Head 250 km east of the Margaret River wine region in Western Australia, and you’ll hit the remote Frankland River region. With the coast quite a distance south, this is…
Fugazi! A lovely McLaren Vale Grenache from Ochota Barrels
Had this bottle the other night at Noble Rot. You can tell times are changing if I’m going out and ordering (a) a Grenache (b) from the McLaren Vale. Both…
A pre-ProWein tasting of some lovely Australian wines
On the eve of ProWein, Wine Australia put on a tasting of some really interesting Australian wines. Here are my notes on some of my favourites. Bellwether Vermentino 2014 Heathcote,…
Blind Spot: Mac Forbes makes great value Aussie wines for The Wine Society
Blind Spot is a range of own-label wines made for The Wine Society by Mac Forbes. They’re great value, and made in quite an elegant style. I like them a…
Video: the Mornington Peninsula wine region
I’ve just published two films on my Mornington Peninsula adventures, with an introduction to the region. The two parts go together, and feature many of the key winegrowers who have…
Tyrrell’s HVD Semillon 2010 Hunter Valley
Hunter Semillon. One of the wine world’s most distinctive wine styles. This is a good one: the single vineyard HVD from Tyrrell’s with six years’ bottle age. Just beginning to…
Lunch with Brendon and Kirstyn of BK Wines, Adelaide Hills, Australia
I met with Brendon and Kirstyn Keys, the B and K in BK Wines over lunch at the Harwood Arms. They had new releases in tow. They are in the…
Gamay focus 21, Bass Phillip Gamay 2014, Gippsland, Australia
There isn’t a lot of Gamay in Australia, but there are two or three examples that get written up very highly by the critics. This is one of them: the…
Rootstock (Sydney), a natural wine fair, focuses more on the vineyard in 2016
Late last year I had a lovely time attending Rootsock Sydney. It’s a lovely not-for-profit wine fair focusing on natural wines. One of the very best. I really enjoyed it,…