An ongoing resurrection of some fabulous old vines, a distinguished Blewitt Springs site and a range of the most spectacular McLaren Vale wines. When Kelly and Bondar acquired Rayner Vineyard in 2013, they knew that everything depended on the management of site and soil to achieve the excellence of wine they had in mind. The most fastidious husbanding regimens and a tightly scheduled evolution towards organic viticulture, the propitious Rayner vines have never yielded finer harvests, all translating into a tour de force across the entire Bondar range. Salient quality and penurious pricing make for a compelling mix. Old vines grown to salubrious soils, the harvest timed to perfection, a precision picking of fruit at just the right hour of day, aimed at.. Model mclaren macerations»

Major Sir Thomas Mitchell left more than just an invaluable bequeth of our nation's most detailed frontier maps. Mitchell distinguished himself in Wellington's army during the Napoleonic wars in the renowned 95th Baker Rifles. A gifted draftsman, he found his way to the nascent colonies of Australia, where his acumen at mapmaking won him the office of Surveyor General. During one of Mitchell's historical expeditions, he charted the fertile lands around Victoria's Goulburn Valley, establishing the colonial fruitgrowing township of Mitchell's Town. The district's auspicious orchards flourished until Colin Preece identified the region as an opportune place to grow world class wine. Vineyards thusly planted around the Goulburn billabongs, came to be known.. Barriques between the billabongs»

Jane Mitchell is one of Clare Valley's leading wine industry identities, Clare Valley Legend and Clare Valley Winemakers Hall of Fame, Centenary Federation of Australia Medal, SA Tourism Commission, Australian Regional Winemakers Forum, Wine Federation of Australia Council and Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation Board. Mitchell's largest vineyard is at Watervale, a very bleak place in the middle of winter at pruning time. It is known by the vineyard workers as Alcatraz, a place to do penance in the cold, wind and rain of a Clare Valley winter. Alcatraz only ever yields minimal harvests, source of the most memorable vintages in our nation's.. These old clare valley vines are just getting better»

Planted to a steep north facing slope, under the shades of an ancient sawmill, very near the estuaries Mersey and Don, the measured yields of an elite little vineyard are hand picked for vinification by the illustrious Josef Chromy wineworks at Relbia. Highly specialised with the effusive sparkling styles and aromatic whites, winners Winestate Alternative Varietal of Year, the barriques of Barringwood are percolating parcels of Pinot Noir, which are setting a benchmark for the artisanal boutique estates of Devonport and greater Launceston. Barringwood are grown within a unique mesoclime, the longest growing season in Tasmania, each bottle is remarkable for its expression and articulation of a truly opportune site. There are only a few productive hectares at Barringwood, highly prized & passionately.. Ardour of affection on the apple isle»

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 fine cuisine, the.. Polly & the pyre to paradise»

Returned servicemen from the Great War could look forward to government grants of pastoral freehold. West Australia's Willyabrup Valley was such a place, just a short walk from the balmy beaches of Indian Ocean, it offered the veterans excellent potential for agriculture. The fertile lands of Sussex Vale were originally established to animal husbandry by the discharged troopers, generations of livestock enriched the soils and it was astutely sown to vines in 1973. Fortuitously placed at the very heart of the Australian west's most illustrious estates, it continued to occupy the thoughts of neighbouring Howard Park's chief winemaker, until he acquired the property and relaunched a softly spoken range of the most exquisite wines. Aspirants of the blue blooded styles from Margaret River will be delighted,.. A better block on hay shed hill»