Wine Reviews

Such a fluid red wine. Such a joy to drink too, though it’s joy in a serious and leaf-inflected kind of way. It tastes of boysenberry and blackcurrant, bay leaves, loganberry, violets and an array of well-placed (and pretty) herbs. It has lamb cutlets, or something similar, written all over...

A quixotic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carignan and Malbec. An essence of Clare, per se. All the blue fruits, dashes of purple fruits, green olive, saltbush, with touches of forest floor. It’s medium bodied, tightens on rails of lithe tannin, feels plush but cool in its way. Such...

Gamay – the sole red variety of Beaujolais – has had a slowish start in this country, but enthusiasm is rapidly growing… With the Australian gamay landscape rapidly changing, we thought it an apt time to take another Deep Dive into Australian expressions of this joyous variety … Koerner Wine...

From the Deanery Vineyard in Balhannah, Adelaide Hills. As an aside, the Koerner website is text book outstanding for information, layout, clarity of imagery, up-to-dateness. It’s a ripper. This is a charmer. It’s quite a deep, rich sangiovese but manages to elevate on the promise of quality, silty tannin and...

Off Koerner and Parish Vineyards, plantings from 1920s and 1970s. Bit of history there. Wild ferment occurs in stainless and ceramic vessels. Texture, vitality, length, drinkabilty. A good start when those four things collide. Scents and flavours of preserved lime, Indian pickled lime, Real Lemonade, green apple. Some crunch to...

Fruit from the Deanery vineyard in Balhannah; it matured in large-format Slavonian oak for six months before being transferred to stainless steel for another six months. Juicy, clean and bright, with savoury nuance folded through. Think cherry and strawberry with peony pink peppercorn. Deeply pretty, with just enough tannin to...

Sangio made for ease and drinkability; the Adelaide Hills does it well. It's a sound outcome of the intention – red fruited, with sour cherry, cranberry, red plum, tomato vine, a little tea, some tobacco leaf, dried herbs, thyme and oregano. The tannins are just so – light feather-strokes. A...

A challenging, warm, dry growing season saw the fruit picked earlier to retain natural acidity. The resultant rieslings of '25 are of richer realms, yet no less finessed, nor are they broad. This speaks to Pink Lady apple and bath salts, characteristic lime pithiness on show, but with some preserved...

From near-40-year-old vines planted to sandy loam over clay and ironstone soils. This is delightfully pithy, with grapefruit and pomelo. Salivating stuff. There too, lemon zest, almond husk, skeins of gingery spice, sea salt atop. A bright and prismatic chardonnay with an irresistible lick of nutty lees. 93+ Points. Katrina...