Latest Releases

Novicius: June - New Releases from Murdoch Hill, Spinifex and Thomas Wines

Michael Downer struck gold with his Lenswood site, and he knows it. Even so, the speed and level to which the recently acquired vineyard is delivering have surprised even him. Since purchasing the site a few years back, Downer and his team have...

We’re delighted to add five new titles to the Ex Vinum library with more to come later this year, including what we think is set to be the most exciting book to be published on the Australian wine scene in a decade. 

Vintages fly when you’re having fun. In the slipstream of his intensely mineral 2021, we have another cracking release from Gérard Boulay. It’s a wine that renders the vibrant, ripe fruit and mouth-watering juiciness of the vintage, and, as always, it’s a Sancerre that showcases the incomparable class of Chavignol’s great limestone terroirs. When such vineyards are combined with old vines, organic viticulture and inspired precise cellar work, the results are electrifying. Followers of this wine have much to look forward to.

In any craft, the more experienced you become and the more effort you put in, the better your results will be. Well, that’s the hope. Andre Bondar is experiencing this progression firsthand. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Andre, let’s just say he’s a thinking person’s wine guy. He’s not one for bravado, soundbites, or hyperbole. Instead, you’ll find a driven and deeply knowledgeable winegrower intensely focused on improving the health of his vineyard’s soils and, henceforth, the expression of its wines.

For those new to this producer, the wines come from an Anjou-based micro-négoce started by Philippe Germain with his brother, Thierry Germain (of Roches Neuves fame), acting as a consultant. Thierry is no longer involved with the project, though the wines have not missed a beat. With Phillippe Germain’s Château de la Roulerie vineyards now contributing the lion’s share of the fruit, each vintage sees a further layer of quality added to wines that showcase the vibrant, earth-to-glass Germain style.

We don’t think it’s news that the 2022 vintage was a dream year for Garagiste. Growing conditions were nigh-on perfect—a long, slow and moderate season that allowed for ideal flavour development and precise harvesting. And, even if volumes have been shot to pieces by the La Niña pattern, the quality has been, to quote the man himself, “bloody spectacular”.

Despite mourning the loss of our luggage, there were worse places to be stranded than in Saumur. Unable to progress on our journey, we called on the help of Google Maps and Guiberteau’s right-hand man and self-proclaimed tractoriste, Brendan Stater-West, to help us locate a good portion of this grower’s vineyards. A dropped pin or three later and we were on the way to see the vineyards central to this grower’s rise to stardom.

New releases from Murdoch Hill, Quealy, Toolangi, Laughing Jack and Blind Corner.

The small but perfectly formed 2021 vintage provided the impetus to act on a years-long desire to add a ‘Villages’ Marlborough Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to their range. From a year when yields were so miserly, Corofin could not feasibly make the usual range of single-vineyard wines, and so 2021 marks the first release of its Marlborough blends. These wines bring another layer to an already impressive range of wines and importantly, a little more volume to Corofin—and its customers, who have been yearning for more!

From grapes harvested at least two weeks later than in 2020, you’ll find ample, silky density buoyed by moderate alcohols and a surge of energy that comes from a lighter place than the three preceding vintages. And in contrast with those years, 2021’s flavours shimmy from a more exotic spectrum in the direction of citrus, crystalline white fruit and herbal nuances. The notes from the wine press and our tastings, all point to a don’t-miss year from a Rheingau great.

Drum roll, please. Following a two-vintage hiatus, the crown jewels in the Spinifex portfolio—La Maline and Indigene—are back, and in this release, they join the new Moppa Shiraz and the Inaugural Sol Solice Grenache. The 2021s are a welcome return, each showcasing Schell’s consummate ability to harness and channel raw Barossa power into wines of sleek charm, perfume and length.