How do you make a daggy grape variety like petit verdot interesting again? You hand some over to Bloomfield’s Lauren Hansen – who will turn it into a juicy, bouncy, vibrant delight of a chillable red wine via the magic of carbonic maceration – that’s how.
The first and only Australian example of a dry wine made from the Hungarian variety furmint also happens to be an absolutely delicious drop. With its deft balance of nuance and detail against big flavours and palate presence, we can chalk this wine up as another win for Brian Freeman – one of Australia’s foremost experts in alternative varieties.
Fresh, vibrant and light, yet layered with intricate detail, this wine is a joyous and approachable example of the genius of the late Peter Fraser – a champion of not only grenache, but also of lesser-known climate-apt varieties.
An Australian classic, and an Australian Christmas Day classic wine, too. Dark fruits and spice are buoyed by the fizz, making for a luxurious, heady wine but one that boasts ample freshness.
An aged example of top-end Barossa shiraz, this svelte beast of a wine proves that the region’s power can be harnessed in service to finesse – and that not every ‘cult’ producer makes stereotypically boozy, brash wines.
The fourth release of this variety from the biodynamic Yangarra, the surprisingly savoury, salty depth of this wine shows how quickly they have mastered this recent arrival.
Forget the overtly fruity, bubblegum-scented clichés of Beaujolais nouveau – when treated with respect, gamay is just as capable of greatness as any ‘noble’ variety. This wine is a serious – and seriously delicious – take on the grape: a dark-fruited, savoury, and smoky delight.
This is a delicate and beguiling wine – light and crisp, yet subtly textural – made from the relatively obscure Sicilian variety inzolia. It showcases the magic that can happen when an emerging producer works with an exciting new variety – and after tasting this, you’ll want to get on board with both Majama and inzolia.
What happens when you take a talented young winemaker and get them to tackle the very traditional place/variety combination of Heathcote shiraz? You get something like this – a joyously rich, dark-fruited and gently spicy shiraz that cleverly talks to Australian winemaking tradition while blazing its own trail.
This is a decidedly smashable and crunchy light red, all vibrant fruit with a little spicy herbal edge – but there’s some seriously clever winemaking technique at work under the hood here.
How’s this for a bold statement? ‘Una Vita’ takes Ricca Terra’s dedication to the much-derided Riverland to the next level, with a fine-wine level of viticultural and winemaking detail – and a matching price point. And it delivers… Beeswaxy aromatics mingle with flavours of lemon barley, bread and butter.
Is this wine particularly ‘varietal’? Nope. Is this wine unfeasibly delicious? Hell yes. This juicy, easygoing tempranillo isn’t here to teach you about what tempranillo should taste like – but it has more than enough interest and character to keep you drinking after the first glass.
If you want to understand what wine-lovers mean when they talk of ‘terroir’, look no further than this wine, which has a mineral structure and searing elegance that demonstrates its origin on hard limestone soils close to the Southern Ocean.
A heady riot of unusual flavours that demonstrates why a handful of wine-lovers adore savagnin that has been matured under a ‘veil’ of flor yeast.
A supple, elegant example of cabernet sauvignon that showcases what this sometimes-maligned variety has to offer when grown in a cool climate and made in a lighter frame.
A textural, mineral-driven version of sauvignon blanc that shows how good this variety can get with a little bottle age.
A seriously sophisticated sparkling rosé that joins the ranks of top-notch Australian pink bubbles looking to challenge preconceptions about the category.
This chenin blanc from the Hunter valley not only challenges preconceptions about what the Hunter can achieve – it also shows a new facet of chenin blanc as an endlessly fascinating variety.
Tasmania’s most lauded red wines may be its pinot noirs, but the first red wine grapes to be planted there in the modern era were Bordeaux varieties. This wine shows that there’s also plenty of joy to be found in Tasmania’s richer reds.
Viognier can cop a bad rap amongst wine lovers for its heady aromatics, unctuous texture and lack of acidity. But this rendition made from Heathcote fruit shows what the variety is capable of doing when goosed up with a little bit of skin contact and lees.
