Bindi 'Pyrette' Heathcote Shiraz 2023 $39

Been a while between drinks on this one. Medium climate style with dark fruits and pepper edges. Smooth palate but no means a crowd pleaser style, rather a 'thinking' style. Feels young. Some mild reductive and Northern Rhone notes. Not unlike the POCW JV with Graillot.

Mandurang 'Old Vine' Red Blend 2020

A very pleasant re-visit of some bottles from a winery we regularly stocked back in the Cloudwine days ~20 years ago. Super low profile but a veteren of Bendigo with the first vines having been planted 50yrs ago. Old for 'modern' Bendigo! Gee I was suduced here. Uber fresh and massive primary fruit load but you can't help but be sucked in. Seems Cab dominant with some grainy fruit but lashings of juicy suggest Shiraz at play. Never gets heavy. We will be stocking this, and others from Mandurang, for sure.

Mandurang GSM 2020

Like the other Mandurang vintages from 2020 this is very good. Seemingly plush early but lines of mild astringency and acid kick in to keep things sharpish. GSM really has no track record, of note, in Victoria, so this one really stands out. I've been asleep at the wheel with this quite achiever from Bendigo.

Koonunga Hill Shiraz 2024

Forgive me!! Talk about a wine that's hard to fault. Plushy fruited, balanced and absolutely no hard edges. No need to cellar but that was/is never the point. Best sub $15 red I've had in some time!