It's great to announce that Alister Timms has taken the helm at Victorian favourite Shadowfax. Long-serving vineyard manager & assistant winemaker Al (photo courtesy Elizabeth Clancy Photography) has spent the past decade getting the best out of Shadowfax's various vineyards and establishing its Little Hampton property in the Macedon Ranges - a vastly exciting site for cool-climate, high-altitude Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Gris. He'll continue to focus on these varieties and this region, the coolest wine-growing area on the Australian mainland, while maintaining the…

October's rocking already, with a slew of bright new things going on. On the events front, there's more detail added to the Riesling Downunder program, and Austria is inviting one and all to a celebration of its National Day with a grand tasting in Melbourne. Some headline releases, too, this month. Those lovely Egans of Wantirna Estate bring us their awesome foursome, plus the brand-new RP Pinot Noir by Farr rounds out what's now a holy trinity at the top of the Farr family tree.…

Things were set so well, before the hail came. Budbreak occured right at the start of April, just like in 2014. This month was also particularly fine and sunny, building hopes for an exceptional year. Ups and downs through spring and summer - May floods and a June heatwave - weren't enough to prevent healthy fruit coming through, and when a nice dose of freshening rain came in mid-August, a great vintage was a whisker away. We all know what happened next: On 1st September…

Welcome to Dott., the new small-batch handmade wines from the Chalmers family's estate-grown fruit. It is inspired by the late Dr. Rod Bonfiglioli, a passionate, eccentric scientist whose dogged determination and visionary foresight brought so much colour, interest and integrity to Australian wine. "He sought out these rare grapes for our collection, seeing their promise long before we did, " says Kim Chalmers, "and for that we are grateful." The choice of grape varieties in the Dott. range challenges the concept of homoclimes as the…

Good rosé needn't be a seasonal drink. I mean, it makes no sense does it? If it's fragrant, refreshing and tasty - with texture to play nicely with food - why would you want to go neglecting it for a few months every year? Even so, we do it pretty much instinctively. We think pink the second the first rays of spring sunshine beam into our consciousness. So don't fight it, feel it. Here's a range of ripping rosé to dive into right now. SPARKLING…

We start the spring bulletin with a lookahead to the summer of Riesling. The freshly revamped website forRiesling Downunder now has full details on the program in Melbourne and Sydney, for wine professionals and amateurs alike. Also on the events front, we have our spring joint-portfolio tasting for Sydney wine trade coming up shortly. On the release front, all the details are out for Mount Mary's 2015s, which is one of the most hotly anticipated launches of the year (Halliday's Winery of the Year gong adding fuel…

Here they are, then: “the four master works,” as James Halliday called them in bestowing the title of Winery of the Year on this great Yarra Valley estate. The foundations, Halliday goes on, were laid down by John Middleton in 1971 and the wines “became legendary within a decade”. “A single word cannot possibly do justice to Mount Mary’s Quintet, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Triolet,” he continues. “But they are joined at the hip by elegance. By all means add balance, purity and length, and…

The month of August has been dominated by our Annual Trade Day in Melbourne, a massive and magnificently enjoyable tasting involving some 800 trade guests, all of the wonderful Aussie and Kiwi producers in our portfolio, plus some special guest stars from overseas. Thank you to all those of you, wine professional and amateur alike, who came to one of the associated tastings in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. This month's newsletter includes the wines of our overseas guests, from Huber, Hattingley Valley and Koehler-Ruprecht, who…

It's here, the fruit mainly from Jacquesson's 2012 harvest from Ay, Dizy, Hautvillers, Avize and Oiry. Winter was long and cold; spring and early summer were very wet and there were severe attacks of mildew. However, a superb end to the growing season gave the Chiquets a small crop of remarkable quality. The cuvée is completed with several reserve wines from previous 700-series Cuvées. “Cuvée 740 represents on average 95+% of the Jacquesson production," explains Jean-Hervé Chiquet. "It’s really the wine of the domaine so the…

Congratulations to Mount Mary, the newly crowned Winery of the  Year in the annual Halliday Wine Companion Awards! Mount Mary is a landmark estate not just of the Yarra Valley but of Australian wine history. In 1971 Dr John Middleton homed in on a site that could grow great wine, and identified a style that suited that site – and that people loved to drink, collect and share. The Middleton family has steadfastly stuck to its regimen of individuality and unimpeachable quality through decades of…

By Ed Merrison The see-saw fortunes of fad chasers can make for entertaining viewing but in an age of flip-flop “leadership” and obsequiousness to “opinion- shapers”, it can be good to remember those who stick to their guns and keep hitting the target. Few Australian estates match Mount Mary - newly crowned Halliday Wine Companion Winery of the Year - when it comes to showing the courage of their convictions. The tenor was set by Dr John Middleton, and has continued as the reins have…

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…

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…

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…

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…