There's a rapport between Tempranillo and the McLaren Vale, a place that's predisposed to the balmy maritime climes and auspicious soils that are so evocative of Tempranillo's ancestral home. Rosewater pink, perfumed with strawberries and honeysuckle bloom, jasmine and orange blossom notes, a comely pink drink that tastes as good as it looks, Luna De Fresa articulates the quality of fruit and sanctity of soil. When grapes in the vineyard taste this good, all Gemtree need do is wait for the ferments to occur naturally and allow the wine to make itself.

$2099each $251DOZEN EACH DOZEN

Gemtree established a block of Tempranillo on heavy clay soils at McLaren Flat in 1999, significant in being the first estate vineyard to be bio dynamically husbanded and to receive organic certification. Grapes are all hand picked and fermented on skins for a fortnight, hand plunged, pressed off skins and drained into a selection of well seasoned oak puncheons for ten months, racked and bottled without any fining or filtration, to retain pastoral sauvage. Think cranberry and raspberries, black olive, prosciutto and spice, delectable savouryness from nose to finish.

$2399each $285DOZEN EACH DOZEN

A beautifully balanced Bordeaux meets Rhone style, an assemblage of McLaren Valeʼs best for a classically arranged cépage of fruit. An Aussie claret with a difference! Cabernet Franc provides aromatics, structure and tannin, Mourvedre contributes juicyness and Petit Verdot is the funk. The Phantom is a product of exacting care in the vineyard, a high percentage of Verdot enhances the complexity and ensures the wine will develop magnificently. Only the most expressive and standout parcels are included into The Phantom.

$4099each $491DOZEN EACH DOZEN A stylish balance of Mourvedre, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. In ripe years the Verdot is at its best, black and fragrant with sensational tannins. It was decided by the team at Gemtree that Phantom should always contain substantial percentages of each variety. Organic practises are essential for the vines, roaming sheep help to reduce the weeds and keep the grass mown around the place. Grapes are picked wholly on the basis of flavour each year, due to the wonderful growing conditions, natural acidity is retained and wines with tremendous structure are the result. Each component is open fermented and separately aged in French oak barrels for up to eighteen months.

Purple black hues. Rich and complex nose of violets with mint, currants and cassis, rose petals, dark olives and chocolate, roasted almonds and dried sausage. A multi layered generous concentration, oodles of flavour, a voluptuous middle palate, ripe elongated tannins which envelop the back end and create an ultimately seductive wine. Cabernet Franc contributes aromatics, Petit Verdot holds the wine together.

Perfect balance in wine cannot be manufactured, it occurs naturally. Gemtree achieves this elusive idyll. Uncut has distinguished itself throughout the vintages with Double Gold in San Fransisco, Blue Gold in Sydney and Silver Great Australian Shiraz Challenge. Hand selected from forty year old vines grown to the estate's Tatachilla Road Vineyard, Uncut Shiraz requires very little intervention. The synergy between fruit and oak, acid and tannin are seamless and sublime.

$2199each $263DOZEN EACH DOZEN Hands off winemaking, purity of fruit, unfined and unfiltered, a raw gem, the uncut version. In 1980 Paul and Jill Buttery purchased their first property on Tatachilla Road, a 38-acre vineyard of Cabernet and Shiraz with a limited supply of mains water. Over the years some of the original site was grafted to white varietals and has since been converted back to various clones of Shiraz. The incredibly low yields across the Uncut blocks have translated into an amazingly powerful wine. Minimally pruned vines, open ferments, gentle pressing and minimal fining and filtration, these are the maxims. A dozen or so Wiltipole sheep amongst the vines help reduce weeds and keep the grass mown around the place.

Deep crimson, purple hues. Satsuma plums, licorice, white pepper, black jubes, mocha, red cherry, hints of cinnamon and savoury oak. A complex web of flavours that traverse the palate. The front is dominated by a darker spectrum of fruits, blackberry, plums and blueberry. A definitive concentration of uncut Shiraz characters, yet elegant with a degree of restraint.

