Vines planted in 1879. 290 dozen. It's about as good as it gets. Power and length, complexity woven with a thread-count in the 1000s. It's a wine that commands the glass, and the dinner table, and yet is friendly to both. It's medium-bodied and yet it's extraordinarily powerful through the finish. It doesn't tire easily; it saves its best til last, and for the future.

winecompanion.com.au

290 dozen. Sold out. And so sorry, but good on them: don’t say you weren’t warned by The Wine Front.

So, something of a rant and a rare op-ed from me here. Last century, you might well hold a wine like Penfolds Grange up to the light as an exemplar of the best qualities of Australian wine. Take the best grapes you can grow, or buy, from all the vineyards that can grow them best. Manipulate and work them in the winery, marry them to the finest American forests via the hot hand of a local cooper. Seal it with the terroir of a Portuguese cork forest, make as many thousand cases as quality will allow: price it as high as you dare. Market it. Brand it using all the power your corporate structure can bring. Take it to the world. Court the wine media to propagate and propel the myth. In this century, the model of Australian wine will be, and I think is, a small vineyard that produces distinctive flavours, year by year. It may be old vine, it may be young, but it will be small and tended by families, raised in the winery with minimal intervention. The oak will be, at worst, a seasoning, at best a structural component. It will be bottled with an inert closure, made in small quantities, and the marketing and branding will be done by the drinkers. Welcome to the 21st century, from vines planted in 1879.

NB: Tyrrell’s Private Bin price was $60.

Amazing disco pants colour. Lavish ripe jubey fruit: raspberry, cranberry of such purity and verity, a dab of spice, aniseed and some chocolate, pinch of dried herb, violets in the air. Tastes like a cross hatch of Shiraz/Grenache/Pinot Noir – but the site is strong in this one. Firm tannin, silky feel, loads of fine chalky tannin, super length – so detailed and magnificent. Violet perfume in the aftertaste, which is something of a signature for warm year 4A. You open it on day one, you get a silhouette of the wine to come. Day two, a sketch. Day three, broad brush strokes of the future. Leave it alone, if you bought some. Let it become legend.

www.winefront.com.au