You love fine wine, but you don’t love drinking 2-year old reds. So you want to start collecting some of the best wines until they mellow enough to enjoy. What you don’t have is an underground cellar. And you don’t have access to a double brick garage that you don’t need for your car. You don’t even have a house – you live in a second-floor apartment. Global warming isn’t helping either.

The obvious next step is to hire a vault at Kennards or Cellarit or the Wine Ark, where the temperature and humidity are perfect, and the only lights are LEDs.Perfect. Just one problem: 2 little boys have muscled into your lives, and they’re ripping big chunks out of your budget. So is your mortgage, which has grown even faster than the kids. So the perfect storage option may have to wait for a time.

You’ve read what the experts say: a constant temperature is essential, ideally between 14 – 18 degrees. That’s nonsense as you’ll find out. Yes, there are ways to store wine in your apartment, without serious risk of spoilage. Read on.

Wine Cabinets

These combine high cost of storage with reliance on – and the cost of – electricity to maintain a constant temperature. The 170 bottle Vintec cabinet pictured costs about $4000, so the cost per bottle is about $24 plus electricity. This gives you temperature-controlled storage for 14 dozen bottles of wine. By the time you add 1 or 2 more of these, cost will be an issue, along with space. And if you live in an area that suffers black-outs in summer, this is not a no-risk option.

The advice that wine needs to be stored at a constant temperature all year round turns out to be nonsense, as I’ve outlined in this post: Cellaring Wine in a Hot Climate – Over 4 Decades of Hard-Won Wisdom. Far more important is a buffer against sudden changes in temperature such as a cold southerly blasting through the house after a hot spell. The most important thing is making sure that the temperature changes are gradual from day to day and season to season.

That means looking for suitable storage places. The obvious ones to avoid are kitchens and laundries with appliances that put out heat. When I lived in a second floor apartment in Mosman, I used a huge cupboard in the hallway in the centre of the place for wine storage. More wine went under the beds in the second bedroom. I kept the wine in cardboard boxes, and stored almost 50 dozen that way.

Ticking the Right Boxes

In an apartment it makes sense to use the coolest room. You can use cheap foam or other insulation or a heavy blind to cover any windows, and you can store your wine in solid boxes that provide surprisingly effective insulation. With most wines now bottled under screwcaps, humidity is no longer a concern for wine storage but can still affect your labels, so bear that in mind. Screwcaps also mean that you no longer need to store bottles lying on their sides, which gives you more storage options.

In the last few years, wine companies have taken to shipping wine in boxes that hold 6 bottles. As a result, most wineries and wine merchants now ship 6-pack boxes, and the empty ones are stacked up near the checkouts at retailers like Dan M’s and 1st Choice. There are crappy boxes and there are luxury boxes, so you need to be picky with the ones you use. Here are 3 of the best:

The top prize goes to the Casella box on the left / below. The thick cardboard is clearly designed for serious insulation during shipping. The downside is that this makes the box much bigger than others, so it will take up more storage space.

Second prize goes to the Grant Burge box (middle), a luxurious red package designed for their upmarket wines. This is a strong box made of quality cardboard, and it’s a standard size except for the length designed for those extra tall bottles. That means it also fits Riesling bottles as you can see. Very nice.

The third box is the standard 6-pack box with those soft cardboard inserts for bottles. They’re quite effective too, but vary in quality so you need to be picky. Go for the sturdy, thick ones. The boxes also come in different sizes, of course.

Wine Vaults

For a lock-up that you manage yourself at Kennards, the cost is $127 a month for a 25 case Mini Cellar. And it’s just under $400 a month for a 100 case ‘Jumbo Cellar’. That’s $1500 and $4800 per annum respectively, which is a big chunk out of your wine budget; and the facility is nowhere near as convenient as having the wine you want at hand.

Managed facilities, where the warehouse people look after your wine, catalogue it and accept deliveries from your wine merchant are much dearer again but still don’t address the tyranny of distance. Perhaps the best option is to hire a small vault for your most precious wines, and keep the rest at home.

Final thoughts

For most of us, storing wine involves compromises but I trust that this piece has added some practical footnotes to the rules for cellaring wine, which experts tend to hand down like God did the ten commandments. Clearly, if you live in Brisbane or Perth and further north, you may need more than well-insulated cardboard boxes. In really hot areas, you might want to use a combination of arrangements ranging from air-conditioning to storing some of your wine at a friend’s house or a temperature-controlled lock-up.

Whatever combination you choose, do the numbers carefully. If you’re collecting Grange, the storage cost per bottle is insignificant. If you’re collecting $20 wines, it’s a very different value proposition.

Kim

The Real World

That’s where we live, not in the exalted sphere of $1000 bottles. That end of the market has little to celebrate as it turns out. In 2025, Treasury Wine Estates offloaded the last brands in their once vast collection/, among them Wolf Blass and Lindemans.

Lindemans was a powerhouse many years ago, with Karl Stockhausen making legendary wines in the Hunter Valley, and John Vickery doing the same in the Barossa. Ray Kidd was the  company’s visionary CEO until it was taken over by Philip Morris. It ended up with Southcorp and then Carlton United Breweries who created TWE.

That was about a dozen years ago I think – that’s when I wrote Lindemans – Death By a Thousand Cuts. Michelle Terry was appointed to run the company, a surprising appointment. ‘I get very passionate about whatever I am working on,’ Terry told the media, ‘I just like creating things and thinking about how they will impact a consumer’s life, creating growth plans and then watching them deliver.’ 

Less surprising was that Terry pushed the company into irrelevance in record time.

Riding High

Wolf Blass was still going strong yet TWE decided that Penfolds alone was the cash cow that would shower fortunes on its shareholders. These last few years have seen the number of special bin wines explode from less than 10 to over 100.

‘Our strategy is a luxury-led growth strategy,’ the CEO told the press back in February, ‘through Penfolds and Treasury Americas – that is the real heart of this business now.’

More recently TWE announced that its export volumes were falling way short of the forecast. The headlines in the Australian says it all: ‘Treasury Wine’s board slept while management lost the plot. The winemaker behind the Penfolds brand lost its way through a growth-at-any-cost mentality, and without radical intervention investors will be paying for this for years.’

In February 2026, Penfolds announced half-year losses of $650 million. I scratched my head when I read that. I mean, how can you lose truck loads of money when you charge like the Light Brigade for your wines?

It does explain though why we’ve not seen the Penfolds marketing follies of old, such as the giant ampoule filled with 2004 Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet. It was a limited edition hand-blown glass ampoule and a bespoke glass plumb-bob that suspended the ampoule within a wooden Jarrah cabinet. Only twelve ampoules were made, individually numbered as you’d expect for such ‘a beautiful, thoughtful, unique objet d’art, designed to store wine in an ideal environment.’ The price? A$165,000. yes, that ‘s 6 figures.

‘The Penfolds Ampoule is not only a compelling work of wine art,’ the press release went on, ‘it also provides a truly memorable experiential and sensory engagement. When a decision is made to open the ampoule, a senior member of the Penfolds Winemaking team will personally attend a special opening ceremony for the owner (essentially your very own master-class). Anywhere in the world that is.

