NEW ARRIVALS

WILLOWS VINEYARD RELEASES ITS 2005 REDS
Peter Scholz's family have farmed their property in the tiny hamlet of Light Pass for 150 years. They first planted vines in 1936 near the banks of the North Para River which winds its way through the property. Its northern Barossa location is distinguished by cooling gully breezes during vintage, providing slow ripening and a clear expression of berry and spice flavours in the Willow's reds.
More at the Willows Vineyard

2005 Willows Vineyard Barossa Shiraz £150.00 per dozen
Over the 15 years or so that we have been importing this wine, it has consistently proved to be the best value Shiraz in the whole of the Barossa.
The palate is generous, ripe and mouth filling exhibiting berry and cinnamon spice flavours, along with oak-derived mocha chocolate overtones and harmonious, soft yet defined tannins and a rich, delicious finish. Not to be missed.

2005 Willows Vineyard Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon £144.00 per dozen
Peter's Cabernet vines are planted near to the banks of the North Para River dotted by gum trees as it winds it way through the Scholz vineyards. So, it is no surprise to find eucalyptus aromas along with the more classic Cabernet characters on the nose with this wine.
The palate's complexity of blackcurrant, fruit, integrated oak and fine ripe tannins combine to make this a wine of immediate appeal, whilst its length and structure indicate a cellaring potential of five years or more.

2004 ROCKFORD BASKET PRESS SHIRAZ
Our allocation of the sensational 2004 Basket Press Shiraz, one of Australia's most sought-after wines, has just arrived. Robert O'Callaghan rates this wine the 2004 among the best of the Basket Press vintages that he has produced. Considering that this is the twentieth vintage of the wine this is high praise indeed.
More at 2004 Basket Press Shiraz

ORDER ONLINE or CALL 0800 756 1141
(9:00am-5:30pm Mon-Fri)

AWC Named Wine Merchant of the Month by OzClarke.com
In January, just 8 months after our launch, we where named Wine Merchant of the Month by Oz Clarke! Have a look around this site to see why!


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TIM ADAMS WINES
"Tim Adams produces some of the best value, most flavoursome reds and whites, not just in the Clare Valley, but in the whole of Australia"
Anthony Rose (The Independent)

ROCKFORD WINES
"These are some of the most individual, spectacularly flavoured wines made in the Barossa today, with an emphasis on old low-yielding dryland vineyards"
James Halliday

2001 BOWEN ESTATE COONAWARRA CABERNET SAUVIGNON
"Doug Bowen makes some of the most elegant wines in Australia. This finely crafted, scented, complex, age-worthy Shiraz disproves the theory that Coonawarra is better suited to Bordeaux varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon."
Tim Atkin (The Observer)

PONDALOWIE VINEYARDS MT TEMPRANILLO
"Spain's plummy Tempranillo grape is a terrific addition to Australia's run of red wines, delivering some wonderful flavours and fruit."" This elegant,scented rose and blackcurrant pastille-licked red, with plenty of bright, vibrant fruit is a case in point."
Jane MacQuitty (The Times)

2005 TIM ADAMS THE ABERFELDY
"All the mellow beauty of old-vine Shiraz with none of the arrogant brutality that often nowadays accompanies it."
Oz Clarke (Oz Clarke's Top 250 Wines 2009)

2006 PRIMO ESTATE IL BRICCONE
"a very fine medium-bodied cherry-accented palate which fuses the ripe fruit of the fruit tannins of the Sangiovese; ""an all-too-rare wine that demands a second glass (or more)". 94 points”
James Halliday Wine Guide 2009

2005 ELDREDGE BLUE CHIP SHIRAZ
"We are massive fans of Blue Chip and in 2005 it looks, feels and tasteslike it should be more expensive than it is. At 14.7% alcohol it is big in every way but such is the superb balance that at no stage does it get overbearing. Blue Chip is like sinking into a great big, purple velvet sofa"
Matthew Jukes

2004 WILLOWS VINEYARD SHIRAZ
GOLD Medal International Wine Challenge
"Purple coloured,it exhibits a toasty,smoky,plum and blackberry scented bouquet. This is followed by a medium to full bodied succulent wine with layered blue and black fruits, excellent balance and well hidden tannins. This lengthy shiraz will evolve for several years in the bottle and drink well through 2020."
Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate Oct 2007)
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In 1989 I founded The Australian Wine Centre in the basement of the then South Australia House on the Strand in London. It became the focus of Australian wine in the UK , winner of the International WINE Challenge "Australian Wine Merchant of the Year" no less than five times.

