Smart thinking and judicious picking will ensure your home cellar has a wine for every occasion, says Mike Bennie.
Prosecco is the fun side of sparkling and, in Australia, increasingly produced with higher quality in mind. This example shows bright, clean, citrus and tropical fruitiness with a hint of nutty savouriness.
If you want a showpiece for a dining experience, Wynns Black Label Cab has to be one of Australia’s most reliable cellar-dwellers. Even better, it’s often on special at sub-$30. Such a bargain. Drink now to 20 years.
A bit of skin contact, as here, means you get a rosy hue to the wine and it sits in style somewhere between refreshing white and dry rosé. Delicious! With that in mind, this style goes across a lot of drinking occasions.
You strike gold when you find a red that pleases all, can cellar a bit, take a chill, and goes from daytime drinking to looking good on a dining table. Here’s a cracker: bright, fresh, slurpy, medium-bodied, lightly spicy shiraz. Go big.
Clonakilla is one of Australia’s premier wineries, with an almost cult-like following. Hilltops is their ‘entry level’, but has all the pedigree and winemaking nous of their top wines, which makes it a bargain. Smooth, silky shiraz that drinks like double the price.
Margaret River. Tick. Chardonnay. Tick. Younggun winemaker with a slew of top awards. Tick. Cool packaging. Tick. All that on top of being an outstanding wine. Put it on a table and expect oohs; double so when it hits the glass.