The last extravaganza in a long line of stunts that never came close to the ampoule’s impact was Penfolds Grange, the Musical. It’s my name for a $95,000 bespoke music cabinet with a valve amplifier and a Penfolds-branded turntable. Apparently Max was a music lover. Is that so? He’s been dead almost 30 years, and now someone remembered that he loved music?

‘Only seven individually crafted pieces have been produced globally,’ says Penfolds, ‘paying homage to the “all in one” console design from the 1950s – the same decade Grange was first created by Max Schubert … Inside, wine lovers are welcomed by the rare “White Capsule” release Grange magnum duo of vintage 2010 and 2017. Hidden within the wine console compartment that also houses a suite of luxury accessories including a hand-blown Grange Decanter, crafted by leading Australian glass artist and designer, Nick Mount.’ More Here. 

How we will miss these extravagant productions! What we get instead is new metal cannisters for the wines. How exciting! And new packaging for the year of the horse, which they screwed up because it’s the year of the Fire Horse that comes around every 60 years or so.

source: National Geographic

We also get Penfolds wines in the very fast lane – the company ‘has joined the 2026 Formula 1 Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix as an event supporter. Across the four days at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in March 5-8, a selection of Penfolds wines will be served in premium hospitality venues including in the American Express Lounge.’ in 40 degree heat no doubt.

French accent, same story

Pernod Ricard had bought the venerable Orlando operation late last century and changed its name to Jacobs Creek.  Last year, Pernod Ricard sold most of its international brands to Accolade Wines, another graveyard for established wine brands. PR’s new strategy was to focus on its spirits and champagne businesses, as the lower end of the wine market faced ‘challenges from economic uncertainty’.

Accolade was struggling to make ends meet despite a portfolio of strong brands that included Arras, Bay of Fires, Stonier, Petaluma, Croser, Hardy’s, Houghton and more. The company was owned by US-based Bain Capital, which merged the assets of Pernod Ricard with those of Accolade Wines to form Australian Wine Holdco Limited (AWL). Vinarchy was the commercial name chosen for the new set-up – we’re told that it combines ‘Vin (the French word for wine), with Archy (from the Ancient Greek word for leadership).’

Oh Mr Hart, such a mess!

Back Down to Earth

In this lucky country we’re blessed with a few wineries that live and breathe wine instead of fairy tales and balance sheets written in red. Wineries that produce excellent wines at fair prices.

Hill-Smith Family Estates is one of those, a family business that has acquired carefully selected wineries to its founding brand Yalumba. It’s Australia’s oldest family owned winery and it’s still a leading light. It put Viognier on the map in Australia, set up the country’s biggest vine nursery and makes wine using sustainable and organic practices.

The Sanctum Cabernet from Coonawarra is a great example of the kind of value the company offers. Pewsey Vale Riesling is another example – one of Australia’s finest Rieslings you can buy for $20. The Y series wines can be bought for less than $10, and they’ve been getting better and better. The Viognier and Pinot Gris are favourites, along with the Tempranillo.

Jim Barry Wines is another family business that makes great wines at fair prices. Early this year we were buying Barry & Sons trophy-winning Cabernet from Liquorland for $15. Their Watervale Riesling can be found for close to that price, and is always on song.

Leconfield / Richard Hamilton is the third family business in South Australia that overdelivers. The 2022 Merlot rewrites what we think of this variety down under, for $20 at DM’s where the vintage is a lottery, or $18 at Winedirect in a mixed dozen after 30% off with code PICKMIX, and free freight anywhere in Oz. It’s a $15 as a Hidden Label at Kemenys. Talk about the silly season!

If you prefer Cabernet to Merlot, the Leconfield Cab from the great vintage 2021 is just $2 more. You could be adventurous and blend the 2 wines. The Leconfield Cabernet Franc 2024 is a cracker as well, also under a Hidden Label for $17. The fruit fairly leaps out of the glass, with no new oak to get in the way. It’s all there, the berry fruit with a hint of mint, some gravel dust and a touch of tobacco leaf. Medium-bodied, perfect balance, a touch bigger than usual, and softer as well. No bad acid trip or harsh tannins to get in your way. 95 points.

Good for us but Not Good for Business

That wines of this calibre aren’t walking out the door and have to be sold at deep discounts is a big puzzle. Yes we have a wine glut but that shouldn’t affect One exception is Wynns who’ve made a string of wonderful Black Label Cabernets over many years that Penfolds would ask 2 or 3 times as much for.

Other wineries that overdeliver in South Australia are Bleasdale, Lake Breeze and Bremerton at Langhorne Creek, and Robert Oatley, Mitolo, d’Aremberg and Bellevue at McLaren Vale. There are too many others to name. South Australia offers the best value wines down under IMHO, often with impressive consistency.

The Clare Valley is an example, producing lots of great wines right in our sweet spot. Almost all the wineries are family owned here, and it shows. Jonathan Hesketh has entrusted John Vickery’s legacy to the very capable Keeda Zilm, and the Rieslings remain stunning bargains.

In Victoria we have Bests and Seppelt at Great Western, in the West the standouts for us are Rosily, Vass Felix and Xanadu. I can’t name them all here, just a few examples.

In NSW, Moppity has been making great wines for years, and these are often hidden or secret labels at Kemenys. Jason Brown really understands the secrets of aging reds in fine oak. Hunter wines rarely hit the right quality / price ratio, nor do the good wines of Orange. There was one exception in the run-up to Christmas: Brokenwood. Yes you read that right – can’t remember the last time we got excited about a Brokenwood wine for around $20. Or a Hunter Chardonnay.

It’s not a Hunter wine, it turns out. Brokenwood Chardonnay 2024 is a blend of 70% chardy from Beechworth, 20% from the Yarra Valley and 10% from the Hunter. Stored in French oak, 20% new. A classy, pitch-perfect Chardonnay of great finesse and that crystalline Beechworth purity. It sold for $25 at the winery earlier in the year, and later for $22 at Dan Murphy’s of all places.

The Right Merchants

Of course we couldn’t do what we’re doing without wine merchants who supply these wine at sharp prices. And as I showed in Don’t be Fooled – Everybody Beats Dan Murphy’s, the merchants we’ve selected leave DM’s choking on his empty claim. Where’s the ACCC when the truth is strangled like that?

The prices at MyCellars are sharp, and the freight is free for subscribers on any quantity. (promo code BWU20). The prices at Summer Hill Wine and Our Cellar are sharp, and the offering diverse. Winedirect offers lots of deals on pre-selected packs, and runs sales of up to 30% off shelf prices. One of these is running right now.

Kemenys offers sharp prices as well as hidden and secret labels that can save 30% or more on good quality wines. Reprinted reviews from wine scribes tend to make it easy to work out what wine is secret or hiding.

Same goes for Nicks in Melbourne and its diverse range of secret wines, which also provide hints in their labels. Nicks Secret HEW Barossa Mourvedre tells me that it’s made by Hewitson, and several reviews at the link will confirm it. The trick is not to enter the whole review into you search engine but just a couple of sentences that avoid the usual platitudes.

Nicks and Kemenys let you buy as many or as few of these bargain bottles, whereas Winestar’s secret wines are only sold in unbroken dozens. I bought a few of these over the last year and, despite careful selection, I’d say that about 1 in 3 cases were ordinary wines or worse. When you do the math, you realize that you paid close to full price for the good ones.

