There are a lot of tricks and traps in this wine buying caper and it’s true that a lot of new players often overlook the fact that seasonal variations can have a dramatic impact on the quality of the same wine year by year. So when a region experiences a season with perfect climatic conditions…
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I’ve often said that good Pinot isn’t cheap and that cheap Pinot isn’t good, but having recently tried the Nanny Goat Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012, I might have to modify my mantra! At only $25 a bottle, I wasn’t expecting anything above average, but the Nanny Goat certainly delivers well above its very reasonable price…
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Mention McLaren Vale reds and the Pavlov Dog in me begins to salivate at the expectation of juicy ripe red berries, bold fruit and a lingering sweetness at the back. So, you can imagine my surprise when I ripped the Stelvin from a bottle of the Rosemount Estate GSM 2012 and found it nothing like…
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I’m the first to admit that I was probably a little judgmental, but I’d always thought that any creator of Certified Organic and preservative free wines would have dreadlocked hair, red beaded necklaces and have a proclivity to wear ripped T-shirts with five-leafed clover emblazoned across the front, and tie themselves to trees as the…
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I have to admit to being somewhat of a novice when it comes to South African wines, but having discovered the Diemersfontein Pinotage 2012, I’d be happy to become a more regular oenological tourist to their viticultural shores. The Pinotage grape is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault and has become somewhat of a…
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Having a bottle of the PHI Lusatia Park Pinot Noir 2011 fall into my hands courtesy of winning a bet with a mate (thanks Bloodlines), it was always going to have a certain sweetness on the palate. But who could have guessed that such a highly perfumed nose could have carried such rose petal prettiness…
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It may just be a conversation starter, but if I had a dollar for every time I’ve been asked, “So, what’s your favourite wine”, I’d almost be able to give up my day job! And while it’s a little unfair to compare premium and pricey collectible wines to their commercially produced cousins which sell at…
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I’d never heard of Billy Goat Hill let alone their wines until I recently acquiesced to a glass of red with my lunch on a domestic Virgin flight to Sydney. The name may sound like something out of a Norwegian fairy-tale, but the lesson I received in geography was well worth the adventure! The Billy…
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I am not sure whether it’s for the preservation of a wine’s integrity, it’s marketability or just plain elitism, but in the Australian wine industry, it’s relatively rare for a winemaker to blend grapes of the same style from different territories. But the aversion to regional blending might be a thing of the past given…
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There’s no better place to source Cabernet than in Western Australia’s Margaret River region and you’ll have to search high and low to find a more approachable example than the 2010 Killerby Cabernet Sauvignon. I can’t help but enjoy the slightly dusty mintiness that hits you on the nose, but it’s the full-bodied blackcurrants and…
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