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I’d argue that this wine would be significantly better with a whole lot less oak as the fruit is beautiful and needs to be heard more clearly. Nevertheless, after four days of being open it showed no sign of tiring, and the oak slunk off into the background like a noisy bore at a party that finally gets the message, which surely augurs well for future festivities.

Fresh and minty with a mix of black and blue fruits, aniseed and a double shot of toasty espresso oak. On the palate blue fruits, Barossa coal, spice, milk chocolate, aniseed and plenty of toasty savoury coffee oak - sweet fruit and savoury oak. It has magnificent ultra fine tannins married to fruit of outstanding purity and freshness that’s currently submerged under a blanket of toasty oak. Very long finish. It needs a lot of time to come together and the points are for then, not now.

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Well I tasted this on a coolish Sydney late Autumn night, and it’s just the right sort of wine for that of thing, but while you are reading this and quite possibly shivering, most likely I’ll be sunning myself and sipping a gin and tonic..or perhaps a dry Martini (stirred, not shaken) on a tropical island somewhere in the Pacific…

Lots of interesting things to smell here - bramble fruit, gum leaf, boot polish, pepper, nougat and toasty oak being the main ones (real or imagined). It’s nice and dry on the palate with attractive chunky tannins and briar, pepper and mixed berry fruit flavours. Just above medium bodied with good freshness and drinkability although not especially deep. It could easily take a bit of bottle age to gain further complexity too. Very nice wine and one of good value and authenticity.

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Well I reviewed this nearly a year ago and gave it an 89+, tasted a second bottle a few months ago and thought it much better, and this third bottle I thought better again. Good old plus sign eh. Get out of gaol free. I tasted this alongside the 2006 Reserve Pinot, and while the Reserve has greater intensity and focus, there’s certainly not a huge gulf between their relative stations. I’d also add that I poured off a glass out of each bottle and left them in the fridge until the next day. They looked all the better for it too.

A mix of rich cherry, spice, Autumn leaves and toasty caramel oak lead on to a medium to full bodied palate with plenty of flavour that’s full of ripe cherry and plum, earth and spice - sweet and savoury at once. It has bright clean acidity and fine grained textured tannins providing firm structure. Excellent length of flavour finishing spicy and dry. Still needs more time.

Other vintages : 2006, 2006, 2005, 2004

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I don’t know too much about this wine but I do know it won the trophy at the McLaren Vale show as best red under $20. Fair enough too, you’re certainly getting a lot of bang for your buck here!

Opens a little charry and then comes chocolate, black plum and cherry brandy. On the palate full bodied with saturating long smooth tannins and flavours of chocolate, earth and plums. On the first day’s tasting no hint of alcohol warmth - it’s all neatly folded and hidden in the velvet folds but on the second day the heat was on so I’d suggest drinking young rather than cellaring. Points are for drinking now..and at cool cellar temperature rather than room temperature.

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The trade label on the back says $20 which seems not only awfully cheap, but also a considerable reduction in price from last years model. It’s a cellar door and on-premise only jobby but well worth seeking out.

It smells of cassis, berries and liquorice but it’s also nice and meaty rather than sweet - the Viognier having been taken up beautifully and adding floral interest rather than overt apricotiness. Full bodied with firmish tannins but oh so smooth and well balanced. It has flavours of meat juices and juicy berries and presents as a sumptuous, classy and thoroughly delicious wine. Long too…and if the price is right..then come on down.

Other vintages : 2005

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This is from a total production of 64 dozen and as at yesterday I believe there are about six or ten cases left at the winery (I forget which but I’m sure the number is nearly as fluid as the wine).

Perfumed and crammed with Chinese five spice, sour cherry jam, blueberry and subtle creamy oak this smells immediately appealing. On the palate just medium bodied with a fine sense of freshness and elegance - it fans out and spreads flavour though the mouth in the most delightfully gracious manner. It tastes of sour cherry jam (but not too sweet), tart blueberries and plenty of exotic spice - all light and fresh with fine feathery tannins and a long spicy finish. Marvellous wine. A Shiraz for Pinot fanciers perhaps?

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The Chardonnay of the same vintage is a pretty good wine, smoky mind you, but otherwise excellent. I’ll review it later. This on the other hand, should most likely not have been released. I don’t normally review lesser wines but this is fully priced, and from a company not lacking in resources.

It smells good with dark cherry, peat smoke and spice - rich and inviting. On the palate medium to full bodied with black cherries, Chinese plum sauce, spice and some peaty smoke flavours (think Talisker) but texturally it feels distinctly odd - shapeless, denatured, acrid and rubbery. Most unnatural, it holds a sort of car crash fascination, and while drinkable affords little pleasure.

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No introduction, I am in a rush and Blackboard is telling me to “hurry up”.

