First Ridge Fiano 2025
$30, 12.5%, screwcap, Mudgee.
This is an attractive wine full stop but there’s a whisper of something extra here. It tastes off nectarine, apple, nashi pear and something a bit woodsy and herbal, the latter giving the wine a tonic-like lift. This wine comes across as both delicate and well-flavoured at once; it’s lovely from the outset, but it improves as it opens up and breathes. 93 points.
This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of the highly respected The Winefront site.
Mattinson has been an independent wine critic and photo-journalist since 1987. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the prized Best Australian Sports Writing Award.
Mattinson, who is 100% independent, puts a score out of 100 on every wine that he reviews. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.
