On our trip to Australia we tried 105 different wines. The wine highlights of our trip are the sparkling Shirazes from Yalumba and St. Hallett, Tassie Chardonnays especially Freycinet, Kay Brothers Amery Hillside Shiraz, Rusden's hospitality and wines, Rockford's Basket Press Shiraz, St. Hallett Old Block and how good the Torbreck upper end wines really are.
Here's the complete list of wines we tried, where from, and sometimes some tasting notes.
Tasmania (11 wines)
Coombend - Sauvignon Blanc
Freycinet - chardonnay awesome, Pinot Noir
Grand Vewe - chardonnay
Greeling - Chardonnay,
Lalla Gully - Chardonnay
Piper's Brook - Gewurztraminer
Rosevears - Cab Sav
Stefano Lubiana - Brut was awesome, "primavera" pinot noir
Wellington - Iced Riesling
Connawarra (15)
Yalumba - "D" black shiraz sparkling was our pick of sparkling. Estate Vineyards merlot and Shiraz, Smith & Hooper WrattonBully Cab/Merlot 2002, Mawson's Wrattonbully Cab 2002, Menzies 2000
Wynn's - 2001 Cab, 2001 Harold Vineyard Cab Sav.
Patrick T - "The Caves" Riesling, "The Caves" Shiraz, Home Block 1998 and 2001 Cab
Hollick - 2000 Ravenswood and 2002 Wilgha Shiraz were very nice, the 2003 Sparkling Merlot.
Barossa + Eden(64)
We spent 1 1/2 days in Barossa, where we visited a number of vineyards.
Torbreck
Woodcutters, juveniles, steading, the struie, Descendent, the factor, run rig. The factor and run rig were amazingly great.
Seppelts
DP30 Tawny, Para 123 Tawny, 1997 Show Vintage Shiraz, DP 90 Rare Tawny, DP 59 Rare Tokay, GR 113 Rare Muscat, DP57 Rutherglen Grand Tokay, DP 63 Rutherglen Grand Muscat. Our favs were the Rare versions.
Henschke
Henry's Seven Shiraz Grenache Viognier 2003, Johan's Garden Grenache 2003, Lenswood Abbottsw Prayer Merlot 2001, Mt Edelstone Shiraz 2001, Lenswood Croft Chardonnay 2003, Cranes Eden Valley Chardonnay, Joseph Hill Gewurtz, Julias Eden Valley Riesling 2003, Eden Valley Riesling 2002
Saltram
Mamre Brook Riesling 2004, Mamre Brook Chardonnay 2004, Mamre brooke Shiraz 2002 (lots of Flavour), No 1. Shiraz, Metalla Orginal Plantings Shiraz 2001, Pepperjack Barossa Shiraz 2003, Mr. Pickwick's Tawny Port.
Rockford
Rockford is a famous vineyard and the start of Chris Ringland, Christian Canute, and others. Basket Press 2001 Shiraz ($45 cellar extremely good ), Riesling Eden Valley 2002, Frontignac 2004 (easy drinking v sweet, light), Cab 2002 Rifle Range, 2000 Moppa Springs.
Peter Lehmann
Disappointing. 2000 Reserve Riesling, 2001 "Mudflat" Shiraz, 2001 '1885' Shiraz (mild), 2001 Eden Valley Shiraz (lots of body and tannin, needs ageing), 1997 Black Quenn Sparkling Shiraz, 2000 Eight Songs Shiraz (yummy), 1999 Stonewell Shiraz (very mild).
St. Hallett
Another of our favorites, we liked every wine of theirs. Sparkling Shiraz (very nice though could use a bit more port), 2003 Faith Shiraz, 2002 Blackwell Shiraz, 2001 Old Block Shiraz.
Turkey Flat
2002 Cab (very mild), Sherry (was nice), Butchers Block (GSM)
Rusden
Driftwood (GSM) 2003, Grenache 2003, Ripper Creek Cab Shiraz 2003, Crookshed Zinfandel 2003, Boundaries Cab 2002, Black Guts Shiraz 2002, Chenin Blanc 2004.
Also tried
Kaesler GSM 2002 Avignon. This was great and is a standard selection of ours from Liberty. (93 pts)
Winter Creek GSM 2003 (92 pts)
McLean's Farm Shiraz
Teusner 2003 Joshua - a very new vineyard and quite good (91 pts)
Mount Adam - Chardonnay, Shiraz and Riesling (terrible)
Hewitson "Miss Harry" GSM - quite nice. (91 pts)
Victoria (3)
Bannockburn - Chardonnay was really nice
Sanguine Heathcote 2003 Shiraz ('02 was 92)
Tarrawarra Pinot Noir 2001
McLaren Vale (6)
Coriole - Shiraz, GSM, both nice.
D'Arenburg Riesling
Fox Creek JSM
Kay Brothers Amery Hillside - a fabulous wine on a recommendation by Nick's bottle shop in Melbourne.
Mr. Riggs 2003
Margaret River (2)
Pierro Chardonnay 2001
Mosswood Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 - very nice
Clare Valley (2)
Pikes Riesling, Shiraz
General (2)
Lindemans Chardonnay
Oxford Creek Chardonnay
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