Coonawarra isn't the trendiest of wine regions, but the wines are such great examples of classic dry reds - this is a great case in point. The nose is wonderful, slowly developing, maturing and spicy. It has a hint of truffle and wet leaves, alongside blueberry and baked earth, with a little hint of boot polish. Plum and eucalypt finish things up nicely. Great drinking.

We’re not the most sentimental of people, but even we’ll admit that when it comes to wine, some things are just meant to be. Take Ottelia Wines, for example. Winemakers John and Melissa moved to their patch of land in Coonawarra with the intention of only staying there for one season - the eventual aim was to move onto one of Australia’s famed wine regions once they’d honed their skills - but once that first harvest was bottled, they were hooked. The limestone soils, the iconic Aussie gum trees lining the vineyard, the way the grapes would ripen… it was all a bit too perfect, especially for John; a man who’d fallen in love with winemaking at the age of 17, and who has never stopped being amazed and enamoured by the process since. He knows the Limestone Coast well, its wine-growing regions of Coonawarra, Wrattonbully, Mount Benson and Mount Gambier, their different soils, and their climates. As is increasingly the case with 21st-century Aussie produce, Ottelia wines are stripped-back, direct, and are all about letting the fruit itself do the heavy lifting. There’s no excessive oak, no messing around - this is back-to-basics viticulture, in which the grapes are the undeniable stars of the show.