If Bannockburn’s spring releases are any indication—and they typically are—2025 is poised to be another excellent vintage for Matt Holmes and Co. But don’t just take our word for it. “These new releases,” says Gus Pollard, “are some of the most expressive and precise examples we’ve made of these varieties, each carrying a real sense of the season’s character.”...

There is cloudy, and then there is Quealy. You don’t need us to tell you that Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Quealy wrote the first chapter on skin-contact wine in Australia. Some 17 years ago, following McCarthy’s 2006 visit to Joško Gravner, the pair released Claudius, a delicious skinsy blend of Chardonnay, Traminer and Moscato Giallo under the T’Gallant label.

Ray Nadeson has that unique ability of being damn good at every style he turns his hand to. Not many could weave a micro-pick of Victorian Savagnin into a brilliant homage to Vin Jaune – but that’s the magic of Lethbridge. Rumour has it that the Lethbridge project was originally conceived over a bottle of red Burgundy. Despite his famous and successful magpie-like tendencies, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir remain Nadeson’s first love...

During a visit last February, Daniel Bouland showed us his full range of 2024 samples. He then insisted we taste the bottled wine from the 2023 vintage—for comparison, of course! Bouland works 12 hours a day in his vineyards and is no less meticulous when organising a tasting. He is a great believer in the 2023 vintage...

As we write, Mike Paterson is somewhere deep in Sydney showing a terrific set of artisanal Marlborough wines from the 2023 vintage. Fortunately for Paterson and his growers, Marlborough’s Southern Valleys were spared the torrid weather events that blighted Hawkes Bay and Canterbury...

“We harvested very quickly to avoid sur-maturity—the opposite of 2024. I think of 2023 in the same esprit as the 2022s—two excellent vintages,” explains Didier. Defaix’s whites balance generosity and classical restraint, which has become this producer's hallmark...