The Auswine Forum

yes it is, Mike. Turnberry was always a fave of mine, but now is even better (sadly, Trump factor makes me nauseated)
I honestly feel my top four are on a class of their own.

FWIW, my top 10, in order:

RM Composite
Cypress
Pine Valley
Turnberry
County Down
Old Course
Dornoch
Portrush
Shanqin Bay
St George's

unlucky: New South Wales and Lahinch

agree, Mike. Shinnecock I forgot about. Only played it once, off the tips. I'm reasonable long (or at least was lols) but we found we were hitting 3i into virtually every par four haha. having said that, Corey Pavin, the shortest hitter on the PGA tour, won an Open there!!!! (beating a choking Norma...

many thanks Allan, awesome write-up.
I'm hanging out for the Leeuwin release, April 1st over here....

those three? genuinely: RM Composite (best course in the world) RM West New South Wales Kingston Heap Wickham Victoria PK North Royal Adelaide ..... all better than them, I haven't played seven mile beach yet, but I'm told that also is amazing. I have a soft spot for Merion, plenty of members where ...

I'll ask my coach next time I see him (Monday week, he'll know for sure) but as I understand it, the club pays the food, the winner the drinks. I could be wrong. Augusta as a pure golf course, ie the course and not the trimmings, is just ok. Sage Valley down the road is probably better. Having had d...

thanks Allan, as usual a great write up.
Leeuwin have not released their 23, but I am told it is incredible. Not surprised Pierro was WOTN, always a fabulous wine.
TBH, with the standard of MR chardonnays these days, I'm not sure why I persist buying White Burgundy

BTW, the best golf club wine list in Australia, by a country mile, is Lake Karrinyup in Perth.

No Mike, the wines are not from the Augusta cellar, they come from the reigning Masters champion. As I understand it, the champ chooses, and the Clun organises. Augusta has an incredible cellar, and the wines are ridiculously cheap if you look carefully at the list... the Cali cabs are prevelant, bu...

I turned off at 3/4 time....worst quarter of football in 20 years giving up 12 goals...WTF!! Apart from Sam Walsh, were is the outside run?? I'm resigned to another very long season,, have a 6 game interstate membership and intend to go to a few games, but bloody hard to keep the faith. Cheers Crai...

2001 Chateau l'Eglise Clinet wow, looks and tastes like a 5yo wine, still black as night with no fading at the rim. Huge wine, massive length and superb complexity. When Bordeaux is great, it really is without peer. Massive doses of dark chocolate, plums, blackberries, smoke, leather, h=touch of mi...

agree, cost of storage is a joke. My annual bill is $13,000, and it is pretty much a passive underground cellar

Hi Jamie, it is a great and vexing question. I've got around 6,500 bottles in the cellar(s), mostly Burgundy, with Champagne and Bordeaux equal second. Simply waaaay too much wine. I pull Aussie wines out for Xmas, Easter or family/friend2 get togethers, a good way to dwindle the supply, but I still...

some great thoughts here!! yes, 2026 edition simply means our greatest wines up to 2026. by 2036, I'd imagine many wines will have the track record to compete, notably, from the answers here Sami Odi, but for me at least, they are at the moment relative new-comers. I love Wynns Black Label, it is a ...

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?