Penfolds is on sensational form right now, and next week’s annual launch represents an outstanding collection of no less than 21 releases. But should you buy them? There’s a twist this year, and it’s a big one. The annual Penfolds Collection media tasting is unlike any other release event on the calendar. Not only is […]

After a week of intensive conversations and visits with more than 160 sommeliers, wine buyers and media in San Francisco and New York, I am more optimistic than ever about the opportunities for Australian wine in one of the world’s most important markets. The US is currently at a crucial juncture at which the reputation […]

I am flying to the US in early October 2018 and it’s my great pleasure to invite sommeliers, wine buyers and media to join me for very special, intimate trade tastings in San Francisco and New York City. Tasmanian wines have become a specialty of mine as an Australian wine communicator, and in recent years […]

In years to come we will look back on the past year as a dramatic watershed for champagne in Australia. We have witnessed a fundamental shift: never before has our champagne drinking evolved so far, so fast. Australia has transformed into one of the most important and dynamic champagne markets on earth, stepping into a […]

Did you know that Champagne pays its growers the highest grape price in the world, an average €6.20 per kilogram, more than 60% up on 15 years ago? It takes 1.2 kilograms of grapes to make a bottle of champagne, not to mention a production process more complex, more labour-intensive and more time-consuming than any […]

When I met Vincent Géantet for the first time in 2007, I discovered that this local fireman and bikie with a love for Harleys makes some of the smoothest, freshest, most pure wines in his village – who would have thought?! Gevrey-Chambertin is the most northerly of the truly great communes of Burgundy, making wines […]

The rise and rise of Charles Heidsieck over the past decades and especially the last seven years is unparalleled in the sparkling universe. Three years ago I announced its cuvées to be its finest yet. This year, these deeply contemplative yet thrillingly engaging cuvées have ascended yet another leap and now confidently rank among the […]

Readers of my Australian Sparkling Report 2018 will appreciate that it’s at the affordable end of the market that it pays to be most discerning in your sparkling choices. Sparkling wines are among the most complex, labour-intensive, time-consuming and hence expensive of all wine styles to produce, and it takes an outfit of considerable expertise to […]

I am alarmed and dismayed to report that the positive trend that I observed last year in the effects of natural corks proved to be short lived, and my tastings for my Australian Sparkling Report this year have seen a stark and dramatic return to abominable levels of detrimental influence of corks on wine bottles. […]

The vast continent of Australia boasts an immense diversity of terroirs that give birth to its extensive plethora of sparkling styles. Again in my tastings this year, Tasmania has set the benchmark on every measure. And the diversity even within this one region has never been more pronounced. We don’t much speak of the subregions […]