Champagne, Riesling

Amalaya, 'a hope for a miracle' is a nod to local farmers who made offerings hoping for an abundant, high quality harvest each year. The mix of torrontes and riesling has an intense musky scent under a mix of lemons and flowers. A strong stony mineral thread cuts through the grapefruit and sweet lime finish. A unique and fun wine to play with around food. The Amalaya blanco blend is made with organic grapes grown around 1675 metres. ANTHONY GISMONDI

Lemon blossom, melon and sweet peaches on the nose, followed by a medium-bodied, fresh and lightly waxy palate. Cool and aromatic. 85% torrontes and 15% riesling. Vegan. Drink now. Screw cap. JAMES SUCKLING

Light straw appearance. The nose is all fresh candied mandarine segments, meyer lemon, orange blossom and perhaps some roseyness and a citrus leaf cut. In the mouth the wine rolls reasonably sweetly, somewhat peach kernelly with more orange/ mandarine and lime hits. A massive juicy acid, cottees concentration. Some peach kernel and hints of vanilla to length.

The Merle never fails to sit among the very best releases of Clare Riesling, year after year, no matter what price bracket you quote. For me, this is one of our iconic Rieslings. The colour for this latest release is a near transparent lemon. The wine is elegant and refined, fresh and focused and offers drive, impeccable balance and endless length. A line of sea breeze acidity runs the length, the intensity never drops for a moment, and that freshness is still evident throughout. Fabulous stuff, this latest release is a worthy addition to the lineage. Enjoy over the next twenty years. Drink 2024-2044. (97) KEN GARGET, WinePilot.com

I'd be happy to lie on my back and have someone drip feed this Pikes The Merle Riesling into my mouth for the rest of my days. What an impeccable wine this is. Pure, focused, detailed and delicate all at the same time, class oozes from every pore...(97) QWineReviews.com

Presence on the palate, bordering on weight, with fruit intensity presented as a wide, compelling sheet of flavour. Lime, bath salts and slate, with florals and spices – and citrus rind – for afters. Here we are again on the shore where elegance and power meet. There’s a whisper of reduction in play and an impression that this wine has been made to be cellared. And yet, right now, it’s immensely more-ish. It’s another belter from Pikes. (95) MIKE BENNIE, www.winefront.com

The 2024 The Merle Riesling is powerful and tightly controlled, with a long spool of flavor—lemongrass, white pepper, cheesecloth, bay leaf and scratched lime—that draws out over the finish. I like this wine in its youth, and I like it as an older wine as well. It's very smart and eloquently of place. 11.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Drink 2025-2044 (96) ERIN LARKIN, The Wine Advocate

Stand back as this riesling lightning strike arrives. Complex nose of dried flowers and summer meadows. Ripe and juicy, but also very elegant and crisp with stunning mineral freshness at the very long pointed finish. Delicious, but also excellent potential. STUART PIGGOT

Smoky notes of lemon balm and apricot, cool and remarkably refined. Playful acidity propels the chiselled sweetness across a sleek and dancing palate. Sophisticated and lingering spicy finish. PAULA SIDORE, jancisrobinson.com

What a haunting beauty this fabulously elegant Spatlese is. The cool, slightly limey freshness exactly balances delicate grape sweetness. This lies right on the borderline of light-bodied and medium-bodied, but the way it does that and simultaneously walks the tightrope of sweetness and dryness is what makes this so exciting. Drink or hold. (95) STUART PIGOTT

The 2023 Riesling Brauneberger Juffer Spätlese is initially shy on the nose and requires air to reveal its pale lemon scent with a hint of passionfruit. The palate offers slender, cool, bright freshness with a delightful lemon and passionfruit tartness that tingles and shimmers. Moving solely on tiptoe, this wine dances under your skin. (94) ANNE KREBIEHL MW, vinous

At once rich and vibrant, this is extremely refreshing. Wonderful white peach, yellow apple and spring blossom aromas. Dangerously energetic on the elegant, medium-bodied palate. So clean and bright in the long, straight finish. Drink or hold. (95) STUART PIGOTT

The 2023 Riesling Brauneberger Juffer Auslese, made with possibly just 5% botrytis, has a subtle scent of gentle lemon. The palate combines exquisite creaminess with candied lemon, smooth and serene, rich yet absolutely chiseled and streamlined, pushing forward with freshness and drive. Gorgeous length defines the finish. (95) ANNE KREBIEHL MW, vinous

The Juffer 2023 Riesling Auslese, as it is referred to on the consumer label, displays a quite aromatic and attractive nose of honeyed yellow peach, almond, rose, candied grapefruit, anise, smoke, William pear, a whiff of candy floss, and acacia. The wine combines intensity and a certain lightness and freshness on the palate, as both ripe, yellow fruits (canned yellow peach, quince, and pear) interplay with fresher elements including mint and anise. The finish is pure and aromatic (tangerine, mango), and proves nicely focused, despite the richness at play. This is a superb, playful riper Auslese. (94) mosel fine wines

What could be better than a glass of bubbles and a great book. This pack pairs our  favoirte Pinot Noir based Chamange Andre Clouet Grand Reserve NV with the best-selling new release from Kirsty Manning - The Jade Lily, an evocative tale set in Shanghai during World War Two. Kirsty is Alex's wife and the writing is full of food, travel and things we love at Prince Wine Store. Full retail value is $105 a perfect little gift solution.

