• Balgownie Estate Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2007

    Balgownie Estate Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2007 (Yarra Valley, Vic)Screwcap, $20 Bright lemon yellow in colour, the nose reeks of the finest medium toast oak barrels. Its a fragrant, albeit wood derived…

  • Taylors St Andrews Clare Valley Riesling 2005

    Taylors St Andrews Riesling 2005(Clare Valley, SA)Scewcap, $32Another weekend, another superb South Australian Riesling with a few years on it. This one is a current release too! Forgive me if I…

  • Meerea Park Hell Hole Semillon 2008

    Meerea Park Hell Hole Semillon 2008 (Hunter Valley, NSW)Screwcap, $25The non existent Summer of 2007/2008 produced this wine – an utterly forgettable one for Hunter red wine makers, but a vintage…

  • Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2007

    Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2007 (Hilltops, NSW)Screwcap, $30 Back labels – a much maligned and forgotten part of a wines packaging. The front label, the capsule etc all seems to get the…

  • Australian Wine Review Scoring Policy

    Scoring wines is such a contentious notion, with everyone having an opinion on it one way or another. Some people hate points, deciding that a single number hardly sums up a…

  • Balgownie Estate Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2007

    Balgownie Estate Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2007 (Yarra Valley, Vic)Screwcap (and a good looking capsule/screwcap combo too), $25 Bright cherry red, tending almost purple in colour – its bright, light and…

  • Bremerton Sauvignon Blanc 2008

    Bremerton Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (Langhorne Creek, SA)Screwcap, $20 Sauvignon Blanc from Langhorne Creek. It doesnt really feel right. But if anyone can make a drinkable aromatic white wine from Langhorne (The…

  • Balgownie ‘The Goldfields’ Bendigo Cabernet Merlot 2006

    Balgownie ‘The Goldfields’ Cabernet Merlot 2006 (Bendigo, Vic)Screwcap, $25 Balgownie seems to mix old with new quite spectacularly – the reds are all old fashioned, yet utterly contemporary, with classic old…

  • De Bortoli Windy Peak Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2008

    De Bortoli Windy Peak Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (Victoria)Screwcap, $16 From this budget end of the spectrum, right through to the Reserve range, De Bortoli has to be the most consistent…

  • Blue Pyrenees Shiraz Viognier 2004

    Blue Pyrenees Reserve Shiraz Viognier 2004 (Pyrenees, Vic)Cork, $32‘Suddenly, unbelievably, it’s really hard to get a taste of Shiraz that has not been adulterated to some extent by Viognier.Notice the use…

  • Shaw Vineyard Riesling 2008

    Shaw Vineyard Riesling 2008 (Canberra)Screwcap, $22 ‘So how good are the 2008 rieslings? As a judge at the local show I rated Canberra’s as the best I’d ever tasted from the…

  • Grosset Watervale Riesling 2004

    Grosset Watervale Riesling 2004 (Clare valley, SA) Screwcap, $28 (at release)2004 Clare valley whites only get an 8/10 on the James Halliday vintage chart and its probably pretty fair to say…