Red Hill Estate Classic Pinot Noir 2003, Mornington Peninsula ($17)

Bought on offer from Red Hill Estate. At $17 this is a steal. You can see and taste the age on this now. The orangey/yellow rim on the wine gives it away even though the thick plum colour it falls into conveys the notion of the power to come. And the taste? Well, much of the primary fruit has given over to the secondary flavours of stewed cherries etc.. typical of pinot. I confess I'm only just getting used to those flavours. But this wine is well integrated, no sharp edges to the taste. Smooth as anything. I drank well from the bottle with little need to air. A delight.

Best value wine of the year to date. Wished I bought more - much, much more.

Kono, Pinot Noir, 2006, Marlborough, New Zealand ($13)

Well, getting a new $13 pinot noir that is even drinkable is a challenge nowadays. My previous two or three attempts were acidic disasters. Other bloggers have slated this wine. Howver, I think this wine is okay, not life changing, but okay. Nice balance and palpably un-Australian. There were some darker notes on the plate than most of the Aussies and they reminded me ever-so-slightly of the Kiwi pnot's I tasted at the Cool Climate Wine Show - though without the power or intensity of those wine show entrants. This is not a powerful, and is open to teh accusation of beign watery by all those shiraz drinkers. But I like that less powered taste. I don't always want my head blown to pieces by a mega-power red. Very quaffable, but may not stand up to food too well. Pat had a few sips and claimed to have a headache from it next morning. I had a few glasses and was okay.

Arrogant Frog, 'Ribet Red' 2006, Languedoc, France ($9.90)

Got a rave review from The Age: Epicure. This is another attempt of mine to get a good-but-interesting wine under $10. This is well balanced and quaffed well while could still be drunk with food. It tasted slightly 'Italian' to me - don't know the wine words for this flavour, but I've had millions of Italian wines with that very idiosyncratic taste. Personally, I'm not huge on it - but it was good of its type. The Argentinian Santa Julia malbec is a better wine with food and cheaper too.

Pierro, Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2001, , Margaret River (circa $60)

Drank a bottle of this about 6 months ago and wrote loads of waffle about cerebral wines. the key to getting tis wine going was air - and lots of it. Opened out nicely to be a nice smooth restrained Bordeaux style wine. Went down very well with stilton cheese. Now need to polish off the last two bottles of it.

Tucks Ridge, Pinot Noir 2004, Mornington Peninsula

The latest vintage of this retails at $39 a bottle from the vineyard, so it was interesting to see what one with bottle age would be like (it was won at auction). Well, poor and unbalanced. A big wash of acidity just ruined the whole thing. At times it even tasted too young. Avoid.

Santa Julia, Malbec, Argentina ($7.90)

Needed a little while in the decanter to open up a bit. tannic and needed food. Not a quaffing wine. But tasted great with beef which helped deal with the tannin. At $7.90 - recommended.