The Wines Flying Below Everyone’s Radar

2 October 2026. Words by YGOW.

Most people have never heard of a pinot-shiraz blend, let alone tasted a thirteen-year-old Hunter Valley semillon straight from a winemaker’s own museum stock — or come across grenache blanc at all. This month’s CURATED wines are built on exactly that idea: proof that white wine can age, that malbec doesn’t need the heat, and that some of the best projects in the country are barely a few vintages old, run by winemakers still proving what their patch of dirt can do. All of it flying below most people’s radar — until now.

That’s the kind of thing that ends up in a CURATED pack. CURATED is Young Gun of Wine’s monthly membership — three hand-sourced bottles, chosen by our team, delivered to your door. The promise is simple: if it’s in a CURATED pack, we love it. Most months that means small-batch, limited-allocation, hard-to-find. This month, among the wines in rotation, there’s a Hunter pinot-shiraz blend, a museum-release semillon, a Tasmanian malbec and a McLaren Vale grenache blanc — each one proof that the most interesting bottle in the room is rarely the one you recognise.

Here’s what’s on offer this month.

Inside some of the packs

2013 Tyrrell’s ‘Vat 1’ Semillon

2024 Obsessionist Malbec

2025 Aphelion ‘Callow’ Grenache Blanc

2024 Silkman Shiraz Pinot Noir

2025 In Praise of Shadows Grenache

2023 Lark Hill ‘Estate’ Grüner Veltliner

Watch the videos above for a look inside some of the packs to land on members’ doorsteps.

Myth 1: Pinot noir and shiraz don’t belong in the same bottle

They do, and they have for eighty years. Maurice O’Shea paired the two in the Hunter Valley through the 1940s and ‘50s, using pinot’s natural tannin to lend shiraz structure rather than dilute it. The style nearly vanished after his death, but Silkman Wines is one of a handful of Hunter producers bringing it back — dark-fruited, savoury and, against all expectation, genuinely light on its feet.

Myth 2: White wine isn’t built to age

Most white wine is made to be drunk young, so it’s an easy assumption to make — but Hunter semillon is one of Australia’s great sleight-of-hand tricks that proves otherwise. Picked searingly acidic and bottled with zero oak, it transforms over a decade or more into something honeyed, toasty and complex — without ever losing its freshness. Tyrrell’s ‘Vat 1’ is the benchmark, and this is a genuinely rare chance to taste a thirteen-year-old example straight from the producer’s own museum stock.

Myth 3: Malbec is a warm-climate grape

Tell that to Marty Smith. Obsessionist is the only Australian label built solely around malbec, grown not in the Barossa or Langhorne Creek but on Tasmania’s East Coast — proof the variety’s natural home in France’s cooler Loire Valley was never a fluke.

And this month’s selection doesn’t stop there. There’s a grenache blanc from Aphelion — a variety barely a decade old in Australia, sourced from McLaren Vale’s certified organic and biodynamic Yangarra vineyard — alongside a straight grenache from In Praise of Shadows, built from 70-year-old bush vines at the region’s storied Smart Vineyard, proof of how far the grape has come from its old reputation as bulk blending fruit. And Lark Hill’s ‘Estate’ Grüner Veltliner, Australia’s original grüner veltliner producer, takes the variety somewhere most people don’t expect — built with real texture and savoury weight through skin contact and extended lees ageing, closer to chardonnay than the lean, riesling-like style grüner is usually known for.

All good reasons to rethink what you assumed about Australian wine. That’s exactly the kind of discovery CURATED exists to deliver.

Twenty Years of Discovery

Australian wine doesn’t have a quality problem. It has a discovery problem — and CURATED exists to close that gap.

This is what two decades in the trenches of Australian wine buys you: access to the wines doing something genuinely different, long before anyone else has heard of them. It’s the same instinct behind the Young Gun of Wine Awards, the Vineyard of the Year, the Deep Dives — now turned into three bottles a month, landing on members’ doorsteps before anyone else has caught on.

How it works

Joining takes about a minute. Choose your pack – reds, whites or a mix – and CURATED does the rest. Three bottles land on your door each month, chosen by our team. You tell us what hit, what missed, and what you’d like more of – and we dial future packs in around your own feedback.

No wine expertise required. No homework. No lock-in.

Get in before next month’s pack

This month’s packs are with members now. Next month’s is next – and once it’s allocated, it’s allocated. Join now to lock in your spot: three hand-sourced wines, chosen by a team that tastes thousands to find them, delivered straight to your door.

Join Young Gun of Wine CURATED

The Wines Flying Below Everyone’s Radar

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Each month, get 3 bottles of our freshest discoveries. We taste thousands to bring you the best.

Join us and support emerging winemakers, sustainable vineyards, and the development of young professionals.

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“One of the highlights of my drinking year.”
— Max Allen, Wine Writer
“The future of wine in Australia.”
— Broadsheet
“The cutting edge of Australian wine.”
— The Australian
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The Wines Flying Below Everyone’s Radar

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