Mount Mary
Yarra Valley, Victoria

These wines have just been released and are expected to arrive in store next week!

Mount Mary 2020 Triolet
Offer: $115!
"A 62/28/10% blend of sauvignon blanc/semillon/muscadelle. Barrel fermented and matured for 11 months in used barriques. The length of the palate is akin to that of the chardonnay, and the wine's balance guarantees growth in complexity that will build further over the next 5-plus years. Green apple, pear and lemon citrus intermingle on an already generous palate." 95pts! - James Halliday, The Wine Companion

"Wow. This is pretty wild and very intense. Blackcurrant, fresh cut fennel, violets, spice, funk, nettles, lime rind. It’s showtime! Tight and tangy, all grapefruit and passionfruit, a glossy feel, but so flinty and sapid, thistle and zest, flinty texture on a long grapefruit pith finish. This is quite a wine. Embryonic as at now, and it feels so built for ageing. Excellent, but quite a different style for Triolet. I really like it." 95pts! - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

Mount Mary 2020 Chardonnay
Offer: $155!
"Four clones, hand picked, 20% whole-bunch pressed, the balance crushed and destemmed. Matured in French oak (30% new) for 11 months. Typically refined and elegant, but isn't stand-offish. The Yarra Valley's calling card of chardonnay is its extreme length, built around natural acidity and citrus zest. Oak is part of the upbringing, but discreet, and the wine has a very long plateau ahead." 97pts! - James Halliday, The Wine Companion

"A flinty, gun metal thing, nectarine and lime, cinnamon brioche, some white flowers and aniseed. It’s concentrated and flavoursome, nectarine, pear and pink grapefruit, spicy biscuit oak, a fine chalk dust feel, glossy with with tight acidity through its core, and a spicy finish of fine length. A more intense vintage of this wine, a little more bold and savoury, but really good. Juicy!" 95pts! - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

Mount Mary 2020 Pinot Noir
Offer: $195!
2 bottle limit per customer
"Intense optical scanning of every berry by sorting tables and Oscillys; matured in French oak (25% new) for 16 months. Radiant clear crimson. All the red berries of forest and field fill the bouquet and the strikingly fresh palate, which proceeds to expand on the finish with the proverbial peacock's tail on display." 97pts! - James Halliday, The Wine Companion

"Strawberry, kind of autumnal and savoury, fine spicy oak, a little sarsaparilla richness and dried rose. It’s bright and fine-boned, gossamer tannin, fresh red fruits, gently toasty cinnamon oak adds a layer of mouth-perfume and something of an exotic character here too, freshness and excellent length, with a subtle powdery grip. Graceful and delicate. And a distinct ‘mineral’ feel this year, or so I think. It’s a beautiful wine. More to come." 95+pts! - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

Mount Mary 2020 Quintet
Offer: $195!
2 bottle limit per customer
"A blend of 44/30/18/4/4% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/cabernet franc/malbec/petit verdot. From a cool year, with the poor flowering reducing the crop of the Quintet varieties by around 50%, this is an essay in elegance and understatement. A medium, bright and translucent ruby red, this is beautifully perfumed with aromas of just-ripened blackcurrants, red cherries, rose petals and gentle cedar notes from the oak. The palate is exceptionally pure fruited and gently textured. The wine finishes with these incredibly silky, long tannins that are in perfect harmony with the fruit and acid. This majestic wine is gorgeous to drink even now but those that still have some in their cellar in 10–15 years (if not longer) will be grateful." 98pts! - Philip Rich, The Wine Companion

"Blackcurrant, cherry, violet and cedar, rolling tobacco, aniseed and spice. Medium-bodied, gentle flow of small berried fruit, perhaps some ripe and sappy tomato flavours in the mix, and while maybe not quite as concentrated in the mid-palate, and less tannic than some prior vintages, it still lays on the charm and drinks beautifully. Light dusty tannin runs on a long finish. Graceful, and maybe more like a Quintet from days or yore? Fine wine. Distinctive and very good." 95pts! - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

Red Wine of the Year - Halliday Wine Companion Awards

Other wines from this producer are also available, contact Jeff on (03) 9419 9795 for info!

By Farr
Geelong, Victoria

By Farr 2020 RP Pinot Noir
Offer: $165!
2 bottle limit per customer
"Of all of the Farr family pinots, RP - named after matriarch Robyn Pamela Farr - is the most slender and febrile. Yet this delicacy is only in comparison to the other By Farr Pinots which start off richer and more characterful than many. Only the best fruit parcels in the finest wood, then the most perfect barrel expression during élevage, make it into the RP - and the newly released wine is sitting tightly coiled, waiting. There is the hallmark By Farr whole bunch character of richly spicy and compact dark fruit. The palate of the wine is fresh and beautifully structured. Perhaps not an eternal wine (one can only wish) but one that will last decades.

