Peter Shields from Kilbowie Wines is a nice chap. In fact he's so nice he likes to introduce you to new wines. He got us onto the organic wines from Temple Bruer, for which we thank him, and introduced us to Muller Thurgau. Which kind of caused a problem. Peter is mad for the MT. He is enthusiastic about it's 'subtle' taste and he wants everyone else to be as well. Problem is, for us, it was a bit too subtle. In all honesty we thought it wasn't a patch on his other rieslings and nowhere near as good as his pinots.

Despite our ambivalence he never gave up on trying to convert us. Recently he sent us a bottle of the 2010, which is now christened the 'MTR'. Two follow up emails later "have you tried it yet?! ....have you tried it yet?!" we thought "we'd better try it".

To say we were surprised is an understatement. This wine is nothing like his previous vintages. Firstly it has a taste, secondly it has an amazing floral character that took us back to Alsace (France). Combine this with its punchy clean finish and you have a riesling that is really worth trying. 

If Peter keeps producing Muller Thurgau like this we may have to learn a bit of German so we can pronounce the name properly. At the moment we sound like we've escaped from the set of Hogan's Heroes!

Occasionally our thoughts turn to that big island to the north. Mostly it's of the "geez we're glad we don't live there" type but sometimes it's because we're trying a mainland wine. This time it was the Two Hands Gnarly Dudes Barossa shiraz. By the way the 'gnarly dudes' refer to the old bush vines from which the wine comes rather than ageing surfers. As much as we love what's happening with Tassie shiraz its great to taste a very good example of the warmer climate variety.

This wine was bright and quite fruity at first but as the night wore on it became fuller and more earthy. We liked all the stages. It was kind of like watching someone go from childhood to adult in the space of an hour or so. Extraordinary. We also liked how they turned out! No bubble headed narcissistic gen Y here! Looks like there is another cellar door worth a visit next time you're in the Barossa.

This was our first experience of the Kelvedon sauvignon blanc. Prior to this all we knew was that Jack Cotton was justifiably famous for his consistently good pinots. Now we can add whites, well at least one white. If the Kelvedon pinots are anything to go by their sauvignon blancs will be enjoyable year after year.

This wine is a great follow up to last months sav roundup. It proves yet again all the claims we made about how Tassie will be the go to place for sauvignon blanc in the not too distant future. Flavour, punch and 100% satisfaction. Can't ask for more than that!

People who get complimentary bottles of Meadowbank wine in their rooms stay in far better hotels than we can afford. This bottle of 2009 pinot gris came to us via such a hotel and a charitable punter. Like all Meadowbank wines this one is well made and handsomely packaged. We liked the tight fresh flavours and solid dry finish. 

You have to give Meadowbank full marks for consistency. You could have spent years choosing nothing else and you wouldn't have gotten a single nasty surprise. It's a safe wine and that is our only issue. While we respect this label we have to say that we've never tried a Meadowbank wine that really excited or challenged us.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this label now that Meadowbank has been purchased by Frogmore Creek.

The Glen Grey Merlot is the last in the Grey Sands range to have a review. We left it for a while because Bob Richter referred to it as a 'lesser wine' and we wanted to try all the others first. At the time of our interview with Bob and Rita, the 2004 merlot had a dusty finish and seemed a little flat.

However, trying it this month we found none of that. It seems more time in the bottle has done wonders. The wine seems to have found it's balance with the fruit being more pronounced than we remember and the finish more solid but rounded. It was very pleasant. Bob may disagree but we won't be calling it a lesser wine.