Some of you may have recently heard rumours concerning the conduct of one of our former employees, Lak Quach. Sadly, it’s a rumour no more. We were extremely upset, devastated in fact,  to recently discover that Lak had engaged in widespread, significant and serious misconduct for the duration of his employment with CellarHand - activities to which he has admitted. We want to thank everyone for understanding that we have not been able to comment on this matter while we undertook our investigation. Our investigations…

Lots of news this month, with domestic goings-on stealing the headlines. We've had Frankland Estate, one of Australia's undisputed kings of Riesling, unveil its regal 2016 releases from the Isolation Ridge and Poison Hill vineyards. From the same vintage and from another great Riesling family and vineyard - the Barrys of Florita fame - comes the excellent new clos Clare Riesling. Nick Farr's been a busy boy, releasing the unbelievably good paean to patriarch, GC Chardonnay by Farr, as well as a super new Gamay under the…

Gary Farr gave a revealing interview in the February edition of Gourmet Traveller WINE - the magazine that named him Winemaker of the Year way back in 2001. Asked about his most memorable moment in wine, he responded: “Having my kids want to follow my path into agriculture and the wine industry is right up there.” Think about it, and it’s understandable. After all, Gary Farr toiled in the vineyards of Bannockburn for four decades before handing the keys to the Farr family estate to…

Shadowfax and CellarHand are delighted to announce that CellarHand is the exclusive New South Wales distributor of Shadowfax wines as of Wednesday, 1st February 2017. We’ve long enjoyed a fun and fruitful relationship with the Werribee-based estate, which produced its first wines in 1999 - the same year CellarHand was founded. This was one of the first crop of domestic producers to enter our portfolio at the turn of the century, and the winery has come on in leaps and bounds ever since. Recent years have…

Nocturne is a husband-and-wife partnership between recently-crowned Jimmy Watson-winner Julian Langworthy and his wife Alana. The two met as young winemakers in South Australia and have been producing their own side-project wines together for 10 years.  Nocturne, however, is a serious new venture producing single-vineyard wines from exceptional sites in Margaret River. This is the region where Julian grew up and where he’s transformed Deep Woods Estate since becoming chief winemaker in 2011. In the process he’s won just about every prize imaginable, culminating in the…

“Good Beaujolais really delivers so much drinking pleasure,” wrote Gary Walsh of The Wine Front as he concluded his write-up of the 2015 Piron Beaujolais Brouilly. Who can argue, really? This region was the focus of the latest edition of trendy UK wine mag Noble Rot. “Beaujolais, at least the best of it, is now serious stuff, a wine allowed to play in the shoals of Burgundy, while creeping open the door to just a touch more pleasure, all while offering what Burgundy typically hasn’t:…

“This is again a gorgeous collection by the Dr. Loosen Estate, which offers some gorgeously vibrant dry wines, crisp Kabinett, smooth yet playful Spätlese and gorgeously honeyed Auslese.” Jean Fisch & David Rayer, Mosel Fine Wines on the 2015s. Dr. Loosen’s ever-reliable Dr L Dry was our first Riesling to land from 2015. It gave immediate credence to Jancis Robinson’s claim that this German harvest was “clearly exceptional”. The arrival late last year of the Prädikat wines from this flagship Mosel producer gave further evidence, if…

What makes Austria such a mouth-watering proposition for the winelover? If anyone’s qualified to answer that, it’s Andreas Wickhoff MW. Andreas is managing director of Bründlmayer, the Kamptal estate Jancis Robinson calls “a beacon for Austrian wine”. A former sommelier, he gained his WSET Diploma in Wine & Spirits in 2005 and a handful of years later became a Master of Wine, giving him a super sense of how things sit, in terms of quality and style, in a global fine wine context. He also…

We’re pleased to share the news that Ed Merrison of CellarHand has been awarded the Fine Wine Partners Scholarship as Australia’s top-performing graduate in the WSET Diploma. Ed embarked on his qualification with the London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust, which now offers qualifications in more than 70 countries, in June 2014 - the same month he joined CellarHand. A former journalist for the likes of Sky News, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Herald Sun and Business Spectator, he started to devote himself full-time to wine in…

“Really, It’s just a joy to drink,” wrote The Wine Front’s Campbell Mattinson. “It sits at the wonderful place where freshness shakes hands with charisma.” Why not come with us to that place? It’s called Viré-Clessé in the Mâconnais, and your personal guide is André Bonhomme. You may recall our excitement at this gem CellarHand’s Patrick  discovered on his expedition to seek out great-value, great Burgundy in early 2016. We shipped the first wines from Bonhomme a few months back. As we’d hoped, they’ve been a hit.…

by Ed Merrison “Emma, your brains are not your asset. Your personality and your looks are your assets.” It’s hardly the advice you’re holding out for the day after a double magnum of ’79 Krug has persuaded you to ditch your old life and make a break for the wine business. Whatever else it might be, it’s also way off the mark. Emma Rice is sharper than a swig of Cumbrian Cabernet. She’s since proved it beyond doubt, having twice earned the UK Winemaker of the…

There’s a fair amount of wine to get through, so let’s keep the formalities brief. “The 2015 vintage in Germany is clearly exceptional,” wrote Jancis Robinson, whose tasting reports on the Mosel, Rheingau, Nahe, Pfalz and Rheinhessen were gathered beneath the heading “Germany’s glorious 2015s”. “Rarely have we seen so much anticipative raving from winemakers, grower associations and merchants alike than for the 2015 vintage,” write Jean Fisch and David Rayer of independent Riesling review Mosel Fine Wines. OK, it’s not the first time we’ve heard…

“One of the icon wine producers of Austria with one of the icon wine labels of the wine world,” wrote Mike Bennie of The Wine Front earlier this year, adding: “These are excellent wines.” We’re on the fabulous ‘15s now, though it was one of Knoll's 2014 Grüners that Bennie was talking about. Still, he’s bang on when it comes to the respect that Emmerich Knoll commands - not just on account of the forbidding label - and the brilliance of these aromatic whites. There’s…

“The trend is away from exaggeration and toward frankness and wholesomeness,” Lucas Pichler told Vinous Media’s David Schildknecht this time last year. Lucas was talking about the general shift in fine wine and dining, and how it was reflected by the best growers in the Wachau. Certainly the comment is apt to describe the arc of this fabulous estate since Lucas has taken the reins. Purity, finesse and finely-etched lines have become the hallmark of F.X. Pichler. Austria regards 2015 as an “excellent vintage with…

So here we are - the last newsletter from a very busy year. On the domestic front, we announce the arrival of a brand-new, spanking-value Pinot Grigio called Riverlore, made by Marlborough's pioneer Rose family. There's also some rare but inspired innovation from Coonawarra in the guise of Balnaves Entav, plus some good summer-of-Riesling news for Frankland Estate. As for imports, we have a couple of gems from the exceptional 2015 vintage in the Wachau: Emmerich Knoll and F.X. Pichler. Also on the subject of…