A Barossa red with a French name that drinks like a pinot noir? Mais oui. This bright, crunchy blend of three Mediterranean varieties is a dangerously drinkable departure from the Barossa norm.
From this outstanding biodynamic vineyard in Margaret River comes a sparkling wine from an unusual variety, offering a striking contrast of intensely bright, fresh fruit and toasty brioche notes.
Tasmanian wine industry legend Andrew Pirie flexes his muscles with this impressive pinot noir. Bright and supple, with a surprising amount of ripe fruit on the palate, this wine shows the potential of Burgundian savoir-faire applied to Tasmanian terroir.
Portuguese native white grape variety arinto shines in this McLaren Vale rendition, which utilises clever winemaking to layer texture and interest.
Modern Barossa is perhaps an abused term, but it couldn’t be more apt here. A wine of impeccable elegance and balance, but with weight and earthy, spicy intent.
Skin-contact picolit is no common thing in this country, but the results are stunning, with citrus, stone fruit and quince overlaid with spices.
Vinea Marson’s ‘Grazia’ is an ode to his family’s origins in Italy’s north-east. It’s a wine built on citrus, quince and spice notes, with as much consideration to texture as flavour.
The entry level white for Jono and Damon Koerner’s Leko range, this is a bellwether for the thoughtfully subtle detail felt throughout the wines, with gentle spice across orchard fruits, and a pithy grip providing moreish tension.
A midweight, digestibly bright and savoury Mediterranean-style red, this shows the Koerner artistry of making subtly nuanced blending components then merging them seamlessly.
From the 2009 Young Gun of Wine Award winner, and the 2022 Vineyard of the Year Award winner, this is Col McBryde’s take on a classic blend, featuring vivid red fruits, dusty earthiness and dried laurel.
Falanghina has found a special place in the Chalmer’s family’s Heathcote vineyard, showing a new face to the southern Italian grape, revealing an exotically aromatic wine of intensity, drive and freshness.
The Yangarra flagship from deepest sandy soils and oldest vines, this is regal but rugged expression, red and dark fruits, earthy, mineral, utterly individual.
In any year, this is a sure candidate for Australia’s top rosé – for both quality and value – and the 2023 is stellar. Red fruits and watermelon are features, as is the typically textural play on the palate that is swiftly refreshed with perfectly balanced acidity.
The second release from this new project on an old vineyard, and what a great release it is. Golden apples, citrus, fennel and a waxy savouriness lead to a palate that is textural and appealingly grippy.
The first release of this variety from the biodynamic Yangarra, this has the appealing freshness of the variety paired with apple and citrus, but also an engaging mineral savouriness to up the interest.
This was the first cuvée under the Bondar banner, and it remains one of Australian wine’s great bargains. Floral, spicy, buoyantly fruitful, this is supple with both depth and appealing freshness.
This is winemaker Clare Dry’s first ‘St Peters’ Shiraz, and what a debut it is – perfumed, intense, spicy, silky and just so effortless with it.
This is thrilling stuff. Scented with lime, tart grapefruit and wet stone. A small amount of unfermented grape sugar is electrified by the acidity, gifting weight and texture while drying out through the considerably long finish.
The suite of reserve wines is a welcome addition to the Sigurd portfolio, with this elevating a variety so infrequently celebrated in the Barossa. Mineral, spicy and laced with umami on a bed of citrus, this is textural, chewy and so engagingly savoury and complex.
The second release from Werkstatt sees a pét-nat join the roster, and what a vibrantly racy wine it is, rippling with citrus, apple and floral notes and driven by bracing acidity that is cushioned by pulpy texture.
Flush with spice, orange peel and wild forest berries, there’s a suppleness here and texture that welcomes a chill.
The distinctive play of apricot blossom is present, but it never spills into opulence, with citrus and sone fruits accenting. Built like a quality chardonnay, this is textural, vibrant and loaded with fine detail.
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.
