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GAMAY
Whitey,Been heavy rain here but we just got the last of the fruit in before it arrived. I haven't been blue but absolutely flat with heavy cold.Roundstone lost their vineyard, winery, home and...
View ArticleMARSANNE
Tallarook Marsanne 2006$??: 13% alcohol; screw cap; 93+++ pointsSt. Luis Riebl is the patron of Australian marsanne. He consistently conjures our best models in the Central Victorian Highlands near...
View ArticleTROLLINGER
NEW!Hahndorf Hill Winery Adelaide Hills Trollinger and Lemberger Rosé 2008$19; 13% alcohol; screw cap; drunk MAR 09; 92+++ pointsAs this is the only incidence of either of these varieties in Australia,...
View ArticleLAGREIN
King River Estate King Valley Lagrein 2008$??; 14.5% alcohol; diam cork; tasted 22-23 June 09; 92++ pointsI suppose if you really carried a vine from Tyrolean Italy to the flat, sunbaked, humid country...
View ArticleMERLOT
Cullen Margaret River Mangan 2006$45; 14% alcohol; screw cap; 94+++ pointsVanya Cullen. What a beauty. Plugging away like some great engine from the age of steam, having taken over from her wondrous...
View ArticleCHARDONNAY
.Cullen Kevin John Margaret River Chardonnay 2007$70; 13.5% alcohol; screw cap; drunk 2 JUN 9, 95+++ pointsThis is the best Australian chardonnay I’ve had. Numbers nuts might like to know its vital...
View ArticleCABERNET SAUVIGNON
Penfolds Bin 620 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2008$1000 750ml.; 14.5% alcohol; screw cap or cork; swallowed November 2011; 96+++ pointsBefore the fifteen day heatwave put a sudden end to the...
View ArticleSANGIOVESE
Castagna La Chiave Beechworth Sangiovese 2006$75; 13.5% alcohol; Diam cork; tasted 16-20 AUG 09; 95+++ pointsSometimes I think she glimpses at me, over her shoulder, but not often. No white of eye,...
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PINOT NOIR
PHILIPS WHITE AND JONES DISCUSSING THE TRAJECTORIES OF BASS PHILLIP PINOTS NOIR IN THE EXETER ... ADD ANOTHER L TO THE LATTER, OF COURSE (HE'S A VICTORIAN YOU KNOW) ... CLICK TO SEE THE ZITS ......
View ArticleRUM
NEW!Renegade Rum Company Monymusk Distillery Jamaica 5 Year Old RumLab sample; 46% alcohol; tasted 16 NOV 09; 94 pointsAt its fresh best, old-style Batrossadeutscher streusel yeast cake made with dried...
View ArticleSEMILLON
Margan Hunter Valley Semillon 2008$18; 11% alcohol; screw cap; 95+++ pointsThis baby instantly reminded me of the incredible Lindemans Bin 3455 and Bin 3450 semillons from 1968. Fortunately, the...
View ArticleNEBBIOLO
NEW! Castagna Adam’s Rib The Red 2008 $35; 14% alcohol; Diam cork; 94+++Nebbiolo and Syrah. Moody, glowering, simmering and surly down below, acrid and almost irritating up top. As it settles, it...
View ArticleCORVINA
Tommaso Bussola BG Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2007 $150; cork; 28APR10; 90++ points“Amarone” is a winemaking technique named with the Italian word for bitter or sharp. More precisely, the...
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SPARKLING RED
ONE OF THE NEWEST AND TRUEST FIRST FAMILIES OF AUSTRALIAN WINE, AS IN FRONTRUNNERS, AND PERHAPS THE MOST INNOVATIVE IN MANY DECADES ... CAROLANN, ALEXI, ADAM AND JULIAN CASTAGNA ON THEIR VERANDA AT...
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GAMAY
NEW! Eldridge Estate PTG Mornington Peninsula Gamay Pinot Noir II $25; 13% alcohol; screw cap; 90 pointsThis scribe’s been nuts with frustration lately, waiting for the new ideal, retasting and...
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BIANCO d'ALESSANO
NEW!Salena Estate Ink Series Bianco d’Alessano 2010$20; 12.2% alcohol; screw cap; tasted December 2011; 92 pointsLast year, this fabulous rarity won three trophies at the Alternative Varieties Wine...
View ArticleGRECO di TUFO
NEW! Beach Road Langhorne Creek Greco 2011 ($25; 13% alcohol; screw cap; tasted September and December 2011; 93+ points)Jeez it’s good. Imagine a big ripe year Chablis with all that wet chalk in the...
View ArticleFIANO
NEW! Beach Road Langhorne Creek Fiano 2011($25; 13.5% alcohol; screw cap; tasted September and December 2011; 91 points)From the same brave Elliot Family Langhorne Creek vineyard that produced the...
View ArticleGEWURZTRAMINER
NEW!McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant 1946/66 Hunter Valley SauternesFrom a private collection; 10.2% alcohol; cork; consumed January 2012; 96 pointsIn 1966, the winemakers at McWilliams decided a batch of...
View ArticleSPARKLING WHITE
Krug Vintage 1996$500; drunk 25 APR 09; 98++ pointsAny duffer must agree with the Krug family when they call this vintage “extreme, eccentric champagne”. On another level, it’s that way because it’s so...
View ArticleROSÉ
Castagna Allegro Beechworth Syrah Rosé 2010$30; 14% alcohol; Diam cork; 95++ pointsThis is like one of those people who radiate such cornflower-blue health that they make you feel sick. It’s riddled...
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PENFOLDS GRANGE 2007 REVIEWED
The eve of vintage 2012: Peter Gago, far left, with Steve Lienert and the Penfolds winemaking crew, old and new, surrounding Thelma Schubert at Ray Beckwith's 100th birthday party at Kalimna Homestead...
View ArticleTOURIGA NACIONAL
NEW! Quattro Mano la Morada 2010$25; 13% alcohol; screw cap; 310 cases made; tasted 3-5 JUL 12; 94+ pointsQuattro Mano is a wine-bent trinity more than a quartet: sommelier-cum-cooper Philippe Morin,...
View ArticleSHIRAZ
Penfolds Grange 2004$650+; 14.3% alcohol; cork; tasted 20 Feb 09; 7 MAY 09; 1 MAY 10; 96+++ pointsOf all the Granges released in the modern era, this vintage is surely the most respectful of the wine’s...
View ArticleBICAL
NEW!Luis Pato Vinhas Velhas 2010$28; 12.5% alcohol; screw cap; tasted 9AUG12; 94 pointsLuis The Duck is the pointy end of Portugal. The notion of a winemaker from the source of most of the world’s...
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