Barrel & Vine Wines: The Range, and Which Hampers They Come In

Barrel & Vine is one of our own wine labels, bottled for us to go into gift hampers. If you have been sent one and liked it enough to look it up afterwards, this page is for you.

A fair number of people arrive here having searched for it at Dan Murphy's or their local bottle shop and come up empty, so let us deal with that first.

Why you cannot find it in a bottle shop

You will not, because it is not sold in one. Barrel & Vine is bottled for our hampers and sold only inside them.

The reason is straightforward. A bottle that has to pass through a distributor and sit on a retail shelf carries the cost of both. Taking those out means we can put a better wine in the box at the same hamper price. It is the same thinking behind Sage Hills, our other house label.

So there is no single-bottle price to quote. The cost of the wine sits inside the hamper price, and the hampers it appears in start in the $30 to $60 band.

The range

Three varietals across our current hampers.

Pinot Grigio. The white that goes into most of our white and mixed hampers. Crisp, dry, citrus and pear, no oak. It is the safest white to send someone whose taste you do not know, because it suits almost any warm afternoon and does not demand anything of the food.

Shiraz. Medium bodied, dark fruit, soft through the finish. Lighter and more approachable than a big Barossa style, which makes it an easy red rather than a serious one. That is the right call for a gift.

Chardonnay. Rounder and fuller than the Pinot Grigio, with stone fruit and a softer finish. The one to send someone who says they do not like white wine, because usually they mean they do not like sharp white wine.

What to eat with each one

Pinot Grigio goes with anything light and salty. Soft cheeses, seafood, a green salad, salted crackers and olives. It is the natural partner for the savoury snacks we pack alongside it.

Shiraz wants fat and char. Hard cheeses, cured meat, anything off a barbecue. Dark chocolate works better than people expect.

Chardonnay sits between the two. Roast chicken, creamy pasta, a cheeseboard with something soft on it. It handles richer food than the Pinot Grigio will.

Serve both whites properly cold and the Shiraz slightly below room temperature. Twenty minutes in the fridge before opening does more for an Australian red in summer than anything else you can do to it.

Which hampers they come in

All of these are in stock at the time of writing.

Pinot Grigio

• Gourmet White Wine Hamper. The Pinot Grigio with Mediterranean olives, artisan flatbread, sesame BBQ peanuts and mustard soy crisps.
• Red & White Wine Gift Box. Both the Pinot Grigio and the Shiraz in a black gift box. The one to send when you have no idea which they drink.

Shiraz

• Wine & Antipasto Hamper. The Shiraz with a bamboo cheeseboard, a cheese knife and grazing snacks.
• Red Wine & Cheeseboard Hamper. The Shiraz with a round-top wooden board, olives, a fig and almond pyramid and salted pretzels.
• Red Wine & Game Night In Hamper. The Shiraz with a wine glass set, Uno, a tumbling tower and savoury snacks.

Chardonnay

• Car Chamois & White Wine Gift. The Chardonnay paired with a Meguiar's synthetic chamois. An odd-sounding combination that sells steadily, because it is a genuinely useful gift for someone who looks after their car.

Two more hampers carry a Barrel & Vine Pinot Grigio alongside a Sage Hills Shiraz: the Connoisseur's Wine Collection Hamper and The Christmas Toast Hamper. The rest of the range is in wine hampers.