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The Barossa: An Ascent to Higher Quality
Australia, featured
, Dec 2021
The greater Barossa winegrowing area has the varied climate, altitudes and exposures needed to make pretty much all styles of wine, ranging from high-tension, dry Rieslings to some of the most decadent, high-octane red wines in the world. Lush, flamboyant and often head-spinning, high-alcohol wines have long defined the region for many wine lovers. Today, Barossa deserves a different reputation.
Penfolds Collection 2021
Australia, featured
, Jul 2021
This year’s Penfolds collection consists of all of their icon bottlings, including a few surprises. In 2017, the flagship Grange was made entirely from Shiraz, only the seventh time this has happened since the first Grange was produced in 1951.
Western Australia: Old World–Style Reds and Whites
Australia, featured
, Jul 2021
Western Australia is a virtual island unto itself within the country’s wine world. Its most famous viticultural region, Margaret River, is located almost 3,000 kilometers from the heart of the famed Barossa Valley, with precious little of anything except space in between. It’s a long way to the west, and the style of wines couldn’t be any more different.
Seven Australian Cabernets from 2015
Australia, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured
, Jun 2021
Maybe, like me, you have forgotten the joy a bottle of top-notch Australian Cabernet can bring. In a brief diversion away from tasting Bordeaux primeur, I sampled several wines that jogged my memory.
Cellar Favorite: 1957 Penfolds St. Henri Claret
Cellar Favorites, Australia, cellar favorite
, May 2020
Though Grange is Penfolds’ most famous label, that has not always been the case. Back in the late Fifties and early Sixties, their St. Henri was more popular, probably due to its being more approachable and elegant, while Max Schubert’s Grange demanded cellaring.
Winemaking and Wine Marketing in a Plague Year
Italy, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, France, General Interest, United States: Oregon, United States: California, featured
, May 2020
In just the past couple of months, the novel coronavirus has profoundly changed the production and sale of wine around the globe. In this roundtable interview, 35 producers get specific about the challenges they are facing.
Australia Brings the Brawn and the Beauty
Australia, featured
, Oct 2017
Australia produces as wide a range of high-quality wines as any country in the world, from almost all imaginable varieties and in all styles, while quality has never been higher than it is today. Consumers who view these wines as all red, all big, all the time are missing out.
Australia Rediscovers Its Mojo
Australia, featured
, Mar 2016
Adventurous producers who make elegant, Old World-influenced bottlings are challenging the stereotype that Australia is a one-trick pony that issues only massive, alcoholic wines without energy or complexity, and the number of such wineries is increasing. I saw more graceful, vibrant, well-balanced Aussie wines over the past year than ever before, and they come from across the breadth of that country’s wine-producing regions.
Best New Wines from Australia
IWC, Australia
, Jul 2014
While many American wine lovers understandably believe that all this sprawling wine-growing region produces are critter wines in big bottles, there are signs that upper-tier Aussie wines have begun to gain a foothold in the U
Best New Wines from Australia
IWC, Australia
, Jul 2013
Producers across the southern band of Australia would probably just like to forget the 2011 vintage, a year that presented a biblical array of plagues on the vineyards