Angullong 2023 Fossil Hill Tempranillo

 

Angullong is a family-owned wine producer in the cool-climate region of Orange in the Central West of New South Wales - a location producing increasingly impressive wines across the board. Here we have a Spanish grape variety - most famous for its key role in the great wines of Rioja - crafted in Australia by a Canadian winemaker, Jeff Byrne. Bright and immediately engaging, this offers a nice balance between savoury fruit notes and quality oak. We paired it with chilli con carne and rice, and it proved a most amiable pairing. Outstanding value at $30.  https://www.angullong.com.au/

Ask The Elephant 2025 Pinot Grigio

 

A tenner? You don't get much wine for a tenner nowadays, do you? Well this new brand release from Fourth Wave Wines delivers good everyday drinking across the five wines in the range - with this one my favourite. Ask the Elephant is an offshoot from thes crowd-pleasing Elephant in the Room label - using keywords to make buying easier for novice wine buyers. Friendly is the word in question here and this is certainly a white with wide appeal. Red apple and pear flavours lead the charge with fruit sweetness and nutty hints in support. It sits midway between gris and grigio in style and there are plenty of $25 wines that this puts to shame. The sauvignon blanc in the same range is also pretty cool. Coming to Dan Murphy's and BWS stores soon. $9.99.

Cullen 2024 Diana Madeline

What style of wizardry is this? Tasted blind you could easily mistake this for one of the stellar left bank cabernet-driven red blends of Bordeaux - wines that fetch stratospheric prices. This isn't cheap, but it is bargain compared to other Australian flagships now pushing over $1000 a bottle. This benchmark comes from the earliest, driest, and hottest vintage on record in Margaret River, but the biodynamic, dry-grown vines sailed through the test. Still aromatic, still powerful, still balanced, still elegant. Dark with cassis flavours to the fore, along with nutty/vanilla characters, impressive tannin structure and stupendous length. The blend comprises 90% cabernet sauvignon, 5% cabernet franc, 3% malbec, and 2% merlot. Pair with a lamb roast for maximum pleasure. Released this week. I think this is my favourite wine of the year so far. 98 points. $160. https://cullenwines.com.au/

https://cullenwines.com.au/