Lock & Key Sauvignon Blanc 2011 – $15 – ˜˜**. Orange, New South Wales. Light in the glass, edge of green. Sauvignon style at the tropical rather than herbal end of the spectrum. Generous fruit salad nose. Soft and full in the mouth, with hints of pineapple and lychee. Medium dry to finish.

Alta Adelaide Hills Pinot Grigio 2011 – $20 – ˜˜˜***. Almost water pale. Limes and white blossoms permeate the bouquet. Clean, dry style with lovely citrus-oriented flavours and an edge of sherbert like tang to close.

Toolangi Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2009 – RRP $25 – ˜˜**. Bright light straw hues. White peach and apricot on the nose, along with a touch of toasted French oak. More stone fruit in the mouth and dried apples, all nicely balanced with biscuity wood and just enough acid to carry to an off-dry finish.

Bouldevines Marlborough Pinot Noir 2009 – $32.50 – ***˜˜˜. New Zealand. Medium crimson shades. Dark cherries and raspberries on a savoury-edged nose. Full-on style with soft tannins and a load of ripe, summer berries. The dry and firm finish counterbalances the fruity lusciousness.

Echelon Petit Verdot 2008 – $28 – ˜˜˜***. Mid-ruby. Nose of blueberries and blood plums with light oaky vanilla. Solid berry characters on the palate combine with mildly assertive tannins and synthesise into a satisfyingly chewy mouthfeel.

Rutherglen Estates Durif 2007 – $40 – ˜˜˜˜****. Dense to opaque ruby-red. Warm, almost porty nose. Lip-smacking, chewy tannins lead off in this robust and complex red. It’s a heady melange of plums, blackberries, pencil shavings, anise, mocha, leather, and alcohol. Not for the faint of heart. Serve with a substantial main course and plan for an after dinner nap.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz 2010 – Up to $15 – ˜˜˜***. Mid-red, purple hues. Blackberries and unassuming oak invite further nosing. Good fruit intensity in the mouth: if you can imagine a non-cloying sauce composed of 85% chocolate infused with blackberry syrup you might be there.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale $4.50 and more the stubbie. ˜˜˜- ***. This is the best US beer I’ve tasted in a long time. A bottle-conditioned (yeast in bottle), full-strength beer (5.6% alcohol) from California. The brew is packed with flavour, slight malt, lovely fragrant hops and a long smooth satisfying palate. It’s up there with my favourite Australian beer, Coopers Sparkling Ale.

Ratings

*****˜˜˜˜˜ – outstanding

****˜˜˜˜ – classy

***˜˜˜ – first-rate

**˜˜ – good stuff

*˜ – commercial

Yering Station Yarra Valley Fumé Blanc 2010 – $26 – ˜˜***  - Barrel fermented sauvignon blanc. In this wine, barrel-fermentation has softened much of the herbaceous pungency we expect in unwooded versions. Nevertheless there is still a hint of edgy tomato leaf over the faint woody overtones on the nose. The palate is full and rich and interwoven with sherbet-like acidity.

d’Arenberg McLaren Vale The Dry Dam Riesling 2010 – $15 – ˜˜˜*** Ripe lemon, new season pear and some floral notes on the nose. A generous mouth filling style permeated with lemon and lime intensity. There is a hint of apple pie at the finish. Good aperitif or entrée wine.

Barambah Classic 2010 – $19 – ** – S˜˜outh Burnett, Queensland. A blend of semillon, verdelho and sauvignon blanc. Pale straw hues. Attractive tropical fruit salad nose. Clean and dry in the mouth with a fine edge of citric tang at the finish.

Edenvale Shiraz – Alcohol removed – around $7 – ˜*  - Less than .5 % alcohol, If you’re off the booze this might serve as an alternative. Mid ruby in colour. Sweet plums on the nose. Slightly sweet in the mouth. Light tannic texture underlines Ribena-like aspects.

Invivo Central Otago Pinot Noir 2009 – $32 – ˜˜˜˜**** – The colour is light crimson with cherry skin hues. The nose shows strawberry conserve along with savoury smokiness and pencil shavings. Savoury character continues on the palate with aspects of maraschino cherry and strawberry tart. It finishes dry.

