Usually, verticals have a purpose. An excuse for the winery to show off a wine, launch a new one, or just to remind everyone how good something used to be. …
Piccadilly Hills Chardonnay 2003 (Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, SA)14.3%, $28 The PIccadilly Valley is, for my money at least, one of the best places in Australia to grow Chardonnay. It's …
Long Rail Gully Riesling 2003 (Canberra) 12%, Screwcap Source: Sample www.longrailgully.com.au In pretty good form, all things considered. Yellow straw. Golden toasty nose is quite typical Riesling, the age obscuring the fruit a little but …
Jim Barry: Verticals of Florita, Armagh + McRae Wood 'We made our first (Armagh) when Sam was in my underpants' That's Peter Barry, current Jim Barry Wines GM and Barry family patriarch, …
Leconfield Cabernet - the last 10 years Did you know that the Hamilton family - who founded Leconfield - have been vignerons for 175 years? I didn't. It's an impressive figure …
Old Maurice would be proud... A mini Hunter Shiraz vertical I'm a little tardy in writing up these notes, but the following Hunter Shiraz vertical was held in Sydney a few months …
Hunter Valley Tweetup Brilliant old Hunter curio I'm in a house-keeping mood this week, with a little sunshine and a free night or too making for some serious productivity. Or at least …
Premium Shiraz Night June 2010 63 Wyns Hermitage. Amazing. As ever I'm playing catchup at the moment, discovering random forgotten tasting notes in equally random places. These notes have been sitting in …
Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz 2003 (Hunter Valley, NSW) 14.5%, Cork, $70 Source: Sample www.meereapark.com.au This was opened up alongside the 05, 07 and 09 vintages, and for drinking right now it was difficult …
The joy of Clape It doesn't happen all that often - although I wish it did - but when it does, it serves as a reminder of exactly how mindblowing the …
Movements from Wine Australia + some fine wines to match This week marked our first big WCA committee meeting for 2011 (WCA - Wine Communicators of Australia, the national committee of …
Christmas Drinks: Dönnhoff, Ata Rangi, Roagna, Morris Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett 2007 (Nahe, Germany) 8.5% It's still surprising (to me) how polarising off dry rizzas can be, particularly given the similar …
Chateau d'Yquem 2003 (Sauternes, France) $350 (approx 375ml), Cork, 13.5% Firstly, a big thanks has to go to Patrick The Wining Pom for sharing this bottle with us. It was, as Patrick describes so well here, …
3 faces of the Grampians With an unbroken wine history dating back to 1862, the Grampians has no shortage of vinous kudos. Yet, as a wine region it's in something of a state of …
At 18, I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, slogging through physics and chemistry, so a liquor shop seemed like fun. But then, I fell in love with wine and craft beer, and it took over my life.
Twenty three years later and I spend my days wearing many beverage hats and judge at wine shows around the world...Read more
