Barely bottled; youthful grass/straw aromas & flavours, with ripping acidity. Good palate presence.

McLaren Vale & Padthaway fruit. Black & inky fruits, large-scale, but sits largely on the front palate. Not exciting.

Still with a flash of green to the mid-yellow colour. Aged chardy characters; sandalwood, an earthy farmyard sort of note. A spine of solid acid binds it together. Medium body & finish. Impressive stuff.

Similar in sytle/outlook to the 97, but with pronounced softening of the acid. Ready to drink now; a lesser wine than its younger sibling.

Seductive nose of cloves and spice, musk. Ripe; no stalky notes here, and plenty of tannin without too much obvious oak. Classy wine.

Spicy oak; typical cool-climate grapefruit-like chardonnay, spiny, bracing and refreshing.

Unwooded wine; peachy with grapefruit tones to the flavours, really needs some oak for dimension. Fashionable but not terribly interesting.

Solidly earthy and spicy; fruit, although youthfully authentic and dark-hued is very much in the background. Tannic, closed. Wait.

Slightly honey aromas & flavours. Has some zippy acid which lifts it, but there’s not a lot here at this age. Weight sits a bit on the front palate. Expect the usual transformation with age, I guess. This vintage still under cork – why, for god’s sake?

Some menthol aromas, with a touch of spice. Continues on palate, but overwhelmed by grapey tannins. Something of a doughnut shape here; not much presence on the mid-palate, but plenty of impact all around the tongue. Hmmm.

Earthy nose, with a distinct pepperiness. Massively tannic although only medium-bodied. Far better balanced than the 00 cabernet, but really needs lots of time to show more than one dimension.

The new name for the reserve cabernet. Of a similar cut to the regular release, just with greater intensity, fuller-body and better sense of integration. Perhaps fruit is a little more discernable here. But still, one to keep for many years.

Sweetish pot-pourri flavours, subtle acid. Pleasant but short-term.

Asparagus-dominated, yet with soft acid; an odd mix, but just works. Not for keeping.

Restrained, typical cabernet nose; not especially fruity; the palate is medium-bodied but loaded with fine tannin. Fair effort which needs time, lacks magic.

Screwcap - Pale green; hugely drinkable palate of limes and apples; dry yet luscious; top effort.

Choc-cherry-berry flavours. Plenty of fruit here, not evidently unripe, but the palate is lightweight and generally unimpressive. A tough vintage – no Hill of Grace this year; Edelstone is a much bigger vineyard, but I reckon they had to heavily triage fruit to get even this modest effort. Pass.

Typically cassis/blackcurrant driven wine; always with a streak of eucalypt/greeness to it, and rather grainy tannins. Hmmm. Dubious wine at this price.

Plush sweet-velvety smelling nose, hugely tannic on the palate, but also with lots of acid on the tip of the tongue. Disjointed and youthful with blocky red fruit, but seems to have all the components to do well. Impressive.

Full-bodied wine, gutsy tannins, packed with rustic shiraz fruits. Lacks much polish, but makes up for it with hearty honesty. A crowd-pleaser.

Similarly big yeasty, autolysis-driven nose as the nv Special Cuvee, but there’s a more developed, even dirtier aspect to this wine. I guess this manifests as greater complexity of flavour, but the finish isn‘t appreciably longer than its modest sibling. Good but not outstanding.

Pale green. Smoky seashell nose; grapefruit flavours, crisp acid, with good even palate coverage and a decent length finish. Very good.

Really quite light and elegant, clean & integrated; rather hard to find distinguishing features here. Decent if a little bland.

Soft, perfumed nose, but a hollow, short-length palate. Dull.

An astringent, earthy-tasting wine. It’s blocky, with powerful acid; lacking charm now but seems to have plenty of stuffing. Might settle down a bit with time but there’s no sign of greatness here.

Deep straw/green colour; typical grassy/herb flavours; there is some acid here but it fights a losing battle against the overwhelming greasiness of the texture. Solid and heavy and short-term.

Scented and musky, but sits very much on the front palate, with all the shortness of finish that implies. Mediocre.

Spicily-fruited, with medium weight, but bland and dull on the finish.

A liqueur-like nose of stewed black cherries precedes a hugely tannic and drying palate, which still keeps most of its weight on the front half of the tongue. Decent enough but not terribly exciting.