This is the latest release from Thistledown, a collaboration between Giles Cooke, Fergal Tynan and Peter Leske, based in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. Suilven is a beautifully packaged,…
Extended tasting note: Domaine Lucci Spring Red 2015, natural goodness from Anton
I haven’t done an extended tasting note for a while. These are notes that attempt to look a little deeper at a wine, putting the drinking experience in context. This…
Some reflections on ProWein 2016: bubbly Brits, grower Champagne, Canada, Provence and Grenache
ProWein is a massive wine and spirits fair, held each year in Dusseldorf, Germany. It’s enormous. 6200 exhibitors, and 55 000 trade visitors. I’ve just returned, and these are some…
Our Fathers Barossa Shiraz 2014
Our Fathers is a small production Barossa Shiraz made by Giles Cooke MW of Alliance wine. The inspiration for this wine was that Giles wanted to give something back. In…
Tolpuddle Vineyard 2014 Pinot and 2013 Chardonnay
I wrote up the first releases of these wines – the 2012s – just over two years ago. Now it’s time to look at some more recent releases. Seriously impressive…
L.A.S. Vino: alternative wines from Margaret River
Caught up with this pair yesterday at the Liberty tasting. Strikingly labelled, they are interesting wines from Margaret River. LAS Vino (LAS standing for luck, art and science) is the…
Australian wine: my new perspective
[A word of explanation: I wrote this on the plane on the way home from Australia. I’ve held off publishing it until I’d finished my blogging about the trip, for…
In the Macedon Ranges
The final day of my Australian adventure took me to the Macedon Ranges. This is a cool-climate area, about an hour’s drive from Melbourne. In the past, Macedon was properly…
In the Yarra Valley
The Yarra Valley. It was almost a decade ago that I first visited, back in March 2006. It was a lovely trip owing much to the generosity of Tony Jordan,…