That’s enough chest-beating for one mailer I suspect. I wish you all a peaceful and joyful festive season with lots of good food and wine.

KIM

This is the only list of the best Chardonnays in Australia that

• Is totally independent, free of bull and free of ads
• Finds the best Chardonnays from $10 to $50 (street price)
• You can buy right now, at the sharpest prices online
• Is updated every 6 – 9 months
• Is as free as the air you breathe

This is Part 6 of a series we started 5 years ago, and update every 6 – 12 months. For a broader background, you can read Part 5 HERE, Part 4 HERE, Part 3 HERE and Part 2 HERE.

You might like to check Part 1 HERE to get the background to this project. The trend away from the rich, buttery, oaky chardies toward grapefruit and gunflint concoctions has hardly changed in 5 years; perhaps the extremes of this trend are less harsh.

We have seen a change in the prices of the top wines, most of all those from Margaret River, the Yarra Valley and New Zealand. That’s made our job harder at the $30 – $50 end of the scale. The good news is that the under $30 section has more good value twines to offer as you’ll see.

CHARDONNAY – THE SHORT STORY

We’ve always liked the rich old style chardies, the ones the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) movement turned its back on, with all the young Turk winemakers producing Twiggy style chardies that struggles to reach 13% alcohol. They also tend to avoid the malolactic fermentation, which gives chardies their creamy texture, because they prefer crunchy acid styles drizzled with grapefruit and jazzed up with struck match funk. What’s wrong with having a choice of both styles, and one in between?

Why is there a debate at all, when there’s a market for different styles. Wine snobs telling us what we should like? Sure, some of the cheap chardies from the turn of the millennium were caricatures of the real thing, but the swing to lean and mean went over the top and punters got really confused. That’s how Sauvignon Blanc become a popular refuge for many.

Why do winemakers behave like lemmings? I’ve had Tyrrell’s chardies that were trying really hard to look like cool climate wines. Even the old Scarborough label went that way in recent years … why don’t our winemakers use the natural assets of our vast wine areas, and get their heads around the big market for old style chardies? You wouldn’t believe how many requests I get from my subscribers for good wines of this style. So we’ve included a few more in this current list, warts and all.

This time we’ve included a few chardies from across the Tasman that stood out in a recent survey of New Zealand wines, and fit neatly into our sweet spot  between $13 and $20. The cooler climate of the shaky isles provides these wines with fine natural acidity, and lets winemakers use the secondary malolactic fermentation without having to worry about their wines going blousy or flabby. That fear is the reason most Aussie winemakers avoid the malo – it keeps their wines fresh but deprives them of mid-palate richness and texture. They leave the wines on lees for months and stir them to make up for that.

Anyhow, let’s check the wines.

UNDER $20

Fat Bastard Chardonnay 2023 – $13 at Our Cellar. It’s better than the 2022, which isn’t saying a lot. It’s still over-oaked, overworked and lacking finesse. We’re listing it here because the punters can’t get enough of it; it’s been the best-selling chardy at Nicks for the last 8 years, they tell us. Other merchants say people buy cases of this stuff. Not surprising since the price is sharp, but everything else is pretty blunt. We have thick slabs of caramel / vanilla oak, fruit that is ripe, pineapple sweet and lacks varietal definition. The taste is confected, makes me think of lollies. 89 points. The next wine is a much better option for the same money.

Selaks Origins Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2023 – $13 at 1st Choice. This is a crowd pleaser from a venerable Kiwi firm, offering peaches and cream, roasted nuts and vanilla oak in a well-integrated package. The texture is silky and the fine line of acid gives the wine a lift and keeps it tidy. A more subtle option than the FB. 92 points. 

Mystery MR222 Reserve Margaret River Chardonnay 2022 – $13 at Winestar in an unbroken dozen. This is Miles from Nowhere Best Blocks Chardonnay, with 5 gold medals to its credit. Ships under its normal label, with free freight to most of Australia. The oak dominates but there’s just enough fruit to stand up to it. It’s a big, rich and round wine that’s been our go-to chardy for a few months now. Top value drinking now but it’ll improve for a couple more years. 93 points.

Cherubino Folklore Chardonnay 2024 – $15 at Craft Wine Store. Larry Cherubino is a smart winemaker (he makes the Robert Oatley wines), so he made a Fat Bastard of his own. It’s not so fat and les oaky. The fruit comes from the Great Southern and Margaret River, the wine is matured in 1- and 2-year-old French oak, and the result is a fruit-forward wine with just a hint of oak  and plenty of charm. 92 points.

Babich Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2024 – $16 at Our Cellar. An attractive chardy offering rich, ripe peaches and nectarines, mild cashews and hints of vanilla, with chalky minerals in the background. The slinky, creamy texture adds to the wine’s appeal.  It’s not the most complex chardy and the finish is a tad short, but it’s good drinking now and will fill out over the next year or two. 92/93 points.

Secret Label Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2024 – $16 at Kemenys. This turns out to be Katana Chardonnay from Tim Knappstein and Son. They like swords and daggers and sharp things. See Jeni Port’s review at the link. 93 points.

Deep Woods Estate Chardonnay 2024 – $17 at 1st Choice in a twin pack. These guys offer lots of deals that often bring the price down to $15. Stone fruits and grilled nuts, a gentle rendition of Margaret River chardy from a winery that‘s built quite a reputation for its wines. It’s tidy and polished. Nothing’s overdone so it sneaks up on you, softly, softly – you look at the empty glass and wonder where it went. Good value. 93 points.

Heggies Cloudline Chardonnay 2024 – $17 at Jimurphy (on sale). A real sleeper, this one. From Eden valley’s high country. Nectarines and white peaches, framed by subtle oak and faint citrus notes. Fresh, modern style of chardy that avoids the struck matches. Love balance and length. 94 Points. 

Robert Oatley Signature Series Margaret River Chardonnay – $18 at Our Cellar. Made by Larry Cherubino, offering attractive ripe stone fruits and hints of cashews in the elegant style that is Larry’s usual signature. It will please crowds with its seductive sweet fruit. 93 points. 

Mondavi Bourbon Barrel Aged Chardonnay 2022 – $19 at Our Cellar. Rich and buttery with toasty vanilla oak. Full-bodied, offering peaches, pears and pineapples. Baked custard, grilled nuts, creamy texture. A lot of clever work on show here for the money; made in vast quantities. 92 points.

Wickhams Road Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2024 – $20 at Boccaccio Cellars. The second label of Hoddles Creek Estate, made form bought-in fruit. It’s a bright, energetic rendition of the chardy theme with stone fruits and citrus notes doing the driving, and oak in the back seat. Great line and length. Great style. 93 points.

Hill Smith Estate Chardonnay 2024 – $20 at Wine Experience. I used to like this wine from the Hill Smith family that owns Yalumba, then lost track of it (it’s always been hard to find) and here it is again. The fruit is from Eden Valley, and the wine reflects the cool climate there with fresh and zesty energy. Stone fruits and hints of grapefruit plus some struck match notes, a gently creamy texture with some French oak in the background. 94 points.