The fruit is handpicked and sorted in the vineyard, then fermented in an open-top fermenter. Between 40 to 50% of the fruit will be destemmed and then cold soaked for four days. We use only natural yeast for the fermentation process, which takes roughly 19 days. Grape-stomping (known as pigeage) will occur two to three times a day depending on the amount of extraction required, and the wine is then placed in 50 to 60% new Allier barrels by gravity. It’s racked by gas after secondary fermentation, then again at 18 months to be bottled.

There is obvious spice and tang from whole bunch on the 2020 RP, but nothing underdone, all ripe and resolved, and heads off those vineyard elements with a formidable counter punch from the ripe sweet fruit notes. A comforting spice sits right behind and then comes the acid. It seems to take on each element of the previous three pinots and put them on display in one incredible wine." - Nick Farr

By Farr 2020 Tout Pres Pinot Noir
Offer: $165!
2 bottle limit per customer
"Tout Près is the most densely planted vineyard on the estate at 7,300 vines per hectare (hence the name, meaning very cosy), making a wine of tremendous intensity and concentration. This cuvée consistently produces wines of weight and wonderful ageing potential, showing notes of long, slow whole bunch fermentation, creating richness and layered fruit expression alongside Chinese five spice, ripe fruits and terrific tannins. The wines of Tout Près are focused and beautifully structured, ready for celebration now or a rewarding stint in the cellar.

Only a touch over 2.5 acres, it has three individual soil types across a three-sided cirque (an amphitheatre-like valley head) that rises above the other vineyards. Each slope consists of a distinct soil type; the largest is black volcanic soil over limestone; the second is quartz gravel mixed with red ironstone soil and the third an iron strand in grey sandy loam. These soils and intense competition force the vines to work hard, resulting in fruit that is lush but masculine and provides the coveted structure found only in the most age-worthy wines.

The 2020 features classic whole bunch on the nose, with spice and heady ripe fruit notes intermingling. A more expressive, single-minded wine that will shapeshift in the cellar almost as much as it does on your palate. Ripe fruit notes, layered between sweet spice, cardamom, dill, sour cherry, graphite and pepper. This is the trio's most structured, engaging, and arguably polarising. The Tout Près feels wild with a mouth-watering savouriness and endless complexity." Nick Farr

Other wines from this producer are also available, contact Jeff on (03) 9419 9795 for info!

Curly Flat
Macedon Ranges, Victoria

Curly Flat 2020 Central Pinot Noir
Offer: $64!
"It’s from the estate’s 1992 planting, aka its oldest vines. Long chains of tannin, clear-but-powerful varietal fruit, a sense of command and then noteworthy persistence through the finish. This is a high quality wine. Indeed how such power and presence is achieved at 12.8% alcohol is something to marvel at. Undergrowth, twig, sweet-sour cherries, florals and perfectly integrated cedarwood oak flavours are served in a firm, compelling context. Curly Flat is in tremendous form; career-best, quite likely." 95pts! - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

Curly Flat 2020 Western Pinot Noir
Offer: $64!
"From the coolest site on the Curly Flat estate. 23-year-old vines.There’s an earthen aspect to this rose-petal-and-red-cherry-accented pinot, and that’s never a bad thing. There’s also a general absence of obvious oak. This is fragrant and expressive, not at all heavy, and lacey in both its feel and in its tannin framework. Persistence here is excellent, as is balance. Complexity has already been covered off but time will do wonders here." 94pts - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

Bannockburn
Geelong, Victoria

Bannockburn 2021 S.R.H. Chardonnay
Offer: $86!
2 bottle limit per customer
"Whole-bunch pressed, wild fermentation in French hogsheads (20% new), 11 months on lees, partial mlf. Named in honour of founder, Stuart Hooper, S.R.H. is sourced from the company's best chardonnay block of 12 rows of vines on the Olive Tree Hill vineyard. Superlative Geelong chardonnay! The long, cool '21 season has brought something extra to S.R.H., a multitude of layers of flavour and depth – more than usual – that so impresses. Keeps trim while exploring nectarine, peach, mango skin, baked apple, citrus, honeysuckle with lemon butter and nougat. Good, honest energy throughout. And the taste stays with you a long, long time." 96pts! - Jeni Port, The Wine Companion

Bannockburn 2021 Grigsby Chardonnay
Offer: $77!
2 bottle limit per customer
"It’s named after Lucas Grigsby, who has been the vineyard manager at Bannockburn for over 30 years. It was both fermented and matured in oak, but none of that oak was new. Glowing straw colour. Full of flavour. Grilled peaches, juicy pears and some green pineapple too. This is a wine of both concentration and poise; it bursts up front and through the middle but then tightens considerably through the finish. Indeed there’s a fair amount of grip here. Woodsmoke notes rise through the aroma and appear again through the aftertaste. It’s complex. It’s a bit wild at heart. It’s not 100% cohesive at present, but it will become so." 94pts - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

Cheers, Randall, Jeff, Nick & Rose!