We hardly needed more proof but a tasting of 40 years of Mount Langi Ghiran’s Langi Shiraz proved the eminence of this single site wine.

New owners, new winemaker, and all the signs are good at Stonier on the Mornington Peninsula.

Winemaker Anthony Fikkers and the Joval Wine Group are making a serious quality play with Southern Light Vineyards out of the Mornington Peninsula.

There's a new winemaking breeze at Margaret River's Voyager Estate, and its name is Tim Shand.

The new team – and vineyard sources – behind TarraWarra Estate put this important Yarra Valley winery in an exciting position.

A wine that jumped out at me at the Cape Mentelle International Cabernet tasting last week was Devil’s Lair Cabernet Sauvignon 2021.

The 2024 edition of Tahbilk's famous Marsanne is an excellent release. It's a $22 'classic', worthy of the cellar. The question is: does anyone care?

If there’s a producer that’s really jumped out at me in recent times it’s J&S Fielke out of the Adelaide Hills.

Chatto Isle Pinot Noir 2023 is up with the best of Australian pinot.

There are a lot of famous wines out of France from the 1982 vintage but you’d be hard-pressed to find a wine from this vintage as fresh as Piper Heidsieck’s Hors-Serie Champagne 1982.

Southern Light Vineyards and most especially its wines under the Ghost Gum label – from the highest vineyard at Main Ridge on the Mornington Peninsula – are wines you need to know about.

Tobias Ansted and Simon Osicka take cabernet sauvignon off an important Bendigo vineyard and give it all the love and respect that it deserves. The end result is a beautiful wine.

The 2016 House of Arras releases are beautiful, and so too is the story of Ed Carr and his commitment to this brand's excellence.

The release of the 2023 Bastard Hill wines, the first under the Giant Steps name, are a moment in Australian wine history that has been 40 years in the making.

Oakridge 864 Funder & Diamond Chardonnay 2022 is a rockstar chardonnay. It may even be an Australian classic in the making.

Sometimes when I swirl a glass of Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz it feels as though I’m not just swirling a wine; I’m swirling a universe.

Callum Powell’s Agricola Vintners plants a clear, firm, historically important stake with the release of its 2023 red wines. This is Barossa Shiraz and the Barossa Valley, done proud.

The centre cannot hold. And so, L’Anglore Chemin de la Brune 2021. Review and context of this emblematic natural wine of the Rhone.

One weekday afternoon I sat down with Pat Carmody, and he told me this story. This article won an award. It’s the story of the Craiglee winery.

I had a health scare recently. I was so concerned that I called a doctor, out of hours, to my house, late at night. The doctor who came noticed the wine bottles everywhere.

Thymiopoulos Young Vines Xinomavro 2021 is authentic Greek wine, on a platter.

This is the story of Sierra Reed, winemaker, presented in full for the first time. I had a feeling that Sierra’s story needed to be told, but I had little idea what was in store. This is more than a simple wine story.

Sierra Reed, aka Reed Wines, is one of Australia’s most interesting wine producers, and by interesting I mean that she has the ability to convey something bigger than mere flavours.

We live in the golden age of Australian grenache. This is the moment its fortunes turned.

Majella in Coonawarra has followed its move into gin and Eau de Vie with a Pot Still Brandy – the first brandy produced in Coonawarra in 70 years.

Williunga 100 McLaren Vale Grenache 2023 is the first grenache to ever win the Prime Minister’s Trophy at Australia’s National Wine Show.

Succession is never easy but Jim Barry Wines in the Clare Valley is perfectly set to take on the future.

Wirra Wirra, an icon of the Australian wine industry, has bought star winery Hahndorf Hill.

Accolade Wines and the Australian, New Zealand and Spanish wine assets formerly owned by Pernod Ricard – will now be combined and known as Vinarchy.

I’ve become a bit addicted to this Aussie Rosso Vermouth.

Few push the boundaries of thought and action quite like Nic Peterkin of L.A.S Vino. The result, this time, is L.A.S. Vino Vermouth.

If ever a spirit was a revival waiting to happen – especially in Australia – it’s pastis. Kasia Sobiesiak reports.

I taste/drink a fair many gins and very few jump out of the glass like this Three Cuts Founder’s Release..

This fortified arinto is oddball and familiar at once; a good way to be. It tastes beautiful on ice.

Jeté has been making good quality sparkling wine for some years now but with this release of its Grand Vintage 2019, it’s gone up a gear or two, and really entered elite territory.

It’s the quiet acheiever of the Oakridge range. And it’s (now) very good.

Marri Wood park is a new producer of note and this sparkling chenin – not words you type every day – is very good.

Prosecco is go, for everybody, everywhere. This Italian example from Anna Spinato shows how delicate the style can be.

Kate Laurie’s Deviation Road Beltana Blanc de Blancs 2017 is a classic of Australian sparkling wine. This 2017 release is a cracking example thereof.

I sat down recently to a glass of one of the great Penfolds wines of the past: the Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon 1996. This is how it’s travelling.

Penfolds Grange and La Chapelle, two of the world's most famous shiraz-based wines, have had a wine baby. It's called Grange La Chapelle 2021.

Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay, aka The White Grange. Does it age? I sat down to a glass of the 2011 recently.

I could throw a blanket over many of them but here are my personal Top 5 of the 2024 Penfolds Collection.

The price may not be right for most of us. But Penfolds has released a pretty special wine with its new Bin 180 Cabernet Shiraz 2021 Commemorative release.

he 2020 Penfolds Grange Shiraz is “not a show pony, and is not a wall of sound, but it's Grange being Grange, authoritative, settled, the ants served crushed, the fruit deep”. This and more on the 2024 Penfolds Collection.

Tasting note from a tasting of this 40-year-old legend of a wine: the original Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon.

Penfolds Grange Shiraz 2020 review and a bonus mini vertical tasting of 1999, 2009 and 2019 Penfolds Grange.

The 2025 edition of the Halliday Wine Companion is my second (and last) as its chief editor. Over two years, I had four main decisions to make. This is how I used them.

Fiona MacDonald was a long time, and much loved, publicist for Henschke. She died today after a long battle with MND.

There’s a real need in wine, both in Australia and elsewhere, for fresh, unique images to be taken, recorded, crafted and published. Here's a start.

I started working at Halliday Magazine in 2011. I’ve had a suite of different roles over the years, from editor of the magazine to editor of the book. The end has come.

This is the unofficial launch of CampbellMattinson.com as an online wine magazine. This website will be about the story of wine, and the stories of wine.

James Halliday has announced his retirement from all wine writing, so ending a magnificent and unrivalled career of wine communication.

A visit to Taminick Cellars, near Glenrowan n north-east Victoria, in photo form.

If James Halliday hadn’t called me personally, I wouldn’t have taken on the Halliday chief editor role.