Home pagepack

Reviews of 2023 Petit Blanc:

91 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2024:
Muscat à petits grains at the home Sand Road Vineyard was grafted 40 years ago. It was arguably not the most astute move, with muscat in demand neither as fruit nor in bottle. No matter, the suitability to a warm climate fits the house ethos, and the results are more than agreeable. Lightweight but flavourful, with orange blossom, lemon zest, coriander seed, yellow grapefruit and hints of frangipani and magnolia, the palate zesty and mildly pithy, saline with an engaging tonic and lemon barley water note, both in flavour and sharp tang..

92 points, Winepilot, August 2023: https://winepilot.com/story/hither-yon/:
The beautifully named Muscat blanc à petits grains is the basis of the Petit Blanc, and I believe it’s the first time I’ve ever had this grape in a dry form (it’s regularly seen in the sweet French wines Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and Muscat de Rivesaltes). Despite its tendency to make “grapey” wines, I found this to be much more aromatic than expected, with distinct orange blossom, lemon and wax characters, and delightful lychee and spice notes that developed with some air. The palate is very zippy, salty and silky, with a slight sourness, and it pairs nicely with cheese (provided it’s not too bitter), heightening the aromatics.

Reviews of 2022 Petit Blanc:

93 points, The Wine Front 2022, Mike Bennie:
Much drier, saltier and crunchy that the decent 2021, this feels a lot more Mediterranean in feel and style. It’s a muscat blanc, made dry, of course, and picked earlier and made to dry. Planted 1980s. It shows the variety calling cards of frangipani and general perfume but with sea spray, alpine herb and tonic water scents. Flavours echo this, it’s tingly, mouth-watering and super fresh with soaring drinkability. Citrusy fresh, briny, long and cool. Takes me to Sicily/Sardinia in a way. So delicious here.

Reviews of 2021 Petit Blanc:

91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
While it is not on the label, this is straight up muscat à petits grains. Light-weight, beautifully aromatic and palpably dry, this is the sort of wine served as an apero while staring at the Mediterranean, from the Languedoc to the Côte d'Azur. Honey blossom, jasmine, musk, grape spice, dill and a rub of citrus unwind across a talcy palate. Delicious drinking.

90 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
Aromas of cut grass, lemon juice and peel and fresh-picked sage make a fresh impression on the nose, as well as lychee and honey. The palate has a smooth, softly fleshy feel with pear pastry. Fresh finish.

Reviews of 2020 Petit Blanc:

91 points, Mike Bennie, Winefront:
What a fun thing from H&Y. And good thing. Cucumber, lemon squash, green herbs. Good scents. Lots of juicy, bouncy fun in the palate. More cucumber, lemon squash, Real Lemonade perhaps, some green apple. Zingy finish whips things tart and clean. Good times. Lots of personality and lots of drinkability."

91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW, :
"This is fun! Grapey and spicy. Think canned lychee, orange blossom and jasmine scents, all careening along talcy rails of chew and acid freshness. The finish is dry and has plenty of pucker. Drink with gusto."

Reviews of 2019 Petit Blanc:

Adelaide Review 2020, Hot 100 Wines, Light Aromatic Wines:
An intriguing wine with a light aromatic lift, initial savoury aromas are followed by n, orange, and nashi pear. This wine is deliciously weighted with a pleasing phenolic grip and lovely acid.

Reviews of 2018 Petit Blanc:

90 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
Citrus and tropical fruit flavours are attractive enough, but the slippery-satiny nature of the texture here makes this pretty white wine enjoyable to say the least.

Reviews of 2017 Petit Blanc:

88 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, September 2017:
Made from Muscat Blanc a’ Petits Grains. I don’t recommend most white wines be served too chilled, but I think this style is best served with a bit of frost on it. Perfumed and musky, kind of light and briny too, with delicate flavour, mainly lemon and lemon barley. It’s got zip and freshness, a bit of fragrance, and it’s VERY easy to smash down with gay abandon. A wonderful wine for summer luncheons, and the like, preferably featuring a sea breeze. I like it, but it is what it is, and that, in this case, is a good thing. The simple things etc.

