Pikes Wines can trace the history of the family winery back to 1878, when Henry Pike emigrated from Dorset to South Australia aboard the HMS Oakland. He settled in the Adelaide Hills and in 1886 established Pikes Dorset Brewery, which later changed its name to H. Pike & Co., producing beer, ales, soft drinks and cordials, […]

Since the early 1990s, South Africa has enjoyed a peaceful, positive and democratic existence. Dynamic and enormously diverse as a nation, South Africa’s Western Cape offers the very same attributes in its winemaking tradition and history, which dates back over three and a half centuries. As the shackles of apartheid fell loose, established winemakers re-emerged […]

Visiting Rustenberg is always a treat. One of the most beautiful wineries in the Cape and just 10 minutes from the centre of Stellenbosch on the slopes of the Simonsberg mountains, it takes as long to drive up the beautiful 2.5km drive as it does to drive from the town centre to the entrance gate! […]

There was a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s when everybody was talking about Australian wine. Even the French were discussing the virtues of the wares produced in this largely emerging wine-producing nation, who burst onto the vinous scene with wines that literally jumped from the glass with bold fruit flavours and catchy […]

Escarpment Vineyards in New Zealand’s Martinborough region is home to one of the country’s most iconic and influential winemakers. Larry McKenna is, simply, a living legend. From his involvement with Martinborough Vineyards back in 1986 (becoming the region’s first professional winemaker in the process) to the present day, Larry has set about defining the terroir […]

Thorn-Clarke are something special. A winegrower of such pedigree, tradition and self-assurance that you are left wondering how on earth they have passed you by, unnoticed, for so long. Though passing like proverbial ships in the night, I am overjoyed to acknowledge they have now registered a sizable ‘blip’ on my radar! My red wine […]

There was a time when New Zealand was just about Sauvignon Blanc. There was little else in fact, pitched to the world in a burgundy-shaped bottle emblazoned most notably with a grey, almost misty-cove like image… The contents of the bottle pushed the virtues of the Sauvignon Blanc varietal to the world in a way […]

Italian varietals, grown in Australia, are taking the UK market by storm. Enlivening and reinvigorating the Australian offering to a new generation of wine buyers along the way, these niche bottlings are food friendly, earthy, characterful and full of European soul. Add to these impressive facets the fruit richness and playfulness synonymous with Aussie wines […]

Bremerton isn’t just another Aussie winery; it is the pulse and heartbeat of South Australia’s Langhorne Creek. Owned and run by the Willson family since its inception in 1988, Bremerton has forged an enviable reputation for quality and value whilst at the same time supporting development into new varietal plantings and figure-heading innovation within the […]

Talk often turns to an apparent increase in alcohol by volume, in modern wine. More specifically, talk often arrives with a negative tone as “more mature” individuals hark back to the good old days, where the alcoholic volume of most wines rarely seemed to exceed 12.5%… Indeed, 12.5% alcohol seemed almost as consistent as the […]