Fishbone Margaret River Estate Vermentino 2023

Vermentino’s Italian home is the island of Sardinia and along the Tuscan coast. It fits in pretty well, too, it must be said in the Mediterranean climate of Margaret River where its characteristic grapefruit and citrus qualities shine. This easy going Vermentino, the perfect Sunday arvo drink with friends, boasts a heady mix of grapefruit, lime, apple, chervil and wildflower scents. Very inviting and offering a little more than most styles which can often tend towards the simple. Opens along a nicely textural path to a middle palate boasting a cache of summer fruits – apples, white peach, lemon, grapefruit pith – with a lightly savoury almond nuttiness. Acidity is bright so, too, the overall outlook for this little charmer.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic