“One privilege of tasting and writing about wines selected for The Wine Companion is discovering a hitherto unknown winemaker, winery and/or wine that blows your mind. Now i mean no disrespect to wineries previously selected for ‘Best New Winery’, nor do i want to paint myself into a corner in the years to come, but people such as owner-winemaker Shaun Crinion of Dappled Wines come around once in a metaphorical blue moon.” - James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion

I hope you weren’t expecting a tasting-note! Oh, my dear, no. This is a cult wine. One doesn’t describe how a cult wine tastes, that would be far too vulgar. No, this is how you describe a cult wine: sourced from an organically-farmed vineyard on Red Hill at 179 metres above sea level, red volcanic soil, 30% whole bunch, minimal SO2, no other additions, unfined and unfiltered.

Press review:

The Australian Wine Companion: “A light and very bright crimson. Pure fruited and perfumed with its bouquet of wild strawberries, raspberries and rose petals, with the whole bunches barely detectable. An elegant and persistent mouthful with silky, persistent tannins boding well for the future. Another superb, minimal-intervention wine from Dappled in '23.” 97 points

N.B. Winemaker, Shaun Crinion, worked in California at Williams Selyem and at Domaine de Montille in Burgundy.