Loads happening at home this month. Among high-profile releases, we've had Vanya Cullen's Kevin John Chardonnay from 2015, Ben Glaetzer's top Barossa reds from the same vintage and Yeringberg's suite of 2014s. That lovely Balnaves family of Coonawarra have also rolled onto new vintages for most of their wines, while the equally lovely Smith Cullam family of Frankland Estate have shown they're firing on all cylinders with a sublime Shiraz from Isolation Ridge. Speaking of Shiraz, Stephen Pannell's in the news with a couple of very…

Doing it easy isn’t really the way it goes at Yeringberg. Putting their faith in that hill as vine-planting pioneers some 150 years ago wasn’t easy. Nor was doing it all over again 100 years later. Then grappling with Shiraz, in and out until it found its true home on the site. And doing everything minutely, painstakingly. Time-honoured, time-intensive methods. Giving the wines time, too, until they just begin to blossom in bottle. But such is the way with estates that prize enduring pleasure over…

This Baron of the Barossa is local nobility but it’s the land that rules him, not the other way around. Ben Glaetzer’s realm is the Ebenezer sub-district at the valley’s northern tip. It’s unique dirt where vines aged up to 130 years old yield as little as 2 tonnes of grapes per hectare. They’ve well and truly earned their tribute, and Ben pays it in full, year after year. Ben’s 2015 offering is a generous, characterful and impeccably turned out bunch with that striking family likeness. Full-flavoured,…

Customers in Sydney may have heard that Elite Wine Logistics, the company that provides warehousing for various suppliers, has gone into administration. CellarHand was one such company that relied on Elite for these services. We have moved swiftly to engage another logistics company in light of this situation. In the meantime we have received assurances from Elite that orders entered today (Tuesday) will be delivered by Friday. Since learning of the news, we have been placing orders for our customers in NSW and ACT with…

It sounds haughty to say so, but it’s also true: CellarHand’s Burgenland producers sit outside the norm. Each of them – Moric, Pittnauer and Rosi Schuster – are something of a law unto themselves. They’re not themselves aloof; Pittnauer is an active and proud member of the Pannobile group, while it was Roland Velich of Moric who pointed us in the direction of fellow maestro Hannes Schuster. What they do have in common, though, is a deep and long-standing conviction that their dirt and indigenous…

It’s been a privilege to show Roman Horvath MW around Melbourne and Sydney on something of a whistle-stop tour, squeezing in educational sessions with members of the wine trade and a few intimate public tastings. Roman has been at the helm of Domäne Wachau since the mid-2000s, and has at his fingertips the very finest sites of Austria's premier white-wine region. On top of that, as Austria's second Master of Wine, he gives crystal-clear context to these wines. (His mate Andreas Wickhoff MW of Bründlmayer, who…

Vive la différence! Part of wine’s magic is the way it takes you places. Often we long for a glass of something familiar and head home to our personal haven. But sometimes what we seek is that thrill of discovery – to go somewhere new and exciting. A foreign accent, an alien landscape, a taste of the exotic. Here’s 20 delicious ways to get off the beaten path – a passport to expand horizons while keeping the purse strings reassuringly tight... SPARKLING Dr. Loosen Riesling…

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…