Australian Wine Vintages

Australian Wine Vintages

With the incredible increases in quality and quantity of Australian wine, the 33rd edition of Rob Geddes Australian Wine Vintages (also known as -The Gold Book') is an essential guide to ensuring you select the best local vintages in any price range.

Dedicated to empowering wine buyers by demystifying the experience, Rob showcases the top 10% of Australian wineries that are proven consistent to drink, cellar and invest. This popular pocket-sized book (also available as an App) includes detailed tasting notes, vintage quality and indicative prices for over 6,000 wines from over 300 of Australia's best wineries, with 40 new wineries included in this 33rd edition. It also includes an updated list of Certified Organic and Biodynamic wineries, past vintage details for those who are cellaring or trading back vintages, as well as a guide to the various wine varieties and regions so you know what to look for. The Gold star list recognises the most consistent high quality wines in Australia, with an annual list of the top 100 wines tasted.

Accompanied by a panel of experts from other Master of Wine recipients, Sommeliers, major retail buyers and winemakers, all of the wines featured are tasted independently and objectively.

Suitable for both wine collectors and newbies looking to gain a better understanding of what they drink, the 33rd edition of Australian Wine Vintages is a must-have wine guide.

Top Father's Day Wine picks - Rob Geddes,/b>

Seppeltsfield Centennial Collection 1914 Fortified 100/100 $500.00
Angostura deep spirituous and more intense than the 1909. Salty plum dark chocolate and sweet dried dates light soya sauce, and in the mouth viscous intense sweet black fruited Dutch black salty liquorice with dark chocolate panaforte dried herbs and dark spices cloves. Like your ancestors have been boiled down and concentrated into a glass of wine and their best stories escaping.

Zonte's Footstep 2013 Violet Beauregard Malbec 96/100 $25.00
Amazing floral aromas with violets, crushed rose, plum, black currant and free from the sappy leafy edge some exhibit. The mouth feel and texture are extraordinary. Silky talc, powder fine, even and long with black currant, a lick of sappiness and liquorice flavours and a touch of spice on the finish.

Giaconda Estate 2012 Chardonnay 96/100 $110.00
Exceptional pale hue in the glass, the aroma is refined stone fruit and flinty struck match savoury elements and quite fine. The palate is long, even yet elegant with exceptional purity of ripe stone fruits and a flaunt flair of savoury, well wrought into the palate, with a mouth watering fresh acidity and marzipan nougat to finish. Great wine that will make you excited.

Torbreck 2012 Runrig Shiraz 96/100 $225.00
Ripeness, power and elegance with different sub regions of the Barossa blended like a complex jigsaw puzzle to create a majestic wine. Aromas of blueberry with threads of chocolate, plum, blackberry and dark olive flow into a seamless textured palate with length, intensity and complexity. Showing balanced oak tannins with blue and purple berry fruit flavours. So easy to drink on release and will remain a joy for years.

Pepper Tree 2013 Coquun Single Vineyard Reserve Shiraz 96/100 $60.00
Carefully chosen oak adds a balanced gentle vanilla ginger toast to the sappy raspberry bush and cane and red fruits aroma. The flavour is intriguing, dives right into your mouth with a deep red berry fruitiness that does not let up on the middle palate and comes gracefully to close with oak tannin dryness and lingering red berry fruits on the extended finish.

Rob Geddes is a wine industry veteran, the author of seven books on wine and currently works as a presenter and freelance journalist. Based in Sydney, he is in constant demand for his executive level presentations on wine, as a lecturer and after dinner speaker, educator and wine show judge both here and overseas. Rob was admitted to the Institute of Masters of Wine in 1992, becoming the third Australian member of this prestigious body. He currently tastes over 3,000 wines a year.

Australian Wine Vintages
Geddes a Drink Publications
Author: Rob Geddes
ISBN: 9780992493622
RRP: $34.95

Interview with Rob Geddes

Question: What originally inspired your love of wine?

Rob Geddes: I was born in a wine region, and when I was young there were grapes all around me. In the summer the ripe fruit seemed so attractive.

Later, as an adult, I found that I could remember the taste of different producers wines by variety and vintage I was interested enough to work in the industry. I love the idea of Terrior, a sense of taste and place, where the same wine varietal can taste completely different depending on growing conditions and the region it is growing in.


Question: How can we pick a decent wine without looking cheap?

Rob Geddes: Knowledge is power and if you don't have the time, then ask the staff or find the qualified person, in the store or restaurant.

"Decent" varies according to audience. Some wine varieties are less popular but high in quality. Australia does riesling, semillon, shiraz and grenache really well. The key is follow the above varieties, and choose wines from the bigger production regions. South Australian shiraz and cabernet are value at the price, NSW semillon, Victorian rose, chardonnay and pinot noir offer favourable price points.


Question: How can we fake being a wine snob, just to impress?

Rob Geddes: Only ask for a small pour, swirl the wine wine around in the ridiculously large glass for a long time and wait for the wine to start to smell of something and then tell others what you smell and see what they find. As people have very different sensitivities to aromas no one can argue with your descriptions so deliver them confidently. After spending a lot of time with your nose in the glass, sniffing and thinking, don't race to taste but savour, and sip. Faking being a wine snob is probably harder than just being interested in what you drink and where it comes from. Snobbery is the province of the insecure. If you pay attention to the region where the wines that you like come from, you will be in the best position, as your preference will be based on experience. For absolute snobbery, just buy the most expensive wine you can.


Question: Can you talk about the rise of lower alcohol wines?

Rob Geddes: Weight watchers and a move to fresher and lighter whites is at the core of this. The wine industry also like the change of light bodied whites (read low alcohol) and medium bodied reds ( read as low alcohol as can be managed ) as these wines taste better with food. Many people climb a ladder of increasing intensity in wine drinking. Today they start with Moscato and move to fresher and dryer, stronger whites when they get more experience . I still love a good Moscato. There is no shame is a light sweet white, and following on in rose and chardonnay. The big reds are still big and there is a good case to leave them till you have a lot of experience.


Question: Do you have a favourite wine for Spring?
Rob Geddes: Spring is about fresh, new bright and chirpy, riesling, semillon, and semillon sauvignon blanc time, and of course rose and sparkling. These bright fresh wines can be really good young, so I follow the year and suggest drinking a 2015 wine in late 2015 which can be very refreshing and lively.


Interview by Brooke Hunter