by Norris Waters | Jul 2, 2025
Speaking to Julian Castagna recently, he stated that Beechworth was as good as Burgundy; will become as famous as Burgundy, but being a relatively new region, needed time. It’s a big call to be sure, but tasting his wines and many others of the region, I’m...
by Norris Waters | Jun 16, 2025
It’s not often you come across hand crafted, tiny production wines, from vineyards that are either biodynamic/organic or sustainable, that are affordable and delicious. Mauricio Ruiz Cantu is the man behind Somos, a Mexican, and much of his wine gets exported to...
by Norris Waters | Jun 2, 2025
For the intrepid wine lover, there are wonderful and affordable jewels in the Gippsland dirt, and one such producer is Dirty Three Wines. Dirty Three signifies three vineyards, from which single site wines are made, but the fruit is also blended to produce the...
by Norris Waters | Apr 28, 2025
South African wine still has the paradoxical feeling of newness and tradition, coupled with stylistic innovations unique to South Africa. The Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Heaven and Earth in Afrikaans is a comparatively new wine region, founded by Tim Hamilton Russell in...
by Norris Waters | Apr 9, 2025
You know you’re getting old, or older than you want to be, when you start talking in decades. Those of us losing our hair and looking down on a paunch (I can’t and will not speak of the ladies in this manner) will well remember various wine fads and...
by Norris Waters | Apr 8, 2025
Do you remember the time when chardonnays were big, pinot noir was kinda big and shiraz was huge? I know I do, and good times they were to the 1990’s; all wine tasted really, really great and we manged to find some deeper, poetic meaning in even the crappiest of...
by Norris Waters | Apr 5, 2025
I always think that you, as a wine buyer, need a compelling reason to buy a wine. There is staggering choice at all price and quality levels and talking of quality, wine internationally has never been better. Most producers and their wines might fall into categories...
by Norris Waters | Mar 26, 2025
It’s not everyday you taste through a collection of wonderful appellation defining wines, to then be told “there’s still more” and to taste the delicious and completely unexpected. Chateau du Cedre is not only the benchmark estate of Cahors,...
by Norris Waters | Mar 20, 2025
If you are to look at a map of Tasmania and superimpose its wineries, you might be struck by the diversity of locations, locations that are essentially coastal, or near enough to it, or some other body of water, like a river, dam or estuary. Cool environs, and soils...
by Norris Waters | Mar 5, 2025
Tasting the evolution of a great wine producer is an incomparable vinous pleasure, particularly when the wines, irrespective of vintage, get better and better. Swinney’s 2023 reds and 2024 Riesling are the strongest release to date. Rob Mann, Swinney’s 6th...
by Norris Waters | Jan 13, 2025
Sakkie Mouton has become a cult figure in the South African wine scene, crafting wines from regions virtually unknown to the outside world. Vineyards in the Vredendal and Koekenaap aren’t exactly on everyone’s vinous radar, having been mostly used in bulk...
by Norris Waters | Dec 11, 2024
I can still remember tasting Kooyong and Scorpo, both made for many years by Sandro Mosele, during my time at Vintage Cellars. Year after year, we tasted the wines, bought the wines, sold the wines, and enjoyed every release, regardless of vintage. I believed then, as...
by Norris Waters | Dec 3, 2024
I have sometimes thought of wine as some sort of composition, fruit fermented and crafted by a winemaker whose own tastes and preferences should be an integral part of any wine. For those who value culture, traditions and human identity, a winemaker’s style will...
by Norris Waters | Nov 6, 2024
Some years ago I attended a trade tasting of one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious fine wine distributors. Many of the producers on offer were household names and I had been out of the trade a long time, so it was a perfect opportunity to reacquaint...
by Norris Waters | Oct 1, 2024
It’s hard to be original. Form a winemaking perspective, everything you do has been done before. Originality, evolution, call it what you will, is particularly difficult in Europe. Unfortunately, governments now legislate traditions, particularly in France,...