The Jade Lily - by Kirsty Manning
This is a rich, sensual, and evocative novel, fragrant with the smell of crushed herbs and flowers, and haunted by the high cost that women must sometimes pay to find both love and their vocation.' Kate Forsyth

'...compelling, passionate and admirable.' Australian Women's Weekly

In 2016, fleeing London with a broken heart, Alexandra returns to Australia to be with her grandparents, Romy and Wilhelm, when her grandfather is dying. With only weeks left together, her grandparents begin to reveal the family mysteries they have kept secret for more than half a century.

In 1939, two young girls meet in Shanghai, the 'Paris of the East': beautiful local Li and Viennese refugee Romy form a fierce friendship. But the deepening shadows of World War Two fall over the women as Li and Romy slip between the city's glamorous French Concession and the desperate Shanghai Ghetto. Eventually, they are forced separate ways as Romy doubts Li's loyalties.

After Wilhelm dies, Alexandra flies to Shanghai, determined to trace her grandparents' past. As she peels back the layers of their hidden lives, she begins to question everything she knows about her family - and herself.

A gorgeously told tale of female friendship, the price of love, and the power of hardship and courage to shape us all.

 

A complex, reliable Champagne that would show well in all occasions thanks to its freshness and class. Drawing on all three grapes (chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier), this has a complex grilled-nut and autolysis character overlayed across red berries and citrus fruits. Definitely a lot of reserve wine character here. The palate delivers lemons, grapefruit, peaches and mangoes in a refreshingly pure, fleshy style. The bright acidity, handy balance and tannins smoothly frame the finish JAMES SUCKLING

One of the great signatures of the region, its calligraphy flowing with elegance, panache and balance, the last reflected in the equal proportions of the three great varieties of Champagne. A flamboyant straw gold lustre, and an immediately seductive nose, encyclopaedic in its indulgence. Nougat, praline, white pepper, spice and nectarine were first to the page for this taster, but there is much more behind that, the sugar discrete yet edifying, the long yeast ageing responsible for a happy and altogether luminous marriage of power and finesse. Consistently excellent. SIMON FIELD MW, Decanter

the wine wafts from the glass with an alluring bouquet of green apple, brioche, pastry cream and buttered toast. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, impressively layered and complete, with a crisp but fleshy core of fruit, a youthfully frothy mousse and bright acids, concluding with a delicately chalky finish. This is one of the very finest—as well as among the most consistent—non-vintage brut bottlings from any of the Grandes Marques, and comes very warmly recommended. While it will be drinkable on release, it will reward some bottle age too. WILLIAM KELEY

Equal parts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier. It pours a bright silver straw hue and is fresh on opening, with a floral perfume of white flowers, fresh pear, and fresh almond. Medium-bodied, it’s attractive and approachable, with juicy peach fruit that fills the palate, although it stays refined, with a pinpoint mousse and a clean finish. It is a lovely entry to the range to enjoy now or over the next 6-8 years, and I love this as an aperitif style. JEB DUNNUCK

A great Spatlese that has deep apricot and mandarin orange fruit with delicate mint and tarragon aromas. Staggering vitality and brilliance on the extremely focused and precise palate. Enormous wet stone character at the superlong finish. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold. (97) STUART PIGGOT

Here is a great Mosel Kabinett that needs a bit more time to show what it is really made of. Still very young with a pronounced yeasty character that slowly recedes with aeration, but the white peach and honeysuckle aromas that emerge are stunning. Extremely vibrant and precise, the slatey acidity making this fabulously graceful. As pure as an Alpine stream running with glacier water. STUART PIGOTT, jamessuckling.com

This starts very quietly and gently with a wafting cloud of floral aromas, but then your gaze is pulled into the base of this Gothic cathedral window, pulling you ever further upward until you are staring at the heavens. Supernatural energy and vitality, the wet stone character cascading over your palate at the super-long finish. Doesn’t want to stop! From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold. (98) STUART PIGGOT