Glacé cherries, a roundedness, stalk and pepper, soda water, mint tea and a touch of dried meat. The palate showed red fruits, dried stalks through the mid palate and fleshed out on a finish that included a touch of sap too. There was some sweetness of fruit, with some game and dried meat characters, but there was also an underlying stalkiness that might disconcert some people. A lovely light mouthfeel, good length, dry and perhaps a bit shy, lightly weighted with a feminine edge. Short term drinking I would guess.

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Hmmm well I think I like this one a little more than the 2005 vintage (more length) so logically I need to give it a slightly higher score, even though I have both 92 and 93 written on my pad (a trend you might begin to notice). I’d need to taste them side by side to be absolutely sure, rather than many months apart, but I’m as confident as you can ever be when dealing in absolutes. Well that’s my story anyway, and I’m sticking to it.

It’s fragrant and creamy with spice and pepper over dark cherry and fresh blackberry and a bit of the old liquorice coming up with air. It feels medium bodied in the mouth with excellent flow and nice fine smooth tannins, acidity perhaps a little unsettled at this early age, but set for a long future. There’s no heat or over-ripeness - just beautiful blackberry/dark cherry fruit seasoned with pepper, spice and subtle creamy oak running onto a good long finish. A boastful advertisement for stylish Grampians Shiraz at a painfully modest price.

Other vintages : 2005

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I’m having a couple of major problems with all these 2005 Margaret River Cabernets, namely those of limited funds and finite capacity. This year’s Heytesbury is all Margaret River with just a sneaky little addition of 5% Shiraz and is a barrel selection rather than a single vineyard wine (as per usual). There won’t be a 2006 vintage release so the intention is to stretch this out until the 2007 Heytesbury becomes available.

Flamboyant, complex and highly aromatic with a mix of ripe cherry and cassis, violet, dark chocolate and spice tempered by more herbal influences of peppermint, gum leaf and snapped green twigs. It’s also appropriately gravelly and earthy as is the way with the best Margaret River Cabernets. On the palate full bodied and flooded with ripe cassis and cherry fruit, dried herbs and mocha flavours - a wine of considerable impact, depth and drama. It has strong ripe chalky tannins, superb balance and a long dry finish. A wine that resonates in the memory long after tasting.

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I know what you’re thinking, here goes Lincoln with that weird descriptor, but this does smell like sausage meat. It does. I might be odd but I hope I am consistently so. There are also aromas of red fruits, spices and smoke, but all this is dominated by spicy tomato sauce and sausages. The palate is, to be honest, a bit feral, with plums and red cherries, minerals, hints of meats and stalks, and wild sauvage character. The finish is little warm and metallic. Very odd indeed, though good persistence through the palate, with some creaminess, but the sweet tomato sauce confection pushes the wine well to the left of field. A tough one to rate.

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A new label for the 2005 vintage (of which you can read more about in the excellent Moss Wood newsletter here), and while I miss the old one, the contents of the bottle more than adequately compensate for the loss of gold trim; this is easily the best since the mighty 2001 vintage. The oak is less obvious and it’s more refined and balanced (and less warm and chocolaty) than some of the more recent vintages. I tasted it alongside the soon to be released Vasse Felix Heytesbury of the same year, and while they are quite different wines and hard to separate qualitatively, it was the svelte charm of the Moss Wood that tipped the scale. A style preference in more ways than one.

A gorgeous smelling wine that immediately pulls at the purse strings of the Cabernet enthusiast - it offers mulberry and dark fruit, a violet perfume, spice, fine cedar oak and that gravel and wet cement aromatic that is so typical of the region (at least for me). In the mouth quiet authority and grace is the order of the day with ultra fine mouth coating tannins, ripe fruit, oak and alcohol all in perfect balance. It’s appropriately dry and savoury but not at the expense of bright fresh Cabernet fruit flavours. Long and satisfying this is a wine of rare balance and significant ageing potential. Certainly one of the finest Moss Wood releases to date.

Other vintages : 2001, 1999

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Greenvale is near the Melbourne airport, so I’ve plopped this wine in the Sunbury region. The vineyard is dry grown and the wine was made by Antonio Nania, Bruno D’Anna and Franco D’Anna using natural yeast, no filtration or pumping, and gravity feeds. This is the inaugural release.

A lovely nose, with the aromas oscillating between black cherries, red currants and black currants, with some vanilla pod, spice, and a matchstickiness. The palate is soft, red fruits, blackcurrants, liquorice, old black pepper and some matchstick on the finish. On the lighter side of medium bodied, with soft tannins and highly drinkable.

