Full crimson-purple; a powerful wine with red and purple fruits, bramble and whole bunch tannins all tumbling along the palate, but doing so in synergy with each other. Needs a few years in the cellar.

Powerful yet restrained, offering creamy notes of fresh wild strawberry, red licorice, toasted cumin and violet. The complexity and detail keeps gaining momentum on the long, expressive finish, where accents of white truffle and spice linger. Drink now through 2036.

Giant Steps owner Phil Sexton's self-named vineyard soars once again in this beautifully textured Chardonnay that is all at once modern and timeless. Take a deep dive into a nose of honeysuckle, lime leaf, salted cashew, waxy lemon and stony minerals. Then let the liquid roll around on your tongue, pricking it gently with crystalline acidity. Complex and ageworthy yet totally approachable now, this is the face of today's Aussie Chardonnay, and it's a mighty fine one. Drink now–2029 and likely beyond.

A very composed and attractively elegant chardonnay that has an impeccably smooth array of lemon and peach-sorbet aromas with very subtle, fresh-nutty notes. The palate has such smooth build. Really refined and elegant. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Sourced from 30-plus year-old vines in a south-facing vineyard, this single-vineyard expression gets the balance of texture, flavor and acidity just right. Tones of minerals and sea salt weave between citrus, melon and well-managed oak. The palate is an expertly built combo of pristine acidity, a smooth texture and supportive oak. The finish is chalky and long. Drink now–2030.

Mouthwatering and precise, with a lovely blend of Asian pear, green apple and mandarin orange flavors that mingle with candied ginger peel, spice and floral details. Shows a silky weightlessness, retaining plenty of intensity to the flavors.

Bright red cherries and strawberries in a pure style of pinot that has a gently herbal edge and some light reductive, tarry notes, too. The palate is precise and refined in terms of tannin shape and fruit purity. Bright red cherries abound. Acidity sparks up the finish. Drink or hold.

From the Coal River Valley (Nocton Vineyard). One of my favourite things is ‘Death Can Be Fatal’, a Two Ronnies mini-serial, featuring Piggy Malone and Charley Farley.Dark cherry, plum, spicy biscuit oak, dried rose perfume. It’s fleshy, mouth-filling, though not particularly heavy, thick and silky tannin, even raspberry acidity, and a long insistently silty, slightly ashy tannin finish. Plenty to grab onto, yet it’s still identifiably Pinot Noir.

Spring hasn’t sprung at the time of tasting but the wine does feel Spring release-ready. Good for that season rather than winter, which is approaching.Lots of detail here and very high drinkability, a wash of texture, cinched very gently with lacy tannins, pretty spice, floral notes, succulent overall and just feels darn high quality. I love the looser knit feel here, it spreads in the palate like a gentle quilt. Warmth through the finish, perhaps, but comforting in a quiet way. Beautiful drinking.

Sexy Sexton. Supple, soft and come-hither pinot noir. Cherry, red berries, nougat, subtle spice and a good lick of juicy acidity. It feels broad but well honed, lots of flavour, lots of space in the palate, finishes spicy and fresh. A very seductive pinot with lots of detail in tow.

Pinot Shiraz – who knew? Well the blend has a bit of history in the Hunter Valley but now is making a resurgence in the Yarra too, with Giant Steps and winemaker Steve Flamsteed , as usual at the front of the curve. It is a food wine, made for the table – Australian for Beaujolais, and it is delicious.It is a very pretty bright cherry red and the fruit is immediately attractive. There are layers of cranberry, raspberry, dried herbs and stalky spice with a touch of aged meat thrown in too. The palate shows superb purity, a textural silkiness but is also quite savoury with supple tannins underlying a long and drying finish. While it is delicious, it does not feel ready just yet – this wine has more to give and just needs maybe six months to start showing its best.

Stunningly precise, vivid and mouthwatering, with a hint of butterscotch to the lemon curd, pear and mango flavors. Intense and juicy, finishing fresh and vibrant. Details of white tea and roasted hazelnut emerge on the finish. Drink now through 2030. From Australia.

Powerfully structured, with a deep well of dark currant, dried blackberry and plum flavors, framed by concentrated notes of dried green herbs. Cedar and cigar box accents show on the finish, revealing some sanguine hints. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Drink now through 2024.

