Not a bad quaffer for the Grand Final season. The colour is good and the nose has nice fennel/licorice aromas with a little blackberry. The palate is soft and easy to quaff and shows exactly what the nose suggested. There was something on the middle palate that wasn’t nice but ...

I started my summer cycling trip in the Rhone, so it’s only fair to drink a little now. Domaine Vieux Manoir de Maransan 2004 is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Roussane, Voignier and Clairette. That’s a lot of grapes! It’s a rich lemon colour with plenty of fresh fruity aromas. There’s apricots ... for a cautious wine buyer wanting to dip their toe in the Rhone...

I have written about how good the wines being made at Pondalowie are, so I won't harp on about that.  This wine is a blend of  Cabernet, Shiraz and 20% Tempranillo and sees some time in american and french oak.  The addition of tempranillo to the classic aussie blend really works well if this wine is anything to go by. A nice nose of mulberry, a bit of cherry and toasty oak.  Medium bodied...

Saint Joseph bashes into the side of Chateau Grillet and then zooms off South for sixty kilometres…..there is a fair bit of variation in both the style and quality in the wine produced in Saint-Joseph but it is probably the appellation in the Rhone, that has the most potential in terms of future plantings...

I had a Rhone rose this week. I was in the mood for something pink and fruity so picked a reasonably priced one. It was certainly pink, with just a hint of orange lurking within. It smelled clean but not as fresh as I’d hope from a 2005. There was a hit of strawberries with some minerality. It was dry, with a balanced acidity and a hint of tannin. It tasted of strawberry jam, the cheap no-label...

I had a Rhone rose this week. I was in the mood for something pink and fruity so picked a reasonably priced one. It was certainly pink, with just a hint of orange lurking within. It smelled clean but not as fresh as I’d hope from a 2005. There was a hit of strawberries with some minerality. It was dry, with a balanced acidity and a hint of tannin. It tasted of strawberry jam, the cheap no-label...

We had a Tesco Finest Crozes Hermitage 2003 with dinner last night. I’d picked it up with the groceries to make dinner as I was in the mood for something warm and spicy (it’s an autumn thing). Hermitage is a world class wine, with a price to match, but Crozes Hermitage comes from the flatter ground around the famous Hermitage hill in the northern Rhone, and is much, much cheaper. The wine...

We had a Tesco Finest Crozes Hermitage 2003 with dinner last night. I’d picked it up with the groceries to make dinner as I was in the mood for something warm and spicy (it’s an autumn thing). Hermitage is a world class wine, with a price to match, but Crozes Hermitage comes from the flatter ground around the famous Hermitage hill in the northern Rhone, and is much, much cheaper. The wine...

You don’t see many wines from Lirac, well at least I don’t. Lirac is in Southern Rhone, just a stones thrown over the Rhone River from Chataeuneuf-du-Pape, and Domaine de la Mordoree is a class producer from this area. This year, the wine is blend of equal parts of Mourvedre, Syrah and Grenache ... World, but has savoury Southern Rhone characters too. It didn’t seem pruney to me at all, so I...

I haven’t had a Southern Rhone for a while: it was time. This one is a blend of 75% Grenache, 10% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah and 5% of the other permissible varietals. It was aged in equal parts barrel and foudre. I got this from the Langtons Wine Exchange for $35 per bottle including commission - what a bargain! A bit of browning. A great nose: lavender, rosemary, roasted herbs, river stones...