Tod Dexter knows as much as anyone about this Peninsula and his 2011 releases were a triumph given the difficult vintage conditions that year. In 2012 the weather Gods were much kinder, indeed this looks to have been a very good vintage indeed. Read More >

Paradise IV is a small, five acre vineyard planted to Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon (with small plantings of other varieties) established by Graham and Ruth Bonney in 1988. It sits on a northeast facing slope, sheltered from the hotter extremes of the Moorabool valley, at Bates ford, just a few kilometres west of Geelong. The soils are decomposed granite over limestone and deep clay. Read More >

Our man in Burgundy, Alex Gambal, a vigneron of the English tongue, shares with us his 2013 vintage report giving us a good insight of his toils and what we might expect in bottle. And while you’re there check out the Alex Gambal website www.alexgambal.com for a unique and fascinating story. Read More >

Reflecting on my New Zealand visit earlier in February this year, primarily to attend the Pinot Noir New Zealand Celebration 2013 (www.pinotnz.co.nz) held in sunny Wellington, one of the highlight’s of my trip was visiting the Marlborough region. Read More >

For those of us that have known Phillip Jones throughout his winegrowing evolution–for some of us that spans over three decades–and those that have managed to grasp the idiosyncrasies and eccentricities of the man (and there are many) and his extraordinary wines, those that have persevered with his unrelenting obsession with the pinot noir grape (except for a cabernet aberration early in the piece), those that have endured countless Burgundy and Rhone dinners and tastings with him and the privilege of his enormous generosity and magnanimous sharing of bottles, those that have come to appreciate his affability, peculiarities, erraticism, his quip and vagary and all the oscillations and manifestations in between…over a lunch; a standing ovation and resounding applause, hip-hip-hurray!, hip-hip-hurray!, hip-hip-hurray! to Phillip Jones, Finalist in the Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year 2013.   Read More >

Continuing my account of Pinot Noir New Zealand Celebration 2013 held in Wellington in February and my travels around New Zealand’s vineyard regions. Admittedly I was on a patriotic high from this incredible four-day event but even more so, I felt a strong sense of absolution; that my visit to Bell Hill vineyard in Weka Pass, North Canterbury (South Island) was such an incredible experience it justified the whole trip. Read More >

The 2010 vintage in Gibbston Valley, Central Otago, in the deep south of New Zealand’s South Island is one of those years that will bring a smile to the face of the regions winegrowers for all eternity. You can sense this by just looking at the grin of satisfaction on Sam Neill’s face, the proprietor of Two Paddocks; it’s the look of a man vindicated–of what they said was a folly–that the region he planted in was ‘too cool, too marginal in climate to ripen pinot noir”. They said, “You cannot make truly great pinot noir in Gibbston” Read More >

The Southern Cross is a constellation of stars infamously visible in the night sky of Australia. It is writ large in Australian folklore; it features in the national anthem and in its bold presence on the Eureka flag, where it was an iconic symbol of the workers’ resistance to British imperial rule, a moniker for class equality. Read More >

Wendouree is my favourite Australian booze. I have eagerly collected it all my wine drinking life. So when it was my chance to host our groups annual wine dinner, it was an apt opportunity to dig into that Wendouree collection and present five decades of these marvellous cuvees. Wendouree surely delivered … and as per usual, so did Scopri – http://www.scopri.com.au/ – Anthony, Alison and chef Salvatore bring passion and precision to dinner. Read More >

Saluting the fourth annual International Sauvignon Blanc Day on May 17th, wine journalists all over the world have the opportunity to come out of the closet; to confess they do in fact drink sauvignon blanc and some may even admit to liking this overly-popular white grape variety. Read More >