89 points, Huon Hooke, November 2017:
Pale almost water-white colour and a pungent muscat fruit aroma, which is clean as a whistle and appropriately fragrant. Passionfruit traces. The wine is surprisingly dry in the mouth, like a French muscat blanc sec. As such, it would make a good aperitif wine. A very good, if simple, varietal dry white.

88 points, James Halliday, 1 August 2018:
The fact that its grape variety (muscat blanc à petit grains) might cause people to expect an off-dry wine is neither here nor there, hither or yon. It's fresh, delicate, crisp, dry and faintly lemony.

Reviews of the 2024 Petit Rouge:

89 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, December 2024:
Not the Valle d’Aosta variety of the same name, but rather the companion to the Petit Blanc in the range, and also made from muscat: muscat rouge à petits grains. This was fermented cool, matured on lees for six weeks, then carbonated. A pale, peachy pink and redolent of strawberries, musk sticks, talc, rosewater and orange blossom, this is perky and vibrant with fruit sweetness swelling the palate, finishing dry. This is frivolity in a bottle, and more power to it.

90 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Nectarine, white plum and lychee juice. A hint of watermelon candy and bergamot. There is a tickle of sweetness but so lightly dolloped, it’s barely perceivable. Instead, you get a wash of running acidity and a lovely prickle of spritz. Fun and flirty. Drink now.

Reviews of the 2025 Greco:

94 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front, April 2026:
From Sand Road vineyard in McLaren Vale. A great variety for the region, me thinks. A little period (less than a day) on skins here. This reminds me a bit of the wildly excellent Dom Torzi Vigna Cantina Trebbiano. Salty, textural white wine. Spot on. Has a mandarin undertow on green apple, waxy, bitter pear notes, lime, some green almond notes and a mesh of sea spray briny notes with something just a dash in the zone of pleasing, white balsamic uplift. Proper chalky grip through the finish. A lovely golden colour in the glass too. It hits the mark for the variety, and generally just does wonderful things for diversity of drinking in Aus. Tip Top Tipple, Top Value.

*Red Star Value, 93 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2026:
A cool ferment, then old oak for eight months. As usual, this spent a couple of hours on skins, which seems barely worth mentioning but, as with previous years, it feels a lot longer, with a golden hue and an assertive tug of phenolics. Baked apple, heirloom lemon thick with pith, pineapple quince, pickled ginger, fennel seed, pickle brine, packing straw. Savoury, chewy, rippling with acidity. There’s a lot going on here, and it’s compelling, if likely polarising, though I never mind that.

Reviews of the 2024 Greco:

91 points, James Suckling, June 2025:
Oxidative in style, with aromas of salted nuts, lemons, oyster shells and tea leaves. The palate is medium-bodied with a textural mouthfeel and bright acidity that leads to a phenolic and creamy texture. A really well-constructed and unique Greco. Drink now. Screw cap.

92 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous.com, April 2025:
This golden-hued 2024 Greco is a surprise packet bursting with fruit salad aromas and a strong core of ripe melon and subtle, spicy oak. It’s full-bodied and flavorful, with more exotic tropical fruit tones, waxy, lanolin complexity and classy older oak providing an impressive, extended finish. Drinking window: 2025-2028.

91 points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review, January 2025:
Straw-gold hue, almost amber at the core. Honey, sourdough toast and candied ginger aromas. Full and weighty, beeswax, warm honey, ginger and mandarin notes all fill through the core. Glides with a softness and deep weight then a line of tannin brings tension and ensures the finish is dry. A unique expression that works well.

91 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, December 2024:
As with last year, this saw a couple of hours in the press before the free run was drained to tank for a cool ferment; maturation was in old French oak. The deeply golden colour presages a deeply flavoured and textural – slightly oily perhaps, but not overly – wine on a foundation of pithy, pear-like granular tannins and taut acidity. Baked apple and quince, ripe Bosc pear, mustard fruits, ground ginger and mace. It’s juicy and fruitful, but kind of savoury, too.

