Clonakilla 2008 Hilltops Shiraz

I. Like. Big. Reds...and I cannot lie. And you really can't deny that this one is a stonker.

The colour is deep. The aroma is intoxicating. And the drinking is a heady eruption of big, peppery meatiness and warmth. It's long. Strong. And down to get the friction on.

At $25, it gives you a great big bang for your buck and I guarantee you'll be smacking your lips and pouring your second and third glasses in no time.

It is more casual than its two bigger brothers, and that's fine. Sometimes, it's exciting to dress up in a dinner suit - other times, it's more enjoyable to put on your best thongs and just have a BBQ.

Ridiculously good.

Rating: 9
Drink with: a knife and fork
Price: $25

Clonakilla 2008 O'Riada Shiraz

Remarkably, the O'Riada Shiraz is only a small step down from the climactic Shiraz Viognier. And so, if you can't quite plump for the Big Boy, you can quite contentedly settle for his younger brother.

Like the flagship, the O'Riada also gets a little hint of the viognier, and benefits enormously for it. As rare as a drop bear eating a steak tartare, viognier is a white grape that has a happy knack of lending a cheery, floral note to the brutish power of shiraz.

To the nose, the O'Riada is sweet, spicy, and intensely inviting. And for that reason, I didn't waste too much time sniffing it.

The fruit is cherry ripe, and this wine really does have a great texture - like rubbing suede against the grain. It is smokey and delicious, and crying out to be consumed liberally with a nice piece of meat. Or even by yourself. Perhaps with a steak.

Quite simply, this is a great quality, silky smooth red which is worth much more than its $35 price tag. Many other vineyards would get away with nominating this as their flagship, and then charge you $100 for the privilege. But at Clonakilla, their embarrassment of riches is your windfall.

Make the most of it and get on board.

Rating: 9
Drink with: your best Sunday roast
Price: $35

Clonakilla 2008 Shiraz Viognier

It is an inescapable truth that the only respectable things to come out of Canberra are firecrackers, pornography, and the Barton Highway.

Clonakilla, sitting just off the Barton, is fast becoming an icon in its own right and should rightly be added to that list.

Thanks to the genius of Tim Kirk, the Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier is now one of the luminaries of the Australian wine scene. Inevitably, many have tried to follow in the footsteps of this now trendy blend, but no-one else quite manages to achieve the casual brilliance of the genuine article. If ever there was a contender for the crown so tightly held by Grange, then this (in my very humble opinion) is it. And at a fraction of the cost.

Crack the top and let the genie out of the bottle. The colour is tremendous. It blushes like an autumn peach as translucent shards of light flash through the deep-cherry red contents of the glass. Give it a swirl and the legs are longer and more shapely than a Vegas chorus-line on opening night.

The nose is a panoply of all that is good in this world. A garden of spring-time flowers. Delicious gravy scrapings from a Sunday roast. The intoxicating spice of a Marrakesh marketplace.

You can almost taste the sunshine as you swill it around your mouth. Like your grandmother's best scone, there is a good lug of raspberry jam and a generous dollop of double cream to smooth out the whole experience.

It is a wine that Dionysus himself would have enjoyed in a stupor of orgiastic glory. And then come back for seconds.

Last year's release ('07) was virtually impossible to come by. And a friend of mine made Mr Kirk recoil in horror when he recounted that he'd drunk three bottles within a week of fluking across it in a bottle shop last year. The '08 release is in greater circulation, but you'll still want to be quick - particularly as it is so good.

In short, this is the best wine I've drunk all year. And, if I can keep my mitts off the rest of the case, it will no doubt be the best wine I'll drink for the next 10 years and beyond.

A keeper - but only if you have more discipline than me.

Rating: 9.9
Drink with: Restraint
Price: $75

Sevenhill 2008 White Spider Semillon Chardonnay

I came across this bottle - or rather, I discovered it - in my "back-up" rack over the weekend.

I don't recall buying it, so I can only assume that a charitable friend (or fiend) brought it for dinner once and left it behind. On that basis, I will be kinder than I might otherwise have been. But, should you choose to read on, please keep that indulgence in mind.

Sevenhill Cellars is the oldest winery in the Clare Valley. It was founded, and is still run today, by the Jesuits. It is a lovely spot, with a lovely old church and lovely old cellar. And apart from table wines, they also enjoy a healthy monopoly in the supply of sacramental wine to the other Catholics. The sacramental wine sells for $15 a bottle. Precisely the same price as the White Spider... And that is your first clue.

Now, we all know that if you happen to attend a Catholic mass, there are sensible reasons for only pretending to take a sip from the Communion cup. Mostly, they involve a desire to avoid the proliferation of herpes. But, equally, you may simply wish to avoid partaking in a ritual which involves swallowing pure gasoline.

I am sorry to say that the White Spider (which is an unusual blend of Semillon and Chardonnay) is not dissimilar. It claims to have the aroma of peaches, and that may certainly be true if they mean Peaches Geldof. Unbathed. And then doused in Impulse bodyspray. It is sickly sweet to the point of suffocation.

The taste is then anodyne in the extreme (to the extent that is possible). There is really little discernible flavour to speak of - although there is a nice, dry finish and just a touch of traditional Clare flintiness. It is relatively easy to drink, in the same way that water is easy to drink. But that is really the best I can say for it because, put simply, it just doesn't have that much to offer.

The last time a Jesuit bored me this much, I was watching the art-house film tedium that is The Mission. I recall, after a mere ten minutes, pleading for the natives to get it all over with by cooking up Father Gabriel and throwing his oboe down the waterfall. And so it was with the White Spider - except that you should replace the words "natives", "oboe" and "waterfall" with the words "me", "wine" and "sink". And leave out the part about Father Gabriel, obviously.

In other news, there is no truth to the scurrilous rumour that the brethren are also planning to release a Rock Spider Shiraz in the near future, that kind of thing now, of course, being widely frowned upon.

Rating:6.5/10
Drink with: Raspberry cordial...?
Price: $15

Bindi 2000 Chardonnay Blanc de Blanc

This is, in all likelihood, the champagne supernova that Oasis refer to in their famed anthem. But then again, since they wrote it in 1995 and this drop was only released last year, it might not be. That is, unless Noel Gallagher can see the future. Which he would probably tell you he can. In which case, it is. But I digress...


This aged Australian sparkling is phenomenal. It is more like champagne than most of the fizz that comes out of Champagne. The colour is bright yellow - like urine the day after asparagus. The nose reeks of earthy, yeasty goodness. And is so yeasty in fact that you can easily visualise the little yeasty beasts feverishly fermenting away at the Chardonnay nectar as they send their millions of tiny bubbles onwards and upwards in a spiral of refractive glory.

It is creamy and thick as it slides over the tongue, but then delivers a crisp, dry, acidic kick as it swims flirtatiously past the tonsils. It is a Vegemite milkshake, with a gin and tonic chaser. A Rubenesque femme fatale, who warms you to her ample bosom and then pierces your heart with her stiletto heel.

I met the winemaker, Michael Dhillon, at a tasting last year. He was unpretentious and down to earth, but complex and serious at the same time. He clearly delivers that stamp in his wine making. I liked him. And I like his wine. A lot.

I should also mention that the Bindi makes the cut at the new Aria restaurant in Brisbane. And I would suggest that it compares more favourably on price and taste to many of the more illustrious, imported bubbles which sit above it. I also suspect that if you treated a date to a bottle of this gear, it may actually end up saving you money on dessert - since you will, in all likelihood, be invited to depart early and skip straight to the naked peek-a-boo.

Respect.

Rating: 9/10
Drink with: Matt Moran's scallops
Price: $50 (if you are lucky)

Voyager Estate 2007 Girt by Sea Margaret River Cabernet Merlot

This wine has been a popular option for me since visiting the winery a few years back. I was treated to a generous number of liberal pours at the cellar door, and then kept it going over lunch with the mixed flight of wines and accompanying tasting plate. We ate blue swimmer crab, venison chorizo and duck, while the glasses were continually winged in at a brisk pace by the best hot tottie the Wild West had to offer.

They can afford to be generous I suppose. The winery is one of the most opulent in the country, and is built from the same source of cash that has funded Rose Hancock's bizarre lifestyle over the years. The owner, Michael Wright, is the son of Lang Hancock's business partner. But whereas young Rose squandered her inheritance on pink Rollers and poodles, the Wright heir toiled away with heart and hand to build Voyager Estate. Thanks to the mountain of mining money, and a healthy dose of eccentricity, he has created one of the standout cellar doors in the Margaret River region.

