Latest Releases

Suppose we posit 2018-2020 as a trio of southern vintages for Beaujolais that resulted in deliciously ripe and saturated Gamays. In that case, we should label 2021 as a northern year—a return to a cooler, brighter, lower-alcohol style to which William Kelley alludes in the quote above. And yet, unlike many, this is an address where the stylistic dial has not shifted to the extent that the broadly painted vintage reports would have us believe.

Each year Hélène Thibon sends her clients a newsletter recounting the theme of the past vintage and a roundup of exciting news at her domaine. “It’s a vintage from my childhood”, starts Thibon, referring to the classical leanings of 2021 before almost raining on her own parade with tales of frost, hail and torrential downpours. Fortunately, Thibon’s story has a happy ending, signing off; “We have no reason to lament because the vats are full of very pretty wines!”

The World of Fine Wine’s 78th Issue is a many splendoured thing. A few highlights, if we may. In Then and Now, Preserving Pleasure, Stuart Walton looks back at sumptuary laws enacted throughout history to limit conspicuous consumption. Simon J Woolf looks at the ‘rebirth of cool’ in Slovakia, arguing that “if there is a new holy grail in wine, it’s cool-climate regions”, and The Last Catalog is a typically poetic account from importer/writer Terry Theise on visiting his European growers following a three-year absence. Then, Harry Eyres tackles the thorny issue of ‘Minerality’ in Learning to live with undefinability. 

The selection of wines in this offer includes the cream of Australian wine talent—from Bondar’s sublimely elegant Grenache-based rosé; to Lambert Wines’ savoury and stony Shiraz; to Garagiste’s mouth-watering and invigorating single vineyard Pinot; and to Murdoch Hill’s lip-smacking ‘Super Tuscan’ blend. And there’s a last chance to take a look at Swinney’s inaugural, showstopping Mourvèdre Rosé. 

With the festive season now just days away, we don’t need to remind our clients that magnums are also the ultimate vessel for cellaring, gifting and celebratory dining. Starting at $40, the listing—also known affectionally in house as ‘Sophie’s Reserve’—contains a broad range of outstanding wines for the season or, for further down the track.

Earlier this year we saw the first releases from the Meadowbank-Dredge Sparkling program. Our petition for a public holiday to mark the occasion has yet to be answered. Hot on the heels of the 2018 Blanc de Noirs, we’re delighted to offer the new vintage, a wine described by its colourful maker as “bloody delicious”. Unlike its predecessor, the 2019 was vinified in stainless steel, a decision made off-the-cuff, but the results of which Dredgey is delighted with, “I like the snappy freshness in this bottling… I might just do it like this again”.

This offer focuses on an exceptional trio of Huet vintages, 2019-2021. We’ll start with the youngest. To be clear, when we use the word exceptional to describe the 2021 vintage, we are referring to the wines alone; the vigneron’s experience was quite the opposite. The bitter and prolonged frosts of April, along with the ensuing mildew-friendly conditions, claimed over 70% of Huet’s potential crop. Sarah Hwang spoke of the most intense and complicated season she has experienced at the domaine, a vintage in which morale was further sapped by the cool conditions at harvest.

Lovers of pulpy and vibrant European whites, please make your way to the front. The slate-rich hillsides of Valdeorras are one of Spain’s smallest and most exciting white wine regions. And no grower has a history so entwined with the region—or its signature grape variety, Godello—as the Prada-Gayoso family. Back in 1885, José Ramón Gayoso planted what was, as far as we know, the region’s first 100% Godello vineyard—at that time vineyards were interplanted with multiple varieties. This vineyard was named Pedrouzos and is today the oldest Godello vineyard in the world.

Following the difficult farming conditions in 2020, which saw this producer release just one out of three wines, 2021 proved a welcome return to normality in Jeff Byrne’s adopted region of Orange. After four years of drought, this vintage came through with a very cool summer and above-average rainfall, ultimately delivering a measured crop of bright fruit with vibrancy, purity and structure to the fore. So, feast follows famine and Byrne’s skilled hand in the cellar has made the most of nature’s benevolence.

I know we’re beginning to sound like a broken record, but there’s no hiding it under a bushel: 2022 is an exceptional year for our Victorian producers. Matt Holmes is only slightly more measured in his appraisal of Bannockburn’s 2022 vintage than Luke or Barney, where location played a crucial role in their “best ever” releases under the Crudo and Stagiaire labels respectively. Even so, to hear Matt describe this as “the best 1314 release in the last three years”, speaks volumes.

In 2005, France’s pre-eminent soil scientists, Claude and Lydia Bourguignon purchased a historic yet dilapidated terroir outside the southwest AOC of Cahors. Set on a stony hillside of Kimmeridgian limestone, over the following decade (joined by their son Emmanuel) the Bourguignons meticulously restored the vineyard and its buildings from the ground up. It took these pioneers more than 10 years to release their first wine. We can tell you, emphatically, it has been well worth the wait.

Matthieu Baudry is on fire. The wines from this domaine—be it red, white, or rosé—have never been better, a testament to the family’s superb organic vineyard work and its exceptional collection of terroirs. And they don’t miss a trick in the cellar, where natural yeast fermentation and low sulphur additions hold sway over the more aggressive handling one can often encounter in Chinon.