Hesketh Woodside Gamay 2023

Is Gamay the new Grenache? It is certainly having a moment with some mighty impressive Gamays being released. This is one of them. Eye catching in youthful, bright red-purple hues. Follows up with a heady, summery fragrance in cherry, plum and cranberry with a sizeable dose of spice and aniseed. This is no caricature of Beaujolais. It has its own individual style: well- structured and generous across the middle palate with juicy tannins playing a support role. Plummy, approachable red fruits on the palate with a splash of sour cranberry and dried herbs offer immediate drinking pleasure, but there’s also potential for short-term ageing. Based on this little charmer, I look forward to seeing more Adelaide Hills Gamay coming through.

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