Domain A Pinot Noir 2005 from the Cool River Valley in southern Tasmania...

It’s deep, layered, spicy and savoury all at once on the nose. Age has treated this very well. On the palate the primary fruit flavours of dark cherry, plum and rose petals have begun to integrate into the more savoury side with underbrush and dried herbs. Long, long finish to round things up. It’s a very classy wine. I wish I had a few more left! ⁣​

 Domain A Pinot Noir 2005 from the Cool River Valley in

Château Gruaud-Larose basking in summer sunshine. Bordeaux at its best, cutting edge architecture, centuries of history, and world class wines... what more could you want?! 🍷

 Château Gruaud-Larose basking in summer sunshine. Bordeaux

How can you go wrong when you have these two to choose from! ⁣

Bruno Rocca Langhe Nebbiolo 2016, possibly my best find of the year. It's a very classy Neb made from the youngest vines Bruno Rocca have. Crisp, floral, full of red cherries and that lovely Nebbiolo tannin. A great find! try it, it's bloody good stuff. ⁣

Vietti Perbacco 2016, the competition! 2016 was a cracking year in ​Piemonte and these wines highlight that. Perfumed and vibrant, the Perbacco shows the classic rose petals and fresh red cherry. Almost all of this fruit is destined to be Barolo so grab yourself a bargain! ⁣

 How can you go wrong when you have these two to choose

This I could drink for days! ​Prophet's Rock Pinot Noir 2014, the flagship Pinot Noir arguably the best Pinot of the year so far!⁣ What’s yours? ⁣

On the nose this is a fascinating wine. Tight, complex, savoury, a real wine lovers wine. On your palate the dark fruit depth is awesome, the savoury profile and fine tannins combine to make a truly enjoyable wine that keeps your focus and attention. Seriously well made!⁣ 🍷

 This I could drink for days! ​Prophet's Rock Pinot Noir

Very excited to see this little gem hit the cellar. Bruno Rocca Barbaresco Rabajà 2015. 100% Nebbiolo that spends 12 month in French oak barriques followed by 12 month in French oak barrels. This wine excites me... too bad it’ll be in the cellar for a while! Possibly the most beautiful label I’ve seen for a long time as well. Screems class

 Very excited to see this little gem hit the cellar. Bruno

Kooyong Faultline Chardonnay 2016. Tasted at the cellar door last week and, as usual with Kooyong wines, it was fantastic. Tighter and more reigned in than previous vintages, just needs some time. That being said, it’s a cracker of a Chardy. Stone fruit, pineapple, hints of matchstick and flint. Biscuits and nutty notes on the finish. I can’t wait to try this in a few years. -

 Kooyong Faultline Chardonnay 2016. Tasted at the cellar

Do you think more restaurants should be BYO? I’m a big fan! Love spending a bit of time working what what I’m going to take to dinner. 🍷

Shiraz-Cabernet is a ripper. Awesome colour, beautiful dark ruby. Sweet, ripe, stewed fruits on the nose. Followed by rich, generous, cherry and raspberry on the palate. Loved it 👍🏽🍷🙌 🍷 ⁣​

 Do you think more restaurants should be BYO? I’m a big fan!

⁣They don’t come much more iconic or better than this from the Mclaren Vale.

Inky and dark red in the glass. Dark fruits, blackberries and dark cherries on the nose with a sniff of oak. Solid tannins and juicy acidity combine to support the concentrated dark fruit profile. Think mulberry and brambles, plums and blackberry with earthiness and graphite. It’s a ripper! 🍷

Why’s it called the Dead Arm? Well, dead arm is a vine disease caused by the fungus Eutypa Lata that randomly affects vineyards all over the world. Often affected vines are severely pruned or replanted. One half, or an 'arm' of the vine slowly becomes reduced to dead wood. That side may be lifeless and brittle, but the grapes on the other side, while low yielding, display amazing intensity. This 2016 will go for years and years! 🍷

 ⁣They don’t come much more iconic or better than this from

​Absolute stunner! By Farr RP Pinot 2016 is a complete masterpiece. My wine⁣ of the year, by farr. ⁣

