Australia & NZ
These far-flung wine regions may be referred to ‘new’ when compared against the historic European wine regions, but they have a long winemaking history. Spared from Phylloxera, Australia in particular has world's highest concentration of venerable vines and legendary producers such as Penfolds, Henschke and Tyrell’s have been around for over 150 years. Though for many years piggybacking on Europe’s successes, branding their own wines as ‘Chablis’, ‘Hermitage’ etc., Australia now have created a real identity of their own, making inimitable styles like Coonawarra Cabernet or Hunter Valley Semillon.
New Zealand doesn’t quite have as an extensive history but has established itself in an astonishingly short amount of time as a reliable source of whistle clean, distinctive examples of varietals like Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.
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Australia & NZ
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Decanter (100)
A meaty, savoury, spiced nose, something so welcoming about it, warm and friendly with a touch of perfume, dark chocolate, cinnamon and pink peppercorn to the blackcurrant, damsons and plums. Rich, ample and generous, yet delivered with such supple and velvety-soft tannins. This has an elegance to it, a cool sophistication in terms of the profile - neat and tidy, quite linear right now, brimming with energy, not yet fully expansive or loose, but quietly controlled and calm. It's confident though with invigorating acidity and I love the focus, detail and the purity of fruit. Sweet red fruits - strawberries, raspberries and red cherries with a slight balsamic, pomegranate edge that is so delicious. Juicy, crunchy, succulent and ripe but with an effortless edge to it. Supremely drinkable and likeable - what a gorgeous wine! A quality vintage and excellent winemaking skill on show. Ageing 18 months in French oak.HK$7,325.00 -
(1x75cl) 2018Decanter (100)
A meaty, savoury, spiced nose, something so welcoming about it, warm and friendly with a touch of perfume, dark chocolate, cinnamon and pink peppercorn to the blackcurrant, damsons and plums. Rich, ample and generous, yet delivered with such supple and velvety-soft tannins. This has an elegance to it, a cool sophistication in terms of the profile - neat and tidy, quite linear right now, brimming with energy, not yet fully expansive or loose, but quietly controlled and calm. It's confident though with invigorating acidity and I love the focus, detail and the purity of fruit. Sweet red fruits - strawberries, raspberries and red cherries with a slight balsamic, pomegranate edge that is so delicious. Juicy, crunchy, succulent and ripe but with an effortless edge to it. Supremely drinkable and likeable - what a gorgeous wine! A quality vintage and excellent winemaking skill on show. Ageing 18 months in French oak.HK$2,265.00 -
Decanter (100)
A meaty, savoury, spiced nose, something so welcoming about it, warm and friendly with a touch of perfume, dark chocolate, cinnamon and pink peppercorn to the blackcurrant, damsons and plums. Rich, ample and generous, yet delivered with such supple and velvety-soft tannins. This has an elegance to it, a cool sophistication in terms of the profile - neat and tidy, quite linear right now, brimming with energy, not yet fully expansive or loose, but quietly controlled and calm. It's confident though with invigorating acidity and I love the focus, detail and the purity of fruit. Sweet red fruits - strawberries, raspberries and red cherries with a slight balsamic, pomegranate edge that is so delicious. Juicy, crunchy, succulent and ripe but with an effortless edge to it. Supremely drinkable and likeable - what a gorgeous wine! A quality vintage and excellent winemaking skill on show. Ageing 18 months in French oak.HK$9,175.00 -
Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (98)
Powerful, with smoked earth, juicy damson fruit, bitter black chocolate, pomegranate, luscious and enticing, with fragrant spice of anis and fennel. This was a warm vintage with low yield of around 15hl/h, but the tannins were clearly extremely well handled, giving a gentle insistence to this wine that refuses to go away, and yet never overpowers. Aged entirely French oak (as it had been from the 2017 vintage) with vines that at this point were more than 50 years old. Tom Barry winemaker, bottled unfiltered and unfined.HK$10,080.00 -
Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (97)
Always a pleasure to get to know a new vintage of The Armagh, and this one kicks off with fragrant aromatics that really put emphasis on the violet and iris character of Shiraz, followed up by cassis fruit, liqourice and rosemary, and a kick of black pepper. 3.3ha of vines, winemaker Peter Barry, working with his brother Sam. Sandy-gravel soils. 75% new oak for ageing, mainly 300l with a few 500l barrels, bottled unfined and unfiltered. Decades ahead of it, but the supple tannins make it approachable now.HK$9,175.00 -
Wine Advocate (97)
