James Suckling – Firm and tight licorice, graphite, slate and light dried strawberry. Goes to iron. Flowers. Medium body. Creamy and fine tannins with a rather dusty finish. Fresh acidity and long and linear finish. Structured. From biodynamically grown grapes. Better after 2024, but already beautiful. - 98 Points, James Suckling

Wine Enthusiast – ‘Deep colour. Ethereal cassis, light marzipan, vanilla with hints of violet. Fresh blackcurrant pastille, marzipan, cedar flavour and fine bittersweet/ grainy tannins. Finishes claret firm, with pure dark berry fruits and superb mineral length. Elegantly proportioned, pristine and sinuous with excellent cellaring potential. A genuine Australian First Growth highlighting the genius of vineyard site, meticulous harvesting (five separate picking times), empathetic and imaginative winemaking. 89% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot, 3% cabernet franc, 3% malbec, 14 months maturation in new (55%) and seasoned French oak. A classic vintage; up there with the best. Keep for a while to allow some bottle age development as you will be greatly rewarded. 13.5% alc.’ 99 points. - Andrew Caillard, The Vintage Journal.

Huon Hooke – ‘Deep, bright red-purple colour with a reserved, shy bouquet that leads into a similarly latent palate where masses of fine tannins lie stealthily in wait. Subtle violet and blackberry traces. There is tremendous depth and muscle to this wine but it is still a little in its shell and needs more time to open. Masses of tannin bode well for its future in the cellar. Decanting may work if broaching it young. (89% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot, 3% cabernet franc, 3% malbec. Aged in 55% new oak for 14 months).’ 98 points. Huon Hooke, The Real Review

World Wine – Garnet red to purplish disc, good depth and clear. Expressive nose of ripe fruit, dominated by blackcurrant and strawberry purée with cedar notes. The attack is fresh and lively, the palate is round, fleshy with sap and tension. Nice length with ripe tannins and fine allies at a gourmet fruit.

World Wine – "#1 New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc "A full-bodied Sauvignon that fills the mouth with an array of fresh fruit flavors, from Braeburn apples and lemon to pineapple and green capsicum. There's good substance here, giving you something to get your teeth into while the acidity creates an energy almost like a headlight's full beam turned on in your mouth. Bloody good." - Rebecca Gibb MW (Vinous)

Huon Hooke – "From the well-drained fertile soils of Dillons Point. Rich, concentrated sauvignon blanc with green capsicum, passionfruit, subtle box hedge flavours and a pleasing saline-mineral character. Good purity and mouth-watering, fruity acidity." - Bob Campbell (The Real Review)

World Wine – "...the 2017 Côtes Du Rhône Lieu-Dit Clavin reveals a deep purple color as well as classic notes of black licorice, blackcurrants, ground pepper, and earth. Medium to full-bodied, with plenty of tannins yet beautiful fruit, it needs 2-4 years of bottle age, but it’s beautiful stuff and I’d wager one of the best Côtes Du Rhône out there" Jeb Dunnuck

World Wine – "Leading off the three Châteauneuf Du Papes, the 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Trois Sources comes from more sandy soils just across the road from the estate. It always shares more stylistic similarities with the Réserve and is more opulent, sexy, and fruit loaded compared to the Hauts-Lieux cuvée. This 2017 is spectacular, offering loads of black fruits, black licorice, ground herbs, violets, and some obvious loamy soil and mineral-like aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, expansive, and multi-dimensional, this is another singular wine from Jean-Paul Daumen that tastes like the essence of this stunning terroir." 95 points Jeb Dunnuck

The Wine Front – "Made using shiraz, pinot meunier and pinot noir. Deliciousness writ large. It crackles through the glass in spice-sparked style but it’s also perfumed and generous. Pomegranate, red cherry, sandalwood and all those spice notes. A dry, perfumed road. Like this quite a lot." - Mike Bennie

World Wine –

The Wine Front – Cherry, plum, dark chocolate, dried rose, lead pencil, baking spice. It’s medium-bodied, saline and distinctly ‘mineral’ with a ferrous quality, crushed slate tannin, spice, I’m thinking Davidson plum?, with that hint of tartness, a musky perfume, so much energy, combining light and shade, and a long gently chewy tannic finish. Distinctive wine stamped firmly with a sense of place.

James Suckling – A nose of blackcurrant, tobacco leaf, graphite and moss. Medium- to full-bodied with chewy, structured tannins. Linear onto the palate with an array of black fruit and savory herbs. Oolong and bark. Lovely balance and depth. A bit closed at the moment but will open and expand with some age. 91% cabernet sauvignon, 4% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 2% malbec. From biodynamically grown grapes. Best after 2025. Screw cap.

