This is superb. Very complex, it has a nutty, smoky lees-influenced bouquet with smoked chicken hints giving a resemblance to a slightly feral style of chardonnay. It’s rich and mouth-filling, happily not sweet, but balanced and clean. — 92/100 $25, Top 100 releases, Huon Hooke, AGT Wine Magazine, Dec/Jan 2014

A crisp, crunchy Grigio that does its best to emulate the flavoursome, refreshing styles of north east Italy but showing a touch extra personlaity of fruit – a generosity and lees derived smokiness. Easy drinking, with varietal personality.— 92/100 $25, Top 100 releases, Mike Bennie, Wine Business Magazine, Nov 2013

From one of the highest vineyards in the Adelaide Hills on the steep north-facing slopes, with 10 clones separately harvested, whole bunch pressed and wild yeast barrel-fermented in used French barriques (+6% mlf) All this has proved worth the effort, adding layers of texture, yet not stultifying the varietal pear/apple fruit expression.— 94pts Drink by 2015, 13.0% alc, James Halliday Companion 2015

An amazing nebbiolo, made from a close-planted (in ’99) multi-clone block, with lesser performing clones removed and replanted in ’05; destemmed, foot-stamped, pressed to used French barriques for 10 months. Utterly exceptional purple-crimson hue; this is a brilliantly pure wine, full of dark cherry fruit, and I am totally mystified by its low price.— 96/100 $27 Drink by 2023, Alc 13% Halliday Wine Companion Newsletter 18 June 2014

A blend of riesling, gewurztraminer, chardonnay and pinot grigio, this has a complex bouquet of spices, caramel and smoky sulfides. The palate is full of flavours backed by lively acidity, giving it a lemon-sherbet tang. It is balanced with refined texture and length. — 92/100, Top 100 releases, Huon Hooke, AGT Wine Magazine, Feb/Mar 2014.

Medium-light straw yellow colour; a complex and attractive bouquet of smoky sulfides, caramel and spices. The palate is also full of interesting flavours, backed firmly by lively acidity, giving a lemon-sherbet tang. Good balance, refined texture and length. An entertaining dry white. — 92/100, Top Wines for Summer, $30, Best within two years. Huon Hooke, Sydney Morning Herald 26 Nov 2013.

A wine writer or any taster for that matter can go wild sniffing this, rose, musk, lychee, apple, florals, blonde toffee, fresh cut tobacco and black tea. The medium bodied palate starts apple and orange citrus with floral edges with creamy mid palate, exotic fruit complexity and layered pithy mouth watering finish that suits food with a subtle display of apple, mandarin, white stone fruit, papaya and creamy lees. — 94/100, Drink to 2016, $30, 12.5% alc, Robert Geddes MW, Australian Wine Vintages Gold book 2014.

Wines that make me thirsty, Rob Geddes MW posted 12 Aug 2013,
WTMMT #114 – Casa Freschi La Signorina 2012. Watch on Youtube.

From a single vineyard set at around 550 metres in Mount Lofty. Sees ten months in oak and is a blend of riesling, gewurztraminer, chardonnay and pinot grigio. Unfined and sent to bottle. Has a mealy, vanillan, yoghurty aroma with lemon curd and pawpaw aromas in tow. Pretty exotic to taste, almost a little oxidative note creeping in, not sure if style or fault here. Not too untoward, and ebbs away with time in the glass. Shows more creaminess of oak, a clang of appley flavour and chalky phenolics to finish with succulent texture and a belt of spiky, steely minerality throughout. It’s pretty wild, and I kind of like it for that, but it’s also easy to drink. Personality in spades. — 90/100, $30 Drink 2013-2017, 12.5% alc, Mike Bennie, Winefront, July 2013.

Plenty of colour, this field blend white (riesling, gewurztraminer, chardonnay and pinot gris) is fragrant and savoury on the bouquet, offering lemon zest, wet slate, fennel and a touch of bracken; the palate is racy, edgy and linear on entry, with savoury backbone of nutty flavours lingering on the extended finish. — 92/100, $30 Drink by 2017, 12.5% alc, Ben Edwards, James Halliday Wine Companion, July 2013.

The aromas are complex with a mix of winemaker and fruit derived elements, baked apple, fresh apple, subtle pineapple and gentle honeyed aromas that suggest hazelnut will come into town. The palate has creamy texture, considerable concentration of fruit richness, delicate acids that sustain and refresh the flavour, and a long palate with hazelnut oat meal flavours in the finish. This wine shows excellent grape-growing and thoughtful winemaking and that will suit restaurants and drinking in the summer of 2014. — Top 100 wines 94/100, Drink to 2016, $45, 12.5% alc, Robert Geddes MW, Australian Wine Vintages Gold book 2014

Wines that make me thirsty, Rob Geddes MW posted 22 Oct 2013;
WTMMT #144 – Casa Freschi Altezza Chardonnay 2012 & Ragazzi Nebbiolo 2012. Watch on Youtube.

Spends 10 months in French oak, is unfined and comes from a vineyard location in the upper reaches of the Adelaide Hills at around 550 metres above sea level. Chill to the bone. Altezza wines are reserved for special vintages only. Interestingly smells quite marine, oyster shells and sea breeze kind of thing, but a twang of cedary oak and floral notes. Attractive anyway. Clear, crisp fruit character, slippery textured and finishing pure and true with green apple kind of flavours and a crispness of alpine herb bitterness. It’s a style that likely lends itself to a few more years to flesh out and mellow, not seeking trim refinement, but showing sluicy, juicy personality of the variety. $45 Drink 2013-2019, 12.5% alc. — 90/100 Mike Bennie, Winefront, July 2013.

David Freschi has been growing nebbiolo in Langhorne Creek since the late 1990s. He produces two varietal wines from his grapes: a serious, full bodied, dense, ageworthy wine called La Signora and this lively, drink-now version. Nebbiolo is often compared to pinot noir, and you can see why when you taste this wine. It’s pale vermillion in colour, light, floral and fragrant to smell, and although it starts all stemmy and spicy (like a whole-bunch fermented pinot) it narrows into a firm, grippy, distinctively nebbiolo-tannin finish, $25. — Best buys $30 and under, Max Allen, AGT Wine magazine Oct/Nov 2013