They produce a sizable range of consistently high quality drops at decent prices, and their flagships are the usual Margy suspects - a Chardonnay ($42), and a stellar Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot ($60).

But they also make a Cab Merlot for the everyman, known, patriotically, as the Girt by Sea. $24 a bottle is the list price, but I have seen it as cheap as $17. And, at that price, there is good reason to let us all rejoice.

The '07 Girt by Sea is the colour of a Tuscan terracotta, and it is probably just a little less full-bodied than in previous years. More Kate Moss than Elle Macpherson, although that is obviously not such a bad thing as far as it goes.

It has the soft, spicy aroma of a freshly split vanilla pod, and delivers plummy, fruity goodness with every swallow. It is smooth R'n'B drinking - but, much like a date with Chris Brown, it can still get a little punchy if provoked.

All in all, its beauty is as rich and rare as a footballer with morals. And while we may well have boundless plains to share with Johnny Foreigner (it's from the second verse, stick with me), I'm keen to guard this gem a little more closely.

It is an early drinker, so get stuck in while its young and free.

Rating: 8.5/10
Drink with: a good pizza
Price: $24

Image from: http://www.voyagerestate.com.au/

Moss Wood 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon*

A truly autocratic portrayal of this classic Margy River
The colour is breathtaking - a whimsical mixture of pigeon blood, weak orange cordial and the most alluring of Peruvian sunsets. It has the lascivious legs of a supermodel, while the bouquet suggests hints of bitumen, recently laid by perspiring labourers in overalls named Bruce and Gary. The nose then majestically unfurls with an undertone of wild fungi that has been trampled on some days earlier by even wilder boar and left to decay (3 days, maybe 4 - but no less!).

Like a virgin on prom night, the body is slightly reticent at first, but opens up quickly and latches onto the middle of your tongue as the alcohol begins to weave its wonderful effects. It is then all at once as full-bodied and warm as a Victoria's Secret model swaddled in a bear-skin rug.

The tannins show sublime suppleness and exhibit a looseness and absence of elasticity that is evocative of paparazzi pictures of Britney Spears emerging, sans panties, from a low-slung Aston Martin.

It is then déjà vu all over again, as this olfactory orgasm tangos along the back palette and blows its load in what one can only describe as the happiest of all happy endings.

Quite simply, the '06 is pornography in a glass. And, like all such things, should of course be shared generously with your friends.

Rating: 9.5/10
Drink with: Mates
Price: $100

* written with PJ

Ten Minutes by Tractor 2007 10X Pinot Noir

I had heard good things about this vineyard from a friend last year, who warmly recommended the restaurant and its extensive wine list. That didn't seem much of an accolade for its own wine, but as my parents had recently brought a few bottles back from a trip to the Mornington Peninsular, I thought I should kick the tyres, so-to-speak, and take the tractor for a spin.

The name, interestingly, comes by virtue of the fact that the three "home blocks" are each ten minutes, by tractor, apart. It is certainly more interesting than had they called it say, "Half Hour by Foot" or "Two Minutes by Dirt Bike".

The label is quite trendy as well. And, in the glass, it pours as purple as a Hendrix haze. It has that revered pinot combination of light and shade - deep colour with a clear twinkle of luminosity.

Other reviewers have given this particular wine an up-and-down history over the years - a report card that reads, "Obvious potential, but needs to try harder". Well, if that is the case, this year the 10X pulled its finger out and has come in much closer to the top of the class.

It is a pinot made in the Burgundy style. And much like the other famous Burgundy (Ron), it is kind of a big deal. It smells of rich mahogany and leather bound books. And goes down as smooth as Saint Diego.

It is fruity in a suave, sophisticated way, and can get away with showing a hint of the blueberry trussed up in its well-manicured coif.

Across the board, Pinot Noir is generally one of the more expensive wines - you won't find much under the $30-mark. So, at about $35, the 10X Pinot sits near the bottom of the scale pricewise, and is half the cost of the three other single-vineyard pinots (Wallis, McCutcheon and Judd) sitting in the Tractor sheds. They are also very good, but I prefer the 10X blend, particularly at the price.

