New producer alert! Torch Bearer Wines was born in 2017, when Dr. Anh Nguyen purchased ‘ese vineyard, a 6.5-hectare site home to 30-year-old vines in Tassie’s Coal River Valley. In just over half a decade she’s turned the place into something of a biodynamic wonderland, populated by geese, ducks, sheep and cover crops aplenty. She’s also putting her PhD in civil engineering to good use, developing a seriously advanced frost control system powered by AI. How good! And the wines are even better…
Anh’s 2023 Sauvignon Blanc slaps – raised in stainless steel, generous as it comes, flush with tropical rizz, stone fruit and lemon, a slight chalkiness lending vitality to it all. Everyday drinking done very right. The 2023 Riesling also pulls no punches, rocking that rather classic lime, white flowers and nectarines thing, with saline minerality woven through. That same sense of minerality is writ large in the 2023 Chardonnay, too, supremely concentrated and juicy in its green orchard fruit flavour, with racy acidity and incredible length to boot. A trio of very worthy whites, indeed.