Articles by Tom Kline
FAITH: In everything give thanks - Castlegar News
“O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” Psalms 136:1 Psalms 92:1 says, “It is a good thing to give thanks”. Gratitude is a good and proper attitude. When we receive something or something good happens, to take a moment to acknowledge the kindness or to feel grateful should be our natural response. However, that is not always the case. We take things granted. We can be so self-focused that we fail to notice the ways others are contributing to our life.
Every Customer Is A Complaint Department
By Tom Kline, Better Vantage Point | Tuck The Octopussm Ten years ago, an unhappy customer might threaten, “I’m calling the Attorney General.” Today, that same customer can ask AI: “Review these documents, tell me whether the dealership violated any laws, calculate what I might be entitled to, write a demand letter, and tell me every regulator, lender, manufacturer and review site where I should file a complaint.” Thirty seconds later, the customer has created their own one-stop-shop...
Main Ridge Old Vine Chardonnay 2025
Founded in 1975 by Nat and Rosalie White, Main Ridge Estate is now guided by the Sexton family and winemaker James Sexton. Its 50-year-old vines, grown on a protected north-facing ridge in Red Hill, produce small quantities of intensely flavoured fruit — and the 2025 Old Vine Chardonnay, sourced solely from this estate vineyard, bears this out. Vivid pale gold colour with flickers of green.
Main Ridge Old Vine Pinot Noir 2025
Founded in 1975 by Nat and Rosalie White, Main Ridge Estate is now guided by the Sexton family and winemaker James Sexton. Its 50-year-old vines, grown on a protected north-facing ridge in Red Hill, produce small quantities of intensely flavoured fruit — and the 2025 Old Vine Pinot Noir, sourced solely from this estate vineyard, is a fitting showcase of the site’s great strength.
Main Ridge Mary’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2025
Mary’s Vineyard was founded in 1996 and spans five acres. Main Ridge has leased the vineyard since 2024. It sits at 250 metres above sea level — quite high for the Peninsula — which lets it benefit from cooling winds off Port Phillip Bay. That elevation is evident in the wine’s tighter citrusy feel. Lemon rind, brine, salted grapefruit, preserved lemon, just ripe white peach, water cracker, wet stone, lemon thyme. It’s high-toned with loads of salty savouriness.
Main Ridge Harvey Vineyard Pinot Noir 2025
Harvey Vineyard was planted in 2019 on a slope overlooking Port Phillip Bay. The site’s northern aspect, bay-wind protection and warmer, sandy soils let the fruit ripen three to four weeks earlier than Main Ridge’s elevated sites.There’s lots of woody spice to start — ground nutmeg, cassia bark, and clove sit above raspberry and mashed strawberry where the white pepper spice is unlocked.
Tolpuddle Vineyard Chardonnay 2025
A good winter of rain in 2025, on the long-term average, set things up well; warmish flowering brought a strong fruit set, well-timed rain worked its magic through the Coal River Valley, and a mild summer followed – overall cooler than 2024 on the data, delivering good yields and quality. This is a wine that has, since Tolpuddle’s first release in 2013, become one of the benchmarks for Australian Chardonnay – taut, mineral, and precise in a way few sites in the country can match.
Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir 2025
The Coal River Valley had a kind 2025: solid winter rain against the long-term average, flowering through warmish conditions that let fruit set cleanly, and rain arriving exactly when it was needed. Summer stayed mild, running cooler overall than 2024, and both yield and quality followed suit. This cuvée has earned its place as one of the wines that put Tasmanian Pinot on the map – a site expression prized for its power and structure as much as its purity.
Don’t Borrow Trouble
By Tom Kline, Better Vantage Point | Tuck The Octopus I have a new friend in the UK and his name is Martin. While we were talking about a thing, he gave me great counsel, “Don’t borrow trouble.” I had not heard the expression before, but it sure does make sense. Don’t sit idly in vapor lock and do nothing. If you know there are problems out there, which you haven’t worked on, then dive right in, make a plan, and move forward. Martin’s my kind of guy.
Tinnyu Coma Chardonnay 2024
Grown across two high-altitude Shangri-La villages — Xi-Da at 2,800m and A-Dong at 2,600m — on sandy-loam soils threaded with gravel and red schist, this is wild cold fermented over 16-18 days with no post-ferment maceration or MLF, then aged eight months in 70% stainless steel and 30% French oak. Pale gold colour. It kicks off with savoury tones of bran, candle wax and hard cheese rind with emerging preserved lemon rind and ripe citrus to fill out the fruit.
