Home > Wines We Love > 2021 Dune ‘Empty Quarter’

A blend of Vale hero varieties with a dash of climate-apt touriga, this melds wild berries, spice and earthy scents in a bright, midweight wine with fine but grippy tannins.

Producer
Dune
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$26
Vintage

2021
Variety/Varieties

Grenache Mourvèdre Shiraz (Syrah) Touriga nacional
Alc./Vol.

14.1%

Dune is Duncan and Peter Lloyd’s project outside of their family’s Coriole label, exploring the sandy soils of Blewitt Springs. A blend of Vale hero varieties with a dash of climate-apt touriga, this melds wild berries, spice and earthy scents in a bright, midweight wine with fine but grippy tannins.

Tasting note

Common companions, shiraz, grenache and mataro are joined here by a splash of touriga nacional. This sits more towards the midweight camp, with bright and crunchy red fruit notes with some blueberry, boysenberry and red florals accented by cracked earth, ferrous notes, white pepper and brown cardamom. It’s a terrifically bright but flavoursome wine, with a sneakily grippy line of fine tannin adding savoury interest and making it a brilliant foil for food.

Themes of this wine

Syrah/Shiraz

Shiraz dominates the Australian wine industry, accounting for nearly a third of this country’s vines. The grape’s traditional home is in France’s Northern Rhône, with wines that combine elegance and power, while Australia is perhaps best known for the muscular styles from warmer areas. Today, drinkers of Australian shiraz are spoilt for choice with expressions ranging from the elegant and spicy to the monumental.

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

Mourvèdre/mataro

Mourvèdre has been in this country as long as any variety, but it has often been sunk into blends, playing a vital role but rarely grabbing the mic. And while that remains the destination for most of this darkly fruited and tannic grape, it can play a pivotal role in those wines, and gets the occasional outing solo in both red and rosé wines. As with many grapes typically used for blending, mourvèdre has a distinct personality. It is a variety that is often strong in tannic structure, quite dark fruited and spicy, often with an almost animal and wild herb aroma. This will naturally depend a little on site and winemaking, with the grape commonly made into rosé that shows none of that wildness, instead typically displaying red berry notes, though the wines are often still blends.

Touriga Nacional

Touriga nacional is best known as a Port variety, but it can play a compelling role in table wines, too. Although the grape has been planted in this country for a long time, it typically slipped into blends – mostly fortified –unacknowledged. With intense fruit in a blueberry and dark berry spectrum, touriga nacional typically also shows a lifted fragrance of violets in a wine’s youth, and it can have both leathery and minty notes. Tannins are a big feature of the variety, so expect a drying and grippy palate on most wines.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is actually inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Home > Wines We Love > 2022 Ben Haines ‘Red’

A melange of fruit from the Pyrenees, Grampians and Yarra Valley – spicy, crunchy and vibrant, this is a pitch perfect lighter red with savouriness and freshness in equal measure.

Producer
Ben Haines
Region

Victoria
RRP

$32
Vintage
Variety/Varieties

Cabernet sauvignon Pinot noir Shiraz (Syrah) Touriga nacional
Alc./Vol.

11.8%

Ben Haines may have moved to the Adelaide Hills, but his affinity for mediumweight Victorian shiraz-based wines lives on, with this a melange of fruit from the Pyrenees, Grampians and Yarra Valley – Haines’ happy hunting grounds. Spicy, crunchy and vibrant, this is a pitch perfect lighter red with savouriness and freshness in equal measure.

Tasting note

This is from varieties that aren’t declared on the label, but nosing it, shiraz clearly plays a big role (75%, in fact), and it’s supported by some touriga nacional and pinot noir (10% each), along with a dash of cabernet sauvignon (5%). Fruit is sourced from the Pyrenees, Grampians and Yarra Valley. Striking out at a lowish alcohol, this doesn’t lack for savoury, earthy character and flavour. It’s a midweight red built for everyday drinking and to be versatile with food, but it’s a long way from the juicy, confected reds that often occupy that roster, with ample tannin, dried herb notes and spicy intrigue.

Themes of this wine

Syrah/shiraz

Shiraz dominates the Australian wine industry, accounting for nearly a third of this country’s vines. The grape’s traditional home is in France’s Northern Rhône, with wines that combine elegance and power, while Australia is perhaps best known for the muscular styles from warmer areas. Today, drinkers of Australian shiraz are spoilt for choice with expressions ranging from the elegant and spicy to the monumental.

Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is one of the wine world’s most revered grapes. Notoriously fickle to grow and make, it makes what many see as the pinnacle of red wine in France’s Burgundy, but it’s also found many happy homes around the world, and none more so than in Australia across our cooler viticultural regions.

Touriga Nacional

Touriga nacional is best known as a Port variety, but it can play a compelling role in table wines, too. Although the grape has been planted in this country for a long time, it typically slipped into blends – mostly fortified –unacknowledged. With intense fruit in a blueberry and dark berry spectrum, touriga nacional typically also shows a lifted fragrance of violets in a wine’s youth, and it can have both leathery and minty notes. Tannins are a big feature of the variety, so expect a drying and grippy palate on most wines.

Cabernet Sauvignon

The world’s most prolific wine grape, cabernet sauvignon has been planted in Australia since the first days of viticulture here. Today, its prime homes are arguably Margaret River and Coonawarra, but the Yarra Valley and even the Hunter Valley mount very convincing cases, too. Cassis or blackcurrant is one of cabernet sauvignon’s prime flavour profiles, though blackberry, mulberry and plum also feature. Notes of mint and capsicum (pyrazines) generally appear when less ripe, with a leafy varietal character persisting in most riper versions.

Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley, about 50 km north-east of Melbourne, is one of Australia’s premier wine regions, and one of the country’s coldest viticultural zones. The regional champions are chardonnay and pinot noir, with cabernet and shiraz in more than able support. Aside from the vinous pedigree, the Yarra is also one of the best serviced wine regions for visitors, with a wealth of cellar doors and restaurants, and ample accommodation across the price spectrum.

The Grampians & Pyrenees

The Grampians and Pyrenees are nestled in the Western Victoria viticultural zone, an umbrella classification that stretches across to the South Australian border. And while the area is vast, there are around half as many vines in the whole zone than there are in the Yarra Valley. The Grampians and the Pyrenees share a bit in common, with the elevation of their attendant mountain ranges contributing to their subregional character, as well as a specialisation in red wines, with shiraz taking the lead. Being further inland to the north-east, the Pyrenees is more continental in climate with warm days and cold nights, while the Grampians feel the influence of the Southern Ocean, with sea breezes doing the cooling at night.

Home > Wines We Love > 2020 Terra do Rio ‘Red Field Blend’

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.

Producer
Ricca Terra
Region

Riverland
RRP

$25
Vintage

2020
Variety/Varieties

Souzão Tinta cão Touriga nacional
Alc./Vol.

14.5%

From a vineyard that Ricca Terra’s Ashley Ratcliff planted to focus on heat-loving Iberian grapes in the Riverland, this is proof positive that climate-apt varieties can make thrilling wine in our hottest regions and still keep an ultra-friendly price tag. Awash with dark fruits, spices and tarry mineral notes, this still comes in at medium weight with ample freshness – a wine to pair with Mediterranean fare.

Tasting note

Employing three varieties used to make both table wine and Port in the Douro Valley, Portugal, this Riverland expression offers ample flavour and detail but slides in with a bright midweight feel, and with ample crunchy freshness and moreish tannin to make this a food-friendly offering. Wild red and black berries, sour plum and dark spices mingle with dusty, leathery notes and hints of blue florals on the nose, while the palate is vibrantly fruited with chewy tannins and bright acidity. It’s the kind of wine that will work with so many different dishes, from pizza to paella.

Themes of this wine

Touriga Nacional

Best known as a Port variety, touriga nacional can play a compelling role in table wines, too. Although the grape has been planted in this country for a long time, it typically slipped into blends – mostly fortified –unacknowledged. Its contribution of flavour and structure is no small thing, though, and the future for touriga as both varietal and blended wines in this country is a rosy one. With intense fruit in a blueberry and dark berry spectrum, touriga nacional typically also shows a lifted fragrance of violets in a wine’s youth, and it can have both leathery and minty notes. Tannins are a big feature of the variety, so expect a drying and grippy palate on most wines.

Tinta Cão

One of the principal Port varieties, tinta cão is typically a minor player, with plantings having steadily dwindled in Portugal’s Douro valley. While it is a high-quality variety, it is also very low yielding, with growers favouring more productive vines. The grape contributes midweight fruit flavours with floral accents, while the tannins and acidity tend to be elevated, making it an excellent blending option.