Rating: 8/10
Drink with: Mushroom risotto
Price: $36

Virgin Hills 2001 Red

I hesitate to tell too many people about this. But you can buy this vintage direct from the vineyard now. The hard work has already been done for you. The bottles have been cellared for eight long years, slowly softening and maturing without the imminent threat of the corkscrew. For me, the waiting is often the hardest part. I am thirsty so often. And cabernet is so much more satisfying than coke.

The wine comes from the Macedon Ranges region which is where, according to legend, virgins were first created. Here, in this bucolic idyll, scores of untouched beauties tend the old vines, plucking only the ripest fruit, and gently extracting the sweetest of juices. They plainly do a fantastic job, because the result is outstanding. The wine is luminous as it hits the glass - a warm orangey-crimson, like Uluru at dusk, during the autumnal equinox.

As you pop the cork, the bouquet is all about ripe cherries, picnic blankets and a gentle whiff of Dior parfum.

And, oh, the legs! They run like pigs from a gun!

The fascinating blend of Cab Sauv, Shiraz, Merlot, and Malbec is then intensely warm as it caresses the dorsum - it seduces you with a certain sweetness, before letting slip with a cheeky wink of tannin that tells you that you are in for one hell of a wild night.

Virgins! In bottles! Whatever will they think of next...

Rating: 8.5/10
Drink with: Roasted rabbits
Price: $60

Image from: http://www.virginhills.com.au

Teusner 2006 Avatar

I have just checked and apparently an Avatar is something that computer nerds use to disguise themselves on the internet. Presumably, they hide behind these fake identities while they download pornography or tell fibs about themselves on dating websites. It is a facade. A make believe. A pretence.

So, is this wine a fraud? Hell no! This stuff is Evander Holyfield. The real deal. Big and smooth, it is a Barossa GSM that gives the big boys a kick right to the testes.

Pour yourself a glass. It blushes with genuine, redcurrant goodness - the colour of Santa's sack on a cold winter's night.

Bury your nose in the glass. The fresh scent of Benson & Hedges tobacco excites the nostril and invites you to get on with the business of drinking it. The quintessential Barossa menagerie of Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro (Mourvedre) has always been one of my favourites and, in the hands of the Teusner boys, this year's Avatar is a truly beautiful collision of grapes. It is improving every year.

Big Barossa red can sometimes be like a bare-knuckle punch to the face. But the magic of a quality GSM like this is that the hard hitting tannins of the Shiraz are gently wrapped up in the silken softness of the Grenache, and then given additional layering by the complexity of the Mataro. The result is that this stuff is as suave as a silver-tongued cad on the Saturday night prowl.

So, while the name might be a contradiction - like hair on a Brazilian - the gear inside the bottle is the genuine article. No pretence. No nonsense. No nerds.

Drink it now or in five years' time - I guarantee it will always go down smooth.

Rating: 9/10
Drink with: A fancy barbeque
Price: $30

Image from http://www.teusner.com.au/

Battle of Bosworth 2008 War of the Rosé

Rosé, for the most part, is the purview of dandies and the ignorant. Usually, it is little more than the mongrel by-product you get from bleeding the vats in the creation of the "real" wine. Despite that, winemakers still manage to fob it off on the unwitting.

That said, if you are forced to buy a bottle (as a gift say, for a hypogeusic aunt who "just luuuurves it", or for your girlfriend who dunks ice-cubes in her wine), then you could definitely do worse than the 2008 Battle of Bosworth: War of the Rosé. It is, at the very least, a clever name.

But it is also one of the few that is made with the rosé being the ultimate goal, rather than simply a cast off, ginger-haired step-child after-thought. This then is a credible and well-mannered alternative that you can happily swig down in the summertime.

The McLaren Vale cabernet lends an almost masculine amount of fruit to the nose. And it has admirable acidity and dryness. You could certainly enjoy it with a couple of barbequed prawns on a sunny Sunday afternoon with friends. And at only $18 a bottle, you could probably even slip it in with the more expensive bottles on the collective table and no-one would mind too much.

Equally, the vineyard is certified organic - so your ice-cube toting girlfriend may enjoy it simply for the reason that she also conspicuously monitors her carbon footprint and pretends to be into hemp clothing, and the Prius.

Go on. You know you want to. Just pretend it’s for your girlfriend. I won’t tell anyone.

Rating: 7/10

Drink with: discretion...

Price: $18

Image from http://www.edgehill-vineyards.com.au/