Andrew Graham

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.

10 TOP $30+ AUSTRALIAN SHIRAZ JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS: I’m still working out what to drink on Christmas day. I’ve got most of the usual boxes ticked – Primo Joseph sparkling red, ’12 Giaconda Chardonnay maybe and a stray bottle of Pra Monte Grande that needs drinking.

But there’s holes in the drinking lineup in the red department in particular. And I figure that you’re probably in the same boat as me – that drinks lineup isn’t locked in at all, and at this time of year you want something memorable.

That’s why today I’m going straight for the big guns. And big gun Shiraz for a start. From now until after Christmas it will be wines $30 and above, because we’re worth it.

Here then, to kick things off, are sixteen Shiraz all priced over $30 that have passed muster of late. No bullshit, just Australian Shiraz in all it’s flavours and forms.

Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2016 / 94 points / Outside of Tassie, if there is one cool climate wine region in Australia that shows the most latent promise it is the Macedon Ranges. I had dinner with a few Macedon winemakers a month or so back and there is a palpable sense of a region on the brink of greatness – like Canberra 10 years ago.

The biggest challenge for Macedon, however, is scale. Many properties are ‘micro-boutique’ level in size, with wine often just a part of the business. That is not a problem in itself, but a lack of volume (and low yields) means less Macedon wines on lists. Stir in a local council that seems unhelpful (and downright obstructive in some instances) and a surprising lack of wine tourism, and it makes sense that it is still a fringe region.

Still, the true cool climate of this GI is almost unmatched on the mainland. In particular, I can see a future beyond Pinot and Chardonnay and into aromatic whites, with real acidity on tap. There is a whole smorgasbord of interesting wines being made too. Like Lagrein (Cobaw Ridge doing it Südtirol style), Gamay (Lyons Will’s lovely light red) and Nebbiolo (Mount Towrong’s Valtellina-esque red).

Potential a go-go.

Curly Flat, as one of the largest producers in the region, carry the mantle in many ways. The talisman, with a national reputation.  Jeni Kolkka is planting more vines as well, so Curly will only become more important. Lucky that the wines are in a good place!

This ’16 Curly Flat is a lovely, generous example of Macedon Pinot Noir too. There’s tomato juice and sarsaparilla cool clime Pinot spice, but with plusher oak and juicier raspberry flavour. That combination, and the late bitterness, makes this a really enjoyable drink – there’s a real sense of fullness, the warm year filling out the palate. A bigger wine in context, but not to the point of excess. Nice wine.

Best drinking: Good now, but perhaps even better next year. 13.7%, $52. 18.5/20, 94/100. Would I buy it? I’d drink this and buy it.