Top drinks of the month: May 2016

2015 Hither & Yon Grenache Mataro, McLaren Vale

Like so many 2015 reds out there in bottleshop-land, this has heaps of juicy red berry fruit flavours typical of the warm, early vintage. But there’s also a delicious gutsy earthiness – like sweet black composting leaf litter – that sets it apart.

$24, hitherandyon.com.au.

Pact Beer Co. Mount Tennent Pale Ale, Canberra

In a crowded craft beer scene, a new brand needs to get everything right to be noticed. This one does: high quality – lovely bright citrus and floral hop flavours, bold and bitter but refreshing and moreish – and super smart packaging. Nice.

$4.50, pactbeer.com.au.

2007 Jansz Late Disgorged, Tasmania

The ‘standard’ vintage Jansz ($40 ish), disgorged after five years, is very good, but this – the same wine with a couple more years on lees – is glorious: opulent, long and deeply satisfying flavours of brioche and grilled nuts and crème brulée.

$55, jansz.com.au.

2015 Murdoch Hill The Surrey Pinot Meunier, Adelaide Hills

Known to most wine lovers as a minor grape in champagne and sparkling wine, pinot meunier can also be employed to produce delicious, lighter-bodied earthy red wines like this: red forest fruit flavours and hints of autumnal hedgerow.

 $40, murdochhill.com.au.

2015 Weemala Gewurztraminer, Orange

Yet another convincing argument for Weemala as one of the most reliable good-value labels around: I preferred this to gewurztraminers twice the price in a recent blind tasting – lovely and perfumed, with a gorgeous grape pulpy-texture.

$20, loganwines.com.au.

Husk 2012 Harvest Virgin Cane Rum, NSW Northern Rivers

The debut release of this paddock-to-bottle rum – made from sugar cane juice grown on the distillery’s own farm – is splendid: rich, complex, stylish, it fills the mouth with flavours of treacle, woody spice, vanilla and lingering toastiness.

$100, huskdistillers.com.   

2015 Seppelt Drumborg Riesling, Henty

Unless you like your riesling on the nervy, tart Granny Smith side (and I do, as it happens), don’t drink this now. Instead stash some away for a few years to mellow and develop richer, lime toasty flavours: the 2000 is drinking superbly.

$35, seppelt.com.au.

2012 Grace Cuvée Misawa Akeno Koshu, Yamanashi, Japan

Made from low-yielding local koshu grapes grown on high-altitude volcanic slopes near Mount Fuji, this wine is a revelation: tangy, savoury, and shot through with intense minerality, it’s great now but should also cellar very well.

_$85, imported by qedwines.com.au.      

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2014 Te Mata Awatea, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

I tasted through the latest releases from this stalwart Hawkes Bay winery recently, and while they were all good, this cabernet merlot blend was the standout: simply beautiful balance of dark damson plum and fine, cedary tannin.

$45, imported by redandwhite.com.au.

Starward Wine Cask Edition Single Malt Whisky, Melbourne

This fabulously full-flavoured whisky, redolent of the smoky shiraz barrels it was matured in, was named Best Australian Single Malt at the 2016 World Whiskies Awards. Not bad for a dram distilled in an old aircraft hanger in Essendon.

$100, starward.com.au