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 red…

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…

2023 marks the 20th year since the vines went into the ground at Burn Cottage Vineyard in Lowburn. Before that, this was just a hidden patch of rolling green against the scrubby, craggy, tan-and-black background of Central Otago. It might’ve remained so, had Marquis Sauvage and his wife Dianne not stumbled across it the previous year when they got sidetracked from a site-searching expedition in Australia. How fateful that was—as was the decision to engage Ted Lemon of Littorai to plan the site. With Ted…

Vision, faith and patience—unreasonable doses of all three—are prerequisites for creating memorable wines. We’re constantly reminded of this. A couple of days ago, a notable German producer whose vineyard recently won recognition as a Grosse Lage (grand-cru site) told us he half-wished he could fast-forward a decade to when the GGs from this site had established a track record. At the same time, of course, he lamented the passing of the vintages as each one brought his journey nearer to the end. That thought sheds…

Eleven years have elapsed since Julian Langworthy picked the grapes for the inaugural Nocturne wines. It’s gone by in a flash; a knuckled-whitening joyride of headline-grabbing, trophy-snatching wines leaving a riot of irreverence in its wake. Julian takes none of it for granted, though, and is deadly serious—and seriously proud—of the legacy that he, his team and their talented peers are building in Margaret River. “We need to—because we’re that good—transcend this Antipodean backwater wine thing, you know, ‘They’re interesting wines.’ No, they’re not just…

We are delighted to announce the arrival in the CellarHand portfolio of the Ossa suite of wines. In next to no time, this project has set about redefining the possibilities of East Coast Tassie wine-growing. It is our pleasure to offer what is already an exhilarating range, and one we believe will evolve into an Australian cool-climate benchmark. The Estate  Rod Roberts, who hails from a multi-generational Tasmanian farming family, and his Swiss-born wife, Cecile, purchased the Belbrook property in 2017. They planted 20 hectares…

These are elegant, gently stated wines, not try-hards.  To taste them is to believe immediately that they are the faithful, accurate and unadorned expression of the vineyard whence they sprang. Other producers talk the talk about terroir, but their wines don’t always back it up. Yeringberg wines are honest terroir wines without any need to shout about it. Huon Hooke on The Real Review 2025 Vigneron of the Year Yeringberg is in the form of its life—and it’s been quite a life! Now in its 163rd…

Some sites hold you in their thrall, plain and simple. You stumble into them as if enchanted, and if the wines measure up - if the quality is flawless and the wines express the magic that you’ve seen, heard, felt among the vines - there’s no turning back.   Dalwhinnie, the eight-hectare site perched high in Victoria’s Pyrenees wine-growing region, is such a site. Julian Langworthy fell under its spell from the moment he first set eyes on it. “It was just, you know, nestled…

Photo credit: Robert Speirs Photography Just over a quarter-century after co-founding CellarHand with his wife, Gin, Patrick Walsh is calling last drinks on his illustrious leadership. Patrick’s decision to step back from day-to-day duties at the end of 2025 comes in the wake of a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and advice to stop working to mitigate symptoms.    The news follows Gin’s official relinquishing of her Financial Controller duties earlier this year. Those who know Patrick and Gin will be well aware that they are not…