William James Maxwell was an architectural sculptor who migrated from Scotland to Australia in 1875. He built a mock castle and established a family vineyard just outside Adelaide, which he named Woodlands Park. His son planted vines in nearby McLaren Vale and his grandson served a term as winemaker for Hardy Wines at the historic Tintara wineworks. William Maxwell's progeny remain in McLaren Vale, producing the southern hemisphere's most successful brands of Honey Mead, as well as vintages of the most extraordinary value in McLaren Vale Shiraz. But what does Maxwell taste like? Gentleman James Halliday describes Maxwell as robust, picking the eyes out of McLaren Vale shiraz; licorice, dark chocolate,.. Made of mature vine mclaren vale »

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.. Polly & the pyre to paradise»

Sandro Mosele is one of Victoria's most accomplished vignerons, his celebrated editions of Kooyong and Port Phillip estates are amongst the most cherished renderings of Burgundy styled Pinot Noir in the nation. Mosele has applied his art to a precious parcel of fruit, picked off a single, modest block of vine, grown to the fully fertile soils of a lamb and beef stud, on the brisk, maritime blown coastals of Gippsland South. This is not Pinot for profit, Walkerville represents an aesthetic appreciation of fruit from the farmer, invigorated by the blessings of providence and consecrations of local livestock. A cornucopia of comely characters, forcemeats and fennel, pectins and pith, Walkerville make.. The grazier's garden of gippsland»

Boutique winemaking affords great advantages, every vine can be uniquely husbanded, quality control is maximised, each barrel can be individually sampled and assembled into the perfect cuvee. Engineering types are innately suited to such viticulture. Colin Best embarked upon his sabbatical to the great vineyards of Burgundy's Cote d'Or. He returned to plant Pinot Noir on a craggy half hectare near Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills. An ancient masonry wool mill was outfitted for winemaking and Leabrook Estate was born. This is an aesthetic range of meticulously crafted, limited vintages, fashioned for the aficianado of bespoke, small batch, little vineyard wines... The lobethal libations of leabrook»

There are four tiny patches of vine at Scotchman's Hill, which have been mollycoddled by Robin Brockett, since the start of his tenure as chief winemaker in the 1980s. Excruciatingly limited after a strict pruning and rigorous sorting of fruit, they each yield a mere hundred cases of wine. Brockett has set aside the precious harvests of these superior blocks for his own label, a personal project to hand craft the finest of vintage, an exclusive range of the Bellarine's most elite single vineyard efforts. So besotted is Brockett by the spectacular quality of fruit from these four regal parcels, he has imported two 800 Litre Tuscan vinification Amphora from the Brunello commune of Montalcino. Whole bunches and wild ferments in the like of ancient clay.. Brockett begets the best of bellarine»

It was a matrimony between an American biochemist and the founder of Margaret River Devils Lair, that set the scene for one of the nation's most illustrious estates. A member of the Top 1OO Wineries of World, Giant Steps were established 1997, with a view to assembling an elite range of limited release Yarra Valley vintages. Crafted from the fruit of superior sites, some yielding just a few hundred cases each year, these are exclusive editions from bespoke parcels of elite terroir, bearing the curiously cryptic monikers of precious blocks of vine, Gruyere Farm, Applejack and Wombat Creek. Fashioned for aficianados of the euro style, defined by their winsome fruit and graceful tannins, the Giant Steps single vineyard range are all distinct for their.. Big wines from little vineyards»