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…

“Truly, a masterpiece of Australian Cabernet.” Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “This wine hit me, straight off the bat…. Hit me for six.” So wrote Gary Walsh of The Wine Front of the way Vanya Cullen smote him out the park with the brilliance of her 2015 Diana Madeline. It says a lot that a wine with this kind of form can still strike like a bolt from the blue. After all, the previous three vintages rated by James Halliday all scored 98 points. That…

A nice balance this month, roughly equal parts domestic and exotic, plus a save-the-date for some fun on the horizon. We’ll start with that, shall we? It’s Riesling Downunder 2018, it’s happening next Feb, and you have to be there. In other Riesling news, Frankland Estate’s original experimental Riesling off Isolation Ridge, 2014 Alter Weg, is on its way – and we also have the beguilingly aromatic 2016 wine from those old, biodynamic vines of TWR in Marlborough. On the new-release front, Paul Scorpo’s unleashed…

"One of the more fascinating tastings I've experienced over the past 12 months was that of the joint Germany-Austria riesling project, Wurzelwerk & Winzers Beitrag. The results are wines which have much in common, but also subtleties which distinguish them from one another. " Tim White, Financial Review This is a three-way, border-hopping juice-swap experiment through which the participating producers pick apart their soil, their home and their beloved Riesling grape in an attempt  to better understand their vineyards - or as they put it, “to…

“In a region where there is a history of too many followers and not enough leaders, Burn Cottage has defined its own place among Central Otago's Pinot Noir growers,” wrote Nick Stock late last year. Indeed so firmly has Burn Cottage established itself as one of the true stars of Central Otago, it’s hard to believe that this is only the seventh release of Pinot Noir from that gorgeous biodynamic vineyard in Cromwell. The season started with slow vine growth, with less rain that usual…

This year the Kevin John gets a little head start on its flagship companion, Diana Madeline. As one of the great Chardonnays of Australia, it’s well and truly worthy of holding the limelight as a solo act. A couple of years ago, this wine starred in a James Halliday article entitled Cullen beats the burgundies, when Kevin pushed Coche into second place in the Cullen’s 30th annual International Chardonnay Tasting. A year later, Halliday summed up the 2014 rendition as “a complete wine of very…

Loads happening at home this month. Among high-profile releases, we've had Vanya Cullen's Kevin John Chardonnay from 2015, Ben Glaetzer's top Barossa reds from the same vintage and Yeringberg's suite of 2014s. That lovely Balnaves family of Coonawarra have also rolled onto new vintages for most of their wines, while the equally lovely Smith Cullam family of Frankland Estate have shown they're firing on all cylinders with a sublime Shiraz from Isolation Ridge. Speaking of Shiraz, Stephen Pannell's in the news with a couple of very…