Silver Heights Jiayuan Marselan 2023
Hand-picked over two separate harvests from the sandier Jishan vineyard soils for freshness and structure, then de-stemmed and fermented in stainless steel before 12 months in 100% new French oak. Marselan is a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache, which is exactly how this presents stylistically. Primary fruits kick off the perfume with plum, blackcurrant and dark cherry conserve, leading to cassia, cumin, dried green herbs, white pepper, cured meats, a waft of camphor, and sandy earth.
Silver Heights Reserve Chardonnay 2022
Sourced from the sandier soils of the Jishan vineyard and hand-picked before a day’s skin contact, this is fermented under careful oxygen protection and aged eight months in one-year-old Burgundy puncheons — part of Emma Gao’s Demeter-certified biodynamic estate in the Helan Mountain foothills. Yellow apple and star fruit put a weave of fresh fruit through toasted sourdough, sour cream, roasted nuts, brioche leesiness, flickers of nougat and allusions of toffee.
Xiao Pu Perdue 22.3 Pinot Noir
Made by nomadic négociant Ian Dai Hongjing under his ‘Perdue’ label — this is the third release, drawn from Ningxia fruit — with native yeasts, uncontrolled ferments and light extractions, the winemaking kept deliberately simple so the focus falls on the blend. This wine weighs in at a breezy 11.8% ABV. It’s floral and laden with brown spice and bunchy tones on account of the 100% whole bunch fermentation. Lifted lavender and violets intermingle with pimento, tomato leaf, cinnamon quill and nutmeg.
September Helan Chardonnay 2024
Fermented at 16°C over seven days from Gezi Mountain fruit, half the blend spends six months in new French oak undergoing malolactic fermentation while the other half rests in neutral oak — part of Gigi Gao’s family-run 20-hectare Ningxia vineyard planted in 2009. Vivid pale gold colour. Savoury tones of smoked honey, toasted nuts and clotted cream sit above a lovely fresh and pure fruit profile in just ripe yellow peach, white pear and golden apple.
Tinnyu Coma Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
Sourced from the Mei-Li-Shi Village vineyard at 2,300m in Shangri-La — a site expected to disappear within five years to make way for a dam — this is hand-harvested, de-stemmed over five days and wild-fermented for 14-16 days with no post-ferment maceration or MLF, then aged eight months in tank and neutral 225L French oak. This is very open in its perfume, with lashings of Indian spice at the fore in the form of turmeric, cumin and cardamom.
Water Wheel Grenache 2024
Smoky plum, woodsmoke, rhubarb, raspberry, clove, cinnamon, red liquorice and bark-like earth on the nose. The palate delivers juicy, sweet-fruited notes of raspberry compote, plum and Bing cherry, with liquorice and baking spice — cinnamon, cassia bark, clove — dancing in support. Gentle chalky tannins frame a spicy, red-fruited finish of medium length.
Water Wheel The Estate 2024
Sweet vanillin and coconut oak lead the perfume before dusty cedar, earth, plum, blackberry, bay leaf and cracked black pepper emerge. Ripe, opulent and generous. The palate follows in kind — ripe plum and blackberry interspersed with pepper, grilled meat, vanilla and mocha. Big, bold and richly structured, with ripe tannins providing the frame and carrying bitter dark chocolate tones through the finish.
Bekkers Clarendon Vineyard Syrah 2024
97 $300 There’s incredible depth to the red and blue fruits from the very first sniff, and it holds hands nicely with pink peppercorn spice. Cranberry, redcurrants and blueberry fruit notes intermingle with loads of Indian spice and turmeric as a top note. There’s some bitter cocoa powder and dark chocolate tones in the mix but they’re complexifying more than intrusive, and some subtle black olive beneath. There’s some delicate mulch-like notes and some dried violet tones as a seasoning.
Bekkers McLaren Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
95 $120 Classic notes of blackcurrant and fine cedar lift from the glass with elegance before a cascading of complexity in tilled earth, graphite minerality, bay leaf, short bread, plum and flickers of ground coffee and dark chocolate in the background. There are allusions of kelp adding a saline edge. The elegance and complexity traits carry through the palate with notes mirroring perfume and lovely even intensity.
