[cork, 12%] {Geoffrey} Mid yellow colour. Somewhat cheesey nose, with yeast elements, but rather advanced. The palate explains things; it’s really only spritzy rather than properly sparkling. No pop from the cork apparently – another pointer to premature oxidation. For all that, there’s a fine wine lurking beneath, but it won’t shine from this bottle.

[cork, 13.5%] {Greg} From the first plantings of this variety in Australia, according to the back label. 250 cases made. At ten years, a lemon gold colour. An aged nose smelling of tinned asparagus and slimey green vines follows, faintly laid with oxidative notes; that sounds awful but it was actually quite appealing. The acid has softened out on the palate, leaving a rather oily-textured aged wine behind; light-medium bodied, with front and mid-palate presence and a short-medium length finish. The flavours are rather mute, even a little anonymous, in an aged white-flesh kind of way; ultimately the palate is a bit simple beside the changing aromatics of the nose. Interesting wine; would certainly have been better 5 years ago, and clearly the style of wine that would benefit from a screwcap.

[screwcap, 13%] {Glenn} Only the faintest lemon-yellow colour appears here. Typical gewurz nose, with rose-infused aromas to the fore. The palate is pretty soft, with gentle acid only, generally in the light-medium spectrum, with rosewater flavours and a slightly chalky texture. Not especially pungent, and pretty much dry too. A pleasant but ultimately simple wine which benefits most from generally decent balance of components. To drink not keep.

[screwcap, 13.9%] {Graeme} Garnet. Developing nose of strawberries and cream. No stalky or green notes are apparent, but it avoid jamminess. There’s a touch of dark chocolate about the developing flavours, still no green apparent, but dustily dry tannins and submerged oak give it a little grip. Only medium-bodied in weight, it does have a well-balanced presence along the tongue and a medium-plus finish, albeit slightly warm. Maybe has another 5 years of development left, and although a decently interesting wine, lacks the ultimate complexity. Nice wine for the label’s debut, though, and suggests future vintages will be worth watching.

[cork, 13.5%] {Kim} Surprise of the night. Mid-garnet and healthy looking. Lovely old Hunter nose; leather, earth, chocolate and furniture polish. All very lovely. The soft and blurry palate maintains the authenticity; it tastes of dirt roads and tin sheds, passing whiffs of volatility and brett that never quite turn into anything faulty. Walking the aging tightrope in fine style, in fact. Medium-bodied, although eventaully the strong dusty tannins will outlive the aging fruit. Ultimately, the finish is a little shorter than I’d like, but this is still a pretty good effort from an under-the-radar winery. Drink now.

[cork, 14%] {Bruce} Developing but darkly earthy nose of dirt, molasses and iodine. Unusual, The palate is rather rustic and warm, less straightlaced than the nose implies. There are brambly blackberry flavours, but it’s not overly fruity, certainly not by new world standards. There’s a roasted aspect to the flavour too, the wine is pretty high in tannin but still is about medium-bodied. Medium length finish. Decent enough wine that seems to straddle a bit between new and old worlds withouit being quite one or the other, thus not quite hitting the mark.

[screwcap, 16%] {Gordon} A wine to fill an important gap in the matching-with-food matrix. Until now there was no wine suitable to accompany iced donuts or cocoa-pops. Now the dilema is solved. An apparent blend of vodka, chocolate topping and ribena, it’s the ultimate example of flavour without structure. Apparently a total lack of acid or tannin can be offset with additional sugar, fruit and alcohol. Who knew? More a cocktail than a wine. How on earth the Wine Advocate crew regard this as some sort of benchmark wine is beyond me; and a tragedy for the Australian wine market internationally.

[375ml, cork, 17.5%] {Geoffrey} Baked crème brulee aromas. This is shiraz? A toffeed, oxidative palate in a fortified style. Pungently sweet tea-like flavours mix with caramel on the palate. Warm and cuddly finish but overall a bit straightforward to be truly inspiring.

[375ml, cork, 18.5%] {Geoffrey} Varieties unspecified; a wine made in the blended, fortified style popular a century before (this was blended for Wirra’s centenary in 1994). Musty old furniture aromas, with honey and caramel fruits. Sweet and warm on the palate; tea, honey, molasses. Rich and thick textured, full-bodied and syrupy, it’s very appealing although slightly on the simple side. Just the thing to sip while sitting on the front verandah and contemplating that long drought of the 1890s…