2004 Swan Bay Pinot Noir, Scotchmans Hill , Geelong, Vic £7.99
New Zealand will need to be very concerned if more budget Pinots like this emerge from Australia. Simply brilliant.
stockists: Oddbins, Wine Society. (UK agent: Scotchmans Hill)

2004 Tamar Ridge Devil's Corner Pinot Noir , Tasmania £8.49
Just like busses, here is another one, and it is Nuits to Swan Bay’s Beaune – brilliant work, from a star estate.
stockists: Noel Young, Novum, Great Western Wine, Charterhouse, Compendium, Oz Wines, Weavers, WineTime . (UK agent: Vinus Vita)

2003 Nepenthe Charleston Pinot Noir , Adelaide Hills, SA £11.99
Apparently subject to a 3 for 2, so the price works out at £7.99! Regardless, this is a lovely, lush, mellow, densely flavoured Pinot.
stockists: Thresher - 3 for 2 = £7.99 per bottle . (UK agent: Stratford's)

2003 De Bortoli Reserve Pinot Noir , Yarra Yarra Valley, Vic £14.99
Beautiful, flashy, organza- and tuille-wearing lusciousness in a glass – this is a wine you want to dance with.
stockists: from July - everywine.co.uk, RS Wines, Addisons. (UK agent: Southcorp)

2003 Stonier Reserve Pinot Noir , Mornington Peninsula, Vic £15.99
Firm, grown-up and very confident, this is Geraldine McFaul’s pièce de résistance.
stockists: Bibendum, Bin Two, Abbey, RI Wines, Handford, Valvona (UK agent: Bibendum)

2002 TK Pinot Noir, Adelaide Hills, SA £17.99
This Lenswood Pinot Noir is cool, long, savoury and compact, and it is also very, very serious.
stockists: Four Walls, Sommelier (UK agent: McKinley)

2001 Domaine A Pinot Noir , Tasmania £25.99
The structured, wild cherry and damson fruit is supported by fantastic oak and ample backbone – Peter Althaus’s glorious wine demands an evangelical following.
stockists: Nidderdale Fine Wine, Phliglas & Swiggot, Ann et Vin, Sommelier, Selfridges, Harrogate . (UK agent: Alliance)

2002 Pipers Brook Reserve Pinot Noir,, Tasmania £29.99
With an alluring scent and powerful initial attack on the palate, this is a wine that takes no prisoners. It can confidently stand shoulder to shoulder with any Pinot on the planet.
stockists: The Reward , D Byrne, everywine.co.uk . (UK agent: Boutinot)

2003 Preece Merlot , Nagambie Lakes, Vic £6.99
With an unexpected extra dimension of red fruit, that rebounds off the back palate, this is a surprising and downright delicious wine.
stockists: Bibendum, Wine Buffs. (UK agent: Bibendum)

2003 Cumulus Rolling Cabernet / Merlot , Orange, NSW £6.99
Philip Shaw’s intricate craftsmanship is on display in this inexpensive, yet grippingly impressive red blend. Orange’s future looks rosy.
stockists: everywine.com, D&D. (UK agent: D&D)

2002 Katnook Founders Block Cabernet Sauvignon , Coonawarra, SA £8.99
Rebadged Riddoch? It certainly doesn’t taste like it – this is very exciting, blackcurrant-imbued Coonawarra, with serious complexity.
stockists: Bibendum, Oddbins, Off the Vine. (UK agent: Bibendum)

2002 Peter Lehmann Light Pass Cabernet Sauvignon , Barossa Valley, SA £11.49
A 100 Best Cabernet, from Shiraz expert Lehmann, surely some mistake? Absolutely, categorically not – Andrew Wigan has made a genuine, future classic.
stockists: Oddbins. (UK agent: Peter Lehmann)

2004 Boycat Merlot by Linda Domas , McLaren Vale, SA £11.99
Extraterrestrial fruit concentration, with leaf, briar, plum and mulberry all jostling for attention – mind-boggling.
stockists: Novum, Bedales. (UK agent: Novum)

2002 Rosemount Traditional , McLaren Vale, SA £11.99
The most ‘classic’ Classic for years – this forgotten model should be dusted down and reintroduced to your friends – it is an exceptionally fine wine.
stockists: Tesco.com, Avery's, Unwins. (UK agent: Southcorp)

