The Auswine Forum

totally agree with Sami Odi, but it is still in its relative infancy. I would expect it will be competing for a spot in another 10 years. I admire Grange, but no longer drink it and certainly do not buy it. However, with its history and performance over decades, it remains the Don Bradman of Aussie ...

So, what are the top five Australian wines right now? No, not the one-off, special bins, not the fad wine that has been around for the past four vintages, not the 100-case productions that nobody sees. Just, the greatest wine, which has a proven track record and is available for purchase, although a...

christmas Aussie pinots: 2020 Tolpuddle ridiculously astringent, 40 percent stems, awful wine and nobody could manage even a glass. Screwcap. NR 2022 Stargazer not a lot better, but nice fruit hidden under the battery acis and brett NR 2018 Pooley the winery's basic offering, simple but perfectly qu...

PS agree on Mount Mary, has never been any good, unlike the pinot.

interesting tasting, Australia's finest chardonnay without Australia's finest chardonnay??

can't have a tasting of this depth without LEAS.

We were dining at Margaret and blindly chose a Deep Woods 2020 Margaret River Estate Cabernet Malbec from an impressive (but very expensive) wine list. Quite approachable with the Malbec adding some flesh to the cabernet. Very nice indeed with a shared 1kg rib eye on the bone. Interesting to see ho...

2018 Fourrier Bourgogne Rouge now just entering its drinking window. Burgundy these days, with a ridiculous escalation in prices, has really become not a lot more than a wank-fest, as evidenced by the myriad of internet wine discussion fora. wines that ten years ago cost $80/bottle now sell north o...

PS, yes, as you probably know, I am a rusted-on Francophile when it comes to wine, but there are very, very few White Burgundies from 2018 that I would drink in preference to this.

2018 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay thought I'd pop a TN here because, simply put, this is an absolute legend in the making. drinking well despite its young age (well, very young for a LEAS CHARDONNAY), this now gets my vote as the best of this most prestigious line. (IMO only second to Grange for its l...

thanks Sean, very interesting. would like to know what percentage of TWE's business is tied to China? Especially their premium portfolio. from first-hand experience, the Chinese wine-lover is starting to develop a very sophisticated palate, and I'm not talking about long-established HK, and IMO the ...

yes, and 20 years ago on this very forum, people were laughing at the "backward French" for not switching GC Burgundy and FG Bordeaux to stelvin.
those forumites include a now prominent Australian wine scribe lols.

any trust in Aussie wine critics went out the door when they continually rated the DM red so highly. IMHO, along with anything coming out of the Bass Phillip stable, amongst the most over-rated wines in Australia. Absolutely head-scratching, they are just such mundane wines, devoid of any true perso...

I didn’t mean to be so grim. But gee auction house reserves frustrating when we all know there’s oceans full of fine wine and a generation coming through who aren’t so thirsty! United Airlines starts flying direct SFO to ADL in November. Rich Californian’s will love our Basket Press. Cheap bargain ...

thanks Allan,
2018 a fabulous vintage for MR cabs, the Moss Wood is sublime. Thought you guys would have piled on MR cabs given where you live!!!

2021 Mayer Yarra Valley Cabernet found this in the cellar last weekend, I think it was a birthday present from a couple of years ago. In my pledge to myself to drink something other than Burgundy or Bordeaux, lols, I decided to put this on the chopping block. bizarre wine, pretty much impossible to...

Hi Graeme,'
thanks, awesome notes, as usual. I'm not really a fan of Aussie pinot, but I had that exact 2015 MM pinot about a year ago and thought it was really good and still pretty young. Any chance your bottle wasn't quite right?

a few Bordeaux First and Second Growths have been putting a few cases under SC since the late 90's to see what happens. Hard to find anything about it, so I guess they are keeping their conclusions to themselves. But either way, Diam and the like will be the future for closures of premium wine, no SC.

I don't buy reds under screwcap any more, they don't develop that same as under cork. interestingly, I have some red Burgundy under screw cap,. even GC's, from the 08-09 vintages. Again, they are universally disappointing. But, of course, if you are buying a wine to drink over the next 12 months or ...

yes, Moss Wood started in 2001, the Cab was sold under both stelvin and cork

oh, forgot to mention, the 86 Lafite has always been a dud, so you didn't miss a lot.

fantastic to see an Aussie tasting with wines that are actually ready to drink lol
89 Haut Brion is an all time desert island wine for me, sadly, I only have two or three left.
90 Montrose is an infuriating wine, when on, its 100pts, but every second bottle (even from the same case) is brett city.

Great notes, thanks 14 Graveyard a super wine, as is the Mount Pleasant stuff from that incredible Hunter vintage. I still think that 14 Hunter is the best vintage of anywhere in Australia in the past 50 years. Hard to make a bad wine that year. Would have guessed it as clear winner, TBH, the remain...

Faiveley's Beze just might be the most under-rated GC in all of Burgundy. Label drinkers won't touch it, which can only be a great thing, but when shown blind, it is almost always the number one or two in any Beze line-up.

still have a couple of bottles of the 1991 version of this, it has consistently been incredible. Has, IMO, the complexity that the vast majority of Aussie shiraz lack. easily the best "mature" Aussie red wine I have in my cellar, and probably the only one I think about drinking when I'm lo...

2018 Hurley Vineyard Garamond Pinot Noir at seven years this is at peak. Let slow ox for five hours prior (it initially opened very closed) this displayed pretty red fruits, decent length and some interest in complexity. Quite sweet-fruited, but balanced by a nice acid and tannin spine. I am not a ...

PS, I make a point of never buying red Burgundy from white Burgundy producers, they are virtually never much good.

thanks for the notes Allan, an interesting read. the two "premier crus" are about the same price as a bourgogne from the Cotes de Nuits, so I'd be wary talking about the quality comparisons. the most expensive bottle there is the Faiveley, probably $120 (in Australia, in HK closer to $60) ...

thanks for the notes.
Geoffroy was also a magnificent Chef de Cave, but yes, I did hear he was also great with a good Japanese knife.

hmmm, was 2020 really a "disastrous" vintage in the Barossa?. I thought yields were low, but quality ok.
I'm genuinely asking, not that I have tried any 2020 Barossa wines.

for wine you can easily access, Mt Lofty Ranges has a tete de cuvee "S and G chardonnay" that I personally prefer to Giaconda. It is made in the Puligny-style, if that helps. It's between $85-90 and is fabulous. It is actually similar to Giaconda, without the absurd amount of gunpowder and...