“Yields were a disaster, but the way the wines turned out healed us!” jokes Theresa Breuer. “We are super happy with the vintage, which shows a lot of tension and inner density.” Like the vintage that preceded it, 2019 was warm in the Rheingau. However, the vegetative cycle didn’t kick off crazily early and it wasn’t sweltering hot during harvest. The dry conditions caused the vines to produce tiny grapes that were full of concentration with pretty tight acidity. A happy combination. For an estate…

They were two very different years. Well, 2020 was a year like no other anyway, but the vintage conditions were ice and fire – though not necessarily in that order. Nick Farr’s vintage reports below detail the rollercoaster rides perfectly, so there’s no need to labour the point in the preamble. In short, 2019 saw the heatwaves – culminating in the purchase of 35 headlamps for pre-dawn harvesting to get the grapes in fast and cool. 2020 didn’t need headlamps – and even if it…

Stephen Pannell is at the heart of domestic goings-on, with a pair of very different releases. First, we have the pace-setting single-site old bush-vine Grenache from the Smart and Old McDonald vineyards, and second - from Steve’s pride-and-joy Koomilya site - a couple of stonking 2018 red blends: Touriga Graciano Mataro and Cabernet Touriga. The other key domestic release comes from Stefano Lubiana, whose single-plot Pinot Noir wines - Ruscello and La Roccia - are out now. These, too, are an essay in site definition…

“How good is Tasmanian Pinot Noir!” asks Jeni Port, clearly rhetorically, in the face of compelling evidence of its wondrousness from Stefano Lubiana. If you missed the memo about these bottlings, then we’ll fill you in with the help of Jeni’s Halliday Wine Companion colleague Ned Goodwin MW, who wrote of the previous release: “These single-plot Pinots are among the finest of the country, demanding serious attention.” There are three blocks singled out for special attention on account of their special terroir and the way…

It’s an exciting time to be a Grenache maker, and even more exciting to be a Grenache grower. But as the popularity of Grenache increases, I find myself wondering: Does it need to be a ‘session wine’? Have we fully embraced the unique opportunity to make Grenache Australia’s own medium-bodied wine of place from a warm climate? Varietal wines made from Grenache are a rarity in the wine world. In McLaren Vale this comes down to scarcity, with only 6% of the region planted to…

Touriga Nacional is a great grape, dabbing its powdery tannins and blue floral brushstrokes over everything it touches. It plays a key role in both of the 2018 red blends from Stephen Pannell's pride-and-joy Koomilya vineyard in McLaren Vale. These are a surprise in more ways than one. It's an early bonus ahead of the traditional Koomilya release, which will take place as usual in spring. And then there's the fact that Cabernet Sauvignon and Touriga were never meant to end up together in a…

Marco Lubiana arrived on the wine scene with a bang. His first pair of releases, from the 2018 vintage on the family’s Lucille Vineyard in Huon Valley, garnered off-the-chart plaudits. “Star quality,” was Nick Stock's verdict. “A powerful, complex Chardonnay and a stunning Vosne-like Pinot Noir.” Gary Walsh of The Wine Front was equally effusive: “So stylish and lovely to drink, not forced. Beautiful.” That was the Chardonnay, while its sibling was “a terrific expression of Pinot Noir” that managed to be “bright and rich…

We hope this missive will drive away any hint of winter blues – and also the gloom of lockdown for those in Victoria. One of the surprise trends of the pandemic has been a rush on Grüner Veltliner. (Makes more sense than loo paper, I suppose.) We’re delighed to report a bumper shipment from Austria, with Grüner and more from the likes of Bründlmayer, Domäne Wachau, Groiss, Stadt Krems and Stift Göttweig. The first 2020 wines from Austria point towards a cool, classic vintage with zippy, pure wines. Meanwhile we also…

“Romain Taupenot has overseen this domaine ratchet up through the gears in recent vintages,” wrote Neal Martin of Vinous Media on tasting the Taupenot-Merme 2018s. “He is a very conscientious winemaker, constantly questioning his wines, always a virtue in my book.” One thing that Romain isn't questioning is the quality of ‘18. He describes it as a pretty much perfect vintage. The early rains set it up neatly for a sunny spring and summer, with gloriously warm weather continuing through to an early harvest. “With…

“I’m looking for joy.” Those were the words uttered by Patrick Walsh as the CellarHand team got their heads stuck into a hardcore blind tasting of Grenache, including various off-portfolio benchmarks from around the world. Putting the spotlight on one of Australia’s most exciting varieties du jour, the tasting unsurprisingly included many engrossing examples. But everyone will recall that moment when the joy floodgates broke open. Wine 1, bracket 3 – who could forget? “Pretty. Red berries, flowers, and dried herbs. Settled, dusty, almost Italianate…

It was André Ostertag himself who sounded the warning. “Prepare to be surprised by this new wave blossoming at the domaine with contagious energy!” he wrote in late November 2018, when announcing that his son Arthur was taking the day-to-day reins at the estate. With the new 2019 Les Jardins wines, you can feel the crashing freshness of that new wave rolling in. This is the fifth vintage since Arthur has been more heavily involved at the estate, and everything on this current offer has…

“As debut wines go, this takes the cake. It’s a stunner.” That was The Wine Front’s Campbell Mattinson commenting on Pip Farr’s curtain-raising Gippsland Pinot Noir. Eight vintages later, Pip seems to have turned her dual-Pinot label into something of a cult classic. And she’s still taking the cake every time. The Farr family has long been happy to let their wines do the talking, and Pip seems to have taken this to new levels with a level of reticence that only highlights the eloquence…

  Welcome to the CellarHand newsletter for May 2021. A bit of a short-and-sweet edition this month, it nevertheless includes three urgent and mouthwatering releases. The most complete of these comes from the Smith Cullam clan of Frankland Estate, whose suite of single-vineyard wines is out now. From 2020, that means Isolation Ridge and Poison Hill Riesling, while the Syrah success story continues with Isolation Ridge and SmithCullam 2019s. Rounding out the review is the benchmark Cab Franc blend, Olmo's Reward, from 2018. From Victoria,…

The career-best form continues for Frankland Estate. The Smith Cullam clan - led these days by Hunter and Lizzie Smith, plus Lizzie's winemaker husband Brian Kent - followed up their Trevor Mast Trophy-winning 2017 Syrah with a benchmark-setting pair of '18s: Isolation Ridge and SmithCullam (the latter a large-format barrel selection of the former). 2019 was the best of these past vintages for Syrah, and here comes another raising of the bar. The Riesling release, meanwhile, comes after the 2019 Isolation Ridge took out last…

Arguably the most innovative grape project in Australian is back. The Chalmers family’s Dott. series is itself a metamorphosis of the #bucketwine trials. Dott. began with a set of three wines from varieties making their “commercial” – if such tiny-batch craftmanship qualifies as such – debut from the 2017 vintage. The grapes were Malvasia Istriana, Pavana and Schioppettino. The second coming comprises those three wines in their 2018 incarnation, as well as the first release of Ribolla Gialla. from the 2020 harvest. To recap, this…