Wine Reviews

Made from a single vineyard at Greenock in the North-Western Barossa Valley.Lots of fruit flavour, blackberry, plum, black cherry and finishes long with ripe tannins and sweet vanilla oak.

One of the better Hunter Valley Shiraz. Flavours of sweet red berries, leather and spicy oak. A medium bodied wine, befitting its Hunter Valley origin.

One of those hard to find Clare Valley gems. As always with Wendouree, a tightly made wine that is still evolving and loosening up. Flavours of cassis, blackcurrants and capsicums with strong tannins.

One of my favourite desert wines. Sometimes described as liquid fruitcake, it is rich and luscious.

A lighter Muscat in both colour and style. Apricots and peaches, sweet, but restrained.

Coldstream Hills was founded many years ago by James Halliday and is now part of the Treasury Wine Estates portfolio. 2011 was a difficult year in many parts of Australia, but this is an excellent wine. Flavours of pear, white peach and nectarine, all integrated into a soft and harmonious wine that is a delight to drink.

A blend of three traditional Barossa varieties, the proportions change each year depending on the vintage. Big ripe fruit flavours of berrys. leather, spice, chocolate and liquorice. An early drinking style from Penfolds.

A lighter style of Pinot with the distinctive cherry, strawberry and spice flavours. A crisp clear finish devoid of briary earthy tones, which is good. A delightful easy drink that improves significantly with time in the glass, it needs time to open up.

This wine surprised me from the first mouthful. While it was distinctly a Riesling, any harshness and excess acidity had mellowed out over time, leaving the basic fruit flavours of apple and citrus, with a tinge of mature sweetness. It has a long almost rich finish and smooth acidity. A wine that you just want to keep on drinking and proof that Rieslings really do improve with age.

As soon as you open this wine you know it is a big powerful wine and full of flavour. It is distinctly Grange. The overwhelming flavour is of liquorice backed up by plums, chocolate and rum. There are fine tannins and the oak and fruit are well integrated. A beautiful wine and every taste is different as the flavours develop and evolve in the glass. Still a young wine and only just entering its drinking window. Grange is still bottled under cork and this cork, although being 12 years old, was in perfect condition. We followed the instructions on the back label and stood the bottle up for 3 hours before opening and opened and decanted it 2 hours before drinking, with tastes along the way to see how it was opening up.