Why Australian Wine is Some of the Most Exciting in the World Dark plums and some lighter redder fruits, as well as spicy, earthy and tarry elements. The palate has a seamless, deep-set and layered mouthfeel with a strong and fresh spine of dark plums.

Yangarra Goes Even Higher: Four Outstanding Super Premium Releases My favourite wine of the range and just a perfectly formed McLaren Vale Shiraz. From Block 15, this was handpicked, with 25% whole bunches and matured in 48% new oak, the finished wine then an individual barrel selection. Numbers: TA 6.3, pH 3.43. It’s such a bright and exuberant red, loaded with purple fruit in a lavish mode. Energetically fruity, but with this sense of savouriness too, the oak an afterthought, the tannins fine and perfectly balanced. It’s not a heavyweight, it’s not oaky, it’s just a really vital Shiraz. The sort of wine that you just drink and marvel at the balance at every sip. Best drinking: Now to twenty years. 18.7/20, 95/100. 14.5%, $105. Would I buy it? A lot of dollars but also a lot of wine. Worth the money.

Very deep garnet-purple colored, the 2014 Small Pot Whole Bunch Shiraz offers youthfully subdued peeks of fragrant blackberry and black cherry aromas with hints of black pepper, loam, dried herbs and lavender. The palate is rock solid and packed with blackberry and earth flavors supported by firm, rounded tannins and great freshness, finishing long.

Take Note: Real Australian Wine Is Here Sexy red with meat, earth, blackberry and quartz aromas that follow through to a full body, round and velvety tannins and a juicy finish. Loads going on here. Love it. Drink now. Screw cap.

Estate-grown, 50% whole berries, 25% whole bunches cold soaked, open-fermented, wild yeast, matured in French oak (25% new) for 13 months. Everything falls into place, the design of the jigsaw puzzle taking shape post haste. McLaren Vale fruit essence, with black fruits and potent dark chocolate looking as much to the sky as the earth, the whole bunch elements adding a twist to the main design, eloquent tannins also making a significant contribution.

Very deep, dark red-purple hue and a tremendously concentrated aroma of graphite, pepper, spices and earth. It's very full-bodied and dense, concentrated and firm with tight tannins and relatively little fruit sweetness. Instead, there's amazing structure. The whole-bunch component gives a vegetal note to the complex bouquet. A very big, muscular, powerful wine which needs ages.

Welcome, we hope you enjoy the show. Twist the cap and it's as if the words tumble out. Immediately perfumed and expressive but with the grunt of tannin and fruit to give it real substance. Saturated plum, soy, five spice and smoky, musky oak. The very epitome of a modern major general release shiraz.

Magical, deep crimson; as devotees of Chateau Rayas, and others from the Rhone Valley will attest, Grenache has many faces, the most admired in that part of France, it’s serious, long-lived, complex and structured single-varietal pose. But it’s usually in a blend, and in Australia usually with shiraz and Mourvedre, and this a compelling example of all the individual flavours of its components.

This one of my favourite wines in the country. It seems to hit that magical place where it is neither sweet-fruited nor savoury but instead sits somewhere gloriously in between. It is a hard wine to dissect as it is so well-balanced. I love the texture, the palate weight and the inherent brightness. Flecks of lime, fresh cream and faint fruit juiciness tied together by savouriness.

A seductive wine that just oozes charm. Coming off 14 year old vines, 50% of fruit was wild fermented in 675L ceramic eggs remaining on skins for 131 days. The final blend saw 67% come from extended skin contact. Such a generous offering yet it's so luscious. Almonds, delicate stonefruit, fine ginger and cinnamon spice all weave a neat course through the mouth. Creamy feels through the mouth form the baseline with flashes of candied orange and drops of lime juice adding to the temptation. Beautifully balanced, it's just pure class really.

If you love creamy whites, here’s a long, slow rolling wave of sensational flavors. Beautiful freshness and lushness simultaneously, plus a texture so silky it feels a bit illegal. Roussanne is rare in Australia, but this might be the best roussanne in the entire New World.

Complexity, balance and straight-out power; this release of Yangarra's Small Pot Shiraz has it all. I'm sold on this. Second time I've seen it and second time I've loved it. It has all things McLaren Vale Shiraz is renowned for - powerful, blackberried fruit flavour, choc notes, lots of mid-palate grunt - and yet it also comes across as restrained, peppery, balanced and (most importantly) long through the finish. All things to all people, in an uncompromised way.

Strong purple-crimson, it's a technique more common in cool regions but works very well here, with regional bitter chocolate and savoury black fruit flavours lifted by the spicy notes and extra texture from the use of whole bunches. Sophisticated winemaking.