Kingston Estate Petit Verdot 2009 – $14 – ˜˜** – Dark red. Ripe plummy nose. A robust style with stacks of fruit over a sub-structure of integrated tannins. Just right for main course dishes. Unquestionable value for money.

Miles from Nowhere Best Blocks Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 – $27 – ˜˜˜˜**** – Margaret River, Western Australia. Cedar chest and blueberries on the nose. The soft yet lengthy palate is reminiscent of tobacco leaf and black currant liqueur. Tight, lip smacking, tannic astringency supports the whole.

Ratings

*****˜˜˜˜˜ – outstanding

****˜˜˜˜ – classy

***˜˜˜ – first-rate

**˜˜ – good stuff

*˜ – commercial

Prices in Australian dollars

Nepenthe Pinot Gris 2010 – $19 - **- Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Pale, hint of green. Subdued sherbet-like bouquet. Fruity ripe citrus in the mouth. Soft acidity to finish.

Summerhouse Chardonnay 2007 – up to $35 - *** – Marlborough, New Zealand. Mid-golden hues. Apricot conserve, toast, and white flowers on the nose. New season peaches and apricots on the palate with a firm infrastructure of barrel fermentation and firm acidity to finish.

De Bortoli La Bohème Act Two Dry Pinot Noir Rosé 2010 – $18 - **** – Yarra Valley, Victoria. Palest candy pink hues. Sweet strawberries and raspberries on the nose. Lovely dry palate with plenty of summer berries and a delightfully firm finish. Best rosé I’ve tasted this year.

Bellvale Pinot Noir 2007 – $35 – *** – Gippsland, Victoria. Dark cherry hues. Lifted nose of cherries, a hint of smokiness and strawberry tart. Well-fruited style with a hint of maraschino cherry and mid-dry tannins on the palate.

Peter Lehmann Clancy’s 2008 – $13 – ** – Barossa Valley, South Australia. Shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, merlot blend. Mid-crimson in colour. Nose of ripe blackberries and blood plums. A style of generous, smooth-textured red which typifies Barossa Valley offerings.

Thistle Hill Shiraz 2010 – $20 – *** – Mudgee, New South Wales. Preservative free. Dark ruby in colour. There is an appealing “thickness” about the nose of this along with mature fruit and hints of coffee and possibly aniseed. Well textured with grippy tannins along with top notes of mature fruit interwoven with earthy bush track character.

Zema Estate Coonawarra Shiraz 2007 – $25 – **** – Dark crimson, purple edges. Aromatic bouquet of dark berries. Solid offering of mouth-filling fruit combined with slightly chewy texture. A firm, forceful aftertaste demands the accompaniment of main course dishes. Cellar to 2015.

Ratings

***** – outstanding

**** - classy

*** - first-rate

** - good stuff

* – commercial

Prices in Australian dollars

 You can more or less judge the state of the Australian wine industry by the quality of wine available in casks. When cask wine is generally crap, it’s bad for consumers and means the industry is making a packet, selling all it produces across the price spectrum.

 When cask wine is good, like now, it indicates that wine makers and exporters are taking a beating and selling at bargain prices. Consumers love it.

 By way of illustration, recently I bought two flavoursome cask wines, the two litre Yalumba 2008 riesling for $12, and from New Zealand, the Dimension two litre Marlborough sauvignon blanc for under $15. I suggest that in times of wine shortage, both these wines would have entered the market in bottles, at a significantly higher price.

 Why the cheap wine? Currently, due to over-planting and bountiful harvests, there’s too much wine of all sorts available in Australia. Similarly, in New Zealand, they’re swimming in sauvignon blanc.

 And, if a wine glut is not enough, now we read that the Australian dollar is worth 50 per cent more than it was a year ago. In simple terms, this means that Australian wines cost a lot more overseas. See for example, Soaring dollar knocks the froth off Foster’s: Exports and Wine exports increase but values decline.

 The trickledown effect from a poor wine export market, combined with the wine glut, means that in the short term at least, drinkers of cask wine (not to mention cleanskins) are in for a treat.

 But that’s not all. As the Oz dollar climbs, imports gradually become cheaper. Last week I bought a bottle of Piper Heidsieck NV for the bargain price of $33.