Premium Australian Wine Taste & Buy Event - FWR

Date: May 02/19, Thu     Time: 16:30:00-19:30:00     Style: Drop-In

The Fine Wine Reserve is excited to be hosting Alto Vino and Inland Trading PTY for an exclusive tasting of some of Australia's most sought-after wines.

Greg Corra, Managing Director of ITC, along with Alicia Beharry of Alto Vino will be pouring Twenty (!) wines, most of which sit prominently on the Langton's Classification:

These wines are available in our market in very limited quantities and will be available for private ordering during the event.

1. Bindi Original Vineyard Pinot 2016 96 Points James Suckling)
Very complex and packed with interest. This has a very attractive and sappy darker cherries, raspberries and rosehip on the nose. There are also deep-set biscuit spices and cherry pastry notes. The palate delivers a very crisp, clear-cut core of red cherries and red plums. The tannins are well defined, building weight into the finish. Drink or hold.

2. Bindi Kosta’s Rind Chardonnay 2017 97 pts James Suckling No 23 on Top 100 2018 for Australia
The combination of super composed grapefruit, white peaches and just-ripe nectarines gives this a mouthwatering nose. Some savory dried flowers and gently nutty, lightly spicy oak, too. The palate has scintillating acidity that adds handy depth and definition to the very chiseled, concentrated finish. Holds beautifully. This is a superb chardonnay vintage for Bindi.

3. Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2017 98 Pts James Suckling No 67 on Sucklings Top 100 for 2018 No 7 on the Top 100 for Australia
One of the greatest vintages of this wine. It has a super complex array of white and black peppers, hard brown spices, leaves, flowers and fresh wet earth, as well as graphite-like dark stony notes. The palate is immaculately detailed, long and silky with flavors of blackberries, red cherries, red plums, dark cherries, blackberries and dark chocolate. The palate is delivered with steady elegance and power, showing unwavering build and a seemingly never-ending trail of fresh and spicy fruit flavors. With the most immaculate tannins, too. The real soul of this wine shines through in this perfectly simpatico vintage. Fascinating to drink now, but it is best to give it some time. Try around 2025.

4. Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock Shiraz 2015 95 pts Wine Spectator No 20 in the Wine Spectator Top 100 wines of the world and the highest rated Australian wine
Fragrant notes of dried rose petal and white truffle indicate something special. Inside, this offers a fleshy, velvety mix of toasted rye bread, spicy plum jam and framboise flavors. Elegant and plush, but with plenty of power within, flexing on the expressive, expansive finish that goes on and on.

5. By Farr Sangreal Geelong Pinot Noir 2016 97 pts James Halliday
The vineyard was planted in '94 to clones 114 and 115, believed to have mutated into a single 'Sangreal' clone. Always made with 50-70% whole bunches, and 60-70% new oak maturation for 18 months. While the power of the wine is typical Farr, this vintage bestows a measure of linearity, a sinuous line to the palate that links and loops around the complex flavours of forest floor/spice and wild strawberry.

6. Epsilon Shiraz 2016 95 pts Huon Hooke 94 pts James Halliday
Fresh, bright, youthful colour and aroma, plummy, fruit-driven. Some spices and smoky oak, but the wine is rich, deep, full-bodied and lovely. Powerful, concentrated, a glorious mouthful of wine which will age superbly. This is astounding value.

7. Clonakilla Oriada Shiraz 2017 94 pts Winefront
I hope and pray that Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz remains at this price level. It’s not about me but: I love this wine. It’s built on acidity and spice as much as it is on fruit and tannin. It’s direct, it’s exotic, it’s meaty and floral, but it’s also laced with black cherry and fennel. It has velocity and tension. It is simply a beautiful, modern red wine in the best says of the word(s).

8. Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2016 92 pts Huon Hooke 94pts James Halliday
Deep purple/red colour with a fresh, youthful but already quite complex aroma of spice, pepper, forest and dark fruits, a little meatiness and a hint of toastiness from oak. Very appealing nose. The palate is likewise meaty, smoky and spicy, with dominant smoked charcuterie notes. Very good flavour.

9. Irrewarra Chardonnay 2016 96 pts James Halliday
From the dry-grown vineyard of John and Bronwyn Calvert in the heart of the Western District of Vic. Has the usual Farr stamp of complexity from go to whoa, yet also has great purity and precision. Grapefruit and green apple lead the band, oak simply a vehicle for the fruit to express itself

10. Irrewarra Pinot 2016 -Made by Nick Farr new release
All MV6, whole-berry ferment. 1/3 new oak, 1/3 one-year-old and 1/3 two-year-old. 19-22 days on skins. Red fruit and damp earth - nose like the first version; sour cherry and rhubarb fruit and a kind of peppery, cardomom spice. Creamy oak. Deep and damp-earthy on the palate; tannins finely threaded right through with tangy brightness to them. More berry and redcurrant than the nose. Draws you in; pure but layered. Alive. Almost a cocoa note. Great gently dusty grip, wild red-fruit length

11. By Farr 3 Oaks Chardonnay 2016 95 pts James Halliday
The original site, and for Nick Farr the most pronounced in intensity. It’s where the deeper, more porous limestone is found in that hungry looking estate. Planted 1994. About a third new oak. Mellow wine of elegance, austerity, freshness and cool feel. Nougat whiffs on white flesh stone fruits, citrus, fern leaves, faint spice. Meshed oak spice in clean, fine boned stone fruit and mineral feel. Understated, complex, so fine. Wonderful wine.

