PICK & CHOOSE

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:
Mike Bennie, Winefront, 91 points:
"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:

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, September 2017 www.winefront.com.au

"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." 88 points.

Huon Hooke, November 2017, www.huonhooke.com
"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." 89 points

James Halliday, 1 August 2018, www.winecompanion.com.au
"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." 88 points

Reviews of the 2023 Greco:

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 2022 Rosé:

16/20, Jancis Robinson, September 2023: https://www.jancisrobinson.com/tastings/268753
"Lovely example of the pale, dry style of rosé that has become ubiquitous these days: good fragrant slightly rustic (in a good way) rose-hip flavours, helped along the savoury path by Aglianico’s fine, dusty tannins. Delicious. (MA)."

92 points, The Wine Front 2022, Mike Bennie:
"Strong currency in regenerative agriculture and progressive environmental considerations from Hither & Yon. Here’s aglianico in a rose, pressed off slowly over/after three hours. It’s fresh and fruity, bright and lovely. Rosy fruit characters, floral and cherry-imbued, licks of Campari and pomegranate too. A bit of grip makes things nice, a light chew and pucker making for good texture. A light dusting of peppery/clovey spice in the mix too. Just-so, easy to like, a bit serious, plenty drinkable."

Reviews of 2021 Rosé:

92 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
"This is good rosé, hewn of a majestic variety, handpicked and fermented wild. There is a ferrous chew as much as a sluice of red berries, a smattering of dried herb, tobacco and plenty of saline freshness. The wine expands, unwinding across its textural latticework while billowing intensity and impressive length. Among the best examples in the country."

90 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
"Bright, fresh aromas of strawberries and watermelon with dried red flowers, too. The palate has a fresh, lightly crunchy edge with bright, easy going strawberries and light red cherries."

Reviews of 2020 Rosé:

The Wine Front, Mike Bennie, 95 points:
"Something different, something good. Pale orange, barely pink colour. Rose gold maybe. Chewy texture, bright cherry pip flavours, some salty-nutty savouriness, good length, good sense of vibrancy, mouth-watering finish. This does a lot. Really good drinking. Really."

91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW:
"Straight aglianico. Picked relatively ripe and fermented wild. All bodes well. Onion skin/gentle coral hue. Musk stick, sour cherry bitters, mandarin, pomegranate and cumquat. The phenolic rails are saline and refreshing; the acidity, crunchy. An entertaining rosé that is dry, thirst-slaking and gulpable" 

Reviews of 2019 Rosé:

2019 Drink Easy Competition: Best Rosé:
"Well-structured dry rosé with scents of fresh strawberries, raspberries, red currants and cherries, a mix of redness wedded to rose petal and some light vermouth-botanical notes. Texture and finish is dry, though there is a light juiciness somewhere in there too. Lovely stuff."

Reviews of 2018 Rosé:

89 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
"Unusual Rose with strawberry, candied citrus and Turkish delight flavours/aromas lighting up the glass. There's some sweetness to the palate but the finish reasserts some kind of dry order. Best served well chilled but given that it has carefree days written all over it."

Reviews of 2017 Rose:

Adelaide Review, Hot 100 Wines 2017/2018:
"Exciting stuff: fleshy Rose with white peach, loads of texture, bold yet elegant and so very tempting."

Reviews of 2016 Rosato:

91 Points, Andrew Graham. www.ozwinereview.com, September 2016:
"Immediately there is Muscat juiciness bursting out with lychee fruit goodness. Love that smell. Given the grapiness, it’s a surprise really that this isn’t sweet. Intrigue. Long, and open palate has very gentle acidity and a light finish. It’s not profound, but it’s not meant to be either. Captures the Muscat fruit perfectly. This will be a massive hit.""

92 Points, Stuart Robinson, www.thevinsomniac.com, July 2016:
"Delightfully pale onion skin in colour, musk and Turkish delight waft out. Cool, crisp, before the tropical fruits come on: passionfruit mainly - but there's also this fine, powdery texture that gently coats the cheeks. Latterly a touch of citrus rind comes on, immediately freshens the palate and gives a secondary wave of flavour that delivers length. Clever."

James Halliday, 01 August 2018, www.winecompanion.com.au
"Ultra pale pink; you might think this was part of whole grenache given its Turkish delight nuances, and be further confused by the palate which is part sweet and part dry - given its muscat rouge component it may be as much fruit as residual sugar. A fun wine, take it anywhere you please." 89 points

Reviews of 2023 Vermentino: 

92 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2024:
"Low in alcohol but quite deep in colour. This was fermented cool for 14 days on skins, with free-run juice matured in old French barrels for six months. It’s the first vermentino for the Leask brothers, and it’s a distinctive iteration, with pine needles, pepperberry, myrtle, coriander seed, candied lemon peel, fennel fronds and a Lillet blanc/dry vermouth vibe. Chalky phenolics are preceded by a classic saline slip and a surprising depth of flavour for the ripeness.”

Reviews of the 2022 Pinot Noir:

91 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, March 2023

"From a vineyard in Kangarilla about 390m above sea level, planted in 1999. Dark cherry, cardamom, dried roses, mint, an earthy/mushroom thing happening. It’s juicy and a little sappy, some ripe tomato and pomegranate, a slight chinotto bitterness through ripe cherry, light emery board tannin, and a firm finish of good length. Fruity and savoury, and good to drink. I like it."

92 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin

"Hand-picked. De-stemmed to 100% whole berries for an open fermentation. Élévage in older French wood for 7 mths. Straight-shooting Hills pinot with telltale notes of sandalwood, dark cherry, bergamot, rhubarb and sarsaparilla. These can get too sweet at times but here, handled with aplomb. Mid-weighted, lithe and expansive. Far from cerebral, but quality drinking at a fair price."