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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

"I really admired these wines from Romain and Virginie Taupenot." Neal Martin, Wine Advocate “I think that they're going to please everyone from Burgundy neophytes to purists as there are good ripeness and concentration levels combined with vibrancy and excellent terroir transparency,” Romain Taupenot mused to Allen Meadows of Burghound. “It's just about an ideal vintage.” Meadows wasn’t only moved by the words; he was persuaded by what he tasted. “I, too, liked Taupenot's 2015s as there are a number of lovely wines,” he wrote…

“It's a site that demands attention,” says Nick Farr of this place in the heart of Western District farming country, approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne. The name Irrewarra is an Aboriginal term meaning “long spear throw” and it’s partly the thrill of the hunt that drew Nick to this frontier. Think dairy, beef, sheep, wheat, hay and forestry production. Irrewarra is surrounded by inland lakes and volcanic plains. It’s a diverse and beautiful landscape that captures plenty of rainfall throughout the year. The Western…

We’re raising a glass – a Pitt Nat, actually – to our great friends Gerhard and Brigitte Pittnauer. The husband-and-wife team have just been awarded the coveted Trophée Gourmet for their outstanding wines and biodynamic farming practices by Austria's A la Carte magazine. "Gerhard Pittnauer's wines are as unmistakable as he is - unmistakeable characters, memorable and marked with perceptible star appeal,“ said A la Carte editor Christian Grünwald in awarding the prize. "What Pittnauer does with a regional grape variety such as St. Laurent,…

I would characterise 2015 at this address as an unqualified success. Allen Meadows, Burghound “2015 was a great vintage for us,” says Adèle Matrot (pictured above left). The Meursault domaine, whose wines we began importing last year, took in a normal yield of Chardonnay. Red production was down by around half, thanks to hail damage in 2014 and the hot summer of '15. The heat and lack of rain in June and July was well documented, but the Matrot holdings were nicely freshened up with…

It’s a bit of a Scorpo family journey that led here – and what a mouthwatering place to end up.  Bestia is the delicious new skin-contact Pinot Grigio from this Merricks North estate. Its origins go back to 2012 when Paul Scorpo’s architect daughter, Claire, came back from the Venice Biennale where she’d enjoyed quite a few amber wines. They reminded her of how Paul’s father made wines from white grapes (mostly Malvasia with a little Waltham Cross sourced from a Riverland mate). Scorpo padre e figlia then…

A new set of releases from this family estate shows precisely why Balnaves is the jewel in the Coonawarra crown - and why these wines should be taken to heart, and not for granted. A quick glimpse of the critical response to these latest wines is enough to make you thirsty. Read on, and get into them. “Delicious Chardonnay out of Coonawarra.” Campbell Mattinson on the 2014 Chardonnay “This is bold with flavour but beautifully balanced too.” Campbell Mattinson on the 2014 Shiraz “This is my favourite…