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The Henschke family has a global reputation for its high-end red wines, including Hill of Grace and Cyril Henschke. It is less recognised for its excellent white wines at fair prices including the $20 Tilly's Vineyard blend and this impressive Adelaide Hills wine made from the Austrian grape variety gruner veltliner. The Percival’s Mill label pays tribute to the early pioneering days of Lenswood in the high country of the Adelaide Hills. The now demolished historic E.W. Percival’s timber mill once stood on the Croft Road property in the early 1900s. That property is now a Henschke vineyard. This has some gorgeous stone fruit, citrus and root vegetable notes, with spice and minerality jousting amiably on the palate. $38. www.henschke.com.au.
Wickhams Road is the entry-level label for star Yarra Valley producer Hoddles Creek. Year in, year out this early-released pinot noir is arguably the best value easy-drinking pinot in Australia. More forward than the estate range, it has around 20% whole-bunch fruit to add spice and structure. The palate offers a spectrum of dark fruit flavours while remaining unmistakeably pinot. Unfined, unfiltered and bloody delicious. At $19 a bottle you'd want to be buying by the case, not the bottle. www.hoddlescreek.com.au
Usher Tinkler is one of the rising stars of Australian winemaking and this new release chardonnay offers brilliant value. Available through Cellarmasters or Tinkler's Hunter Valley cellar door, it is a beautifully balanced wine for those who enjoy fruit flavours and purity in their chardys. Weighing in at just 12% alcohol, this has a delightful combination of white peach and vibrant citrus flavours. It has been matured for five months on yeast lees in French oak barrels, adding texture, and was bottled at just six months of age. It is zingy and vibrant, surprisingly complex and thoroughly enjoyable. $16.99. www.ushertinklerwines.com or www.cellarmasters.com.au.
One of Australia's finest red wine bargains, this is named after Irish musician and composer Sean O’Riada. He died, prematurely, in 1971, the year Clonakilla was established by John Kirk at Murrumbateman, outside Canberra. He was Kirk’s cousin. From a wet winter and early spring, followed by a warm, dry summer, this is a wine of elegance and beauty. Think red cherry flavours, floral aromas, spice notes and layers of delicious flavours. Simply stunning with beautiful balance; this is the girl next door who might just be the next supermodel. $36. www.clonakilla.com.au.
Smart wineries go with their strengths. So while McLaren Vale is the source of fruit for Wirra Wirra's red wines, growers in the much cooler Adelaide Hills provide grapes for the winery's whites. This is undoubtedly one of the best-value chardonnays around; fresh, crisp and vibrant with the cool-climate fruit allowed full voice. This is a very new wave chardonnay, none of your big oak or overt lees stirring here. Think lively citrus aromas and flavours; plenty of refreshment and the ability to match with a wide range of cuisines. It was a star with pan-fried whiting fillets. $18. www.wirrawirra.com/
There is no wine region in Australia offering better value right now than Langhorne Creek. If you are looking for a red wine with palate interest that won't break the bank then this shiraz-cabernet blend from Ben Glaetzer will tick a lot of boxes. The rich, plummy and spice notes of the shiraz combine impressively with the cassis and tannin structure of the cabernet in a very tasty all-purpose wine that would be a ripper with a gourmet hamburger. $18. www.heartlandwines.com.au.
I'll almost certainly be accused of being predictable and mainstream for recommending this wine - but I simply don't care because it is an outstanding new release of one of Australia's benchmark white wines. OK, it's not a discovery, and it is a wine with which many vinophiles are familiar - but that doesn't make it any less worthy. Think incredible intensity from a difficult dry year, bright acid, amazing length, classic citrus and mineral notes and joyous freshness and you will be close to the mark. I'd buy at least two bottles, one for enjoying now, another for opening in a decade or so. Organic. Classic. But you'll need to move quick smart because of the low-yielding vintage. $61. www.grosset.com.