James Suckling – "This offers aromas of violets, blueberries, red and dark cherries, fragrant, freshly cracked black pepper and wet dark stones. Complex, but still tightly wound and reserved. The palate is very concentrated, dense and elegantly poised with such powerful tannin, carrying concentrated blueberry and dark-cherry flavours long. Really taut, fully ripe and mouthwateringly intense pinot noir. Dark cherry-pit freshness to close. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but better in five years."

World Wine – "The 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Hauts-Lieux comes from slightly higher elevation sites and includes more Mourvèdre than the Les Trois Source release. It’s pure, full-bodied, and incredibly structured, with a tight, backward style that’s going to benefit from bottle age. Showing a distinct salty minerality as well as loads of black and blue fruits, it reminds me of the 2015 yet with more elegance. Hide bottles for 4-5 years and enjoy over the following two decades". 96+ points Jeb Dunnuck

James Halliday – JAMES HALLIDAY - HALLIDAY'S WINE COMPANION From old estate vines yielding 1.5t/ha picked on a new moon day with a solar eclipse, wild-fermented in terracotta eggs, 86 days on skins, pressed to 4 French barrels (3 new), matured for 6 months. A totally harmonious medium to full-bodied cabernet, all the components precisely (naturally) calibrated; supple cassis, olive and bay leaf keep watch. 1080 bottles made.

Jancis Robinson – "Now this really does have Grüner Veltliner written all over it even though the vines are still pretty young (this is the fourth harvest). It is certainly peppery but it also has the oily (in a good way) depth that I have only ever seen in the Wachau. There's some citrus and green fruit too but also a mineral, dry texture. Well balanced and remarkably full-bodied given the moderate alcohol. Still incredibly fresh but starting to show the complexity of some bottle age. I look forward to tasting it again." - JULIA HARDING MW, jancisrobinson.com

The Wine Front – Good to see this now closed with a DIAM cork, though screwcap might be even better? Complex, savoury, powerful style of Riesling. There’s a slick glosssiness, with intense acidity, a saline ‘mineral’ feel, floral bits, apple and citrus, though I’d suggest it’s more about the feel of it, rather than simple flavour descriptors. Powdery feel and zip to the finish. Mighty. - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

James Suckling – Bracing minerals, sliced pears and apples, wet stones and a gently floral edge here. So pure and fresh. The palate has a succulent, powerfully aligned drive of fresh apple and pear flavors with a mouthwateringly fresh stream of acidity. More citrusy at the finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold. - Nick Stock

James Halliday – “Hand-picked, whole-bunch pressed to 500L French puncheons, wild-yeast fermented, matured for 10 months on lees. The Upper Yarra, on red volcanic soils, produces taut wines of extreme length. Here citrus, white stone fruit and green apple are bolstered by natural acidity. Winemaker David Bicknell makes the difficult seem easy.” – Philip Rich

James Suckling – Plums, sweet berries, flowers, citrus and stone. So complex and enticing. Full-bodied and layered with soft, gorgeous tannins, giving this plushness and softness that brings you back. Hints of citrus at the end and lightly tangy acidity. A delicious late-release that shows how well NZ pinot ages. It’s in a sweet spot now. Enjoy. Drink now. Reviewed - Wednesday, October 6, 2021

James Halliday – "You'd stand up for royalty, and that's this wine. To use the spit bucket is lese majeste. Just savour it, drop by drop, as it magically finds its way unbidden down your throat. It's got the full rainbow of cool-grown shiraz flavours, a conjunction with a year made for it by Dionysis, and, glory be, comes with a screwcap." - James Halliday

World Wine – "The bombastic complexity that defines Bollinger rises to a grand and flamboyant crescendo in the mighty 2012 season. True to the vintage, it presents a medium straw hue, deeper in colour, tone and mood than the dynamic 2008 before it. The pure red and black cherries of ripe pinot noir from the grand slopes of Aÿ are masterfully toned by the perfume and energy of the north-east-facing hillside of Verzenay, backed by the citrus zest of Le Mesnil and Oiry chardonnay. It’s simultaneously ripe, juicy, zesty and tense, with fruit presence of tantalising beauty seamlessly fused with fine chalk minerality and an acid line of sensational drive, yet at every moment perfectly ripe and effortlessly integrated. Fruit rightly takes a confident lead here, with the fig, spice, honey and roast almond of barrel fermentation and bottle age welling up in a rising background chorus. The modern era of Bollinger’s attentiveness in the vineyards and cellar characterises a style ever more pure and seamless. This does nothing to diminish the multifaceted layers of signature complexity of Bollinger. Indeed, it somehow manages to pull off the feat of achieving precisely the opposite, magnifying and focusing its myriad details with greater clarity than ever. This serves to present the mood of the season with more articulate typicity than ever, while celebrating all of the rumbling depth and power that we love of Bollinger. While it won’t live as long as the enduring 2008 (no house will) it achieves equal heights of fantastic line and incredible length. The result is consummately 2012, emphatically Bollinger and gloriously, irresistibly delicious." 98 points, Tyson Stelzer