Bekkers McLaren Vale Syrah 2024
96 $120 This has such restrained richness and profound complexity. Savoury notes lead the charge with briny olive tapenade, cracked pepper, pan juices. Some time reveals black cherry, blackberry, pain au chocolat and some forest floor tones before some emergent bitter tones of espresso and cacao. Despite the weightiness some of these descriptors conjure, it’s quite the opposite. There’s light and shade, a weave of savoury complexity through dark-yet-levitous fruit.
Craggy Range Aroha Te Muna Martinborough Pinot Noir 2024
Skip to content Envelope Instagram Facebook Home > Craggy Range Aroha Te Muna Martinborough Pinot Noir 2024 Grown on a narrow band of clay over stone in the Te Muna Vineyard, from vines now over 25 years old, this blends two clones picked five days apart — Clone 667, fermented with 85% whole clusters, and Clone 114 from Prestige Block 16, part-fermented in sandstone amphora. Both were hand-picked and wild-fermented, then aged for 14 months in French oak barriques.
Craggy Range Sophia Gimblett Gravels Vineyard 2024
Skip to content Envelope Instagram Facebook Home > Craggy Range Sophia Gimblett Gravels Vineyard 2024 A 79% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon blend anchored by Merlot from Block 24 (clone 481), hand-harvested after a cool, delayed budbreak and bunch- and berry-sorted before whole berries went into closed-top French oak cuves for 21-23 day ferments. Each block was matured separately in French oak before the final blend returned to oak for a further six months.
Craggy Range Le Sol Gimblett Gravels Vineyard 2024
Skip to content Envelope Instagram Facebook Home > Craggy Range Le Sol Gimblett Gravels Vineyard 2024 Syrah from a heritage MS clone brought to New Zealand in the 1840s, planted in the stoniest reaches of the Gimblett Gravels Estate and hand-tended 13-14 times through the season.
Alkina Estate Grenache 2025
Here we have Alkina’s self-proclaimed ‘Village’ level Grenache, taken from a range of sites across the stable, some older and some younger. All wild fermented in concrete at cool temperatures with varying levels of whole bunch before maturation in concrete, then blended. Certified organic and biodynamic. This is another seriously good release of this wine.
Alkina Estate Stonefire Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2024
Skip to content Envelope Instagram Facebook Home > Alkina Estate Stonefire Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2024 ‘Stonefire’ is a tribute to the mother rock beneath the Alkina vineyard. Grenache comes from schist-rich sites and the ferrous clays of Polygon No. 4; Shiraz from old vines in Block 9 and Polygon No. 1; Mataro from old vines in Block 3. Southern Cross certified organic and biodynamic.
Alkina Estate Stonefire Shiraz 2025
Lovely restraint on show with an alluring perfume of black cherry, blueberry and blackberry melding with graphite, crushed rocks, clove, black pepper, flickers of coal and dried violets. There are some earthy, mulch-like notes with air. With time, the savouriness features over the fruit, and in a very positive way. The palate is poised and cool – the latter thanks in part to a vein of minerality shooting through blueberry, black cherry, black pepper, crushed rock, and graphite again.
Diplomacy By Dairy Queen
By Tom Kline, Better Vantage Point | Tuck The Octopussm Imagine a world where you are having an intense, heated argument with your spouse, standing face to face…veins popping, raised eyebrows, sweat on your forehead, kerfuffled hair, and clenched fists. There’s yelling, fist pounding, and door slamming…storming in and out of the living room…then the dining room…one person chasing, the other retreating…que more door slamming. You are leaning in slightly ready to lash out.
Fleet Wines Leongatha Pinot Noir 2025
Grown on a single site in Leongatha, South Gippsland, north-facing rows on an easterly aspect, with deep, basalt-rich clay loam soils. Vines planted in 1990. Fermented 80% de-stemmed (18 days) and 20% whole bunch (21 days), naturally, before maturation in neutral puncheons for 9 months.
Fleet Wines Leongatha Chardonnay 2025
A single site in Leongatha, South Gippsland, on north-facing, easterly-aspected slopes over deep red basalt volcanic soils. Planted in 1990. Whole-bunch pressed to tank for settling, then racked to neutral puncheons for fermentation. Lees stirred throughout élevage for texture and complexity, racked prior to bottling. 100% malolactic fermentation. Savoury notes of toasted almond and ground nutmeg spice lead the perfume before honeysuckle, quince, nashi pear, ripe citrus and white peach cut through.
