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 January. Some are just nice …
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 the most quintessentially smashable Australian …
With the official Graham HQ Chief Chardonnay Drinker 34 weeks pregnant, I'm not opening up as much Chardonnay as normal (outside of tasting lineups). The flip side is that I'm probably drinking more beer than ever …
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 …
Christmas is my favourite time of year. The smell of gardenias. The sun. The green grass. The promise of holidays. It's so good. This time of year is also perfect for opening lots of wines. I …
I'm loving the new age of Australian light reds. Meunier, Gamay, Pinot Meunier, Trousseau. Nouveau styles. Joven styles. It's like suddenly our collective industry woke up one day and realised that not everything needs to …
For this week's entertainment, I thought I'd pull out all the Shiraz dominant blends that aren't your usual suspects and ended up with these six wines. Some are just slightly unconventional (like non GSM from Grant …
Sunshine Creek Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2015 A traditionally structured, if slightly old school (complete with cork seal) Yarra Pinot with plenty of flavour. Glacé cherry nose, the full and extractive palate has broad, vanilla bean …
Mandala Matriarch Pinot Noir 2015 The pointy end of the Mandala range, from a great vintage. All MV6 clone fruit, it was handpicked and all destemmed, spends 9 months in 50% new oak. That's lots of …
Soumah Equilibrio Pinot Noir 2017 Here's one Yarra winery that has just exploded into prominence. When I first tried the Soumah wines they were largely leafy, savoury and anything-but-mainstream Yarra wines with an Italianate bent. Now there …
First Foot Forward Pinot Noir 2017 Great value and authenticity in the First Foot Forward range. This Pinot is tasty and well priced. Wild fermented, and matured in 15% new French oak. Limpid raspberry fruit is …
Nikkal Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2017 The entry level Pinot from Kate Goodman and it's easily attractive. It's a smoky, serious edge wine at first, complete with a whiff of ham, underneath though it's gentle and …
Soumah Pinot Noir 2017 The entry level Soumah Yarra Pinot and genuinely likeable. It's a bright and lively Yarra Pinot with a sappy red currant and raspberry nose, then a crunchy palate with a pithy finish. …
Bird on a Wire Pinot Noir 2016 Another well-made Yarra wine from Caroline Mooney. This comes from a vineyard west of Coldstream. 100% whole bunches, with foot treading during the ferment too. Hands-on. In a more robust …
Mandala Pinot Noir 2017 Some of the '17 Yarra Pinots are very light and fragrant things, to the point of being a little shallow. Like this one. It's a bright raspberry fruited Pinot with some confected …
Rouleur Pinot Noir 2017 Matt East's superb Shiraz made my Top 10 Shiraz list a few months ago, and now the Yarra Pinot Noir lobs up and it's a beauty. I've tried this twice now and …
Mandala Butterfly Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 Classic Yarra Cabernet from a vintage prime for delivering the odd finessed wine. It's like the Yarra's version of a luncheon claret, just riper and more immediately attractive. There's HB pencil, …
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 …
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 …
After posting Wednesday's list of the 10 best Shiraz to pass the desk in August 2018 I had a closer look and realised that there is a whole lot of great wines in the next …
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.