Souzão

Although a permitted variety for Port, souzão is not widely employed, though it is a component of some of the most famous wines, notably Quinta do Noval’s pre-phylloxera ‘Nacional’. The grape is also blended into Douro table wines, and it features in the Monterrei DO in Galicia. Souzão has modest but meaningful presences in South Africa, California and Australia, where it is used for blending in both fortified and table wines, offering intense fruit and colour to the mix.

Field Blend

A popular term of late, field blend classically referred to a wine made from a number of varieties picked at the same time and vinified together. In the most extreme cases, vineyards have many varieties interspersed. In Austria these wines are called gemischter satz and could have over 20 varieties in a blend, with some grapes underripe and some overripe, but with each contributing to the overall complexity and balance. Increasingly, the term field blend can be used to simply refer to a blend from the same vineyard, with the grapes not necessarily picked and vinified together. Not everyone is comfortable with this usage.

Riverland

Ten years ago, five years ago – less even – South Australia’s Riverland was not a name worn proudly on the front label of a wine bottle. It was in the fine print. Obscured, somewhat irrelevant. For Australia’s largest wine region, this may seem odd, but that anonymity was – and still largely is – part of the picture. While so many of Australia’s regions are about specific attributes, specific characters, the Riverland is the everyman, a hot-climate powerhouse of volume production, a champion of affordability and reliable consistency. But there’s more to the Riverland than that, with new growers and makers working with rather than against the heat to make wine of regional character and high quality

Home > Wines We Love > 2019 Yarra Yering ‘New Territories’

An exercise in spice and leathery savouriness, buoyed by plump red fruits, which are clutched firmly by assertive grapey tannins through the finish.

Producer
Yarra Yering
Region

Yarra Valley
RRP

$55
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Shiraz (Syrah) Touriga nacional
Alc./Vol.

13%

Planted in 1990 by Yarra Yering founder Dr Bailey Carrodus, the shiraz and touriga for this aren’t quite as new as the name suggests, but the name does show what a forward-thinker he was. Refined by the sublime talents of Sarah Crowe, the ‘New Territories’ is an exercise in spice and leathery savouriness, buoyed by plump red fruits, which are clutched firmly by assertive grapey tannins through the finish.

Tasting note

Such a lifted and intense nose of dark plums, black cherry, graphite, dried woodsy herbs, leather, tar and some floral hints. There’s a violet-like whisper, star anise, cassia bark, some red-berried fruit peeking up, which is no doubt the shiraz component. This is mid-ish weight, bright fruited, but with lovely savoury complexity, carrying the gentle spice, leather and tar through the palate, with the softening flesh of the shiraz being disciplined by chewy touriga tannins into an engagingly grippy and satisfyingly flavoursome conclusion.

Touriga nacional

While it is almost always blended, touriga nacional is Portugal’s most significant grape, forming the backbone of most Port and table wines from the Dão and Douro. The grape has also been in Australia since the 19th century, with old vines present in areas noted for fortified production, like Victoria’s Rutherglen. The gape is robust with intense flavours of dark fruits and plenty of tannin, making it ideal to blend. It also often has lifted blue floral notes.

Shiraz

Shiraz dominates the Australian wine industry, accounting for nearly a third of this country’s vines. The grape’s traditional home is in France’s Northern Rhône, with wines that combine elegance and power, while Australia is perhaps best known for the muscular styles from warmer areas. Today, drinkers of Australian shiraz are spoilt for choice with expressions ranging from the elegant and spicy to the monumental.

Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley, about 50 km north-east of Melbourne, is one of Australia’s premier wine regions, and one of the country’s coldest viticultural zones. The regional champions are chardonnay and pinot noir, with cabernet and shiraz in more than able support. Aside from the vinous pedigree, the Yarra is also one of the best serviced wine regions for visitors, with a wealth of cellar doors and restaurants, and ample accommodation across the price spectrum.

2021 Dune ‘Empty Quarter’ McLaren Vale

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Syrah/Shiraz

Grenache

Mourvèdre/mataro

Touriga Nacional

McLaren Vale

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Syrah/shiraz

Pinot Noir

Touriga Nacional

Cabernet Sauvignon

Yarra Valley

The Grampians & Pyrenees

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Touriga Nacional

Tinta Cão

Souzão

Field Blend

Riverland

Tasting note

Touriga nacional

Shiraz

Yarra Valley

Bookmark this job

Save this search

Create Resume