Deck the Halls with Bubbly: The 10 Best Fizz of 2021
So the annual Christmas panic begins. The tree has gone up, the menu has been decided, half the presents are in the bag – well, maybe a few anyway – and guests from near and far are preparing their descent on your table in just two weeks’ time. Or, better still, you are doing the […]
WA storms the bastions: Best NZ and Australian sauvignon blancs of 2020
Watching rioters storm Capitol Hill this week brought sauvignon blanc to mind. Is it the Donald Trump of grape varieties? Loved by some, tolerated by many but hated by others sauvignon blanc has surely become Australia’s most polarising wine. By now this might be because of sauvvy’s ubiquity as much as its distinctive flavours of […]
Age shall not weary them: 2020’s best sparkling wines
No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers’ 2007 thriller, recasts the American Western genre as a grisly modern intrigue of drugs, stolen money and psychopathic murderers. The movie’s menacing tone is set by the superbly cast Javier Bardem whose opening scene involves the use of gas-powered bolt-gun to the forehead of a passing Good […]
At First Blush: The Best Pink Wines of 2020
So wine is all about the grapes. Or the land. Or the winemaker. Or whatever. It’s really not. According to dozens of studies, wine’s primary driver of consumer satisfaction is price – if you know it. The more expensive it is, the more you’ll enjoy it. If you don’t know the price, consumer perceptions are […]
Vale McLaren; Barossa claims Australia’s grenache crown
Maybe it’s boredom after weeks of pandemic-related confinement. Maybe it’s the change in season. Either way, the thought of following the script with another list drawn from the wine show categories just wasn’t lighting a fire under your correspondent’s keyboard this week. Time for something different, we thought. A wine delicate enough to see out […]
Pricey Pinot: Head South for Pinot Noir’s Best Buys
Writing about Australia’s most expensive wine variety at a time when the world wallows in its darkest moments seems almost disrespectful if not entirely irrelevant. Wine writers and fans of the black grape wax lyrical about the qualities of pinot noir. It drinks well when young, adds beguiling complexity with age and assaults the nose […]
The Golden West: Australia’s Top 20 Chardonnays
Location, location, location. Real estate agents will tell you that’s the golden rule of investing in property. The same applies when buying chardonnay, it seems. And the golden mile for that glistering grape? Margaret River. The West Australian region stands head and shoulders above all others in our review of current-vintage chardonnay. Only two of […]
Wine’s G Spot: Australia’s top 20 Pinot Gris
Pinot Gris or Grigio – recently abbreviated as Pinot G – is the George Smiley of wine. Perhaps “short, overweight, balding, and middle aged” is an unfair description of this popular variety. But it is probably not too harsh to describe most local pinot gris or grigios as being as nondescript as their grey grape […]
50 Shades of Pink: Australia’s best rose wines
Australia’s biggest wine show has just awarded its top trophy to a Langhorne Creek red blend – Bleasdale’s 2018 Wild Fig Shiraz, Grenache Mourvedre. Winning the Jimmy Watson for the first time in Bleasdale’s 170-odd history is terrific news for them, winemaker Paul Hotker – one of the industry’s genuine nice guys – and an […]
Alternative facts: Australia’s best “other” reds
Deepthroat’s famous advice to journalists Woodward and Bernstein was to “follow the money”. The scent of cash, he suggested, would lead them through the maze that eventually uncovered Richard Nixon’s role in the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up. It seems the same is true of winemaking. Grenache’s recent revival following a welter of wine show […]