Jo Marsh is helping to shed light on the Alpine Valleys and less-common varieties. Case in point is her 2022 fiano, which embraces the coolly fragrant side of the grape, with floral, apple and pear notes, and a pleasing grip closing out.
From the Barossa’s groundbreaking biodynamic Alkina vineyard, this is a stunningly mineral expression of shiraz (with a splash of mataro) from an ideally cool year.
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.
‘Orange’ wine with a perfect balance between savoury tension, in both flavour and feel, with citrus peel and subdued blossom flecked with warm spices and earthy notes, a prudent amount of grip adding structure.
Although fledgling in this country, this makes a strong case for planting more pinot blanc, with apple, pear and citrus notes on the nose and a palate that shows generosity, freshness and a charmingly chewy complexity.
An exceptional release from the sangiovese touchstone in this country, this is an effortless affair, displaying the classic combination of cherries, woodsy herbs and earthiness, with a bright but typically savoury finish.
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.
While pinot noir and shiraz are not exactly polar opposites, the thought of blending the two varieties together may nonetheless seem shocking. It would certainly shock many in France, the ancestral home of both varieties, where there is little history of such a combination. However, in the 1940s and ’50s, one of Australia’s legendary winemakers, Maurice O’Shea, made arguably some of our greatest and most enduring wines by pairing these two varieties. As Australia’s wine lovers rediscover this vital history, makers from the staunchly traditional to the restlessly creative are exploring the possibilities inherent in this pairing – just the kind of situation that calls for a Deep Dive …
Gamay – the sole red variety of Beaujolais – has had a slowish start in this country, but enthusiasm is rapidly growing. The potential for it to make engagingly distinctive wine is key, but the grape is also a lot less fickle than its more famous parent, pinot noir. Gamay’s flavours tend to be a bit fuller than pinot, with riper, more luscious forest berries and flashes of violets quite common. It’s a variety that holds acidity quite well (if picked at the right time), so it can be fresh, and it often has quite a bit of tannin, which is very apparent in the more serious and age-worthy bottlings. Like pinot noir, it can also be quite transparent in its reflection of terroir, with minerality often on show. With the Australian gamay landscape rapidly changing, we thought it an apt time to take another Deep Dive into Australian expressions of this joyous variety …
The Eden Valley is the birthplace of Australia’s own unique style of riesling – bone-dry and clean as a whistle. It’s also arguably the sole Australian cool-climate region to survive through the first half of the twentieth century, when brash fortified wines ruled the roost. Despite this historical significance, the Eden Valley’s riesling output – and often its reputation in the market – is eclipsed by its northern neighbour, the Clare Valley, home of a wildly popular regional style of riesling directly indebted to the Eden Valley’s pioneers. Where the Clare’s rieslings are often marked by the power and presence of their citrus flavours, Eden Valley rieslings offer subtlety and complexity, with high-toned floral aromas and a distinctive mineral edge. Is it time for Eden Valley’s rieslings to step out from the shadows? We took a Deep Dive to find out.
Three years after our inaugural Deep Dive into chenin blanc, it’s an apt time to again cast our eyes across the Australian chenin blanc landscape. 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.
Tasmania is ideal territory for cool-climate viticulture: a combination of relatively modest temperatures and abundant sunshine allow for ripe fruit flavours with thrilling natural acidity. It’s no surprise that sparkling wine was pursued there, but it’s also been seen as hallowed ground for aromatic whites, chief amongst them being riesling. And it was riesling that got the modern Tasmanian wine industry rolling with a modest crop in the early 1960s on a promontory in the Derwent River in suburban Hobart. Fast forward to today, and while riesling hasn’t exploded in volume like pinot noir and chardonnay, there are exciting expressions coming from passionate makers across the island state. So much so that we thought it was time to Deep Dive into this category once more …
This trinity of white varieties calls France’s Rhône Valley home, where they are traditionally made both as varietal wines and blends in various permutations. They’ve also flourished in Australia’s climates – and we’ve played an important role in keeping two of them – marsanne and viognier – both alive and on the global wine world’s radar. Australia now makes a delicious array of wines, whether blended or varietal, from these three grapes – most of them showing deep textural interest, and many of them seriously age-worthy despite their usually modest price tags. With so much to love about these three varieties, blended together or not, we thought it was time to take a Deep Dive.