2018 Santa Lucia Highlands: What a Difference a Year MakesLimpid ruby-red. An exotically perfumed bouquet evokes raspberry preserves, cherry cola and exotic spices, and a suave floral topnote emerges as the wine opens up. Sappy and penetrating on the palate, offering intense red and dark berry, lavender pastille, spicecake and succulent herb flavors that show notable depth and appealing sweetness. Finishes impressively long and sappy, delivering repeating florality and pliant tannins that meld smoothly with the vibrant fruit.

2018 Santa Lucia Highlands: What a Difference a Year MakesDeep, shimmering garnet. Assertively perfumed black raspberry, boysenberry, potpourri and exotic spice aromas show fine definition and pick up subtle vanilla and cola nuances with air. Stains the palate with concentrated red and blue fruit, cherry cola and candied rose flavors that are braced by a core of juicy minerality. Delivers a compelling blend of depth and energy and finishes extremely long and gently chewy, with well-integrated tannins and resonating florality.

2018 Santa Lucia Highlands: What a Difference a Year MakesDeep, glistening magenta. Expressive aromas of fresh, spice-tinged red and blue fruits and candied rose pick up cola and mineral nuances with air. Juicy, focused and seamless in texture, offering penetrating raspberry, cherry, boysenberry and spicecake flavors that deepen steadily as the wine opens up. Smoothly blends power and finesse. A very long, gently tannic finish echoes the floral and spice notes.

Santa Barbara: An In-Depth Look at the 2018s The 2018 Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard is fabulous. Silky, perfumed and supple, the 2018 offers a compelling expression of this site. All the elements meld together in a Pinot that is incredibly delicious and inviting. Black cherry, plum, leather, licorice and lavender build into the refined, nuanced finish.

Santa Barbara: An In-Depth Look at the 2018s The 2018 Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard is the most exuberant of these Pinots from Siduri. An explosion of sweet red berry fruit, blood orange, incense and spice gives the Encantada striking exoticism. Silky tannins wrap around the pliant, creamy finish. The 2018 is such an enticing, alluring Pinot.

Densely built in cassis, dried herb, cedar and sage, this lovely wine from the great appellation shows structure and grip in its youth. Dusty gravel adds to the weight and texture, with ample acidity to keep it fresh in the glass.

This wine is a beauty, balancing a band of subtle flavors with a polished texture and vibrant acidity that give it a lively presence on the palate and a lingering finish. Mild baking spices and toast in the aroma give way to baked apple and cream flavors that are delicious to linger over.

A rare 100% varietal bottling, this impresses vintage to vintage, this time as a thick concentrated expression of dusty, brooding dark fruit and herb. The full-bodied intensity rides serious structure and refined oak, with accents of leather and sage. This will do well to cellar; enjoy best from 2027–2032.

From the relatively cool 2017 vintage emerges a Cab of elegance and class. It’s layered with heady characters of mint, tobacco, licorice root and cherry cordial, with floral nuances and a spine of polished, high end oak. Sculpted with fine, firm, talc-textured tannins, there’s a lovely lift of acidity and purity of fruit. Drink through 2030.

This is a beautifully expressive and textural Grenache, from a subregion celebrated for this variety. The nose is like a sea swept Mediterranean hillside: fresh red berries, scrubby sage, thyme and softly fragrant wildflowers. All focus should be on the palate, which is beautifully layered in juicy fruit, savory herbs and taut, fine tannins. There’s elegance yet structure to take this many years into the future. Drink 2021–2035.

Lisa Valtenbergs blends this wine from parcels on the Jackson family’s Alexander Mountain Estate, a 5,500-acre property on the western slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains. This is a classic California chardonnay in the best sense: A fresh, oak-guided beauty in shades of green-gold and white. Oak contributes a hint of butterscotch sweetness to an otherwise savory wine, layering scents of white roses, apples and wildflower honey through a lasting finish. The wine feels gracious, perplexing, intense and pure.

Deep red colour, with a tinge of purple remaining. There are herbal and blueberry essence aromas, a hint of kola and evidence of liberal oak, while the palate is full-bodied and firm, tight, tannic and authoritative, with density and length. Some talcy notes from oak, too. The palate and finish are firm and serious. The wine has depth, density and structure well outside the usual Australian merlot realm. It just needs time to build more complexity.