92 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
How exciting it is to see a Greco grown on the alluvial sandy site of Hither & Yon’s home vineyard in the Vale. On fine lees for 30 days, transferred to puncheons and 10% through malolactic fermentation. A garden of yellow stone fruits, chamomile, beeswax and honeysuckle. A sweep of kumquat citrus acidity followed by ground cumin, dukkah and white pepper. A touch of brûlée bitters. Such a wine of intrigue and interest, and a great fit for the white wine spectrum of the Vale. Drink now.

Reviews of the 2023 Greco:

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2024:
This, saw two hours in the press to ‘enhance’ the mid-palate while also picking up plenty of golden colour. Cool fermentation in tank followed by six months’ maturation in old chardonnay barrels with 10% mlf. Russet apple, Bosc pear skin, raw quince, dried ginger and tangelo pair with a briny and waxy savouriness. There’s ample grip here, making it feel more skin influenced than it is, but the pithy pitch is spot on, working with spirited acidity to add savoury food-friendly intent to the characterful flavour arc.

Reviews of the 2022 Greco:

16.5++, Max Allen, Jancis Robinson, October 2023:
This, the first proper crop of Greco for Hither & Yon, was the last variety they picked in McLaren Vale in 2022 – and still had such high acid that they put the wine through malo and lees-stirred in old barrels for six months to build richness. Looks a little developed, quite golden in the glass (typical of Greco), with textural savoury layers, some mandarin-peel-like waxiness, a delicious combination of richness and underlying citrus cut that should develop in a really interesting way in bottle.

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, March 2023:
A new wine for H&Y, from vines planted in 2019, but gee, they are doing well. A few hours on skins and then into old wood for malo and lees stirring. Brassy colour. Nutty, saline, floral, tangerine and nashi pear. It’s spicy and offers dusty white pepper tannin, a little nutty/pastry richness, but plenty of juicy tangerine acidity, and a saline finish that’s refreshing and gently grippy. What a great debut. Highly recommended.

Tony Love, InDaily, February 2023:
This wine comes specifically from Sand Road, the southern Italian variety clearly loving its new home. It’s gold to light orange toned, bright and shiny – not cloudy – and is all toast and butter, roasted nuts as well with a slice in there of mandarin peel. The standout here is the textural palate, minerally and tangy with fabulous mouth-watering pithy, peppery tannins. Virtually impossible to describe the finish as it’s impossible to resist a second glass. A wonderful surprise, and will change the white wine game for trad sauvignon or chardonnay drinkers.

Reviews of the 2024 Shiraz:

93/100 Points, #3 of 26 Shiraz 2024 McLaren Vale: Top Value, Melissa Moore, The Real Review, May 2026:
Deep in colour, rich and ripe with black berries and cherries and vanilla, chocolate—almost Cherry Ripe but not quite— and bold and textural, bright and focused, firm grippy tannins. A winter warmer in a nutshell.

*Red Star Value, 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2026:
This came off four sites, including the Hillenvale vineyard, with 5% from vines that spill into the Adelaide Hills GI. Cooler sites lend a medium weight, a Hither & Yon theme across the range. Dark cherry and olive, black loose-leaf tea, violet, dark spices, dried seaweed and essence-like blackberry, but there’s nothing overly sweet or rich here. It’s supple, fruitful, effortlessly charming and such a versatile food wine. More powerful shiraz has its cohort of fans and its place, but it’s wines like this that better fit our modern way of eating and drinking, wines that can bring newer drinkers, or those fatigued, to appreciate our most planted red grape.

Reviews of the 2023 Shiraz:

90 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
Fruit is from four separate blocks in the Eastern Foothills of McLaren Vale. The elevation brings with it a blue-tinged aroma, bilberry and blackcurrants. Butterfly pea flowers and poppyseed. Its bright lines of acidity and some chewy tannins keep the wine lively. There is a pocket in the middle palate filled with black sesame; it stands out for its unique flavours and shape. Drink now-2028.

