White

Made in a semidried, Vin Santo style where the grapes are handpicked at optimum ripeness and acid balance, they are then placed on racks and dried before crushing and fermenting. This wine has no botrytis or fortification. Sublimely sweet and rich, bursting with pure pear, pineapple and cream aromas and flavours. A refined acid structure balances the sweetness to give a lingering, velvety finish.

18 Points - Raymond Chan "Bright straw-yellow colour with some depth, lighter on the edge. The nose is softly full and gently up-front and voluminous with aromas of yellow stonefruits in an amalgam with white peaches and a subtle mealy and nutty overlay. Medium-full bodied, the palate is stylishly up-front with flavours of ripe yellow stonefruits and peaches with nutty and savoury mineral interest. The mouthfeel has fruit richness lending rounded textures and plenty of presence. The wine flows positively along a fine phenolic line leading to a lingering dry finish of stonefruits, nuts and mealy detail. This is an elegantly rich, up-front Chardonnay with ripe stonefruit, nutty and mealy flavours with good weight, a rounded mouthfeel and a dry finish. Match with poultry, pork and veal over the next 3+ years. Hand-picked Kumeu fruit, WBP and indigenous yeast fermented, 75% in tank and 25% in seasoned oak to 13.5% alc., the wine given extended lees aging, undergoing 100% MLF"

A significant step up in quality compared to the ‘Estate’ wine – The nose has an intense and irresistible aroma of passion fruit and a whole array of ripe tropical fruit. The palate is equally intense on the entry and immediately expresses those ripe tropical fruits found on the nose. This is a fantastic wine from Vidal that rivals many ‘top’ Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs. Just delicious – no more, no less...

Bob Campbell "Pungent, flavoursome sauvignon blanc with classic passionfruit, capsicum, pink grapefruit and citrus flavours. A good example of the Marlborough style, with appealing punchy varietal character."

 Decanter World Wine Awards: Bronze 2017

90 Points - Luis Gutierezz (erobertparker.com)

The just-bottled, screw-capped 2016 Felino Chardonnay was quite impressive. It's now produced exclusively with grapes grown in the Valle de Uco and was cropped from an unusual wet and cold growing season. It fermented with indigenous yeasts with full malolactic, with 15% of the volume put into neutral French oak barrels and bottled seven months after the harvest. It's very fresh and varietal, with a nose that mixes white flowers and fruit and a balsamic twist. The palate is fresh and sharp, elegant with very clean flavors, showcasing the minerality of the soils. Is this the finest Felino Chardonnay to date?

This fruit driven unoaked Chardonnay has been produced using premium grapes from the Margaret River region. The wine exhibits the classic varietal Chardonnay aromas of peaches and citrus. On the palate, vibrant notes of stone fruit are complemented by fresh grapefruit characters and a creamy, nutty soft finish.

Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc of the Year - 2018 Melbourne International Wine Competition

Silver Medal – 2017 Wine Show of Western Australia

The blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon is one of the classic Margaret River wine styles. The Sauvignon Blanc in this wine displays tropical fruit and citrus aromas which are complemented by the grassy nuances of Semillon. On the palate, the wine is fresh and vibrant showing passion fruit characters with a lingering crisp finish.

**Available for delivery August 2019**

94 Points - James Halliday "80% cool-fermented in stainless steel, 20% as cloudy juice in used French oak. This gives a tactile flavour expression equalled by few other Australian sauvignon blancs. It's not about Marlborough, but the Loire Valley/Bordeaux of France at half the price."

