The wine industry can swallow you up if you let it. Taste all day, drink all night, rinse, repeat. Even in 2026, where selling wine has become a fraught exercise, there are always bottles open.
So it is that I found myself in the surrounds of the defence factory turned rum distillery that is the Sydney home of Red Mill Rum, tasting not just lots of the notably involving spirits, but an instructive comparison of world-class Chardonnay among other goodies.
The rum is delicious. Brown spirits aren’t my chosen drink, so even though I taste loads of them, I drink zero. Yet the energy/complexity/depth triangle of the Red Mill rums (and the amari. Oh, the amari) is something even a rum heathen like me can appreciate (the just-released Red Mill Rum Tom Thumb’s Reserve is wildly impressive).
Meanwhile, lobbing up as the entree to the wine lineup from blue-chip distributor Fesq was the Pegasus Bay Riesling 2025. Riesling remains an afterthought in Kiwi wine, but Peg Bay have gone long for a long time with great results. This ’25 feels just-right too – there’s an Alsace-like orange rind fullness that makes this so inviting, without ever falling over into excess, with ripeness rather than sugar driving the drinkability. Delightful.
The Chardonnay table is where the big guns sat, though, with the new Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2023 sliding on in…
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