The ever-innovative Chalmers family have a treat for lovers of banging bistro wines who combine sharing with friends with caring for the planet. Cue Mother Block red and white en bagnum! As awareness of our environmental impact grows, Mother Block wines are guided by a simple idea: make better wine by growing the right varieties in the right place—and do it with a lighter footprint. From our sustainably farmed Mother Blocks in Merbein (Murray-Darling), where Chalmers has championed Italian grape varieties suited to warm, dry…

Philipp Wittmann is feeling blessed. He’s fortunate to have been born in Westhofen, where the Wittmann family has been growing wines since 1663. The climate is kind: in the rain shadow of the Donnersberg, warm enough to ripen grapes beautifully, cool enough to slow the process, and fantastic, water-retaining, clayish topsoils with limestone-rich underpinnings play their part. It all conspires to promote the intensity, texture, savoury tones and aromatic allure he’s looking for. It’s also a good time to be flying the flag for terroir-driven…

All in all, Dönnhoff presented a beautiful collection this year. Svelteness, lightness and expressiveness are inherent. Anne Krebiehl, Vinous We always thought Helmut Dönnhoff was the epitome of unwavering calm, a guy with the Jedi skill to land a wine at pinpoint balance just by thinking about it. We long since learned—and his cool self-assurance in the face of 2024’s most devastating frost in at least three generations is just the latest proof—that the force is strong in Cornelius. “All in all, Dönnhoff presented a…

We are thrilled to welcome the fourth release of Lake’s Folly as part of the CellarHand family. Known for their exceptional quality and unique story, Lake’s Folly has become one of the most sought-after wine growers in Australia and beyond. Beginning in 1963 with Doctor Max Lake, a larger-than-life character, hand-surgeon by trade, with a passion for viticulture and winemaking. Max purchased a 13-hectare Hunter Valley plot of land from the Tyrrell family with the intention of growing Cabernet Sauvignon. Word soon got out that…

The 2024 wines show a much greater step up between Federspiel and Smaragd than usual—the Smaragde are pictures of purity. Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous “Surprisingly elegant!” exclaims Emmerich Knoll of the style of the family’s 2024s. That elegance should issue from this beacon of Wachau winegrowing might come as no surprise. Unless, that is, you look at the chaos of the vintage. An unusually warm start to the year caused the vines in early-ripening sites to bud as early as the end of March. April…

Lucas Pichler delivered one of the best collections of the year—extract, tautness, freshness and fill all shine in 2024. Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous Focus continues to be the watchword at F.X. Pichler, whose 2024 vintage is the first to be labelled organic. The health of the vines and the clarity with which they express themselves is everything. The wines underwent something of a transformation about a decade ago, with the distortion cut to zero and the signal—finer, brighter, more precise—beams with a different kind of…

  CellarHand is throwing a winter tasting, and you’re invited. Launching our latest addition to the portfolio, CIRCULUS, where John White will be pouring wines along with a stacked line-up of incredible winemakers. Maddie Le Mire from Balnaves, Onannon’s Will Byron, Stoney Rise & Holyman’s Joe Holyman and Lake’s Folly & Lowestoft’s Chris Crawford. There will be food from the legends at Coda & Tonka for one very good afternoon in the office. Expect wines poured by the people who made them, alongside a few…

It was a joy to host Giuseppe Vaira in Australia early this year, spending time with our friends in the wine trade in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. There’s always plenty of philosophical reflection during our time together, always infused with humility and humour. On a couple of occasions, we were treated to an anteprima of the 2022 Barolo. “It was not an easy vintage,” the critic Antonio Galloni wrote when reviewing the range from our friends in Vergne. But, Galloni asserted, “This is a fine…

Guillaume Michel isn’t joking when he says he aims to make pure Chablis. The cellar here hasn’t seen an oak barrel in 55 years. There’s practically nothing doing in the winery, where Guillaume has one helper. Someone else works in the office. The rest of the team—seven people—work exclusively in the vineyard from 1st January till 31st December. And that’s quite some vineyard. Across Chablis, the village appellation is by far the largest. Just 13% of production comes from the Premiers Crus, and a measly…

  A ballerina, a wrestler and a mountain climber walk into a bar… It could easily be a joke, and with jovial raconteur Erni Loosen telling it, it would definitely make you laugh. But actually, Erni is describing how he sees the Grosses Gewächs wines grown on Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Ürziger Würzgarten, and Erdener Treppchen.  The first, with its classic Devonian blue slate, is the dancer: elegance, finesse, delicate acidity. Würzgarten, with its rare red volcanics, is the wrestler: muscular, rocky, rounded. And then, the oxidised…

No matter what you’ve been led to expect, nothing quite prepares you for that sharp intake of breath when you first set eyes on Rob and Gen Mann’s Calgardup Vineyard. Turning off the road into the bushland and churning the red dirt beneath your tyres, you barely have an inkling. And then you see it, an oasis of closely planted, pristinely presented, organically farmed vines enclosed by towering marri trees. Audible beyond is the call of the ocean, which has such a strong say in…

“Grüner Veltliner is a diva, and Riesling is a masochist,” says Sophie Bodenstein of the environs in which these varieties thrive in the Danube Valley. It’s little surprise to see her anthropomorphise these grapes; not only are they hugely expressive in the Wachau’s amazing vineyards, but Sophie herself is a vibrantly perceptive people person. This standout estate aims to make “archetypal, one-of-a-kind wines that clearly reflect their origin”, she tells us. It succeeds. “Clean, straight, precise and linear” is the style, and the Nahe producer…

The apparent feast of riches that hung from Burgundian vines in 2023 concealed quite a few pitfalls. Taupenot-Merme, a domaine branded on the rise for so long that you might’ve missed its ascension to the first ranks, avoided them all. Dilution of flavour, lack of freshness, fruitiness at the expense of mineralité, and brawn over elegance were all risks that growers succumbed to because of the bumper crop from the hottest vintage on record.   Romain and Virginie Taupenot emerged triumphant. They made two green harvests, depending on…

2026 marks 10 years since sisters Elsa and Adèle Matrot took the reins at the family domaine. This is also the year that they announced a slight name change, removing first names from the labels to make it “Famille Matrot”. These astute, open-minded women have always looked forward, and they’ve brought this domaine to a very fine spot. Elsa and Adèle have always kept a microscopic focus on their terroirs while also thinking in a worldly way about what they grow and for whom. In…

Awesome news from the Riesling realm! We have some stellar new-release wines from Dönnhoff to complement a broad range from this master of his craft. These landed just as Cornelius Dönnhoff and Philipp Wittmann set sail from our shores following a flying visit, during which they sprinkled their magic dust on Sydney and Melbourne. They also gave an exceptionally enlightening interview to the Vininspo! podcast in partnership with CellarHand. You can listen to it here; we highly recommend it for the insight it offers into…