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This is a bit of a surprise. You’d not normally expect too much of an Australian Tempranillo but this made me double take (or sip). Big Tim Adams has an association with Muga and I’d say a little bit of Rioja magic has rubbed off here, although obviously hard work, top winemaking and quality viticulture are the real factors. What most impressed me here are the silky smooth tannins, almost RODAesque if you are familiar with that wine, that coat and caress the mouth. With regards to rating it, I’m dithering between an excellent and outstanding rating, so I’ll probably decide on a number when I finish writing the review. I tasted it over two days (with no sign of tiring) and have two different scores.

A fine smelling wine with a mix of black cherry and red fruits, cola, creamy spicy oak, liquorice (with extended breathing) and wafting above it all a very faint citrus leaf perfume. On the palate medium to full bodied with ripe black cherry and red fruits, brown spice, mineral, nuts and very slight mintiness. Good flavour but it’s the texture here that wins you over - a velvet fog of plush smooth tannins that coat the mouth and extend all the way through to the back palate. Excellente.

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I often like saying “Toolangi” in a baritone African Chief style voice before tasting a glass. It’s nearly as enjoyable as the wine, but not quite.

It offers up a gentle classic Yarra Pinot aromatic of red cherry, strawberry, spice and a bit of leaf mulch that leads into a light to medium bodied palate. The flavour is good with sweet red fruit and spice being the major players, accompanied by light dry tannins and clean soft acidity. It all flows along very nicely, is balanced and long, and drinks a treat from beginning to end. If you’re out shopping for good Pinot under $25 then I’d pop this near the top of the list.

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A rich red. Red cherries and red plums, lifted florals and strikingly deep seated peppery spices. There is also the impression of concentration, and hints of milk chocolate, cocoa and even chocolate. The palate is wonderfully balanced, cherries and plums, blackberries, maybe some raspberry acidity, milky and tangy, ripe but not too sweet, all with some beautiful tannins. Quite primary at the moment, but oh-so easy to drink. No sign of any heat whatsoever.

Other vintages: 2004, 1999

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I was tasting through a few modestly priced reds yesterday (06 Jacob’s Creek Shiraz, 05 Wyndham Estate 555 Shiraz etc.) and it prompted me to quickly write something about this wine. I’m not sure if I have the rating correct, I was a bit rushed, but I liked the wine and it easily falls into my ‘good’ range of scores. It has integrity.

Smells of blue fruits, plum, mint and a bit of cedar wood. The medium bodied palate offers similar flavours with perhaps the addition of blackcurrant and a bit of an olive savoury edge. It has firm tannins, a bit aggressive perhaps, but I’d rather have a bit of grip in an inexpensive wine than a lot of sugar. It’s good and tasty and finishes dry. Authentic and good quality is my quick impression.

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There’s plenty of good Pinot about for under $30 and the Yarra is generally the place to look for it. I was speaking to a wine writer the other day, moaning about how I wish I had time to do more reviews, but the formatting slows me down. He offered that all people want is an opinion and a score. Maybe he’s right? See below for an unpolished note.

It’s taught and acidic with lots of flavour - cherry, earth, briar, dusty oak, aniseed and dried herb. Quite dramatic and certainly spicy. Tannins are a little chalky and chunky and there’s a touch of bitterness on the finish that detracts but otherwise all very good. Like it and good value.

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A colleague of mine (and I use the term loosely) told me I ought to get on to Collector Wines, so I wasted no time touching them up for a few bottles. I like a hot tip. Anyway, Canberra is looking more and more like one of THE regions in which to make great Shiraz in Australia and this is no exception. I love the tannins here. Welcome to Tannin country.

Strong dark colour with a delightful aromatics of black cherry, toffee, Brazil and hazelnuts, pepper and meat. On the palate medium to full bodied with rich smooth fruit of the blackberry and dark cherry persuasion, pepper, aniseed and a nutty toothsome fine grained dark chocolate texture. It has superb ripe tannins, a fluid glycerol mouth feel and no hint of warmth or intrusive alcohol. Fully ripe, but not sweet, closing with a long dry finish of nuts and chocolate. Outstanding.

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Grange eh? A wine that requires no introduction.

As with all Grange the aromatics are layered and complex with this vintage offering a whole raft of interesting things to smell. It’s showing a touch of char, brown spices, blackberry, coconut, liquorice, aniseed, soy sauce, camphor and fruit cake in and amongst other things. Seek and ye shall find but the overall impression over three days tasting is of a rich darkly fruited wine backed with liberal high class oak that smells terrific. On the palate full bodied and bulging with powerful dark tarry fruit, mince pie, dark chocolate, dry spices, aniseed and plenty of perfumed cedary oak. It maintains a good level of freshness and has layers of open knit very firm chalky tannins that make their presence felt from start to long finish. The tannins receded and softened over three days but still felt a little raw and blocky at the end. Young wine, no doubt, but I’d suggest it will always be a more rustic example of Grange, although a good one. A remarkable wine considering the vintage too.

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