The 2022 Cabernet Franc is a blend of 90% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it shoots from the glass with notes of fresh blackberries and juicy raspberries, leading to hints of garrigue, graphite, and forest floor, plus a touch of violets. The medium- to full-bodied palate is bright and vivacious with a lively backbone and ripe grainy tannins supporting the red and black berry layers, finishing minerally.

The 2022 Cardinale is a blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it needs quite a lot of swirling to bring out notes of red currant preserves, cassis, and forest floor, followed by hints of dried rose, Indian spices, and crushed rocks. The full-bodied palate is densely laden with black fruit preserves and savory layers, framed by firm, chewy tannins and great tension, finishing long and minerally.

Woven between the fresh dark cherry and black-currant fruit is something more meaty and ferrous, with warm pavement, olive tapenade and a bouquet garni of herbs. The palate is still fairly tightly wound, keeping cards close to the chest while still offering lovely freshness, satiny texture, supple fruit and fine-grained tannins that set this up for lovely evolution in the bottle over the next several decades. Yangarra Estate Vineyard. Cellar Selection. —C.P.

Iron-fist-in-velvet-glove territory, it’s a deep and utterly lovely well of fresh forest fruit, black olive, dark chocolate, violets and charred meat. Silky suppleness on the palate is neatly framed in fine, firm tannins with beautiful acidity. It’s polished and very well made without losing the character of the biodynamically farmed fruit. Finely structured, this could age gracefully for another decade or more, but is so delicious now, it’s hard to wait. Yangarra Estate Vineyard. Editor’s Choice. —C.P.

Ripe and succulent, this offers a large core of punchy boysenberry paste and blackberry reduction that is generous and well-delineated in feel. The juiciness is a steady drumbeat that allows mouthwatering nuances of apple wood, sweet tobacco, fruitcake and singed mesquite to blossom through the lengthy finish. Impressive. Best from 2026 through 2038.—J.M.

This brims with succulent blackberry, boysenberry and mulberry fruit flavors that are coiled with energy, while singed mesquite, blood orange zest, black tea and dried anise accents add fuel on the lengthy finish. Rock solid. Best from 2026 through 2038. From California. —J.M.

A light bubblegum pink in the glass with a luscious nose of perfumed fruit (strawberry and cherry) and a touch of minerality. Just a beautiful nose. Great fruit, even really great fruit on the palate with a tartness to match. Outstanding.

From the 2.3ha Block 12, a southeast-facing sand and ironstone outcrop; 20% whole bunch, with 80% sorted and crushed; matured in 2500L French and Austrian oak for 16 months. This opens with a little reductive cloak, which is appealing in itself, if a little occluding of the fruit. Initially at least. There’s a Rhône-like feel, with a spicy, smoky angle. Fruit flavours roll through blackberry pastille, blueberry, tart boysenberry and black cherry, accented with malted barley, rolling tobacco, roasted meat, freshly ground coffee, star anise, cassia and allspice. There’s an underlying finesse here, as with all the '23s, both red and white. Excellent.

 From a cool, late-ripening vintage, this is a beautifully precise bottling of Sexton, wafting freshly made blueberry and raspberry compote woven with crushed, peppery spices, scrubby herbs, licorice and florals, with terra-cotta and vanilla-bean nuances beneath. There’s a quiet power to the palate—the fine tannins lacing supple, tangy fruit. Drinking gracefully now, this should age beautifully into something more complex and savory over the next five-to-eight years

3D is a 4ha site that Greg Brewer began working with in 2007. The vineyard is planted on sandy soils to five clones, which all play a part in this wine, including the California heritage clones Hyde, Wente and Mount Eden. It's opulent on the nose, with generous citrus and complementary notes of ocean air and lemon beebalm. Rich stone fruit deliver a pleasant ripeness that's set against a range of energetic tropical flavours.

Yangarra remains one of the key trailblazers in McLaren Vale, with a wide array of wines drawn from a single large estate in Blewitt Springs that was bought by Jackson Family in 2000. Diversity is at the heart of this operation, with a strong selection of key Rhône varieties, including recent plantings of Grenache Blanc and Picpoul, all of which are farmed biodynamically using regenerative farming practices. There is a distinctly retro-modern edge to winemaking here, with significant use of amphora and concrete egg, as well as some skin contact. Winemaker Peter Fraser is still not settled on all components of winemaking, and the introduction of Clayver eggs has led to significant refinements. According to Fraser, 2023 was a very challenging vintage with lots of powdery and downy mildew requiring significant leaf plucking to open up canopies and regular spraying to keep disease at bay.

Handpicked, destemmed to open top fermenters. 21 days on skins basket pressed to 60% new French oak barriques for 14 months, blended and matured for a further 4 months in French oak. This wine has always had me, at ‘hello’ it’s partly due to its blue tinges of blueberry and lilac but mostly because the wine draws you in, rather than smacks you over the head with its Cabernet -esqueness. Yet all those markers are here too. Blackberries baking in a pie, sage and mulberry. Oak plays its integral role as you might expect it would with clove, mahogany and cinnamon quill. Lets face it, the wines screams pedigree and expertise, Hickinbotham knows Cabernet and Cabernet knows them. Here is demonstrated beautifully and is drinking like a dream on release and will reward time and time again in 5, 10, 15 years. Drink with a scotch fillet so supreme you can cut it with a butter knife.

