23 great value Aussie wines (plus beer, spirits and non-alch) to try over the summer break

Looking for a tipple this festive season? Stock the fridge with these great-value wines, beers, cocktails and non-alch pours.

Mornington Peninsula winemaker Kevin McCarthy and daughter Celia raise a glass to their new-wave MDI Wine. Picture: David Caird

These are the best wines, beer, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks to try this festive season.

SPARKLING

It’s pet nat without being too natty.

2022 GREYSTONE PET NAT ORGANIC: $35

For a pet nat, it’s not natty in flavour or aroma. Bathtub foamy in the glass with a force of Granny Smith and lemon on the nose and more of the same to taste. Powerful acidity with a bubbly personality and chalky tannins. The tiny piercing bead makes it lip smackingly good. More fruit than funk.

Vintage Cellars

Chalmers continue to deliver the goods.

2019 CHALMERS FELICITAS, $53

Named after the Roman goddess of happiness, this Italian-born, Heathcote-grown sparkling fiano twinkles with grapefruit and lemony goodness. It’s well-built, complex with fleshy green apples, mineral undertones and subtle almond meal creaminess to end. Over prosecco and don’t have a champagne budget? Make this your mate.

chalmers.com.au

A dazzlingly beauty that champions Tassy’s finest sparkling wines.

2017 OSSA METHODE TRADITIONAL SPARKLING: $90

Fine beads swoosh around like a gold-sequined ball gown. It’s ginger spice, jasmine, warm hot cross buns and brioche on the nose, leading into a weighty palate of lemon, Granny Smith apples, toasted bread and lingering pink grapefruit. A multi-pronged wine, doing great textural things with chalky minerals, while keeping it fun and fresh. Made with 71 per cent pinot noir, 29 per cent chardonnay. A firecracker.

City Wine Shop, Cloud Wine

Chandon Etoile delivers kaleidoscopic flavours at every turn.

CHANDON ÉTOILE BRUT, $120

A vibrant, multi-vintage cuvée that ticks a helluva lot of boxes in the fizzy wine stakes. Unctuous yet fresh, toasty, nutty and spicy, brimming with fleshy pears and green apples, biscuit and tightly wound lemon. Each of the eight vintages used add their own dimension – from the robust 2005 to the peachy 2016 and all that falls between. Exceptional drinking.

Cellar door, chandon.com.au

A gift for the ultimate champagne lover.

NV PIPER HEIDSIECK ESSENTIAL BLANC DE NOIRS: $150

Piper’s blanc de noirs is a first for Aussie drinkers. Blanc de noirs translates to ‘white from blacks’ meaning it’s made by using only black skinned grapes: pinot noir and pinot meunier. More robust than its ethereal blanc de blancs (made with only chardonnay grapes) counterpart, it’s fizzing with strawberries, redcurrants and baking spices. Pretty, powerful and vibrant to drink as is, or with food.

Dan Murphy’s

WHITE

Leading the riesling resurgence.

2022 RIESLINGFREAK NO.34 RIESLING: $25

Certified riesling freak John Hughes highlights the best of both valleys (Clare and Eden) for this knockout drop. An explosive bouquet of ripe stone fruits, pear and lime follows through with a grippy freshness packed with yellow peaches, golden kiwi fruit, juicy pears and a freshly suckled lime wedge. Incredible length. Stupidly great value.

Dan Murphy’s

A skin-contact white wine that requires little thinking while drinking.

2022 MDI FRIULANO SKINNED ED. XI: $25

Glistening golden like a Mildura sunset, this light and bright number requires little thinking while drinking. Bright and fresh minus the squint. Well-rounded palate of tropical and stone fruits with grippy tea-like tannins. Pineapple lolly finish adds a rounded mouthfeel. Silky smooth going down the hatch.

Mr West, Different Drop, Union Cellars Geelong

Let’s hear it for Bright-made wine.

2022 BILLY BUTTON ‘THE FEISTY’ FRIULANO: $30

Lives up to its name in texture and flavour. Juicy fruited nose of pear, white peaches and a kick of lemony zing, followed through with firm grapefruit freshness. Wonderfully freshness ripe with melon, pear, white peaches and an underlying minerality.

billybuttonwines.com.au

Another wine that is mindbafflingly good for cost.

2022 HODDLES CREEK ESTATE CHARDONNAY: $26

Fat-bellied, juicy with yellow peaches, crunchy green apples and lively citrus. Tickled with a lemon curd subtlety and just the right amount of oak. There’s length and poise, structure and fruit. A steal.

Boccaccio Cellars

2023 PENFOLD’S BIN 51 EDEN VALLEY RIESLING $40

Gushes with ripe white stone fruit, juicy pears and grapefruit. Drip down your arm freshness exudes from the glass and follows through to taste. Think crunchy green apples, salinity and lingering grapefruit zing – what’s not to love?

Dan Murphy’s

Beechworth chardonnay in the right hands can really do no wrong..

2022 DOMENICA CHARDONNAY: $58

A refined beauty crafted by ex-Giaconda winemaker Peter Graham. Not as gnarly as other Beechworth chardonnays, but holds its own with ample weight, bright juicy stone fruit, and the right balance of citrus zing, oak spice and mouth-coating creaminess. Exceptional value for money – that’s if you can find a bottle.

domenicawines.au

ROSE/ORANGE

Goes great guns in the sun.

