Large Format Collection

Juicy with ripe red fruits, some pot ash and a savoury finish, ‘The Barry Bros.’ Shiraz/Cabernet has managed to far exceed all expectations. With no new oak used, this is a wine that is totally focused on providing clean, ripe fruit and pure, primary flavours. Nothing too complex just pleasant, easy-drinking wine in a classic Australian blend. Plum and cassis up front mix with mocha and char towards the back with only hints of fruit sweetness appearing towards the finish. You really are getting a lot out of this entry level red from Jim Barry. – FWC.

Spinifex Rose is yet again, our favourite Australian rose and is a cut above the rest of the competition. The 2017 vintage is made from a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Mataro – three varities commonly used to make similar wines in Provence, Southern France. The result is a wine of lifted red berry, red petal and grenadine fragrance, thirst-quenching freshness and terrific depth. An Australian benchmark, this is sure to appeal to the many fans that this wine already has. – FWC. 

Sometimes the rosé from Provence can be so dry it borders on bland but the good ones like Riotor have good texture with lots of crunchy red fruit plus crisp acidity, which keeps them interesting and refreshing. – FWC

This is the freshest, youngest wine in the Pieropan family range. An effervescent and expressive Soave, with classic white flower, almond blossom and a touch of citrus. Rounded, ripe fruit is perfectly balanced by a fresh, clean acidity. Long and fragrant, it has a note of fine, almond pastry on the finish. Clean as a whistle, this is a pristine blend with expressive florals and a crisp apple palate. Great early drinking wine, although this has the balance and concentration to age for a few years. Decanter Magazine.

"It opens to bright red fruit, more shiny than 2011, and is still pretty young showing faint lactic notes and more traces of the barrel that should be absorbed with time. 2012 could be fresher and more accessible. It’s an elegant and balanced wine, with some fine-grained tannins that will be polished with bottle age. The palate is very tasty and has almost salty flavors that are quite gentle and velvety. In 2012 Sela was a blend of Tempranillo with 3% Graciano and 1% Garnacha." Luis Gutiérrez - Wine Advocate

The 2017 Palo Blanco is produced with Listán Blanco grapes [aka Palomino] from the village of Los Realejos in the Valle de la Orotava. Now in its second vintage, this year they added one more plot, and in 2018 they will add one more. The warm vintage was a blessing in the cooler and wetter zones of the Tenerife Island like the Orotava Valley, as the year compensated for the place, and the wine has a tad more volume and body. They were able to harvest the grapes earlier than 2016, before the weather turned more complicated, and the grapes were very healthy, which is not always the case in the northern zones. 2017 was a great viticulture year in the Orotava Valley, and they also felt the removal of herbicides when they started working the vineyard is really showing, and it should get even better. The wine is serious and balanced, and it has a dry, chalky finish with a somewhat Burgundian feel to it. Superb. – Luis Gutiérrez

A tiny amount of skin contact used here for some added mouthfeel, which shows through very nicely. Aromatics are very lively, lifted and floral. The palate shows some citrus fruit on top of some softness and roundness in the middle before straightening out again and finishing with a lot of white chalk and acid. It’s full of energy and nerve. – Ches Cook, FWC

This is 100% Pinot Noir wine that is full flavoured, rich and very dry. In fact it is bone dry when most other Brut NV’s contain around 10gm/lt of sugar (and legally up to 15gm/lt). To achieve the kind of great balance this wine possesses, the base wine quality needs to be very high as little sugar can hide excessive acidity or phenolics, and even add to the perception of flavour. So good is this wine that the absence of any sugar only adds to its quality and uniqueness. One of the best books on Champagne ͞4000 Champagnes͟ is written by the Swede Richard Juhlin, and he writes ͞A tremendously powerful Champagne. The mature reserve wines give weight and softness and rounds off the completely dry aftertaste. Bollinger-like.͟The best quality Champagne on the market at anywhere near this price! –Ian Cook, FWC.