⁣🍷 The key to this wine is to resist getting stuck in immediately and letting⁣ it breath for 30 minutes, that’s all. Whole-bunch, vegetal, herbal aromas, dark⁣ fruits, and a saline edge. The structure is phenomenal, complexly is there in⁣ buckets, texture and length exceptional. ⁣

⁣🍷 It’s a trademark Pinot Noir from the By Farr stable and a wine that only⁣ get better with age. It’s hard to believe it could!⁣ ⁣ ​

 ​Absolute stunner! By Farr RP Pinot 2016 is a complete

 especially the flagship Shiraz, Grains of Paradise 2013. Easily one of the great wines produced in the Barossa thanks to the dry grown, 80+ year old grape vine that produce exceptional quality. ⁣

​Complex and fragrant on the nose, with dark fruit, plum and oak assuring a medium-bodied highly elegant expression of Barossa Shiraz. Awesomeness in a bottle! You could pay a lot more money for a wine from the Barossa and still not beat this. Well played Charles Melton!⁣

P.s. The cellar door and staff are fantastic!⁣

 What's not to love about @charlesmeltonwines  especially

​Easing my way into the week with a cheeky Pinot Noir by⁣ Tamar Ridge. This 2016 is a rich, complex little number, generous on the nose offering ripe cherry and red fruits with a feint spice and savoury element coming through.⁣

There’s a good balance of red fruits, acidity, and fine⁣ tannins on the palate with a relatively longish finish. Not a blockbuster, but a pretty decent way to start the week! ⁣Happy Monday!

 ​Easing my way into the week with a cheeky Pinot Noir by⁣

Pretty perfect way to round up Wednesday! ​If you've not tried Spinifex wines before you should. They're a fantastic example of what the Barossa has to offer. ⁣

⁣🍷 The Bete Noir 2014 is an assured wine that balances richness and freshness perfectly. Concentrated dark fruits, earthy, savoury flavours with a Kalamata olive kick. All round this is a quality drop of Barossa goodness!⁣

 Pretty perfect way to round up Wednesday! ​If you've not

Chateau Brown Blanc 2015, 65% Sauvignon Blanc 35% Semillon. Lively, limey, citrus fruit loveliness with an oaky backbone. Racy, refined and crisp on the palate with those citrus fruits coming through with good weight and fantastic length. Big, big fan of this! ⁣​

 Chateau Brown Blanc 2015, 65% Sauvignon Blanc 35% Semillon

With notification that Hutton Vale Farm will be releasing their next vintages of wines, I decided to open their Grenache Mataro.

Another brilliant wine. Few words are required. Just delicious.

It made me actually look back at my ratings of this winery and without doubt it is one of the favourites for Winery of the Year. With their Shiraz being the standout.

If you don’t believe me even Sir Halliday scored their Shiraz 97 points with the word ‘flawless’ in the description. Meanwhile this Grenache Mataro only received 96 (tongue in cheek)

You can clearly see I love the wines the team at

I know they are at the higher end of wine budgets but they are worth it…simple…

 Hutton Vale Farm Grenache Mataro 2016 Rating: A- Price: $75

As I've outlined in a recent post, these virtual cellar door tastings is one of the inventions/innovations in wine in recent memory. So to start my virtual cellar door experience, I travelled on my couch to the McLaren Vale via Adeliade Hills to visit  the wonderful Jericho Family Winery.

 previously and are a favourite of mine, so I was excited to taste the latest releases.

Jericho Wines have carefully curated a special tasting pack of their favourites wines.

At 6 x 100mls, it equates to a just under a bottle of wine or if you share them it’s similar to what you get at an actual cellar door.

I could do six separate reviews but I thought let’s just treat this like a visit to the actual cellar.