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

STAFF PICKS 2022 - ROSCOE HALLIGAN-ROSE


What a wine. It was a bit of an all-out brawl this year to see who would take out the big gong. I nabbed a couple of contenders on a recent weekend to examine them properly in the right kind of environment, under a tree in my yard with some mates and some nibbles. At the end There Can Be Only One and that had to be the Freddy Emile 2016. It's like they bottled The Quickening.
The power here is genuinely staggering. It's so compact and tense that it isn't entirely comfortable to taste at this early stage. Even with a few years under the belt it is almost completely primary with little or no indication of age showing amongst that youthfully imploded and inwardly focused fruit. Scintillating stuff. It practically hums with pent up potential. The length is unreal and it stains the palate with wildly mineral fruit. The palate is hugely impactful and it hits like a sock stuffed with pool balls being swung around. It is  a genuine WOW wine but it comes with a caveat, do not drink them too early. There is so much here just waiting to unveil itself. This is probably the best young version of this storied wine I have ever drunk. ROSCOE


Luminous straw-yellow. Complex, mint-accented aromas of nectarine, tangerine and powdered stone, plus a hint of licorice. Then bright, juicy and dense, showing outstanding acid-sugar balance and a penetrating juiciness to the stone fruit and herbal flavors. Finishes multilayered and very long, displaying noteworthy clarity and limy cut on the saline finish. Wine lovers everywhere know just how great Frédéric Emile Rieslings can be, but this looks to be a real knockout in the making; I absolutely love this wine's mineral drive and precision. It pulls off the neat trick of being both very ageworthy and also lovely to drink right now. I was happy to know that my palate was still working after an extremely long day of tasting when I told Pierre that in this vintage of Frédéric Emile I found more of the Geisberg than the Osterberg (in most vintages, the wine is a blend of 60/40 Osterberg-Geisberg, at times even 70/30, but this year it's more like 55/45). (97+) IAN D'AGATA, Vinous Media

The lemon-sherbet note here is really beautiful. Then comes a wealth of herbs, ranging from thyme to parsley, with a touch of sea salt, before turning to more floral nuances, such as cherries and almond blossom. The powerful acidity seems to surround the whole mouth and makes this almost like licking a lemon; the unmistakable dryness is all the more enjoyable because of it. Long and very elegant on the finish. STUART PIGOTT

The 2018 Brut Vintage is absolutely delicious, just as it was last year. Floral and citrus notes give the 2018 lovely aromatic lift to play off its mid-weight personality. This is a classy, polished Vintage Champagne marked by notable brightness. Airy, elegant and silky in feel, the 2018 is an absolute delight. ANTONIO GALLONI

Pol Roger's 2018 vintage is showing many of the fine facets of the year upon release already, open and giving in style with roasted pear, ripe apricot and grapefruit skin, lightly creamy and developing richness in pecan and brown pastry. The Pinot Noir leads, relatively structured for the year while showing hints of the smoke and spice to come with further age. A wine that flows with some of the ease and charm of 2018, but that promises a fairly early – if rewarding – unfolding in bottle. DECANTER 

Made from 60% Pinot Noir and the rest Chardonnay and pouring a vibrant silver/yellow color, the 2018 Champagne Brut Vintage (like all these wines) was aged in stainless steel without any oak. In the glass, it opens to springy and dewy floral aromas of honeydew melon, fresh flowers, citrus blossoms, and pastry dough. Medium-bodied and inviting, it’s approachable now and takes on a more mineral character on the palate without ever feeling austere. All its components move seamlessly through the palate, with a refined mousse and a kiss of sunny feel on the finish, but it’s clean and refined all the way through. This is going to improve with age, but it’s quite enjoyable now. Drink over the coming 15 or so years. It was made exclusively from Premier Cru and Grand Cru villages, was aged for 6 years on the lees JEB DUNNUCK

The 2018 Brut Vintage, with a dosage of seven grams per liter, exhibits a delicate bouquet of ripe orchard fruits, pineapple, peach, sweet spices and pastry, followed by a full-bodied, rich and elegantly creamy mid-palate that segues into a fleshy core of fruit with a penetrating, long and saline finish. Admirers of Pol Roger’s style will love it. WINE ADVOCATE 

Pale lemon with a lively and persistent mousse and an attractive nose of Spring flowers, hawthorn and apple turnover, a hint of iodine too. Subtle, the wine is composed yet incisive, fresh and yet profound, with orchard fruit and a citric cut shaping the palate, and notes of verbena and sourdough in support. Expertly crafted and forthright, without indulging to excess, the 2018 is poised and confident but far from brash and with a clear potential to evolve gracefully. The wine broadens beautifully with a little time in the glass, with hints of honey and biscuit evidenced, and will do so equally impressively in bottle over the next five years and beyond. SIMON FIELD MW

The 2018 Brut Blanc de Blancs is a blend of fruit from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Avize, Oger, Cramant, Chouilly and Oiry, six villages in the Côte des Blancs. Crushed rocks, mint, slate, lemon peel and green pear lend notable freshness. Like most wines in this vintage, the Blanc de Blancs is airy and medium-bodied in structure, but it shows lovely tension and fine balance. There's plenty of Delamotte class, in an understated style. Dosage is 6 grams per liter. ANTONIO GALLONI, Vinous

