For the music lovers out there, Giant Steps takes its name from one of jazz musician John Coltrane’s albums. With just a tiny bit of new oak, a small percentage of MLF and no lees stirring, this is a lighter style at a very drinkable 12.5% alcohol. It is exuberantly fruity but in a very pure peach, apple way. The backbone remains vertical as the fruit fans out. Straightforward and flavourful, it will make for sophisticated patio drinking.

#ThisWineThatDish | Cambria Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir | Roast Chicken
Bringing you another option for dinner and a wine pairing for Mother’s Day, or any other day for that matter. For those of us that enjoy a classic Sunday night dinner what could be more of a classic than Roast Chicken. For this one no recipe needed but it is nice to shake it up a little with a variation of herbs, fresh from the garden.
Some favourite flavours to pair with a roast chicken are of course sage, or rosemary. You can stuff the bird with whole cloves of garlic, Coating the bird with butter gives you crispy skin and juicy meat. No matter how you do your Roast Chicken dinner this wine will elevate the occasion.

Vivid red. Highly perfumed, spice-accented red/blue fruit preserve, incense and floral scents show excellent clarity and a smoky mineral topnote. Juicy, sharply focused and appealingly sweet, offering sappy raspberry, boysenberry, spicecake and candied rose flavors and a hint of cola. Closes impressively long and smooth, with well-knit tannins and resonating florality.

Bright ruby. A highly expressive bouquet evokes fresh red fruits, cola and Asian spices, along with a bright mineral overtone. Juicy, lithe and precise on the palate, offering mineral-laced raspberry, cherry, rose pastille and spicecake flavors that deepen steadily with air. Delivers a suave blend of power and finesse and finishes with outstanding clarity, slowly building tannins and strong persistence.

Vivid ruby-red. Expressive scents of ripe red/blue fruits, candied rose and exotic spices, along with a smoky mineral element that emerges with aeration. Silky, sweet and fleshy on the palate, presenting juicy, spice-laced black raspberry, cherry-cola, boysenberry and floral pastille flavors that are complemented by a hint of mocha. Made in a seamless, plush style, showing impressive clarity and smooth, rounded tannins on the strikingly long, floral-driven finish.

Deep, brilliant red. Highly fragrant, spice- and mineral-accented red and blue fruit aromas are complemented by suggestions of pungent flowers, cola and musky herbs. Shows very good depth to its sweet cherry-cola, black raspberry and spicecake flavors, which tighten up slowly through the back half. Shows fine clarity on a persistent, spice-tinged finish that's framed by smooth, slowly building tannins.

Limpid ruby-red. Ripe cherry and red berries on the spice-accented nose and in the mouth. Round and pliant in texture, showing good depth and a touch of sweetness on the nicely persistent finish, which features soft, even tannins.

#ThisWineThatDish | Murphy Goode California Chardonnay | Miso Sea Bass
Sea Bass just cries out for a bold Chardonnay and the Murphy Goode definitely answers the call.

We Asked 8 Sommeliers: What’s Your Go-To Bargain Chardonnay?
“For anyone looking for a classic Central Coast Chardonnay at a great value, I always recommend Nielson Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2019. Lovely expressions of tropical fruit that everyone loves about Chardonnay, and the combination of French oak and concrete egg aging gives a beautiful texture to this steal of a wine. There is a reason Nielson wines have such staying power, and this wine is a great entry point for Santa Barbara Chardonnay.” —Ian Lokey, wine and beverage director, Sushi Note, Los Angeles

12.5% alcohol. Clones: gingin, Mendoza, 777, 76, I10V1, P58, 96, 548. Vines planted 1988, 1997, 2001. Wild fermented with full solids in French oak puncheons, 15% new. 10% malolactic. Taut, linear and compressed with crisp citrus fruit and faint hints of pear and melon. There’s a very fine bready toastiness, and a bit of oak structure as well as keen acidity that helps everything stay fresh. Such precision here, with a sense of delicacy allied to good concentration of flavour. Another early-picked style that has good ageing potential.

Smooth aromas of black cherry, cola and root beer are evident inside the nose of this lush bottling. The palate is thick and viscous while soft and comforting, offering dark cherry, boysenberry, star anise and cardamom flavors in an opulent yet balance manner.

