Charles Melton Nine Popes 1996

Beguiling aromas that mix savoury, fruit and oak characters in a slightly lifted bundle of joy. There's also a meatiness in there that straddles a savoury/sweet line. In terms of palate, it has a thick, seamless mouthfeel that delivers a similar mix of flavours as was smelled, but more fruit forward and richer than one would anticipate from the nose. There are some faint aged characters, but it's still predominantly primary character driven. As I drink, there's a lovely brambly note that is emerging too, a sweet delicious stalkiness. The wine is actually still quite acidic, so it's probably got a ways to go, but I can't think how it could get better than this.

This is a seriously good wine that is still quite young tasting but with the clean, developed mouthfeel and flavour integration that comes with bottle age.

Note that I've subsequently had a couple more bottles of this wine that have not quite attained the same level as this one.

Kilikanoon Medley Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2002

It's a wet, windy night outside, and the boat's rocking a lot more than usual. The perfect night for a generous, warming red wine.

We decided to open this Kilikanoon number, and it turned out to be the perfect selection. It's got this delicious blackberry bush nose, alongside a fair hit of oak-derived vanilla and spice. A little bit of VA enhances the generosity and warmth of the nose. In the mouth, this wine is smooth and full bodied, with a fruit sweet mid palate that leads to a smoothly tannic, toasty vanilla finish. This is not a hugely sophisticated wine, but it's got an attractive spectrum of flavours on display, and it's so giving, flavoursome and warm, it's hard not to love, especially on a stormy night.

Guigal Cotes du Rhone 2003

Really nice wine and a great, cost-effective alternative to mid-level Australian red wines.

Quite an expressive nose of primarily savoury notes (dried herbs and bacon, with some more feral smells hovering at the edges), with brooding black fruits in the background providing weight. On the palate, this wine was initially almost all tannins, very fine and ripe, but overwhelming. After a little while in the glass, this wine showed good balance between its savoury notes, very ripe red and black fruits (almost jammy) and fine tannins. It's nice to drink a cheap wine that displays its primarily savoury profile with pride, rather than shoving slutty ripe fruit to the forefront.

I'd like to see this again wine in a few years' time.

Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant 1999

Finally cracked this little baby, a gift from Chris and Dan, open.

I'm loving this wine. It's sensuous and elegant, the sort of wine that rewards slow sipping and contemplation.

An attractive brick red colour of moderate density. There are aromas of rotting flower, red fruits and spice that blend and waft evenly from the glass. The palate continues this theme and delivers its flavours within the context of gentle acidity and resolved, fine tannins. There are a range of secondary flavours in addition to the still-bright primary fruit. This wine shows good intensity of flavour and great balance and elegance. Medium bodied at most, I'm glad to have opened the wine at this point in its life.