Mr Mick Shiraz 2009 $15 Sheoaks and St Clare Vineyards, Clare Valley, South Australia One Friday last January winemaker Tim Adams and wife Pam Goldsack became the first private owners of Clare Valley’s Leasingham Winery since H. J. Heinz acquired it from the Knappstein family in 1971. Though this year’s American seller, Constellation Wines, retained … Continue reading Wine review — Mr Mick, Howard Park, Paxton, Spinifex, Seville Estate and Knappstein →

TarraWara Estate Yarra Valley J-Block Shiraz 2009 $35 Though fully priced for an unproven wine off very young vines (planted 2007), TarraWarra’s J-Block shiraz offers pure, sexy, drinking pleasure. From the first sniff of the seductive, floral and musk aroma to the last supple, sweet drop in the bottle, it held our attention. A few … Continue reading Wine review — Tarra Warra, Shingleback and Rolf Binder →

Cumulus Wines Climbing Pinot Gris 2011 $18–$22 Orange, New South Wales The difficult, wet and cool 2011 vintage caused much devastation in vineyards across Australia. However, some white varieties, including pinot gris, seem to have benefited from the cool conditions – for example, in the recent local wine show, Mount Majura Vineyard won a gold … Continue reading Wine review — Cumulus Wines, Dopf au Moulin, Voyager Estate, Coolangatta Estate, Ingram Road and Barwang →

Eperosa LRC 2009 $35 Light Regional Council Greenock Vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia Some time back Barossa viticulturist Brett Grocke turned to winemaking, determined to capture distinctive characters from “favourite sites throughout the Barossa and Eden Valleys”, he writes. In LRC we taste a unique, generous, elegant, spicy and savoury shiraz that could, at first … Continue reading Wine review — Eperosa, Jacob’s Creek, d’Arenberg, Juniper Crossing and Shelmerdine →

Beurrot by Kooyong Pinot Gris 2010 $27–$30 Meres Block and Beurrot vineyards, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Today’s reviews include two really good, very different expressions of pinot gris, a variety that all too often produces non-descript wines. The first, made by Sandro Mosele, demonstrates the combined power of great fruit and assertive, but skilled, winemaking inputs. … Continue reading Wine review — Kooyong Estate, Toi Toi, Brothers in Arms and Eperosa →

Mount Langi Ghiran Billi Billi Shiraz 2008 $14.25–$18 The Rathbone Wine Group owns some of Australia’s great regional brands – Yering Station Yarra Valley, Parker Coonawarra Estate, Xanadu Margaret River and Mount Langi Ghiran Grampians. Winemaker, Dan Buckle, and viticulturist, Damien Sheehan, look after production at the Langi Ghiran operation, producing the sensational “The Langi” … Continue reading Wine review — Mount Langi Ghiran, Tim Smith and Barwang →

Yangarra Estate Vineyard Roussanne 2010 $25 McLaren Vale, South Australia Roussanne, a Rhone Valley white variety, occasionally appears on its own in Australia, but more often in tandem with viognier or marsanne. Jancis Robinson called it the “shy” member of the trio as it avoids the viscosity of viognier or tannins of marsanne. In this … Continue reading Wine review — Yangarra, Hewitson, Cullen and Shelmerdine →

Shelmerdine Pinot Noir 2010 $26–$36 Yarra Valley, Victoria Stephen Shelmerdine writes, “Between the drought-affected vintage 2009 and rain-influenced vintage 2011, vintage 2010 is now shaping up as an absolutely classic year”. I’m not sure what “classic” means, but Shelmerdine delivers the goods in this lovely pinot from his family’s Lusatia Park Vineyard, high in the … Continue reading Wine review — Shelmerdine, Yealands Estate, Running with Bulls, Dandelion and Penfolds →