Another Elmslie, another very tidy wine. This time it was the Three Mountain View Iced Riesling. Solid performer and just what we wanted with our fruit and coconut crumble.

The good folk at Frogmore Creek really know how to make a chardonnay.  Their 06 is as good as you would expect from such an outfit and provides yet another reason to ridicule the ABC (anything but chardonnay) crowd. Actually, we have stopped doing this since it's so easy, we prefer more challenging targets.

Our first experience of a Coal Valley Vineyard wine and what a beauty. The 07 Cabernet Merlot is smooth, flavoursome and balanced. Nice smokey finish on the first taste and it proceeded to mellow out beautifully over the next couple of days. Another very tidy Tassie cabernet.

Peter Shields has teamed his winemaking skills with the fruit from Darlington vineyard to produce this incredible riesling. It smells like a million dollars worth of fruit, backs it up with taste and just the right amount of acid and leaves you with a bone dry finish.

What do you call a sparkling made with merlot. It should have been the Red Drake but apparently you call it Muddleduck. PJ the famous sparkling sceptic commented "You know I would actually buy that!". Wonderfully full flavoured without the merlot finish that some people don't like. This is a very, very good sparkling and a good match for a traditional christmas dinner - even the plum pudding!.