A mature Penfolds tasting with Yattarna, Bin 389, St Henri, Bin 707 and Grange
Penfolds is one of Australia’s most important wine companies, famous for Grange (Bin 95), the red blend they have made
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Australia
Exploring the Hunter Valley (3) Margan
Website: https://www.margan.com.au/ Margan is an important Hunter Valley producer making some very interesting wines, and championing newer varieties that show
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Exploring the Hunter Valley (2) judging the Hunter Valley Wine Show
Tell your friends that you’ve just been in the Hunter Valley judging 80 wines a day with nice people, they’ll
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Exploring the Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest wine region (1) introduction
It was almost 200 years ago, in 1828, when the Hunter Valley became a wine region. It’s the oldest in
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Restaurants: Dear Sainte Éloise, Sydney, with three nice wines
Website: https://www.lovetillygroup.com/dear-sainte-eloise After an afternoon walking around Sydney, I popped into Dear Saint Éloise, which is a wine-focused casual restaurant
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Highlights: Aphelion Grenache Noir ‘Wait’ 2025 Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale
Website: https://aphelionwine.com.au/ I was judging with Rob Mack at the Hunter Valley Wine Show, and he bought one of his
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Tenuta Minchella’s ‘By Fabiano’ wines: Italian-inspiration hits the McLaren Vale, Australia
On a quick visit to South Australia’s McLaren Vale region, I popped in to taste with Fabiano Minchella, who has
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Torbreck: a deep dive into this important Barossa winery, with winemaker Ian Hongell
It was back in 1994 that Dave Powell began a winery that was to prove very important for the Barossa
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Henschke’s 2022 single-vineyard wines, including a stunning Hill of Grace
Website: https://www.henschke.com.au/ As with last year, I got to try the single vineyard releases from Henschke with Stephen and Prue
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Screwcap damage: how much of a problem is it? For this Henschke Johann’s Garden 2023, not so much
I’ve talked a lot about the problems of cork taint. It’s still here, but at a reduced rate from the
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