Rutherglen produce some great desert wines and many are different to the sticky white wines.
This is the shortest review I’ve done – this is a dark, sweet, rich, with raisin abound flavours and utterly delicious. Great with cheese and rich deserts. Oh Christmas is a great time to try this!
At £20 for 500ml, its great value and quite fabulous, but it did evaporate in the glass!
Morris, Black Label, Muscat, Rutherglen, Australia
Soumah does make a great cool climate dry Chardonnay. The grapes are picked earlier than other vineyards and this gives you aromas of green apple and grass that lead into flavors of grapefruit, stone fruit, citrus and herbal notes that isn’t unpleasant. It has great length and freshness and worthy Decanter Silver medal winner. This is a wine that would go well with sea food or sipping it in the garden on a summers evening.
At £20 a bottle its not cheap but its worth spending a bit extra every now and again.
oumah, Chardonnay, 2017, Yarra Valley, Australia
Hunter Valley produce great Semillon and this Mount Pleasant one is no exception. Theres a petroleum note with ripe citrus and honey on the nose. Its a very dry wine with grass, honey and lemon on the palate with plenty of acidity and a texture of full cream milk, its a big wine.
At about £20 a bottle its not badly priced for a 10 year cellar aged semillon.
Mount Pleasant, Elizabeth, Semillon 2009, Hunter Valley, Australia
This Marsanne, Roussanne blend from the Glenlofty Estate located in the Pyrenees, Victoria, Australia is very drinkable but is it fantastic? This 2015 got a bronze at the IWSC awards and bronze at the Decanter World Wine Awards
This is a fresh, dry wine with lime and honey aromas which are joined in the flavour department with melon, pear, citrus and hints of flora. This is best to be left 5 or 10 minutes after pouring as the flavours are more pronounced once the wine is allowed to open up. Its a very good wine which I think should have got a silver medal.
It worked with fish and chips and also on its own.
Glenlofty Estate, Marsanne Roussanne 2015, Pyrenees, Victoria, Australia
Flaming heck this is good. Sure I bias towards desert wine, love it. There are poor ones and stonkingly fabulous ones, but what is this like?
Aromas of butterscotch and apricots with honey notes you get a sense that this is a fine desert wine. Additional flavours of pineapple, citrus and freshness follow. Its not sticky but there is a presence, quite balanced with sweetness, flavour and acidity.
International Wine and Spirits Challenge gave Bertons a gold medal and they are spot on, truly excellent. Aldi have got this wine spot on at £6 a half bottle, excellent value.
Berton, Botrytis Semillon, Murrumbidgee River, Australia
Its a bolder Chardonnay than some people will like. There’s aromas of ripe tropical fruit, lemon and oak, its quite heady. There are flavours of stone fruit and a creaminess but its a heavy Chardonnay, eps with the oak notes. The finish is pretty long but that’s not a big positive.
In some ways this is an Australian Chardonnay that so many people expect. I would have liked more subtle flavours and lots less oak. Maybe if we had left it for a few more years it would have got better?
At £15 a bottle there are better out there.
Brash, Chardonnay 2017, Margaret River, Australia
McGuigan wines are known for cheap and readily available and that’s a fair comment.
That doesn’t mean that they are not any good, but be realistic. This cellar select Shiraz is no different, enjoy it for what its worth, a £7 Shiraz. Its a one dimensional red wine with lots of black fruit, medium dry tannins with reasonable length but nothing else. No complexity and no multiple flavours.
This is not a great wine but a supermarket £7 red that is inoffensive and easy.
McGuigan Cellar Select Shiraz 2016, Australia
Aromas of ripe citrus, esp pineapple with added oak on the taste buds and a little oiliness. This is a full textured wine, yet it has a light lemon colour making you think that its going to be light and friskie. This is a great example of what Chardonnay can be. It got a bronze at the Decanter World Wine Awards in 2018 which I think was mean, for me silver, solid silver. Fantastic.
Coward & Black, Chardonnay 2017, Margaret River, Australia
You get what you pay for! Yep.
McGuigan do some very nice wine but pay more than £10 otherwise you get this for about £7 and you are not doing your liver any good.
First the compliments, the Shiraz is red wine. Thats it. Flubby red fruit flavours, not much aromas, dry but quite light which helps when drinking this. The medals on the bottle, like the Chardonnay don’t come from what’s in the bottle but for the brand.
Chardonnay, citrus aromas which come through on the taste and is joined by grapefruit. Sharp and a but harsh. If you take this to a party, either don’t open it or open it last, pour it down the sink and claim everyone drank it and loved it.
Sorry McGuigan you can do so much better
McGuigan Reserve Shiraz and Chardonnay, Australia
Previous vintages have received ‘commended’ at Decanter World Wine Awards. This is a typical mass production Australian Shiraz. It’s not bad, but not amazing, but very drinkable and at under £10 a bottle, reasonable value. There’s blackberry and vanilla on the nose which comes through in the flavour. It’s dry with medium acidity and tannins. I can’t talk this wine up nor down, it’s easy drinking Shiraz. So drink.
Three Pillars, Shiraz 2015, Australia