Our First Australian Wine Delivery: Shipping January 2025
Australia’s vibrant wine scene is calling, and we’re bringing its finest directly to your door. With our inaugural shipment, we’re thrilled to share six exceptional bottles that celebrate the diverse landscapes and winemaking brilliance of Australia. This curated selection showcases iconic regions, innovative producers, and unforgettable flavors, offering a true taste of what makes Australian wine world-class.
From the bold Shiraz of Barossa Valley to the crisp Riesling of Clare Valley, and from elegant cool-climate Pinot Noir to expressive blends that push boundaries, this first delivery is a journey across Australia’s wine tapestry. Each bottle is chosen not only for its quality but for the story it tells—a reflection of its region’s unique character and the passion of its makers.
Don’t miss the chance to be part of this exciting debut. Whether you’re a seasoned wine enthusiast or just beginning to explore, our January 2025 shipment promises a premium, engaging, and delicious introduction to Australian wine. Secure your spot now, and let the adventure begin
So what's in the first How to Drink Australian Wine Box?
2023 Moorilla ‘Praxis’ Brut Sparkling Riesling - Tamar Valley, Tasmania
Where do we even start with Moorilla? Not only is it one of the most historic vineyards in Tasmania (the second longest continuously-operating commercial vineyard on the island, planted in 1958!), it is home to just about the coolest modern art museum in the world. Where can you combine browsing Picassos, listening to the world’s only copy of Wu Tang Clan’s infamous seventh studio album, and drinking world-class wine? It’s Moorilla!
With all the hubbub about the museum, it would be easy to think that wine is an afterthought. But wine has always been the driving force on Frying Pan Island, and the quality and ingenuity today is better than ever. This sparkling riesling combines two of the things that Tasmania does best, sparkling wine and the riesling grape. The riesling comes from Moorilla’s second vineyard in northern Tassie, planted in the 1980s. The grapes are fermented using the Champagne-method, and then left only six months on lees to preserve freshness and varietal character. The result is a nose of lemon aspen (a floral native citrus), kiwi, green pineapple and finger lime, with white pepper, slate, and citrus oil adding complexity on the palate. The bead is vibrant and refined with a touch of creaminess to balance.
Only 24 dozen of this wine came to the US, and we want our wine club members to be some of the lucky few to try it.
2022 Murdoch Hill ‘The Rocket’ Chardonnay - Adelaide Hills, South Australia
This wine has been sold out for months in Australia -- six months to be exact -- when it was awarded the top wine trophy in Australia and the few remaining bottles were snatched up. On May 30 2024, ‘The Rocket’ won the Prime Minister’s Trophy for Champion Wine of Show at the National Wine Show of Australia -- Australia’s most prestigious wine award. The chair of the show said of the wine: “The feedback from all 12 judges was just how much flavour this wine has. To get a chardonnay with such powerful and precise flavours is due to a combination of a great vineyard that’s perfectly tended, with sensibly grown grapes and sensitive winemaking. It’s a great, great wine.” We couldn’t agree more!
Murdoch Hill is the Downer family’s farm in the Adelaide Hills, which has taken the Australian wine world by storm since third-generation Michael Downer took over the winemaking and delivered the first estate-bottle wine in 2012. We’re including in the wine club THE EXACT WINE that took out the top gong -- not a different vintage, not a different vineyard -- and on top of its wine show trophy, it was also awarded an astounding 96 points by Wine Advocate. This is Australian chardonnay at its finest, in all its flinty, oily, precise, complex glory.
About 150 dozen were made of this wine in total, and only 16 dozen came to the United States. We’ve nabbed 75 bottles for the wine club, get it while you can!
Mother Block Red Blend 2022 - Murray Darling, Victoria
If we had to point to the storyline that is the future of Australia, it’s right here, on the Mother Block vineyard in Murray Darling. The Mother Block was planted by the Chalmers family as an experimental block, a way to test the waters with what grape varieties would work the best in their warm, dry, Mediterranean climate in northern Victoria. The results were stark: the popular French grapes that most vintners were planting (chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz) paled in comparison to the suitability of Italian grapes for the region, and the raison d’etre of the Chalmers family was born. They started their nursery business in the 1990s, and to this day, have brought in almost 80 different grapes and clones. These grapes thrive in warm, dry climates -- of which Australia has, increasingly, many -- and require less water and no additives to make delicious, sustainable wine. It took some doing, but the Australian wine industry has jumped on board with the Chalmers family, making the country the number one home for Italian grapes outside their homeland.
The Red Blend is released each year to celebrate the bounty of the Mother Block -- home to the mother vines of every grape the Chalmers family has ever imported to the country. The 2022 is a co-fermented blend of 62% Sagrantino, 17% Nero d’Avola, 7% Aglianico, 6% Sangiovese, 5% Uva di Troia, 2% Teroldego, and 1% Piedirosso. The aromatics combine red and purple fruits -- pomegranate, riberry (a tart native berry), plum, and cherry -- with savory qualities of Szechuan peppercorn, licorice, river mint, and sesame. Gulpable, food-friendly, and bright, the Mother Block Red Blend is a wine for every palate, dish, and occasion.
92 points and a ‘Best Buy’ designation from Wine Enthusiast, to boot!
