The devotion of Giles Cooke MW and Fergal Tynan MW to grenache is on display here with the full gamut of grenache flavours from wild red fruits and florals to an earthy growl of old vine fruit, with a natural tannic spine supporting.
A classic expression of the grape, with forest berries, cherries and a flash of violets pitched in an elegant and poised frame, an undercurrent of ruggedly regional minerality making its presence felt.
This is a cinsault to get people talking about cinsault. Pitched in a very of the moment midweight style, this sports a riot of red berries paired with spice and dusty minerality, a fine but engagingly sandy tannin cleaning up the finish.
From the Alpha Box & Dice crew, this is a skinsy take on pinot gris that takes the coppery ‘ramato’ inspiration into deeply coloured and flavourful territory, with notes of pear, guava, peach and watermelon and a palate rolling into a gently grippy and textural zone.
From the certified biodynamic Cullen vineyard, this is Vanya Cullen’s foray into orange wine territory. A predictably amber hue, this has herbal and citrus notes, lemongrass and a savoury accent, with pithy grape-skin tannins giving characteristic grip.
Giant Steps may be a Yarra Valley icon, but here it spreads its wings into the hallowed pinot noir territory of Tasmania, with an expression full of ripe wild berries and violets dusted with baking spices that front a palate of silky plushness and sneakily assertive tannins.
This take on pinot gris employs judicious skin contact to pull out a blush of rosy colour while knitting in spice and blood orange over classic pear notes, texture and grip completing the picture.
A waxy, savoury expression of chardonnay with classic stone fruit, but the feel is Old World, with an appealing grip complementing the fine acidity.
From one of Victoria’s great vineyard sites – a brace of red fruits are spiced with white pepper and cypress notes, with a supple, bright and fresh palate, equal parts silky and vibrant.
This is Aphelion’s pinnacle grenache – a wine made up of the best parcels in the best years, and the 2021 is at once vibrant and brooding, with notes of cherry, cranberry and rhubarb, layered in with wild herbs and earthy notes that channel through a finely pitched palate.
This homage to the flor-raised wines of the Jura ripples with savoury notes, from toasted grain and celery salt to characteristic nuttiness, while chardonnay has its say on the palate, with dried peach and apple.
A riot of red fruits, tangerine and floral notes, with a properly dry but agreeably textural palate. This is benchmark rosé.
A dark tangle of ripe wild berries, dusky florals and spices are ferried on a palate that has the classic tannic growl of malbec, but with amply generous fruit in support.
Vigneron Ryan Ponsford has made a big impact in short time. This pinot is a savoury splay of wild fruits dusted with spice and herbal notes, grapey tannins providing natural support.
A typical varietal tussle of dark fruit is given a good deal of complexity with spice and herbal notes, a ruggedly tannic grip asserting both variety and a pleasingly classic Australian feel.
White stone fruit is joined by subtle nutty and spicy notes, with a gently textured palate cushioning a line of vibrant acidity.
While a can of wine may seem like it’s a wine for the park, with all the bells and whistles of classic chardonnay making, this effort deserves taking a decent glass along for the ride.
A prettily fragrant nose of fresh pear, mandarin zest and floral notes, a gently pleasing texture and vibrant freshness sealing the deal.
Riot Wines turn out a fresh set of quaffable canned wines in their regular series, but things get a little more serious with the Limited Release wines.
The ‘Verve’ Chardonnay has garnered a bit of a cult following for its zippy charms. In the cool stone fruit and citrus zone, the 2019 turns the texture up a little notch.
Giant Steps have become a true pinot noir star of the Yarra Valley, and their multi-site range is a bellwether for the quality of the vintage. In 2021, that snapshot is a truly exciting one.
Stepping away from classic Australian riesling, time in oak gives texture to match the ripe fruit weight, but the citric core of the variety slices through in ideal balance, a saline, waxy quality adding depth.
This is a super-fragrant take on mencía, matching the classic floral profile with ample but well-knit spice across a splay of cherries, berries and sour plums.
