Order of Australia recipient, Bill Calabria and family craft this long-time favourite Cabernet Sauvignon. This year, they have selected fruit from Lanhgorne Creek & Coonawarra for the popular Long Libve the King. Calabria Family Wines celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2000. Bill is an old friend, who Tony Laithwaite first started working with back in 1984. This Cabernet is a luscious wine, rich with sweet dark berries and plum, classic eucalyptus, plus good grip and length.

Savour a sumptuous 95pt Clare Valley Shiraz from very well respected winemaking team based in the Barossa. Critics have called it : “serious Shiraz with a long and exciting future... notes of blackcurrants, cloves, leather, bay leaves and black olives are very much to the fore whole dark chocolate provides delicious support. This is seamless on the palate with bright acidity and silky tannins plus a very long finish 94pts” (Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot) and “Wonderfully ripe and enticing, the bouquet shows dark fruit richness, vanillin oak, smoked game and toasted spice aromas, followed by a concentrated palate offering terrific weight and powerful fruit intensity. Gorgeously framed by velvety texture and layers of polished tannins, finishing sumptuous and delicious. . 95pts” (Sam Kim)

Grenache is enjoying a well-deserved moment, with a new generation of talented Aussie winemakers delivering deliciously fresh, approachable wines. This McLaren Vale Grenache is a superb example, from the exciting small-batch project Marsc Wine Co. Bringing acclaimed winemakers and prestige vineyards together covertly under a ‘masked’ label, they’re able to deliver great quality wines for brilliantly low prices. We can’t reveal who made this Grenache, but we can say that they have picked up some of Australia’s highest winemaking honours – namely, TWO Bushing Kings and a Jimmy Watson.

Andrew McPherson has a well-deserved reputation for being a great brilliant technical innovator and made wine all over the world before settling back in Australia. He was chief winemaker for many years, but that honour now belongs to Jo Nash. Wild Daisy is as lively as its pretty label – Cabernet with a portion of cherry-fresh, Italian inspired Sangiovese, so what you enjoy is an Aussie version of one of Italy’s pricey, ‘super Tuscans’. It’s a delicious drop, a top choice at a barbecue, with pizza or pasta. Great solo too.

Cape Jaffa was a pioneer both in the Mt Benson region and in terms of its focus on biocynamics and sustainability. The first of the Mount Benson wineries,Cape Jaffa’s fully certified biodynamic vineyard provides 50% of production, with additional fruit sourced from a certified biodynamic grower in Wrattonbully. This is a lovely drop for warmer weather. As Shanteh Wale says in The Halliday Wine Companion, this is “made for drinking and good times. Serve slightly chilled" but it is not without complexity. "Blackberries, prune, plums and thistle. Picked oregano, margoram and green olive.”