96 Ned Goodwin, 95 Huon Hooke, 92 Nick Stock, 92 Joe Czerwinski…”as good as any merlot on these shores”

If there’s a merlot to convince you that it’s a variety worth buying, then the Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard ’The Revivalist’ is the wine to do it. The variety’s image was tarnished by “Sideways” but these are no ordinary bottle-shop merlots, rather they are hand-crafted wines made by Chris Carpenter of Lokoya and Cardinale fame. When people “turn up their nose’ at merlot as a variety, he reminds them that one of the greatest wines in the world is a merlot – Petrus. I’m a big fan of this variety when made by Chris, which also includes the Napa Valley merlots of La Jota and Mt Brave. Chris travels to Australia specifically to make three wines at Hickinbotham, namely The Peake cabernet shiraz, Trueman cabernet and The Revivalist merlot. Always a few in my cellar.

You might also like to try:

2016 – $92 – 14 btls in SG – 95 Jane Faulkner (HA)
2018 – $97 – 11 btls in SG – 97 Campbell Mattinson (HA)

95 Campbell Mattinson, 95 Nick Stock…”a killer wine”

Here’s another syrah from the Yarra Valley. There’s a link between this and the Mayer syrah. In 2015, Timo Mayer was working at Gembrook Hill jointly with Andrew Marks (of The Wanderer) where they shared Gembrook Hill’s winemaking roles. Buy one of each (Mayer and The Wanderer) and see what you think of the individual winemaking styles.

95 Jane Faulkner, 94 Mike Bennie…”so excellent to drink”

This is the latest release shiraz from Craiglee. I’ve spoken enough about the winery over the last few emails, so I’ll let the raters do the talking on the wine.

I’ve got 7 BOTTLES in MELBOURNE

You might also like to try the 2016 vintage – $80 – 10 btls in SG – 95+ Mike Bennie

96 Huon Hooke, 96 Jeni Port, 93 Mike Bennie…”a quite stunning shiraz”

This is the latest release ‘Mast’ from Mount Langi Ghiran’s famous Grampians vineyards. I’ve probably driven past the actual Mount Langi Ghiran well over a hundred times in my lifetime, travelling from Adelaide to Melbourne or vice-versa, plus quite a few trips to the Grampians (now also known by its Aboriginal name Gariwerd) but I’ve never diverted to the national park nor to the winery. Time to rectify that when travel restrictions are lifted. The ‘Mast’, together with Mount Langi Ghiran’s other premium shiraz ‘Talus’ and ‘Langi’ are exclusive to Tiger Wines in Singapore. The 2019 Talus will not be released until 2022.

24 BOTTLES in MELBOURNE

You might also like to try the 2017 vintage – $98 – 24 btls in AU – 96 Jane Faulkner (Halliday)

93 Nick Stock, 89 Huon Hooke…”elegant and nicely detailed”

This used to be known as the “Tasmania” pinot noir to indicate that it did not come from Chatto’s own vineyard in Glaziers Bay. The name’s been changed to Lutruwita to reflect the agreed Palawa kani (indigenous Tasmanian) name for Tasmania. It’s a blend of four sites in the north of Tasmania, namely Piper’s River (Bird), West Tamar (Glengarry), Tamar Valley (Marion’s) and East Coast (Maclean Bay). It’s also a blend of 5 differnt clones being114, 155, MV6, d5V12 and ‘unknown’.

From my own experience, Jim Chatto’s wines do not show well if drunk too early or straight from the botttle. If you do, that reductiveness that Huon Hooke refers to can be confronting, but give it some more time in the bottle and plenty of air after opening and you’ll start to see what the fuss over Chatto wines is about. Looks like it’s sold out at retail in Australia and as far as I am aware, it didn’t appear on Chatto’s website such was the low volume produced. Released at A$45 but I saw it offered at A$56 in Sydney. Probably the only chance to buy in Singapore.

8 BOTTLES in MELBOURNE.

Not rated

I bought this back in November 2018 so it’s had nearly 3 years of bottle ageing in my coolroom storage. It’s got its followers for sure. Previously listed at S$59, I’ve dropped the price to S$55 to better reflect slight, very slight improvements in freight rates and exchange rates.

14 BOTTLES in MELBOURNE