Believe it or not, I love my wine. As a wine-specialist tour operator I’m always out on the scene seeking out new producers, tasting new vintages, and filling up my recycling bin with an obscene amount of empty bottles. It wasn’t always this easy. As a budding wine enthusiast, in my early days I always looked to The Adelaide Review’s Hot 100 Wines for inspiration on which labels to seek out and what type of trending wines I should be trying. To this day I […]
RIGHT ON SONG WITH ONE HELL OF A FUTURE Adelaide Hills winery Bird In Hand first popped up on my radar in the early 2000s when Kym Milne, only Australia’s second Master of Wine, came into the fold to become head winemaker. Kym gave the winery clear focus and direction, turning it into one of the most respected wineries in the region today. Yes, they do much more than that $25 go-to bottle of bubbly you can find just about anywhere that *everyone* in Adelaide swears by. […]
SRS BSNS Hero grape varieties in South Australia’s McLaren Vale wine region are currently undergoing a big shake up. Traditionally, over half the crush is chalked up to Shiraz, with about the next twenty percent going to (believe it or not) Cabernet Sauvignon. With scores of Italian varietals popping up on tasting lists across the Vale of late, it’s a welcome sight to see Brash Higgins (worldly vagabond-come-sommelier-turned-winemaker Brad Hickey) producing a single vineyard Cabernet Franc, born of the cracking black clays so readily ripped out […]
The ‘Survivor Vines’ shine on Back in the early 70’s when the Cirillo family emigrated to the Barossa from Calabria in Southern Italy, they became owners of a block of land filled with what appeared to be lifeless Grenache and Semillon bush vines. Having nurtured them back into life, the Cirillo family are now custodians of what is believed to be the oldest Grenache and Semillon vines in the world – something winemaker, vigneron, and staunch Grenache supporter Marco Cirillo is extremely proud of. Marco is a no-nonsense […]
