Why these red wines from Kilikanoon, Serafino, Schild Estate and Springs Road score top points from James Halliday

The countdown begins to the James Halliday annual dozen. Here’s your chance to get ahead of the pack with four hand-picked reds that float the Halliday boat.

Get a headstart on the James Halliday annual dozen.

Welcome to the festival of James Halliday.

Years before I bought my first bottle of Nottage Hill claret as a “sophisticated” uni student, Mr Halliday was there, casting forth his knowledge: judging, educating, promoting.

If John Howard turned us into a country of shareholders with his “mum-and-dad” floats of government enterprises, James Halliday turned us into a nation of wine enthusiasts.

For many of us still now, if Halliday gives it a good score, it’s got to be worth a go.

So it is with much excitement that from today we begin our countdown to The Australian Wine Club’s James Halliday annual dozen to be released early next month. This is your chance to get ahead of the pack with four hand-picked reds that float the Halliday boat.

But before we get to our special mixed dozen, let’s go to the man. Our club president was celebrating his 83rd birthday at his home on the Coldstream Hills vineyard in the Yarra when I posed a few questions.

If you walked into a bottle shop with $25 what would you buy? “Anything from the 2021 vintage that comes from South Australia, Victoria or Tasmania – you make a beeline for it. These are celestial wines from a perfect growing season.”

Veteran wine writer James Halliday in his cellar at his home in Coldstream Hills. Picture: Aaron Francis

After more than 50 years in the game, what are the wines you most like to drink? “I drink more pinot noir, from Australia and Burgundy. And I love riesling from super-cool climates.

Like semillon, riesling has the ability to age for the better in bottle, without the use of oak; they grow another leg.”

What should we all be drinking more of? “Rose, with those great Asian dishes like Peking duck.”

If you started all over again, where would you go?
“It would be Margaret River if I didn’t want to make pinot, but I must make pinot. I’d join the others buggering off to Tasmania. In the 1960s, Tasmania’s agricultural department said no one should be considering planting grapes because it was too cold, the grapes won’t ripen. That was completely and utterly wrong.”

How do you rate Kangaroo Island as a wine producer? “A terrific place to grow grapes. It’s the marine climate – like Napa Valley and Margaret River. A big tick.”

Why is Australian shiraz so consistently good? “The reason shiraz is so dominant is that it is the greatest traveller. You could grow shiraz on a telegraph pole in Pitt Street and still produce great grapes. We produce different styles of shiraz across different regions but they keep their varietal integrity.”

Here are the Team Halliday notes to four brilliant expressions of modern Australian wine, available in a mixed dozen. Many happy returns, James.

Serafino Wines McLaren Vale GSM 2019

Strikingly deep, bright-rimmed hue. The 83/14/3 per cent blend works to perfection, with the red fruits of grenache doing all the lifting, shiraz providing a dab of plum coupled with silky tannins. Truly delicious.
96 points RRP $28

 

Kilikanoon Wines Covenant Clare
Valley Shiraz 2017

A mesh of premium vineyard fruit and an 18-month passage across quality French oak, this is a salubrious, full-bodied and glossy wine. A deep crimson verging on opaque. A firm bulwark of coffee grind-mocha tannins prolongs scents of violet, blue to black berry persuasions and crushed rock, long and far across the palate … Very good, if hedonism is your cup of tea.
95 points RRP $55

Schild Estate Wines Ben Schild Reserve Single Vineyard Barossa Valley Shiraz 2017

Picked and bunch-sorted by hand, berry-sorted by the destemmer, open-fermented, five- to seven-day cold soak, seven- to 14-day ferment, 18 to 24 months in French oak (30 per cent new). A high-quality wine ticking all the boxes, especially length and balance.
95 points RRP $36

Springs Road Kangaroo Island Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Sprightly cassis and pomegranate fruit flavours flow in an unbroken stream across and along the palate. Very much the child of the vintage that led to good acid retention and modest alcohols.
94 points RRP $35

SPECIAL DOZEN Three of each wine. $27.99 a bottle

Order online or telephone [phone] Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm AEST. Deals available while stocks last. The Australian Wine Club is a commercial partnership with Laithwaite’s Wine People