by Norris Waters | Sep 16, 2024
Rob Hall is a Yarra Valley local, growing up in Healesville and working his entire vinous life in the region. From large operations such as Punt Road to the most revered of all, 10 years at Mount Mary, before going it alone in 2014. Working for different producers not...
by Norris Waters | Sep 2, 2024
Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir) has over a 1000 years of history in Germany, but it’s only this last two decades that we have witnessed the emergence of superstars. Furst, Enderle & Moll, Huber, Rings, even Weingut Keller produce Pinot Noir in tiny quantities of...
by Norris Waters | Aug 29, 2024
It’s always insightful to retaste wines, particularly those which have had greater than usual impact or elicited stronger and more forceful opinions. I like to leave readers in no doubt of my views, so retasting is a time of trepidation; particularly when they...
by Norris Waters | Aug 21, 2024
The finest collection of single vineyard pinot noirs in Australia is being produced by Eastern Peake. Old vine material, a long line of vintages and some of the best tendered organic vineyards are yielding astonishing results. With a longer history of pinot noir,...
by Norris Waters | Aug 16, 2024
Paralian’s releases have, so far, put them right up there with South Australia’s best producers and a level of value that is simply astonishing. 2022 is a great year for McLaren Vale, being cool, long and with slightly reduced yields. The reds are intense,...
by Norris Waters | Aug 3, 2024
Syrahmi’s first vintage was in 2004, just a few hundred cases. Despite such humble beginnings it’s hard to overestimate the impact that Adam Foster has had on our perception of shiraz, or syrah if you will. Not only did he rewrite the book in an Australian...
by Norris Waters | Jul 22, 2024
Much of the literature surrounding Thibaud Boudignon begins with phrases like “bright new star”, “most exciting”, or “young star” and so on. I’m not sure what a man needs to do to be the star, or how many vintages one needs to...
by Norris Waters | Jul 6, 2024
Over two days in late June I tasted a lot of wine, about 150 samples of different styles from around the world. There are always a few standouts, the lovely and not so lovely, but almost all of them made well and to a high standard. And then there are those that stop...
by Norris Waters | Jul 1, 2024
The 2024 autumn releases from Bubb and Pooley include the first release off their own vineyard, the WKR Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 and WKR Pinot Noir 2022. The négoce wines (bought fruit, not from their vineyards), a Chardonnay, Pinot and Riesling are sourced from fruit...
by Norris Waters | Jun 28, 2024
We’ve been following the fortunes of Dappled wine for a few years now and Shaun’s impeccable wines remain some of the best value for money in Australian wine today. As our 2020 Q&A with him attests, Dappled is all about good booze at a bloody good...
by Norris Waters | Jun 19, 2024
Adelina’s vineyards are neighboured by Wendouree, one of Australia’s most significant vinous properties and there are some striking similarities of style, most notably in relation to tannins and shape. The finished wines provide us signposts to the styles...
by Norris Waters | Jun 6, 2024
I must admit to holding an ill-founded long prejudice against the estate of Domaine A, harbouring the view that the wines were inauthentic; a copy of Bordeaux. It seems illogical to me now as all wine from Australia, at its root, is a copy, and the early settlers...
by Norris Waters | May 18, 2024
Does the Australian wine industry have a chip on its shoulder? Remember a time where Coonawarra Cabernet wasn’t compared to Bordeaux, and Australian Shiraz was still called Shiraz without the new French title of Syrah? I asked Brendan Kaczorowski of Pokolbin...
by Norris Waters | May 6, 2024
Chatting with a Serbian friend, originally from Bosnia, we were discussing the different ways our cultures referred to grandparents. Grandpa/ma, nanna, pop, nan, nonna/nonno for Italians (she is married to a Calabrese), yia yia/papu and in Serbian, deda/deka. We had...
by Norris Waters | Apr 20, 2024
For those that don’t know, Kloof Street is at the heart of Cape Town, and South Africa’s most fashionable destination for food and nightlife. Mullineux’s success has been meteoric, establishing their incomparable reputation as soon as their first...
