Notes

Save the Date – The Launch of 100 Best Australian Wines Report 2023/24
SAVE THE DATE - 26th SEPTEMBER 2023
I WILL LAUNCH THE 18TH EDITION OF MY 100 BEST AUSTRALIAN WINES REPORT AT AUSTRALIA HOUSE, STRAND, LONDON ON THE AFTERNOON OF TUESDAY THE 26TH OF SEPTEMBER 2023. THIS REPORT WILL BE MY 18TH EDITION AND IT COINCIDES WITH THE 20TH YEAR SINCE I LAUNCHED THIS ELITE AUSTRALIAN WINE INITIATIVE.
INVITATIONS WILL BE…

100 Best Australian Wines Roadshow 2022/23 – FINAL UPDATE 1st June 2023
The 100 Best Australian Wines 2022/23 Roadshow kicks off in early 2023 and I am delighted to alert you to a stunning line-up of events around the country. Here are the confirmed dates so far. A lot more detail regarding timings and tickets will follow but, for now, this post should help you lock in a date for an event in a city near you. There…

Swinney Wine Dinner and Vertical Tasting, presented by Matthew Jukes
6th June 2023; 18.30; £99 per person
Smith & Wollensky
1-11 John Adam Street London WC2N 6HT
link to tickets here
Swinney are renowned growers of top-quality grapes in the exceptional Frankland River region. The best of the best (less than 5% of total production) goes into the Swinney label. Of this, only fruit of ultimate quality makes it…

FOOD & WINE MATCHING – everything you ever needed to know about this mysterious art
I have written about food and wine-matching for over twenty-five years. Thirteen of my fourteen wine books have featured comprehensive food and wine-matching chapters and I have written over 1000 columns in the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine along this theme as well. For more than 26 years, I wrote the wine lists for a handful of award-winning…

Celebrating 60 years of Henschke’s Legendary Hill of Grace
This essay was first published on the Club Oenologique
website on 12th April 2023
Here is a link to the full article Stephen and Prue Henschke welcomed a group of Australian wine writers, and yours truly, to their newly renovated cellar door for a one-off celebration of Hill of Grace to mark 60 years of its production while at the same time launching…

Sandford Orchards – A Cider Eureka Moment
Sandford Devon Red Supreme Cider £29.00 for 12 x 500ml bottles (£2.42 each) HERE
Sanfrod Reserve Fine Cask-Aged Cider £32.50 for 12 x 500ml bottles (£2.71 each) HERE
I visited the incredible Darts Farm, near Topsham in Devon to host a leg of my 100 Best Australian Wines Roadshow and I was fortunate to spend the evening with Michael and James…

A stellar portfolio at Koerner, Clare Valley, South Australia
A Portfolio Tasting with Damon & Jono Koerner
www.koernerwine.com.au
I was fortunate to taste the recently released (some in January and the rest this month) range of Koerner wines with brothers Damon and Jono recently, and it was an eye-opener, to say the least. I cannot think of a range of wines that has had such a profound impact on me.
I…

Nine vintages of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (2020 – 2011)
www.corneyandbarrow.com
2020s from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (tasted February 2023)
There is no doubt that 2020 is a superb vintage for DRC. The word I noted down more than any other on my tasting sheet was ‘generosity’. These wine have a precocity and charm that makes them seem irresistible and yet beneath the surface there is enough…

A ground-breaking tasting – A preview of the new releases from Torbreck, Barossa Valley, South Australia
A tasting with Ian Hongell and Andrew Tierney in Adelaide, South Australia
Part 2 of 2
In late February, I was fortunate to be among the first people in the world to taste the new vintage releases from Escarpment, one of New Zealand’s most famous Pinot Noir specialists, and Torbreck, the legendary Barossa Valley titan. Over the course of a couple…

Wednesday Wines – Episode 155 – The 2020 Vintage Releases from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
2020 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
www.corneyandbarrow.com
There is no doubt that 2020 is a superb vintage for DRC. The word I noted down more than any other on my tasting sheet was ‘generosity’. These wines have a precocity and charm that makes them seem irresistible and yet beneath the surface there is enough power and grace to allow them…

A glittering array of new releases from Escarpment, Martinborough, New Zealand
A tasting with Ian Hongell and Andrew Tierney in Adelaide, South Australia
Part 1 of 2
In late February, I was fortunate to be among the first people in the world to taste the new vintage releases from Escarpment, one of New Zealand’s most famous Pinot Noir specialists, and Torbreck, the legendary Barossa Valley titan. Both of these properties…

Some wonderful comments past & present on 100 Best Australian Wines
As I rev up for a 100 Best Australian Wines Roadshow, planned for early 2023, it is extremely exciting to reflect on this initiative's past and also its present. Here are two wonderful passages, one from Richard Hemming MW, writing in jancisrobinson.com and a second from Roger Jones, writing an article in today's The Buyer.
A past quote about…