Varietal award winners
Take a look at every wine that won its varietal category, including three that tied
SPARKLING WHITE
★ SPARKLING WINE OF THE YEAR 2014 Deviation Road Beltana
Adelaide Hills Blanc de Blancs
Opens with aromas of apple and lemon cream streusel bun. With a fine pithy mousse, the palate is compelling, with all the citrus/lemon chardonnay excitement it can muster. This is added to by a subtle aldehydic complexity that expresses itself in a light quinine character. Totally engaging. Always amongst the finest – this is next level. TL 12.5% alc.
RRP $95 / 2025 / Deviation Road
deviationroad.com
SPARKLING ROSÉ
2017 Bellebonne Natalie Fryar
Vintage Rosé
A true execution of talent, masterfully articulating the concentration, character and energy of a powerful vintage. Piper’s River pinot noir (100%) declares a dramatic contrast between great depth and the scaffolded frame of acid, phenolic structure and barrel fermentation (6yo oak). The cold winds of Bass Strait whip up energetic structure that holds its drama through a long finish, never for a moment dipping its determined gaze. TS 12% alc.
RRP $75 / Bellebonne
bellebonne.wine
SPARKLING RED
2015 Ashton Hills Vineyard
Clare Valley Sparkling Shiraz
Savoury, layered aromas to start. The palate shows off juicy crimson berried flavours, a delicate mint jube note in there too, not too sweet at all. It’s lifted by a fine mousse. Tannins coat the mouth to finish. A sophisticated iteration of sparkling shiraz that really should be heritage listed. TL 14% alc.
RRP $55 / 2028 / Ashton Hills Vineyard
ashtonhills.com.au
RIESLING
2020 Pooley Margaret Pooley Tribute Single Vineyard Tasmania Riesling
A monumental Tasmanian riesling in which every detail has been intricately placed to fulfil its manifesto of grand character and profound endurance. A core of impeccable, spicy wild lemon is nuanced by stone-fruit exotics. Epic acidity, skin-contact phenolics, lees texture and RS unite in a crystalline display of glittering energy that promises decades in the cellar. Breathtaking line and length in the presence of profound fruit concentration confirm one of Tasmania’s finest rieslings of the vintage. Margaret would be proud indeed. TS 12% alc.
RRP $75 / 2050 / Pooley Wines
pooleywines.com.au
SEMILLON
2011 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Individual Vineyard Aged Release
Hunter Valley Semillon
A wine of structural mettle and fealty to the region. The mantle of ageability, so integral to variety and region, is intact. A dichotomous mesh of balletic finesse and body, with kumquat marmalade, quince, lemon balm and buttered toast riffs of semillon breaching middle age, rather than senility. Exceptional. NG 11% alc.
RRP $80 / 2028 / Meerea Park
meereapark.com.au
SAUVIGNON BLANC
2019 Terre à Terre Crayeres Vineyard Wrattonbully Sauvignon Blanc Cold-settled for 2 months, a technique developed by Brian Croser, but rarely duplicated. Fermentation in used 600L demimuids, then matured on full lees for 8 months. The result is very complex, but the fruit is undaunted, with layers of lemon curd, citrus and a whisper of honey. JH 13.1% alc.
RRP $50 / 2025 / Terre à Terre
terreaterre.com.au
CHARDONNAY
★ WHITE WINE OF THE YEAR 2018 Penfolds Yattarna
Bin 144 Chardonnay
An ultra-cool-climate blend of Tasmania, Tumbarumba and Adelaide Hills fruit wastes no time in setting the terms of engagement with a wine of infinite class. The flinty/smoky aromas introducing an almost painful intensity on the mercurial palate, a celebration of white-fleshed stone fruits. It’s made light work of 8 months in 100% new French oak. Struts its stuff without a care in the world. JH 13% alc.
RRP $175 / 2033 / Penfolds
penfolds.com 2018 Leeuwin Estate Art Series
Margaret River Chardonnay
Benchmark pedigree Margaret River chardonnay from the perfect 2018 vintage. Kaffir leaf, ocean spray, nectarine, yellow peach, custard apple and white peach are the start. Saffron curls, vanilla pod and freshly grated nutmeg frame saline acidity, crouched and coiled. Length of flavour extends across the palate in an endless procession of texture and complexity. All of the power, grace and excellence of previous years is here, amplified. EL 13.5% alc.
RRP $126 / 2051 / Leeuwin Estate
leeuwinestate.com.au 2019 Oakridge 864 Single Block Release Drive Block Funder & Diamond Vineyard Yarra Valley Chardonnay
It might have a smidge more volume and ripeness compared with the exemplary 2017, but this is a very fine follow up. The same DNA. It’s about harnessing the power. Expect citrus, flint and form. Length, precision and a mineral drive. The devil is in the details, according to winemaker Dave Bicknell. This wine is the embodiment – indeed the reward – of that. JF 14% alc.
RRP $90 / 2030 / Oakridge Wines
oakridgewines.com.au
OTHER WHITES
2020 Coriole Rubato Reserve
McLaren Vale Fiano
This is a superb wine. No two ways about it. Possibly the finest fiano in the country (along with Beach Road), attesting to the nobility of the variety as much as the promise it shows in the Vale. A monument of mineral pungency, offset by a shimmering veil of tangerine, quince, lemon balm, orange verbena, anise and apricot pith. Ripe. Viscous. Real drive. Phenomenal length. Power, vivacity and weightlessness all at once. Stunning! NG 13% alc.
