Almost my last bottle from the mixed dozen I bought months ago. We were having a cheap-and-cheerful evening with friends and this fitted the bill. The nose was clean, with strong acid, a whisper of lemon, but not anything else really. The palate was true to the nose, non-descript, with ...

A sparkling Pinot Noir from the Adelaide Hills. The faintest pink and a languid bead. The nose shows faint strawberries and cherries, a dash of yeast and a few dark clouds. The palate is sweet, and then like an old fighter plane on fire, it dives into bitterness and abrasion, harsh with envelope glue, crashing and burning in a desolate field. Oh my goodness – there were no survivors. Undrinkable...

... apple and herb finish. I think SB does well in the Adelaide Hills and this is a very convincing...

The 2006 Sauvignon Blanc is the result of carefully selected parcels of Adelaide Hills fruit from Jeff Gower’s Hidden Valley vineyard and the wine has been part of the Wirra Wirra stable since 1984. Light straw in colour with a green tinge. Nice and pungent on the nose as all good sauvignon blanc should...

Being fluent in Sanskrit I can tell you that the work ‘Kanta’ means desired, beloved, beautiful and being fluent in English I can also read the label and tell you that the wine is made from fruit grown on the Balhannah vineyard in the Adelaide Hills. It is made by German riesling maker Egon Müller...

First produced in 1973, Wirra Wirra’s Riesling now sports the name ‘hand picked’ after an arguement and wager between proprietor Greg Trott and winemaker Geoff Merill over the merits of mechanical vs. manual harvesting…..we know who won in this case. Pale, light straw in colour displaying high-toned aromas of fresh ...

I have always been quite fond of Croser - not Brian (I don’t know him) but the eponymous sparkling wine. This is 32% chardonnay and the rest is pinot noir (you can do the maths). Aromas of lemon/lime, apple and biscuit. On the palate it has some delicacy with a ...

Produced from fruit sourced from the Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills this offereing from Taylors shows subdued aromas of fleshy peach and melon fruit, cream, cinammon, vanilla with hints of cashewy oak. On the palate there are flavours of peach, nectarine, custard apple and soft spices with hints of nutty oak and a lemon...

My ongoing quest to find good Australian tempranillo continues, and we seem to be moving in the right direction.  From the cooler climate Adelaide Hills, this is a good example of tempranillo and is much better than previous attempts by these guys.  One of my main criticisms with past vintages has been the oak treatment, the 04 is quite restrained in this aspect and lets the fruit do most...

The more tempranillo based wines I see from the Adelaide Hills, the more I think it is an ideal location for Rioja style wines.  This is the forth release of tempranillo by the chaps at Nepenthe and they seem to have nailed it.  One thing I have noticed with many of the Australian tempranillo based wines is that they need some time to open up, especially those that have seen some time in wood...