2002 Wirra Wirra Cabernet Sauvignon , McLaren Vale, SA £12.49
2002 Cabernets are so clean and fit and Wirra’s is a perfect example of why we should all readjust our sights on this noble variety Down Under..
stockists: Hayman Barwell Jones, everywine.co.uk. (UK agent: Hayman Barwell Jones)

2003 Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon , McLaren Vale, SA £13.50
A ripsnortingly impressive début vintage in the UK, with masses of dark fruit and well-judged oak seasoning – this wine casts a long shadow..
stockists: To Be Advised. (UK agent: Chalk Hill)

2002 Knappstein Single Vineyard Enterprise Cabernet , Clare Valley, SA £14.99
Errol Flynn in a glass. Tall, chiselled, handsome and ever so charming. Enterprise is a beauty and you’ll want to drag it home at the first chance you get (girls!)..
stockists: Bibendum, Off the Vine, Oddbins (maybe) . (UK agent: Bibendum)

2001 Parker Terra Rossa Cabernet Sauvignon , Coonawarra, SA £15.00
With very intense fruit, highly-tuned oak and a supercharged finish, this is everything you’d want from a Parker Cabernet – except that it is half the price you’d usually shell out for the pleasure!.
stockists: Corney & Barrow, Wimbledon Wine Cellar . (UK agent: Corney & Barrow)

2003 JJ McWilliam's Shiraz / Cabernet , South East Australia £4.98
Come one, come all, and have a go at this happy, bright, open, cheeky red blend. No pretence, no smoke and mirrors, just bringing the fun back into wine.
stockists: Thresher, Wine Rack (UK agents: McWilliams)

2004 St Hallett Gamekeeper's Reserve , Barossa Valley, SA £5.99
Schizophrenic red from Matt Gant – on the one hand a frenzied glugger, on the other a one thousand-piece jigsaw! Brilliant, inspirational, zany and addictive.
stockists: Oddbins, Harvey Nichols, Waitrose, Majestic, ND John, Bibendum, Bacchanalia, Cellar Door. (UK agent: Bibendum)

2004 Rutherglen Estate Durif , Rutherglen, Vic £6.99
Two years in a row, for this crispy aromatic duck partnering wine. Fabulous value and unashamedly tongue in cheek – this is a cracker (prawn cracker?).
stockists: Waitrose, Wine Society (UK agent: Bottle Green)

2002 Leasingham Magnus Shiraz / Cabernet Sauvignon , Clare Valley, SA £7.99
Why this model blend is not augmented into a super cuvée is beyond me. The fruit in this wine is heavenly and the finish is minutes long – total synergy.
stockists: Sainsbury's, Thresher). (UK agent: Constellation)

2002 Pirramimma Petit Verdot , McLaren Vale, SA £9.49
PV Kings Pirramimma have harnessed some of the more deranged elements in this menacing variety, thanks to the cool 2002 vintage, and made an inky, imposing, yet convivial wine.
stockists: Majestic. (UK agent: Majestic)

2004 Pondalowie MT – Tempranillo , Bendigo, Vic £12.50
I have held off weird varietals in Oz for ages, but my resistance is now futile, as MT is a charmer – black fruit, spice and leather combine to produce a honed, genial wine.
stockists: Australian Wine Club (UK agent: AWA)

2002 Longview Black Crow Nebbiolo , Adelaide Hills, SA £12.55
Fabulous fruit, grown with the utmost care and attention, it is no surprise that Duncan MacGillivray’s vineyards are now hitting the high notes. This Neb is a dreamboat.
stockists: Bairds Fine & Country Wines, Broughton; Arthur Rackham Emporia; Roberson. (UK agent: The Vintner)

2004 Godolphin by Ben Glaetzer , Barossa Valley, SA £24.95
This is the earth-shatteringly brilliant younger brother to Amon-Ra, and it’s a hedonistic Shiraz / Cabernet blend. Where Amon-Ra is, admittedly, totally over the top, Godolphin is near perfection. stockists: Great Western Wine (UK agents: Great Western Wine)

2003 Heartland Shiraz , SA £7.95
Ben Glaetzer’s entry level Shiraz is really rocking in 2003. This wine has always been great, but the work that has gone into the ’03 is staggering – a model SA Shiraz.
stockists: Noel Young, Michael Jobling, Tanners, Great Northern, Jascots, SWIG, Abbey, Oddbins, Great Western Wine. (UK agents: Great Western Wine)