Fleet Wines Nostalgia Pinot Noir 2025
Hailing from an original Bass Phillip grower vineyard planted at high density in 1990, this wine is grown on north-facing rows on an easterly aspect over deep, basalt-rich clay loam soils. 100% de-stemmed, small-batch wild yeast ferments with gentle extraction over extended maceration. Matured in seasoned French oak puncheons (500L) for 9 months, selected from the finest two barrels of the vintage — an extremely limited production of just two puncheons.
Oraterra Chardonnay 2024
This is an arresting wine from the outset. There’s immediacy to the fruit before lashings of floral, nutty and mineral complexity cascade. Kumquat, white peach, green mango and nectarine sit at the fore with some nutty tones dancing around the edges in walnut husk and almond. Some dehydrated lime and herbal tea tones emerge with air, along with an array prettying and complexifying floral plumes. Allusions of honey.
Oraterra Pinot Noir 2024
This is complex from the get go with twigs, forest floor, dewy earth and clove notes dancing around a core of wild strawberry, dark cherry fruit and blood plum fruit. There’s a good lick of spice in the form of black pepper and ground nutmeg that emerge with air along with a rosehip tea savouriness. With some time in the glass, the perfume clicks into place beautifully to show a complex melding of savoury and fruit notes.
Novum Riverbrook Vineyard Chardonnay 2024
This is very fresh and alluring with precise fruit and lovely ground spice notes melding beautifully. White peach, grapefruit, pear, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, nectarine pulp, powdery peach skin, flint. It deepens with air to reveal apricot kernel, nougat, tangerine, water chestnut and a mineral element – the amalgam of which makes for a very interesting and complex perfume.
Oraterra Pinot Gris 2024
This is a rich, textural and confident Gris somewhat redolent of the more opulent Alsatian style. It’s packed with fig, apricot kernel, quince, sweet jasmine, kumquat, bees wax, and some delicate pepper spice that nicely countervails the fruit heft. There are some meadow flowers and subtle hazelnut tones in the mix, too. The palate is medium bodied with a waxy texture wrapping around honey, peach, apricot, quince, toasted nuts and kumquat jam.
Grant Burge The Holy Trinity 2023
Plum, dark chocolate, coffee grounds and Christmas spices take centre stage initially before being joined by black pepper, paperbark, orange pith and earthy tones. The amalgam, following some time to settle in the glass, works nicely. The palate is juicy and without too much weight, with a mid-toned fruit profile. The tannins are pliable and grainy, the finish juicy and with solid length.
Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 2024
94 $65 Drink by: 2026-2036 Dark fruited and brooding, with black cherry, sweet biscuity oak, mocha, blackberry and plum leading to tilled earth, black pepper, black liquorice and flickers of leather. The palate has a sluice of vibrant fruit akin to the nose sitting forward, with supporting roles from dark spice and Christmas cake. The tannins have a stacked and grainy feel while carrying some bitter mocha-like tones and putting up a frame for a finish of solid length.
Grant Burge Meshach Shiraz 2024
95 $260 Drink by: 2026-2046+ Deep and restrained in the glass, with notes of blood plum, bay leaf, ground coffee, black liquorice, grilled meat, black pepper and sweet tilled earth. There’s a lovely sense of harmony following some time in the glass. The palate has excellent concentration while maintaining precision — blackberry, plum, pepper, earth, mocha, cassis and black liquorice define the notes. A cool vibrancy to the fruit brings a sense of lift more than heft.
Grant Burge Nebu Cabernet Shiraz 2024
95 $105 Drink by: 2026-2041+ Cabernet characteristics lead the aromas with bell pepper, blackcurrant, fine cedar, plum, liquorice, bay leaf and compost. The palate shows a lovely balance of power and finesse, a core of blackcurrant and black cherry driving through the mid-palate with support from cedar, black olive and liquorice. The tannins are firm and grainy, towing the line to a long finish. This will go 15 years or more in the cellar.
St Hugo Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2025
Old potpourri melds with black cherry, raspberry tea and flickering ground coffee before more savoury tones emerge — tilled earth and an umami-flecked porcini note lending irresistible appeal. The palate has a lovely sense of levity: intense and flavoursome without heaviness.
End of Discussion
By Tom Kline, Better Vantage Point | Tuck The Octopussm Can we stop having this conversation now? Every time a regulator takes action against dealerships, someone says, "That only happens to the big groups." No. It doesn't. The recent FTC warning letters about deceptive advertising went to “97 Auto Dealership Groups.”1 With a little help from ChatGPT, here is some relevant information: Of the 97 mentioned in the press release, there are approximately 88 operating entities.