Tasted at the Armagh Hut with Sam and Tom Barry, the 2017 The Florita Rieslingis tight, taut and saline—it is mineral and tense, almost shale-y in its acid profile. It is powerful and driven and blisteringly good. Really good. It is yet to unfurl and offers notes of preserved lemon and lavender—is there turmeric and lanolin in there too? Boom. This is really good. Drink it now or in decades to come—it’s a sleeper. 2017 was a cooler, wetter year and higher yielding.HK$2,030.00 -
Wine Advocate (97+)
The Barry brothers sent me a second bottle of the 2022 The Florita Riesling, which I am tasting here today, because they felt that it wasn't showing as well as it could the first time when I tasted it in October (it had only been bottled four weeks prior). In truth, I think it was showing just as well then as it is now, and it is a superstar. 2022 seemed to harness the fruit from the vineyard and boost it: more power, more concentration, more acid, more vivid ... just such exceptional wines. I've said this before, but 2022 could easily be the best vintage in the last 20 years, and for those who know, that takes us back to the great, the age-worthy, the revered 2002 vintage. This is a collector's year. Do not waste the opportunity, because the vintage, coupled with the screw-cap closure, will allow the wine to age for a long time.HK$2,025.00 -
Wine Advocate (96)
The 2023 The Florita Riesling is layered with elderflower and beeswax, jasmine and even a hint of honeysuckle. It is tremendously floral on the nose. In the mouth, the wine is talc-y and textural, and it spools across the palate. It's a fabulous wine, distinct, with a proven pedigree of graceful aging. Excellent. 12.3% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.HK$995.00 -
Vinous (95)
The 2024 Riesling The Florita is taut and punchy with its embryonic aromas of lime leaf, preserved lemon and lemon thyme. This has impressive density of flavor, with a compact core of intense citrus flavors elevated by lacy grip over a long, sinewy finish. Beautifully composed for the long haul.HK$1,785.00 -
(3x75cl) 2017Wine Advocate (97)
This is the third time I have tasted this wine and I think the first that it has been in a drinking window that I like. This 2017 Loosen Barry Wolta Wolta Dry Riesling is today nine years from its harvest, and it is looking wholly spicy, loaded with pressed flowers, crushed shells, scratched lemon zest and straw matting. In the mouth, it is persistent, long and still closed—likely due to the cool conditions of the vintage yielding a tightly coiled fruit profile—and yet today seeming creamier and more composed than ever before. According to Erni Loosen, Riesling will refrain from developing new characters once it reaches eight to nine years from harvest. This is when the wine is mature, and from there, it will coast into the sunset, forever away. I'd argue that this 2017 still has a bit of developing to do, such is the core of fresh fruit and purity evident on the palate. This is a superb wine—finally! Carrying four to five grams of residual sugar, it was aged on the gross lees in foudre (no bâtonnage, just topped) for two years prior to bottling and then spent a year in glass prior to release. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.HK$2,265.00 -
(1x75cl) 2018Wine Advocate (97)
The 2018 Loosen Barry Wolta Wolta Dry Riesling is darker in color than either the 2016 or 2017, both of which I tasted alongside, and yet the wine in the mouth is fresh and fleshy. There is a mouthfilling opulence here that mirrors the behavior of the 2016 vintage, and yet all is restrained by the time on the lees in foudre, lending the wine a textural freshness and detail that is both charming and elevating. It has notes of salted lime, cheesecloth, saline acidity, pressed white flowers, some shaved fennel and a penetrating weight of flavor that sits on the back palate to close. This is superb and right in the zone presently. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.HK$870.00 -
(1x75cl) 2019Wine Advocate (95+)
The 2019 Loosen Barry Wolta Wolta Dry Riesling is closed and quiet at this stage in the game, and the palate is leaner and harder than all three tasted before it (2016, 2017, 2018). Erni Loosen describes this time in the lifecycle of the Riesling as "awkward," or "in its depression," and while not wanting to be led by suggestion, I would have to agree. However, given the majesty and finesse of the older wines tasted here today, I would finish with this: fear not, this needs only time and your patience for it to arrive in a similar/same place as its older peers. The wine carries four to five grams of residual sugar, and was matured on the gross lees (sans bâtonnage) for two years followed by a year in bottle prior to release. It has become a benchmark in Australian Riesling, and given the strength of this vertical here today, the future is only brighter as we go. 12.3% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.HK$870.00 -
(6x75cl) 2022Vinous (96)
