Australian Wine Entertaining Case – 2

River Retreat Sparkling Brut

River Retreat Sparkling Brut – A traditional blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This is the bubbles in the River Retreat Range. Light green straw in colour with a fine persistent bead showing lifted aromas of citrus and apple. Tasting soft and refreshing with light creaminess and balance.

Winemakers Notes

The grapes were picked during the cool of the night, the fruit was de-stemmed and pumped into the press. Only the best quality of free run juice was taken off; then clarified before adding yeast. The fermentation was carried out at a cool temperature to maintain the fruit flavours. After fermentation, the base wine was allowed to rest on yeast lees for 6 months before undergoing a second fermentation to produce the fine bubbles.

River Retreat

The wetlands of South Eastern Australia are integral in maintaining the health of the unique yet fragile ecosystems of inland Australia. Produced and bottled by Trentham Estate, the River Retreat range of wines is based on an initiative dedicated to raising awareness of these wetlands. Each purchase of the River Retreat label results in a donation to the Murray Darling Wetlands Working Group Ltd.

With many great projects currently underway in the far-west region of NSW, the Murray Darling Wetlands Working Group will benefit greatly from these ongoing funds.

Producer Details

We have a great selection of Trentham Estate wines which can be seen on our dedicated web page

You can find out more about Trentham Estate Winery by going to their website

The 46 hectares that make up Trentham Estate’s vineyards sit on a winding riverbank at Trentham Cliffs. The ideal terroir of red loam over limestone soils combined with nurturing water from the Murray River allows the vines to flourish.

River Retreat Sparkling Brut

Mount Barker Riesling by Capel Vale

Mount Barker Riesling by Capel Vale – Citrus, lychee and delicate white flowers on the nose. A soft, yet crisp palate with lime and apple characters.

Capel Vale’s Regional Series wines are elegant and graceful; high quality wines that reflect varietal and regional characteristics.

Regional wines are elegant and graceful wines. They are high quality wines that reflect varietal and regional characteristics

A great wine to drink on release. This wine will gain in complexity with cellaring up to 5 years. The 2023 vintage in Mount Barker was a cooler, longer vintage. There was minimal disease pressure and the fruit ripened slowly. Fermented using neutral yeasts and fined with vegan friendly agents, This Riesling was fined, filtered and bottled soon after fermentation

Capel Vale was the first winery in Western Australia to own and establish vineyards in the cool climate regions of Margaret River, Mount Barker and Geographe. As a result, Capel Vale now produces wines of definitive regional flavour and varietal expression with a focus on balance, complexity and elegant fruit flavours.

Capel Vale is a pioneer in WA with vines planted in 1974. The initial winery was built on the Stirling Estate in Capel in 1979 followed shortly thereafter with the first vintage made by Dr Peter Pratten in 1980.

The Capel River, adjacent to Capel Vale winery is home to many species of waterfowl, including the protected Sheldrake, or native Mountain Duck. When the Pratten family originally planted the vines in 1974, the Mountain Ducks constantly surrounded them, reminding them of their presence whilst they work.

The banks of the Capel River were deliberately untouched to allow the ducks to maintain their natural habitat and can still be seen today, squawking merrily along their way “symbolise what Capel Vale is all about”

You can find out more about this Western Australia winery by going to their website

You can see our full range of Capel Vale wines on our web page

Mount Barker Riesling by Capel Vale

Y Series Cabernet Sauvignon

Bright, medium to deep crimson in colour, opening with violets, sea spray and fresh Mediterranean herbs. There is a lovely hit of blueberry, a hint of black tea and the quintessential Australian note of dried eucalypt. When you first try the wine, there is an initial burst of fresh fruit sweetness, much like blackcurrant pastilles. This sweetness is balanced beautifully with savoury notes of fresh herbs and a lovely acid that compliments the blueberry Danish opulence. The wine is typically structural with focused, yet friendly tannins. This is a fresh and vibrant Cabernet Sauvignon. A lovely match with traditional or vegetarian homemade lasagne..

At Yalumba they believe that one good wine leads to another. The Y Series was created with that belief in mind. The Y Series represents a collection of iconic classics and exciting new varietals. Each authentically crafted with fruit from South Australia’s most celebrated wine regions. 

To view our full selection of Yalumba wines please take a look at https://www.auswinesonline.co.uk/product-category/yalumba/

For more information on the Yalumba winery click here

Yalumba has been developing its own sustainable viticulture program since the mid 1990s. This starts in the vineyard and extends to every aspect of winemaking, production, packaging and distribution. Many awards and milestones have resulted due to sustainability now being at our core. All Yalumba wines were announced vegetarian and vegan friendly as of 2011. Yalumba is the first wine company in the world to receive the Climate Protection Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007. These benefits are most obvious in your wine glass.
“Apart from economic viability and social equity, for us, sustainability is about biodiversity in our vineyards,” says Winemaker Louisa Rose. “To encourage it, we’ve done a number of things: we’ve reduced the amount of chemicals we use, incorporated an integrated pest management system, and encouraged biodiversity of vegetation in our vineyards”. All in the name of better winemaking.

