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andro Mosele makes some of Australia's finest single-vineyard chardonnays under the Kooyong Faultline and Farrago labels. This is the baby brother of those wines, released a year earlier and half the price. It's still a terrific Mornington Peninsula chardonnay, as you'd demand and expect from Kooyong, and offers excellent value. It's a Kate Moss-style wine that has great purity and focus with lean citrus fruit and flinty minerality. It's thoroughly modern, certainly not for those who enjoy their chardonnays big and buttery, but very much in line with the zeitgeist in its restraint and food friendliness. $31. www.kooyong.com.
Mike de Iuliis is one of the rising stars of the Hunter Valley - a recent tasting of his new releases revealed a winemaker very much in the zone - and this is the second of his wines I've recommended recently. It is a very good example of one of Australia's classic - and under-appreciated - styles; medium-bodied Hunter shiraz. Everything is very much in balance here. There's plenty of fruit power but also some some subtle, almost feminine aspects. There's spice and undergrowth notes, too, but they aid and abet rather than intruding in any way. Likewise the well integrated oak. This is a red wine that can easily be cellared, but is also appealingly bright and fresh and juicy in its youth. Good work. $25. www.dewines.com.au.
Sometimes a wine is just too easy to drink. That was the case with this bottle; one from so far out in right field that I'd never even heard of the label before. From Nelson, in New Zealand, it is a chardonnay that ticks all the boxes. It's soft and food friendly, elegant with citrus and stone fruit notes, features some nutty oak that adds structure but is not intrusive, and has excellent structure. I tried to find something about it on the internet, but failed. All I can tell you is that it is imported into Australia by Mira Arocha of Arocha Imports and it's a darn good drink for the price. $28.
