DD Top Drops Red Pack

• 2025 Two Tonne Tasmania STH Pinot Noir
• 2025 Margan Breaking Ground Barbera
• 2025 Artuke Classic Rioja
• 2023 Koerner The Clare
• 2025 Finca La Florencia Malbec
• 2023 Spinifex Esprit

2025 Two Tonne Tasmania STH Pinot Noir

While the TMV is the snapshot of the north, the STH is Ricky’s exploration of Tasmania’s cooler, southern corners. The 2025 vintage marks a big milestone for this cuvée, with the Huon Valley making its debut alongside the Derwent and Coal River Valleys. It now completes the trio of southern valleys, with each region making up roughly a third of the final blend.

Even though the south is traditionally the coldest end of the island, the 2025 season was warm and generous enough to give this wine a serious amount of plushness. Surprisingly, Ricky found that the new Huon component actually provided the grunt and richness this year. He kept the winemaking light-handed - roughly 10% whole bunch across the parcels and an early press-off to ensure that the tannins stayed soft and pliable.

Regardless, the result is the boldest and most structured Pinot in the Two Tonne range. It’s brooding and dark, loaded with black cherry and plum, but it still carries that essential Tassie lift. Spending 11 months in oak has smoothed out the edges, leaving you with a wine that has plenty of muscle but still feels energetic. It’s always the first to sell out of the three TTT Pinots, this year likely won't be different.

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2025 Margan Breaking Ground Barbera

The Breaking Ground Barbera is Ollie Margan’s exciting take on this Northern Italian variety, proving how well it handles the Hunter's warm climate. Sourced from the estate's red volcanic soils, this is all about Ollie’s desire to move away from heavy, high-alcohol reds towards something far more smashable. It is a creative, forward-thinking red that brings a completely fresh, light-footed alternative to the table.

The 2025 vintage delivered immaculate fruit, packing a heap of varietal spice and Barbera's naturally electric acidity. Ollie kept things unforced in the cellar, utilizing a gentle fermentation and aging the wine entirely in older, large-format oak casks. This approach completely skips any heavy oak impact, keeping the focus entirely on the bright, high-energy primary fruit.

The nose is incredibly vibrant, throwing out a mix of sour cherry, dark plum, and a nice kick of dried Italian herbs. The palate is medium-bodied and crunchy, loaded with juicy red berry flavour that flows over a smooth bed of fine tannins before a bright wave of acid cleans it up.

This is a brilliant, food-friendly red that swaps out heavy-handed structure for pure, vibrant drinkability.

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2025 Artuke Classic Rioja

Arturo and Kike de Miguel are making some of the most exciting, terroir-driven wines in Rioja right now. Before you even look at their high-end, single-vineyard releases, you probably should start here. Their entry-level Rioja is hands-down one of the best value reds on the shelf. If you want a glimpse into the fresh, "new wave" of Rioja, this is it.

Sourced from their bush vines around the village of Baños de Ebro in Rioja Alavesa, this is a traditional field blend of roughly 95% Tempranillo and 5% Viura. The winemaking is purely focused on freshness and energy. It undergoes carbonic maceration and is fermented and rested entirely in concrete - no oak in sight.

The 2025 a dangerously drinkable, generously flavoured wine. It delivers all the bright, satisfying red fruit you want from a young, Joven-style Rioja, but completely avoids the artificial, bubblegum character that can sometimes plague carbonic wines. It is packed with finesse, balance, and a lively energy. Do yourself a favour and serve this with a slight chill, it is genuinely a wine to buy by the case and drink unashamedly.

92 points
"It has bright aromas of strawberry and flowers, perfumed, aromatic, intoxicating but also light and fresh, open, clean and expressive. It's quite harmonious for its young age. It has a silky palate with velvety, unnoticeable tannins and is juicy, soft and tasty."
- Luis Gutiérrez (The Wine Advocate)

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2023 Koerner The Clare

'The Clare' is a wine designed to showcase both the history and the future of this great region, through the eyes of one of Australia's brightest young producers.

The base of this wine is a classic Clare Valley varietal marriage of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Cabernet Franc, with a splash of Grenache, Carignan and Sciacarello adding plenty of spice, nuance and pizzaz!

Contrary to the classic Clare Cabernet blend, this is a lively, juicy red wine ready to be tucked into immediately. "Bordeaux varieties made in a Loire style", as Damon Koerner puts it.

Super wine!

94 points
"I swilled this and thought, gee, Damon Koerner must really like cabernet. He must, as the wine is so good... A portrait of Australia, its landscape, the dried bush elements, the neighbours coming over – it speaks of these things very well."
- Katrina Butler (Halliday Wine Companion)

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2025 Finca La Florencia Malbec

Big red lovers, you're on to a winner here.

This is an opulent, ultra-smooth Malbec from a vineyard almost 1000m above sea level, in the iconic region of Mendoza.

An Italian family from Piedmonte is behind the wine. Having immigrated in the 19th century, the Cassones established a modern premium winery in the south-west of the region.

Combining this great old vine fruit with modern, polished winemaking techniques allows current owner Eduardo Cassone to produce powerful yet approachable wines that do great justice to the terroir they come from.

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2023 Spinifex Esprit

When Pete Schell started Spinifex back in 2001, wines like Esprit completely changed the conversation about what the Barossa could be. It shifted the focus away from sheer power and moved it toward perfume, finesse, and structure. Fast forward to the 2023 release, and it’s still one of the most compelling Grenache blends in the country, especially when you consider the pedigree of the fruit.

Pete sources this from eight different patches of dirt across the valley, including spots in Ebenezer and Williamstown. Some serious history here - the vine age ranges from 75 to over 150 years old. While the blend moves around occasionally, the Grenache was so strong this year that it really had to be the hero. It makes up over 80% of the blend, rounded out with bits of Shiraz, Counoise, and Cinsault.

It's textbook Spinifex winemaking, using wild yeasts and seasoned oak so the fruit does the talking. It’s not a heavy, syrupy red; instead, it’s deeply characterful and complex with a lovely savoury edge.

If you’re a fan of old-vine Barossa reds that prioritise character over brute force, this is exactly what you should be looking for. Honestly, for the price, it’s hard to find anything else in the region that comes close to this level of quality.

95 points
"This has been superbly handled; it's fresh and complex, with pomegranate molasses, wet roses, cherry, graphite, licorice, star anise and fresh grated nutmeg (in that warming, spicy way that it has). There are notes of petrichor and wet asphalt too. It's excellent."
- Erin Larkin (The Wine Advocate)

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