20% whole bunch 30% destemmed and berry sorted and 50% crushed to open top fermenters. 20 days on skins and kept on lees in 30% new French oak puncheons. A further 12 months in French and Austrian 25 hectolitre foudres. A pool of dark berries, Holly, bilberry and blackcurrant. There is a generous spread of olive tapenade that leads back around to a halo of blue tinged fruit. Prune and blueberries. Oak shows in maple and red oak, undercurrents of savoury tobacco and carob too. Just when you think this may be quite a heady wine, acidity dances in with light feet, making for a medium bodied but grainy textured drop. The Clarendon potency is all here with a nod to dried herbs and wildly fragrant spices. A complex and detailed wine that you can ponder for hours and marvel for days. Drink now or will cellar well for another 6-8 years. A bucket list pairing would be a hearty pork and mushroom pie with gravy poured down the centre funnel. Lode Pies signature Pithovier would do it justice.

The 2022 Merlot was stored in 60% new French oak for 20 months before bottling. The nose shows dense dark fruits with a gorgeous eucalyptus character. The palate is soft and elegant with refined mouthfeel and silky texture. The palate offers great body and freshness with refined tannins and great length. Elegant and rich, this is gorgeous from this slightly cooler vintage. Drink 2026-2042

The 2022 Lokoya Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District is a beautiful wine, offering a
complex array of blackcurrants, leather, graphite, and leafy herbs, along with some exotic floral
notes and new leather. Medium to full-bodied and concentrated on the palate, it delivers
impressive depth while maintaining poise and elegance, with ripe tannins that give it more structure than most in the vintage. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 22 months in 82% new French oak, is a compelling expression of Spring Mountain that will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve gracefully over the following 15 years or so.

Sourced from 14 different vineyards, the Cardinale Cabernet Sauvignon reveals alluring aromas of
cassis, black fruits, new leather, and baking spices. Full-bodied and powerful, with remarkable
richness and focus, it offers ripe, well-integrated tannins and a pleasure-bent yet sophisticated
personality. Based on 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Merlot, aged 22 months in 81% new French
oak, this classy wine will drink beautifully for two decades.

This blanc de blancs has spent 7 years on the lees—100% from the Gran Moraine vineyard, disgorged in February of 2024. Stunning and elegant, with aromatics of lemon cream, petrichor and honey, By 2017, I was picking a lot earlier than most of the Valley; I'm into structure in my sparkling wines and acidity. The linear nature of the wine is ever present with a mineral saline streak. Meyer lemon pulp, mint, petrichor, it's a brilliant wine. Gran Moraine does two disgorgements of this wine; half of this wine is released at 7 years en tirage, and the other half
will go 12

Dropstone is a synonym for a glacial erratic; this Pinot Noir bottling is sourced near the winery at Gran Moraine, with minimal new oak and an emphasis on purity. Airy floral and pine bough aromas appear on the palate alongside blood orange and smoky sea salt. This is a refined wine of elegance with floral delight, saline minerality and subtle fruit that

Complex, dense and wonderfully concentrated, with notes of jasmine, shiso leaf, freshly grated ginger and lemon basil. Sleek flavors of lemon, yuzu and pomelo are vibrant, juicy and intense. Crushed stone, vetiver and celery salt hints linger on the long, expressive finish. Drink now through 2036. 282 cases made. – M.W

Light ruby with purple shining at the rim. Bright raspberry fruit with a touch of smoky flint and ground spices lift from the glass. Palate is light and lithe but there’s an intensity to the fruit that demands attention. Red berries, anise, cumin and ground mixed peppercorn notes all show as it flows across the tongue. Lifting acidity and a firm gravel tannic framework all ensure focus and carry, allowing it to continue showing its layers for an age, eventually closing with a refreshing dryness.

Deep ruby with a hint of purple in the light. Blood plum, lavender bush, nori and blackberry pastille aromatics. Deep and powerful, dense black and blue fruits fill the senses, equally balanced by anise, blood, nori and black pepper spices. It builds and builds to a crescendo of flavour intensity, but remains unwavering and driven by powerful fine gravelly tannins. The length is prodigious, carrying the harmony long and lingering, eventually fading with a drying flourish

Fragrant, stylish and elegant, this opens with dried rose petal, Saigon cinnamon and cardamom aromatics, with a core of fresh raspberry, maraschino cherry, blood orange and cranberry flavors on a sleek and juicy frame. Added notes of spices and forest floor linger on the long and expressive finish. Drink now through 2037. From Australia.

Amazing wine, deeply flavoured, raked with tannin, long, creamy and characterful. Blackcurrant, gravel, violet and bay leaf notes with a smoky, iodine-like edge. No need to prattle. This wine lays down the law, in a tannic, concentrated, balanced fashion.

This is a stunning Chardonnay from the Zena Crown Vineyard, high in the Eola-Amity Hills. It comes from three blocks (2, 8, and 12) in the middle of the vineyard. The wine flaunts fabulous lemon custard aromas and buttercup florals, complemented by salty sea air and beeswax. The palate delicately balances brushing lemon oil with smoky sea shells and filigreed minerality, and a sprinkle of dried chamomile carries the finish.

Deep ruby red in colour with intense purple undertones. Highly perfumed aromas of sweet scented spice, candied orange peel, crushed red rose petals, polished saddle leather and clove. Bing cherry, raspberry, wild strawberry, pomegranate, liquorice, cedar notes and sweet toasted tobacco. The palate reflects the bouquet. Velvety tannins vie with friendly acidic presence. Well extracted. Glorious tingling sensation following mid palate to the long, wide finish.