VINTAGE 2006 was very late in Western Australia and people aren’t expecting the traditional red powerhouses (cabernet, shiraz and associated blends) from the season to be stand-outs: clever winemaking will no doubt be the year’s saviour. However, some of the ’06 pinot noirs that have trickled on to the market place and in to my [...]
After shooting to global prominence on the back of its Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough has slowly been building up its wine repertoire with pinot noir starting to show much promise. Produced by Marlborough’s Seresin Estate, this is one of the region’s most impressive pinots I’ve tasted in recent times. A blend of hand-picked and hand-sorted fruit [...]
In a tasting last night where too many wines were overpriced and quite frankly overdone to the point of looking like caricatures of the big, bold, predominantly South Australian blockbuster style of red, this came up smelling like proverbial roses: though in reality, it was more like a hedonistic, heady flurry of white pepper and [...]
Made from fruit sourced from Central Victorian vineyards and overseen by French and American winemakers, this is an intriguing drop that takes Old World winemaking and puts a New World slant on it. Hints of mango on the bouquet betray the presence of viognier corsing through the shiraz’s veins, as does the gorgeously soft and [...]
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 [...]
On Thursday, Pio Boffa from historic Piemonte estate Pio Cesare was in town showing off some of his exceptional wine at Italian eating institute, Maurizio’s. Just a little on the name: “fides” means faith and trust in Latin and was chosen by the Pio family to reflect the act of faith and trust made when [...]
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 [...]