Club gains

As the winemaster of the Whyalla Vintage Wine Club (50 years young), I rely heavily on Halliday Wine Companion to select wines for our club cellar. I study each edition with gusto, and am reasonably familiar with the type of comments and descriptions James and the team uses. With the 2019 edition, my curiosity was piqued with the 2016 Yangarra McLaren Vale Shiraz (and in the back of my mind, I recall James awarding Peter Fraser Winemaker of the Year 2016). Never before, though, have I read that James was “tempted to sneakily swallow half a mouthful” and say it was “bloody gorgeous”. I promptly purchased a dozen for our club and another dozen for ourselves. After double decanting the wine, my wife and I tried it last night with our beef stroganoff. WOW! The fruit and spice flavours, colour, bouquet – everything about this wine was fabulous. My wife said, “Quick! Go online and buy another dozen straight away!” Once again, thank you to the Wine Companion team for guiding me in the right direction.

Roger Thompson, Whyalla, SA