Andrew Graham

Tim Smith Barossa Mataro 2023 / For all the hype, Mataro/Mourvedre from the Barossa is still a grumpy thing. It’s the dark, moody, reductive, fortified grape that helps fill out blends and only enjoyed a solo career in recent years. But Tim Smith has Barossan Mataro sorted. Old vines, old oak, and Tim’s knack for nailing texture means these wines just work. Same again with the Tim Smith Wines Mataro 2023. Sourced from two vineyards, 70 and 140 years old, on the Barossa Valley ‘floor’, and this has that old vine complexity on full show. Cola, ‘Provençal herbs’ as Tim says on the label, and this licoricey black fruit endless depth without a sense of heaviness. Instead, here’s a real medium feel to it – this isn’t an unapproachable dark and heavy thing at all. The palate just sings on through in that cola, dark chocolate and savoury grainy vibe. It’s a hit.

Gundog Estate Wild Semillon 2022 / I don’t always love the balance on the Wild Semillon – it can look too sweet in some vintages, but better balance this year. As the name suggests, this is a different take on Hunter Valley Semillon, with a wild ferment and time on lees. It’s slightly herbal to start, which I wasn’t expecting. A bit of passionfruit thiol character too – you could almost pick it as being Sauv with that ripe juiciness. A slightly more generous palate but not sweet. The palate feels like good, riper, more textured appley Hunter Semillon. Acidity feels nicely balanced too. Hardly classic, but plenty of flavour in this modern white. Best drinking: now. 17.5/20, 91/100. 11.5%, $40. Would I buy it? Worth a glass.

Harewood Estate Porongurup Riesling 2021/From one of the older blocks in Porongurup. Such definition in this proudly regional white. Celery, lime juice, maybe a twist of herbs before the palate gets bold and limey, with great mid-palate generosity before a taut finish. Mouthwatering stuff, if a smidgen singular and green edged. Great length too. Really top level stuff.

Best drinking: Nowish. I like this style young. 18.5/20, 94/100. 12%, $27.50 from cellar door. Would I buy it? Yes.

These are a few of my favourite Christmas drinks...

Windfall Wine Estate Single Handed Chardonnay 2019
A new name to me, but promise. Actually, Geographe as a region promises much, even if it will forever be branded as ‘Margaret River-lite’. Chardonnay is the highlight here too, and this white plays the balancing act well – it’s mealy and nutty with white peach, subtle fruit and then prominent grapefruit acidity without being intrusive. It’s just a little clumsy through the finish – trying to be both taut and trim, yet ripe and full at the same time. A small gripe for what is otherwise quality. Best drinking: now to five plus years. 17.7/20, 92/100. 13.5%, $32. Windfall Wine Estate website. Would I buy it? Worth a few glasses.

Thomas Wines Elenay Shiraz 2017 / Famously the ‘lips and assholes’ leftover barrels blend for Andrew Thomas, but doesn’t look inferior. It tends towards the bigger end – more Kiss than Belford – but with a chocolatey bite. It’s just a little bit warm, and the alcohol sticks out a little too. Quality, if not the cohesion of the single vineyard wines. Best drinking: now to fifteen years. 17.7/20, 92/100. 14.5%, $55. Would I buy it? There’s others in the range I’d open first.

You need to be drinking more German wines.For so long now, Germany has been known for Riesling. Riesling (50% of world production) and Henkell Trocken. But here’s one country – along with the UK – where climate change has had some benefits. Suddenly, weedy Spatburgunder has moved up a notch of ripeness. Even Riesling has become more approachable, with less residual sugar needed to balance out razor-sharp acidity. It all adds up to promise, to a possible German boom time.

Of course, unchecked climate change will eventually swallow up most of the wine industry as we know it, but there has to be a silver lining, if just in the short term. And if you need any proof of the heights that German wine can achieve, let it be the wines below, all tasted at a VDP masterclass held in Sydney with Caro Maurer MW.

As ever, I struggled to put in the correct umlauts and write tasting notes at the same time, hence you won’t see enough of the former, and the latter are shorter than I want. Extra bits in italics.

This month, it’s all about Pinot Noir here at Graham HQ, just because we like drinking it. And you’d have to argue that the best Pinot Noir in Australia almost exclusively comes from Victoria (with a few Tasmanian and even fewer South Australian interlopers) so let’s focus on that.

Broadly, the highlights here come from the (generally) classic 2017, ideal 2015 and good (if warm) 2018 vintages. 2016 was tricky for many producers (drought year, some dried out wines) and remains the outlier.

Of course they’re just broad generalisations and there is great Pinot Noir to be had from all through 2015-2018. If I had just one vintage to champion, however, it would be the perfect 2017s.

The premise with this collection is very very simple – I’ve been hitting the sample pile hard over the past week or two, and these wines were not only the most quintessentially smashable Australian wines of the lot, but all weighed in for less than $30 a bottle.
Importantly, these are wines that I would want to finish a glass of, and possible many more than that. It’s probably a reflection of my own preferences, but that’s kind of the point – this is what I’d drink.
As a result, there is a dominance of Riesling, rosé and a smattering of light reds in this list, which is what I’d drink when it’s really warm. We drink plenty of other fuller flavoured wines too (particularly Chardonnay), but this list is just biased towards freshness – wines that may tend towards vitality and purity rather than weight and complexity, but perhaps more enjoyable as a result.
Drinking – not dissecting – wines and all at very fair prices.