Outside of these amazing Langtons Classification Exceptional wines I was blown away by the consistency of vino throughout the region.  Here are some of the wineries that caught my attention -  up and coming Shut the Gate Winery & Mad Bastard Winery, run by former Jim Barry Winemaker Mark Barry who is having fun and clearly named his new venture Mad Bastard after himself!! We had a great chat and he had me in stitches for a good hour.

Arriving mid-afternoon at Jim Barry Wines, I was met by Jim's grandson, current winemaker and all round top guy - Sam Barry who showed us around the winery and drove us to where their Armagh vineyard is where he surprised us with the newly bottled 2012 Armagh and from what he said we were the first punters in the trade to the 2012 vintage prior to their Member release... Amazing!

Photo (Left) Conley's Fine Wines Founder Scott Conley & Jim Barry's Grandson and current Winemaker Sam Barry (Right) - Seen here enjoying the award wining 2012 Jim Barry Armagh prior to trade or member release.  Congratulations to the team who shortly afterwards being named the 2014 Winery of the Year by leading UK wine writer Matthew Jukes in his 100 Best Australian Wines report 2016/2017, which also featured The Barry Bros Shiraz Cabernet in its prestigious top 100 list.

About the Jim Barry Winery

Located in the cool uplands of the North Mount Lofty ranges around 50 km north of Adelaide, the vineyards of Jim Barry were built in Clare in 1959. This is a family run winery focused on creating quality wines through a creative way to deal with viticulture and wine-production technology. Jim Barry Wines' 'The Armagh' Shiraz has been raised to "Excellent" in the Langton's Classification of Australian Wine VI. The Armagh was one of just four wines to be lifted to the most noteworthy classification.Peter Barry, Managing Director of Jim Barry Wines said he was "excited to have 'The Armagh' perceived along these lines. "In 1985, my family and I chose to make a benchmark Australian Shiraz from the first vineyard that my guardians, Jim and Nancy planted. We needed to bond a spot for the Clare Valley as a world class wine creating area.

Winery Details

Jim Barry Wines
33 Craig Hill Road, CLARE
SA, 5453, Australia
Phone: 61 (0) 8 88422261
Website: http://jimbarry.com/

1990 Jim Barry Tasting Notes

1994  About the Wine - On Special while stock lasts and roughly $50 cheaper than Dan Murphy's

Profound garnet-black in color, it shows a beautiful choco-mint and mincemeat nose with indications of smoky bacon, espresso, tobacco and cumin seed. The rich, full-bodied tissue is very much upheld by exceptionally fresh corrosive and a medium-high state of extremely velvety tannins. The completion is long loaning waiting notes of mint, espresso and baking spices.

1995

Intially opens up with a claret colour. The aromas are more in the red fruit spectrum with strawberry and boysenberry at the forefront. The palate is generous and the sweetness from the oak is still showing and somewhat dominating. The palate is tightly wound behind a wall of tannins. After two hours the wine is still in a closed mode and from this bottle it would be recommended to give the wine a good decant prior to serving; however the fruit flavours have come out and is showing an abundance of blueberry and mulberry along with the leathery development that could be expected from a 15 year old wine.

1999

2002

Similar to Wild Duck Creek Winery,  Jim Barry make great quality wines at both ends of the price spectrum.  -  one of our personal favourites is the Jim Barry Watervale Riesling is amazing value at $15-$20

Wines are made to be shared but maybe you have been struggling to bring it out as you want to share it with people who appreciate fantastic wine and more importantly the love & effort you gone through to age it…

You will join other wine enthusiasts enjoying the crème del la crème of South Australian top end wines.

The contenders to join the evening must be at least 12 year old (Prior to 2002):

• Greenock Creek Ronnefeldt Road - Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon
• Torbreck Run Rig or Laird
• Chris Ringland/Three Rivers
• Penfolds Grange
• Penfolds 707
• Henschke Hill of Grace
• Clarendon Hills Astralis
• Jim Barry The Armagh
• Wendouree Shiraz
• Rockford Basket Press/SVS Years (exceptional vintages only)
• Greenock Creek Creek Block Shiraz (exceptional vintages only)

How it works:  Email me with what you want to bring for consideration

Seats are limited. You will need to confirm what you will be bringing prior to evening to secure your spot.

Discounted Wines available for purchase for the event:

If you want to join this fantastic event but don’t have any of the listed wines give me a call to purchase one at a discounted rate for event attendees

Event Details:

What: Conley’s Fine Wine’s presents a BYO night of South Australia Best of the Best Cabernet & Shiraz (Pre 2003).

Date: Friday the 28th of August 2015

Time: 7 for 7.15pm – 12 Finish

Venue: Sosta Cucina

Address: 12 Errol St, North Melbourne VIC 3051

Number of people: Limited

Event Cost: BYO Wine & Pre-pay the restaurant for dinner

Menu: 4-5 courses

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There is nothing better than enjoying a amazing 5 star, Chef's Hat or Michelin Star Restaurant. Well actually there is - When they allow BYO for a quality vino.

What springs to mind when you think BYO restaurant? For me the local Chinese, Italian or Thai restaurant with Red Wine Goblets pops to mind.

Help us on our quest to find the Melbourne's best BYO Restaurants, list them on our site with your rating of the experience - Food, Glassware & Service

BYO at most Fine Dining establishments is still looked down on and quickly dismissed with the old 'our liquor license does't allow BYO' or the insane 400% markup of RRP to recover margin. This needs to be viewed as an opportunity to create more frequent visits from patrons who can minimise their bill (likely to increase % on the food portion) & maximise their Dining experience by enjoying that special BYO Bottle paired with professionally prepared menu.

With the restaurant industry being challenged by more casual dining restaurants and rise of the amateur cook who choose to stay in to hone their culinary skills in preparation for next seasons TV Reality Show auditions - My Kitchen Rules or Masterchef, can these adopt an innovative way to offer us wine lovers a happy medium of amazing restaurant quality food with our preferred BYO tipple? Before we go to far there needs to be a balance and clear guidelines to what is accepted - to avoid someone taking a bottle of Queen Adelaide to there next visit at Vue du Monde:

Here are some of my thoughts of a fair system, I welcome your ideas and feedback:

- Wine value needs to compliment the food & be better than acceptable quality - no $2 buck chuck

- BYO attracts a Fixed Priced per bottle

or

- Perhaps BYO is only accepted while enjoying a degustation menu of 3-5 smaller courses allowing the chef to show more people a wider range & of course show off their culinary skills

Food for thought :)

Scott Conley

@Conleysfinewine

Pinterest

CONLEY’S FINE WINES IS PLEASED TO HOST THE 3RD ANNUAL TORBRECK SUPER PREMIUM WINE DINNER.

We'll have Mick Dowling talk us through their fantastic range of wines and what better way to warm up on a chilly winters evening than with this cracking Barossa legend.

Run Rig, Laird, Steading Blanc, Les Amis, Pict, Descendant, Factor

For More information & to Book Click here

What: Torbreck Museum & Current Vintage wine dinner @ The Point Restaurant Melbourne, you will enjoy the premium range of Torbreck wines paired with a amazing Five course Degustation menu*

Date: Thursday 25th June 2015

Time: 6.30 for 7pm – 12 Finish

Venue: The Point Restaurant Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia

Address: Aquatic Drive, Albert Park Lake VIC 3206

Event Cost: $250 per head

Menu: 5 Course degustation (Vegetarian option available)

On a recent trip of the Barossa Valley in June 2014 we dropped into Artisans of Barossa for a late lunch on their beautify deck. Artisans of Barossa is a clearly well thought out cellar door co-op between a bunch of smaller likeminded producers - Hobbs of Barossa, John Duval Wines, Massena, Schwarz Wine Company, Sons of Eden, Spinifex, Teusner

We meet with Greg & Allison Hobbs to sample the Hobbs range and other wineries vino’s. I was amazed that I had never heard of or tried Hobbs of Barossa wine. Wow….their Premium range Hobbs Shiraz, Hobbs Gregor Shiraz or Hobbs Shiraz Viognier were amazing and in my opinion worthy of a Langton’s Exceptional or outstanding list. Bang for buck their TinLids is beauty.

Hobbs has one of the Barossa's most magnificent old vineyards located on just 15 acres of vines, which are located adjacent to Chris Ringlands plot of stratospherically priced wines (Chris Ringland has also consulted to the winemaker). The vineyard is nestled in the cool, beautiful Barossa Ranges, where the climate and distinct soil structure provide ideal conditions to produce fruit of unique quality with all grapes handpicked.