Old vines (27 years old) from schist soils in The Elms vineyard have produced a taut, seamless chardonnay with white peach, citrus, lime blossom and wet stone/mineral characters. Power and purity delivered with consummate subtlety. Drink now to 7 years. Bob Campbell MW, Gourmet Traveller Wine, Feb/Mar 2020

Inviting aromas of white blossom, delicate peach and hints of citrus. Not obvious or overt: just balanced and uncomplicated. However, the palate is where it all becomes more serious with nutty and complex flavours, both mouth-coating and alluring. Harmonising time in barrel (16 months), but no new oak, avails a revelatory transparency promoting an emphasis on site expression. The deep schist soils of Block 2, without make-up and winemaking artefact, are plainly evident in the long and mineral finish. - Felton Road

The good news is that Isle 2018 is looking superb and follows the highly sought-after 2017 vintage which barely touched the sides here at Five Way Cellars. This will be gone in record time too, I suspect. This release shows a great deal of elegance: a mix of red fruits with some darker undercurrents, light in the mouth but with gentle persistence of flavour that leaves a last impression on the senses. It isn’t muscular but rather slowly builds on you with its all-encompassing mouthfeel and ballooning aromatics of red berry, foresty undergrowth and some gentle spice. A fantastic expression of Huon Pinot. – Ches Cook, FWC.

To quote Jim Chatto, The Isle Pinot Noir is from “the purple patch in the vineyard.” It’s taut. It’s not dense but it’s powerful. It has reductive characters but they’re complexing rather than excessive. I described last year’s release as exquisite and this is the equal of it. It crackles with dried leaves, woodsmoke, cranberry, red and black cherry and woodsy spice. There’s a garden herb character, particularly through the finish, but it gets swept up in the overall rush. We’re in elite territory here. Drink 2021 - 2030+. 96 Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

Savoury with a perfumed lift of cherry & blackcurrant florals, plus a little honey richness matched with a hint of red apple on the palate. The most minerality of the Spatlese with a good lengthy zing on the second half of the palate. All the Spatlese wines seem drier than previous vintages – the Wehlener, long, flinty & savoury with quite a drying finish. My favourite by a whisker. Ian Cook. FWC.

The 2016 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese (AP 23 17) is still discreet, floral and finely mineral rather than fruity on the nose compared to the other 2016 Spätlesen. Lush, piquant and juicy on the palate, this is a firm but sensual Sonnenuhr with remarkable finesse, lightness and lingering salinity. 94 points, Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate #236.

Not necessarily bigger or darker when compared to The Acre but a sense of seriousness and superiority hovers over this wine. Aromas are lifted and bring new dimensions of floral tones to the wine with each sniff. It has an Aperol/Campari/botanical thing going on which is hard to pinpoint but so alluring at the same time. There is a coolness to the wine and for all the prettiness of the fruit, there are savoury undercurrents which is where the real enjoyment lies. Again, it is one to cellar if you can, but drinking it young will bring a lot of enjoyment, too. – Ches Cook, FWC.

Vietti’s 2015 Barolo Castiglione is soft, silky and pliant, all qualities that make it a good choice for drinking now and over the next decade or so. Floral and nicely lifted, the 2015 is very pretty, if not quite the overachiever it can be. I expect the 2015 will be even more expressive once the tannins soften a bit further. In this tasting, the Castiglione stands out for its freshness and energy. Time in the glass brings out an extra layer of textural breadth and resonance that is not immediately apparent. Score: 91 Points – Antonio Galloni (Vinous, Feb 2019)

Plenty of perfume here with abundant roses and violets, as well as spice-dusted red cherries and hints of orange rind. The palate has depth and density with a sense of power and detail to the tannins. Long, dense and fresh. Score: 94 Points – James Suckling (Feb 2019)

Lamy has 2.4-hectares in this 1er Cru with the vines planted in 1935, 1960 and 1985. Les Frionnes is a southeast-facing site with old, decomposed limestone/clay soils and a plethora of small rocks in the top soil. The vines here are adjacent to the Derrière chez Edouard, but this is a slightly warmer site and is picked earlier. Exposed to the south, but on firm mineral soil, Frionnes gives both pulpy fruit and vibrant, saline freshness. The 2016 is wonderful.

“Outstanding. A slightly riper blend features notes of various white orchard fruit, floral and more discreet citrus nuances. Despite the evident concentration and volume the medium-bodied flavors retain a fine sense of cut and punch with a driving and saline-inflected finish that displays focused power and a hint of bitter lemon.” 90-93 Points, Allen Meadows, Burghound, Issue 71.

