2012 Tahbilk The Tower MVR

Tahbilk make an Australian icon: their Marsanne. And the MVR is a mixture of that and Viognier and Roussanne. Both Marsanne and Roussanne are what I would describe as pretty rare in Oz wine. But try the MVR if you want to get back to wine the colour of rock-pool seawater:  a kind of clear gold tinged with green. It smells of strawberries and lime, if that's possible. And is kind of salty like sea water. It would be fab with food: whitebait or sardines. At the time that I write this, it's new to Dan Murphy's in Lismore: thank god someone had the nous to get it.

2013 De Casta Torres Catalunya Rose Wine

Made from  Cariñena (Mediterranean) grapes (only found this out by looking up the winery on the web: I wish all wineries would put the grape variety on their labels!), this s a rose, made by Miguel Torres, which you think of when you think rose. Sensual if not luscious: just the tiniest bit underplayed to be exceptionally luscious (but, then, who wants a luscious wine?), but very close to it, too close to call probably. A scintillating strawberry-pink (mind, I said pink) of great clarity, with strawberries and cream on the nose and palate, but without any sweetness in the fruit or cream, perhaps only a hint, like strawberries on the turn from mid-ripe to full ripeness. A completely luscious wine, there I said it, to drink in early summer, or winter when you're having red beans in a fake shepherd's pie or in tacos, or salami pizza. Under $20. I got mine from the fab Clunes bottle shop/cellars, under the helm of Jared Dixon of Jilly Wines. He knows a good wine when he drinks it ... or makes it! Pretty much a to-die-for rose. (Possibly a bit too lolly water for some, but those some, then, don't get it.)