95 Points - Stuart McCloskey

Hand-picked grapes from eight of Dog Point own vineyards within the Wairau Valley. The fruit is whole bunch pressed, cold settled before fermentation and 2-3 months aging in stainless steel tanks. A portion of this wine is fermented using indigenous yeast and bottled without fining. A wonderfully deep and mineral nose with white and yellow stone fruits with a tinge of herbs. The palate is positively electric with stone fruits and minerals. Extremely pure, shows finesse and elegance as well as a touch of sweetness, but the overall balance is perfect. A wine which straddles New Zealand and the Loire, which is most pleasing as many Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc are too overtly pungent and unappealing. An exceptional Sauvignon Blanc for the price and an utter joy when the sun shines…  

95 Points - Neal Martin

The 2014 Doisy-Vedrines has a tightly knit, backward bouquet that demands much more encouragement than its peers. The palate is well balanced with a viscous texture, extremely well judged acidity, poised with a beautiful quince and marmalade-tinged finish that lingers in the mouth. Superb. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

Neal Martin "It has quite a forward, rich, generous bouquet with subtle honeysuckle and apricot notes merging with the apply aromas. The palate is fresh and crisp on the entry, a little grassiness at first, gently opening up to a gooseberry, nettle and green apple-flavored finish. This might be my pick of Olivier Bernard's three 2015 offerings under the Clos des Lunes label and it comes highly recommended."

90 Points - Antonio Galloni "The highlight in this range from Foxglove, the 2014 Chardonnay packs a serious punch for the money. Bright, juicy and exuberant, the Foxglove Chardonnay will thrill readers looking for a budget-priced Chardonnay. Lemon peel, white flowers and mint meld together in a rich, beautifully layered Chardonnay long on class. Aging in steel and blocked malolactic fermentation keep the flavors bright, but there is no shortage of depth or intensity. This is a fabulous wine, especially considering its modest price."

95 Points - James Halliday

There is definite synergy in the blend, even it if it's the Yarra Valley that provides most of the flavour and the glue; grapefruit is in the driving seats, but there's a special texture to the mouthfeel, part fruit, part oak-derived.

**Available for delivery August 2019**

Winemaker's notes "Made through the blending of Roussanne and Viognier, White Duck is full of texture and vibrancy. Fermented in 500L French oak barrels, it shows a lovely fusion of typical varietal characters. The Roussanne providing earthiness, roundness and fresh natural acidity, and the Viognier filling that palate with stone fruits and texture."

**Available for delivery August 2019**

Featured in Langton's 'Top Six': The Best wines of 2018

95 Points - James Halliday "This is Wickhams Road's twin playing games with you, for there is that little bit more of every facet of Wickhams Road present in this wine, even its colour is that little bit greener. It's the extra dimension of the faintly reductive aftertaste that draws me back for more."

92 Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Winefront "White peach, custard powder, more spritely stuff like lemon zest and green olive, perhaps a touch of spice. Light and fresh, some lactic/cheese flavour and stalks, with fine acidity and chalk dust texture, and a savoury finish of good length. It’s a good release, though perhaps a bit different in style this vintage."

**Available for delivery August 2019**

93+ Points - Gary Walsh (The Wine Front) "Juicy and peachy, spiced oatmeal, fennel and a little stuck match. It’s flavoursome with ripe pear and nectarine flavour, flinty texture, an appealing grapefruit cut to the acidity, and a long, well-defined chalky finish. Feel the quality of quiet confidence. It’s a great thing to drink even as a young wine, though a couple of years will help it along too."

James Halliday "Excellent intensity. Lemongrass and ripe stone fruit flavours meet gravel and sweat. Super fresh and lively. Textural finish."

92 points - James Halliday 

Tasting note to come...

93+ Points - Neal Martin

The 2015 Doisy-Vedrines has a lovely nose, a little fatter than its Barsac peers with dried honey, apricot, acacia and a touch of melted wax on the nose. I admire the delineation and intensity here. The palate is well balanced with a fine line of acidity, viscous in texture with honey, mango and quince toward the finish that feels more linear and perhaps more focused than some of the wines a decade ago. Great potential.

Gold Medal - 2018 Melbourne International Wine Competition
Gold Medal – 2017 Wine Show of Western Australia
Silver Medal – 2017 Perth Royal Wine Show

96 Points – James Halliday Wine Companion 2016 "Small batch-fermented in French oak (18.5% new) on lees for 7 months with light battonage. The combination of high quality cool grown grapes and sensitive winemaking has produced this lovely chardonnay, the first release of a chardonnay in the Senses range. Delicacy teams with intensity (an oxymoron if ever there was one), grapefruit, white peach and nectarine the drivers, not the oak."

