• Drew and Rae Noon

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    Noon is that rare thing - a world renowned two person winery in McLaren Vale. Drew Noon MW and Rae only get in friends to help with the harvest. Otherwise their dry-farmed, biodynamic vineyard is tended only by them. When Drew returned to the farm where he was raised, the wines were distinctively average and the reputation worse. Drew had done a lot of travelling around south east Australia since leaving home to become an oenologist and eventually realised that he preferred pruning to man-managing.

  • Greenock Creek

    `If I had to select the number one Australian winery, it would be hard not to choose Greenock Creek, run by the humble, shy Michael and Annabelle Waugh. The quality that emerges from this estate is extraordinary. In short, these are thrilling, world-class wines that are about as compelling as wine can be.` - Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, October 2005 We first offered the 96 Greenock Creek wines in our April 1999 list.

  • Lake Breeze

    The Lake Breeze winery lies on the banks of the Bremer River in the premium red wine district of Langhorne Creek. Since the first wine was made in 1987, Lake Breeze has developed a reputation for consistently producing concentrated red wines, with an abundance of fruit character and trademark soft tannins.The Follett family vineyard was established in the 1880`s by Arthur John Follett, the great, great grandfather of Greg Follett, the winemaker.

  • Leeuwin Estate

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    In 1972, Perth businessman Denis Horgan received an unusual piece of news. An American man had been digging holes in the ground on his cattle farm, without asking permission; now he wanted to buy the farm. Denis had no intention of selling, and no idea who this American was (a ‘Mr Robert Mondavi’, anybody?) But when someone showed him a copy of Time magazine with Mondavi’s face on the cover, he agreed to meet him. Mondavi was convinced that the farm would be an amazing spot for premium winemaking. Denis still wasn’t selling, but decided that he had better start making wine himself.

  • Penfolds

    Penfolds began in 1844 in what is now a suburb of Adelaide, with vine cuttings that the emigrating Dr Christopher Penfold had brought from Europe. In the early days it was all about Australian-style ‘sherries’. The company went on to score successes with dry Rieslings and Australian ‘claret’. But it wasn’t until the 1950s and the appointment of Max Schubert as Chief Winemaker that the ground was laid for Penfolds’ global reputation. Schubert made several vintages of Grange in secret after being ordered by the company board to desist.

  • Yarra Yering

    Yarra Yering is an iconic name in the Australian wine industry. Wine was grown in the Yarra Valley itself (just outside Melbourne) from the mid-1800s to the 1920s. That stopped when the high price of wool and the changing tastes of drinkers made wine production less economic. It was not to resume again until 1969 and one Dr Bailey Carrodus arrived on the scene. When he took up a position teaching botany at Melbourne University, he was fresh from a study tour of the best vineyards and wineries of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.