A wine that celebrates Australia’s best-loved variety, Broken Record is juicy and bright and plays long on the palate.

Tasting Notes

Broken Record captures Southeast Australia’s essential joy. Soft and juicy plummy fruit flavours are balanced by smooth, savoury tannins.

Production

The creation of this wine was a judicious blending exercise to marry aromatics and lift with a generous, velveteen palate. Grapes are sourced from vineyards across Southeast Australia. They are picked at night to avoid high daytime temperatures and crushed immediately after picking. Temperature-controlled fermentation avoids extraction of harsh tannins and maintains the juicy fruit flavours.

Producer

Quintessentially Australian, this range offers consistent quality, hugely appealing, commercial wine styles that have gained a loyal following. Reflecting our skill and experience in seeking out the very best of Australia, our wines capture ideal climatic conditions and pure varietal definition.

Boutinot's Samantha Bailey brings her signature palate and decades of experience to finessing our components into the loveliest Boutinot expressions of Oz.

Alan's Personal Tasting Notes

"Everything it should be - a bright, juicy attractive blended Shiraz. Soft enough but just some tiny rough edges that could be softened out by blending in some wines from warmer vineyard sites. But sure about complexity or length (both could be better) but it really does deliver a soft, easy drinking red. I suggest Soldiers Block Shiraz has a better structure, more complexity and length - but it’s a very good simple, easy drinking Shiraz - and a bit cheaper - so choice is yours. If you like your Shiraz simple, soft 'n smooth then Broken Record is your choice - but if you like your entry Shiraz with a little more bite & spice then it’s Soldiers Block for you!" May 2024

Specifications

Tasting Notes 

Production

The Merlot grapes that make this wine were grown in the glorious Australian sunshine. Merlot thrives along the banks of Australia’s largest river, the Murray, near the bustling inland town of Mildura, in the middle of Australia’s food bowl. A Mediterranean climate, with plenty of sunshine, we carefully tend the vines and enrich the ancient, sandy soils with recycled organic matter from other crops that also thrive locally, to make the most of every precious drop of water. Speckled light reaches through lush green vine canopies to ensure the berries ripen steadily throughout late summer in time for harvest in Autumn.

Producer

Quintessentially Australian, this range offers consistent quality, hugely appealing, commercial wine styles that have gained a loyal following. Reflecting our skill and experience in seeking out the very best of Australia, our wines capture ideal climatic conditions and pure varietal definition.

Boutinot's Samantha Bailey brings her signature palate and decades of experience to finessing our components into the loveliest Boutinot expressions of Oz.

Juicy, fruit focussed, and a crowd-pleasing Merlot - perfect for entertaining!

Tasting Notes

Colour

Vibrant red with garnet edges. 

Nose & Palate

This Merlot is full of ripe plum and berries, lead to a soft rounded palate chock full of juicy red fruit, spicy undertones and gentle tannin with just a touch of vanillin oak.

Producer

The De Bortoli family story is one of determination and triumph that started 90 years ago in war-torn Europe and is now told, generations later, across Australia.

Our heritage encompasses the universal story of immigrants making good in an adopted land, the rise and rise of the Australian wine industry and the tale of a hardworking and innovative family who considers good wine, good food and good friends to be among the true pleasures in life.

Specifications

Warm, soft and lusciously lush this is juicy, crunchy and bright.

Tasting Notes

Black aromatic Malbec, with notes of black cherry fruit and flavours of summer pudding. Charming, soft, sumptuous but with a core grip and power that gives it length and the muscles for food.

Production

All the Malbec fruit comes from an estate in the Swan Hill region where there are 5 hectares of Malbec (approximately 12.5 acres which produces 90 tonnes of fruit per vintage). The Malbec are on their own roots and were planted in 2000. With the age of the vines and the harsh growing conditions, the Malbec vines are less vigorous which leads to a more intense colour and flavour. The vines are trained on a two wire vertical trellis, drip irrigation and minimum fertilisation. All the vines are machine harvested at night between mid to late March and grown on red sandy loam soil with limestone clay base. Climate is Mediterranean with summer temperatures between 30 and 40°C. Total vineyard area is 1250 acres. Once the grapes have been crushed pressed and sent to the fermenter, the winery then pumps over 4 times a day. Vinification takes place in stainless steel tanks at 25°C for three weeks. Malolactic fermentation takes place over 4 weeks. 50% of the blend is aged in French and American oak barriques for 3 months.

Specifications

Tasting Notes

This vibrant Chardonnay exhibits lifted fruit character, bright tangerine fleshiness, textural mouthfeel, a bright palate and a long and foodie finish. The judicious blend of oaked Chardonnay adds palate weight and texture without overwhelming the fruit.

Production

Long-standing working relationships with some key growers enable us to source premium fruit, with the ultimate aim of making excellent quality Australian house wines with true style and character. Grapes are picked earlier than usual to ensure balance and freshness in the final wine. Harvesting took place in the early dawn hours when it’s still cool and calm which helps retain the rich characters within these grapes. Once in the cellar, they are gently crushed to maintain the bright, fresh flavours crucial to the clonal tang. Around 15% of the grapes are sourced from the cooler, sea breeze-influenced Langhorne Creek area. This portion is barrel-aged in French medium toast casks to obtain a more complex, textural and weighty style of wine. It is then added to the greater part of the blend which is fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel to retain the fresh fruit characters.

Alan's Personal Tasting Notes

"Soldiers block is a new (affordable) range to us – and the Chardonnay certainly under promises and over-delivers. I say underpromises as the label is pretty underwhelming and gives nothing away about the beauty of the wine within.

This is made from rich, ripe fruit from Victoria with a percentage matured in French oak which gives a creamy, more textural mouthful. Add to that incredible balance and juicy acidity and you have an overall great wine – a real crowd pleaser and one of our most popular whites which tells me our customers have great palates!" Jan 2022

Specifications