OVER $20

Kumeu Village Chardonnay 2024 – $23 at Our Cellar. I’ve long been a fan of this Kiwi chardy from the suburbs of Auckland, bought lots of the 2022 but was less impressed with the 2023 from a tough vintage. The 2024 is back to rich and ripe and round but is a little short on the palate which reduces the score. 93 points.

Mountadam Eden Valley Chardonnay 2024 – $23 at Our Cellar. Pretty straight up-and-down Chardonnay offering white stone fruits and cashews, generous of build with good depth of flavour. Good drinking for the next year or 2. This is not the top of the line chardy from Mountadam but good value at this price. 93 points. BUY

The Creamery Chardonnay 2023 – $25 at Our Cellar. Made by O’Neill Vintners who make ripe Chardonnays from grapes grown in California – Monterey, Paso Robles and Clarksburg. It’s 100% barrel fermented, sees 100% malolactic fermentation, and spends seven months in American and French oak. It delivers what it says on the label: rich, ripe, buttery and peachy Chardonnay with a creamy texture, backed by toasty oak. The best of the Californians on this list IMHO, and the sharpest price down under. 94 points.

Rosily Margaret River Chardonnay 2023 – $27 at Wine Square. Organic boutique chardy, very well made. Some of the wine gets some malo, and all of it gets 9 months in small oak barrels. 30% of these are new, yet the integration is subtle and seamless. A lovely rich, round mouthful. 94 points.

Brokenwood Chardonnay 2024 – $24 at Jim’s Cellars. A blend of 70% Chardonnay from Beechworth, 20% from the Yarra Valley and 10% from the Hunter. Stored in French oak, 20% new. Classic white peaches and cashews with hints of nougat, some mealy notes and a squirt of lemon, fresh and elegant yet with good depth of flavour. Silky smooth with good line and length. A  sneaky way of getting some classy Beechworth Chardonnay at a sharp price. 95 points. 

Dog Ridge Butterfingers Chardonnay 2022 – $22 at mcd-vcd.wine. It’s not as buttery as it suggests, but it’s buttery enough for me. The oak is kept in check as well, letting the gorgeous fruit do most of the talking – ripe peaches and apricots, a touch of vanilla from the oak, good mid-palate weight, medium-bodied (14%), fresh and crisp, supported by a clean line of acid. McLaren Vale in a tux. 94+ points. Good drinking now, but will fill out a little more over a year or two.

Oakridge Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2024 – $26 at WSD. Some struck match funk but not overdone, some citrus notes keeping the peaches in check, and roasted nuts in the background. Good depth of flavour here, and good length leading to a dry finish. 94 points. Stylish chardy for the asking price.

Hoddles Creek Estate Chardonnay 2024 – $26 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers on any quantity. White peaches and nectarines backed by almond oak, clean and fresh, young and intense but quite restrained as is the winery’s style. Will soften and fill out over a year or three. 94+ points

Ringbolt  Chardonnay 2023 – $26 at Our Cellar. It’s a new addition to the ever-growing Hill Smith Family Estates (HSFE) tribe, and I suspect the lone Ringbolt Cabernet will be glad of the company. This is among the best Chardonnays I’ve tasted in the last 12 months: classic Willyabrup intensity, energy and appeal. Has everything you expect from a good chardy, and it’s a seamless piece of work. Just a gorgeous mouthful that you keep coming back to. 95 points

Craggy Range Kidnappers Vineyard Chardonnay 2024 – $29 at Our Cellar. A Chablis style from one of the top vineyards in New Zealand. Crisp, tangy chardy with a squirt of grapefruit, a whiff of oyster shells and sea spray, backed by wet stone minerals and fine-polished with subtle French oak. 94 points.

Montalto Pennon Hill Chardonnay 2023 – $30 at WSD. Haven’t tried this vintage but Jane Faulkner at the WC has and writes: ‘Always a terrific go-to wine showcasing the peninsula as much as the producer. It’s really juicy and zesty, full of citrus and white stone fruit, with a sprinkling of spice, lime zest and coriander seeds. It’s tangy and lively across the palate, and while there’s a slip of leesy texture, this is mouth-watering and superfine. Very good. 13% alc. Drink: 2024 – 2030.’

Garagiste Le Stagiaire Chardonnay 2024 – $30 at Different Drop. Barnaby Flanders is a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay tragic, they tell us. He travelled the world and fell in love with the wines of Burgundy. In 2006 he founded Garagiste Wines on the Mornington Peninsula, where he makes, you guessed it, small batch premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This is Garagiste’s value leader. The fruit was  whole-bunch pressed directly to 500-litre puncheons and spent 8 months on lees to build complexity. The style is fine-boned and pure, fresh and zesty, fruit-driven with citrus overtones. Oak doesn’t intrude. 94 points.

OVER $30

Kooyong Clonale Chardonnay 2023 – $32 at DM’s. This was a favourite of ours a few years back when it sold for less than $20. The tightly-wound, energetic and elegant style has not changed a lot since. An seamless blend of citrus and honeysuckle, nectarines and cashews, finished with a touch of ginger. The fine acidity gives the finish a lift. 94 points

Neudorf Tiritiri Chardonnay 2022 – $32 at Wine Experience. From beautiful Nelson on the south island of NZ.  A faint whiff of struck matches leads to an elegant chardy of some complexity. It spent 10 months on lees with monthly battonage (stirring), then went through malolactic fermentation. Peaches, ripe apples, a squirt of grapefruit and some chalky minerals. The creamy texture completes the classy picture. Subtle and elegant. Delicious chardy. 94+ points.

Scotchmans Hill Chardonnay Bellarine Peninsula 2023 – $33 at WSD. Haven’t tried this vintage but these guys have a great track record for chardies. Here’s is JH’s take: ‘Clones P58, I10V1, I10V3, I10V5, 76 and 95; whole-bunch pressed to barrel, wild-yeast fermentation, lees stirred monthly, matured in new and used French barriques for 12 months. A mouth-filling, rich and creamy palate is striking, but does allow grapefruit to make a limited appearance on the complex, satisfying finish. 95 points, Special Value.’

Leeuwin Estate Prelude Chardonnay 2023 – $34 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers (promo code BWU20). This is the best of this line I can remember. Is it the trickle-down effect form the Art Series? It doesn’t matter, it’s classic Margs chardy offering cashews with a whiff of struck match, a squirt of grapefruit and some spicy oak. And good depth of flavour and superb balance. 95 points.

Soumah Single Vineyard Hexham Chardonnay 2023 – $34 at Summer Hill Wine. I haven’t tried this vintage. The Real Review writes: Complete and fragrant aromas of grapefruit pith, white flowers, nougat, just-ripe white stone fruit, melon skin and struck match. Fine, focused and with a lovely pure and precise line of fruit, oak and pithy acidity. Textured, layered and with fabulous complexity and drinkability. Serious chardonnay. 95 points.’ Clearly a new style chardy.

Harewood Estate Chardonnay Reserve 2023 – $36 at Wine Square. This is one of the best Chardonnays I’ve seen in the last 12 months. Rich and ripe white stonefruits and cashews, toasty French oak that’s polished and fully integrated. Lees stirring and malolactic fermentation have added baking spices and a creamy texture. 96 points. Brilliant wine.

