Somewhere near the Seaview end of McLaren Vale's Chapel Hill Road, a perfunctory passerine perched her pincers astride a pair of power poles and saw herself alit. Down she went amongst the dry grown branches of an old Grenache vineyard, setting the valuable veterans ablaze. The scorched site eventually came to the attention of a winemaking trio, the Messrs Leske, Tynan & Cooke, Masters of Wine and a venerable vintner, all driven by a consuming passion to make greater Grenache. Thistledown vintage very small amounts of the most extraordinary Grenache. Beautifully detailed and conspicuously elegant, their floral bouquets and graceful finish emulate the aromatic lift and peacock's tail of a prettily perfumed Pinot Noir. Magnificent to savour as a captivating aperitif, a bliss alongside..
Polly & the pyre to paradise»
Right around the time that Frank Potts was planting his nascent Bleasdale Vineyards during the 1850s, an eccentric Prussian named Herman Daenke established a homestead along the banks of Bremer River, which he called Metala. The site was planted to viticulture by Arthur Formby in 1891 and became one of Langhorne Creek's most productive vineyards, it continues to supply fruit for a number of prestigious national brands. Legendary winemaker Brian Dolan took the radical step of bottling Metala under its own label in 1959 and won the inaugural Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1962. Two generations later, the brothers Tom and Guy Adams took a similar leap of faith and branded their Metala fruit as Brothers In Arms. The quality of wine re established Metala as a vineyard of global significance and..
The goodly farms of brothers in arms»
Restrained chocolate oak behind a complexity of dried fruit characters. An exclusively Strathbogie Ranges Shiraz, most of the grapes come from Rocky Hill Block at Whitegate, with a further component... More»
Big, rich and dense with lovely fine grained tannins. Following decades of devoted viticulture, Plunkett Fowles have accumulated extensive local knowledge of soils and microclimes peculiar to the Strathbogie... More»
A multi layered palate of wild piquant raspberries, red licorice wick and frais de bois, dark anise tannins and sasafras oak in support of the textural, weight of fruit. Dan Buckle and Aaron Drummond are Mornington born and bred... More»
Crisp and refreshing palate brimming with layers of fruit, grassy notes, minerality and complexity provide interest. Mike Press is one of the nation's most experienced winemakers... More»
Very lifted nose with a faint camphor/ methanol note but not intrusive. A collation of choice parcels Shiraz from the Krondorf Village districts in Barossa... More»
Gary and Nick Farr are father and son, they make wine together but aren't afraid to go head to head when their opinions differ. Nick grew up amongst some of the world's most sacred vineyards, he knows about the land and found a magnificent little site, barely east of Lake Colac. Irrewarra is the vigneron's shangri-la, prepared for viticulture by generations of grazing and eons of the sobering south sea breezes, which stimulate vines to yield meagre harvests of parched little grapes, sleek of tannin and rich in flavour. Vintaged in excruciatingly limited lots, there are fully two styles of Irrewarra on offer, a grapefruit and oyster shell Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir of pasture and of place, both finished to delight the senses and to excite the most inscrutable palates...
It's irrewarra by farr»
Jim Barry was a pioneer of the Australian wine industry, the first academically qualified winemaker to take up Clare Valley viticulture in 1949. He had an uncanny intuition for good land and established some of the most illustrious vineyards on the continent. Jim Barry is also a patriarch of the Coonawarra, in pursuit of the perfect terroir for Cabernet Sauvignon, he planted vines on the ancient Penola Cricket Oval, preserving the original pavilion for posterity. Jim Barry endures as one of the nation's most distinguished brands, renowned throughout the world of wine for decades of the most remarkable vintages, an evolving range of superior vineyard editions, defined by their penetrating fruit and seamless tannins, essential for every enthusiast of identifiably Australian, claret style Cabernet..
Salient statements from superior sites»