Fun in the Sun Whites Pack

This pack is designed to cover a wide range of white varieties and give you excellent value examples of everything from Riesling to Fiano to Chardonnay. Alternative varieties, interesting and benchmark examples on classics, this pack has it all!

• 2025 Rieslingfreak No. 3 Clare Valley Riesling
• 2024 Margan White Label Semillon
• 2025 Sigurd Chenin Blanc
• 2025 Hoddles Creek Estate Pinot Gris
• 2025 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Grenache Blanc
• 2025 Two Tonne Tasmania TMV Chardonnay

2025 Rieslingfreak No. 3 Clare Valley Riesling

The Rieslingfreak No. 3 is John Hughes' outstanding value Clare Valley Riesling.

The Clare Valley is John's home and this wine hails from the family vineyard at White Hutt. The 2025 vintage tells a story of resilience. A year marked by the driest conditions on record and searing heat produced smaller yields but fruit of extraordinary quality. This wine captures the generosity and power of Riesling in the Clare Valley while showing a delicacy rarely seen in such a warm, dry year.

The nose is very enticing, offering Pink Lady apples, Meyer lemon, guava, and fresh nectarine. The palate bursts with zesty citrus, think lemon and blood orange, alongside sweet apple, mango, and passionfruit. A tight, crisp acidity carries these flavours to a long, zesty finish.

An absolute bargain and a must-have for lovers of Australian Riesling, delicious now or destined for the cellar.

95 points
"Fresh and tightly wound, with aromas of lime zest, green apples, guavas, talc, gun smoke and white flowers. The palate is full of drive and precision, showing bright acidity with lemon pith, crushed stones and a hint of jasmine. Linear and focused, with a long, mineral-edged finish. Drink or hold. Screw cap."
- Ryan Montgomery (James Suckling)

2024 Margan White Label Semillon

The White Label Semillon is a classic Hunter benchmark, crafted in a style that is ready to jump into straight away rather than waiting a decade in the cellar. Grown on the estate's sandy creek-bed soils, it is a dead-set bargain of a white that champions pure, unadulterated regional character with an incredibly accessible price tag.

The 2024 vintage was a cracker for whites, delivering crisp, pristine fruit with plenty of natural drive. It was harvested early to lock in freshness, fermented cold, and bottled early. It skips any time in oak entirely, ensuring the wine remains a laser-sharp expression of pure Semillon fruit.

The nose is wonderfully bright and lifted, showing heaps of green apple, lemon curd, and a distinct lemongrass note. The palate is light-bodied, crunchy, and refreshing, loaded with zesty citrus flavours that get pulled along by a mouthwatering wave of clean acidity.

This is a fun, thirst-quenching Hunter Semillon that trades austere tightness for immediate, high-energy drinkability.

93 points
"A pure, fragrant and classic semillon aroma, with high-toned notes of lemongrass, crushed lime leaf, and faint florals."
- Toni Paterson (Halliday Wine Companion)

2025 Sigurd Chenin Blanc

Dan Graham is taking a new look at the Barossa, steering away from heavy extraction towards wines that emphasize real structural detail and genuine drinkability. He has spent years building a network of top-tier growers, and for this 2025 Chenin, he has cast his net across both the Barossa and the high northern hills of the Clare Valley.

Dan presses the fruit firmly to grab extra phenolics, lets the juice ferment naturally on lees, and allows it to go through full malolactic conversion. It spent months resting in a mix of seasoned French and Slovenian oak before settling in tank.

What hits the glass is brilliantly unique and savoury. It tracks along with a smoky, wild herb edge, backed by a waxy, salty citrus drive and a distinctive texture that feels like crushed stones.

There's real flesh and depth here, but it stays entirely focused, refreshing, and dangerously smashable.

2025 Hoddles Creek Estate Pinot Gris

Back in 2013, Franco D'Anna admitted he was "fed up" with making conventional, water-clear Pinot Gris. He found it boring to make and boring to drink. So, he decided to make Gris with some actual personality.

This is a world away from your standard crisp-and-dry Italian style. It is made with intent. The fruit is hand-picked and foot-stomped in bins to get the juice in contact with the skins immediately. A portion is even treated like a red wine - destemmed and left on skins for seven days to build tannin and structure.

The finished wine comes with a distinct blush of pink (do not be alarmed, that is where the flavour is!) and a palate that has genuine grip and texture. It is fermented in old white barriques, adding savoury layers to the fruit.

If you want a Pinot Gris that actually tastes like something - savoury, textural, and complex - this one of Australia's benchmarks.

95 points
"You'd be hard pushed to find a better gris than this at the price."
Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

93 points
"Delicious. It’s a distinctly textural wine but attractively cool and fine boned. An elevated expression from the variety in a restrained way."
- Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)

2025 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Grenache Blanc

Barney Flanders has a reputation for turning out some of the most compelling cool-climate gear on the Mornington Peninsula, but this little project shows he is just as clever when he steps outside his usual turf. The name literally means 'the apprentice', a nod to the fact that he is always experimenting and pushing his boundaries with varieties that aren't exactly common down his way.

This comes from a 'alt variety' hub of Heathcote, with a solid dose of skin contact and plenty of time on lees in neutral old wood, skipping any heavy fining or filtering to make sure the wine didn't lose its raw personality.

It completely rejects that clean, boring, stainless-steel white wine template. It pours a pale gold colour with a bit of real texture in the mouth, showing a waxy, pulpy core of baked pear, a bite of bitter almond skin, and a salty, rustic finish.

A fantastic, unforced food wine that values texture over simple fruit sweetness.

2025 Two Tonne Tasmania TMV Chardonnay

The 2025 season in the Tamar was a bit of a balancing act for Ricky Evans. A warm spring led to healthy yields - a nice change from some leaner years - but a dry, warm summer meant he had to be patient. Things cooled off just in time, allowing the fruit to ripen slowly and hold onto that essential Tassie energy.

Because of that warmth, Ricky let a bigger portion of the wine go through malolactic fermentation this year. He was looking for a "lick of richness" to marry up with the cooling natural acidity the Tamar is known for, and the result is spot on. It’s predominantly fermented in 500L casks (with a single foudre in the mix), spending 10 months on lees to build a silky, relaxed texture.

You get the hallmark white peach and lemon curd, but there’s an extra layer of depth here that makes it feel incredibly complete. It’s a serious, layered Chardonnay that punches well above its weight, balancing the natural edgy energy in Tasmania with a polished, creamy finish.