The 2001 Le Desir is another enormously concentrated, sweet yet elegant, medium to full-bodied effort revealing intense notes of red, black, and blue fruit intermixed with camphor, lead pencil shavings, and spice box characteristics. Rich and intensely flavored yet remarkably light on its feet for such power, with beautifully integrated wood, acidity, alcohol, and tannin in the long finish, it will provide immense pleasure if drunk between 2004-2025.

A kind of Sonoma Cheval Blanc, Verite Le Desir is a 33/5/16 blend of cabernet franc, merlot, cabernet sauvignon all from Sonoma Mountain vineyards. The nose is a mix of tobacco, black pepper, spice, licorice, earth, black cherry and prune and vanilla aromas. It's very rich, round, concentrated with ripe tannins but again with super balance. Beautiful licorice, black cherry, cassis, vanilla, coffee spicy orange rind flavours. Very complex, long and classy. BC $175.00

A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the debut vintage of La Muse is composed of fruit from Sonoma (62%) and Napa (38%) vineyards. It appears to have reached full maturity, but it possesses the density and richness to last another 10-15 years. From a challenging vintage, it reveals a dark plum/garnet color along with a full-bodied nose of coffee, fruitcake, underbrush, forest floor, mocha and chocolate. This outstanding effort is one of the top 1998s from northern California.

The 2015 La Muse is developing beautifully. Ripe, ample and voluptuous in the glass, the 2015 exudes character. Even with all of its obvious intensity, the 2015 has quite a bit of freshness to balance out the ripe, racy Merlot-based fruit. Super-ripe red cherry, plum, mocha and spice notes build into the racy, inviting finish.

Captivating notes of black raspberry, truffle, woodsmoke and juicy cherry. Savoury and fine-grained with juicy acidity, supple tannins and a compelling sense of grace. This is one of California's reference points for Cabernet Franc.

The 2012 Le Désir is striking. It is also the richest and most powerful of the Vérité 2012s. An exotic, alluring bouquet melds into layers of dark red fruit as this ample, voluptuous wine shows off its personality. The 2012 simply oozes with Cabernet Franc floral and spice notes. Although the 2012 is quite expressive today, it will be even better with more time. Over the last few years the Désir has clearly emerged as Vérité's top wine. Today, it is absolutely gorgeous, although it needs time to be at its best.

An exotic, nuanced beauty, the 2010 La Muse offers up an exotic concoction of white truffle, cassis, cloves. Captivating and totally beguiling, the 2010 takes over all of the senses and never lets up. A rush of blue and black-hued fruit flows through to the enveloping, deeply resonant finish. The 2010 shuts down in the glass, so it is best left alone in bottle for a number of years. What a gorgeous wine this is, especially if readers can be patient.

Brilliant medium ruby. Inviting aromas of blackberry, cassis, licorice, cocoa powder, brown spices and black truffle. Dense and sweet, showing an almost liqueur-like ripeness to the blackberry and mineral flavors. The wine's slightly high-toned quality is leavened by its serious spine. Finishes with outstanding persistence

Bright red-ruby. Sweet aromas of black raspberry, bitter chocolate, violet and smoke. Large-scaled, velvety and deep, with outstanding intensity and sweetness to its dark berry, violet and mineral flavors. Boasts a compelling combination of suavity of texture and sheer energy. Extremely long on the aftertaste, with noble tannins barely noticeable today.

Bright ruby-red. Musky black raspberry, espresso, mocha and caramel on the nose. Plush, seamless and strong; wonderfully energetic, delineated dark raspberry, tobacco and mocha flavors are lifted by a floral element. Finishes with terrific breadth, grip and lift, but the very firm, serious, palate-saturating tannins do not come off as dry. Like a powerful version of a Pomerol. Quite spicy throughout, especially on the subtly rising finish. Has plenty of structure for a long life in bottle.

It has a dense, complex core of blackberries, coated with immaculately fine, sweet oak. Feels important and dramatic, but too young. Begs to be housed in a good cellar for a good eight years.

49% Merlot; 47% Cabernet Franc; 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. In its strong focus on ripe black cherries and sweet currants with a twist of dried raspberry, this blended wine finds a higher level of range than is typical of the directly fruity Sonoma style. That the wine is full-bodied and broadly tannic at this point accounts for the absence of California-style juiciness in its flavors, but their convincing depth and the need for a fair measure of cellar aging intimate that this wine has the structure and potential typical of a top-notch Bordelais red more than anything else. A rich layer of milk chocolate brings it back home. OBA$150.00