Collector Tiger Tiger Chardonnay 2022 – $36 in a 6-pack at the Vine Press. Made from Tumbarumba grapes grown at 700 m above sea level by Alex McKay who prides himself on the ‘purity of regional expression and varietal definition’ of his wines. He set up Collector Wines back in 2005 and has built quite a reputation for his Chardonnays. Check the story here.+

This is cool climate chardy of great intensity, offering stone fruits and grapefruit, maybe a couple of struck matches too many, but I confess that the flintiness adds complexity. Oak does not intrude. Great example of the style. 95 points.

Oakridge Hazeldine Vineyard Chardonnay 2023 – $38 at MyCellars where the freight is free for subscribers (promo code BWU20). Highly regarded and decorated with trophies and 96 point reviews.

Port Phillip Estate Red Hill Chardonnay 2024 – $37 at auscellardoor. Nectarines and white peaches, biscuits, nougat, crème brulee and subtle gun flint notes. Rich and creamy textured yet fresh, the palate is layered with white peach, nectarine and dried honey flavours which meld into a crème brulee, biscuit and citrusy nougat back drop. Refined medium to long finish. 95 points

Dexter Chardonnay 2023 – $45 at Summer Hill. Todd Dexter makes very precise Chardonnays on the Mornington Peninsula, but I haven’t tried this vintage. The Real Review ‘Light lemon yellow hue. Fragrant grapefruit, oyster shell and green cashew aromas. Bright and lively on entry, fruit is lemon and peach with a lift of acidity that accentuates saline minerality, a touch of struck flint too. Great length and sits with poise and detail. As it lingers a hint of nougat shines through: this will no doubt build over time. 95 points.

Dappled Appellation Chardonnay 2024 – $45 at Waters Wine.  Shaun Crinion  Pale yellow in colour with a green hue, with aromas of white peach, citrus blossom, grilled cashew and toast – this is classic Yarra Valley Chardonnay! The palate shows delicious stone fruit flavours with texture and fullness. It’s all underpinned with a laser sharp pink grapefruit acid line, delivering an overall delicate, long and flavoursome wine.

Fighting Gully Road Chardonnay 2023 – $50 at Different Drop. The Real Review writes: ‘Light-mid bright yellow; creamy lees and bread crust aromas, the palate intense and focused, bright and piercing, with great panache and long-lasting finish. The flavours are precise and beautifully harmonised. Superb chardonnay, with high ageing potential. 96 points.’

The trigger for this short post was Huon Hooke’s post headed Penfolds Grange La Chapelle attracts critics. In that post he quotes a colleague who said: ‘The luxury goods wankery is super-sized here…’

To which Brian Miller replied:

‘Provided it is not illegal, immoral or fattening, I have no problem with any product being sold at any price, if the producers can get away with it, or think they can. Look at Barbie, Bitcoin, or Basquiat.

My point was that this extravagant publicity stunt is not news and should not be front-page news; which it inexplicably was. Coverage of this costly transcontinental concoction should be relegated to Billionaire magazine, the Robb Report, or the Bitcoin Bulletin.
If a wine writer gets a column a week, that’s only 50 a year, so don’t waste one on a wine that is of no relevance to anyone outside of a private privileged oligarchy.

Exceptions are allowed if the writing is funny or is the reason for reading the article. Jeremy Clarkson reviews a $900,000 Lamborghini and is published in the mainstream press; but not as a consumer guide for potential car buyers. Only because his eccentric writing style has a large popular following. Same with A. A. Gill on exclusive restaurants, and Anthony Lane on obscure films. Mark Shield on wine follies and foibles, when he was with us.

A friend and winemaker with many trophies to his name figured out that, for $3,500, he could buy a bottle of Grange and a bottle of La Chapelle, blend them together, giving him two bottles instead of one, and still have enough money left over for a knee operation.’

Tyson Stelzer responded:

‘Whenever I visit Paris, I love popping into all the fashion boutiques on Avenue Montaigne to stare starry-eyed at their glamorous new collections. Like most of us, I’ll never afford their most exclusive offerings (but their exquisite designs do provide wonderful stimulus for the cover and packaging of my Champagne Guides!).
There is tremendous inspiration in the finest and most daring of creations in every pursuit, and there is a rightful place and a strong demand for the most exclusive pieces of high fashion, as there is of fine wine.’

To which I replied:
‘It seems to me that Penfolds can produce any kinds of wine – think of the G3, G4 and G5 – as long as they promise serious pedigree and exclusivity at ludicrous prices. Penfolds partisans will pay all kinds of money to buy them. And to get some bottles of G5, you had to go through an expression-of-interest process with Penfolds, where you might score a bottle or 2 if you were fast enough.

As John McEnroe yelled at the umpire: ‘You cannot be serious!’. I suspect the Penfolds partisans have no idea that they could’ve bought 5 pitch-perfect Granges such as the 1976, 1986, 1990, 1991 or 1996 at auction for a total of $3500, the same cost as one bottle of Grange La Chapelle.

Then I quoted Andrew Jefford: ‘Wine becomes just another vacuous totem of wealth’ he wrote and compared creations like the Penfolds ampoule to ‘pointlessly complicated watches, tank-sized vehicles for urban use, houses which are never lived in, and boats which spend the year bobbing about on their moorings.’

He added that he takes no issue with market forces that make rare wine unaffordable to many drinkers but takes exception to marketing initiatives that ‘look so obviously like the fantasy of pale people who have spent too much time locked up in a room with glossy magazines.’ (Is that a polite English reference to what we call wankers?) He also makes the point that ‘they [the pale people] are hilariously alien to the great Aussie traditions of piss-taking and pretension-popping,’ and adds that turning fine wine into artificially exclusive luxury goods damages the brand.

‘No First Growth in Bordeaux or top Burgundy domain would contemplate anything this silly,’ he argues, ‘they leave that kind of ludicrous marketing excess to the bubble-brained Champenois, where form regularly eclipses content.’

Since TWE established such a lucrative market for their pricy Penfolds concoctions, we can appreciate why they’ve lost interest even in illustrious labels like Wolf Blass. The reality is that Penfolds exited the wine business many years ago, and made itself a new home in the luxury goods business

The Gallipoli Art Prize 2012

The weekend after Anzac Day, we came across a tiny notice in the Sydney Morning Herald about the Gallipoli Art Prize and an exhibition of the entrants at the Gallipoli Club in Loftus St near Circular Quay. We went to see the paintings on show there, and they were the kind that didn’t need explanations. These images have staid with me ever since, that’s why I’m posting the shortlist 13 years later. Just click on the heading above.

To see all the entrants (23) in the 2012 competition, go to the Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/nsw/2012-gallipoli-art-prize-20120423-1xgvp.html

You can see the shortlist of entrants in the 2025 competition here, or see them at the

GALLIPOLI MEMORIAL CLUB
12-14 Loftus Street, Circular Quay
Sydney NSW 2000
ph. (02) 9235 1533

Lest We Forget

Kim

A Man of Mystery & Modesty

As you know, I’ve been really impressed by some of the wines Larry Cherubino makes. The most recent wines were reds under the AdHoc, Pedestal and Robert Oatley labels, which we can buy for $20 and less.

