Two new releases from Boat O’ Craigo in the Yarra Valley. Both single vineyard wines. One is an excellent example of a fairly common red grape and the second is a white we had to go and look up, and we pride ourselves on knowing a lot of varieties/clones!

Boat O’ Craigo has released a Grenache single varietal for the first time and it is an interesting wine. For fans of Grenache, it is quite similar to the French styles of Neuf-du-Pape, with raspberry flavors dominant throughout the palate. The color is amazing, the nose a bit more Pinot Noir-like than other Grenache wines, albeit a soft bouquet.

Overall, we really like this wine and will be interested to see how it ages. Our score: 91/100

In another first, the winery has produced a vegan (irrelevant to us but interesting) white in Gruner Veltliner (we hadn’t heard of it either) and this is a real winner.

The bouquet is citrus fruit, but the palate is predominantly green apple, so it will appeal to wine drinkers who for now have been staying safe with Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio/Gris. In our opinion, it is a more interesting wine than either of these, and may well be one of the next big things in white wine in Australia.

We really want to see how this wine changes with some bottle age – although it is drinking remarkably well now, the year it was bottled. Our score: 94.5/100