The Australian Wine Centre on the Strand is no more, but it lives on here!
Craig Smith

OZ CLARKE WINE GUIDE

Oz ClarkeThe 2009 Oz Clarke Wine Wine Buying Guide has just been released. It features no less than 10 AWC wines amongst the 41 Australian wines recommended.

They are:
2007 Tim Adams Clare Valley Semillon
2006 Primo Estate Decades Shiraz Cabernet Merlot
2007 Eldredge Clare Valley Riesling
2007 Tim Adams Clare Valley Riesling
2007 Eldredge Sangiovese Rose
2006 Tim Adams The Fergus
2005 Tim Adams Cabernet
2006 Primo Estate Joseph "moda amarone"
2006 Tim Adams Reserve Tempranillo
2005 Tim Adams The Aberfeldy

See the special OZ CLARKE WINE BUYING GUIDE Section


Bowen Estate

Bowen Estate

COONAWARRA's BEST VALUE REDS
"Doug Bowen makes some of the most elegant wines in Australia." Tim Atkin (The Observer)
Bowen Estate are renowned for producing the best value reds in the whole of Coonawarra ever since Doug and Joy Bowen founded Bowen Estate in 1972. The vines are meticulously hand-pruned to achieve optimum fruit quality. Then the winemaking team of Doug and daughter Emma set to work producing full-flavoured, wines with great balance.
The 2001 releases are both of the highest quality, with great potenial to age for up to 15 years from vintage. These are some of the real bargains to be found in Australia today.
more...

The Seventh Generation into action at Willows Vineyard

The Scholz family settled in the Barossa in 1845 when Johann Scholz established a hospital at the Light Pass. Now the seventh generation, Spencer & Jack Scholz, sons of Willows winemaker Peter, have been let into the winery and produced a fabulous Grenache under dad's watchful eye.
2006 Willows Vineyard G7 Barossa Grenache
Any more wines as good as this and dad might be out of a job! Opulent and classy with wild herbal scants, wonderful red and black fruits and a long, rich finish.
2004 Willows Vineyard Shiraz
We've just received our last shipment of this IWC Gold Medal winning beauty, so don't be shy or it will all be gone! Vibrant and deep red-purple in colour the richness and depth of flavour comes across on the palate, where there are loads of delicious red berry fruits, hints of pepper and robust earthy characters overlaid by rich mocha overtones. It is drinking beautifully now and will continue to do so for another 4 or 5 years.
Surely the best value Shiraz in the Barossa, order yours now at Willows Vineyard

Pondalowie named New World ICONS by Decanter Magazine

Pondalowie Vineyards
"It's only in the last 10 years that Spain's Tempranillo grape has been grown seriously in Australia, and no one has a better handle on it the sheer deliciousness of the variety than Dominic and Krystina Morris at their Pondalowie vineyard at Bridgewater in central Victoria. All the Pondalowie reds are dense, impressive, firmly structured - reflecting the warmth and red sils of their terroir." Decanter
Since their first releases in 2002, Dominic and Krystina Morris have made the Aussie critics stand up and take notice. Now Decanter has joined in, naming them as the Australian winery most likely to achieve Icon status up amongst the world's greatest chateaux. Not bad you're not even 10 years old!
In 2007, the Penguin Good Australian Wine Guide named them Best New Producer and their MT Tempranillo as Best Other Red. See what all the fuss is about at Pondalowie Vineyards