This is possibly the best value Aussie Pinot Noir on the market right now. From the gifted William Downie comes the Cathedral. Let’s start with the label. Like all of Downie’s wines, this is a perfect little understated slice of Australiana by none other than Reg Mombassa. It’s 70% Mornington Peninsula fruit, 30% King Valley. It’s bright and cheering, brimming with pure berry flavours and just a hint of spice and earth. Made with minimal intervention. Make this the beginning of your William Downie journey.

Aromas of black berries, anise, mocha, pepper and spice. Cigar box and savoury notes play a supporting role. Dark berries, coffee and chocolate feature boldly on the palate. Great balance has been achieved between the fruit, acid, oak and tannins. The fruit for our Gregor Shiraz is sourced from Shiraz vines planted in 1988 on our home block high in the Barossa Ranges. The soils up here are rocky, yellow podzolic matter over clays and we utilise double wire trellising in our vineyard.The fruit is handpicked before being placed on racks and semi dried in the style of the famous Amarone wines of Italy. The grapes are then naturally fermented in open vats before being aged in new French oak 1350L vats and puncheons for a period of 24 months. Bottled unfiltered. Hobbs lavish care and craft on their grapes in order to make exceptional wines. Yet as much as considered winemaking counts towards the quality of the final products, soil and climate play a vital part in defining the character of each vintage even before the grapes are picked. The rugged and beautiful Barossa Ranges provide unique conditions for grape growing. Like most of natures gifts, their beauty is more than skin deep, the secrets of soil and seasons bringing so much to the wines Hobbs make. The Hobbs vineyard is situated at the top of the ranges, overlooking Flaxmans Valley. Some of their vines have thrived for a century in this idyllic hillside setting, their grapes only becoming richer and more distinctive as the decades roll by. To taste any Hobbs wine is to savour the very essence of where they live.

DOMAINE SYLVIE ESMONIN Cote de Nuits-Village , Burgundy

Half of the fruit for Quintarellis Classico Superiore is dried for 60 days prior to pressing, half of it pressed immediately. Post-fermentation the rich and complex resulting wine undergoes ripasso - a secondary fermentation on the lees of the producers famed Amarone. Typically aged for seven years in oak prior to bottling and eventual release.

LAURENT PONSOT Grand Cru Cuvée du Merisier , Clos Saint-Denis

Bruno & George Old Vine Shiraz, Barossa Valley Shiraz may be the archetype of the Barossa, but there are those expressions that transcend the usual heavy-weights by virtue of the experience of those behind them. Such is the case with Bruno & George. Here, deep local knowledge and vast international experience applied to both viticulture and winemaking, comes up trumps. The result is a more transparent wine, mid-weighted of feel and flecked with scents of lilac, salumi, clove, iodine and ample blue fruits. A smooth operator in the mouth, with a long glide to the finish, chaperoned by polished tannins and a peppery lilt. The choice of used, rather than new wood, appropriate.

FORJAS DEL SALNES Finca Genoveva Caino, Rias Baixas

Levantine Hill Optume Yarra Valley Shiraz Made from 100% Shiraz from parcels selected by Paul Bridgeman, the wine is entirely matured in French oak (29% of which is new). The wine lands at 13.5% abv and has some weight to it but the vintage shows in the finesse of the wine as does Bridgemans finesse. Theres a brooding element to the nose in dried figs, dark spice and a slight edge of white pepper. The palate has a slow and steady pace that ebbs the flooding tide of dark flavours. Decant well or cellar for 15+ years. Explore Levantine Hill