Elegant and smoothly integrated aromas of black cherry, star anise, clove and vanilla converge on the nose of this bottling. Polished tannins peel back on the palate to reveal waves of charcuterie, roasted meat, tart pomegranate and chai-spice flavors. It’s complex while cohesive.

Lively, floral and broadly structured, this impressive mountain-grown wine showcases the producer’s mountain estate. Powerful and lengthy in apple butter, wet stone and honeysuckle, it holds its oak well, adding flecks of nutmeg and clove.

Robust and full-bodied, this wine shows elegant hints of rose petal, dried herb and baking spice, the texture lengthy and complex. Red fruit and citrus emphasize underlying freshness and structure in myriad ways.

There are pleasantly herbal and seashore-like characteristics to the nose of this bottling, which offers aromas of green sage, kelp, cranberry, smoke and chiseled rock. The palate begins with baked red-cherry flavors before hints of leather and wild thyme arise, as sandy tannins hold everything together.

This dark and chocolaty wine is smooth and delicious, showing ultraripe blackberry and blueberry flavors shaded by vanilla and cocoa. It’s full-bodied and mouthfilling but not very tannic so it’s easy to sip.

For those children lucky enough to be spending Mother’s Day with their mom I salute you and humbly suggest you may want to make mom’s day a little extra special this Sunday.
What could be more fitting than a wine made by a woman winemaker from a company owned and run by women, that’s about as good as it gets. Not only that but the Cambria Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay is a favourite that has been featured here before with great results.
Chardonnay is a classic and Sea Scallops or a classic so of course this duo goes together like a hand in a glove and it is ideal for a special dinner for your Mom. The recipe is fairly simple and if you would rather not use the Miso then a simple searing in butter with a splash of wine to finish will also do nicely.

This has a nice polish to its open-textured mix of dried red fruit and berry flavors, with hints of hot spices and sandstone accents on the finish. Drink now.

Buttery, with hints of richness to the ripe white fruit and spice flavors. Oaky accents fill the broad-textured finish. Drink now.

This site provides fruit of exquisite purity, but it’s the winemaking that deserves praise for exercising poise and bringing every component into ideal balance. A waft of wild herbs frames fresh plum and raspberry, but it’s the lean muscle of a complex mid-palate that marries beauty and power, with extraordinary persistence of pure flavours.

Keeping the juice on skins in a large ceramic egg for 170 days provides extraordinary texture that defines a sinewy mid-palate and a sexy tang on the finish. The polished but vigorous tannins shape a strict palate framework defined by sharp graphite seams and high-toned cherry perfume, but sinewy muscle adds edgy tension.

Introducing 20% whole bunch into the ferment lifts the perfume and brightness of the clean, lean palate, but the real interest here is the svelte tannin profile. It transforms the expected traditional burly Australian Shiraz structure into a something more surprising, supple and elegant. The slender palate weight ensures that the fresh red fruits remain lively and especially vibrant.

The ironstone that dominates a portion of Yangarra's estate vineyard asserts itself with brawny muscle in this deeply coloured, intense Shiraz. Despite 25% whole bunch in the ferment, the perfume is a dark, smouldering shroud of blackberry, laced with high notes of wild fennel and violets. The palate is linear and precise – partly a reflection of the site, partly the finesse that comes from gentle treatment in the winery – resulting in a big-framed wine that steps lightly on its toes.

A significantly different style of Grenache – more robust and earthy than its Yangarra siblings, but also matured in large eggs. There’s a more open weave to the tannins that draws out the opulence of a rounded middle palate, promoting the luscious plum, cherry and rich earth savouriness, crowned by a Campari-like bite.

Extended maturation on skins in a large ceramic egg has amplified the textural roll of Roussanne’s savoury mid-palate without allowing broadness to dull the intrigue. Instead, there’s a lively, electric zing in the grapefruit and barely ripe white nectarine flavour, adding body without bulk – a taut midriff. A rich, burnished gold colour identifies intensity, but the perfume is shy and austere. The sum of its parts provides pleasing intrigue.