Staff Picks Sydney 2025

STAFF PICKS 2025 - BRENDAN KEEN (DJ's SYDNEY)

Beautifully fragrant with fresh crushed orange, citrus peel, delicate sweet floral notes and a gentle bitterness of fresh cut herbs. This is perfect as a spritz or even with tonic but honestly we would happily drink it with ice and a dash soda as an apertif all summer long. Crafted by Antonio Nadal, Mallorca's oldest and most renown distillery, the Canonita essence is blended with white wine and refined with a secret selection of herbs from our beautiful island. Great for the festive season! BRENDAN


Canonita! What is it? Think Aperol but better. Ok. Bold statement but this stuff is absolutely delicious. It's made from the best organic Canoneta oranges from Mallorca's Sóller Valley.

The Valley is located on Mallorca's northwest coast and sheltered by the Tramuntana mountains is a magic place. Thanks to its unique terroir it is the centre of citrus cultivation in Mallorca for over  a  1000 years and the valley is theoriginal home of the highly aromatic Canoneta orange, considered the "queen of oranges".

Carefully crafted by Antonio Nadal, Mallorca's oldest and most renown distillery, the Canoneta essence is blended with white wine and refined with a secret selection of herbs from our beautiful island.
Its beautifully fragrant with fresh crushed orange, citrus peel, delicate sweet floral notes and a gentle bitterness of fresh cut herbs. This is perfect as a spritz or even with tonic but honestly we would happily drink it with ice and a dash soda as an apertif all summer long.

Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Poitevin rolls out of the glass with expressive notes of redcurrant jelly, blackberries and Morello cherries, plus wafts of wild sage and menthol. The medium-bodied palate gives a good amount of crunchy red and black fruits with a soft texture and bags of freshness, finishing with an herbal lift. LISA PERROTTO-BROWN, The Wine Advocate

Nose is elegant and oak is well integrated. Notes of vanilla, violets, blackcurrant leaf, dark chocolate and cloves. Palate has same leafy black fruit, discreet oak and pliable but slightly grainy tannins. DECANTER

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 - NICK CAPEL (SYDNEY)

Always a fan of the wines from Jenn Parr, this delectable drop comes from the North Otago region, Waitaki. Aromas of wild strawberry, pomegranate laced with wild thyme, cedar. The beautiful bouquet is followed on the palate with cardamom, allspice, damson plum, strawberry, and tart cherry. Polished tannins, fine and elegant. Sadly, there's no 2023, so make sure to get your fill! NICK

The 2022 Waitaki Vineyard Pinot Noir is light and fine, both in the glass and aromatically. On the palate, the wine is so fine and littered with crushed shells, river stones and cherry skin. This is fragrant and lithe, pretty and detailed. It is all of these things, but it is not short. It spools through the long finish, like a fishing rod reel in cast. As there will be no 2023 Waitaki Vineyard Pinot Noir, make hay while the sun shines, I say. A beauty. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. (94) ERIN LARKIN, The Wine Advocate

Relatively light pinot noir that's not lacking in power. Supple, savoury wine with cherry, raspberry, violet, fresh herbs and spicy oak flavours. On the greener side of the flavour spectrum but has good energy and impressive length. (94) BOB CAMPBELL, The Real Review

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 2025 - SARA TORRES (PWS SYDNEY)

I couldn't skip to pick a Mencia from El Bierzo this year, as Luis Gutierrez from Parker said: "There have never been better and more interesting wines in Bierzo than there are now." And Cesar Marquez is a name to remember. From Raul Perez's family, Cesar is focused into showing the differences in Bierzo, with parajes (lieu-dieux) at different altitudes (from 500 to 1100 m) and different terroirs. He has tried different approaches to the amount of stems but the priority is to harvest earlier, when the fruit is crunchy, herbal and fresh. The wines are aging in neutral, 600-liter French oak barrels, for 12 months, exactly the same as his single sites (one of them, Villegas 2023, got 100 points from Tim Atkin).

There's a lot of winemaking, old vines (some of them over 100 yo) and terroirs in this entry level wine which worths every penny. If you never had a Mencia, think about a Burgundian style, fruity, herbal, fragrant, with dried flowers and graphitic notes, with fine-grained tannins and long finish.  A splash of Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante bouschet) brings juiciness to the blend. SARA 
 


The 2022 Parajes is the regional red representing El Bierzo, and it's a blend of different places, soils and expositions, from vines at different altitudes, between 450 and 780 meters above sea level. He used less full clusters, as he uses less stems in warmer years, with some 15% this time; part was in stainless steel and part in bins, as he ferments by plot. The wine matured in 225- and 500-liter oak barrels for one year. It's super fine and elegant, fresh and balanced, with moderate ripeness and 13.3% alcohol, a pH of 3.65 and 4.76 grams of acidity. It's medium-bodied, with very fine tannins and great balance. The tannins are round and fine-grained, and the mouthfeel is juicy and tender, reflecting the warmer year. But there's no heat in any of the wines from the year. 32,605 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2024. LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate

César Márquez Parajes is a coupage of the most prestigious and unique Bierzo plots. Old vines grown as they used to be, without using pesticides or chemicals that can damage the natural balance of the terroir. Each of the plots is worked separately according to their needs and the harvest is carried out manually.

In the winery, 50% of the grapes used to make César Márquez Parajes are destemmed. Then they are pressed in the old-fashioned way, with feet, so that some of them stay whole during fermentation. Fermentation is spontaneous with the grape’s native yeasts. Once the must becomes wine, it is pressed and placed into 225 and 500 litre barrels separately. After 12 months the barrels are emptied and the different wines are combined. DECANTER

Aromas of red plums and dark cherries, together with hints of lavender, star anise and wet stones. This is more approachable and juicy with vivid, mouthwatering acidity and fine, dusty tannins. Medium-bodied, crunchy and fresh. Drink or hold. JAMES SUCKLING

The 2022 Ciallabianco is exotic, with a mix of tropical florals and citrus tones complicated by notes of incense and ginger. It envelops the palate with ripe apricot and nectarine, balanced by the onset of crunchy minerals toward the close. Tangerine hints mix with tart apple and spice as it finishes long and staining, yet still fresh. ERIC GUIDO, Vinous

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!

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 2025 - RORY HILL (SYDNEY)

I have a soft spot for Chenin Blanc. In 2023 it beat out all other contenders as the prized white option at my wedding, likely introducing a whole crowd of newcomers to the variety. This Anjou Blanc sits firmly in the savoury mold, with sleek texture and impressive concentration for its price point. Expect crisp apple, a hint of beeswax, and those delicate white flowers that are so characteristic of Chenin from this region. As summer approaches, there’s no denying the appeal of refreshing, zippy whites to beat the heat. But sometimes, you crave something with more weight, a fuller-bodied beauty that doesn’t just refresh, but truly rocks your socks off. RORY