BOOK now, limited seats remain

Date: Thursday the 11th^th of June 2015

Time: 6.30 for 7pm start – 12 Finish

Venue: The Point Alber Park

Address: Aquatic Drive, Albert Park Lake VIC 3206

Event Cost: $199

Jarrod, Michael & Annabelle's son will take you on a journey of Greenock Creeks wines including some of American Wine Critics favourites that have been awarded the impossible 100 out of 100..... such as the following:

• GREENOCK CREEK ROENNFELDT ROAD CABERNET SAUVIGNON 1998 AND 1992

• GREENOCK CREEK ROENFELDT ROAD SHIRAZ 1995, 1996, 1998 AND 2002

• GREENOCK CREEK BLOCK SHIRAZ 2001 AND 2003

We will have some of these and other back vintages available for sale at great prices (available only to attendees) on the night.

What: Conley’s Fine Wine’s presents one of our and Robert Parker Jnr's favourite wineries Greenock Creek from Barossa Winery. RP Jr has named several of their flagship wines 100 points, so come and join us and Michael Waugh's son Jarrod to experience a range of current and museum vintage over a superb 5 course degustation at The Point Albert Park

Date: Thursday the 27th of November 2014

Time: 6 for 6.30pm – 12 Finish

Venue: The Point Albert Park

Address: Aquatic Dr, Albert Park Lake VIC 3206 Australia

Number of people: Venue Dependent - 22 people

Event Cost: T.B.C

Menu: 5 Course Degustation

Winery Website: http://www.greenockcreekwines.com.au/

These less formal events allow our members to Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) & join like minded people while enjoying a very rare opportunity for a vertical tasting - in this case Australia's icon wine Penfold’s Grange.

When: 30th of May 2014 (venerdi 30 maggio 2014)

Where: Sosta Cucina

Address: 12 Errol St North Melbourne

Book via our site or call Sosta on (03) 9329 2882

MENU

(Please let us know of any dietary requirements and we can cater accordingly)

Olive sott’olio, Reggiano, e acciughe Ligurian and Sicilian green olives, Organic Reggiano parmesan, Marinated and pickled Sicilian anchovies

All served with grissini

San Daniele

Prosciutto with fresh imported buffalo mozzarella and torta fritta

-

Carne cruda

Pasture fed hand cut Cape Grim eye fillet with quail egg, pickled cucumber, pecorino crisp

Pappardelle al ragu d’agnello

Fresh ribbon pasta with a slow cooked lamb ragu and pecorino

Arrosto di quaglia (gf)

Roasted whole partly deboned quail with pancetta, sausage, prune and pinenuts on braised red cabbage with roasting juices

Capretto (gf)

Baked Gippsland milk fed goat on the bone with wild fennel, white wine and truffle infused Pecorino

Formaggi Italiani

Italian cheese board with their traditional accompaniments and Puglian crackers

We have been planning on launching a range of BYO pop-up wine nights for a while now, starting monthly and evolving from there.  There isnt enough Melbourne Restaurants that offer BYO, so we'll find them or organise a special night where everyone can Bring Your Own (BYO) Wine

How does it work: We choose a restaurant, bar, various location and communicate the details via Twitter and Facebook (so make sure you Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter)...  We list a range of vintages of a selected wine and to join the fun you have to either BYO Wine of the selected vintages or buy one through the Conley's Fine Wine website.
Why do this? You and other lovers of a certain wine can get together with like minded people to enjoy Very Rare opportunity to experience a vertical tasting.
I am going to kick off with MountMary Quintet night. Let me know if you're interested and what vintage you are going to bring, so I can cross this off the list before advertising the event.
I am bringing a 1990 @MountMary Quintet and we already have a 1998 and 2000 from attendees and two other yet to confirm the vintage, here is the list:   1986 - Taken 1990 - Scott Conley 1991 1992 1994 1996 1998 - Taken 1999 - Taken 2000 2001

Please confirm your attendance and vintage you will be bringing to the event.

Where: Sosta Cucina

Address: 12 Errol St, North Melbourne VIC 3051

Menu: A La Carte -    http://www.sosta.com.au/menu/a-la-carte/

What:  Torbreck Wine Dinner @ Melbourne Botanical Restaurant with a range of Torbreck Wine spread over Five course Degustation menu

Date:   Thursday 15th August 2013

Time:  6.30pm – 12

Venue:  Botanical - Archer Room  - Melbourne, Australia

Address: 169 Domain Road South Yarra VIC 3141

Number of people: Limited Seating so getting in quick

BOOK NOW