So I was keen to ask Larry how he made really attractive wines at such user-friendly prices, and tried to set up an interview with him. His PR manager said she’d make it happen and let me know.

Weeks went by so I sent Lucy a friendly reminder, and she sent back an email  right away, saying ‘how about 10 minutes from now before Larry goes into his next meeting? I said sure. I had planned to do a full interview with him, but figured that 10 minutes was better than nothing.

When we spoke, I compared Larry’s reds with those of the young Wolf Blass, but there was no reaction. Then I realized that Larry was a baby in the early seventies, at the time Wolf made those early reds.

It soon became clear that Larry is not a great talker. And unlike Wolf Blass, he’s no self-promoter. Wolf claims that the style of reds we made when he arrived down under was ‘lunatic’, and that he showed us the way to the promised land. ‘My wines make weak men strong, and strong women weak,’ was his most famous boast.

When I asked Larry where he learned his secrets, he said there were no secrets and added ‘any decent winemaker can do what we do.’ So why don’t they, I wondered. Larry earned his stripes as a consultant winemaker in NZ, South Africa, the US and Italy. In Australia, he worked at Hardies before becoming chief winemaker at Houghton.

He must’ve carved the recipe for his style of wine into the winery floor at Houghtons, because they were still producing gold-medal winning $10 reds 20 years later.

In 2005, Larry went out on his own, buying and planting vineyards in the west, and making wine under his own labels while still consulting to a handful of wineries. Fast forward to 2012, and Larry’s only client was the Oatley family. Huon Hooke tells the story under the heading ‘Bright Star Invigorates.’

Winning Ways

Another thing Larry has in common with Wolfie is his eye for great but undervalued wine areas. Blass raised Langhorne Creek’s profile, as did Larry with Frankland River. The 80 hectare Justin vineyard, one of the oldest in the Great Southern, had been leased by Houghton for decades, and was the main source for the great Houghton reds Larry made.

Houghton was part of the Accolade wine group, which ran into strong headwinds in recent years, and the Oatleys bought part of the Justin vineyard with Larry’s help. In addition to the Signature wines, Larry makes Oatley’s Finistere and Pennant ranges, plus the odd limited release.

Larry has been picking up truckloads of bling at home and abroad. Late in 2023, he won the  2023 White Wine Producer Trophy at the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s annual competition in London. He has a way to go to equal the bling in Wolfie’s trophy cabinet but I have no doubt that he’ll get there.

Popular British wine scribe Matthew Jukes is a great fan of Larry’s, writing: ‘I take my hat off to the dedication, perseverance, palate acumen and will to win that all combine to create the enigma that is Mr. Cherubino.’ Juke describes Larry as ‘a shy chap who hides behind a Hollywood grin and a ludicrous mop of jet-black hair.’ So it wasn’t just me.

Jukes was so impressed with Larry’s wines that he named Cherubino his Winery of The Year 2023/24. ‘I have known Larry for a quarter of a century,’ Jukes says, ‘and very few people in our industry have a work ethic like his. His hunger for knowledge and understanding of the world’s great wines fires his imagination and palate to reach new heights with his own wines every year.’

The launch of Jukes’ Top 100 this year was held at Australia House and attended by Australian High Commissioner Stephen Smith. Over 300 UK-based Australian wine industry experts  were invited to attend the 20^th anniversary celebrations..

More Than Great Wine

Larry Cherubino puts out a staggering 72 wines, almost all of them made from fruit off his own vineyards. The winery and cellar door in Margaret River were established just a few years ago. ‘These days,’ Larry told me, ‘you need to do more than make wine. You have to provide an experience for your visitors.’ So the winery features an art gallery and a fancy restaurant, and provides a great venue for weddings.

In the vineyards, it’s about clonal selection and sustainable agriculture. ‘We don’t use herbicides. We employ fish and seaweed applications. We make our own compost to support the whole vineyard biology. It’s not just about better water retention, but about healthy soils with good microbial activity. It’s a whole ecosystem thinking to make healthier, disease-resistant vines.’

The Wines

The Robert Oatley Signature range offers tremendous value for money. I’ve raved about the sweet seduction of the GSM 2020 and the 2021 Shiraz, both from McLaren Vale, in my recent mailers. I’ve also been impressed with some of Larry’s other labels – the Pedestal Shiraz and the Ad Hoc Avant Gardening Cabernet Malbec stand out.

I really like the light touch Larry uses with his reds; even those from McLaren Vale show real finesse. The whites are even more delicate, which suits the Riesling but less so the Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and the SSB. I like my whites a little richer. Still, there isn’t an ordinary wine among them.

Our Cellar in Sydney offers the sharpest prices on the signature range, stocks all of the wines and ships right across Australia at competitive rates.

My best friend Reg called me last week, and asked me if I’d seen that an Australian wine had been voted the best wine at the biggest wine competition in the world. The competition was the Decanter World Wine Awards 2024, a gargantuan event where over 18,000 wines from 57 countries were judged by 243 expert judges, including 61 Masters of Wine and 20 Master Sommeliers.

The winning wine was Shingleback’s Red Knot Classified GSM 2022, a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre. And the best part was that it sold for less than $20 a bottle, which is of course music to my ears.

Best in Show?

What got Reg so excited was this headline at 7News: Dan Murphy’s $20 Shingleback wine named ‘Best in Show’ at world’s biggest competition. The South Australian drop beat 18,000 entries from 57 countries.

Now my mate Reg loves a good story as most of us do, but the headline was misleading. The wine finished up among the 50 Best Wines in the World., but no wine was singled out as the best of this short list.

And it turned out that the good news was announced about a week before we talked about this, by which time there was none of the wine left anywhere down under. Reg had combed the internet from end to end, along with several wine-loving friends, and the wine had sold out everywhere.

Dig a Little Deeper

I said I’d do some more digging, given that I call myself a wine sleuth, and I found lots of places that stocked Red Knot GSM. The winery is owned by Endeavour, which also owns Dan Murphy’s, BWS and hundreds of those pokie pubs Woolworths got rid of when it was accused of supporting gambling addiction.

As a result, Endeavour is a massive outfit employing almost 30,000 people who’re committed to a common goal:  ‘Creating a more sociable future together gives us direction and inspires us to create great work together.’

What this wonderful culture of togetherness doesn’t include is the vintage of the wines on sale at Dan Murply’s, or phone numbers for any stores you can call and check. BWS stores, are part of the same group, and do provide phone numbers if you dig deep enough. I called a bunch of them, and they were all on the 2023. I bought a sample, which really wasn’t that exciting. Vin ordinaire.

When Numbers Get Serious

The judges handed out 117 platinum medals, along with 643 gold, 5,977 silver and 8,016 bronze . that’s almost 15,000 of 18,000 entries. Did anyone not get a medal? No need to worry, there were more awards. The name of this game is selling thousands of rolls of stickers that wineries can stick on their wine labels, and this paper bling fills Decanter’s coffers with lots of real dollars.

Try as I might, I couldn’t find the number of ‘Commended’ or ‘Value’ awards handed out, but theses pyramids tend to get broader at the bottom so I wouldn’t be surprised if these two made up at least another 10,000.  Did anyone not get a medal? I doubt it.

