Stanton & Killeen featured in The Guardian, read the full article here
Stanton & Killeen Arinto, Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia 2022
Are French grape varieties just innately better than those with origins in other countries? That’s the question that inevitably comes to mind when you realise how many of the best wines made in the so-called New World are made with French varieties. Argentine malbec, New Zealand sauvignon blanc, Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, Oregon pinot noir, South African chenin banc, Australian chardonnay etc, etc, and very much etc. The question came up again as I was tasting my way round the assembled offerings put together by the UK’s Australian wine importers at a recent tasting in London: so much of the good Australian stuff is built on French foundations, even if the finished constructions are so distinctive you’d never mistake them for wines from anywhere else. Still, it’s always refreshing to come across an Australian wine that shows off the abilities of varieties from other parts of the wine world, such as the glorious mix of lime-tangy acidity and tropical fruit fleshiness in Stanton & Killeen’s Victorian take on the Portuguese variety, arinto.