Old Richmond Gaol was one of Diemen Land's first prisons, built by the convicts themselves, of good old fashioned granite blocks, laboriously hauled in wooden hand carts and quarried from the ominously monikered Butchers Hill. Today, Butchers Hill is the site of the steepest sloping vineyard in Coal River Valley, invigorated by afternoon sea breezes and prevailing winds from the roaring forties, its highly auspicious, self mulching black Vertosols, yield extraordinary wines. Established by founding members of the Hobart Beefsteak & Burgundy Club, Butchers Hill represents three generations of passion amongst the nether vineyards of the Apple Isle. Not just a purveyor of pretty Pinot Noir, Pooley Estate have achieved status as Tasmanias first and only, fully accredited..
Princely parcels of pooley»
Clonakilla are one of our nation's most eminent vineyard wineries, a tiny production operation, established by a CSIRO scientist at Murrumbateman, very near Canberra. It turned out to be a fortuitous planting, with a climate not dissimilar to Bordeaux and northern Rhone, the Clonakilla property now occupies a rank next to the mighty Grange on the prestigious Exceptional Langtons Classification, it yields vintages of Australia's most invaluable Shiraz. At $26.99, the estate's entry level belies its stature and excellence within the pantheon of great Australian wine, an essential experience this week for all enthusiasts, a canny choice for shrewd and judicious aspirants of elite new world Shiraz...
Here's what our most picky pundits prefer»
An alluring assortment of uplifted black cherry and dark berry flavours, espresso and licorice allsorts. The quality of Shiraz grown to parched vineyards in Victoria's rugged western districts, has been well known throughout the world... More»
Fragrant varietal lift with bright red fruit aromatics of raspberry and plum. Church Block was the first wine which the late Greg Trott produced under the Wirra Wirra label back in 1972... More»
Blood plums and cigar oak with a violet floral lift from the inclusion of stalk during fermentation. Sourced exclusively off the unirrigated eight acre block, established 1973 at the western extremity of Yarra Yering... More»
The palate is refined and elegant, mouthfilling with plums and mulberry, black cherry fruits and long, persistent fine grained tannins. Robert Strangways Wigley was an eccentric South Australian cricketer who established Wirra Wirra in 1894... More»
Lovely primary forest fruits and red currants with traces of spice and silky milk chocolate tannins at the finish. Planted in 1991 and added to the Penny's Hill estate vineyard group in 1993, Malpas Road is named after the... More»
There are but two winemakers who can lay claim to a staggering four Jimmy Watson Trophy victories. Wolf Blass was the man behind the label. John Glaetzer was the man behind Wolf Blass. While working for Wolf, Glaetzer was moonlighting on his own brand, applying the same extravagance of technique to the pick of Langhorne Creek fruit. Perfection in the form of black bramble fruit, muscular yet affable tannins, all framed by the luxury of ebony oak. Aspirants of the great Black Blass Label fables of 1974, 1975 and 1976, are privately advised to avail themselves of John's Blend, Cabernet or Shiraz. Crafted from the same parcels, in the same way, by the same hands, that collaborated to create, the most celebrated triumphs in the history of our nation's highest accolade, thrice winners of the exalted Jimmy Watson Memorial..
Timeless mystique of langhorne creek»
Andrew Nugent grew up next door to the great historical wineworks at Penfolds Magill. He honed his craft as viticulturalist and vigneron amongst the illustrious wineries of old McLaren Vale. In the 1990s, Nugent planted new vines at Woodside along Bird In Hand Road, on the site of an ancient gold mine, a godsend of fortuitously fertile soils and magnificent mesoclimes for stellar quality Adelaide Hills wine. Bird In Hand have since amassed a breathtaking tally of international accolades for the unrivalled excellence of their superlative vintages, wonderfully small batch releases, with the magnificence of structure, seamlessness and immaculacy of fruit, to enthuse curio and cognescenti alike...
Vivid vintages from the tailings of adelaide hills»