I started with the whites and followed the included tasting notes. What a great tasting. All of them were very good and I would recommend them all, but as this a review, I decided to ranked them in order of my preference;

1. 2016 Single Vineyard McLaren Vale Shiraz,

3. 2019 McLaren Vale Grenache Shiraz Mouvedre (GSM)

The Shiraz is very good. Really good, it delivers a complex but delicate approach with a few years under its belt. The tempranillo from this winery is one of my favourite wines, 2019 vintage does not disappoint. For $20 it is a steal. The two whites are completely different from lets say, the usual whites I drink. Their style and taste are such a pleasure to drink and both are now on my radar. The GSM is a grenache focused dream.

And only because someone has to finish last, the S3 Shiraz, but there is no failure in coming last in this race. 🍷

So how successful was this virtual cellar door?

This one is an easy answer, I have bought a selection of the Tempranillo, GSM, Shiraz and their premium grenache, which wasn't part of the pack, but if their $20 wine is this good, imagine how good the $50 stuff is...simple...

 Jericho Family Wines Home Tasting Pack As I've outlined in

Scarborough is one of the first ‘real’ quality wines I experienced.

The Obsessive Chardonnay condenses the entire Scarborough story in one bottle. Handmade, single vineyard parcel with upmost respect for winemaking.

It’s a balance between that buttery flavour, well sourced oak and a refreshing acidity.

I can’t help remembering my first visit to the Scarborough cellar door in the Hunter Valley.

I’m positive the tastings were in the lounge room of their family home on a big timber dining table. I instantly felt that family & country hospitality. This was their dream, their history and their passion of winemaking all spread out on that table. I loved it...simple...

 Scarborough Wine Co The Obsessive Chardonnay 2018 Rating:

I wanted to see how this was developing in the cellar. Although still very young, I loved this wine when first released and I couldn’t resist opening another one.

The development is slow. Let's start with it is still a beautiful wine and everything I remember. Initial thoughts 🤔  I better buy some more.

High alcohol content hasn’t disappeared. No real changed from the notes I made originally (and that’s not a bad thing)

Recommendation: This will take further time to develop and fingers crossed, I think I will leave it another 5 years before I open another.

The back of the label outlines 10 years but I’m thinking that will be a minimum. I’m thinking more like 15 to reach that peak drinking window. But I love drinking this now and the hardest thing will be letting this wine last that long. Maybe I better buy some more…simple…

 An update of the Pirathon Silver Shiraz 2017 I wanted to

Please comment with your answer...simple...

 Question Time Which one? @penfolds versus @henschke Please

Penfolds Koonunga Hill Seventy-Six Shiraz Cabernet 2015

 and if you do buy at least 6. Don’t argue just buy. One of the best bang for buck wine you can buy and it just gets better with age. Classic Shiraz with an elegant touch of Cabernet. Beautiful blend. Just a very good wine that ticks so many boxes ✅ The best of both worlds.

Now I know Koonunga Hill it one of the cheapest reds Penfolds make but this is a special release and definitely not the standard Koonunga Hill. Completely different and worth a try. 🍷

From Penfolds; First vintaged in 2006. The Koonunga Hill Seventy-Six Shiraz Cabernet, with its retro packaging, was released as a homage wine to the famous 1976 Koonunga Hill ‘Claret’, a wine that captured the imagination of Penfolds wine enthusiasts.

This wine is not always available but if you see the distinctive label buy some and drink one every 12 months. You’ll start to know what I’m talking about...simple...

 Penfolds Koonunga Hill Seventy-Six Shiraz Cabernet 2015

19 years old. The last bottle of an original case from

After some reminiscing, I realised that this bottle of wine had been through a lot. Actually 17 years of my life. I think I bought it around 2004. Living side by side. Sure I forgot about it and didn’t treat it as best I could.

I’m sure for the first few years it stayed in the original cardboard box, while in living 1 bedroom flat (when did flats become units and units become apartments? anyway back to the wine)

It was only a toddler when it moved to an actual wine rack under the stairs of a townhouse. During its preteens, it was placed in a very basic wine fridge. It was a bit like your first car. It worked (sometimes) and wasn’t that good but it saved a lot of wine during those

A couple of moves in between and during its mid teens it moved to a climate controlled walk in cellar. Now that was living, 5 Star all the way. A constant 14 degrees.

