The Wine Blokes

Wine Blokes official wine tasting notes – more than just wine reviews!

Smithbrook are and emerging giant killer in in the Pemberton region of Western Australia and conitnue to impress with their focussed portfolio of wines, delivering savory, minerally styles of Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot.
Only a few vintages old, the Yilgarn Blanc series of wines have got better and better. Similar in style to white Bordeaux, where [...]

Lobethal Road is a small family-owned vineyard near Mount Torrens in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. The cool climate and north-easterly facing slopes nurture low-yielding vines, producing wines of regional character and intense flavours.
Established in 1998, the vineyard covers just 5 hectares and lies at 475 metres above sea level. The low yields, minimal irrigation [...]

As is usual after Christmas there are plenty of wine retailers who have over stocked and need to move excess before they can start the new year in earnest. Prices tend to come down and some pretty good offers can be seen around the place, especially from the bigger retailers.
For UK winos, we’ve found a [...]

After surviving the Christmas lunch and the crazyness of family and relatives, one of the simple pleasures I like to indulge in is a nice cheese platter and a glass of red. By this stage everyone is generally overly full and well lubricated, but if it’s good cheese and good wine, it doesn’t seem to [...]

One of the best Champagne & Sparkling wine experiences I have been involved in routinely still happens around Christmas time at the Petaluma Winery in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia.  I worked as an assistant winemaker for Petaluma a number of years ago. Founder and former chief winemaker of Petaluma, Brian Croser, each Christmas would [...]

The first I’d heard about this producer was at a dinner at friends place a couple of weeks ago. “You’ve got to try this”.  At first I had to wonder about the label, furry paper, yes furry, with a very eclectic edge. Anton van Kloppers and his wife purchased a small cherry orchard in the Adelaide [...]

From the down to earth genuinely purest winemakers of Romney Park near Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, comes another really well done Pinot Noir. From a extremely low yielding year (800 kg / acre), Rod and Rachel Short have crafted soft, structured complex wine that could have been completely the opposite from this vintage, as I [...]

The Johnston family are synonymous with the Adelaide Hills and have been since 1843, having significant involvement in the liquor industry including brewing and running hotels.  In 1993 they planted the first of several vineyards behind the Oakbank Racecousre (home to the largest picnic race meeting in the world). 
They have had success with Sauvignon Blanc [...]

I came home tonight and decided I would keep the lights off in the cellar and just grab at random whatever bottle touched my finger tips first.  I have some expensive wines, and also some pretty ordinary stuff, but I needed to be spontaneous and was convinced I would drink whatever I picked, and then [...]

Organic wines over the last few years have certainly improved, but it’s still hard to find examples that show outstanding characters and flavours, without being led away with overly oxidative or acetyl type characters. However, a group of 5 growers in South Australia formed an organic label in 2002 called Organic Vignerons Australia, and they [...]