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

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

Pinot Noir is a very selective grape. It does not like the heat but does like the sun. It likes to be on well-drained soils so not good on flat landscapes. It likes warm days but more important, cold summer nights. It is so demanding that only a few Australian regions can aspire to produce a Pinot Noir of any pedigree...the Yarra Valley being one of them.

Tasting Notes

Nose

Bright, cherry and raspberry aromas are supported by a palate of brooding dark fruit and deep earthy flavours. 

Palate

Elegantly balanced on the palate of soft tannins and subtle spice with a lengthy finish

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Producer

Soumah of the Yarra Valley is a producer of fine wines from the region. A hidden gem located down a country lane, in the dress circle of the cool Warramate foothills of Gruyere. Soumah set out to make wine with the charm of northern Italy but the provenance of the Yarra Valley. Situated an average of 120 meters above sea level, the vineyard is elevated above the valley floor. The ancient sandy-clay loams with broken sandstone shape the small yield and define the detail in these precise, focused expressions of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Production Method

There are four clones of Pinot Noir on Hexham Vineyard and once combined they create a classic, cool climate style wine showing elegance and savoury spice. Fermentation is completed using indigenous yeasts followed by a lengthy maturation in premium French oak to add a layer of earthy complexity.

Alan's Personal Tasting Notes

"More a savoury Pinot than a fruity one. There is good fruit but it’s dark and brooding and overlaid with a smoky oakiness - but it’s the savoury notes that shine through from start to finish. Very well made - smooth and with some complexity held together with soft tannins. Very good value! April 2023

Specifications

Sourced from a single 75-year-old vineyard, the bush-trained vines rooted in pure sand produce a wine of remarkable purity and power, offering a rare balance of lightness and intensity. Achingly beautiful yet irresistibly drinkable, it captivates from the first sip.

Tasting Notes

Highly aromatic with notes of sandalwood, dried orange, violets and wood spice on the nose, it follows through to a palate that is paradoxically elegant and vibrant but concentrated and persistent. Silky smooth with a glossy, highly attractive palate of wild strawberry, violets and the merest hint of cinnamon and woodsmoke.

Production

Early on in their Grenache journey, the Thistledown team were introduced to Sue Trott’s Home Block in the Blewitt Springs sub-region of McLaren Vale. Its beautiful aspect, raised elevation and free-draining deep sandy soils are the perfect spot for old dry-grown bush-vine Grenache and they feel so lucky to be offered the opportunity to purchase a little fruit. Some years on and they have learned a little about the site and refined their picking decisions and vinification to the extent that from 2017 they were content that they could do the site justice by bottling separately. Sourced from one vineyard, planted in 1952, with bush trained vines on pure sand yielding a wine of immense purity and power that is both light and intense at the same time. This wine carries the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia Trust Mark.  Fruit was handpicked on 'on the way up'. They vinify naturally in concrete pyramid and place whole bunches alternately with de-stemmed fruit to create a layer cake. 33% whole bunch. A very gentle, slow fermentation is followed by maturation in oak and concrete before a careful selection is done, which is then bottled unfined and unfiltered 10 months later.

Producer

Thistledown was founded by Master of Wine, Giles Cooke who had a vision for a more elegant, textural interpretation of Australian wine.

Initial explorations resulted in access to many of the best vineyards, many of which were the previously unloved Old Vine Grenache. Incredible, historic fruit sources coupled with Giles’ increasingly adept efforts has quickly resulted in a reputation for being amongst the best in the country. Narrating the stories of these wines to an increasingly attentive global audience is Giles’ heartfelt commitment and mission.

Specifications

This is the Barossa reimagined. An exuberant outpouring of energy, captured within a sculptured framework that reflects the rugged yet beautiful landscape of its conception.

Tasting Notes

A deliciously vibrant style of Barossa Shiraz with succulent raspberry and blackcurrant fruit, hints of spice and elegant, glossy texture.

Production

Joel Mattschoss' Eden Valley vineyard provides the majority of the fruit. This spectacular vineyard is planted on some of the most difficult, meagre soils of any we have seen. Littered with boulders composed of ironstone and pink quartz, it is a truly challenging site. Vineyards are trellised, cordon trained and spur pruned.  This wine is all about great fruit, picked at the right time. Frequent vineyard walks determines exactly the right time, the fruit full of energy. Wild fermented, using some whole bunch inclusion play their role in ensuring that this wine is full of bright, fleshy fruit with great texture and spice. Aged in French oak for 6 to 8 months prior to bottling.

Producer

Thistledown was founded by Master of Wine, Giles Cooke who had a vision for a more elegant, textural interpretation of Australian wine.

Initial explorations resulted in access to many of the best vineyards, many of which were the previously unloved Old Vine Grenache. Incredible, historic fruit sources coupled with Giles’ increasingly adept efforts has quickly resulted in a reputation for being amongst the best in the country. Narrating the stories of these wines to an increasingly attentive global audience is Giles’ heartfelt commitment and mission.

Specifications