Party Time Wines

Summer is in full swing and that means party time. It seems that every year we pack every get together with anyone in the two months of December and January.  This period is one filled with hot days, warm nights and fun filled moments with friends and family. The best way to celebrate this time is with refreshing whites and bubbles of happiness.

Hahndorf Hill Winery Gruner Veltliner 2012

This wine should come with a warning of don’t serve too cold as the palate shuts down a bit under extreme chills.  When the wine is allowed to warm up a bit flavours of crushed flowers and pears start to emerge.   The entry of the wine is light and delicate but from the mid-palate on there is masses of intense flavours and texture galore.  The flavours come across as those mystical crystals you see in the healing stores in the city mixed with peaches, spice and lemon blossom.  These flavours work brilliantly with the glycerin style mouth feel.  My god it coats my mouth, sticking the flavours to my receptors.  This is a wine to be proud of so get on board. This wine is so good I am going to predict that the Adelaide Hills will become a beacon for top quality Gruner. Just wait within 5 years the Hills will be Chardonnay and Gruner mecca.

Alcohol: 12.5%

Price: $28

Rated: 88

Drink: Now – 2024

Tyrrell’s Wines Traditional Method Pinot Noir Chardonnay 2009

When wineries say that a sparkling is made using the traditional method they mean that it has been bottle fermented. This process takes much longer and allows the fruit to stay in contact with the lees which results in a creamer taste and mouth feel.  This wine has that in spades with extra flavours of dried grapefruit, toasted brioche, gun smoked strawberries and spice, in fact I would say this wine is packed with flavour. It feels like a party popper in my mouth, masses of flavours jumping for joy as they tumble along in my mouth.  At 26 bucks this wine is a sophisticated beast that will be easy to crack over this festive season.

Alcohol: 13%

Price: $26

Rated: 87

Drink: Now or over the next 5 years

Mount William Winery Jorja-Alexis Rose 2003

This wine spent 8 years on lees before being disgorged and topped with fresh Pinot Noir which brings back the salmon colour.  Murray, the owner of Mount Williams Winery, describes it the best in his media release. Murray explains that "whilst the wine is on lees in the cellar, the large red molecules drop out and we end up with a rather anemic looking sparkling rose'. The addition of the young still Pinot Noir doesn't affect the flavour and it has a beneficial effect on the bouquet when it is added.".  This wine is one of the best Australian Sparkling roses that I have tried as it is light in weight yet powerful in the delivery of strawberries and crème, rhubarb and spice. This wine definitely stays on the savoury side of things but the strawberries and crème adds a little confectionary style note which is lovely. The wine pulls long in my mouth with a knife edge of acidity keeping the wine fresh and vibrant. This would be perfect as a starter on Christmas day or any other special event.

Alcohol: 12%
Price: $45
Rated: 89
Drink: Now or later

Torzi Matthews Vintners Frist Dodger Riesling 2012

Pitch perfect and vibrant is this Eden Valley Riesling. In fact this could be your archetypical version of Riesling from this region with flavours of slate, lemon, blossom, struck quartz and lime pulp. In the mouth the wine explodes and the flavours stick to every inch of my mouth. The wine feels like it is thick and textured yet light and bright all in the same mouthful which is interesting and cerebral.  All I want to do is sit back under my loquat tree with a big glass and just let the earth spin around me. I could drink this now but it only improved over the 5 days that I tasted it so I would leave it alone for a while.


Alcohol: 13%
Price: $22
Rated: 93
Drink: Now - 2027