A couple of years ago, it made its last move. Lets call it a downsize and ended up in 160 bottle

I honestly though this was well past its drinking, so without any fanfare I cracked it open.

I don’t think this wine was originally made for be callared for 19 years and I didn’t plan to keep it for 19 years, but when you collect anything, things become sentimental. Instant memories. Just one of those I never opened.

The result, vinegar? Lifeless? Old and boring? Heatstroke?

No, it was bloody beautiful. So why was I disappointed? It was my last one…simple…

 Scarborough Wine Co. Shiraz 2002 From the Cellar 19 years

This is one of my oldest wines I still have. Penfolds Bin 407 from 1998. My last one. 🍷

Let’s start with where to store the wine:

So you can’t afford a wine fridge, a dedicated cellar or you just a don’t have the room.

1️⃣ Use an old esky. Esky’s keep the heat out and the cool ice in. Perfect for wine.

Put the Esky under the house or another room near the coldest part of the house.

2️⃣ Everyone seems to be doing ‘Light & Easy’ or ‘You foodz’, so the boxes these are delivered in are perfect. Either styrofoam boxes or even You Foodz come in a box with insulation. Fill with wine and then put in the linen closet.

3️⃣ Wrap the wines in a sleeping bags or winter blankets. They actually do help. Place in a cool location. Now that is simple. 🍷

Now these are not perfect but you have to start somewhere. Just remember don’t put wine in hot areas. This includes the kitchen (why is there a wine rack above or next to an oven these days) or wine rack next to the log fire (I know they look good but really?) don’t put in a sun room either. A garage can be hit and miss depending on the location, is it brick or fibro? Use some common sense. If it’s hot 🥵 don’t put your wine there. Most wine racks are bought for there design and look rather than actual wine storage. You only have to look at some of the reno shows for that.

 Wine Cellar Tips...simple... This is one of my oldest wines

2005 Henschke Keyneton Estate Euphonium 🍷

One of the first wines I really started to collect. After a cellar door visit in the early 2000's, I fell in love with Henschke.

I have been collecting the Keyneton since 2002 vintage and in my opinion this is one of the best entry level premium Australian wines you can really start to collect and cellar. These days I am pushing my limit to buy 6 of them (damn mortgage), but they never disappoint.

So, how was the 2005 after 14 years? Velvet smooth with an elegance that makes to stop and think, "I wish I bought more". It is thick and luscious that appeals to all my senses.

I only have 1 more of the 2005 vintage and believe it is the best Keyneton Euphonium Henschke have made (ok maybe the 2002, but it has been a while since I had one of those)

 From the Cellar 2005 Henschke Keyneton Estate Euphonium 🍷

took this impressive photo of the pressing of the 2021 Pinot Noir at

 This is beautiful. @vicpug took this impressive photo of

 Part 2 of the wine art project …simple… #wines #wine

Special and limited edition old school milk bottles filled with a beautiful Shiraz from the Barossa.

The best wine packaging I’ve seen for a while. I love this wine in the normal ‘off the shelf” bottle but as

soon as I saw this I had to buy some. Only available via the cellar door...simple...

 Mothers Milk Shiraz from @firstdropwines Special and

Aged premium hunter valley semillon. What more do you need?

 Tyrrells 2015 Aged Release Hunter Valley Semillon Rating:

In a former life, I worked in an environment that faced daily challenges, so we had a saying “adapt and overcome”

So one of the positives of this quarantine time is that wineries started to develop tasting packs as a result of cellar doors being closed.

I don’t know who started it or originally thought of the idea, but well done 👏 Cheers to you.

One of the best wine related ideas I’ve seen in recent memory.

This idea has created so many opportunities for a wine lover. There are no geographical boundaries. Whether you live in Darwin or the Gold Coast you have the ability to taste a selection of wines from a winery and then buy the ones you like. Simple. These wineries have not only adapted and overcame initial problems, I think they have created an entirely new way of tasting and enjoying wine.

