Australia

Australia has had a hard time recently, bush fires in Victoria, droughts in areas of the country and over production issues at the lower end of the market, creating a 'wine lake'. Fortunately there are still exceptional wines around.

The Plantagenet winery in Margaret River, Western Australia is going from strength to strength. We like to focus on their Omrah range, which we feel offer terrific value for money, our favourites are the Unoaked Chardonnay and the Shiraz which both fall somewhere between old world classicism and new world bravado. The Marktree wines continue to be very popular; it is rare to find such good wines for under six pounds these days.

Other personal favourites include the Clare Valley Rieslings from Grosset, probably the best on the market at the moment.