“One of my most favourite wines,” says Wine Front‘s Gary Walsh of the beauty leading off the domestic news. High praise indeed but then Wantirna Estate’s Amelia is used to the adulation, and the new-release 2019 is superb. Also creating a stir on the home front are releases from Stephen Pannell and Shadowfax. The former has hit a fantastic groove with his Adelaide Hills Protero label, adding the top-of-the-tree Capo Nebbiolo to a range that now sports white Pinots, an off-dry aromatic white blend, Barbera and everyday Nebbiolo. And Shadowfax’s Al Timms continues his scintillating form with high-altitude Macedon Ranges vineyards. Single-site 2020 Pinot Noir from Little Hampton and Straws Lane are with us now. Don’t miss them!
Elsewhere we’re toasting the start of Champagne season proper with the arrival of Jacquesson’s Cuvée No. 744. With the shelving of so many celebrations over the past18 months, this wine based on the 2016 harvest will definitely get the party started!
Our last shipment of the year from Germany is leading the import news this month. Issuing from the Mosel Valley, we have 2019 GG-equivalent dry Riesling alongside Kabinett and Spätlese by Eva of Ansgar Clüsserath. Further downriver in the Terrassenmosel, Heymann-Löwenstein has dialled up its Schieferterrassen offering from the towering vineyards around Winningen. The “regular” (which is anything but basic!) Schieferterrassen from 2019 is joined by a skin-contact edition from 2018, as well as an off-dry, long lees-aged version from the same harvest.
Further south, from Bernhard Huber in Baden, we have our first-ever Malterdinger Weiss – a limestone-grown, Chardonnay-led blend with old-vine Bienenberg Pinot Blanc. This 2018 white arrives with the Malterdinger Pinot (excellent again) and its Alte Reben premier-cru quality sibling.
And to top it off, we’ve compiled a compendium of pourable, everyday Riesling that takes in Australia, NZ, France, Germany and Austria. I mean, the weather’s warming up, things are getting looser and you’re going to need it!
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