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"

93+ Points - Vinous (Antonio Galloni)

Pale bright straw-green. High-pitched aromas of cantaloupe and hazelnut complement sage, rosemary and green fig. Bright and juicy in the mouth, with a strong impression of extract enlivening the flavors of orange zest, botanical herbs and fresh fruit salad. This is the best Pecorino wine ever made by Tiberio, and it’s also the best, most varietally accurate Pecorino wine of the year.

93 Points - 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?

91 Points - Luis Gutierrez (erobertparker.com)

There is great purity and precision, a sharp Chardonnay with very little effect of the oak, just a spicy twist, a wine that incites you to drink with effervescent acidity that makes you salivate and cleanses your palate. Great, sharp Chardonnay.

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.

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.

90 Points - 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.

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.

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.

17 Points - Julia Harding MW (JancisRobinson.com)

On the nose this has both the freshness of capsicum and the sweetness of green figs, neither under- nor over-ripe, as well as a light saltiness and a hint of passionfruit. On the palate it is mercifully dry with really good intensity and focus in a difficult vintage. It has both fruit weight and freshness and persistence and a long stony finish. Mouth-wateringly pure. 

Bob Campbell MW

Delicately aromatic sauvignon blanc with wet stone, mineral, lime zest, gooseberry and subtle passionfruit flavours. A taut, linear wine in a bone-dry style with mouth-watering acidity. Impressive purity and drive 

95 Points – Bob Campbell 

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."

92 points - James Halliday 

Gold Medal 2015 Royal Queensland Wine Show

Gold Medal 2015 Tasmanian Wine Show

91 Points - Campbell Mattinson (Wine Companion)

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

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.

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.

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.

The 2012 Pinot Gris Estate has a gram more acidity than the 2013 and a degree more alcohol at 13.8%. As such, it is more expressive on the nose with dried honey and grilled almond/smoke scents. The palate is clean and fresh with nectarine, dried quince, lemongrass and fennel, with a long and persistent finish that is very satisfying. Excellent–and a fantastic value to boot.

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.

93 Points - James Suckling.com  Monday, November 13, 2017) "A blend of six parcels this wine embodies the signature style of rich, ripe peach fruits and toasty oak warmth on the nose (20% new). The palate fuses ripe citrus and stone fruits together in a powerful, fresh and balanced mode. This is a trademark of Brajkovich – he embraces chardonnay's richness and delivers energy and flavor. Drink now."

92 Points - Lisa Perrotti-Brown "The 2015 Estate Chardonnay is more open-knit and less taut than the single vineyard wines, with an expressive nose of ripe nectarines, pink grapefruit and guava, plus underlying notes of baking bread and ginger. Medium-bodied, it offers richness and good depth in the mouth with a an approachable, refreshing backbone and great harmony."

17 Points - Jancis Robinson "Broad and opulent on the nose. Massive streak of acidity. But real grip and extract on the palate. Lovely already with strong attack. Long. Drink 2017-2026"

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.

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.

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 - 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.

95 Points - James Halliday

No mlf. A semillon-based white Bordeaux style. While already very complex, toasty and full-bodied, its acidity (left intact by the exclusion of mlf) slices through the palate like King Arthur's sword, and giving the illusion of green lemon and herb/green capsicum flavours. Will be fascinating to watch its development.

96 Points - James Halliday

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.

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

97 Points - Stuart McCloskey

“Unlike many Roussanne’s - The palate has a sense of natural balance and everything is played down, not a hair out of place. The palate is captivating with breathtaking purity and clarity. Structurally, think very expensive Burgundy. Buttered toast and lemon curd which I, quite frankly, find irresistible. The weight and quality of the fruit glides across the palate with much flair. The flavour profiles fan out gloriously towards a mineral-rich finish juxtaposed with candied lemon peel. Total inviting now but will undoubtedly be at its pinnacle in 3-5 years. Thrilling, individual and certainly one of my favourite Roussanne’s”.  

Tasting note to follow...

94 Points - Bob Campbell MW

The first Bilancia Chardonnay I have tasted. Fruit from La Collina vineyard and Bridge Pa Triangle. Indigenous yeast and 15 months in oak without fining or cold stabilisation. Attractive, elegant chardonnay with tight citrus, mineral, struck flint and savoury yeast lees and spicy oak flavours. A classy chardonnay with development potential.

97 Points - James Halliday

The wine lives up to its reputation as one of Australia's greatest chardonnays, and you wonder why it isn't more frequently mentioned in dispatches. The answer is at least partly due to the very small amounts judged by Petaluma to be up to the strict standards set. Grapefruit leads the superb flavours of the palate, white peach in close attendance. The acidity is precise, the oak merely a means to an end.

David Schildknecht (robertparker.com)

The Eyrie 2011 Chardonnay is dominated by bright, juicy grapefruit and lime tinged with their piquant pips as well as with saliva-liberating salinity. Straight and penetrating as an arrow; amazingly buoyant (but then, there’s only 11.7% alcohol!). A streak of salinity serves to enhance the mouthwateringly sustained and invigorating finish. This outstanding value is apt to remain riveting through at least 2020 – a prognostication I venture with plenty of track record to back it up.

96 Points - James Halliday

Hand-picked from a single vineyard in southern Margaret River, whole bunch-pressed, fermented in used oak barrels and one new 600l demi muid, 11 months maturation in oak followed by 18 months bottle maturation. Gleaming straw-green, it has the hallmark complexity and depth to its fusion of tropical fruit with cashew and toasty oak.