“Fermented in 1,200- and 2,400-liter oak vats (Stück and Doppelstück), Weil's citrus colored 2016 Rheingau Riesling Kiedrich Gräfenberg "GG" is bright, pure, fresh and dusty-mineral on the nose but also indicates ripe, intense and concentrated (Mirabelle) fruit that is perfectly mixed with the aromas of the deep and complex Gräfenberg terroir. On the palate, this is a mouthful of lush, elegant and even delicate dry Riesling that is dense and structured but reveals remarkable finesse and mineral piquancy as well. Has the Gräfenberg ever been more Mosel-like than this gorgeous 2016? I have often found the Gräfenberg to be too mighty, rich and powerful (and was privately assuming how great this wine should be with organic or even biodynamic farming). But the 2016 doesn't have the power of former vintages; rather, it possesses purity and freshness intertwined with the elegant and lush fruit that is really unique for this prestigious grand cru. Its persistent finish is perfectly round and aromatic but also salty and very stimulating. Still very young, the 2016 will benefit from further bottle aging. It is a superbly fine, elegant and balanced Gräfenberg.” 95 points, Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate #234, December 2017

Goldkapsel indicates that the wine is made from later picked, higher must-weight (Beerenauslese+ level) and often botrytised berries. These extraordinary wines live and evolve for many decades. They can certainly work with appropriately matched desserts (fruit based). These wines, as the name clearly suggests, are designated by a golden capsule. These are some of the most revered Rieslings on the planet.

This is Wehlener Sonnenuhr writ-large. As you would expect at this level and from this vintage, this is an astonishingly beautiful wine. Rich, intense and profoundly multifaceted yet nonetheless wonderfully ethereal and refined. Somehow – and don’t ask us how - a tightly coiled seam of mineral slatey-ness and tangy grip keeps the stunning package of concentrated stone fruits, pastilles, smoke, pungent citrus and white florals, all tightly woven and ravishingly refreshing. It’s an Auslese for the ages, so much so that you could fill a room with this wine’s ambition.

Golden yellow. Rich, smoky aromas of dried apricot, baked apple and white raisins. Sumptuous papaya fruit texture with the weight of honey-glazed botrytis is elevated by an ethereal minerality. Complex brown spices on the impressively long finish. One of the three finest ausleses of the vintage. 98 points, Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, Jan/Feb 12

Pinot dominant wine, with powerful fruit and great depth - Classic Bouzy! This Champagne house is based in the Grand Cru village of Bouzy in the Montagne de Reims district. Youthful and enthusiastic winemaker Jean Francois Clouet produces 6000 dozen per year and currently works in ancient cellars dug by hand. “It took ten guys ten years” says Jean Francois. The Clouet’s vineyards closely reflect the village plantings of 88% pinot noir (some of Clouet’s vines are adjacent to Bollinger’s pre-phylloxera plantings that make a single vineyard wine at about $800 per bottle), 1% pinot meunier and 11% chardonnay. The style here is full flavoured and rich. The house is famous for the Silver Brut that is one of the driest Champagnes on the market.

 

This is 100% pinot noir wine that is full flavoured, rich and very dry. In fact it is bone dry when most other Brut N/V’s contain around 10gm/lt of sugar (and legally up to 15gm/lt). To achieve the kind of great balance this wine possesses, the base wine quality needs to be very high as little sugar can hide excessive acidity or phenolics, and even add to the perception of flavour. So good is this wine that the absence of any sugar only adds to its quality and uniqueness. One of the best books on Champagne “4000 Champagnes” is written by the Swede Richard Juhlin, and he writes “A tremendously powerful Champagne. The mature reserve wines give weight and softness and rounds off the completely dry aftertaste. Bollinger like.” - Ian Cook, FWC

Clos de la Cave des Ducs is a Monopole vineyard that measures only 0.64 hectares and is owned by the family of Leroux’s right-hand man, Jean-Charles Carré. It’s a wine that was rarely seen before Leroux started bottling this site. With Jean-Charles, Leroux controls every aspect of viticulture and so the site is managed biodynamically and with meticulous care. The vineyard is situated within the upper boundaries of the village─the highest 1er Cru of Volnay in fact─on fine, light soils. The oldest vines here are now 80 years old although the average age evens out to be about 50 years, and includes a 20-year-old massale selection parcel sourced from Comte Armand’s Clos des Epeneaux. This year Leroux retained one-third whole bunches. The best Clos de la Cave des Ducs Leroux has made? The grower certainly thinks so and it’s not hard to see why. It’s deep and fleshy with great fruit purity (dark cherry, ink, brown spices), great finesse, seductive texture and excellent persistence. There’s plenty of tannin but they are very fine. Don't miss it! It’s a great drink now but will be a truly great bottle in 5-10 years. 

