The best

• red wine
• white wine
• champagne
• rosé
• whisky
• spirits
• beer

deals in Australia

Australia's oldest family owned winery continue to produce wines from the famed Coonawarra terra rossa strip that offer quite simply amazing value. Considered by many to still be the region's best kept secret, The Cigar is a truly delightful Cabernet Sauvignon with lifted violet and blackcurrant aromas with a balanced note of cedar and tobacco. Known to many as the 'Baby Menzies', the Cigar is a brilliant modern take on Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon and has always shown a propensity to sell out quickly each vintage.

Zema Estate have been producing quality Coonawarra Cabernet since 1982 but have been "growing" since the 1800's. The 2004 Family Selection Cab benefits greatly from a cool growing season allowing the rich flavours of blackcurrants and dark cherry to shine.

'Black Label' Cabernet Sauvignon, which was first vintaged in 1954, has evolved markedly over the decades. It is arguably Australia's most recognised Cabernet Sauvignon, and has more than any other, helped define Coonawarra. The wine is matured in new and seasoned French oak for 12 to 18 months. A classic Coonawarra Cabernet with pristine dark berry/ cassis aromas, fine grained tannins and underlying savoury nuances, it develops into a rich, chocolaty wine with age. In a super vintage, this wine can look astonishingly like a 2nd or 3rd growth Bordeaux with its pure cassis aromas and cedary complexity. See Chief Winemaker Sue Hodder speak about the spectacular 2015 release:

In the winery: Malolactic fermentation in French barriques allowed a soft integration of the grape and oak tannins. In the glass: Inky dark red. On the nose: Ripe, slightly jammy plum, mulberry and currant, cassis and crushed leaf.On the palate: Full-bodied with an almost sweet palate entry, soft, ripe and fleshy dark berry fruit, wet earth and chocolate notes, lovely texture and liberal use of vanillin oak.

A classic Australian wine, Wynns Black Label Shiraz was previously known as Wynns Black Label Hermitage. Typically showing superb fruit density, with ample red forest berry fruit and spice and supple tannins, Black Label Shiraz typifies Coonawarras mid-weight elegant style.

2006 Patrick of Coonawarra Home Block Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes were grown at the Toccaciu Coonawarra estate, and the wine was matured for 26 months in French and American oak; while I am not a fan of ProCork, this is a very attractive wine, which has cruised through six, rising seven, years, the cassis and cedar flavours supported by very fine but persistent tannins.

It has a classic lift of essential Cabernet fruit aromas, a perfume of dark mulberries with a lift of white mulberries, tayberries and bramble-berries that have been baked with a fresh pie crust. A great heady aroma with rich red ripe fruits but also some hints of crushed violets and whiffs of mushrooms, olives, dried herbs and suggestions of briar and undergrowth wisping in and out. There is also a shot of old school glossy tri-coloured boiled sweets character to this most complex Coonawarra Cabernet. Two years in oak has allowed a meshing of some spice and cedar oak maturation to complex.