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, …
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.