The iPhone is the market leader in smartphones in Australia. James Halliday is the market leader in wine guides in Australia. When you put the two together you’ve got the best iPhone app for fans of Australian wine!
As well as reviewing the Halliday Wine Companion app Danny and Brad check out one of Henschke’s range of Rieslings and one of the very best fortified wines from Rutherglen, the Morris Old Premium.
Start with a white, continue with a red, finish with a sticky. It’s the classic night of wine drinking for many. So this week we follow the pattern and start with a Chardonnay from Oakridge, a producer from the Yarra Valley with big chatter about their whites right now.
We continue with onto a red, staying in the Yarra Valley. The Mac Forbes Cabernet impressed Brad with its style and polish. To end the episode we hook into a sticky, in this case a Rutherglen Muscat from local stalwarts Chambers.
This week’s recommendations are:
Oakridge Over the Shoulder Chardonnay 2010 ($18-$20)
A bit more than three and a half years ago we featured a Jim Barry Watervale Riesling on the very first episode of WineWeek. 180 episodes in we look at the newest vintage of the very wine, and it’s still a ripper!
We also check out one of, if not the, best Pinot Noir’s from the Mornington Penninsula. The 2008 Yabby Lake is a brilliant drop, and worth every cent!
With it bitterly cold in the southern parts of Australia right now we finish up with a Rutherglen Muscat that is the perfect winter warmer from Stanton & Killeen.
This week’s recommendations are:
Yabby Lake Pinot Noir 2008 ($55-$60)
Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2009 ($15-$20)
Stanton & Killeen Classic Rutherglen Muscat NV ($27-$30)
This week’s episode features three wines that are ripper bargains. The first is a shiraz/cabernet blend from Western Australia that certainly doesn’t taste like a $10 wine. We follow this up with a sub $20 muscat which would match perfectly with the chocolate and hot cross buns this weekend. To round the bargains out we look at a Heathcote shiraz which is currently being discounted in a pricing war and is close to half the price you might expect to see it for normally.
To mark our milestone 100th episode we thought we would have a special episode where we look at four of the best wines in Australia. To narrow it down a little we decided to break it up into four categories.
The first category is a white, and unusually for us the top wine is a chardonnay, and not a riesling. It’s a great drop from the Margaret River region and will be no shock to anyone being named Australia’s best white, especially given the current vintage.
Our next top wine is a cult wine, from a relatively new producer. It’s a big, powerful, red from a Barossa producer who has a legion of fans across the globe thanks to some great reviews from the top wine writers. But it’s not all about power with this red, as a splash of viognier adds subtlety and grace to the super old shiraz vines.
Of course no list of Australia’s top wines would be complete without our next wine. A true icon of Australian winemaking, the name is known across the world. People who don’t drink wine know this wine’s name and know it’s reputation as Australia’s finest drop. This red is ideal for cellaring for the long term, and is the wine that so many Australians have celebrated important milestones by opening.
To round things out we thought we would include a wine that is uniquely Australian. The fortified wines of the Rutherglen region are truly distinctive and recognised as singularly exceptional when at their best. Some producers from the region have stock of old wine dating back many generations. Our pick has dipped into some incredibly old wine to offer a blend that is exceptionally rare and worth every dollar of it’s high price tag.
This week we look at three wines that really sing. The first is a Coonawarra red that showcases the Aussie duet of Cabernet and Shiraz. The next is a chart-topping Rutherglen muscat that the reviewers all love. And finally we look at a Barossa riesling which is a true headline act without the big ticket price.
This week we look at three wines perfect for opening up after your main meal is done. The first is a Muscat which is under the vino-lok closure to make sure the wine is at its best. The next is a sweet white made in the style of the great French sauturnes. And it wouldn’t be a dessert wine special without looking at a brilliant fortified from Rutherglen.
Some wines are made for drinking with a serious mindset, others are built for fun with friends. This week we look at a McLaren Vale shiraz that fits perfectly into the second category. We also look at a chardonnay that might be the best mid-priced bottle of that variety in Australia. To round things out we recommend another sweet white from a winemaker with a great reputation world-wide.
With winter well and truly on us in the southern hemisphere we thought it a perfect time to look at three fortified wines ideal for nights in front of a fire. We check out a tokay, a muscat and a port style that are each brilliant at ridiculously inexpensive prices given the quality.
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