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025:
In the mix of future-proofing varieties, McLaren Vale’s most planted grape – and by a significant margin – is shining ever brighter at this address. No imperious flagship bottlings here; more taking the moderately weighted food-friendly angle, as with their climate-champion grapes. Tart boysenberry, black cherry, violet, Earl Grey tea. It’s got some pep from the cool year, finishing energetically. It’s a delicious iteration.

90 points, Campbell Mattinson, September 2025:
This is fresh, fruity and well balanced. It offers plum and red cherry flavours with subtle infusions of toast, chicory and smoked herbs. It’s not a big wine but nor is it underdone; it walks an attractive, well-fruited line, and is a good red wine to drink as a result.

Reviews of the 2022 Shiraz:

91 points, James Suckling, December 2024:
Black cherries, black beans and roasted herbs on the nose, followed by a full-bodied, fleshy and fine-tannined palate. I like the savory herb undertones to the black fruit. Drink now. Screw cap.

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, June 2024:
From the brothers Leask, who largely specialise in climate-apt grapes, this is compelling value from an old-school hero variety. It's the right balance of juicy and savoury, with black cherries, blackberry, spiced plum, white pepper, leather, anise, rocky iron notes and hardy herbs, the palate silky, underwritten by finely tuned tannins, guiding but not interrupting the flow. Very nice indeed. *Red Star Value.

90 Points, The Real Review, January 2024:
Youthful in the glass. Aromas of dark fruits, spice, dried herbs, graphite and a whiff of eucalyptus. Full flavoured, chewy and dark fruited. Plum, mulberry, spice and cedar are all at play and the tannins are firm and savory.

94 Points, The Vintage Journal Summer Wine Guide 2023:
Medium-deep crimson. Fresh blackcurrant, blackberry aromas with hints of marzipan and spice. Inky deep and sinuous with plentiful dark berry fruits, marzipan, hint ginger notes, fine al dente tannins, very good mid-palate volume and fresh long mineral notes.

Reviews of the 2021 Shiraz:

92 Points, Angus Hughson, Vinous, February 2023:
The 2021 Shiraz is a hearty expression from McLaren Vale, delivering good levels of flavor and complexity. There is an attractive impact of new leather and blackberry aromas with a nice dose of ironstone. Fleshy mulberry and olive tapenade flavors follow with satisfying density and ripe tannins on the finish.

92 Points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal, December 2022:
Medium deep crimson. Bush garrigue, red cherry, red liquorice, roasted walnut aromas. Supple cherry pastille, cranberry fruits, fine chalky, al dente textures and underlying roasted complexity. Drink now, keep for a while.

91 Points, Ned Goodwin MW, 2022 James Halliday Wine Companion:
Picked across a number of parcels for a panoply of varying textures and flavour profiles. Scents of dark cherry, tea tree, mint and green peppercorn. Iodine and a swab of tapenade, too. This is good drinking for the money. Flavour, poise and refreshment in spades, with a lithe tannin profile tucking in the seams for savouriness over fruit.

90 Points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
This 2021 McLaren Vale Shiraz is juicy, buoyant, pure, bright and delicious. It is exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) what you look for when picking up a value Shiraz. This is a cracking little wine. It's not complex - and I'd drink it young—but it is layered with all the minerals and bouncy fruits you could want, and then some.

Reviews of the 2020 Shiraz:

93 Points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
This is very good regional Shiraz, implementing a controlled chord of reduction to constrain lilac, cracked pepper, clove, charcuterie and blue-fruit accents. Fine tension. Compelling length. The lushness of the Vale iterated almost as a cooler-climatic expression. Fine-boned tannins and savoury spice inflections. Versatile at the table.

