This natural wine is an exceptionally pure expression of Syrah. Grapes are handpicked from 25-year-old Syrah vines and fermented at low temperatures, using indigenous yeasts only. No chemical additives were added so as well as being organic, biodynamic the wine is natural. It was bottled rapidly in the year of harvest with no added sulfites and no oak ageing. What strikes you about this wine is its purity, silky mouthfeel and its intense long finish. The flavours and aromas are all classic Syrah – plums, black fruit, leather.
Great Wines
Showing 1–15 of 46 resultsSorted by price: low to high
Results per page:-
2014 Vermentino, Chalmers
£2000Add to BasketChalmers make incredible characterful wines from Mediterranean grape varieties that they have imported, cultivated in vineyards in Heathcote, Victoria. They released Australia’s first Vermentino wine in 2004 and it’s since become a trademark line in the range, their ‘go-to’ white. There are now more than 100 winemakers working with the grape across Australia and it’s no wonder when it loves the sunshine and makes such delicious wines with ultimate drinkability.
Chalmers Vermentino is a truly unique iteration of the Mediterranean grape and this 2014 vintage marks a decade of Vermentino in Australia. It opens in the glass with aromas of soft stonefruit, herbs and sea spray that is so distinctive to the Vermentino grape. The palate is lively and racy with lovely savoury overtones. Think white nectarine, Amalfi lemons, Italian herbs and a crushed rock minerality as well as that gorgeous sea saltiness associated with the grape. We love this wine at WR!
The grapes come from the Chalmers vineyard in Heathcote and are grown on rich, red Cambrian soil, sitting 150-170m above sea level. The grapes are handpicked, whole bunch pressed with wild fermentation before the wine sits on less for 6 months.
-
2012 Fiano, Chalmers
£2200Add to BasketThe high acid, bold flavoured Campanian grape Fiano has really found it’s second home in Australia, especially in Heathcote where it regularly outshines the red grapes on the same site in a traditional red-wine growing region. Chalmers have a museum of Fiano wines dating back over a decade with even the older wines still singing. The 2012 Chalmers Fiano is no exception, melding delicate stone fruits and almond blossom with savoury lees contact characters and minerality, displaying texture and power in the mouth whilst retaining a fine, fresh finish.
Chalmers Fiano is whole bunch pressed and fermented on solids, 10% in old French oak barriques, 90% in stainless steel tanks without yeast addition. The temperature of fermentation is limited to 15 degrees. After fermentation is finished the wine rests on lees in tank for 6 – 9 months before being bottled. The Fiano is then aged in bottle for a further 24 months before release allowing the wine to develop in richness and texture.
-
2007 Cuchulain Shiraz, Setanta
£2500Add to BasketThis mature Adelaide Hills Shiraz is a delicious drop and a very rare wine. Being bottled under a stelvin enclosure thas really benefitted this wine and its ageing. In the glass, it is dark plum in colour with purple hues. A blackcurrant and pepper nose precedes tastes of plum, white pepper and wild black cherries. Excellent use of oak has integrated the soft tannin characters. A Rhone-style Shiraz that is drinking really well!
.
-
2013 Sagrantino, Chalmers
£2500Add to BasketChalmers make incredible characterful wines from Mediterranean grape varieties that they have imported, cultivated in vineyards in Heathcote, Victoria. This amazing Sagrantino has an invitingly sumptuous nose of rich, ripe fruit and savoury herbal complexity. There is a wonderful sense of completeness in the mouth: velvety texture, cinnamon and spicy dried fruit flavours and a concentrated maturity reminiscent of rare, oak-aged balsamic vinegar and soy sauce. Superbly rounded and well-balanced.
One of the most tannic varieties in the world, Sagrantino is a relatively small player in Italy where there are only about 250 hectares of the grape grown in the Montefalco region of Umbria. Despite this, it is a highly revered wine with DOCG status since 1992. It has been growing in Australia since 2000 with the first Australian wine made by Chalmers in 2004. There are now a number of producers making great examples of the variety which has proven to perform fantastically well in both extreme heat/drought conditions and wet vintages like 2010 and 2011.
-
2021 The Florita Riesling, Jim Barry
£3350Add to BasketJim Barry’s iconic and outstanding single-vineyard Riesling, The Florita, stands tall at the top of the tree for Clare Valley Riesling.
