Somewhere near the Seaview end of McLaren Vale's Chapel Hill Road, a perfunctory passerine perched her pincers astride a pair of power poles and saw herself alit. Down she went amongst the dry grown branches of an old Grenache vineyard, setting the valuable veterans ablaze. The scorched site eventually came to the attention of a winemaking trio, the Messrs Leske, Tynan & Cooke, Masters of Wine and a venerable vintner, all driven by a consuming passion to make greater Grenache. Thistledown vintage very small amounts of the most extraordinary Grenache. Beautifully detailed and conspicuously elegant, their floral bouquets and graceful finish emulate the aromatic lift and peacock's tail of a prettily perfumed Pinot Noir. Magnificent to savour as a captivating.. Polly & the pyre to paradise»

Greg Melick embarked on the prodigal road to gambling and booze as a mere teenager, after winning the daily double at Werribee and spending the lot on good red wine. He ultimately returned to the straight and narrow, achieving the rank of ADF Major General, Senior Law Counsel, Master Wine Judge and Officer of Australia AO. Melick now grows his own, he remains besotted with les grands vignobles de Bourgogne, the illustrious Pinot Noir of Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune. There are few places in the world, more akin to the 1er Grand Cru style of Pinot Noir, than the temperate pastures along Tasmania's River Derwent. It was here in 2002, amongst the woodland idylls of the apple isle, that Melick established Pressing Matters, a meagre four hectares of superior.. Pressing matters in pinot noir»

Established 1851 by the French Marist order, Mission Estate are New Zealand's oldest winery, under continuous management ever since. The city of Lyon's Society of Mary sailed to New Zealand with little more than faith, fair winds and a few healthy vines. Men of Burgundy, they knew from good wine, they chose their ground and planted rootstock near Ngaruroro River between Napier and Hastings at Pakowhai. Agriculture and livestock were a necessity, but the establishment of a productive vineyard was essential. The area is now known as Hawke's Bay, internationally renowned for the rich terroirs of Gimblett Gravels, home of New Zealand's most salient brands... The burgundy tradition of te ika a maui»

David Wynn introduced cardboard wine casks, flagons and the Airlesflo wine tap to the nation. He is best remembered for re packaging the Coonawarra estate which bears his name and which endures as one of Australia's icon brands. Wynn was a master of his craft and studied oenology at the world renowned Magill wineworks. An astute marketer and talented blender, he also had a keen eye for the land, investing in the ancient John Riddoch fruit colony and planting vines on a challenging site, high atop the lofty latitudes of Valley Eden. Mountadam Vineyards were built from the ground up, with a view to crafting a limited range of well structured, weighty wines, defined by fuller palates and saline, mineral savouryness. The legacy of Eden Valley vineyards planted by Wynn in the 1960s & 1970s, incorporating.. The legacy parcels of mountadam vineyards»

There are four tiny patches of vine at Scotchman's Hill, which have been mollycoddled by Robin Brockett, since the start of his tenure as chief winemaker in the 1980s. Excruciatingly limited after a strict pruning and rigorous sorting of fruit, they each yield a mere hundred cases of wine. Brockett has set aside the precious harvests of these superior blocks for his own label, a personal project to hand craft the finest of vintage, an exclusive range of the Bellarine's most elite single vineyard efforts. So besotted is Brockett by the spectacular quality of fruit from these four regal parcels, he has imported two 800 Litre Tuscan vinification Amphora from the Brunello commune of Montalcino. Whole bunches and wild ferments in the like of ancient clay urns, hand plunged in the old world way, appreciatively.. Brockett begets the best of bellarine»

Established 1968 by Word War II flyer Egerton E.S Dennis, on ninety acres of McLaren Flat along the prestigious winegrowing terroirs at Kangarillla Road, the Dennis family pioneered the production of Mead alongside colleague and enthusiast John Maxwell. Dennis initially sold his harvests to some of Australia's most eminent brands before founding his own label in 1971,with the object of converting the high quality fruit into pure, estate made wines. Since establishment, Dennis Wines have collected hundreds of medals at national and international wine shows, twice claiming the revered Bushing King awards for best wine at the McLaren Vale Winemakers Exhibition. A quiet achiever of bespoke old vine Shiraz with a scanty production of 5000 dozen annually, be the one & only enthusiast on your block this week to own.. Dennis of kangarilla road»