Jeff Grosset has made a worldwide reputation for his Clare Valley Rieslings. There is nothing quite like sitting in the tasting room and looking at them side by side, a tribute to 35 vintages from this winery. All these wines are from the 2015 vintage:   Polish Hill, 12.7%: slightly atypical for Clare, this is

We arrived in the Clare Valley at lunchtime and really enjoyed the food and ambience of the Terroir restaurant. Sadly it will be closed for the rest of our stay which means we can’t buy one of their rare bottles from Wendouree.  Sunday afternoon is for visiting cellar doors so we popped into Mt Horrocks

Today’s postcard will be very short indeed. More of an introduction to the pictures and to record what a fascinating day Janet and I had in the vibrant, foodie, Adelaide Central Market; buying some new suitcases (as one does on holiday); tasting wine at the amazing National Wine Centre (great building, excellent use of Enomatic

After a 30 hour journey, however straightforward, where would you like to end up?  How about the freshness of a South Australian morning, 8.30 am, and a nearly deserted beach?  It is clearly going to be a hot day, at least for those arriving from an English winter. But at that hour, the sun gleams

Transit at Hong Kong … are we there yet? No, not quite … just 9 hours to Adelaide which will now seem like a hop, skip and a jump compared to the nearly 12 hours to get here from London.  The route was remarkable – keeping safely north over the Baltic countries, then the endless miles of northern

I am really looking forward to visiting some great wineries in South Australia. Here to whet the appetite is the programme. Wow! What a line up …If you want to get regular updates on this adventure, subscribe here: Friday 15  arrive Adelaide   Saturday 16: Adelaide      Sunday 17  drive up to Clare Valley  

UK wine drinkers are much in the debt of Australian wine. If we think back to the ‘pre-Australian’ period of UK wine retailing we were limited to French classics, German hock and what we fairly politely referred to as Spanish plonk. I’m sure it wasn’t quite as bad as that but that’s what it feels

John Hoskins MW believes that the world’s wine styles are converging. In the context of the extremely demanding Master of Wine tasting exam, this means that it is yet more difficult to tell your Burgundian Chardonnay from a wine from Tasmania or the coastal strip of Victoria. Climate change and better viticultural practice in Burgundy

One of the real puzzles of new world winemaking is how one estate or region can produce varietal wines which only flourish in completely different areas in Europe.  To take extreme examples, no one in the northern Rhône attempts to grow Chardonnay, far less Riesling; similarly, the Bordelais are not ‘having a go’ with Syrah