{cork, 12%} Lovely strawberry nose. Consistent with the last couple of tastings. Medium-bodied, nice yeasty complexity ; good blend of strawberry and chardonnay fruits. Fine persistent bubbles; a class act as always.

{cork, 12%} Mild yeast and cheese nose. Very chardonnay on the palate; delicately lighter-bodied, with medium-sized but delicate bubbles. Short-medium finish. OK but not great.

{cork} Straightforward, clean champagne ; fairly light for complexity, medium-length finish of clean white fruits. Is reasonable value, but you don’t have to spend much more for something better.

{cork, 12%} Light white flower aromas. Small creamy bubbles. Dry palate, with a fresh crunchy texture, and just a little creaminess. As ever with Prosecco it lacks much in depth of flavour, but this is decent enough; a lunchtime, sunny-day kind of wine.

(cork) Chenin-like character (I thought it was), some apple flavours; simple white fruits, fine bead; dry and simple with a rather short finish. A bit anonymous, but (I guess) reasonable value.

{screwcap} Soft, simple lime fruit flavours. Slightly chalky texture; heightened by what is always fairly low acidity with this label. An early drinker; there are much better WA rieslings than this.

{screwcap, 13.5%} Almost cliched in its spicy character ; floral, flowery, with rich pot pourri aromas and flavours. Off-dry for me; avoids heaviness thanks partly to the lowish alcohol which helps with the balance; overall it’s light-medium-bodied in an early-pick style. Quite pleasing although fairly simple. Best young I think.

{screwcap, 12.5%} Crisp seashells with a hint of citrus ; medium acidity and light/medium body. Has a furry quality to the texture somehow, but has good presence on the palate. Surprisingly good; my first taste of this relatively obscure grape best recognised in the Chateauneuf blend; as a solo effort it seems to blend aspects of riesling, cortese and albarino. Interesting although not for long cellaring.

{cork, 13.5%} Better (fresher) than last year’s bottle ; dense and thick with spiced gewurz flavours; ripe but not really presenting as overtly sweet; needs a big hefty dish to go with it probably. Drink up.

{cork, 13.5%} .New world pinot from central casting to a degree ; clean fruit characters, fragrant nose and plenty of oak. Sweetly red-fruited on the palate, with caramel oak flavours; light/medium body, gentle tannins, barely-medium length of no great complexity although pleasant enough ; is this terribly expensive ? seems like it should age nicely in the shorter term.

{cork, 14%} Developing, meaty tarry wine ; someone said it was rather aglianico-like in flavour ; I’d agree with that. Quite ripe and even a touch stewed; still with fresh medium acid, medium gritty tannins; it’s weighted towards the front and mid-palates, finishes dry and medium length. Good wine, if perhaps just a touch anonymous; the grape is apparently unique to the vineyard so who knows if it’s a good example. Should see ten years though; this was a pleasant and obscure surprise.

{cork} Decanted an hour earlier. Don’t know if it helped or not. Muddy brown. Scary looking. Smells like Jeffrey Dahmer’s refrigerator. Faded and old on the palate, no tannin, not much flavour of interest; pretty much dead.

{cork, 14.5%} Here’s a better American pinot; polished cherry fruit, malty oak; it has a rich palate with spicy delicatessen flavours; solid mid-palate; warm and ripe; still very youthful but nicely balanced; yes, this will be lovely for at least a decade.

{cork} Here’s a curio. The inaugural vintage of a short-lived, occasional cuvee; a legacy of the same ex-Qantas marketing manager who gave Penfolds the still extant Bin 707. All shiraz, from the Barossa and Clare valleys. Level is mid-shoulder. Saturated cork. Decanted into a closed vessel for about 2 hours prior to sampling. Alarmingly murky brown. Aged leathery nose; a hint only of volatility probably because it doesn’t quite seem to have the energy to be powerfully acetic. The palate is the best part of all; soft and leathery, yes, but like furniture polish; still alive and not too bacterial. Dry, lovely even presence on the palate. Barely medium-bodied at nearly 50 years old, but really surprisingly good. More surprising than enthralling, but a privilege to taste anyway; thanks Geoffrey.

{cork, 14%} Black and tarry. Astringent and baked. Overly oxidised; shouldn’t be like this. First faulty example of this I’ve had. Sad.

{cork, 14%} Smoky currants; dark dry flavours too; here the oak seems to mesh with the black cabernet fruit instead of clashing – easily among the better 407s I’ve tasted. Medium-bodied, with a medium length finish; medium powdery tannins; a somewhat restrained yet assertive cabernet. Pretty good; give it another ten years I’d say. Very pleasing.

{screwcap, 14.8%} Cabernet- malbec in a 61/39 blend. A bit raisiny; very new world. Big up-front palate. Masses of red-grape flavour; raspberry fruit, tobacco flavours too, smoky although doesn’t seem overly oaky. Rich, medium/full-bodied, with mild chalky tannins and minimal acid. Undeniably warm. It’s about flavour not structure; good for another 3 years max I reckon.

{screwcap, 14%} Youthful and jubey, with raw (ripe) raspberry flavours. Medium-bodied palate; maybe a bit hollow. Ripe enough but a bit anonymous in flavour; soft dusty tannins, low acid. Finish is short/medium at best. A bit of a let-down perhaps although I doubt Rosemount’s ambition is high as it used to be for this wine (the price barely shifting over a decade).

{375ml, screwcap, 11%} Developing aromas; has a spiky, volatile note. Pointed palate, sharp, with tobacco flavours! A real ashtray note to this; was it from charry oak? Medium-sweet, but rather burnt and aging in character; soft acid now (apart from the volatile quality). OK, but heading over the cliff; was better as a young wine surely.

{375ml, screwcap, 9%} Cumquats and marmalade; rich and strongly botrytis-infused. Apricot in bulk. Light/medium-bodied palate, but about as sweet as you can get; ultra-syrupy and candied; the acid struggles to support it; definitely drink now, as the finish fades just a bit too fast on the palate. Still enjoyable, but it’s a one-glass effort.

{cork, 14%} Leathery, a touch volatile. Aged palate; spicy shiraz in a vanilla frame, but overlaid with a really aged patina. There are remnants of rich, spicy fruit and cinnamon oak here, but it has a tired feel to it, despite a medium/full body. Tannins and acid are fairly soft now. Suggests pretty anything from the 2000 South Australian vintage ought to be drunk up soon.

{screwcap, 13.5%} Spicy, youthful, ripe but peppery and cherry-like too. Modern Hunter; clean, medium-bodied but with fine-grained medium powdery tannins. Light cherry and earth flavours. Subtle oak. Even palate and integrated medium-length finish. Wants at least five years.