From the equal oldest producer of red wine from the grape in this country – this has classic varietal lift of red and blue florals, over succulent red and black fruits, with a palate of silky suppleness matched with crunchy freshness.
Friulano is a variety that is well suited to skin contact – with this version offering a vibrant lift of ginger, herbs and orange peel notes, a gentle grip providing savoury refreshment.
A joyously bright and spicy wine stuffed full of forest berries, cherries and spices, with a bright midweight palate carrying plenty of stemmy grip.
Sprinkled with spice and florals, this is silky and textured, with cherry and plum flavours carrying through a long finish. Ample proof that the Spanish grape has a bright future in this country.
A vibrantly intense wine typical of the region, but with a varietal vibrancy of pristinely ripe cherries, overlaid with dusky florals and spice, the palate silky and compellingly slurpable.
Ample orchard fruits and citrus notes are accented with chalky minerality on the nose, with a textural, chewy and saline palate stretching long and detailed.
A riot of citrus, apple and jasmine, the wine is marked by its powerful intensity allied with poise, and generous texture paired with laser-like acidity, the extremes working in perfect concord.
From a vineyard that Ricca Terra’s Ashley Ratcliff planted to focus on heat-loving Iberian grapes in the Riverland. Awash with dark fruits, spices and tarry mineral notes, this still comes in at medium weight with ample freshness.
Malbec and petit verdot conspire to give this wine a darkly fruited, spicy yet floral and lithe profile, packed with complex fruit flavours stretched over a savoury canvas.
This is a fragrant, spicy and complex wine, full of sour cherries and wild berries shot through with dry spices, a twiggy complexity and underpinned by a rugged minerality. Supple and lingering, this is benchmark cool climate syrah.
A complex array of sour red and black fruits are accented with rugged dry herbs and a rocky minerality, with Swinney’s signature assertive tannins tightening through the finish.
This is the first syrah that Owen Latta has made since 2015, and it’s stunning stuff. An incredibly complex and darkly seductive wine, with wild fruits accented by exotic spices and craggy minerals – midweight, chewy and speaking loudly of place.
One of the finest pinot noir and shiraz blends we’ve seen. A lifted nose of wild forest berries and spices gives way to a palate of bright fruits, darker mineral notes and a feel that is equal parts savoury and vibrantly fresh.
A blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon from older vines. Cullen has given the fruit a bit of a luxury Bordeaux treatment with plenty of classy oak, but the vibrant lift of cut herbs and cassis leave the strongest impression, with a textual but brightly fresh palate following up.
Owen Latta’s take on viognier is a world away from the norm of exotically lifted wines, dripping in apricot floral. Instead, his is a wine of orchard fruits creeping to ripeness with pops of honeycomb and nuts, a slip of texture and a gently pithy palate to gnaw on.
A lemon-scented nose accented with white flowers and talc ushering in a linear and mineral palate of great precision but also gentle texture.
A mélange of all the Giant Steps sites fermented in clay eggs, then sealed for maturation, this has all the Giant Steps chardonnay character and precision with a chalky mineral overlay that adds complexity to nose and palate.
This early release wine from Owen Latta captures a fragrant but complexly spicy side to the grape, with amaro/vermouth seasoning the wild red fruits, while a meshing of cool tannins and zippy acidity gives this real pep.
Made from the great southern Italian grape Aglianico, this copper-coloured rosé is laced with wild red berries, tart apple and orange peel, finishing dry, savoury and moreish.
A riot of wild red berries accented with earthy complexity, this is at once bright, juicy and forward while having gently earthy mineral notes, textural across the palate but decidedly dry.
This has some classic floral and talc notes of the variety, but it’s uber-fresh and savoury, light-bodied, tangy and built for thirst-slaking refreshment.
A decadent glass of fortified, rippling with raisin, fig, date and coffee notes, this is rich and unctuous, but with the fortifying alcohol lifting the sweetness, leaving endless layers of flavour to linger on the palate.