The Doisy-Daëne Blanc Sec 2014 has a pleasant, refined bouquet with scents of green apple intermingling with lime and granitic scents. The palate is taut and fresh with a sharpline of acidity and a penetrating malic finish that leaves the palate feeling totally refreshed and asking for more. Very fine.

**Available for delivery August 2019**

96 Points - James Halliday "A 75/25% blend matured on lees for 10 months in French puncheons (33% new). A hauntingly complex bouquet has passionfruit, lemongrass and French oak aromas, the palate with unusual depth and classic length. Trophy Sydney International Wine Competition '16 and Margaret River Wine Show '16, both thoroughly deserved."

90 Points - Stuart McCloskey

Stylish Sauternes from an outstanding vintage. At perfect maturity and awaiting the company of Stilton or Roquefort.

A portion of our 2011 Viognier was fermented in French oak with the balance fermented in tank. The result is a style with intense and complex aromas of frangipani, apricot candied citrus and spice.

This wine displays the classic varietal characteristics of Viognier, with a viscous, creamy mouthfeel highlighted by textured cashew nuts on the finish.

**Available for delivery August 2019**

96 Points - James Halliday "Absolutely nails all that is good about Margaret River chardonnay. Bright grapefruit and white peach fruit glide along a palate with great mouthfeel from its fruit, acidity and touches of grilled cashew nuts. Nothing wasted here, nothing included without need. 13% alc."

**Available for delivery August 2019**

Mike Bennie (The Wine Front) "A wine that proudly shows the colour of the grape, asserting that texture, detail, structure and complexity are a by-product of thoughtful winemaking with pinot gris. ‘Whole bunch fermented’ says a sash on the label now too.

It’s a tightly wound expression, slender in shape, refreshing with tangy acidity, fragrant in red berry and floral perfume, though flavours are a touch washed out in the fray. That being said, the chalkiness to texture, the chew and bite of skinsy fruit personality, and the general ease of drinking, all play a part in ‘recommendation’ here. It’s a paired back release this year, more ‘Provencale rose’ than Radikon Kisi, but the drinkability and general sense of deliciousness is all there."

96 Points - James Halliday "Gleaming straw-green; in the year of its birth the wine received 94 points (Sept), and, as anticipated, has developed superbly. Even now, its laser-like citrus fruit and echoes of honey has years to go, building yet greater complexity along the way."

98 Points - James Halliday "A special cellar release wine. Luminous green-gold, the bouquet and palate an exercise in harmony. Meyer lemon and lime flavours lead the journey, hints of lightly browned toast in the background. The acidity is essential, but it is likewise simply part of the team."

90 Points - Neal Martin

The 2015 Blanc Sec from Doisy Daene has a crisp and vibrant bouquet with citrus fruit, yellow flowers and light granite-like aromas, all very focused and conveying a sense of energy. The palate is well balanced with a touch of rosewater on the entry, quite saline toward the finish with a touch of bitter lemon. This is such a fascinating dry white Sauternes—a superb wine.

**Available for delivery August 2019**

Halliday Wine Companion Awards - Best New Winery of The Year 2019

Fruit sourced from vineyards in the Derwent and Coal River Valley, picked at approximately 12 baume, destemmed, crushed and soaked on skins for 4 and 16 hours respectively, slowly fermented in stainless with GHM yeast, stopped when sugars and acids found balance and matured on lees. Bottled unfined and filtered.

Full tasting note to follow...

Stuart McCloskey "Without doubt, the best new world Riesling I've tasted."

