Levantine Hill Estate Syrah 2013 has bright crimson colour. Brooding, lifted complex aromas of red berry compote, musk, cardamom and white pepper compliment the underlying nutmeg and vanillin bouquet. The elegant medium-bodied palate abounds with spice and earthy nuances in a concentration of savouriness. The silky ripe tannins have been deftly integrated with the underlying oak providing carriage for the fruit weight and lingering flavours to a pronounced and persistent finish.

"Replacing the Petit Chapelle cuvee and first made in 2015, the 2016 Hermitage La Maison Bleue is smoking good. Black fruits, charcoal, powdered rock, currants and chocolate notes all give way to a big, concentrated, impressively structures barrel sample that has tons of potential. I expect the tannin will have integrated by the time this is released, but a few years of bottle age still recommended." - Jeb Dunnuck

First made commercially available for the 2016 vintage, the Neve is a young wine with character and bite. Named for the lieu-dit on which its reasonably young vines are grown, it is stylishly racy with savoury elements that mingle seductively with bay leaf and lavender. A dry style, it is taut and pretty on the palate, with that long finish so characteristic of Chapoutier.

DOMAINE BELLE Roche Pierre , Crozes-Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage

Sourced from a vineyard nestled in the foothills of the cool southern vales of the Yarra Valley where the grey loam soils show seams of deep red volcanic clay, the 2015 Seville syrah is handpicked, fermented with a high proportion of whole bunches and receives no additions other than a small amount of sulphur dioxide at picking and bottling. It is then aged in older French barrels before being bottled unfiltered and unfined.