AceHighWine

Complex and heavy handed bouquet full of pencil lead, polish and even hints of tar. If the opening credits don’t tell you this is juicy fruit-bomb territory, the palate does and in no uncertain terms. This is intense, crammed full of blackberries, plums and all kinds of dark-hued fruit, sprinkled with milk chocolate and balanced by delicious bursts of succulence that add seconds to the fruit’s impressive length. Still one of Australia’s most accessible (in terms of taste and being able to find some at the local bottlo) red wine bargains: unpretentiously warm-climate and fruit-driven in style and appeal. It might be a little too forward for some, but it’s hard to fault as a drink that satisfies from the start of the bottle to the end of it. 17 www.orlandowines.com.au

Technically, the early ‘07 vintage wasn’t supposed to be a great one for riesling, but so far the evidence has been to the contrary, as evidenced by this release from the Great Southern’s oldest winery and newly-appointed winemaker John Durham’s willingness to let work in the vineyard rather than the winery shine brightest in his maiden Plantagenet riesling.

Spears of lime with bursts of cumquat and mandarin shoot from the front of the mouth to the back, helped by a rush of elegant yet sturdy acidity that gives this wine a wonderful approachability in its youth while still leaving enough in the tank for a spell in the cellar. Finishes clean, dry and succulent with astonishing length and persistence. This is a wine with great focus and intensity - the kind you’d need as a little kid to win one of those childhood competitions to see who could hold their breath underwater the longest, though you won’t need to go to that kind of effort as this riesling is likely to leave you breathless. And like a lot of Great Southern riesling, wonderful value at the price - when the price of it starts to go up, we’ll all be sorry… 18+ www.plantagenetwines.com

There are three things I really love about the Amon-Ra: first, the name is cool, but that’s to be expected if you name a wine after Egyptian mythology’s King of Gods, and second, the artwork on the label - the all-seeing eye of Horus - is just so bold and iconic (if only the wine dripped a little more to the left, we’d have a pretty clever Polaroid on our hands).

Oh, and last but certainly not least, it’s a wee bit of a cracking drink! While it’s not the latest release of Amon-Ra, an extra year seems to have really put some razzle-dazzle into the ‘05. Intense, dense shade of purple to the eye, cedar and chocolate to smell. It drinks like a shampoo commercial: luscious, thick and silky, with outrageously clear cut flavours of plum and blackberry driven by fine, drying tannins. The mouthfeel is pure taxed-at-51-per-cent luxury and amazingly rich, dense and juicy. The flavours finish long with nut and coffee flavours weaving in and out. Quite frankly, a show-off wine that epitomises rockstar unfiltered, Barossa old-vine shiraz. 18.5

Also, the current release 2006 which was released in September: Lifted bouquet of plum with swirls of florals on the nose move smoothly into a tightly wrapped palate showing great balance between gorgeously ripe plum and toasty, chocolaty notes driven by an underlying sense of succulence. The aftertaste is deliciously juicy and long. Good wine from a cracker vintage. Will age beautifully. 17.5+ (with plenty of room to blossom).

It seems that every other month, I read online or in print, criticism about these big, bold, Barossan shirazes that smash it at shows and blind tastings because they’re just so obvious, cuddly and ripe. Sure, I enjoy the subtlety and elegance that the cooler climates offer, but surely there’s scope for appreciating both styles? Also, if Barossan winemakers suddenly started trying to craft something other than the warm-climate fruit bombs that they’re so good at, I suspect that many would be quick to criticise their efforts before suggesting that they stick to what they know. As far as I’m concerned, they know how to make good, warm-climate Aussie shiraz and I’m bloody glad they do. www.glaetzer.com

A lot of people both online and in traditional media channels reviewed this wine when it was released around a year ago, but somehow I haven’t had a chance to look at this ’til the weekend just gone. Personally, one-year old riesling sits very well with my palate as the wine loses a good bite of that youthful zip which allows those pretty citrus characters to take centre stage. However, the last couple of Drumborgs I’ve seen - and loved - have always been bang-on when tasted on release, so I was looking forward to tasting the ‘06 with 12 months beneath its belt.

The wine is a picture of cool climate riesling beauty: intense flavours of lime, lemon, apple blossom and flint with a bubble-wrap layer of gentle acidity protecting those pristine flavours. As its predecessors, the finish is mouth-wateringly juicy, persistent and long, long, long. Everything in the wine is in its rightful place like a staged crime scene: I could spend the better part of an evening taking sips of this wine and pondering on each mouthful. 19. www.seppelt.com.au

Powerful, intense expression of Margaret River chardonnay from the region’s pioneering winery, driven by a tightly-wound palate of apples, grapefruit and lemon bound by hoops of oak-derived vanilla, nut and spice and the fizz of refreshing acidity. But even though all this commotion’s going on in the flavour department, all the wine’s components sit harmoniously with each other and work together to create a drink with remarkable length and texture. Carries itself and its 14.5 per cent alcohol with style and grace. Beautiful chardonnay that sits comfortably between the lean, understated style of now and the full-blown butterscotch monsters of yesterday. The writing on the label as well as the look of the label itself might have changed slightly but it’s still Moss Wood and it’s still great. 18.5 www.mosswood.com.au

After having several opportunities to taste this when it was released approximately 15 months back, I realised I still had in my possession the sample half-bottle d’Arenberg had sent. Monday night’s rare pepper beef roast between the four of us presented a pretty good excuse to have a look at the ‘03 dead arm and see how it was travelling…

Intense aromas of ripe plum, black berry jam, aniseed, ribena syrup and dark chocolate still sing loudly, though the leady and tarry voices in the choir aren’t as noticeable as they once were. Thick, viscous, very generous flavours with ripe plumy fruit still weighing in heavily on the palate with some integrated biscuitty oak lending its weight too. While the medium-bodied tannins play guide for the wine in the mouth, the finish is a touch firm and drying, but not enough to detract from its lengthy black berry fruit flavours. In summary: youthful, voluptuous and very forward - exactly what we men wished every hottie we spied at the pub was like. I reckon the full bottles of the ‘03 Dead Arm will be looking pretty handy come 2009-2012. 17.5/20 www.darenberg.com.au

“When it rains, it pours.”

Or so the old saying goes. At the moment, Perth is enjoying a healthy downpour of rain which is no doubt great news for the dams, both directly in terms of filling ‘em up and indirectly in terms of people turning off their sprinklers while Mother Nature puts her hose on the garden.

Wet weather is also great for hearty winter fare, say peppery medium-rare roast beef. With shiraz and cabernet. And friends. And is as customary when you’re entertaining, you need a nice sweet drop to sign off on the night…

Heady and intoxicating aromas of marmalade, apricot jam, passionfruit that also continue on to the palate. Luscious and rich but tempered by enough refreshing acidity to perish any thought of the word ‘cloying’. Succulent streamers of citrus unravel themselves through the super-long finish that moves slowly throughout the mouth. It’s a big call, but this is the best recent release sticky I can remember tasting under the d’Arenberg label - perhaps any Australian wine label. As an added bonus, this wine is sealed under screwcap, meaning you get the wine just as fresh as the Osborns intended. A great match with the strawberry and custard tart our friends Zoë and Kim brought around for dessert. Outrageous value considering the quality you’re getting for your dollar. 18.5/20