The Short Story

I love wine. Not just drinking it with good food, but reading and writing about it, sharing it with friends. I’ve loved good wine for decades, and the challenge of finding wines that stand out from the ordinary. Wines that we ordinary mortals can afford. And meeting the extraordinary people who make them.

It’s over fifty years ago that I discovered the joys wine can bring into your life. I’ve loved good food since I was 6 years old. For my birthday I’d ask for cheese and salami. No kidding. My parents shook their heads and mumbled words about a budding gourmet.

When I reached drinking age, I contracted hepatitis A and alcohol was off the menu for several years. My father used to buy some wine for Christmas, cheap and not very cheerful German wine like Zeller Schwarze Katz, one rung below Liebfraumilch. I remember clearly when I discovered the joys of wine: at a trade show in Canberra, held in the old Hotel Canberra. On the last day I treated myself to lunch in the sun-flooded dining room on a cold winter’s day. I ordered a chicken dish and asked the waiter if there was a half bottle of wine that would go with the chicken.

He suggested an Orlando Riesling that was a revelation, and taught me a lesson in matching wine and food.

The sixties had seen big changes in the wine business down under. The popularity of Sherry waned, and so did that of cheap bubblies like Barossa Pearl and Mardi Gras. Table wine began to grace lunch and dinner tables, and soon outstripped supply. Chateaux Cardboard made it easy, affordable and ubiquitous.

A bottle of Grange cost $2.40, same as St Henri. Mildara’s Coonawarra Cabernet was up there with those two, and the most expensive wine was Seppelt’s Great Western Champagne. Yes, this was years before the Europeans objected to us using their place names.

The Big Bang

The 1960s saw new vineyards planted at breakneck speeds, from the Hunter to the Barossa. New areas were opened up for grape vines: The Upper Hunter, Margaret River, the Great Southern, the Limestone coast, then called Padthaway or Keppoch, and even Tasmania which was said to be too cold. Old areas that had ceased making wine long ago, were reborn: Mudgee, the Yarra Valley, Geelong, Bendigo

New stars were born and shone brightly – Vasse Felix and Cullens, Rothbury and Rosemount, Mount Mary and Seville Estate, Brand’s Laira and Piper’s Brook Grape growers in South Australia grew into wineries. The Berry co-operative grew into the wine giant of the Riverina.

New varieties were planted, such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We saw the promise of Aussie Burgundies at a fraction of the cost. New Zealand saw the same drastic changes. Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough became the new wave that ended up conquering the world.

There were many setbacks, of course, once the dust had settled. Many new ventures failed to deliver on starry-eyed expectations, others had simply grown too fast. Big Business joined the heady gold rush and bought wineries, many with hallowed names and histories going back well over a century.

Barbarians at the Gate

The corporate raiders, as they became known, swept across the wine landscape like the Huns had swept across Europe centuries before. They didn’t understand that wine was different from iron ore or pork bellies. Their victims soon filled up the graveyards like so many old cars that had rusted into the ground they stood on.

Lindemans, Orlando, Mildara, Minchinbury, Saltram, Seaview and Stanley Leasingham are a few that come to mind.

The red wine glut hit the industry hard in the eighties. The writing had been on the wall for years but no one had taken notice. Shiraz muffins didn’t soak up the excess, so governments paid wineries to pull out vines.

What did they do? Being farmers first and foremost, most pulled out the oldest, least productive wines. The ones that produced the exceptional fruit.

During the nineties, I focused on caring for my wife Benita who suffered from a terminal illness, and wine took a back seat. When I came back to it in the new millennium, that world had changed. Prices for the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy were reaching for the stratosphere, driven up by American brain surgeons and newly minted Chinese billionaires.

Down under, wineries were creating prestige labels and demanding small fortunes for them. They grew the export market with vins ordinaires from the bottom end of their production, and sold them as ‘sunshine in a bottle.’ The export market boomed but our wineries lost money on every bottle they sold. 

In 2001, at the height of the export boom, Southcorp paid Bob Oatley the princely sum of $1.5 billion for Rosemount Estates and became the world’s largest premium brand winemaker. A couple of years later, BRL Hardy merged with Constellation Brands to create the world’s largest international wine business.

The new world was ruled by faceless people in shiny suits who knew nothing about wine and had no respect for tradition. Constellation Wines Australia sold the original .8 acre vineyard planted to Cabernet Sauvignon by John Reynell in 1838 to Pioneer Homes, which built 41 high-density homes on it. All they kept was the shingle.

New World

I didn’t like the new world of wine, and the new generation of pretentious punters and wine writers that came with it. Suddenly sommeliers strutted like peacocks at precious new restaurants that charged small fortunes for smaller servings. They were needed, I soon realized, because the diners at these places knew nothing about wine or food. They just wanted to impress the people they were with.

I opted out of the whole scene, except for dinners with the front bench as we called the motley lot of true wine lovers that had gathered at Peter Bourne’s Wine Emporium since the late 1970s. Peter decided to move to Orange but the dinners continued at a nw venue at Pyrmont.

I didn’t like many of the wines either, not just because their prices were inflated but because their alcohol levels had gone through the roof with them. Grange and St Henri were 12.5 to 13% when I made their acquaintance; now they were 14.5. Others went to 15 and more. The biggest, ripest, plushest reds won all the trophies in those days, with the judges falling for their ever-so-obvious charms.

The same story played out in France, where more and more winemakers in Bordeaux picked their grapes later and cranked up the alcohols because Robert Parker loved big, ripe, plush reds.

My new partner Tracey lived in Cremorne, on Sydney’s lower north shore, with a Vintage Cellars an easy walk away, and we tried some of their $7 blackboard specials. I kept looking for affordable bargains, and became pretty good at finding them. I still had a lot of wines from the good old days left in my cellar, which were ready to drink, and we’d share a couple of those with friends most weekends.

Lift-Off

One day over a long lunch with good wine friends, one of them was so impressed with my latest find that he floated the idea of setting up Best Wines Under $20. I had no trouble seeing a ready market of wine lovers who’d be happy to pay for good advice that raised their drinking pleasure while reducing its cost.

I ended up with a couple of thousand rusted on subscribers who keep telling me that I’m the only wine scribe they trust, which is gratifying. The downside is that I buy many of the wines I taste, because many wineries want nothing to do with a wine site that’s focused on bargains under $20.

I’ve lost track of the number of winemakers I meet who tell me they don’t make wines that cost less than $20, and I have to tell them how wrong they are and remind them of their lower-level labels. Some seem stunned and then dart off to talk to someone else, while the smarter ones sign up to my weekly mailer so they can stay in touch with the real world they lost touch with.

Other wineries, distributors and merchants have been happy to support what we’re doing. Yalumba is one winery I have enormous admiration for. Intelligent, forward-looking, pioneering. Kumeu River is another, run by the Brajkovich family. Neither one has nothing to gain from talking to me but always responds with enthusiasm. Jim Barry, Rosily, Richard Hamilton / Leconfield and the Usual Suspects Collective (formerly Hesketh) are others.

A few independent wine merchants have survived and thrived in a world dominated by Woolworths, Coles and ALDI. Kemenys in Sydney continues to support us, despite reviews that CEO David Reberger has described as ‘brutal’.