2022 LAKE MOODEMERE ESTATE SIT SPINS AND FLYING TOPS: $32

A light, bright and fruity figure that goes great guns in the sun. The label is an ode to Joel’s grandmother, Nancy, who was a figure skater and Australia’s first female winter Olympian.

moodemerewines.com.au

2022 VINO VOLTA “DIFFERENT SKINS” FRONTIGNAC, GEWURZTRAMINER: $35

A left of field ‘skin-contact’ drop that doesn’t stray too far from shore with a polished, vibrant mix of fruit, florals and funk. Wildly aromatic nose of Turkish delight, subtle saffron spice, lychee and ginger lollies. A rush of watermelon freshness to taste, with a grippy tea-like texture and a salty savouriness. Summertime smashable.

vinovolta.com.au

RED

How and why this is $34 still baffles the mind.

2019 PARKER COONAWARRA ESTATE TERRA ROSSA CABERNET SAUVIGNON: $33

A powerful nose of blackcurrants, bay leaf, and Coonawarra eucalypt. Lusciously plush, rich with juicy blackberries, blackcurrants, savoury spice. Incredible value for money. Let’s make cabernet great again.

Dan Murphy’s

Emily is proudly waving the flag for the Pyrenees wine region.

2022 ECK WINES POHLMAN’S CREEK ROUGE CUVEE: $40

Pretty as a picture drinking, despite its heavy-hitter DNA. Made with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec grapes, expect a powerful perfume of violets, black plums and currants, with a green pepper bent. Soft and velvety to taste with purple and black fruits, chocolate, vanilla and spice. Bitey yet inoffensive tannins and well-integrated alcohol add structure and depth.

Act of Wine, Southbank, The Social Wine Bar, Echuca

This really doesn’t drink like a $48 bottle of wine.

2022 GIANT STEPS PINOT NOIR: $48

What’s softer than cashmere? This wine gives it a fair crack. Winemaker Melanie Chester has created a silky sleek sipper concentrated with ripe red plums, strawberries, star anise spice and plush red cherries. Super fine, almost non-existent tannins, splashable acidity, and the perfect marriage of fruit and earth. Put this away for a few years, if you can fight temptation.

Prince Wine Store

Tasmania’s OSSA has had a firecracker year.

2021 OSSA PINOT NOIR: $120

Talk about elegance. The fruit intensity is off the charts, with turbocharged aromas of red and black cherries and earthy forest floor, cushioned by a floral prettiness. She’s light, bright with leap-from-the-glass flavours. It’s red cherries, blueberries and juicy blood plums upfront, minerality and savouriness at the back. Almost invisible silky tannins. Superb.

Different Drop

SPIRITS

There are only 100 bottles in Victoria. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

NIKKA ‘THE GRAIN’ WHISKY: $270

Not technically a Scotchy Scotch Scoth, but I think Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy would approve of this mellow yet mighty Japanese whisky. Made with four unique grains from four distilleries, Nikka’s 2023 experiment is all heady spice, dried fruit, sweet toffee and red berries on the nose, knocking into a sleek buttery body of malt, butterscotch, more baking spice and incredible drive. Only 500 bottles available in Australia – 250 for sale in store, 100 in Victoria, and the rest on pour at premium whisky bars.

First Choice, Vintage Cellars

Rutherglen winery delivers a suitable after dinner sipper that doubles as a cocktail mixer.

2021 SCION AFTER DARK: $35

A full-bodied, fortified shiraz that’s best enjoyed by fire, chilled and neat, or as a vermouth substitute in negronis. Those shiraz tannins have bitterness sorted, so make sure you swap Campari for Aperol when stirring your next drink.

scionwine.com.au

Christmas liquefied.

GINGERBREAD MAN COCKTAIL: $85 (as part of a two-bottle Christmas Pack)

Forget milk and cookies. Santa wants a glass of this on Christmas Eve. Richmond bar The Ugly Duckling invest a liquefied gingerbread house for the festivities, tickled with warming cinnamon and clove spice. The sweetness is kept in check. Drink me neat over ice.

theuglyduckling.com.au

NON-ALCH

Monceau is bringing the ‘booch back.

Monceau

This Brunswick brewery proudly waves the flag for Melbourne’s K-booch movement. Fizzy, fruit-steeped kombucha that’s dry, savoury and a little funky. Doing designated drivers and teetotallers a solid since 2020.

monceau.com.au

Hiatus Beers Pacific Ale is a tropical island holiday in a can.

Hiatus Beers Pacific Ale: $5.50 per can

Giving the non-alch pacific ale a fair shake of the bottle. Tropical fruity aromas and flavours, crisp and easygoing down the hatch on a hot day. Almost identical to the real deal.

Blackhearts and Sparrows, Far Side Beers

Heaps Normal tastes like the real deal.

Heaps Normal

The OG zero-booze beer dispensary continues to deliver hit after hit. Quiet XPA, Half Day Hazy, Another Lager – and dare I say – new release ‘Tough Stuff Shandy’.

heapsnormal.com