Located fifteen kilometres south of Clare township in the tiny village of Watervale, Florita – Spanish for ‘little flower’ – comes from a famous Riesling vineyard planted to Palamino in 1946 for making Fino Sherry but was replanted to Riesling in 1962. This was the birthplace of Leo Buring Watervale Riesling and the Florita vineyards, where legendary winemaker John Vickery sourced his grapes for his great Watervale Rieslings of the 1960s and 1970s.
The 80-acre vineyard was bought by Mark, Peter and John Barry in 1986. First released as the ‘Florita Riesling’ in 2004 by Jim Barry Wines, this micro-batch Riesling is made from grapes hand-selected from individual rows. Its best fruit comes from vines planted in shallow loamy soils and the vineyard has good air-drainage which alleviates the risk of frost. A wine with a reputation second to none for consistency and a true benchmark wine.
The 2021 is a simply astonishing incarnation that Riesling lovers would be remiss to not have in their cellar. Drink 2027 – 2050 +
-
2018 Ribolla Gialla, Benevolent Neglect
£4100Add to BasketRibolla Gialla is an ancient variety that originated in Greece and is mostly found in northeastern Italy and across the border in Slovenia, where it is known as Rebula.
This California version is sourced from the Bengier Family Vineyard, a hidden gem inside of the Napa Valley’s nested ava Oak Knoll District. Fermented traditionally on skins for 15 days, this wine takes on a completely unique character for white wine. Due to its time on its skin and in the barrel it shows quite a bit of minerality, citrus skin with a core of tropical fruit with much in between.
Tasting Note: Light, bright and fresh lemon sherbet draw the nose in followed by almond and acacia. On the palate, the wine is mineral, with slight notes of sour pear drop. The finish is long and refreshingly sour. This is a perfect oyster wine, match it with foods equally as bright, like a fresh arugula salad with a racy vinaigrette.
-
2010 Tarraford Vineyard Pinot Noir, Giant Steps
£4450Add to BasketThe 2010 Tarraford Pinot Noir is a brooding, meaty and earthy expression of Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, with underlying varietal fruit and structural tannins.
The nose gives freshly tilled earth and a meatiness that is tempered by savoury plum and cherry aromas. The wine has great structure, with rhubarb, cherry and a touch of tomato leaf providing interest and a good contrast to the mouth-filling ripe tannins. The wine has a medium to full-bodied finish with savoury red fruits accentuated by gentle spices and elegant oak inputs. -
2010 Gladysdale Vineyard Pinot Noir, Giant Steps
£4450Add to Basket2010 was an excellent vintage in the Yarra Valley and produced Pinots of exceptional purity and longevity. This stunner from the Gladysdale vineyard in the Upper Yarra is a magnificent beast. Bright raspberry and cherry mingle with a tickle of liquorice. Supple and inviting with attractive spice and smooth tannins. The fine, embedded acidity is typical of the excellent vintage as is the overall vitality and vigour. Vibrant and with a pleasing sweetness that is balanced by provencal herbs. Balanced, poised and has aged very well indeed. 10-year-old Pinot from a renowned vineyard for this price – bargain!
-
2010 The Florita Riesling, Jim Barry
£4500Add to BasketThis legendary dry Riesling from Jim Barry has matured under optimum conditions and displays the complexities that fine Australian Riesling develops over time.
The 2012 Florita Riesling has an ultra reserved pristine nose of lovely lifted kaffir lime leaves and musky, floral notes with a hint of fresh lemongrass. The palate is all about delicacy, power, finesse and
balance, with a huge amount of length and structure coming from the natural acid backbone and the generosity of the lime citrus centred fruit.
A magnificent cellar worthy Riesling.The Florita has an incredible story, and we urge you to read it below in the ‘Producer info’ section.
-
Sotto di Ferro, Charles Melton
£4900Add to BasketCharles Melton is the only Australian producer of a vin-santo styled dessert wine, he calls it, Sotto di Ferro. Made from Pedro Ximenez and Muscadelle grapes that are hung and dried in bunches under the rafter of old iron sheds on the Melton property. From the trickle of juice gathered from the shrivelled grapes comes this wine showing rich, luscious dried apricot and nut characters. This is not a wine to rush. Take your time and allow it to impress you with its sweet complexity that develops in the glass.
