Howard Park has joined Australia's First Families of Wine and is amassing a loyal following. From the Scotsdale vineyard site, this Shiraz mingles earthy and spicy aromas layed out before a palate displaying great concentration but supreme elegance. Black fruits, liquorice and five spice overarch layered tannins that are fine and persistent.

"Very deep bright purple-red hue; the bouquet spicy, rusty iron, as well as chocolate-coated cherries, medium-full bodied and firm with a good solid backbone of tannin, and an earthy peppery, graphite kind of mineral note, savoury and concentrated, powerful and penetrating through a long palate. Superb, and it has potential to improve further with time." 95 pts Huon Hooke, www.therealreview.com, October 22

Howard Park are Western Australia's largest family-owned winery whose reputation is unsurpassed. Their Madfish range of wines continue to provide great value-for-money while still offering that Western Australian quality we've all come to enjoy. The Cabernet Merlot has a luscious smooth ripe flavour profile without being sweet with regional notes of black olives and eucalypt.

Situated in the Adelaide Hills, the altitude and cool conditions of Nepenthe's vineyards are ideal for growing the Pinot Noir grape. And it seems that the rest of the country is starting to cotton on to the fact that this region is producing some of the most exciting examples currently available. Full of ripe cherry and raspberry flavours with a complementing acid structure and soft tannin backbone make this Pinot ideal for food pairing on a wide scale.

Innocent Bystander eminates from Victoria's Yarra Valley and is the brain child of owner, Phil Sexton. With winemaker Steve Flamsteed on board, the Innocent Bystander wines are fantastically varietal and extremely approachable. The Pinot Noir is packed full of black cherry and cedary notes with a perfect balance of soft, but fine grained tannin.

The cool-climate of the Adelaide Hills has proven to be a haven for Pinot Noir and is quickly establishing a reputation akin to the benchmark Australian regions. Tim Knappstein from Riposte harnesses the qualities of the region and the varietal with effortless ease with his The Sabre. Bright colour in the glass is followed by a lifted floral nose with a savoury edge. The palate is fresh, clean and superbly powerful. A delight.

The team at Oakridge are going from strength to strength these days and they are taking the Over The Shoulder range with them. Dry maraschino cherry and gently gamey yet clean mouthful of delicious Pinot! Really great finishing length for this sort of price!

Mt Difficulty is one of Central Otago's oldest and most prestigious vineyards. Having tamed the rugged region since 1992, Mt Difficulty produce wines of utmost character and charm. Their Roaring Meg Pinot Noir shows lovely perfumed blackberry and dark cherry fruits along with a hint of spice. On the palate the wine has a sweet berry character along with balanced, ripe textural tannins that rise gracefully out of the mid-palate to finish the wine.

N Z by Nature Marlborough Pinot Noir is a generous and elegant wine. The even balance of dark berry fruit flavours with fine ripe tannins leads to rich, generous finish. An ideal wine to pair with roast duck.

Central Otago Pinot's are generally more user-friendly than Burgundy; Rabbit Ranch is very soft fruit-forward style with soft tannins; best enjoyed young.