We start the spring bulletin with a lookahead to the summer of Riesling. The freshly revamped website forRiesling Downunder now has full details on the program in Melbourne and Sydney, for wine professionals and amateurs alike. Also on the events front, we have our spring joint-portfolio tasting for Sydney wine trade coming up shortly. On the release front, all the details are out for Mount Mary's 2015s, which is one of the most hotly anticipated launches of the year (Halliday's Winery of the Year gong adding fuel…

Here they are, then: “the four master works,” as James Halliday called them in bestowing the title of Winery of the Year on this great Yarra Valley estate. The foundations, Halliday goes on, were laid down by John Middleton in 1971 and the wines “became legendary within a decade”. “A single word cannot possibly do justice to Mount Mary’s Quintet, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Triolet,” he continues. “But they are joined at the hip by elegance. By all means add balance, purity and length, and…

The month of August has been dominated by our Annual Trade Day in Melbourne, a massive and magnificently enjoyable tasting involving some 800 trade guests, all of the wonderful Aussie and Kiwi producers in our portfolio, plus some special guest stars from overseas. Thank you to all those of you, wine professional and amateur alike, who came to one of the associated tastings in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. This month's newsletter includes the wines of our overseas guests, from Huber, Hattingley Valley and Koehler-Ruprecht, who…

It's here, the fruit mainly from Jacquesson's 2012 harvest from Ay, Dizy, Hautvillers, Avize and Oiry. Winter was long and cold; spring and early summer were very wet and there were severe attacks of mildew. However, a superb end to the growing season gave the Chiquets a small crop of remarkable quality. The cuvée is completed with several reserve wines from previous 700-series Cuvées. “Cuvée 740 represents on average 95+% of the Jacquesson production," explains Jean-Hervé Chiquet. "It’s really the wine of the domaine so the…

Congratulations to Mount Mary, the newly crowned Winery of the  Year in the annual Halliday Wine Companion Awards! Mount Mary is a landmark estate not just of the Yarra Valley but of Australian wine history. In 1971 Dr John Middleton homed in on a site that could grow great wine, and identified a style that suited that site – and that people loved to drink, collect and share. The Middleton family has steadfastly stuck to its regimen of individuality and unimpeachable quality through decades of…

By Ed Merrison The see-saw fortunes of fad chasers can make for entertaining viewing but in an age of flip-flop “leadership” and obsequiousness to “opinion- shapers”, it can be good to remember those who stick to their guns and keep hitting the target. Few Australian estates match Mount Mary - newly crowned Halliday Wine Companion Winery of the Year - when it comes to showing the courage of their convictions. The tenor was set by Dr John Middleton, and has continued as the reins have…

By Ed Merrison Tim Shand has an alter ego. There’s Tim: Offspring of two teachers, incisive, earnest looking - even a touch of the nerds about him. Logistics whizz; lob a few moving parts at him and he won’t flinch – just knock up something tidy in no time. And then there’s Shandy: Impish grin, sense of mischief, sub-surface surge of quiet confidence. Bit of a smart-arse; probably rubs a few people up the wrong way. Intuitive, impulsive, and with more flair than perhaps he…

Onannon turned 10 vintages old during the 2017 harvest, and it’s fitting that they’ve marked this milestone with a pair of bold single-site releases that are a statement of intent and a signal of class. James Halliday knows Will Byron, Kaspar Hermann & Sam Middleton well, not least thanks to the time these three close friends spent at Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley. Halliday once commented: “You would have to go a long way to find three more open-hearted and utterly committed winemakers; the…

Nick Farr is a master of the understatement. He was hardly fond of 2014 as a red-wine vintage, yet put together a 98-point Farrside and 97-point Sangreal. The 2013 he dubbed “crowd pleasers” and 2012 was a year of “lazy winemaking” but naturally the wines were outstanding and the accolades flowed as freely as ever. So along comes a vintage tailor-made for top-notch Victorian Pinot. “I’m generally quite reserved about the future of any of our wines,” Nick confesses, “but the potential of 2015 wines…

C'est formidable, this set of wines, from sparkling through white, rosé and red to sweet, we've got you covered with the full Gallic get-up for the perfect Bastille Day celebration. Drink them on 14th July, love them for ever.  LES VINS MOUSSEUX NV Piron Crémant de Bourgogne Burgundy RRP $35 Jacquesson Cuvée No. 739 Champagne RRP $117 BLANC 2015 Roland Tissier Sancerre Loire Valley RRP $42 2014 Paul Blanck Riesling Alsace RRP $33 2014 Matrot Bourgogne Aligoté Burgundy RRP $32 2014 Paul Blanck Pinot Gris…

Off-dry's just kind of the tip of the residual-sugar iceberg in this compilation of sweet things to treat the tastebuds this July. Mostly German, almost exclusively Riesling and totally delicious, a lovely suite for any time of year. CONTENTS  - Read on for notes and reviews THE BALANCE 2015 Charteris Hunt Vineyard Riesling Central Otago RRP $37 2015 Frankland Estate Smith Cullam Riesling Frankland River RRP $53 2013 Ostertag Pinot Gris Zellberg Alsace RRP $93 2016 TWR Gewürztraminer SV 5182 Marlborough RRP $43 THE GERMANS…

A lot on this month. A couple of headline releases from By Farr and Onannon. The former has a blinding Sangreal and Farrside out from 2015 plus '16 whites, the latter a couple of brand-new single-site 2016s from Leongatha and Red Hill. Another never-seen-before wine comes from Mount Mary, who toast a fine 2015 Sauvignon Blanc harvest with a barrel-fermented savvy under the Réflexion label. We have a couple of vintage rolls for some of our most-loved Aussie wines: Shadowfax has moved onto an instantly…

Time to remix your drinks list? This blend of the old and the daringly fresh is just the thing. The first Contratto Vermouth recipes date back to the late 1800s and had their heyday as top tipples of the flappers and dandies of the ‘20s and ‘30s. They fell out of favour after World War II and this great Piedmontese house ceased production entirely in the late 20th century. When the Rivetti family of La Spinetta bought the house in 2011, they saw a place…

A heck of a lot happening on the home front this month, with Nick Farr's inauguaral Irrewarra wines being the prominent new release. Chardonnay-swilling Will Byron of Onannon has been named as a finalist in Gourmet Traveller WINE's Winemaker of the Year, at the same time as Matthew Jukes placed this Gippsland beauty in his 100 Best Australian Wines. That same list included the likes of clos Clare Riesling and 2015 Glaetzer Anaperenna, which along with Amon-Ra received its first reviews this month. A lot…

Lalou Bize-Leroy doesn’t do things by the book. She is, commented Neal Martin of Wine Advocate following his last visit chez Lalou, “a one-off who truly deserves the title of ‘legend’”. She’s unique and elusive in much the same way as her wines are difficult to snap up or pin down. This, though, is an opportunity to savour a drop of her enigmatic genius. The vintage in Burgundy was warm and dry overall, yielding whites that are “clean, pure and rich, favouring ripe orchard and…