RRP $50 / 2024 / Coriole
coriole.com
ROSÉ
2020 La Prova Adelaide Hills
Nebbiolo Rosato
Pink with copper tinges. The nose is a little earthy, along with its red fruits, and then you get a rush of crunchy, zingy red and white berries, a peppery spice and salivating finish, leaving the palate thirsty for more and more. Fantastic rosé. TL 12.8% alc.
RRP $26 / 2024 / La Prova
laprova.com.au
PINOT NOIR
2019 Bindi Block 5 Pinot Noir
This is the finest 2019 pinot noir across all regions that I have I tasted. I bow to its elegance, its structure and indeed, its beauty. It’s a perfect amalgam of fragrance, flavour and shape, with the latter bolstered by plush tannins covered in raw silk. There’s a vitality, an energy that lifts this – it is a wine unencumbered by obvious winemaking.
The site speaks. Time to listen. JF 13% alc.
RRP $125 / 2035 / Bindi Wines
bindiwines.com.au
SHIRAZ
2019 Tyrrell’s 4 Acres Hunter Valley Shiraz This oscillates with the 8 Acres as my favourite of these single-vineyard expressions. An apotheosis of Hunter savouriness and a lightness of touch of yore. Truly ethereal.
Fragrant, with mottled blue-fruit allusions, lilac, nori and chinotto. Clove, pepper grind and cardamom lace the finish. Yet frankly, words are a waste. The texture, the totem. Detailed tannins of immaculate precision. An airy grace. Elegance personified. NG 13% alc.
RRP $135 / 2034 / Tyrrell’s Wines
tyrrells.com.au
GRENACHE
2019 Thistledown Sands of Time
Old Vine Single Vineyard Blewitt Springs McLaren Vale Grenache
The beauty of this wine belies the label. Among the finest reds in Australia. A turbid mid ruby. Damson plum, strawberry, clove, rosemary, anise and turmeric flavours. A sandy weld of impeccable tannins, drawn taut and long by a beam of saline freshness. Ethereal and transparent. A blessed Australian site and an uncanny semblance to Rayas. NG 14.5% alc. RRP $80 / 2027 / Thistledown Wines
thistledownwines.com
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
2019 Yarra Yering Carrodus
Cabernet Sauvignon
There is such clarity to this wine, from the exuberant colour to the masterful combination of flavours within, centred exclusively on this majestic variety. Blackberries and currants, bay leaves and lead pencil plus deep-etched cedary oak. It has a juiciness thanks to the acidity, and while it is fuller bodied, as with all YY reds, a defining feature is beautiful tannins: here they are, insistent yet super fine. JF 13.5% alc.
RRP $275 / 2044 / Yarra Yering
yarrayering.com
CABERNET AND FAMILY
★ WINE OF THE YEAR ★ RED WINE OF THE YEAR 2019 Yarra Yering Dry Red No. 1
This is mesmerising. Do take time to bask in its fragrance – all floral and spicy with some aniseed and fresh herbs. Enjoy the poised fruit flavours of blackberries, mulberries and a hint of blueberries coated in spicy oak and tethered to the body of the wine. Pulsing acidity and beautiful tannin structure shape this and offer a promise of more to come in time. Wow – what a wine. JF 13.5% alc.
RRP $120 / 2039 / Yarra Yering
yarrayering.com
CABERNET SHIRAZ
2016 Yalumba The Caley Coonawarra Barossa Cabernet Shiraz
Yalumba began blending Coonawarra cabernet with Barossa shiraz more than a half century ago. This is one of the greatest expressions of this great Australian blend of recent decades. Perfect, compact, fragrant blackcurrant and blackberry fruit depth pauses time as it hovers motionless for minutes, propelled by the most intricate, chalk mineral framework of perfectly interlocked fruit and French oak tannins. A vintage to hark back to for another half century yet. TS 14% alc.
RRP $365 / 2066 / Yalumba
yalumba.com
OTHER RED
2019 SC Pannell McLaren Vale Aglianico
A grape that I love as much as grenache. Almost. Not in terms of its pinosity melded with Mediterranean accents, but because of its unbridled ferruginous structure and Neapolitan air. Think Diego Maradonna in his prime. Bitter chocolate, cherry pith and amaro riffs. But the defining aspect is the long, thirst-slaking bind of palate-defining, tannic architecture. Australia has not traditionally done this. And here it is! Why were we not planting this 100 years ago? NG 14% alc.
RRP $40 / 2030 / SC Pannell
pannell.com.au
FORTIFIED
1921 Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old
Para Vintage Tawny
If persistence, longevity, complexity and concentration are the ultimate marks of greatness, Para Centenary is in a league all of its own. 100 summers and 100 winters have amassed an explosive power, sheer viscosity and mesmerising complexity impossible to articulate in words. A drop is all it takes to transport you into its universe where time stands still and you are held in suspended animation for minutes. Utterly transfixing. TS 21.7% alc.
RRP $700 / 2021 / Seppeltsfield
seppeltsfield.com.au