A single vineyard over 160 years of age and the outstanding 2022 vintage met the steady winemaking hands of father and son John and Tim Duval to yield a stunning and ethereal Grenache. Deeply textural, with a spectacular combination of reserved power and sophistication, this unique and finely tuned expression of Grenache is embryonic and destined to flower beautifully over the next decade or two.HK$2,200.00 -
Halliday Wine Companion (97)
Made from centenarian vines in Light Pass, matured for 15 months in used French oak. This is a glorious manifestation of the '17 vintage, its cool conditions retaining freshness of fruit at a very modest alcohol level. A sheer pleasure to drink.HK$2,270.00 -
HK$1,870.00 -
(1x75cl) 2015Halliday Wine Companion (97)
75% Barossa Valley, 25% Eden Valley, as always, the best grapes of the vintage. Fermented with submerged cap in small open fermenters, matured for 20 months in French hogsheads (55% new). The power and intensity of this wine takes your breath away. Its dark, brooding black fruits are woven together by firm tannins that are an essential part of the wine. It's certain that 20 months in 55% new French hogsheads has also imprinted itself on the bouquet and palate, but its presence is (relatively) subtle. I would give a longer drink to date if it were under screwcap, but the cork used is high quality, and should see out 25 years.HK$1,150.00 -
Halliday Wine Companion (98)
Eligo is made from the best parcels of the vintage, fermented with submerged caps in small open fermenters, matured for 20 months in French hogsheads (50% new). The tannins and oak are built into the wine like an inlaid checkerboard table created by a master craftsman with decades of experience. Like John Duval.HK$3,250.00 -
Halliday Wine Companion (97)
John Duval is a master blender. This is all about the best of the vintage, fruit from various sites across the and Eden Barossa Valleys, to morph into the mighty Eligo. A powerhouse of flavour yet never loses focus. Dark plums infused with star anise, cinnamon, Dutch licorice and soy sauce. Full-bodied with velvety rich tannins. It gets the most oak - French hogsheads 54% new, aged 18 months, and needs time to settle in. It will.HK$5,390.00 -
Halliday Wine Companion (99)
From old vines in five districts, fermented with submerged cap, matured in French hogsheads (32% new) for 15 months. Complex and rich from the first whiff through to the aftertaste, not wasting a single berry in this great vintage. So much power, such elegance.HK$2,450.00 -
Decanter (96)
Velvety opulence speaks from the moment this hits your tongue until the last drop disappears. It’s a luxurious take on the grandeur of fit, medium-bodied Shiraz, putting plush red berry characteristics on a pedestal, encasing them gently in oak and fine-gain tannin, then allowing them to saunter gracefully down the long catwalk before sashaying out the exit curtain. Bravo! Further ageing will only enhance its beauty.HK$1,270.00 -
(6x75cl) 2012Halliday Wine Companion (95)
Armed with flavour and dangerously drinkable. Red and black berries, ground Asian spice, earth, aniseed and quick kiss of cedary French oak. Puts on an impeccable performance.HK$1,330.00 -
(6x75cl) 2020HK$3,460.00 -
HK$1,150.00 -
Halliday Wine Companion (98)
A full-bodied wine of ultimate coherence and quality, the bouquet setting the signal for the palate to follow. Attention to detail is obvious, especially the handling of tannins and oak. The integration of these components with the blackcurrant fruit is faultless.HK$9,000.00 -
The Vintage Journal (98)
Deep crimson. Complex blackcurrant, blackberry, praline, roasted chestnut mocha, marzipan notes. Richly flavoured, round and smooth with beautiful pure blackcurrant, blackberry mocha espresso flavours, fine loose-knit grainy tannins and underlying roasted chestnut, toffee notes. Finishes chocolaty and long with a long life ahead.HK$5,820.00 -
(12x75cl) 2022HK$1,575.00 -
Wine Advocate (95+)
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2013 Alte Reben Shiraz is opening out into a bold, pure, pepper and licorice-laced nose over a core of black cherries and crushed blueberries with a touch of dried herbs. Full, rich and yet with plenty of freshness, this is a wine with great concentration, nice ripe tannins and a tantalizing finish. Yum!HK$2,150.00 -
HK$13,835.00 -
Vinous (92)
Saturated deep ruby to the rim. Flamboyantly ripe aromas of blackberry liqueur, chocolate and eucalyptus. Rich, pliant and thick, with brooding flavors of blackberry, blueberry, chocolate and mocha. Offers superb palate presence. A very fat wine that finishes surprisingly bright, with huge but suave tannins and a note of raspberry. (Epicurean Wines, Seattle WAHK$15,395.00 -
Vinous (92)
Deep, bright ruby. Flamboyantly ripe aromas of singed blackberry, creme de cassis, peppered bacon, mocha, dried rose and oak spices, plus an exotic note of blood orange. Rich, velvety and dense, with sweet, powerful flavors of blackcurrant, fruitcake, fudge, vanilla and black olive, all lifted by a floral top note. Finishes long and sweet, with fully enveloped tannins.(Epicurean Wines,Seattle WAHK$12,715.00
