Recognition

I had to double-check the vintage on this wine but it’s definitely a 2023 in 2023. Not that there’s anything greatly unusual about that.

Pear, lemon, a little flint, and sprays of hay and sawdust. Pure of fruit and integrated …

This more generous vintage of Tapanappa Shiraz from 2018 delivers layers of dark cherry, fennel seed and cocoa aromas with fine oak well integrated. There is an excellent mix of power and subtlety to follow, flavours of fruit pastille and …

This controlled and well pitched Adelaide Hills Shiraz delivers ample blackberry, mulberry and liquorice aromas with a strong undercurrent of clove and allspice complexity. Compact and understated, it’s quite seamless now, the spicy aged complexity rising up in a plush …

This vineyard was planted on the Fleurieu Peninsula by Brian Croser 20 years ago and it quickly established a reputation for high class Pinot Noir. The 2022 was the outcome of a low cropping, cool vintage, which is reflected in …

This patch of Dijon clones sits in shallow soils on an ironstone ridge that generally means lower crops and earlier ripening. A combination of chalky limestone with an ever so slightly ferruginous character seems to come straight from the soils …

From a small area planted 1979, then replanted with Dijon clones on a very close 1.5m spacing, the fruiting wire only 50cm above ground level. The yellow grapefruit is almost painfully intense and mouth-watering, the finish hypnotic.

Drink to 2042…

Brian Croser’s flagship Pinot Noir, comes from just ten rows of Dijon clones, 777 and 115, planted in the Foggy Hill Vineyard on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The name might sound a bit like a spell from Harry Potter (who among

Brian Croser is one of Australia’s most innovative and legendary winemakers, a reputation forged over decades. At the Foggy Hill Vineyard on the Fleurieu Peninsula, he has turned his hand to Pinot Noir. This example is from the fine 2022

A quite different beast to the ’22 pinot noir: more subtle, refined fragrance, less fruity, more structural, with layers of fine tannin and a great sense of restrained power.…

Like the chardonnay, this deceptively fresh, juicy and youthful pinot is a joy to drink now – all snappy cherry fruit – but will drink well and develop for a decade at least.…

Scintillating chardonnay, so pure, fresh and intense, with crystalline focus and thrilling presence. Ravishing now, in its youth, but will mature beautifully over many years.…

Mealy nose and fine, precise fruit and acidity – just the right side of austerity! Needs time. But is impressively long.

…

Dark, impenetrable ruby and purple with a complex and savoury edged nose of violets, cassis, grilled cherry and plum, dried oregano, hints of mint tea, fig leaf, roasted meat, cedar, tobacco, graphite and a lift of sumac. Lots going on!…

Two decades after embarking on a passion project atop a foggy hill, Brian Croser is pouring wines that show the benefits of cooler vintages. From the upcoming Young Rich issue, out on October 27.

Max Allen Drinks columnist

I first …

The inaugural Halliday Wine Companion Top 100 Wineries selected by Campbell Mattinson is a celebration of the best wineries of right now. Below is the list of wineries ranked from 26 to 50 from across Australia.

“In short, this is a list of …

It was a cool vintage but there’s plenty of weight to this release. There are ample twiggy spice notes too, or variations thereof, which is interesting given that the grapes were completely destemmed. Mace, green but fragrant herbs, and plum notes that …

This is an outstanding release. The combination of attractive strawberry and spice characters with firm tannins and exceptional length is enough to get any pinot lover’s heart racing. The flavours here really do soar on and on. Assertive tannin feels totally uncompromised, …

Medium deep colour. Perfumed strawberry pastille hint chinotto aromas with savoury notes. Well concentrated strawberry pastille, cola, touch apricot flavours and supple textures. Finishes slinky and long. Lovely vinosity, complexity and mineral length.

95 points

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Medium deep colour. Pure strawberry, red cherry, touch herb garden/ dried roses aromas and flavours. Supple and fresh with lovely inky density and some underlying vanilla notes. Finishes chalky and minerally. Classical in shape and style with very appealing fruit …

Brian Croser’s Foggy Hill Vineyard in the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of McLaren Vale is one of South Australia’s most isolated vineyards. At its highest point at Parawa, it is possible to look over towards Encounter Bay where Matthew Flinders on …

This is like the regular Tapanappa Chardonnay but better, but more. Cinnamon scroll laced with creamy, lightly sour icing, melting white chocolate praline with a refreshing minty nuance. It has a solid base of peaches and apples. Satin-like confident cool …

A little struck match, grapefruit, lemon oil, apple and lime, cinnamon pasty dough, white chocolate and mint, so much presence and power, with bitter lemon and zinging acidity, and zesty tang. Biscuits too, on its lively and very long finish, …

Gunflint. Ka-pow! This is pushing with such amazing energy to start. Zesty grapefruit, lemon pith and nectarines, all sitting on the just-underripe edge, zingy and zippy. A hint of cinnamon-dusted green apple, fresh dough and lavender with pink grapefruit. It …

Matchstick, grapefruit and white nectarine, bit of cinnamon spice. Classic Hills Chardonnay with flinty texture, but also rich and cashew creamy, ribs of acidity, lively and zesty, a bit breathy with struck match at present, but pleasantly so for the …