Recognition

Medium to deep red colour with a trace of purple and a mossy, undergrowth bouquet with traces of humus and cabernet raspberry-mint, more savoury than fruity. The wine is very dry and savoury in the mouth, finishing with firm tannins and a palate-cleansing trace of bitterness. It perhaps lacks a little in freshness but has undoubted depth of flavour,

 » Read more about: A pure expression of the unique Whalebone Vineyard terroir – 2017 Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Shiraz  »

It’s a firm, fragrant, spice-riddled pinot noir with blueberry and macerated cherry notes shot through with aromatic herb notes. In fact it’s quite earthen, almost beetroot-like, with a sweetness to the finish in the context of its dry/earthen style. This is a pretty impressive wine it has to be said. Different in its Australian context.

 » Read more about: A pretty impressive Pinot Noir – 2019 Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir  »

The classic Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz blend is all about combining the structure of Cabernet Sauvignon with the ripeness and upfront appeal of shiraz. This example does it well, aided by the warm 2016 vintage.

It is a bright deep ruby colour but still closed, and youthful. The fruit is brooding – layers of tar,

 » Read more about: An excellent example of Australia’s own unique blend – 2016 Whalebone Cabernet Shiraz  »

This Tapanappa Whalebone Cab Shiraz 2016 sure packs in flavour, but it would be more compelling if it was less ripe.
85% Wrattonbully Cabernet and 15% Adelaide Hills Shiraz (from the Shining Rock Vineyard which Brian Croser founded in the Petaluma days). It’s deep, thick and coffeed, the palate drenched with dark chocolate flavour and a thick,

 » Read more about: A huge wine with considerable impact – 2016 Whalebone Cabernet Shiraz  »

While not quite of the same calibre as the exceptional Tiers, this Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2018 is another solid Adelaide Hills Chardonnay.
Tight and citrussy lemon butter style, the palate very much driven by tangy grapefruit and less about oak richness. For mine it’s a bit disjointed, the fruit lean and citrussy and the palate feels like it’s reaching for richness to balance out the tart grapefruit.

 » Read more about: Another solid Adelaide Hills Chardonnay – 2018 Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay  »

2016 Tapanappa Single Vineyard Adelaide Hills Shiraz is the first “distinguished site” shiraz from Tapanappa, from the Shining Rock Vineyard planted in ’96. A very good expression of Adelaide Hills shiraz, replete with black pepper, warm spice and licorice threaded through its blackberry and satsuma plum flavours, oak and tannins in dutiful support.
96 points

 » Read more about: A good expression of Adelaide Hills Shiraz – 2016 Tapanappa Adelaide Hills Shiraz  »

2017 gave Foggy Hill the growing season and vintage it craved for. In terms of varietal character, texture, structure, balance and length, the wine can’t be faulted. It is by some distance the best Foggy Hill Pinot Noir made to date. What will the ensuing vintages provide?
97 points

 » Read more about: The best Foggy Hill Pinot Noir made to date – 2017 Foggy Hill Vineyard “Definitus” Pinot Noir  »

Classic right bank (Bordeaux) blend of Cabernet Franc (as opposed to Cabernet Sauvignon being king on the left). Wrattonbully in the far east of the state of South Australia has a cool, maritime influenced, climate – from memory the whalebone reference being to the fact the region was under sea way back in the past,

 » Read more about: Should be in the cellar of every Australian wine lover – 2016 Whalebone Cabernet Franc Merlot  »

Foggy Hill is located on the Fleurieu Peninsula, and is one of the coldest places on the Australian mainland. It creates a very unique style of Australian Pinot – particularly savoury, spicy and even meaty wines. The wines are also structural and have a pretty edge.

The 2018 shows its typical youthful flourish – floral,

 » Read more about: A complex and delicious Pinot Noir – 2018 Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir  »

Marked by mint and cassis on the nose, the 2017 Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Shiraz becomes more Shiraz-like on the palate, where it adds cherry-berry fruit and a relaxed, generous feel on the medium to full-bodied palate. Silky tannins sneak in to give a pleasant soft dustiness to the finish. It’s a solid effort, but it lacks the aromatic fireworks of the Cab Franc Merlot blend.

 » Read more about: Australia’s very own unique red blend – 2017 Whalebone Cabernet Shiraz  »

The floral-herbal elements of Cabernet Franc are nicely balanced and rounded out by the ripe cherries of the Merlot in Tapanappa’s 2017 Whalebone Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc. Silky and fine on the palate, this medium to full-bodied red still delivers plenty of flavor, with cherries and tobacco set off by accents of cedar and vanilla on the lingering finish.

 » Read more about: A classic right bank Bordeaux blend – 2017 Whalebone Merlot Cabernet Franc  »

The 2018 Foggy Hill Vineyard “Definitus” Pinot Noir is a blend of Clones 115 and 777 from a strip of vines over the site’s shallowest soils. Winemaking is similar to the rest of the vineyard’s production, and maturation takes place in 30% new French oak, with the balance of the wood being one and two years old.