 Always look for a positive. 🍷 In a former life, I worked in

Another special occasion wine. Was lucky enough to try this at the Brisbane

I actually first tried Clos Otto back in days when the owner Keith Hentschke was pouring the wine at the cellar door. I think it was the 06 vintage (but I could be wrong) anyway since that visit Clos Otto and

have won 100’s of awards and more 96+ scores than you can remember. Special place in my wine heart 🍷💝 So how does this stack up? Perfectly. You just know this wine is built for the next 10 years plus. You can really appreciate this when you taste it. Every flavour you can think of and already I’m working out how many I can afford to buy. Good old

_au Just a luxurious Barossa Wine. One of the modern Australian Classics. This is an investment...simple...

 Hentley Farm Clos Otto 2016 Shiraz Rating: A Price: $200

I don’t usually cellar Sauvignon Blanc and I honestly think I forgot about this one but I’m glad I did.

If you cellar semillon and chardonay, add a couple of these to the list...simple... I did find

still had this online (no affiliation) 🍷

 S.C. Pannell Sauvignon Blanc 2015 From the Cellar I don’t

This is why you cellar wines. Having a 2008 Peter Lehmann Cabernet Sauvignon on a Wednesday night. An 11 year old wine on a Wednesday...😂...Loving life. But seriously, these are, in my opinion the entry level for

 but each time they are amazing and last forever. Especially considering the price. This is superb. Thick and oily are the first two words. Love it. Go an Buy 6, have one then leave the rest. You don’t need a wine cellar, just use an old esky and put it in the linen closet. Simple. Have one every year after that (if you can) Trust me you will wish you bought 12. ....simple..... 🍷

 This is why you cellar wines. Having a 2008 Peter Lehmann

 Behind the scenes 🎬 It’s never too cold for #chardonnay

Everything I love about Yarra Valley Pinot is in this glass. Beautiful and elegant.

At $29, it is an absolute bargain. I instantly think, how good must the premium Pinot be?

After drinking this I went back to the bottlo and bought 5 more.

Domain A Pinot Noir 2005 from the Cool River Valley in

Château Gruaud-Larose basking in summer sunshine. Bordeaux

How can you go wrong when you have these two to choose

This I could drink for days! Prophet's Rock Pinot Noir

Very excited to see this little gem hit the cellar. Bruno

Kooyong Faultline Chardonnay 2016. Tasted at the cellar

Do you think more restaurants should be BYO? I’m a big fan!

⁣They don’t come much more iconic or better than this from

Absolute stunner! By Farr RP Pinot 2016 is a complete

What's not to love about @charlesmeltonwines especially

Easing my way into the week with a cheeky Pinot Noir by⁣

Pretty perfect way to round up Wednesday! If you've not

Chateau Brown Blanc 2015, 65% Sauvignon Blanc 35% Semillon

Hutton Vale Farm Grenache Mataro 2016 Rating: A- Price: $75

Jericho Family Wines Home Tasting Pack As I've outlined in

Scarborough Wine Co The Obsessive Chardonnay 2018 Rating:

An update of the Pirathon Silver Shiraz 2017 I wanted to

Question Time Which one? @penfolds versus @henschke Please

Penfolds Koonunga Hill Seventy-Six Shiraz Cabernet 2015

Scarborough Wine Co. Shiraz 2002 From the Cellar 19 years

Wine Cellar Tips...simple... This is one of my oldest wines

From the Cellar 2005 Henschke Keyneton Estate Euphonium 🍷

This is beautiful. @vicpug took this impressive photo of

Part 2 of the wine art project …simple… #wines #wine

Mothers Milk Shiraz from @firstdropwines Special and

Tyrrells 2015 Aged Release Hunter Valley Semillon Rating:

Always look for a positive. 🍷 In a former life, I worked in

Hentley Farm Clos Otto 2016 Shiraz Rating: A Price: $200

S.C. Pannell Sauvignon Blanc 2015 From the Cellar I don’t

This is why you cellar wines. Having a 2008 Peter Lehmann

Behind the scenes 🎬 It’s never too cold for #chardonnay

Hoddles Creek Estate 2020 Yarra Valley Pinot Rating: A