Another year and another glorious vintage of one or our absolute favourites. We are still wondering if this “Golden Hillside” is an actual place, or a mythical place of the gods. The riesling from the Hillside is nothing short of heavenly, and the price suggests some sort of divine intervention. Plus, however high the vineyards of Clare Valley can get, surely those planted on celestial slopes are more so. How else would you get such an otherworldly balance of drool-worthy lime and sunshine-soaked lemons, refreshing minerality and cloudlike complexity? The bottle definitely says Clare Valley though.

The source for the Kelly 1932 Grenache comes from the Kilikanoon's garden, hand picked at optimum maturity. Maximum fruit intensity and varietal definition along with precise, natural acid retention. A beautifully poised and layered palate, brimming full of dark cherries and cocoa carried over from the nose, seamlessly combining with its fine powdery tannins, naturally retained acidity and hint of French oak toastiness.

Kilikanoon...one of the Clare’s absolute best and one of our absolute faves. Ridgeline isn’t just a marketing term for this shiraz. The grapes are sourced from a few rows at the very top of the hill on their Morrison’s Vineyard, overlooking the town of Watervale. There’s a smidge of new oak used here, but the majority is older barrels to the tune of 15 months. This provides a bit of texture and structure while still letting that fruit sing. We found dark cherry, plum, dried herbs and licorice all wrapped up in a savoury blanket with a lengthy finish and ripe tannins. Another hit from a producer that seems to know no other way.