 » Read more about: A more generous and complex Pinot Noir – 2018 Foggy Hill Vineyard “Definitus” Pinot Noir  »

More floral and ethereal in character than the sturdier 2018, the 2019 Pinot Noir Foggy Hill Vineyard delivers notes of fresh herbs, black tea, roses, cherries and cranberries. Medium-bodied and silky in texture, it also weighs in with 0.8% alcohol less than the previous vintage. While it’s less expansive and rich, it floats easier on the palate,

 » Read more about: An ethereal Pinot Noir with accents of floral and fresh spice – 2019 Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir  »

Pale straw-colored, the 2019 Chardonnay Tiers Vineyard comes from the original plantings made in 1979 at 450 meters above sea level. Entirely barrel-fermented in one-third new French oak with the balance in second- and third-use barrels, it boasts subtle scents of pencil shavings accenting ripe melon and citrus. Medium-bodied, generous and silky in feel, with more pineapple flavors evident on the palate,

 » Read more about: An exquisite wine from an extraordinary vintage – SOLD OUT 2019 Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay  »

Very light, bright yellow hue. A powerfully expressive bouquet of cashew-nutty, oaky, oatmeal biscuit aromas, the palate very intense and penetrating, concentrated and high-impact. The finish is ultra-dry, appetising and refreshing. The intensity is almost forbidding in its youth. An excellent wine; better in another year or two.
96 points

 » Read more about: The intensity is almost forbidding in its youth. An excellent wine; better in another year or two – SOLD OUT 2019 Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay  »

Huon Hooke
Huon Hooke

Light, bright yellow hue. Gently smoky, nutty, straw-like bouquet, complex and gently reductive, the palate fine and tensioned, precise and delicate yet intense and long. It has a delicious core of sweet stone-fruit flavour balanced by a refreshing, crisply tart finish. A slightly subtler, more restrained, refined wine than the old-vine Tiers.

 » Read more about: A slightly subtler, more restrained, refined wine than the old-vine Tiers – 2019 Tiers Vineyard 1.5M Chardonnay  »

Medium to deep ruby colour with purple tints and a complex bouquet of smoky, vegetal, possibly whole-bunch fermented characters, some notes of char-grilled vegetables, all melded with raspberry-like fruit aromas. Hints of humus and Campari. The wine is intense and medium to full-bodied, well-structured and firm but not overly tannic for its fruit-weight. Succulent sweet-fruit centre.

 » Read more about: A delicious glass of Pinot – 2018 Foggy Hill Vineyard “Definitus” Pinot Noir  »

Bright and vibrant ruby colour from core to rim. Black cherry, iodine, smoke and vegetable broth aromatics. Intense from the palate entry, dark cherry fruit shows early then morphs into multiple savoury layers of smoke, meat and undergrowth. Quite mouth-filling, Acids and tannins show a guiding hand yet stay supple and in the background. Very long and has many years ahead of it
94 points

 » Read more about: Has many years ahead of it – 2019 Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir  »

It’s a firm, fragrant, spice-riddled pinot noir with blueberry and macerated cherry notes shot through with aromatic herb notes. In fact it’s quite earthen, almost beetroot-like, with a sweetness to the finish in the context of its dry/earthen style. This is a pretty impressive wine it has to be said. Different in its Australian context.

 » Read more about: A pretty impressive wine – 2019 Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir  »

Somewhat puckered peach—skin, flesh, kernel—and a sniff off that often elusive match-strike that many a Chardonnay-lover desires. There’s a wheaty, grainy edge to it also. Has a bracing, briny breeze on a beach-type thing about it, and it’s loaded with yellow stone fruit, fuzzy-skin sweetness. Iced-cracked kernel; dense and mouth-sucking. It’s almost gone and there will be no ’19 (although there is a Tiers and Tiers 1.5m).

 » Read more about: Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2018 (Adelaide Hils, SA)  »

Somewhat puckered peach—skin, flesh, kernel—and a sniff off that often elusive match-strike that many a Chardonnay-lover desires. There’s a wheaty, grainy edge to it also. Has a bracing, briny breeze on a beach-type thing about it, and it’s loaded with yellow stone fruit, fuzzy-skin sweetness. Iced-cracked kernel; dense and mouth-sucking. It’s almost gone and there will be no ’19 (although there is a Tiers and Tiers 1.5m).

 » Read more about: Loaded with yellow stone fruit – 2018 Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay  »

We are very excited to announce the Tiers Vineyard 2019 Chardonnay was listed in the Drinks Business 10 Best Chardonnay’s for 2020 after winning GOLD at the 2020 Drinks Business Global Chardonnay Masters in December for the fifth year running.

This continues a fantastic run for the Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay, building on it’s worldwide reputation,

 » Read more about: The 10 Best Chardonnay’s of 2020 – 2019 Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay  »

Plush with perfumed violet, bramble, liquorice and black pepper aromatics, spiced and savoury on the palate with layers of chocolate, dark berry and harmonious tannins.
95 points

 » Read more about: Decanter World Wine Awards *Gold Medal* – 2016 Whalebone Cabernet Shiraz  »

The journey of refining a wine from a “distinguished site” is a long one full of self-doubt. How does the vigneron know that quality from a vineyard is improving year on year and that wine-style is refining. Mostly it is achieved through self-assessment, the vigneron comparing vintage after vintage from the same vineyard and using comparison of wines from the same variety and style intent from comparable regions in Australia and internationally.

 » Read more about: Decanter World Wine Awards *Gold Medal* – 2018 Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay  »