2004 Wakefield Estate Shiraz , Clare Valley, SA £7.99
The dark, deep, chocolate and plumcake fruit is sumptuously appointed in this innocently labelled bottle. This is one find that you really want to keep to yourself.
stockists: Oddbins, Unwins, Somerfield - arriving in June. (UK agent: Stratford's)

2004 Brunato Vineyards Shiraz by Linda Domas , McLaren Vale, SA £8.99
Chunky, honest, bright and affable, this is a slice of fantastic, old vine McLaren Vale Shiraz for fraction of its true worth.
stockists: Novum, Bedales, Oddbins. (UK agent: Novum)

2002 d'Arenberg Custodian Grenache , McLaren Vale, SA £8.99
’02 Custodian is a Vivienne Westwood creation – decadent, Regency glamour with a pompadour quiff and a flick-knife up its sleeve.
stockists: Oddbins, Bibendum, Wine Society, Booths, Jolly Vintner. (UK agent: AWA)

2002 Penfold's Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £9.99
This is one of Australia’s unsung heroes and I challenge anyone in the world to build such an immediately appealing, yet eminently age-worthy Shiraz. It can’t be done, can it?
stockists: Tesco, Oddbins, Thresher, Unwins, Majestic. (UK agent: Southcorp)

2002 Heritage Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £11.49
Steve Hoff in a tutu – a worrying sight, but that is what the cool 2002 vintage has done to his cult wine. The result is a bare-knuckle bruiser with a diploma from a Swiss finishing school - awesome.
stockists: Australian Wine Club. (UK agent: AWA)

2002 Eldredge Blue Chip Shiraz , Clare Valley, SA £11.99
A virtual unknown in the UK, but an estate with their finger on the pulse and a palate for balance – the seamless flavour, rolls on and on and on – in fact it is still going.
stockists: Australian Wine Club (UK agent: AWA)

2002 Tyrrell's Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz , Heathcote, Vic £11.99
There is too much hot air circulating about Heathcote. That is, until you taste a wine like this and then want not only to drink the wines, but live there, too.
stockists: Amps, Noel Young, Oddbins, deFINE, Winesmith, Hailsham, Eagle . (UK agent: Paragon)

2003 Peter Lehmann Futures Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £11.99
Wigs’ has further improved on the Futures recipe and made a remarkably impressive wine in 2003. This is one for the cellar, but it’s a guaranteed blue chip investment in your palate’s well being.
stockists: Oddbins (UK agent: Peter Lehmann)

2003 Fox Gordon Eight Uncles Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £12.49
Tash Mooney proves that she is one of Australia’s most talented young winemakers – Eight Uncles is a wine that defines the variety and its origins – perfect in every way.
stockists: Oddbins, Vin du Van, Cellar Door, Haslemere . (UK agent: Gunson Fine Wines)

2002 St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £12.99
Blackwell ’02 is more than just a wine – it is a statement that St Hallett is committed to burying as much complexity in a wine as can possibly be achieved. Drink this when you feel you are able to cope with a colossal onslaught of flavour.
stockists: Off the Vine, Noble Rot, Sainsbury, Bibendum, Oz Wines (UK agent: Bibendum)

2003 Battle of Bosworth Shiraz , McLaren Vale, SA £13.99
Joch Bosworth is regarded by his peers as an off the wall, viticultural genius – this is the fruit of his labours. From the vineyard to your glass in one move - epic.
stockists: Unwins - very soon. (UK agent: Stratford's)

2003 De Bortoli Estate Shiraz / Viognier , Yarra Valley, Vic £14.99
This is one of the finest of the new wave of S/V blends, and it’s one that doesn’t pulverise your wallet. Steve Webber has an Old World palate and this wine is fashioned for the globe-trotting wine lover.
stockists: RS Wines, everywine.co.uk, Addisons. (UK agent: De Bortoli )

2001 Jim Barry McRae Wood Shiraz , Clare Valley, SA £14.99
Yippee – a huge, spanky, full-on, guffawing wine, with masses of fruit and yet, total balance. I have no idea how they do it – I just love it that they do!
stockists: Oddbins, Fine and Rare, Quellyn, Philglas & Swiggot, Christopher Piper, Vin du Van, Berkmann. (UK agent: Negociants)

2001 Dalwhinnie Shiraz , Moonambel, Vic £17.95
Brilliant, brilliant, coolish climate Shiraz – aromatherapeutic and organoleptically Olympic. David Jones’s wines have, in the space of one vintage, become some of Australia’s most sought after bottles.
planet - hurrah stockists: Playford Ros. (UK agent: Playford Ros)