Seppeltsfield Grenache 2022 - Barossa Valley, South Australia
Seppeltsfield is quite literally one of the most historic estates in all of Australia, established in the Barossa Valley by Joseph and Johanna Seppelt just 15 years after the European settlement of South Australia. In 1850, Joseph Seppelt, an emigrant of Silesia (modern day Poland), purchased 158 acres of land in Nuriootpa, Barossa. Designating it “Seppeltsfield”, Joseph originally farmed tobacco, but soon pivoted to grape growing and winemaking. Seppeltsfield flourished into the 20th and 21st centuries, becoming a household wine name in Australia. Home to the Great Terraced vineyard, originally planted in 1858, a gravity fed cellar built in 1888, and the Centennial Cellar, which houses some of the world’s greatest and oldest wines, Seppeltsfield is not lacking in historical lore and bona fides.
But the estate has not lost sight of the fact that they don’t want to only make wine that ends up in collector’s cellars; they also want to make wine that’s a staple on people’s dinner tables. So in 2007, they introduced the ‘Village’ range, designed to be affordable wines that astutely express grape and place and over-deliver on quality. The Grenache is largely sourced from the aforementioned Great Terraced vineyard, with vines up to 80 years old. All destemmed and aged in stainless steel, the grapes make their way through Seppeltsfield’s gravity fed cellar before arriving in our club. Notes of lifted rosewater, Turkish delight, strawberry acacia, and rosella jam fill out the nose, while savory elements of dried herbs and anise myrtle emerge on the palate. Juicy-fruited with a soft yet persistent acidity and plum-skin tannins providing balance.
Approachable yet complex, with 92 points from James Suckling.
Dominique Portet Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 - Yarra Valley, Victoria
The Portet family represents the know-how and instincts that come from ten generations of winemaking around the world. Dominique himself, the ninth generation, got his first taste of wine at one of the world’s most illustrious properties: Château Lafite-Rothschild in Paulliac, Bordeaux, where his father Andre Portet served as long-time régisseur. Dominique went on to study at Montpellier University of Oenology before spending vintages in the Médoc, Rhône Valley, Provence, and Champagne, as well as in Napa Valley, at his brother Bernard’s estate Clos du Val. Since 1976, he has been a pioneer of Australia’s cool-climate wine industry, founding renowned sparkling wine houses Taltarni in the Pyrenees and Clover Hill in Tasmania, before forming his eponymous winery in the Yarra Valley in 2000.
Of all the regions to choose, Dominique set up shop in Coldstream of the Lower Yarra Valley because of its ability to rival the grape-growing terroir of his native Bordeaux. “I found fragrance and structure – most of all the structure reminds me of Bordeaux,” he says. “The Yarra has a charm, a beauty that engulfs you. The wines are worldly.”
We wholeheartedly agree. The first time we had the wines of Dominique Portet was at a blind tasting dinner, pitted against the heaviest hitters of cabernet from Bordeaux, Napa, and Italy. Even before the reveal, the wines stood out to us for their grace, structure, balance, and wild drinkability. The 2018 has a brooding and heady nose of fresh blackberry, red plum, boysenberry, river mint, graphite, toasted spice, and worn leather. The palate begins with a cloud of silky (but not heavy) fruit, supported by refreshing acidity, long tannins, and sinewy texture. At a mere 13.5% alcohol, the balance is impeccable, creating a wine that is delicious and open on release, but has potential for long cellaring. While this wine has not been reviewed by American media (too little of it!),
The Real Review and James Halliday in Australia awarded it 97 and 96 points, respectively.
Reed Wines ‘Knife Edge’ Shiraz 2022 - Grampians, Victoria
Though Sierra Reed refuses to send her wine to be reviewed (“My happiness is not for sale,” she says), her followers are many and ferocious. Australia’s Campbell Mattinson calls the wines “serious, gorgeous” among other superlatives in his richly woven feature on her. Sierra’s journey to wine was idiosyncratic and peripatetic--she lived a few different lifetimes in modeling and TV before finding her way to wine. And when she discovered wine was her calling, she threw herself into the deep end, traveling for years to learn from the best, including stints at Domaine du Vissoux in Beaujolais, Chiara Boschis in Barolo, Robert Weil in Germany, Rippon in New Zealand, and Best’s Great Western in Australia. Upon landing in Australia, Sierra realized this was where she was supposed to make wine, and fought tooth and nail to stay in the country--including a brief and unpleasant stint at an immigration detention center.
We’re all better off because of Sierra’s tenacity. She’s quickly made her imprint on Australian wine since her first vintage in 2015. Though Sierra’s home vineyard in Geelong (planted to Gamay and Riesling) is just starting to yield enough for production, she’s worked with a handful of very special sites over the years, including the Sugarloaf Creek vineyard that supplies the grapes for this stunning shiraz. In the granitic hills southwest of Great Western lies the Sugarloaf (formerly Hyde Park) vineyard. This is a large, warm site speckled with a variety of soils – shale, slate, silt, sand, and iron – and lovingly farmed by Robin Kuchel, near 100% organically, depending on the vintage. Sierra works with just two sub-blocks for this wine -- Hutton and Dalberti -- chosen for their contrasting characteristics: the high and warm Hutton block providing dark fruit and spice, the low and cool Dalberti adding red fruit and perfume. This wine is for those who know they love Australian shiraz, and it’s also for those who don’t think they do! This wine balances ripe, supple fruit with white pepper spice, roasted game, and green olive brine to present a complex and nuanced take on Australia’s most famous grape.
333 dozen made, only 64 came to the United States.
Join us on this unforgettable journey through Australian wine!
With rare finds, captivating stories, and unparalleled quality, this first shipment sets the stage for what’s to come. Don’t wait—spaces are limited, and these bottles won’t last!