it all, these are 10 of the best Shiraz to pass the desk this month. This isn't a comprehensive last, as I probably taste somewhere between 6000-7000 wines a year (average 16-19 wines …
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 …
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 …
For the final post in my 'wines that moved me in April' series comes this final collection - that I'm calling the 'better reds that aren't Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz or Pinot Noir'. As a primer, check …
Crabtree Watervale Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 Handpicked, open fermented and basket pressed. 14-18 months in barrel. Proper Clare Cabernet this, with lovely soft drying tannins and a real savoury profile. Balance is really good too, with that …
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 is no reason why this tasting should be so bad. Yet every year I line up a collection of textural white wines and every year it's disappointing. Except that this lineup didn't suck at all. …
Here are a few wines that almost made it in February (and a day late I know). A few serious disappointments here, and a few solid, simple wines. That Ferngrove was notably unbalanced - what's happening …
Here are a few of the wines that have passed the desk this month and almost made the grade. Some weren't far off the mark, others are absolute disasters. A few big disappointments of note: The …
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 …
This is the year to be getting into (or back into) Australian Riesling. I hate broad vintage generalisations in Australia (which is too massive and varied for any sort of generalisation to hold), but for many …
Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2017 You know what this wine is? A saviour. When you find yourself stuck in a sleepy regional town with one supermarket bottleshop open, you at least know that this will be on …
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 …
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.