Month: November 2025

2015 Montirius Sérine Côtes du Rhône

A biodynamic domaine that seems to have been turning out delicious bottles for some years with a sense of the natural in the best sense. Another from auction. Going away for a couple of months and still browsing and bidding, I got back to over fifty bottles ready to collect from my local Dan’s. Coming home can be fun. One of the good things about Woolies owning so many booze businesses is arranging collection and avoiding a courier leaving boxes of wine on the doorstep at the mercy of hot weather or the opportunistic. Better get drinking. Not owning an AhSo opener or one of those mega expensive Durand contraptions means my sad attempts at extracting dodgy old corks usually ends up with bits everywhere. Finally poured a small taste after straining the powdery residue of tree bark, oddly cedary and dull at first but it did open really well over a couple of hours. It’s labelled Sérine I think to reflect a perfumed Northern Rhône version of Syrah. And, yes, this has that violet and smoky fragrance backed up by some red fruit richness and scrubby herbs. Medium bodied, still fresh and pure fruited, a long way from the alcoholic soup of some warm years’ Southern Rhône. Really good grape growing from what’s become a favourite vintage. The red fruit element is beguiling, raspberries and cherries infused with a bit of fresh mint and spice and such a lovely mouthwatering texture. So glad no one else thought to bid. Happy, it made up for the totally cooked and corked Oratoire St. Martin Haut Coustias from the same box. Sort of a win.

13.5% alcohol. Cork in its most organic vagueness. $21 at auction.

93 points.

2020 N & C Juliénas Les Capitans

More fun from the auction site with a bid at about half the RRP, lucky me. Well, in this case it is a win as it’s a delicious bottle. A relatively new domaine formed when two brothers returned to the family land in 2018 with Saint Amour as its base. Not much more info comes up in searches as it seems both new and not much reviewed. Notwithstanding a lack of media presence, this bottle shows good fruit from a tricky hot vintage and good winemaking. There’s the density and ripeness of the year but there’s still freshness and a clean satisfying end. Lots of dark cherry, almost kirsch, cooked strawberries, spice and chocolate lying comfortably on a great bed of graphite like mineral things. Gives it a real sense of what searching suggests are granite and silica soils in the Capitans cru, as we wine nerds like to imagine soil infesting wine flavour. Despite the ripeness in a warming world, I must admit to being a bit surprised and happy how Gamay in the Beaujolais crus seems to still hang onto its mineral refreshment. More so than some Pinots from more famous vines further north? Looks like there’s more bottles on the auction site. I’m bidding.

14.5% alcohol but no heat apparent. Cork. $30 auction.

94 points.

2019 Thorn-Clarke Sandpiper Riesling

One of the good things about slumming it in the sub $25 section on the Langton’s auction website is the chance to buy some Riesling with a little bottle age. I remember it’s been almost twenty years since I first noticed this Riesling was always full of good fruit and great value in the big wine barns. A three bottle lot seemed worth a modest bid and such is Riesling’s continued avoidance of fashion in the fickle drinks business, it was enough. No surprises, good or bad, old school Eden Valley Riesling writ large for those of us who’ve been drinking it for thirty years, and need things in big letters. As well as the tart citrus and brisk acidity, there’s a nice build of something like stone fruit or mandarin or slightly green mango in the middle before that appetite sharpening acidity bites. Does have that bit extra fruit weight. Think I prefer them picked a bit riper, this tastes like it has a bit of sweetness which does balance things up a bit. No better value first glass of the evening. Particularly in proximity to the seaside this coming summer, please.

11% alcohol. Screw cap. $15 auction.

92 points.

2024 Weingüter Wegeler Flightmode Riesling Trocken Rheingau

Good on Frankfurt airport for having a selection of Rieslings, some from the nearby Rheingau. Stopping for few days in Singapore on the way home to Australia meant a duty free bottle was a possible hotel room aperitif. Singapore may be a comfortable and easy break in the journey but it’s certainly no friend to the budget conscious wine freak. A cold beer with some good hawker spice is pretty good though. This bottle seemed appropriate as I was preparing my ancient body for thirteen hours of flightmode and a delicious reward it was for running out of interesting in flight entertainment. From grand cru vineyards and made in perhaps the older way in big old oak. A new producer for me. A bit of petrol development already but loads of fresh white peach, citrus and honeyed candle wax. A breath of aldehyde to lift the end. Some lovely flavours were carried by a beautiful lightness of feathery acidity. A cool breeze of mouthwatering lift, delightful. Like a welcome tailwind to cut the hours high in the sky.

12.5% alcohol. Screw cap. €23.

92 points.