Y Series Cabernet Sauvignon – great wine from a great winery

d’Arenberg Vintage Fortified Shiraz, another classic from this famous Australian producer.

d’Arenberg Vintage Fortified Shiraz – Luscious, plummy sweet fruit meets exotic lively spice.

From the first declared vintage in 1928, their fortified wines have been Shiraz based, and the vines that produced the original vintage still provide the grapes for this wine. These old vines are stumpy, gnarled and deep rooted, distinguished by their small bunches of highly coloured and intensely flavoured grapes.

2018 is a tale of two vintages for red wines in McLaren Vale. Winter rain ensured the soil reached filled capacity and set the vines up perfectly with healthy balanced canopies. A normal spring and an unseasonably cool January and February meant most vines remained stress free and for early picked parcels flavour ripeness was achieved at reasonably low sugar levels and high natural acidity. However, a sustained heat wave in early March forced frantic picking and resulted in rich ripe characters.

Generosity is the theme of this wine. The aromatic nose is a gift of chocolate, fresh pipe tobacco, and Christmas pudding, with fresh violets lingering in the background together with an array of spices, from nutmeg and cinnamon, to cloves and ginger. This wine has been fortified with high quality brandy spirit during the natural fermentation process. This has captured the beautiful character of the fermenting grapes. The palate is packed with intense flavours of plummy sweet fruit, figs, nuts, dried apricot, and exotic lively spice. Natural acidity has been retained and provides a structure on which the generous fruit body of this wine can sit. Chewy grape tannins carry this generosity through on a long and warm finish.

d’Arenberg Vintage Fortified Shiraz from McLaren Vale, a great example of this typically aussie style of wine.

Explore our full range of d’Arenberg product 

d’Arenberg is an iconic Australian winery producing wines loved the whole world over.

d’Arenberg – one of Australia’s first families of wine.

Stump Jump Shiraz – a staple from the iconic d’Arenberg Winery.

Stump Jump Shiraz – Fresh and juicy, ripe red fruits mix with plums, blackcurrant, flowers and a twist of black pepper. The tannins are fine with their trademark earthiness helping keep this easy going Stump Jump Shiraz in check.

It is rumoured that the inventor of the Stump Jump plough, which enabled a ploughshare to jump over tree roots, had poor eyesight and required regular tests to ensure he could still operate machinery. The design of this label is inspired by an optometrist’s eyechart and serves as a makeshift sobriety test. If you can hold the bottle at arm’s length and still read the front label, you can enjoy another glass.

This is a very approachable and fun wine. The lifted nose is a cacophony of aromatic intrigue. Lifted red fruits are chased down by dark berry aromatics which then yield to typical baking spice and cracked pepper characters shared by all good McLaren Vale Shiraz. It’s almost like a race to the finish for these competing characters all vying for the lead role. Yet they also support and complement one another. It is on the palate that the value of this wine can be truly appreciated though. Generous fruit weight supports a fine tannin profile characteristics that would make this wine sit proudly amongst those many times its price. Black olive skin, earthy notes, and a subtle touch of graphite and iron round out the full palate. This wine has a welcome plushness to it, yet sits lightly on the tongue, its tannin and long acid line giving it a lively and playful feel. Have fun enjoying this wine. That’s what it is asking you to do.

To see our full range of d’Arenberg product please click here

For more information on the d’Arenberg wines and winery click here.

Stump Jump Shiraz

Pimpala Road Chardonnay by Geoff Merrill

Pimpala Road Chardonnay – Talented winemaker, Geoff Merrill has produced an archetypal south Australian Chardonnay with a youthful lemon colour and green hues. The nose has aromas of
complex toasty vanillin oak and citrus fruit which are well integrated and smooth. Matured in French oak barrels to add toasty complexity before finishing clean with lingering flavours of lime, honeydew, apple and white peach with undertones of subtle oak

Best with Thai food, shellfish, poultry, pasta with cream sauces and soft cheese.

Located just 30 minutes drive south east of Adelaide and parallel to the coast, these rolling hillside vineyards produce some of Australia`s finest Shiraz and Grenache based red wines. Some of the areas historic old wineries were established in the late 1800s and many remain today. With a strong regional identity on the international stage, the wines have a distinctive style achieved from a combination of very warm summers, mild winters and cooling sea breezes. Many of Australia`s most famous and expensive wines have their vineyard origins within this region.

For more information on the vineyard go to their website

To see our full range of Geoff Merrill products go to our webpage for further information.

Pimpala Road Chardonnay by Geoff Merrill