Pipers Brook Chardonnay 2024
Freshness and power holds hands here. It smells of toasted nuts and stone fruits first off – nectarine, peach and apricot kernel. Some time in the glass unlocks flickers of woody brown spice and some prettying stone fruit blossom notes. Some lingering and subtle cedar beneath as a seasoning.
Pipers Brook Reserve Pinot Noir 2022
Ethereality and litheness define this wine once given time to blossom in the glass. Pale and translucent ruby garnet. It’s seductive and enchanting in its restraint and delicacy, with alluring aromas of forest floor, ground nutmeg, cassia bark, clove and raspberry leaf tea. An underlay of red fruit builds with air — raspberry, cranberry, Bing cherry — alongside allusions of violets, kirsch and a building tea-like savouriness.
Pipers Brook Syrah 2025
Plum and black pepper intermingle on first look before subtle menthol, raspberry, black cherry and allusions of grilled game meat. Some woody spice with air complimenting the pepper tone. The palate is juicy and primary with a sluice of plum and raspberry fruit at the fore with a good lick of pepper spice cutting through. A subtle, cooling menthol tone appears again before some fine-but-firm grainy tannins take hold and draw it to solid length.
Whisson Lake Black Label Pinot Noir 2023
Pale ruby with garnet edges. Smoky and spicy on the nose, with pomegranate, red plum, Bing cherry, rosewater, cassia bark and flickers of pine needle — light on its feet aromatically, a thread that carries through to the palate. It’s delicate and demure, with cassia bark and nutmeg again, similar red fruit to the perfume, and touches of red liquorice.
Whisson Lake Monopole Pinot Noir 2024
95 $180 Drink by: 2026-2036+ 10% whole bunch, 15% new oak. There’s some brooding depth to the perfume from the outset that draws you into the glass. Raspberry compote, turmeric, dark cherry and a glimmer of rhubarb lead to tilled earth, a whisper of paperbark, delicate short bread and dewy forest notes. There’s great concentration to the palate while also cool in feel – power and finesse. Dark cherry, raspberry, forest floor, turmeric, a cooling mineral feel.
Whisson Lake White Label Pinot Noir 2024
Whisson Lake should be a household name, and yet their under-the-radar vibe somehow adds to the appeal. Mystery and intrigue abounds. Another White Label release of immense complexity and interest. 1985 plantings, 20% whole bunch, 19% new oak. Red cherry, raspberry leaf, mashed strawberry, cranberry and red liquorice lead to a building array of Indian spices such as caraway seed, turmeric, cumin seed and paprika. There’s some scrubby herbs and delicate twiggy notes adding to the complexity.
Penfolds Bin 23 Pinot Noir 2025
Pinot Noir from Tasmania and the Yarra Valley, named for Cellar 23 at Magill Estate; matured in French oak barriques (22% new). This is all about the bright, lifted red fruits to begin with — mashed strawberry, raspberry coulis and Bing cherry — but it’s quick to fill out beyond that with lovely red rose and potpourri florals, as well as exotic spice tones that add dimension and character beyond the fruit.
Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
97 $800 Drink by: 2026-2056 Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra, Barossa Valley and Padthaway; 16 months in 100% new American oak hogsheads. The flagship Cabernet in the Penfolds stable continues to champion the house philosophy of multi-regional blending, marrying the structure of Coonawarra with Barossa Valley depth and Padthaway generosity. Matured exclusively in new American oak, Bin 707 remains one of Australia’s most ageworthy expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Penfolds Bin 138 Barossa Valley GSM 2024
48% Grenache, 46% Shiraz, 6% Mataro from Barossa Valley; nine months in seasoned French (63%) and American (37%) oak hogsheads. Bright red fruits define the opening with raspberry, red cherry and plum joined by dried herbs, baking spice and subtle florals. The palate is supple and generous, balancing juicy fruit with savoury complexity and gently structured tannins. Fresh acidity keeps the blend lively and drinkable, making for another polished and characterful Barossa GSM.
Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2024
100% Coonawarra Shiraz matured for 12 months in French oak hogsheads (12% new). Always one of Penfolds’ more medium-bodied Shiraz expressions, Bin 128 leans into fragrance, structure and regional definition. Black cherry, blackberry and plum sit alongside cracked pepper, violet, graphite and cedar spice. The palate is energetic and finely structured, balancing bright dark fruit with savoury spice and chalky tannins.
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