Winestate Magazine

THE 2019 Australian Women In Wine Awards (AWIWA) has made history, kicking off the inaugural USA Aussie Wine Month in New York. Now in its fifth year, the awards were announced in New York and live streamed around the world with eight of the nine win

On the face of it, this sounds like a positive saying but like the half glass full analogy it can be taken both ways. This last 12 months has seen the word disruption appear time and time again in all aspects of society, and no less the wine industry

FEBRUARY 2020 marks a significant moment in the evolution of Bordeaux’s Crus Bourgeois classification. After five years of work and legal preparation, Crus Bourgeois is moving to a fiveyear classification. For the decade of vintages from 2008 to 2017

THERE has been an explosion in types of sparkling wine. The choice of wines in the marketplace makes it a very exciting category. No longer are we restricted to choosing champagne and perhaps you should consider fizz as an everyday wine, or maybe you

MOUNT Avoca is one of the pioneers of Victoria’s cool-climate Pyrenees wine region and will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2020. Vigneron Matthew Barry says it is hitting new peaks. Located just outside Avoca, one of the first towns of the 1850s gold

THE first thing that gobsmacks newbie visitors to Turin is its architectural grandeur. Italy’s fourth largest city was also the first capital of the unified country until 1865 and no expense was spared on the palaces of Piedmont’s rulers - the House

MELBOURNE is embracing comfort food, especially seeing the opening of venues serving French and Italian-inspired menus. It’s going to be a bright 2020! Inspired by the informal osteria of northern Italy, chef Nicola Romano and manager Osvaldo Tognell

IN terms of hospitality precincts, Howard Smith Wharves, under the famous Story Bridge and overlooking the CBD is a behemoth. Relative to the population, it delivers more dining options and watering holes than any single district the river city has e

A surprisingly small class. The top wine was outstanding. A great example of a developed Cool Climate Sparkling White. Freshness and complexity, and clarity of fruit was a feature. One lovely Sparkling Rosé in the top five was a highlight also. A sma

MAKING THE MOST OF CURIOSITY SIR George Fistonich founded New Zealand’s largest, fully family-owned winery in 1961. I sat down recently to interview the owner of Winestate’s New Zealand Wine Company of the Year award for 2019. The insights and anecdo

TWICE IS NICE VILLA Maria’s group chief winemaker scooped this prestigious award last year, but anyone who has followed Nick Picone’s career closely won’t be totally surprised. During the past six years, this “extremely talented” winemaker with an “e

A LONG JOURNEY IN A SHORT TIME FOR a company that began only in 1992 and is now the main player in the expanded Australian Vintage company, this year's Winestate Australian Wine Company of the Year, McGuigan Wines has come a long, long way in just 27

OUT OF THE SHADOW FOR Peter Hall, McGuigan Wines Hunter Valley chief winemaker, it can’t have been easy working in the shadow of his boss and former chief winemaker, Neil McGuigan. After all, Neil has been recognised as the “world’s best winemaker” b

RIGHT across the NSW winegrowing regions, the message was the same. Worryingly dry conditions, yields generally down, but fruit quality pretty good. In short, not a stellar vintage, but generally strong. Mudgee, Canberra, Orange and the Hunter, all s

FROM stellar to horror - that is how one WA winemaker summed up the difference between the 2018 and the 2019 vintages, the result of severe weather conditions. “Involved in 2019 were widespread thunderstorms, hail, frost and very heavy rains, much gr