"If there is an estate in Barbaresco that deserves more attention, it is without question Cigliuti. The 2012s were bottled in the weeks leading up to my recent visit, yet they were super-impressive." - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media“Cigliuti's 2012 Barbarescos are among the most successful wines of the vintage,” reported Antonio Galloni of Vinous Media from his visit at the end of last year. “For reasons I don't fully understand, this small, family-run estate in the Bricco di Neive district just outside of Neive proper remains very…

 “This is another Pinot masterpiece from the experienced hands of [Nick] Farr,” wrote Nick Stock a few weeks back. This was in a tasting report on the Geelong region. The 2013 Tout Près came top, and the 2014 Chardonnay by Farr – the immediate predecessor to this release, labelled “immaculate” by Campbell Mattinson – came second. Every other wine by Farr and Farr Rising came equal fourth or fifth. Nick Stock went on to ponder why the likes of Nick Farr “can consistently make some…

So, to start this story we have to go back a little in time. Like, 6,000 years. That’s when the world’s oldest wine cellar was built in the part of the world that begat Zorah. The biblical terroir is something to behold, and the tagline for the top cuvée is “vines older than time”. Indeed the Areni Noir grape it’s made from – indigenous to this part of Armenia – grows on low-yielding bush vines in semi-abandoned sites planted well over 100 years ago, in…

Romain and Virginie Taupenot have afforded us the luxury of expecting constant refinement every time we visit. They’ve faced stiff challenges over recent vintages and have risen above them all. 2014 wasn’t a picnic but it worked out beautifully for the best in Burgundy. Taupenot-Merme, thanks to fine sites and the excellent focus of this brother-and-sister act, has firmly earned its place in this rank. “I’ve been visiting Romain Taupenot at Domaine Taupenot-Merme for quite a few years now, and the name appears to be…

Guillaume Tardy has a sparkle in the eye, the charming presence of a confident Burgundy winemaker nearing the top of his game. A super vintage, 2014, about to be released; another very good, very different one – 2015 – in barrel. And sufficient interest in all of this to ensure his biggest headache is a nice one: trying to decide what to allocate to whom of these totally pure, terroir-driven red Burgundies. Annual production is around 2,000 cases only. All the wines, including the Bourgogne,…

Plenty of flattering accolades flying around this month, with Stefano Lubiana - a brand-new addition to our NSW portfolio, by the way - winning Best Tassie Pinot in London while a Champagne guru goes gaga over the estate's fizz. Punt Road also sparkles in the same bubbly bulletin, while clos Clare and Heartland are fêted by influential UK wine writer, Matthew Jukes. Darlings of the Marlborough terroir scene the Flowerdays launch their eagerly anticipated single-vineyard TWR Pinot Noir, and Stephen Pannell reaches the kind of Dead…

Brilliant news! Biodynamic Tasmanian estate Stefano Lubiana is now part of the CellarHand portfolio in New South Wales. Steve and Monique Lubiana – recently hailed by Mike Bennie as a member of Aussie wine’s vanguard – have cemented their position as one of Tasmania’s foremost, and most forward-looking, producers. Stefano Lubiana and CellarHand have enjoyed a fantastic partnership dating back to 2007, when we became the winery’s distributor in Victoria. Since then the relationship – and the estate – have gone from strength to strength.…

We’re delighted to announce that, as of 1st June, CellarHand is the proud distributor of Yeringberg wines throughout New South Wales and ACT. The de Pury family and CellarHand have a treasured friendship dating back to 2003 when we started distributing the wines in Victoria. It has been our pleasure to see this jewel in the Yarra crown shine on as Sandra de Pury takes its classic sextet of wines - three whites and three reds - to a higher plane. A couple of years back we…

Welcome to the CellarHand newsletter for May. Germany’s looming large with some fantastic new arrivals, including the eagerly anticipated 2014 Berg Schlossberg Riesling from Theresa Breuer and Johannes Hasselbach’s 2014 Rothenberg Grosses Gewächs Riesling. More Riesling drama comes from the exceptional range from Heymann-Löwenstein – a Mosel producer that provokes bouts of hero worship in many quarters. And then the reds – a fantastic set of 2013 Pinots from Julian Huber in Baden. Across the border in Austria, Roland Velich’s Blaufränkisch is the order of…

It was a joy to meet Julian Huber in Europe in March. He’s a fine gentleman in the mould of his father, and it’s clear his wines would make the late, great Bernhard Huber proud. Bernhard, who died in June 2014, did so much to awaken the world’s attention to Baden’s potential for great Pinot Noir. He was a “universal genius” according to the Gault Millau German Wine Guide. He loved Malterdingen and his part in shining a contemporary light on an area blessed with…

“It's a miracle how brilliant and tension-filled the 2014s are,” writes The Wine Advocate’s Stephan Reinhardt of Heymann-Löwenstein. There are some – many – Riesling fans out there for whom there’s no match for this estate. The composition and feel of these wines, heady with slate and flowers and never less than exhilarating, moved up a level some years back. And they keep getting better. Stephan Reinhardt feels the same way. “His 2013s were already great, but Reinhard Lowenstein’s 2014 Rieslings from Winningen and Hatzenport…

“Continues an outstanding run.” Those are the words of James Halliday, uttered in reference to this latest release of Sandra and Guill de Pury’s Marsanne/Roussanne. But really, it could be taken as a reflection of the progress of the resolutely traditional Yeringberg. For all the family’s refusal to fall prey to faddishness, there’s no doubt that the de Purys have relentlessly dedicated their intelligence and sensitivity to the cause of refining their estate.  The vineyard, first planted in 1863, has naturally seen changes. Varieties like…

It’s hard to think of a set of wines with such a strong family likeness and so reliably turned out as those of Glaetzer. The reason is all down to their roots. They are progeny of a man who knows his Barossa motherland and métier inside out. And they are so firmly – and anciently – embedded in the Ebenezer subregion as to be the very essence of it. “We’re indebted to the folks of yesteryear; they left their mark,” observed Campbell Mattinson in his…

 By Ed Merrison“I felt so at the right place. I saw my mum and my uncle and they all said ‘Go away. Take some time off. Do whatever you want’. Nobody said ‘You have to do it’. None of the family said that. I had to actually convince them that I wanted to stay, that I wanted to be there. I just felt at home.” It was the moment that Theresa Breuer’s fate was sealed. May 2004; she was 20 years old and her father…

Congratulations, Theresa Breuer! Just a few weeks after she left these shores, Theresa was named German Winemaker of the Year by influential European wine magazine Falstaff. Great news among many snippets in this month's newsletter. We've had various domestic releases, such as the excellent 2015 single-vineyard Rieslings from Frankland Estate , Wantirna Estate's 2014 Lily Pinot and a leftfield, limited-edition Chardonnay from Airlie Bank. There's also been a clamour for the 2013 Chablis from Louis Michel and new Rhônes from Pierre Amadieu of Gigondas. On…