91 points, James Suckling:
"Attractive blackcurrant aromas and hints of leaves. There's a real blue-fruit edge to this shiraz. The palate has quite a brisk, assertive feel with smoothly delivered blueberry and blackcurrant flavors."

Reviews of previous vintages:

95 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
Oh come all ye faithful lovers of McLaren Vale shiraz. It's hard to say whether the variety or the region is the most important - and true - contributor to the depth and outright richness of this Shiraz. The tannins also ring true to the theme, leaving no doubt about its longevity.

93 points, James Halliday 2019 Wine Companion:
It delivers a solid whack of dark berried flavour. This is a sure-footed wine, well-balanced and finished, with fluid delivery of coffee cream, blackberry, plum and choc-mint flavours. From start to finish, it keeps you satisfied.

91 Points, Gary Walsh, June 2017, The Wine Front www.winefront.com.au:
Blackberry, smoky grilled meat sprinkled with pepper, a bit of purple flowers or something like that. Medium bodied, flavoursome, almost slurpy, but a bit more in it than that, with light tannin, spice and dark fruits, and a tidy finish. Lovely wine, drinking very well young. Doing a good job of it here.

90 Points, Huon Hooke, March 2017, www.huonhooke.com:
Deep red/purple colour and a ripe, concentrated, deep-fruited aroma and palate flavour. The texture is soft and easygoing. Peppery blackberry and dark plum aromas. Concentrated, rich, soft and rounded. A very smart shiraz for one so young.

Reviews of the 2025 Tinto Shiraz:

91 points, Melissa Moore, The Real Review, May 2026:
Plush and concentrated on the nose, with ripe blackberry and black cherry fruit aromas and hints of violet and dried black plum. Textural and creamy on the palate, with bright acidity to balance and savoury grape-skin tannins on the finish. Fun—could even be chilled on a warm day.

90 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front, April 2026:
It’s all shiraz, though the ‘Tinto’ is to suggest, well, redness, but, also, “the pure joy in this, matched to the ethos of this wine, and ochre soil of the site“, which is a nice sentiment – I like it. Nouveau shiraz, is the deal. It’s slurpy and rich, dark fruited, cola-laced, inky with a sense of purple fruit, dashed with milk chocolate, touched up with green herbs and peppery spice. Nice! Soft, fun, flirty red wine. Easy to guzzle, likely to get a chill. Party time right here. Not so complex, but seriously good energy.  If you want a red with freshness but some heft, step right up.

90 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, March 2026:
Shiraz made in a forward, exuberant style, sans oak – tank only – and with only gently pressed free-run used. It’s like shiraz got jealous of grenache and wanted to join the fun. Bright red and tart black fruits, some blueberry, red and blue florals, a little boysenberry. It’s got energy and drive, a splash-around light red that can take a slight chill and has enough tannic pluck for the table.

Trophy: Best McLaren Vale Wine - "The Bushing Monarch"

Trophy: Best Mediterranean Variety Red Wine

Trophy: Best Wine of Show

Trophy: Best Red Wine of Show

Trophy: Best Nero d'Avola

Gold Medal

Max Allen, Australian Financial Review, 23rd November 2017, www.afr.com:
This is a bloody ripper of a young red. No wonder it won three trophies (including best of show) at this year's AAVWS. It has a gorgeous saturated colour, heaps of voluptuous, seductive berry fruit, supple grippy tannins crying our for some garlicky charcoal-grilled lamb, and a lovely vibrant freshness about it, despite the 14.5% alcohol. Moreish. Delicious. Goes on sale soon at the Hither & Yon cellar door.

Adelaide Review, Hot 100 Wines 2017/2018:
Fruit Forward Reds; "Uber-fragrant and lithe. Whisk this one off to a picnic and enjoy on a super fancy rug.

Trophy: Best Red Wine of Show.

Trophy: Best Italian Red Variety.

Trophy: Best Nero d'Avola.

Gold Medal.

August 2016. James Halliday - Wine Companion. 90 Points:
Attractive juicy red berry flavours; the wine doesn't need any oak amelioration; good length.