Looking for your next drop? Try fizz crafted by Tasmania's queen of sparkling wine, Bellebonne's Natalie Fryar, and riesling from Hugh McCullough's Wellington & Wolfe.
2021 Wellington & Wolfe Eylandt Reserve Riesling
Matured five months in four-year-old French oak barrels with bâtonnage, 25% mlf. The fragrant, spicy elegance of the cool 2021 season in Piper’s River is electric, and it’s testimony to Hugh McCullough’s dexterity that he’s successfully deployed every trick in the book to achieve balance, without for a moment interrupting purity or crystalline linearity. A few hours of skin contact and cool fermentation (12 degrees) energise kaffir lime, Granny Smith apple and lemon fruit accented with white pepper. Texture and body derive equally from maturation and bâtonnage, mlf and 35g/L RS. Huge potential. Tyson Stelzer, Halliday Wine Companion, 94 points.RRP $50 | Drink to 2041 | Find out more
2015 Bellebonne Blanc De Blancs
It’s taken more than six years for Natalie Fryar’s first flagship to see the light of day, such is the long game of sparkling wine. A radiant, medium straw-yellow hue, it abounds in generous pineapple, Golden Delicious apple, fresh fig and preserved lemon. Six years has blessed it with bountiful brushstrokes of brioche, vanilla custard and even a hint of nutmeg. Texturally it is a marvel, at once creamy and silky, yet simultaneously taut, determined and enduring. Acidity, phenolics and lees texture entwine in a complete and singular trajectory that carry a mesmerising finish. Enticing now, it has places to go over the coming decade, too. Tyson Stelzer, Halliday Wine Companion, 96 points.RRP $110 | Drink to 2030 | Find out more
2021 Wellington & Wolfe Riesling
Hugh McCullough is becoming ever more refined in the art of upholding the delicacy and detail in riesling, and this is his finest estate-grown release yet. Skin contact, old barrels, wild ferment, bâtonnage and just the slightest drop of RS are all played with masterful sensitivity to build harmony and beauty. But the real game here is pristine Tamar fruit: floral, tropical, racy and downright delicious. Irresistible now, and with plenty of mileage in the tank. Tyson Stelzer, Halliday Wine Companion, 95 points.RRP $38 | Drink to 2031 | Find out more
2018 Bellebonne Vintage Cuvée
A luminous, pale straw hue signals elegance and tension in a cuvée that embodies incredible texture and presence. The white fruit and lemon-zest cut of chardonnay leads out, meshed with the strawberry hull and red apple of pinot; the union polished by the creamy, spicy flow of old barrels. Intricately assembled, with every detail of acidity, phenolics and dosage uniting in a seamless, enduring finish. A triumph of a harrowing season. Tyson Stelzer, Halliday Wine Companion, 95 points.RRP $72.50 | Drink to 2026 | Find out more
For more information visit bellebonne.wine @bellebonnetas and wellingtonwolfe.com @wellingtonandwolfe.