The Delamotte 2018 Blanc de Blancs is showing well today, evoking a gourmand, complex bouquet of pastry, almonds, ripe orchard fruits, spices and spring flowers. Medium to full-bodied, layered and chiseled, it’s enveloping and round with a fleshy core of fruit, though not as fleshy as the 2012, concluding with a tense and long finish. YOHAN CASTAING, The Wine Advocate

Bollinger continues its quest to highlight its Pinot Noir expertise with arguably the most exciting and focused wine yet in the PN series, focusing on the grand cru village of Verzenay from 2019 (although backed up with reserves from all around the Montagne de Reims and Grande Vallée, 25% of which comes directly from magnums). It weaves a beautiful line between the clear, long and ultra-fine Pinot of Verzenay, mineral and understated, the quiet power of the 2019 vintage, and the stunning complexity of reserves. Roast apricot, scorched orange citrus and soft raspberry fruits are backed up beautifully by toasty nougat, cocoa and dried pear ageing characters. It's a striking wine of persistent, tightly packed quality, holding terrific mid-term potential. DECANTER

The NV (2019) PN VZ is another terrific wine in this new range of Champagnes from Bollinger that is now in its fifth release. Exotic floral and spice notes play off a core of Pinot fruit in this captivating, mid-weight offering. Time in the glass accents the wine's inner sweetness and perfume. Pear, mint, jasmine and white pepper linger. In this release, the (2019) PN VZ is like a mini-Vieilles Vignes Françaises. It's an incredibly racy, sexy Blanc de Noirs. This release is based on 2019, with 50% reserve wines back to 2009. About half of the reserve wines were aged in magnum ANTONIO GALLONI

Something new in the range, the NV Champagne PN VZ19 is 100% Pinot Noir from Verzenay. It's assertive on opening, with aromas of raspberries, fresh baked bread, black cherries, violets, wet stones, passionfruit, and sweet citrus. It brings forward a good deal of intensity on the palate, with a lot of purity and a distilled feeling, its black cherry fruit gliding through a long finish with a saline flourish. This lovely wine has a lot to offer now but will improve with time and is going have 15 or more years of longevity. There's a fresh umami feel through this wine JEB DUNNUCK

The latest rendition of Bollinger's blended blanc de noirs bottling is the NV Brut Blanc de Noirs PN VZ19; it is based on the 2019 vintage, which represents 52% of the blend, and the village of Verzenay, which accounts for the origin of 40% of this bottling's components. 2019 is complemented by fully 48% reserve wines, and above all, fully a quarter derives from 2009; and it has the tension of Verzenay by Aÿ, Avenay-Val-d'Or, Tauxières and Mutigny. If all that sounds complicated, the wine's appeal is easier to see, as it offers up a demonstrative bouquet of yellow stone fruit, mandarin and praline, followed by a medium to full-bodied, pure and pillowy palate that's charming, even giving, but also attractively racy, concluding with a saline finish. It was disgorged with six grams per liter dosage. This doesn't tower above its 2018-base counterpart (perhaps unsurprisingly, as the percentage of reserve wines in this bottling is so high), but it does seem to be marginally the strongest iteration of this cuvée to date. WILLIAM KELLEY

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

We've come across a swathe of Argentinian wines that both excite and delight. There's a certain wild beauty to Argentine wine, and altitude plays a huge role. Many of Argentina's best vineyards sit far above sea level, where sun-drenched days meet cool crisp nights. This diurnal shift preserves acidity while ripening the fruit to vivid intensity, marrying freshness to flesh.

This 6 pack includes five malbecs and one torrontes blend:
1 x Bodega Colome Estate Malbec 2022
1 x Ernesto Catena Padrillos Malbec 2024
1 x Laura Catena La Posta Paulucci Malbec 2023
1 x Mattias Ricatelli Hey Malbec 2023
1 x Achaval Ferrer Mendoza Malbec 2022
1 x Amalaya Vino Blanco Torrontes 2024

What a nose of floral honey and dried flowers this fabulous Auslese has. In spite of the abundant richness what makes this stand out is the invigorating mineral freshness. And the further back the wine rolls over your palate the more amazing it becomes. Enormous aging potential. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold. (97) STUART PIGGOT

A driven and serious DP with aromas of chalk, biscuits, apricot stones and lemons. Some spice and dried flowers, too. So sleek and sophisticated. Elegant. Yet, it’s long and powerful, with a sharp minerality. Tight and precise. Reminds me of bottles from the 1980s, such as 1988. It really takes off. Disgorged October 2021. Drinkable on release in January 2023, but better in a couple of years. A DP for the cellar. JAMES SUCKLING

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!