It's a short and sweet edition this time around, built on a suite of new releases. In the red corner, we have the old-vine quartet by Ben Glaetzer from 2017 in the Barossa. Another cooler season there has delivered that combination of freshness and relative elegance with depth and concentration. From further afield in Frankland River, the Smith Cullam clan has taken it up another level, truly, with the 2018 single-vineyard Rieslings from Poison Hill and Isolation Ridge, plus the '16 Shiraz from Isolation Ridge.…

We made no secret of our rapture at gaining a chance to work with the Vaira family as importer of G.D. Vajra and Luigi Baudana into Australia. Since our first shipment a year ago, both Giuseppe Vaira and winemaker Eugene Qiao have made it over to these shores, revelling in the warmth of the welcome they received from the Australian trade and wine lovers more broadly. This is a family that communicates its joy and pride in Piedmont – the wines and culture of this…

By Ed Merrison It’s like synaesthesia. Whenever I hear the Vajra name or taste the wines, I see a riot of colour. It’s like drinking in the cheerful hues of the labels and stained-glass windows, or splashing through the poetry-soaked palette of the Barolo landscape. Giuseppe Vaira reckons he wasn’t brainwashed. I don’t think I was either. It’s just that every interaction with the wines, the place and the people has felt like tracing another vivid detail on the same seamless canvas. Fluidity and fusion…

Seems like only yesterday this was little more than a curio as far as some were concerned. “Flag-bearing family masters the Bordeaux and Burgundy varieties and turns its attention to Rhône as a flight of fancy” – something like that. “Grenache in the Yarra? Let me know how that works out!” But those in the know knew from the outset the Middletons don’t do things on a whim. The long-term vision was imbued with the same fixity of purpose as anything else here, and the…

The trajectory of the not-so-new generation at Frankland Estate is as sure, true and thrilling as the finish on the Isolation Ridge Riesling. “An issue facing family wineries in Australia, now and always, is the question of generational change,” wrote Peter Forrestal for Gourmet Traveller WINE last year in extolling Judi Cullam, newly-crowned recipient of the Len Evans Award for Leadership. “Judi and Barrie Smith have tackled handing over to their children, Hunter and Elizabeth (and her winemaking husband, Brian Kent) in an exemplary manner,”…

It’s three years now since Nick Farr unveiled Irrewarra to the world. A new canvas and a different palette to work with out there in the Western District, somewhere between Geelong and Henty but distinct from both. The damp-earth aspect to the wines, the unique fruit spectrum and the super-cool acid profile were enticing ingredients to this master of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. And Irrewarra has delivered. The project named for an Aboriginal term meaning “long spear throw” has hit the mark every time. The…

Ben Glaetzer’s follow-up foursome to the outstanding 2016s are the fruit of another cooler vintage in the Barossa. There was a good dose of rain through the winter and freshening rains fell intermittently through the ripening season, where a cooler-than-average spring was followed by a later-than-normal harvest. It’s a recipe for another round of brilliant Barossa reds, with lift, layers and freshness marrying the succulent fruit in that typical Glaetzer way. “The 2017 wines are of excellent quality exhibiting purity and lift with firm tannins…

“The wines from Martha and Daniel Gantenbein are a safe investment, and no matter if they're Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, they are still among the finest and most vibrant wines produced in modern Switzerland,” writes Stephan Reinhardt of Wine Advocate of this estate in the Graubünden (Grisons) district of the upper Rhine valley in eastern Switzerland. It’s one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places on Earth, but why are you reading about it here? Well, Erni Loosen made the introduction, reasoning that the most famous…

Joe and Lou Holyman, together with CellarHand, are delighted to announce that CellarHand has taken up the mantle as exclusive distributor of the Stoney Rise and Holyman throughout Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Several members of the CellarHand team have long been friends with the Holymans, and all of us have sought out and enjoyed their exceptional wines. This mutual admiration culminated in Stoney Rise’s entry into our Tassie portfolio in 2018. A natural – and bloody exciting – progression has been the…

CellarHand's 20th Anniversary celebrations - don't get us wrong, it's a year-long thing - have meant a brief hiatus for the CellarHand newsletter, but here it is, back with a vengeance. The domestic releases are headed this month by the super '16s from Sandra de Pury of Yeringberg, and by the 2017 single-vineyard releases from Leongatha and Red Hill from on-song Onannon. A new name arrives in the portfolio, too, with Stoney Rise now joining CellarHand in several states. A few new wines elsewhere, with Mount Mary…

For 155 years the de Pury family has lived and farmed at Yeringberg, and for all but 50 of those years, the family has grown grapes and made wine. Frederick-Guillaume de Pury bought the land in 1863. He’d been working in the Yarra Valley since his arrival from Switzerland in 1850. He developed a large vineyard (about 25ha) and made excellent wines, first in a simple bark-roofed winery and then in a new weatherboard building. The winery and underground cellars are still used today. George…

It wasn’t pomp and ceremony that announced the first release of Onannon’s single-site wines last year. No posturing, hype or hubbub. It was more purring energy that signalled the take-off of these two. “Length and drive. Class,” was Mike Bennie’s conclusion with the Red Hill wine from the Mornington Peninsula. “Exquisitely tuned,” enthused Jane Faulkner. “Sapid with shapely, raw silk tannins.” And the expression from Leongatha in Gippsland had Campbell Mattinson feeling the groove and evoking it in a rhythmical, almost poetic, fashion. “Gorgeous Pinot…

"The 2017 Mosel vintage turned out to be a wonderful surprise. Readers who enjoy aromatic, mineral and elegant Rieslings should try these exciting new releases from the dramatic Mosel river valleys." Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com There’s been plenty said about the glorious surprise that was Germany ’17, when frost and hail slashed yields and crushed spirits early on, only for a wonderful summer to pull it out of the bag again. So here it is, the hotly-anticipated full suite of Erni Loosen’s Mosel wines. It’s headlined…

Scorpo Pinot Gris isn’t your average Pinot Gris. It has complexity far beyond the norm. – Campbell Mattinson In a land that time forgot, Scorpo Pinot Gris was the wine that first showed me how Australia takes a run at premium versions of the variety. It taught me about textural elements in gris/grigio; about how, when cared for, the variety shows pluck and character. - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front Paul Scorpo has a well-deserved reputation for his Pinot Gris. - James Halliday Impossible to…

“The next generation is terrific and will keep writing the history of the domaine in its own way. Prepare to be surprised by this new wave blossoming at the domaine with contagious energy!” That was how André Ostertag let the world know of the great things to come here as he steps back somewhat from the helm. France’s great pioneer has been living with Parkinson’s disease for 10 years, and is easing off in order to heal. André’s son Arthur, who’s been more deeply involved…