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Altera Terra Wood’s Paddock Shiraz 2022
$95.00Jeremy’s score 98/100World class wine that simply shrieks a top-class site in the northern Rhone. Astonishing power of flavour, balance and elegance. A true fist in a velvet glove, it’s a real half-way stage between top-class pinot noir and shiraz. Does the variety really end up mattering? Its perfume defies belief for its heady, floral, musky and spicy perfume of black, blue and red flowers, exotic spices, cardamon and blood plums laced with cracked pepper. Over time it has become more earthy and mineral, while its outstanding oak shines though. The palate glides with effortless style as its translucently pure core of vivacious but supremely restrained fruit wraps around the finest and firmest of dry, mineral tannins, finishing exceptionally long and savoury, underpinned by fine, mineral tannins. Astonishing. A landmark wine. Unforgettable. Lord knows what it would cost if it came from the northern Rhone!
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Balnaves The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
$115.00Jeremy’s score 93/100A finely balanced, full-dimensional long-term red whose deeply ripened bouquet of dark red and blue berries, cassis, plums and chocolate reveals dusty herbal notes, a hint of iodide and a violet-like fragrance. It’s very forward and almost jammy, with a luscious, plush depth of fruit that easily handles its assertive complement of new oak. Framed by very fine tannins, it finishes with great length of chocolatey flavour.
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Best’s Great Western Bin No. 1 Shiraz 2021
$27.00Jeremy’s score 92/100A fine, elegant, charmingly perfumed and expressive young Great Western shiraz laced with musky aromas of red berries and plums, mulberries, cracked pepper and a whiff of dark chocolate. Medium to fullish in weight, it’s ripe and forward, extending after breathing to unfold a long, tight-grained and complete palate of faintly meaty, spicy red and black fruits, finishing soft and gentle. Likely to become more savoury and expressive with age, it presents the purity and expression this region is known for.
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Best’s Great Western Bin No. 1 Shiraz 2022
$27.00Jeremy’s score 94/100The best Bin No. 1 I have tasted, this delightful young wine is what Grampians shiraz is all about. It’s immediately enjoyable yet you can cellar it long and confidently. It’s full and fiery, but delivers the elegance and fine structure sought after from this region. A heady, musky bouquet of dark berries and plums, dark chocolate and cedary oak reveals scents of pepper, minerals and a regional meatiness. Medium to fullish in weight, it’s sumptuous and seamless, with a translucently pure core of dark fruit supported by polished oak and framed by a fine gravelly spine. It finishes long and mouthwatering, with all the purity and depth the classic 2022 vintage delivered.
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Best’s Great Western Merlot 2024
$45.00Jeremy’s score 92/100A supple, fine and seamless merlot whose vibrant aromas of dark cherries and berries are lifted by scents of dark flowers, minerals and a whiff of spearmint, and gently backed by cedary oak. Supported by pliant, firmish and drying tannins, it’s pristine and translucently clear, with a vibrant core of cherry/plum fruit driving long and gentle toward a lingering finish that will become more savoury with time. This is the first release under this label for almost 20 years and while I wouldn’t normally associate Great Western with merlot, I feel there’s something pretty special happening on the Best’s vineyard.
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Best’s Great Western Young Vine Pinot Meunier 2025
$45.00Jeremy’s score 93/100Deeply scented with red cherries, raspberries, musky spices and red rose petals, this alluring and artfully made young meunier is perhaps the finest yet released under this label. There’s a round fleshiness about the alate and its delivery of plush, perfectly ripened dark red fruit and an artfully integrated spine of crunchy tannin that provides the perfect springboard for the vibrancy of its fruit. Underpinned by a note of red licorice that becomes more emphatic towards the finish, it’s long, savoury and delightfully wrapped in soft but refreshing acids.
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Bowen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
$36.00Jeremy’s score 95/100A stunning Coonawarra cabernet whose deep, alluring perfume of cassis, mulberries, dark plums and cedary oak reveals a whiff of violets and dark chocolate. Medium to fullish in weight, it’s long and artfully constructed around a fine backbone of pliant, drying tannins. Unfolding layers of fruit, oak and texture, it’s sumptuous and spotlessly presented, delivering an exercise in charm and balance in a modern, plush expression of this classic variety.
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Brand’s Laira Blockers Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
$22.00Jeremy’s score 91/100A polished, plush and varietally expressive young cabernet whose densely packed aromas of cassis, mulberries, dark plus and cedar/chocolate oak precede a long and sumptuously flavoured palate whose pristine core of ripe fruit is underpinned by a fine, firmish spine of slatey tannins. There’s just a hint of mint and menthol about this fine Coonawarra red that should continue to develop in the bottle for at least a decade.
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Chateau de Rayne Vigneau Sauternes 1986
$280.00Jeremy’s score NR / 100A warm summer following a cold winter and cool springtime has delivered a beautifully mature and complex dessert wine right in the window of balance between development and freshness.
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Chateau Langoa Barton Grand Cru Classe 2019 (375 ml)
$95.00Jeremy’s score 95/100Laden with intense dark berries, cherries and plum-like fruit knit with classically cigarboxy oak and supported by a fine, silky extract, this elegant and flavoursome St Julien is scented with dark flowers, dried herbs and cedar. Impressively long, measured and sumptuous to enjoy now, but with the ability to age long and gracefully.
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Chateau Margaux Cabernet Blend 1983
$3,100.00Jeremy’s score 98/100An exercise in balance and finesse, this is a classic Margaux that delivers a truly exceptional bouquet of smoky, cigarboxy and underbrush, with a long, silky and red-fruited palate that seamlessly extends forever. One of the highlights of this spectacular vintage.
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Clarnette Shiraz 2024
$35.00Jeremy’s score 92/100Heady and floral, this deep, dark shiraz of medium to fullish weight reveals spicy, peppery aromas of intense, pastille-like black, red and blue fruits backed by cedary oak. It’s soft, round and plump, with a core of silky fruit underpinned by a fine, drying mineral spine that carries the palate to a long, spicy finish of red licorice, cola and mineral. There’s a lot of very classy shiraz here for its price. And in 2-3 years there will be even more!
