With asparagus, spring pea and youthful green herbs, this Adelaide Hills Savvy is at once quite intense and quite sophisticated. Blanketed with a fine cushion of herbal lees, this stainless-steel white streams lemon and white grapefruit through to the snappy, white pepper dusted finish. If you're ever missing spring, drink this. Best appreciated cellar temperature.
An exciting Chardonnay from the Margaret River. Pale straw colour with a reductive nose of spicy oak and apple (the struck-flint note should dissipate with a year in bottle); medium- to full-bodied, dry tart apple flavour spiced up with oak. Lively on the palate with a long finish.
The suggestive label hints that this McLaren Vale will be sexy and rich, but I would summarize as ripe and succulent instead. Brooding brambles, ripe wild blackberry and dark florals on a soft, velvet-cushioned palate. Dark chocolate streams throughout the whole, coating the ripe tannins in the characteristic McLaren Vale way. Sweet baking spices linger on the finish. Easy-drinking and easily approachable now.
Medicinal-hued cherry, anise and nubuck open this Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, permeated with a subtle mineral-salts note and ample scrubby grass and herbs. A slicked palate is buffered by moderate, lightly tuggy tannins and raised with acidity to the potent anise finish. A bit elbows-and-knees at this young phase, best paired with herbed lamb kabobs.
Warmly ripe perfumed scents of blackcurrant and blackberry with a light whiff of herb and subtle spice on the nose show the way for generous blackcurrant and blackberry flavours with fine spice and a judicious splash of dark chocolate. All is delivered in a velvety smooth, harmoniously balanced package.
The cooler Margaret River region tempers the brashness of Shiraz grown in warmer Aussie regions. Deep purple-ruby in colour with a herbal, blackberry nose enriched with oak spice. Well-extracted sweet fruit with toasty oak complete the package.
The cooler Coonawarra climate (cooler than Barossa) gives this Shiraz a distinctive elegance. Dense purple in colour, the nose offers herbs and blackberry aromas backed by vanilla/sandalwood oak notes. Medium- to full-bodied, the wine is dry and savoury, juicy with a minty-floral note on the finish.