Cellar notes #28: Adelaide Hills gold

Brian Croser's 2000 Petaluma Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay, around £14.99 from Oddbins and Majestic, is intense, rich and complex, combining nutty elements with peachy but balanced fruit.

Brian Croser's 2000 Petaluma Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay, around £14.99 from Oddbins and Majestic, is intense, rich and complex, combining nutty elements with peachy but balanced fruit. The 2000 The Lane Beginning Chardonnay, around £14, from Le Pont de la Tour Wine Shop (020-7403 2403) and Rewarding Wines (0870 240 0775), is another characterful dry white in burgundian style with melon aroma and a palate of rich sweet-savoury fruitiness cut by fine acidity.

The 2002 Starvedog Lane Sauvignon Blanc, £9,99, from www.sainsburyswine.co.uk or D Byrne & Co (01200 423152), shows penetrating, New Zealand-like capsicum with juicy tropical fruit, while the 2003 Nepenthe Sauvignon Blanc, £7.99-£9.49, from Waitrose and Oddbins, is a model of aromatic sauvignon with zesty grapefruit and gooseberry. The 2003 Knappstein Lenswood Sauvignon Blanc, £10.99, from Handford Wines (020-7221 9614), is more Sancerre-like and restrained, with gooseberry fruit.

Peppery northern Rhône syrah elements are expressed in the 1999 Starvedog Lane Shiraz, £12.99, from www.sainsburyswine.co.uk or Noble Rot Wine Warehouse (01527 575606). It's spicy and has a sumptuously rich blueberry quality. The 2002 Shaw & Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz, £15.99-£17.95, from Noel Young Wines (01223 844744), Luvians (01334 477752) and La Reserve (020-7589 2020), is an immensely seductive shiraz with liquoricey, spiced-honey aromas and peppery, blackberry fruit in the savoury, succulent and fine-grained Côte Rôtie-style.