Tag: 2015

Oakvale Spring Farm Vineyard Graciano 2015

Spice up your style

Experience a taste of Spain and broaden your horizons with the Rioja wine varieties It’s cool to be different these days, and if you’re in the dining sector, you’ll be attuned to the preferences of the funky hipster types; no more is it sufficient to offer five different beers or a range of wines from…
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2015 Gartelmann “Diedrich” Shiraz Review

Orange is the new pink

According to the well known Charles Caleb Colton aphorism, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Or for the Oscar Wilde disciples, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness”. So when winemakers leave their regional heartland to source fruit from a competitor district, it must surely be taken by…
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Windowrie of Cowra, New South Wales

Windowrie of Cowra

The Cowra wine region covers around 1,250 square kilometres in the Lachlan River Valley at the southern end of the Central Ranges zone in New South Wales.  Unsurprisingly, the district is named after the largest town in the region and it’s amongst the lowest altitude and warmest parts of the Central Ranges region. And while…
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Bird On a Wire Chardonnay 2015 Review

Top Drop, Great Price

It may not be a universally held view, but to my palate, there is no more noble white wine varietal than Chardonnay. It’s a style that generally combines attractive fruit characters at the front, luscious mouthfeel through the middle and a gentle acidity to tighten and harness the fruit through the finish. And depending on…
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Kaiken Ultra Malbec 2015 Review

Malbec – It’s Hipster Heaven!

It may be the rise of Enotourism or just the handiwork of 21st Century hipsters and beatniks, but there has been a definite push towards new and exciting styles of wine in recent times. There was once a time when the “in crowd” were satisfied with a wooded chardonnay or even a cab-sauv blend, but…
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Robert Channon, Verdelho 2015 Review

Robert Channon, Verdelho 2015

One of Australia’s most underrated white wine grapes must surely be the Portuguese import, Verdelho. It’s a style which for some reason is mainly used for blending in dry white blends, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. But with the intensity of flavour and the delicious overtones of lime and honeysuckle, I reckon it’s an…
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Stoneleigh Wild Valley 2015

Stoneleigh Wild Valley 2015 Sauvignon Blanc

It’s sweet, flabby and possibly cordialesque, yet the kiwi sauvalanche continues. The shelves of almost every bottle shop in the Country seemingly overflow with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc yet despite its lolly water tag, it still outsells any other style many times over. And it’s not that I am some kind of purest or a jealously…
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Bird in Hand Pinot Rose 2015 Review

Bird in Hand, Pinot Rosé 2015

Call it pink, salmon, pale red or rosy, the Bird in Hand Pinot Rosé is certainly a light and lively rosé colour in the glass and wears its strawberry cloak from the nose right through to a semi-dry finish. Hailing from the cool Adelaide Hills vineyards of Bird in Hand, the Pinot Noir grapes were…
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Cumulus Climbing, Pinot Gris 2015 Review

Cumulus Climbing, Pinot Gris 2015

The cool climate, dry autumns and elevated vineyards in Orange, New South Wales, make it an ideal environment for growing Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, but it may be the Alsatian inspired Pinot Gris grape that puts it front and centre of the viticultural map.  In the United States, Pinot Gris is now the second biggest…
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De Bortoli - Sacred Hill Chardonnay 2015 Review

De Bortoli, Sacred Hill Chardonnay 2015

The value end of the retail wine spectrum is a busy if not duopolistic space, but if you can look past the “specials” promoted by the Coles and Woolworths operations, there are some Australian made wines punching well above their weight. Like the De Bortoli Sacred Hill Chardonnay 2015. It’s a product of the Riverina…
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