In a wine world where The Story seems to have become more important than The Wine, it’s refreshing to sit down and taste with a winemaker who gets straight down to brass tacks. “It was a great year, but we had to struggle for it,” said Huw Kinch, a winemaker all too familiar with the perils of growing grapes in a marginal climate. Pyramid’s Waikari yields were wincingly small...
Read more
You may have seen Bondar’s name splashed across the pages of Halliday recently. In the 2026 guide, they took home the award for “Best Value Winery.” When we asked Andre and Selina about the award, they were quite pleased, “when you look at the other nominees, those are the wines we drink,” Andre told us. Yet, despite the accolade, Bondar offers much more than a “value” option for wine-lovers...
It’s no secret that the team behind Place of Changing Winds are a tough bunch to please, so it speaks volumes that the team are particularly excited with their 2023 Grower wines. And it’s easy to see why. The latest releases have a gorgeous level of purity and vibrancy...
Let’s start with the conclusion. Swinney has a brilliant set of 2024 reds on its hands. It is a perfumed, textural vintage full of vibrant pleasures and appetising freshness; wines that will grace any table, at any time. In some ways, the immediately charismatic style sets the wines apart from the more saturated, spicier reds of 2023...
We had a terrific introduction to Beaujolais’ 2023 vintage earlier this year. Visiting our growers, and many others, it was clear that most producers enjoyed the semi-luxury of making the style of wine they wanted to. Those who preferred pep and freshness started harvesting in the first days of September...
The wait is over. As you may know, the Rheingau chapter of the VDP has mandated that its top dry wines may only be released on, or after, the first of September two years after harvest. With that day finally here, the 2023 Kiedrich Gräfenberg GG is at last available, an opportunity not to be missed if you didn’t buy on pre-release...
Zalto needs little introduction: its feather-light, hand-blown stemware has long been the gold-standard for wine lovers and professionals around the world. Crafted for both performance and beauty, these glasses and decanters elevate every bottle, every pour, every moment at the table...
For some it may come as a surprise that Burgundy’s enfant terrible—the winemaker behind one of the Mâconnais’ greatest Domaines—now makes wine in Bordeaux. His first vintage was in 2017 and yet he is already producing sweet wines to rival the most revered...
It’s a biting winter’s afternoon in the Mornington. But standing on a windswept hill, pointing at the red clay soils of the Merricks vineyard, Barney Flanders is all warmth and contagious energy. A human brazier. The Merricks site is wind-battered and exposed, often leading to lower yields as blossoms are...
The great domaines never stand still, and Domaine Guiberteau is no different. Romain’s daughter, Camille, has recently joined the Domaine with partner Alex Crochet—a qualified oenologist—significantly bolstering the team in the cellar...
Stuart Hooper’s vision for Bannockburn was simple: make Burgundy inspired wines with a distinctly Australian identity. Today, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are synonymous with Geelong...
Exciting times are these for Luke Lambert and Rosalind Hall. Earlier this year the pair crushed their first Nebbiolo from the family’s young vineyard in the Yea Valley, 30 kilometres north of Yarra Glen...