26/11/2021
As Fine Wine Manager of Parade Cellars, Ash Sinclair hand selects every wine in stock at the proudly independent bottle shop. It means he tastes thousands of wines every year and that aspect of the job has been particularly rewarding this year because “2021 has been such a great vintage, across the board.”
Here are five of his top new release wines for this year, available at the new online store or at Shop 15 Norwood Place.
Kenny Polish Hill River Riesling
“Wine can be one of those things that people don't feel like drinking on a hot day because they think it’s not as refreshing as a beer or a G&T, but this wine is going to prove them wrong,” says Sinclair. From a smaller producer in the Clare Valley, it’s “a perfect example of the Polish Hill River sub-region; crisp, very driven and focussed with a real electricity on the palate.” Expect a perfumed nose that leads to classic lime juice and lemon pith notes and a steely backbone in a wine that’s dangerously moreish.
The Perfect Pairing: Seafood is a classic example, but it works so well. Drink this with oysters and that acidity will cut through the fattiness while the beautiful fruit character can play off the brine.
“If you talk to anyone in Clare, they’ll tell you that ’21 is one of the great vintages. A long ripening period with cool nights helped the fruit develop a lot of flavour and complexity and you’ll find absolutely stunning wines across the board.” Awarded winery of the year in 2020 by James Halliday, Jim Barry is synonymous with high quality riesling and this one has a beautifully elegant lifted nose but is more fruit-driven than the Kenny with plump citrus notes and plenty of natural acid.
The Perfect Pairing: If you're having aromatic food, you really want to have aromatic wine alongside it and this wine’s brightness and acidity makes it a brilliant pairing with Thai food or Vietnamese food, especially something with coriander and a little bit of spice.
Thistledown Gorgeous Grenache Blanc
“Thistledown wines specialise in grenache and have won quite a few trophies for it so it stands to reason that they’d move into grenache blanc as well. This is a really approachable wine and it's quite a crowd pleaser because it has something for everyone.” A step up in palate weight from pinot gris but not as full bodied as chardonnay, this is made in a dry style so you can expect it to offer lashings of citrus and melon without being cloying.
The Perfect Pairing: Finding a good white for pasta can be a challenge but because it has some structure, this wine can handle oilier foods and still feel really fresh on the palate.
This Adelaide Hills winery uses exclusively Italian varietals and Sinclair calls winemaker Sam Scott “one of the leading voices in Australian fiano. He has a real passion for the variety and every year staff look forward to this release coming out because it sells out months before the next vintage becomes available.” The wine itself has bright acidity and fresh fruit characters but still offers plenty of complexity with a savoury finish and provides “a lot of wine for the price point.”
The Perfect Pairing: A bright, lively wine with enough texture to be versatile, this goes well with lighter seafood dishes, Asian food or classic Italian cuisine.
“There’s a lot of amazing rosé coming out of McLaren Vale and South Australia because winemakers are taking it way more seriously than they used to. This is an awesome producer from McLaren Vale that only makes rosé so everything is done with that in mind, from early picking to light extraction.” The result is a gorgeous colour and textbook aromas of Turkish delight, rose petals and strawberry in a bone dry wine with a fine tannin line that makes the perfect summer refresher.
The Perfect Pairing: This works with all the classic rosé pairings – salmon or any kind of chicken - but people don't talk about wine pairing with fried chicken enough for my liking. Grab a nice big Nordburger buttermilk chicken burger with this and you're gonna be in a happy place.