18.5+ Raymond Chan "Bright, light golden-yellow colour with some depth, paler on the edge. The nose is elegant in proportion with rich and concentrated, well-packed aromas of ripe citrus fruits along with honey, marmalade and musk, unfolding exotic floral elements. Dryish to taste and medium-full bodied, the palate has a concentrated, dense heart packed with harmoniously integrated flavours of ripe citrus fruits, marmalade, honeysuckle and musk. This has real body and presence, and the palate has a rounded and gently unctuous mouthfeel. The acidity is ripe and soft, providing underlying energy and drive, and the wine carries to a long, lingering finish of honey, citrus fruits and musk. This is a full and concentrated dry Riesling with ripe citrus fruits, honey, musk and marmalade botrytis flavours on a rounded, unctuous palate.

95 Points - James Halliday 

From a single vineyard in Karridale, whole berries pressed to old barriques and a 600l demi-muid for 11 months with lees stirring. Green-gold; a barrel-fermented sauvignon blanc that challenges normal beliefs and practises, made possible by the quality of the grapes. It marries honeyed richness and complexity, honey and crystallised grapefruit skin with dancing acidity.

97 Points - James Halliday

Hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, fermented in used oak and demi-muids with staves, matured for 11 months in oak, plus 15 months in bottle. The complex, vaguely smoky/charry bouquet shifts around radically on the super-intense and complex palate, with citrus and snow pea doing battle with ripe citrus and guava/lychee tropical fruits, the latter prevailing. A salute to the late Didier Dageneau.

97 Points Stuart McCloskey 

Dog Point's Section 94 has always been a favourite of mine and can, in correct cellaring conditions, mature wonderfully over a decade. This is another example of a medium to full-bodied, textural style of Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes for Section 94 come from a single, low cropping vineyard parcel first planted in 1992. The fruit is hand-picked, whole bunch pressed and aged in older French oak barrels for 18 months. Every vintage has a funky edge which you either love or not. Those seeking simplistic Kiwi fruit pops should avoid at all costs as this is a serious, large scale wine that deserves a little respect. The aromas are taut, tightly wound with the ‘funk’ reducing with 20/30 minutes in a decanter (highly recommended). Tropical no - Yellow stone fruits in abundance with a vein of minerality appearing mid-palate. There’s a real intensity which is exceptional and rarely found with the majority of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. The finish is endless… In short, brilliant!

Tasted blind at the Sauternes 2011 horizontal tasting. The Château Doisy-Védrines 2011 has a very fragrant, almost floral bouquet with pure honey, quince and yellow flower scents that soar from the glass and embrace you like your favourite aunt. The palate is medium-bodied with a viscous texture and superb acidity that really set this Sauternes alight: real tension and a sense of energy here. It just “flows” toward a vibrant, honeyed finish that has only just begun to “motor." This surpasses its showing from barrel and constitutes a magnificent effort from Olivier Castèja and his team.

95 Points – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

What a wonderful Chardonnay. White peach and grapefruit, oatmeal and struck match, tight tracks of gleaming acidity, and a bullet of juicy but restrained flavour racing down them. A little flintiness. Some cashew creaminess. A tight and mouth-watering limey finish that makes you eye the level of the glass too often, and fret over it. You’d be mad not to.

94 Points - James Halliday

Handpicked Dijon clones 95 and 96 from a single vineyard at Karridale, whole bunch-pressed, wild fermentation and 11 months maturation in French barriques (20% new), plus 30 months in bottle. 360 dozen made. Trembles on the brink of unripeness, but is pulled back by the complexity built into the wine. Will always be Corton or Chablis, not Meursault or Montrachet.

97 Points - James Halliday "This wine breaks all the accepted rules/wisdom. Hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, barrel-fermented in used barrels; matured for 11 months with some lees stirring; once bottled it is held for 18 months' further maturation. Glowing straw-green; it is a truly remarkable wine, with rapier-like intensity and prodigious length to its display of nectarine, gooseberry and citrus before the flinty acidity on its finish. 280 dozen made."

