2020 Smallfry ‘Electrik Violet’
Barossa Valley
Juicy and dark, but floral and bright at the same time, this is red wine built for drinking not sipping.
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With a new wave of Australian producers dedicated to elevating the grape, a Deep Dive was called for, so we gathered as many bottlings as we could find and enlisted the help of eight of this country’s finest palates to check in to see just where Australian chenin blanc is at.
The vermouth revolution is less than a decade old and growing pace, with an ever-increasing selection of local examples challenging perceptions of what vermouth can and should be. In our latest Deep Dive, we gathered a panel of industry specialists to see what makes this new wave of Australian vermouth just so very compelling.
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 hereThe food of South-East Asia has perhaps made the most dramatic impact on the current generation. So, do our wines pair with South-East Asian food? With the Mornington Peninsula’s Ocean Eight Winery doing a Vietnamese barbecue pop-up with Jerry Mai and her Bia Hoi team, we went along to find out.
Fizz, white and, more recently, pink have held pride of place as the slakers of thirst on sunny summer afternoons. What about red? Why can’t we drink that cold? A couple of Melbourne’s top somms grabbed a handful of reds to find out.
Karena Armstrong, owner and chef at McLaren Vale’s iconic Salopian Inn, has cooked in some of Sydney and Melbourne finest restaurants, but it was the magic of the Vale that captured the chef’s imagination and saw her settle down for keeps. Armstrong tells us about some of the things that make McLaren Vale so special.
Aaron Carr helms the kitchen at lauded Dunsborough diner Yarri, after a couple of decades (yes, a couple) at Vasse Felix. Here’s his guide on where to eat drink and make merry in Margaret River.
With over 6,000 grape growers, picking the top vineyards in Australia is no easy task. Inundated with entries, the judges narrowed the field to the 50 that best exemplified the values and criteria of these awards.
“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.”