Great Southern is an aptly named region full of superlatives – not only Australia’s largest wine region by area, but also one of the world’s most remote, with 2,545 hectares of vineyards scattered across 1,713,100 hectares of land. And while it’s a latecomer as far as Australia’s wine regions go, it’s a pioneer of subregionality – not only was it the first Australian wine region to register an official subregion, but with five now on the books it remains at the top of the league table. With such a focus on the specifics of place, it’s perhaps no accident that riesling – a grape variety renowned for its ability to transmit a sense of terroir – is the leading white grape variety here. With a host of small makers producing brilliant rieslings despite the tyranny of distance, the region feels full of possibility – just the kind of situation that warrants a Deep Dive …
When pét-nats emerged onto the Australian wine scene in the mid-2010s, they captivated the imagination of a generation of young wine drinkers – while also generating scorn from those wedded to the status quo. Although based on an ancient method of making sparkling wine, those wines felt very avant-garde: luridly coloured, and the cloudier the better, with charmingly irreverent labels. It was an archetype-smashing movement that reframed the possibilities for what wine could be – but many of those wines were also haphazard affairs, sometimes showing winemaking faults, and often volcanically eruptive. Fast-forward a decade, and the landscape is now completely different – the wines are no longer vinous hand-grenades, either literally or metaphorically. That change hasn’t come at the expense of diversity, though – there’s a pét-nat for every occasion, from park wine to fine dining. With a new generation of makers entering the pét-nat space – and former stalwarts of the style leaving it – we thought it was time to take another Deep Dive.
Riesling may have originally come from Germany, but it has found its Australian home in the Clare Valley. The Clare Valley grows a larger share of Australia’s riesling than any other region by a long margin – it’s currently responsible for 35% of the country’s total annual harvest. And that fruit is nearly-always turned into an instantly recognisable style of wine – crisp, fresh, high in acidity, and bone-dry – that is beloved by wine drinkers across Australia and the world over. In fact, for many people the Clare Valley approach to riesling defines Australian riesling in general. But is there more to Clare riesling than its famous mineral tension and razor-sharp acidity? We took a Deep Dive into the subject to find out.
Grüner veltliner is Austria’s signature grape variety – as important to its national wine psyche as shiraz is to Australia’s – and the wines it produces have proven popular worldwide thanks to their innately food-friendly nature. You might therefore assume that it’s widely planted throughout the rest of the world – but Australia is the only ‘new world’ wine country that has a grüner veltliner industry of note. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that we’ve only been making wine from the variety for around sixteen years. With so much quality on show in local examples of this variety, and as the landscape rapidly matures, we thought it was time to once again take the pulse of Australia’s grüner veltliner scene via a Deep Dive.
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Over the past three decades, the Aylward family has been perfecting their craft of growing pinot noir across two vineyard sites in the region. We catch up with Ocean Eight winemaker Mike Aylward to discuss this notoriously finicky grape and the artistry of making wines that capture a true sense of place.
Swinney vineyard’s investment in bush vine mourvèdre has proven revelatory. Often relegated to a role player in blended wines, we caught up with winemaker Rob Mann to get an insight into making single varietal mourvèdre.
There is no doubt that pinot noir has not only firmly entrenched itself in the Australian wine drinking psyche, but it is also starting to build distinct regional and sub-regional identities guided by the hands of confident makers, such as the the 2024 YGOW Awards Top 50, which features Marco Lubiana, Aunt Alice, Jean Bouteille, Tillie J, Musical Folk, Mac Forbes, Port Phillip Estate, J & S Fielke, Musical Folk, Port Phillip Estate, Portsea Estate, XO Wine Co., Turon, Scanlon and Utzinger Wines.