For those interested in the winemaking process this from the winery: Pedro Ximenez and Muscadelle bunches are carefully hand-picked and placed in small crates before being taken to our ‘hanging shed’. There, an experienced team tie six to eight bunches of grapes onto strings which are then suspended from the rafters for up to eight weeks. The grapes dehydrate naturally as they are exposed to air, and when the team at Charles Melton Wines deems the grapes to be concentrated enough, the bunches will be pressed in a basket press. The juice is then yeasted and fermented in small 60-litre old oak casks known as ‘Caratelli’ for 18 months. After fermentation completes, the wine will remain in barrel for a further four years before it is bottled.
-
Red Wine2021 Mission ‘Estate’, Scribe Winery
£4900Add to BasketScribe Winery produces vibrant, terroir-driven wines from Sonoma, California. The winery was founded in 2007 on a property that helped pioneer pre-prohibition Sonoma Valley wine-making and is managed by fourth-generation California farmers and brothers, Andrew and Adam Mariani.
A wonderful expression of California’s historic Mission variety, with wild notes of rosehip, rhubarb and delicate mint and bright, spicy black fruit enveloping a textured palate.
-
2008 The Florita Riesling, Jim Barry
£5000Add to BasketThis legendary dry Riesling from Jim Barry has matured under optimum conditions and displays the complexities that fine Australian Riesling develops over time.
The Florita Story
This story is best told by famous Australian wine writer, Huon Hooke and head of the Barry Family, Peter Barry who below tell the wonderful story of Florita…..
It starts in 1946, just after the war, when Leo Buring bought land at Watervale and planted Pedro ximénez for sherry – the preferred wine of Australians at the time. He named the vineyard Florita, which is Spanish for ‘little flower’ – a reference to the sherry flor (or flower), the film of yeast that covers the dry flor sherry as it matures in its ullaged casks. Public tastes shifted, table wine became fashionable, and in 1962 Buring’s winemaker John Vickery began to remove Pedro and plant riesling. “He started to make riesling (wine), which began to be seen as the future of Australian white wine,” says Barry. Indeed, Vickery and the Leo Buring brand became almost synonymous with riesling. “In 1986 Philip Morris (the tobacco company which owned the Leo Buring brand at the time) had six years supply of riesling in its cellars, and no-one was drinking it – chardonnay was the new fashion. They decided to sell the Florita vineyard.
My brothers and I went to the auction. I was 24. Mum said ‘You’re not allowed to buy it’. She said we already had plenty of vineyards. We told Dad he’d better buy it, and that would let us off the hook.
Southcorp (the precursor of Treasury Wine Group) owned the Florita trademark at the time, and although the Barrys began using the grapes immediately, they couldn’t use the name.
“I had to wait eight years until the registration period was up, but then Southcorp renewed it for another 10 years, so I had to wait 18 years all told, and I registered the name Florita two days after it lapsed.Eighteen years is a long time to wait for a drink.”
-
2011 Meres Pinot Noir, Kooyong
£5500Add to BasketThe vineyard name originates from the surrounding water bodies – the dams which flank the block on all sides.
Its greater exposure to the north, west and east limits the vigour of the vines, while the sandier soil reduces water stress compared to Ferrous and Haven. These factors combine to make the wine silken, perfumed and approachable when young, as well as having flavour concentration and ageing potential. This 2011 is full of life with red cherry, redcurrant, alluring rose petal and savoury notes dominating the nose and palate. The tannins have softened over the years but are fine and silky.
-
2009 Haven Pinot Noir, Kooyong
£5500Add to BasketKooyong’s Haven Pinot Noir is a great Pinot Noir and exceptional with a few years of age
Almost indistinguishable from a Premier Cru Vosne Romanée, this gradually uncurls with swirling to reveal focused spicy, smokey, gamey aromas, permeate in the mouth with hints of anise and heather over succulent black cherry fruit. Well-structured, with richness and a warm, enveloping texture.
Planted exclusively to Pinot Noir, the Haven Vineyard is the most sheltered site, being bordered by trees on both the North and South, hence the vineyard name. The soil is loam over clay, with less sand than Meres and fewer sandstone pebbles than Ferrous.