12. By Farr Farrside Pinot 2016 93 pts James Suckling
Roughly 50% of the fruit was destemmed and natural yeast is used. The wine is placed in 50% - 60% new barrels for 18 months before bottling. Very floral, pretty and red-fruited - more than I think I expect from this wine, and certainly the foremost impression over bunchiness or oak. Rhubarb and spice (earthy and wood notes) provide nice shading. A flood of beautiful red fruit on entry - macerated cherry and forest berries; uplifting and juicy. Super tannins - fine-grained/suede as red fruit grips through a mouthwatering finish...thoroughly delicious and - for all that obvious pleasure - subtly detailed

13. Standish Standish Shiraz 2016 99 pts Robert Parker 96+Winefront
Stylistically Dan’s wines are as profound as you would expect from Barossa Valley old vines but they have a satin texture and dreamy perfume that sets them far apart from his contemporaries. Here, dark fruits are encased in cocoa and earthy richness but with gentle spice, soil tone, asphalt and a stony minerality that gives the wines a beautiful dimension. These are special wines, among the very best being made in Australia today. When you see what Grange and Hill of Grace sell for these days, these are a bargain.Dan’s 2016 The Standish Shiraz comes from a vineyard in the Greenock subregion. It’s inky in colour, loaded with plum, blueberry and raspberry fruit. Full-bodied, creamy-textured and rich, it’s intense, concentrated and long beyond belief, picking up hints of licorice along the way. Nearly embryonic, it will need at least a couple of years to show more than the primary fruit

14. Silvern A Greenock Shiraz 2015 92 pts James Halliday
This is bouncy, floral, bumptious and very easy to drink. Satsuma plum, black cherry, anise and violet notes ricochet across a medium to fill bodied palate, dutifully supported by relaxed acidity and dusty, easy-going tannins. A dollop of grenache is thrown in for aromatic fireworks and generosity.
15. Grosset Polish Hill Riesling 2018 96 pts Huon Hooke
Lovely floral and lime fragrances greet the nose, while the palate is intense and almost juicy, fruit-rich and long. There are nettley dried herb notes too. Concentration with finesse and tautness. The finish is very dry, appetising and not austere. A really stylish Riesling

16. Giant Steps Wombat Creek Chardonnay 2017 James Suckling 96 pts No 45 on the top 100 Australian wines for 2018
A super flinty, cool-climate Yarra chardonnay. This is a wine with layers of complexity, plenty of satisfying fruit presence, some light herbal cooler notes and hints of cucumber. The nose has grapefruit, candied lemons and white peaches. The palate has beautiful textural layering and shape. Long and seamless with great depth. It is also packed with interest. A tangy finish. Drink or hold

17. Giant Steps Yarra Valley Pinot 2018 91 pts Wine Front
Starts with a meaty savouriness, rolls on with sour and sweet cherry, whiffs of briar, white pepper. Nice fragrance. Palate is awash with the flavours of the scent, sour-sweet, pepper, tangy and bright. It’s quite transparent, quite crunchy, quite edgy even – a wine that bristles in the palate while it soars in bouquet. A chill likely would tame the mad angles and temper the squirts of tart-peaky cherry flavours and fold in some of the green-peppery stuff. It’s got high drinkability which ever way you look at it, though, just perhaps not the finesse one expects when ‘pinot noir’ and ‘Giant Steps’ sit on a label

18. Giant Steps Applejack Pinot 2018-new release 2017 98 pts James Halliday 96pts James Suckling
Acid driven, light and fragrant style, has that sense of sleekness from fine pinot tannins yet is tightly wound, coiled and precise as it rolls through the palate. Red currants, cranberry, smoke and sweet earth to sniff on. Savoury edged red fruit to taste. Balanced, lithe, very finely wrought. Such elegance, and, importantly, incredible sense of energy in the wine. Now we can use the word outstanding.

19. Kay Bros Hillside Shiraz 2015 95 Pts James Halliday
Matured for 21 months in American and French oak barrels. Super saturated inky black core with a deep dark red black tinged hue. Pronounced aromatics of ripe blackberry and liquorice meld into some dark plum, toasty vanillin oak and spicy blackpepper. Full bodied, dense and rich, opulently textured flavours of ripe blackberries, liquorice and dark plums flood the mouth over a back drop of chocolatey vanillin oak and spice. Velvet smooth yet sturdily built tannins hold everything in place. Excellent length and power with a long lavish aftertaste of ripe blackberries, liquorice, chocolatey vanillin oak and spicy blackpepper.

20. By Farr RP Pinot 2016-new release not reviewed
A tribute Pinot Noir to the matriarch of the Farr family from a single, close-planted block on the much revered Côte vineyard. This wine is pretty and so very perfumed. The cote sites simply produce amazing smoothness and calmness that stretches the length of the palate as with the GC. Abundance of fruit leading to fine and detailed tannin structure. We have been playing with the fruit from these vineyards for more than 8 years, fine tuning the style of wine that these vineyards are producing.