New Years Wines, Beers 2020-2021 Edition
This didn't feel like a normal NYE. But with a toddler, what counts a 'normal' NYE anyway? More importantly, who cares about New Years? Regardless, I opened plenty of tasty drinks …
This didn't feel like a normal NYE. But with a toddler, what counts a 'normal' NYE anyway? More importantly, who cares about New Years? Regardless, I opened plenty of tasty drinks …
Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ok drinks. And some are just bad. Here then is a selection of wines that almost made it to a pass mark …
Fun fact: Shiraz makes up over 25% of all winegrapes crushed in Australia, and South Australia has the largest vineyard area with 76,292ha (Wine Australia figures 19/20). But what I want …
Australian Chardonnay is in the midst of a purple patch, with quality - and value - as good as it has ever been, as this collection of the 16 best …
It's halfway through spring. Already. That escalated quickly... As the name suggests, these are the best pink/blush/salmon orange/reddish coloured Australian rosé to pass the Australian Wine Review tasting bench this springtime. …
From dry grown vines in Mt Barker, this Galafrey Reserve Riesling 2019 is very much a wine for the future. Tangy, sprightly white with singing grapefruit acidity. Real spritzy power here, …
This is an awful lot of wine for $20. Harewood's best work is in Riesling and well-priced reds, and this Harewood Estate Shiraz Cabernet 2018 is bang on. It feels a …
Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ok drinks. And some are just bad. Here then is a selection of wines that almost made it over the past few …
(This is a version of a print article on Western Australian wine published earlier in the year. The world has changed since, but there are some stories in here worth …
As I mentioned in the Silkwood review, I can skip most WA Pinot. There are exceptions (like the odd Picardy Pinot), but the generalisation stands. Anyway, this single vineyard Apricus …
It feels a little dirty to be writing about wine right now. Or maybe it's a sense of futility - I'm that guy talking about wine while sitting on one …
Following closely on the Top 20 Chardonnay comes the Top 20 Shiraz of February 2020. For this lineup I dug deeper into the sample pile, searching - perhaps blindly - for …
In what has become a semi-annual event, I ventured out into the Armageddon-esque sideways rain on Saturday to taste the trophy winners (and more) from the Sydney International Wine Competition. You're …
Why stop at just 10 great Shiraz for the month? Here is the follow on list of the best 11-34 Shiraz to pass the desk in October 2019. Terre à Terre …
Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ok drinks. And some are just bad… Here’s a selection of wines that almost made it in July 2019. I like plenty …
It's new release season in the wine industry, which means that I came home to a small mountain of samples to pickup from the post office. But this is new …
I'm steadily making a dent in the sample pile at the moment, after getting massively behind after my little one was born. She's 8 weeks old now (and beautiful, in my …
I missed December's Almost Club edition (holidays), so this is a huge crop of almostness... As the name suggests, here are the wines that almost hit the mark for me in …
The premise with this collection is very very simple - I've been hitting the sample pile hard over the past week or two, and these 30 wines were not only …
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 …
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