Winedirect in Adelaide is an outfit I admire just as much. They continue to send us samples despite the harsh words I’ve written about some of them. MyCellars in Adelaide has also been really supportive, offering free freight to our subscribers.

All Things Nice, Never Mind the Price

Harsh words are rarely spoken in this industry; more often whispered. All the wine scribes are ever so polite, at least in print. You don’t bite the hands that feed you. The exception was Philip White who had a huge scare with cancer a few years ago, and is hanging in there against the odds, but no longer smithing words for his Drinkster site. I miss his words and his wit.

I think it was Len Evans who said good wine writers should make their readers want to rush out and buy the wine they’re reviewing. Len lived in some vinous cloud cuckoo land, mostly writing about wines that cost hundreds or thousands, or wines that were simply not procurable. Halliday follows his advice to the letter.

I never saw my job that way – I thought it was to tell subscribers what wines not to waste their money on: bottles decorated with medals and poetic descriptions on back labels, tricked up wines with artificial charms, or ‘industrial autoplonk’ as Philip White describes it. The big guys have become really good at making deceptive wines of this style.

Most wine writers describe the wines they review in great detail, and what they come up with often has me rubbing my eyes, twitching my nose and shaking my head. They must resort to the aroma wheel to find the fancy words they use, and who is going to argue with them? The punter who shells out hard-earned dollars for the wine, and then wonders why he can’t see what the reviewer raved about.

At a Kemenys lunch at the Quay Restaurant some years ago, the MC supplied by Penfolds talked us through the brackets of wine in front of us, describing the various aromas and flavours in great detail.

A gentleman at my table frowned as he said he couldn’t see many of the things the reviewers saw in these wines, from the blueberries and violets to the charcuterie and chocolate … He asked me if I did (my name tag said I was a wine scribe). When I confided that I often had the same problem, a relieved smile came over his face.

No Bull

I’ve tried hard to keep Best Wines Under $20 a bullshit-free zone. My friend Jeffrey put it so well when he sent me this capsule: ‘Kim, the world wine industry is soooooo full of bull-shit and false direction that I sometimes think I need out, to sell off my wines and go vegetarian just to escape, to regain perspective.’

‘Honestly, I’m sick and tired of the bull-shit journalists, the pretension, the hustling, the egos, the point scoring, the investment portfolios. Can you tell me what I can do to regain my lost respect, my lost interest, even my sanity? I want imperfection. A little bret. A wine that says ‘up yours’ Mr journalist … Mr connoisseur … just drink me with a piece of good cheese.’

Andrew Caillard’s piece in Gourmey Traveller years ago struck a chord as well. He talks about ‘a language that is developing to satisfy the expectations of luxury wine buyers and wine aficionados. We live in an age of beautifully packaged wines with superbly exaggerated stories and prices.’

Luxury goods. Pretentious restaurants with eye-watering prices. Reviewers talking about wines as if they were fashioned by angels, writing wine poetry instead of wine reviews.

The luxury goods market runs on a different set of rules, which are all to do with building a formidable brand on a pedestal of exclusivity. On the consumer side, it’s not what we say about luxury goods – it’ what they say about us.

The most prestigious brands let others know that you’re a person of ample means and impeccable taste. Chanel, Rolex, Chateau Lafite, Penfolds Grange … Even people who know little about wine know that Grange is a special red with a hefty price tag, except for the ex-premier of NSW.

Still Crazy after all these Years

We’ve kept our feet on the ground, even while we’ve raised the price ceiling to include special wines under $50, like the wonderful Wynns black label Cabernets. Yet I still get excited when I find great wines around $20.

This where ‘the fundamental things apply …’ to quote from that song in the movie Casablanca. Stunning, seductive, succulent, beguiling, delightful, luscious, attractive, morish, exciting, charming, appealing, easy on the gums, easy on the pocket.

Of course there were times when my enthusiasm faded, but then a wine would come along and smack me in the face in the nicest way.

Kemenys’ Hidden Labels often do that. The Coonawarra Cabernet 2020 is a classic Coonawarra red with a big future. You’d be more than happy to pay twice the asking price of $17 if you don’t mind the plain wrapper.

If your budget is more elastic, recent Wynns Cabernets are as good as any I can remember. The 2018, 2019 and 2021 are all still out there for a bit over $30, Peter Pan reds that are easy to admire in their youth, and slow to grow up.

Some of the stunning 2022 Rieslings from the Clare Valley put big smiles on my face, as did the Village Chardonnays from Kumeu River across the Tasman, the great reds from the 2021 vintage in South Australia, from the Barossa to Coonawarra …

I haven’t been buying a lot of reds these last few years, since I eat far more seafood than red meat these days. Most samples of reds I see are barely 2 years old, and tasting them is not an experience I look forward to.

I’ve written about the Wolf Blass reds from the late sixties – they were soft, smooth and seductive in their youth, and good drinking for many years beyond that. When I tasted the current reds from Larry Cherubino’s Robert Oatley Signature range, I wondered if Larry had worked out Wolfie’s secrets.

The Shiraz and the GSM are seductive, enjoyable already, and don’t hit your hip pocket too hard at $18. They’re great moral boosters for our claim that you don’t to spend big money to find terrific wines, and just the ticket for those of you who don’t have a decent wine cellar.

From Another Planet

Out of the Blue a box of samples arrived on our doorstep from Picardy, a winery at Pemberton in the Great Southern of W.A. The winery is the work of Bill and Sandra Pannell who set up Moss Wood in Margaret River in the sixties.

They sold Moss Wood and planted a vineyard at Pemberton in the nineties, in a ‘holy grail’ style quest to make Pinots Noir down under that are up there with great Burgundies. The wines are not exactly in our sweet spot for bargains, but you can’t argue with the quality or value.

Now I’ve been pretty blunt about Pinots made down under, conceding some years ago that even a sleuth of my experience and cunning could not find a decent Pinot under $25, let alone good one. Even spending $50 and more rarely produced the goods. Grenache became my go-to choice for foods that needed a red with a light touch. And it still is.

The Pinots from Picardy showed me that we can make truly great Pinots. First you have to find the right place, and Margaret River clearly isn’t that. Every other variety thrives there, but not Pinot Noir. That’s why the Pannells started all over again at Pemberton, and built a small chateau there in the French style.

From there it’s all about clonal selection, an ongoing process of importing and planting clones to find out which perform the best in the vineyard’s soil and climate (after some years have passed). I suspect that this has taken tremendous dedication and patience from Bill and Sandra and their team.

I’m saving up for the Picardy Pinot Noir 2022, which will be released soon, because it’s knockout. You can read Ray Jordan’s short summary of this ambitious venture on the website https://www.picardy.com.au/. And here’s all you need to know about clones, from Decanter.

Just as the samples had come out of the blue, so did the short enail from Bill Pannell:

‘Dear Kim,
I would like to congratulate you on your recent appraisals of our wines, which I believe were eminently and objectively fair and thoroughly professional.’

Kindest regards,
Bill Pannell

Yes I love wine because it never fails to surprise you, or lift you when you’re down, and excite you when you need fresh enthusiasm.

Picardy – a tiny slice of France at Pemberton