A departure from the rich styles of tempranillo so often made, this emphasises red fruits and white pepper spice on a midweight frame with grippy tannins and rugged regional mineral notes to close.
Sourced from three sites, with vines from 55 to 90 years old, Pete Schell crafts the fruit into a democratically priced everyday wine that over delivers in a major way. Crushed red berries and cherries, spices and florals leading to a palate shot through with rocky and earthy minerality, the balance impeccable.
John Hughes’ mastery of the riesling grape has already been amply proven, but in the superb 2021 vintage that dial’s been turned up to new limits. This is an intense play of jasmine and lime, effusive but not overly exotic, with tension and effortless balance through a long finish underlining its pedigree.
A decade in barrel, first under flor yeast, then on ullage (an oxidative environment), it’s fair to say this is a unique wine for this country. This bristles with briny Sherry notes, roasted nuts and linseed, an explosion of orange-skinned citrus and spice riding the uber-dry and saline palate.
Built from mataro, grenache and cinsault, this illustrates what makes blends so compelling – each component pooling into the gaps left by the others, leaving a seamless whole, laced with ripe red fruits, spice and floral notes, the palate supple, with fine grip and natural freshness.
Savagnin under flor yeast, in the style of the wines from France’s Jura region. This vintage is a stunningly bright affair, layered with waxy, briny umami notes and shot through with citric freshness, whipcrack dry and moreish.
This juicy light red is a riot of super-bright red fruits and florals, with a pleasing grip that adds even more refreshment value to the zippy acidity. Drink chilled.
An expressive nose of dried mango and orchard fruits leads to a palate rich with sugar and intensity buoyed and lightened by vigorous acidity and a gentle grip.
This rosé is an expression of all the red varieties in the Cullen vineyard viewed through a deep pink lens. Fragrant, spicy and herbal, with a plump of richness cleaned up with a gentle grip working in concert with the acidity.
From 150-year-old vines, this is fermented all as whole bunches, resulting in a wine laced with evocative spice, orange peel and floral notes to accent the darkly mineral fruit expression.
Under Alkina’s exploratory Kin label, this is all old vine semillon, planted in the 1950s, with a whisper of skin contact bringing out some dried ginger and a pleasing drying pucker to the floral, lemon-scented fruit.
With semillon taking the lead, the 2021 ‘Lemon Krush’ is an essay in citrus, from a lemon-scented fragrance to the refreshingly drying pucker of lemon barley water gifted by Wardlaw’s masterly hand with skin contact.
The ‘Fresh Prince’ marshals a quartet of red varieties with decent crossover on a Venn diagram but are rarely all seen together, offering a fragrantly floral and spicy nose, with earthy notes, red and dark fruits and a palate of chewy, grapey tannins and fresh zip.
A textural, flavour-intense but light-footed wine, this is loaded with orchard fruits, smoky minerals and waxy notes.
Earthy and mineral, bristling with spice, dried flowers and sour cherries, this is supple and savoury in equal measure – an utterly distinctive expression.
A tangle of wild berries, spice and minerals are supported by assertive tannins that are a distinctive signature of the Swinney vineyard site.
Picked ultra-fresh, this rendition of the great Friulian grape is alive with citrus, apple and herb flavours borne along an electric rail of acidity.
Red fruits matched with spicy, earthy complexity – easy to love, but with detail for those that care to look.
This is bursting with spice and wild fruits, with an underlying signature of regional minerality.
Layers of citrus, spice and orchard fruit, overlaid with chalky, savoury accents.
A riot of spice, wild berries and floral notes on a slippery but taut midweight frame.
A joyous mix of muscat and riesling, full of pink grapefruit and rosewater with softly textured generosity matched with exuberant freshness.
An Adelaide Hills pioneer at the top of their game. Intense stone fruit, complex smoky barrel notes and minerals take the lead.
A great example of why grenache is so hot right now. Savoury, aromatic, refined and with a commanding web of tannin, this is compelling stuff.
A field blend leaning on Rhône white varieties, this is all barrel fermented, then raised on lees to build texture and harmonise the varieties into a seamless whole of orchard fruits, granitic minerals and nutty winemaking notes.
An exercise in spice and leathery savouriness, buoyed by plump red fruits, which are clutched firmly by assertive grapey tannins through the finish.
One of very few wines made from grillo in the country, this is loaded with orchard fruits and a sea spray tang, with texture and bright freshness defining the palate.
Subtle orchard fruits and dryly savoury. Light on its feet, with a fine, lightly textural and grippy feel.
Sweet, but cut through with salted nut and smoky notes, and alcohol spirit lending it shape and line. Crittenden Estate’s take on the Macvin of France’s Jura region, with flor-aged savagnin combined with unfermented new-vintage juice, then fortified.
Matured under flor yeast, this is a Mornington Peninsula version of Vin Jaune, loaded with preserved lemon and nutty sherry-like notes, with explosive power and a dryly saline umami carry.
A unique sparkling wine drawn solely from a solera started in 2003 – think artisan Champagne, shot through with nutty sherry-like notes, but built on fruit intensity.
Light and bright, this is a pure riot of berries and grapey scents, with a fine freshness and gentle spritz – take it as it comes, or chill it down.
A red-fruited rosé pét-nat, bright and crunchy with a chalky, dry and ultra-refreshing palate.
Flinty, white peach and lemon curd, gently textural – this has all the trappings of complex chardonnay, with generosity of flavour and winemaking detail perfectly poised and pitched.
This is laden with stone fruit and grapefruit notes, with textural flex on the palate that is straightened by trademark freshness.
Juicy and dark, but floral and bright at the same time, this is red wine built for drinking not sipping.
Vanya Cullen’s ‘Supernatural’ journey into skin-contact whites continues, with the 2019 ‘Amber’ a spicy, fragrant and gently grippy expression of sauvignon blanc.
Supple and silky, this is a seductively delicious take on cabernet franc by Brad Hickey.
From the Yarra Valley’s legendary Willowlake Vineyard, and the equally legendary Dave Mackintosh, this is a pinot noir of real detail and depth, but you can also ignore all that and just focus on its charming drinkability.
Carignan usually gets lost in blends, but a wine like this makes you wonder why – packed with spice and dark-fruited flavour, this finishes ultra-fresh and racy.
Lesser known Italian varieties are muscling into the limelight right now, and this wine captures why. Packed full of flavour, this has grip and race to keep things fresh – killer with spicy salami pizza.
A flavour bomb of classic gewürz, with Turkish delight, talc and lychees, but with a dry zip to the palate that keeps it super fresh and vibrant.
Perfectly pitched chardonnay from Dave Mackintosh, with flavour and elegance in equal measure.
A ‘naturally’ styled skin-contact white from a Beechworth master better known for classic styles.
One of the greats in top form – complex, smoky and nutty, this is chardonnay on a grand and impressive scale.
A savoury, textured and mineral chardonnay from 2020’s Young Gun of Wine.
Cloudy, wildly aromatic and delightfully left-of-centre orange wine – just what you expect from Yoko and Andries Mostert.
A classic dry rosé of bright and pure red fruits, but also with a bit more substance and grip – it doesn’t need food, but it’s built with it in mind.
A Malbec-dominant red from the Mangan Vineyard, across the road from Cullen’s home site, this is brim full of spice and dark fruits with a refined finish – it makes a pretty compelling case for the grape.
A new wine from a new endeavour led by De Bortoli’s ever-restless Steve Webber, this is an earthy, mineral grenache coloured by the ancient soils of Heathcote.
Such a new Australian perspective on Sicily’s most important red grape. Light, vibrant, cherry scented and detailed, pitched to take a chill, or not – this is required drinking.
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Three years after our inaugural Deep Dive into rosé, and with summer unfurling before us, it’s an apt time to cast our eyes across the Australian pink wine landscape. And when we say pink, the Pantone swatch book of rosé veers from the pale and coppery to the distinctly ruddy, and from a range of varieties that could include… well, anything. We gathered every Australian rosé that we could find and set our expert panel the task of finding the wines that compelled the most.
Mornington Peninsula winemakers have been cutting a very serious path solely with quality and individuality the driving forces, and few would argue against the fact that pinot noir has become the region’s most emblematic variety. And it’s well due that we tested the water temperature with a Deep Dive.
The top 50 finalists have been selected based on the pursuit of fruit and wine quality, vine health, innovation, and sustainability – encompassing environmental, social and economic sustainability.
“By focusing on the vineyards, on the places where wine comes from, and on the practices of sustainable grape growing, these awards can help recalibrate how we think about wine, shifting our perception of it from a liquid commodity in a glass to a cultural product of the country it’s from,” said awards panellist Max Allen.
“It was thrilling to visit each of these vineyards, albeit vicariously,” continued Allen, “and learn about all the hard work going into looking after the land, nurturing the health of the vines, and – most importantly – continually improving wine quality.”
See the list here
The Yarra Valley is arguably Victoria’s marquee winegrowing region, and especially for chardonnay and pinot noir, with many of this country’s most iconic makers located there. It is also a region that sees considerable celebration for the Bordeaux varieties and shiraz – although the commercial reality of those grapes is less robust than their reputation. With established names abounding, there are also newer producers making their mark, adding layers to what is already a rich story. Wheeler Wines, Tillie J, Honkey Chateau and Pacha Mama are all flying the flag for younger makers in the Yarra.
It’s not so long ago that the mere idea of grape tannin and skin-derived colour – let alone a hazy appearance – in white wine would have winemaking lecturers and show judges frothing at the mouth in horror. Noticeable grip in white wine was seen as a fault, a failure of process. Today, the script has had a new chapter added, with a big payoff in terms of texture and flavour complexity. From wines with the faintest of complexing grip to those that are made like red wines with ample chew and deep colour, and everything in between, are now an accepted part of the wine landscape. Anita Goode (Wangolina), Sven Joschke (Sven Joschke Wines), Matt Purbrick and Leigh Ritchie (Minimum), Raquel Jones (Weathercraft), Marcus Radny (Gonzo Vino), Chad Connolly (White Gate Wine Co.), James Scarcebrook (Vino Intrepido), Peta Kotz (Sabi Wabi), Sam Renzaglia (di Renzo), Richard Burch and Nic Bowen (Mon Tout) are all pursuing textural styles.
Today, many wine producers are prioritising working with organic and biodynamic vineyards, and many growers are converting to the methods. There is no doubt that wine quality is a large motivation, but their interests run deeper than that. So, what is biodynamics? And how’s it different from organics? The 2023 Top 50 features Charles Oliver Wines, Pacha Mama, Paxton, Mise en Place Wines, Foxeys Hangout and Somos who are all advocates of organic and/or biodynamic farming practices.
Today, classic styles are still a strong part of the riesling market, but Australian riesling has diversified. Greater regional representation, gentle tweaking of traditions and a strong spirit of adventure are seeing riesling cast in many new lights. Belinda Hughes (Rieslingfreak), Koen Janssens (Bink Wines) Louis Schofield (Worlds Apart Wines), Jordan Hein (Moorak), Andrew Kenny (Kenny Wines), Kim Tyrer (Galafrey), Nadja Wallington and Steve Mobbs (ChaLou) are all exploring the grape’s possibilities.
Sparkling wine in this country has never been so good, and just so diverse. The 2023 Top 50 features Lauren Langfield (Orbis), Sudeep Parial (Kreglinger Wine Estates), Gabe O’Brien (Cavedon Wines) and Belinda Hughes (Rieslingfreak), who are all making a mark with the fizzy stuff.
“If we went back 10 years, the relationship between sugar and acidity would be a lot more obvious – all over the shop. There’d be sugar here, acid there, and things would not be anywhere near as in balance as a lot of the wines we saw today.”
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