The Yarra Valley makes a compelling case for the being Australia’s prime producer of pinot noir thanks to a large roster of high-quality wines from makers both large and small. But what does, or should, Yarra Valley pinot noir actually look like? Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
Brooding, mysterious, and decidedly not for everyone – meet aglianico, the dark horse of Italian varieties, and possibly the saviour of Australia’s warmer-climate winegrowers. Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
Coonawarra’s cabernets are some of Australia’s most iconic wines – is this region stuck looking back at its glory days, or poised for a comeback? Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
McLaren Vale’s distinctive grenaches haven’t always been given the love and care they deserve – but thanks to the work of thoughtful winemakers and viticulturists, this combination of region and variety is now producing truly world-class wines. Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
The Mornington Peninsula is one of Australia’s most glamorous locales – and the pinot noir it grows and makes is suitably seductive, boasting a combination of ripe fruit weight and fresh, elegant texture that few other wine regions globally can dream of. Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
While shiraz rules the roost in most of Australia’s wine regions, cabernet sauvignon and its offsiders remain the kings of Margaret River’s reds – making distinctively delicious wines of surprising freshness. Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
Confounding, contradictory, and utterly compelling – meet the variety that has found an unlikely second home in Australia’s cooler hills. Inside: the full backstory, plus the top wines to emerge from our blind tasting panel.
Montepulciano is a real workhorse of a variety, capable of producing large quantities of deeply-coloured grapes with strong tannins and vibrant acidity even in warm and sunny conditions. That workhorse character has seen it widely planted across Italy, where it has become the country’s second most widely planted red grape variety, often used to add colour and structure to blended wines. That role as a blending agent has seen the variety dismissed within Italy itself, although single-varietal examples from Abruzzo have started to change that narrative. Australia’s own history with the variety is a relatively brief one, but it is already making an impression here, with consumers falling for the charms of ‘monte’ and winegrowers looking to it as a climate-apt variety capable of withstanding the demands of a warming world. With so much to love about this generous, hearty variety, we thought it was time to take a Deep Dive …
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