 

“It has a very subtle bouquet, tightly wound and poised, featuring crushed stone, almost flint-like aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannin, wonderful poise and purity and a sappy, very silky finish that is utterly seductive. This is one of Leroux’s best reds this year.” 91-93 points, Neal Martin, Vinous January 2019

 

“A cool, airy and admirably pure combination of essence of red pinot fruit sprinkled with lovely spice and floral wisps gives way to super-sleek and intense flavors that are also intensely mineral-driven on the slightly less linear and strict finale. This too will need a few years to add flesh but it ultimately should be lovely.” 89-92 points, Allen Meadows, Burghound issue 75

Pinot dominant wine, with powerful fruit and great depth - Classic Bouzy! This Champagne house is based in the Grand Cru village of Bouzy in the Montagne de Reims district. Youthful and enthusiastic winemaker Jean Francois Clouet produces 6000 dozen per year and currently works in ancient cellars dug by hand. “It took ten guys ten years” says Jean Francois. The Clouet’s vineyards closely reflect the village plantings of 88% pinot noir (some of Clouet’s vines are adjacent to Bollinger’s pre-phylloxera plantings that make a single vineyard wine at about $800 per bottle), 1% pinot meunier and 11% chardonnay. The style here is full flavoured and rich. The house is famous for the Silver Brut that is one of the driest Champagnes on the market.

 

This is 100% pinot noir wine that is full flavoured, rich and very dry. In fact it is bone dry when most other Brut N/V’s contain around 10gm/lt of sugar (and legally up to 15gm/lt). To achieve the kind of great balance this wine possesses, the base wine quality needs to be very high as little sugar can hide excessive acidity or phenolics, and even add to the perception of flavour. So good is this wine that the absence of any sugar only adds to its quality and uniqueness. One of the best books on Champagne “4000 Champagnes” is written by the Swede Richard Juhlin, and he writes “A tremendously powerful Champagne. The mature reserve wines give weight and softness and rounds off the completely dry aftertaste. Bollinger like."  Ian Cook, FWC

This is quite plummy in character with its highly complex aromas of dark berry, earth, sauvage, floral and gentle spice nuances. There is outstanding volume and concentration to the markedly powerful and muscular broad-shouldered flavors that culminate in a dusty, seriously long and equally complex finish. Note that my suggested drinking window takes into account the magnum format. 92-95 points. - Allen Meadows, Burghound. Drink 2033+.

A brooding, ripe and pungently earthy nose offers up notes of violets, cassis and relatively hightoned red berries that give way to rich, powerful and restrained big-boned flavors that possess excellent mid-palate density before culminating in a robust and overtly muscular finish that displays the hallmark Clos de Vougeot austerity. 91-94 /2024+ - Burghound

An hour after opening: Very dark blackish crimson. Very powerful and intense. Tar and alcohol and sweet American oak – still very embryonic. Tough oaky finish. Not mellifluous. Very tough finish. Sweet and medicinal but it may age more gracefully. Tough finish with the acidity very obvious. Not harmonious. 24 hours later: very round and supple and seductive – enormous power and only very slight syrupiness. The fruit, acidity and tannin had harmonised, as they tend to do in bottle over the years, so that the aggressive elements were muted and what was dominant was the intensely South Australian fruit – still tar and sweet oak with more than a hint of cough medicine, but gentle. 18+ Points/Drink 2015-2025 - Jancis Robinson, Jancis Robinson.com

It is always a treat to taste Australia’s most famous wine, Penfolds’ Grange cuvee (the word Hermitage has been dropped because of legal issues). The 2001 Grange is one of the few vintages of this cuvee to be composed of 100% Shiraz (the others being 1951, 1952, 1963, 1999, and 2000). Aged 17 months in 100% American oak, and tipping the scales at 14.5% alcohol, the 2001 is undeniably one of the top examples of this wine. At this stage, it appears to eclipse the 1998 and 1996. Inky/blue/purple to the rim, with a stunning perfume of blueberries, blackberries, chocolate, graphite, and earth, it boasts good acidity, huge tannins, magnificent concentration, and a multilayered, textured mouthfeel. It is a big, but impeccably well-balanced Shiraz that should shed some of its structure and tannin over the next 4-5 years. 98+ Points/Drink 2010-2030+ - Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate