The top dog Pinot for Oakridge and it's another lovely, ripe, open-hearted wine. This Oakridge 864 Henk Pinot Noir 2019 is a very likeable Yarra Pinot too. The Henk Vineyard is …
It's always a delight when the Curly Flat Pinot turns up on the doorstep. One of those deliveries where it skips from the sample to the 'let's go out and …
I feel like a broken record banging out about how good the recent Tokar Estate releases have been. But you can mark down this Tokar Estate Coldstream Vineyard Chardonnay 2019 …
Pinot Noir doesn’t need to taste like Burgundy to be good. This Tapanappa Definitus Pinot Noir 2018 is the example of this. It's a Pinot of rippling power. Of tannins and …
Something beyond fruit, oak and tannin. That's what makes Pinot great. Especially if it's Burgundy, which is the king/queen/choose your figurehead of complex red wine. This De Bortoli Riorret Lusatia …
Almost twenty years ago now. I was working in a small, but great, wine shop on Sydney's North Shore. On Thursday/Friday/Sat nights we would often 'ullage' a bottle of wine …
Balgownie turned 50 in 2019 and to celebrate, there was this special bottling of Balgownie Estate Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, drawn off the original 1969 plantings. Most winemakers might …
Brian Croser's vision of a great Right Bank Bordeaux, realised. Or at least that's the drift with this Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc 2017. Sometimes this Wrattonbully red can …
So many luxury wines end up as disappointments. Too often, wines with AUD$100+ pricetags and unfettered ambitions turn out to be bulldust and oak tannins. Wines that speak of ego, of …
14% alcohol. It's a mark in the sand. One of those (unconscious) ripeness expectations, where anything north of 14% is going to have ripe fruit (in table wine) with minimal …
De Bortoli goes large on Yarra Cabernet. Or at least that's my expectation when the wide-shouldered bottle of 2019 De Bortoli Melba Amphora lands on the doorstep. But the Clos Apalta/90s Tintara …
Again, Shaw + Smith deliver the goods with this new 2019 Shiraz & 2020 Chardonnay. Both wines are too young, the Chardonnay positively pre-pubescent, but that's probably the only quibble. …
To celebrate 30 years of Meerea Park Wines, Garth & Rhys Eather went out to lunch. Except they spent this milestone meal with about 15 other wine media types, and repeated …
Just when I was starting to muse about a lack of interesting Australian Tempranillo, and then this Tokar Estate Special Release Amphora Tempranillo 2019 lands on the doorstep. So Tokar Estate …
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 the environment.
Twenty one years later and I spend my days wearing many (wine) hats, mostly as a writer, presenter and marketer. and judge at wine shows around the world...Read more