2002 Tim Adams Aberfeldy Shiraz , Clare Valley, SA £18.99
I am not sure Tim thought he would ever make this wine. The coolest vintage in history, and one of the most elegant, old vineyards in South Australia – buy it, keep it and savour every drop.
stockists: Australian Wine Club, Oz Wines . (UK agent: AWA)

2002 Wolf Blass Grey Label Shiraz , SA £18.99
I reckon that this first class Barossa / Clare / McLaren Vale blend is a definitive Blass wine. They do this clever ‘wine-building’ exercise very, very well.
stockists: Oddbins. (UK agent: Beringer Blass)

2002 Torbreck The Steading , Barossa Valley, SA £18.99
Dave Powell and Dan Standish have really tightened this wine up. ’02 Steading is a monumental achievement made all the more glorious by its temptress-like flashes of flesh – amazing.
stockists: Harrods, Fortnum & Mason . (UK agent: Hayman Barwell Jones)

2002 d'Arenberg Ironstone Pressings , McLaren Vale, SA £22.50
Big statement time – this is the highest scoring wine I have ever tasted from d’Arenberg. Ironstone is a 70% Grenache / 25% Shiraz / 5% Mourvèdre and it is sublime. Buy every bottle you can find.
stockists: Bibendum, Waitrose, Wine Society, Oddbins . (UK agent: Bibendum )

2003 Yering Station Reserve Shiraz / Viognier , Yarra Valley, Vic £24.99
With less Viognier and more edge, this is the wine that puts Yering on the world stage. Welcome to the carousel, you belong.
stockists: Waitrose Canary Wharf, Majestic Fine Wine, Wimbledon Wine . (UK agent: Enotria)

2001 Penfold's St Henri Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £24.99
Extraordinary complexity and (please forgive me) a ridiculously small price tag for the cosmic goings on in the glass. This is one of the world’s most important Syrahs and, thank God, it is relatively accessible to us mere mortals.
stockists: Tesco, Oddbins, Majestic, Harrods, Berry Brothers and Rudd, Waitrose, Thresher, Wine Society, Fortnum & Mason . (UK agent: Southcorp)

2003 Two Hands Lily's Garden Shiraz , McLaren Vale, SA £25.99
There is a slickness and presence about this wine that is magnetic. Smooth, fit, toned and muscular, this is the Sergei Bubka of the Shiraz world.
stockists: Fine & Rare, Nidderdale, Noel Young, Philglas & Swiggot, Prime Wines, Richards & Richards, Sommelier, Farr Vintners, Henderson, Peter Green . (UK agent: Alliance)

2003 Mitolo Savitar Shiraz , McLaren Vale, SA £27.95
A purring Bentley – Connolly leather, six litres, a Flying Spur! Bathe in this ridiculously luxurious wine and lose yourself.
stockists: Noel Young, Bennett's, Andrew Chapman, Villeneuve, Liberty . (UK agent: Liberty)

1999 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £29.99
‘Crunched up tractors’ – winemaker Andrew Wigan’s tasting note. I can’t improve on this.
stockists: Oddbins, Bibendum, Waitrose . (UK agent: Peter Lehmann )

2002 The Relic, Standish Wine Co., Barossa Valley, SA £36.00
The Prince – this is what happens when a young man picks up an epée for the first time and finds the balance and weight to his liking – devastating.
stockists: The Cellar Door Overton. (UK agent: The Cellar Door)

2001 Yalumba Octavius Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £39.99
Harrods, Veritas, Fine & Rare, Jeroboams, Vin du Van - out Sept 05). (UK agent: Negociants)

2002 Penfold's RWT Shiraz , Barossa Valley, SA £39.99
I never thought that RWT could look so polished and controlled. DO NOT APPROACH – this is a cold-blooded assassin, and you will be compromised in a moment.
stockists: Tesco, Waitrose, Oddbins, Majestic, Harrods, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Berrys, Wine Society . (UK agents: Southcorp)

2002 Grant Burge Abednego , Barossa Valley, SA £40.00
An approximate third each of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre, with a liberal dusting of Grant Burge magic and you have what can only be described as an era changing wine. I have known Abednego since it was born and it is a thoroughbred stallion.
stockists: Stevens Garnier - from Sept . (UK agents: Stevens Garnier)