Equal parts Shiraz and Grenache, a tenth of Mourverdre, all picked off blocks of dry grown McLaren Vale vines, treated to a traditional old world vinification and sent to a selection of American oak hogsheads and puncheons for an extended twenty months maturation. Brick red in colour, leading with an animated nose of savoury spiced meats and wild berry fruits, the tannins are seen but not heard, perfectly in tune with the piquant Rhonesque acidity to deliver impeccable balance and seamless structure, all before a long dark chocolate finish.

$2799each $335DOZEN EACH DOZEN

What to do with a humble harvest of the most splendid Riverland Grenache? Bunches of the choicest fruit are sent to fermenters for a short term of cold soak. The eye candy of its rakish pink hues presage a blossoming palate of violets, cherry and jube. Its understated elegance and affability belie sound structure, well defined fruit and genteel, leathery tannins, articulate of its pastoral Grenache provenance and alluring blush hued charm, just the ticket for pink fleshed fare, belly of tuna, salmon or duck.

$2499each $299DOZEN EACH DOZEN

Sangiovese and McLaren Vale share a great affinity, a home away from home for the vines, stimulated by the sultry Mediterranean climes around Gulf St Vincent. Geoff Merrill's grandfather grew up amongst the pastorals of old Italy, he would wax poetic about the delights of Tuscan wine and ultimately inspired Merrill to plant Sangiovese. Treated to a lavish thirty two months in American and French oak puncheons, followed by an extended term in bottle, Joseph Cilento has evolved into a more elegant, European style, commendable with Cotoletta, ideal with Agnello.

$2799each $335DOZEN EACH DOZEN

An assemblage of Cabernet Sauvignon, harvested off three prestigious vineyards, one in Coonawarra for peppermints and violet, black olives and bay, two in McLaren Vale for chocolateyness, bramble and char. Mr Merrill is one of Australia's most peer respected vignerons, a veteran winemaker of our nation's most illustrious brands, an eminent Jimmy Watson winner. He has settled on nothing but the finest, collating the pick of harvest from three superior sites, to be vinified at a grand old wineworks and aged twenty two months under the historic Mt Hurtle cellars.

$2999each $359DOZEN EACH DOZEN

Take your pick from the estate cellars of Geoff Merrill Shiraz, richly aged two years in a selection of French and American oak hogsheads and puncheons, assemble into the essential meat and vegetable McLaren Vale style. Blood red, mulberry and currant spice, moccha and milled pepper throughout, a lick of menthol, the savouryness of leather, black olive and savoury smoked meats. Jacko's the drink to open and to breathe for service alongside your favourite recipe of red wine casserole, kipflers and shallot, dutch carrots and Jus.

$3499each $419DOZEN EACH DOZEN

$9499each $1139DOZEN EACH DOZEN

Following traineeship at B Seppelt & Son, a stint in South Africa, tours of duty at Thomas Hardy and Chateau Reynella, Geoff Merrill acquired the beautiful but derelict Mount Hurtle wineworks in 1985. Merrill devoted years of love and hard work to restore the winery vineyard to its former glory. The property yields some of the finest Cabernet in McLaren Vale. An equal part of Cabernet Sauvignon from Graymoor in Coonawarra completes an immaculate wine, matured thirty one months in small oak barrels and assembled after a cull of the most superior stocks.

$4999each $599DOZEN EACH DOZEN

The pick of the Geoff Merrill harvest, a collation of Coonawarra and McLaren Vale estate vineyard parcels, treated to a luxurious course of French oak barrel ferments and ten months age. Fashioned into a finely fleshed, generously proportioned styling, its innate melon and nectarine fruit characters are wrapped in a textural linen of mineral leesyness, summer straw and toasty cashew oak. Mate Mr Merrill to the ripest cheese and finest gourmandise, ideally a gently grilled dover sole or crisp fry of the freshest whiting tempura.

$3999each $479DOZEN EACH DOZEN