Shiraz or syrah? Call it what you will, the grape is our most planted and arguably our most emblematic, both locally and on the world stage. The shiraz landscape has become very nuanced, with huge variances in light and shade due to region, site, vintage and the sensibilities of makers. Winemakers in the 2024 YGOW Awards Top 50 demonstrate the gentler shades of shiraz through wines from Agricola, Cape Jaffa Wines, Little Frances, Juliard, Honky Chateau, Guthrie, Alkimi and Mise En Place.
Traditionally, Australian riesling was known for its sharp citrus profile, and tooth-aching acidity. But today the grape is being expressed in a myriad of new ways under the care of both seasoned and new winemakers. Winemakers in the 2024 YGOW Awards Top 50 include Worlds Apart Wines, Werkstatt, Kenny Wine, Mountadam Vineyards, Chalari, Mac Forbes Wines and Meredith. Wines from these producers are a signal to Australia’s modern riesling renaissance, bringing exciting takes on a classic variety, where a sense of ‘texture’ from riesling in the glass is perhaps the new common theme.
Only in the past two decade or two have Italian grape varieties been especially embraced in Australia. Today, grapes such as sangiovese, nebbiolo, dolcetto, nero d’avola and vermentino – and the list goes on – are increasingly thriving on our shores, mostly in warmer climates, meeting modern drinking preferences where a sense of ‘freshness’ in wine is key. Winemakers in the 2024 YGOW Awards Top 50 underscore this emergence, through wines from Alpha Box and Dice, Wangolina, Kenny Wine, Chalari, Intrepidus, Aristotelis Ke Anthoula, M&J Becker, Fervor, Alessandro Stefani, and Patch Wines.
The 2024 YGOW Awards Top 50 features Alkimi Wines, Allevare, Aunt Alice, GUM, Guthrie Wines, J & S Fielke, Little Frances, M&J Becker Wines, Marco Lubiana, Mountadam Vineyards, Musical Folk, Parley Wine, Port Phillip Estate, Portsea Estate, Sabi Wabi and Utzinger Wines. These chardonnay makers are as intent on flavour as they are elegance, with no single recipe for success, but rather a site-specific approach that is seeing the chardonnay landscape becoming an increasingly exciting one.
Luke Lambert is Australia’s most devoted disciple of the nebbiolo grape. His fervent passion led him to travel across Europe, exploring food and wine before returning home to refine his craft with a singular ambition: to create the best nebbiolo in Australia. Not that this modest winemaker would state things in such terms. Starting in Heathcote and later moving to the Yarra Valley, Lambert has in recent years planted his own vineyard Yea, just north of the Yarra Valley. We delved into his experience with the nebbiolo and explored a vertical tasting of his vintages from the Denton View Hill vineyard, gaining insights into the complexities of this variety that loves cooler climates. We discover that with bottle age, it has in fact been the warmer Yarra Valley vintages from the Denton site that are looking best – at this moment.
Today’s Australian wine drinker is getting used to experimenting beyond the familiar. We are increasingly acquainted with more and more grapes that would have been a mystery to most only a few years ago. Nick Dugmore (Stoke), Turon White (Turon Wines), Lauren Langfield (Orbis), Keira O’Brian (Rivulet), Kim Tyrer (Galafrey), Jack Weedon (Rollick), Greg Clack and Kate Horstmann (XO Wine Co.) are all championing the less familiar.
Today, cutting-edge makers are embracing varieties that have been blended away, ignored or been seen as too traditional. Some of these have been given new wings a little while back and are now firmly making their mark, while others are slowly emerging from the shadows. Tony Zafirakos (Aristotelis Ke Anthoula), Steffi Snook (Yayoi), Emily Kinsman (ECK Wines), Aaron Mercer (Mercer Wines), Marcus Radny (Gonzo Vino), Justin Folloso (Cave Wines), Tom Daniel (Chouette) and Rowly Milhinch (Scion) are all finding new expressions from well-established varieties.
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