17 Points - Julia Harding (JancisRobinson.com) "Winemaker Stuart Pym was founder/winemaker at Stella Bella. Importer Vinorium have snaffled all the Flowstone library stock. But volumes are very small. Extremely smoky and reductive – flinty more than struck match. Dog Point Section 94 style with excellent freshness and intensity. Drive and length and complexity in that reductive style and deliciously fresh on the long finish. Complex but no loss of vibrancy."

97 Points - Stuart McCloskey “Reductive with aromas still very much in development. That said, this impeccably made wine is centred around textural elegance, satiny structure, mid-palate depth and an effortless sense of cohesion. Decanting for a short while is essential as the oxygenation takes it from the ordinary to immensely appealing. Layer upon layer of fruit and white flowers harmonises beautifully with oatmeal and a beautiful vein of minerality. This is more tensile, finer than many, which adds an intellectual quality found with high-quality Burgundy. This is a superb Chardonnay from one of New Zealand's leading producers. I recommend a drinking window from now to 2025 but would not be surprised to this peak beyond 10 years.. Sampled in Zalto Bordeaux glassware and comes highly recommended”.

97+ Points Stuart McCloskey "My third bottle and my opinion has not changed. An ineffably complex bouquet which builds and builds with more aeration in the glass. Emphatically, mineral-dominated, which combine perfectly with Amalfi lemon peel and orchard fruits (quince). The palate is full of energy, exhilarating, tightly coiled and perfectly balanced. The wine is chiselled, builds slowly and would benefit from decanting. Richness does not come in the form of fruit. Instead, the wine's fullness comes in the form of texture (phenolic weight) which is undeniably attractive (a nod to the painstaking work carried out in the vineyard). Wet stones wash across my palate but it’s the salinity which I love and sets this New Zealand Chardonnay apart from all the others. There’s a killer line of acidity which will ease with more time in the bottle. Wonderfully alive, memorable and a breathtaking wine. Wow! Served in Zalto Bordeaux glassware." Drink now to 2026

97 Points - James Halliday

Follows closely in the thoroughly unorthodox, but brilliantly successful, ?11 inaugural release: barrel fermentation and 11 months oak maturation, then 18 months in bottle prior to release. The synergy between the grape and the vinification, orchestrated by winemaker Stuart Pym, is spectacularly successful; the flavours are a Joseph's Coat of complexity, yet indivisible. Zesty acidity means the wine will outlast almost all other sauvignon blancs.

**Available for delivery August 2019**

Halliday Wine Companion Awards - Best New Winery of The Year 2019

Fruit from a single vineyard in the Coal River Valley, 60% barrel fermented after a 4 hour skin soak, 40% skin fermented for two weeks and pressed to oak, all natural yeast, partial malolactic ferment while maturing on lees. Bottled unfined and unfiltered

Full Tasting note to follow...

**Available for delivery August 2019**

Halliday Wine Companion Awards - Best New Winery of The Year 2019

Fruit from a single vineyard in the Derwent Valley over two picks (12.0 and 12.8 Baume), whole bunch pressed to oak (20% new), fermented with Sauvage yeast (60%) and natural yeast (40%), underwent partial malolactic fermentation while maturing on lees ageing for 6 months. Bottled unfined and filtered.

Full tasting note to follow...

96 Points - James Halliday

From a single vineyard in Karridale, the southernmost and coolest part of Margaret River; hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, fermented in French oak (15% new), with natural mlf; 11 months in oak with occasional lees stirring; after bottling cellared for 30 months prior to release. Still pale, bright straw-green; the bouquet has a nutty complexity to the core of pink grapefruit, the palate a bright replay of the bouquet except for the racy, minerally acidity.

96 Points - James Halliday

Winemakers notes "Only produced in exceptional vintages in the cooler southern sub-region of Mia Mia, 3 kilometres from the winery at Adairs Lane Vineyard, pressed in the traditional basket press and barrel fermented in 100% new French oak puncheons. The wine is kept in barrel for a further 9 months and to add texture, the lees were stirred every 2 weeks with the wine being bottled un-fined. Only 1200 bottles were produced, this is a wine that rivals many top Rhone whites."

96 Points - James Halliday