Monthly Archives: March 2010

Savouring the shiraz spectrum

31 March 2010UncategorizedChris Shanahan

Australia owns shiraz – not just in the generic sense of making juicy, soft, affordable quaffers (which we do very well) but in expressing a wide spectrum of styles across our dozens of regions.
We’ve arrived at an amazing diversity of extraordinarily good shirazes. And the quality we’re now enjoying seems to be drawn from long traditions, combined with attentive, sympathetic winemaking.

We can look up to expensive icons like Grange and Hill of Grace. But we don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars a bottle to enjoy comparable quality. There’s a wealth of superb shiraz out there in a sweet spot between $30 and $50 a bottle – not everyday prices for sure, but a modest enough sum for the luxurious indulgence they provide.

With shiraz in mind, eight tasters recently explored an eclectic line-up at Chateau Shanahan. We served the wines masked, in groups of three, over a long, leisurely meal.

The selection represented the finer, cool-grown end of the shiraz spectrum from seven regions – with one wine each from New Zealand and France thrown in to broaden our perspective.

Here’s our report. Remember, too, this is not a final tasting following an exhaustive search. They’re just nine wines, currently available in retail stores and representing a range of styles.

We found nine distinctive wines each enjoyable. Only one, considerably cheaper than others, seemed out of its depth – the selector’s fault, not the wine’s. Mea Culpa.

BRACKET 1

Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2008 $25–$34
Max Schubert made the first Bin 128 in 1962 and matured it in American oak barrels similar to the ones he used for the other Penfolds reds, generally from much warmer regions than Coonawarra. In 1980 chief winemaker Don Ditter switched from American oak to French oak. This proved more in tune with the comparatively delicate fruit of Coonawarra.

The 2008 vintage is on the ripe side of the Coonawarra flavour spectrum. It’s very bright with sweet berry flavours, wrapped in layers of soft tannins. The oak flavours are already well integrated with the fruit.

Some of the earlier Bin 128s seemed swamped by tannin in youth, but over time the lovely elegance of Coonawarra came through. But this could take ten or more years. Although the 2008 shows the bigger, riper side of Coonawarra, it’s not over ripe and the elegant structure is already emerging. I suspect it’ll really strut its origins and class within three or four years and drink well for decades. Thumbs up from all eight tasters.

Meerea Park Canberra District XYZ Shiraz 2008 $19–$22
Brothers Garth and Rhys Eather focus most of their winemaking on the lower Hunter, around Pokolbin. But the “failure of the 2008 Hunter Valley shiraz vintage forced us to look elsewhere for suitable fruit”, writes Garth. They found what they wanted at Murrumbateman.
On opening, the wine had the unpleasant pong of hydrogen sulphide, but this largely dissipated with decanting – leaving a tiny trace in the glass, picked up by some but not all of the tasters. The wine’s in the spicy, savoury Canberra mould and just a little raw at present. The fruit flavours seemed simple in comparison to the other two wines in the bracket – but hardly surprising given the price difference.

Coldstream Hills Yarra Valley Reserve Shiraz 2006 $36–$40
Like Penfolds, Coldstream Hills is part of the Foster’s wine group, though the wines are grown and made in different regions by different winemakers – Penfolds by Peter Gago, Coldstream Hills by Andrew Fleming.

This is a beautiful wine, showing the benefit of a few years’ bottle age and the lovely aromatic lift given by a touch of viognier co-fermented with the shiraz. The medium bodied palate is lively, buoyant, silk smooth and packed with ripe, cherry-like fruit flavour, and a spicy, savoury note. Pure class; loved by all tasters.

BRACKET 2

Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Hunter Valley Shiraz 2007 $45–$53
About a decade ago Tyrrell’s began installing 2,500-litre French oak casks to mature, and in the case of chardonnay, to ferment, their flagship wines. The move away from the more widely used 300–500 litre hogsheads and barriques, recognised the subtleness and keeping qualities of earlier wines matured in larger, old-oak vessels. Essentially, it was about providing an aerobic environment to stabilise and mature wine while reducing the overall impact of oak flavour. Hence, Vat 9, the company’s flagship red, now spends time in these large casks, old and new, before bottling.

The style used to be called Hunter “burgundy”– a salute to its supple, soft texture and earthy notes. Attentive modern winemaking delivers a Vat 9 of extraordinary dimension. It’s ripe and juicy with traditional soft tannins; but it’s tremendously bright and fresh with soft, tender tannins, a subtle, complex spicy bite from the oak and an underlying earthiness that marks it as Hunter, even in a masked tasting like ours.

It’s a distinctive and potentially very long-lived wine that should become finer and more ethereal over the decades. Pleasing to all tasters.

Best’s Bin O Great Western Shiraz 2006 $50–$55
Henry Best established a vineyard at Great Western, Victoria, in 1866. The Thomson family bought it in 1920 and fourth and fifth generation Viv and Ben Thomson today make Bin 0 Shiraz from four low yielding blocks planted between 1966 and 1994 using cuttings from older vines on the block, some dating from 1868.

In our tasting Bin 0 seemed brawny, wedged between Tyrrell’s gentle, soft Vat 9 and the highly aromatic, lingering, medium bodied Clonakilla O’Riada. It had the body and power of warm-grown shiraz; but a note of “mint” underlying the ripe, black cherry flavour suggested a cooler climate. The wine blossomed over time in the glass, displaying great power with elegance, and attracting heaps of discussion. I suspect it’ll cellar for decades.

Clonakilla Canberra District O’Riada Shiraz 2008 $36–$40
This delicious, fine-boned shiraz viognier is an offshoot of Clonakilla’s $75 flagship shiraz viognier. The wine comprises about 40 per cent of components “declassified” from the flagship blend plus material from three local growers favoured by winemaker Tim Kirk: Phil Williams of Hall and Long Rail Gully and Quarry Hill Vineyards of Murrumbateman.

I’ve seen enjoyed the wine over several meals now and in this masked tasting it once again showed class, in Clonakilla’s unique way. I noted its lifted, spicy, gorgeous aroma; lively, spicy, delicious flavours with a fine structure based on high acidity as well as fine-grained tannins.
Interestingly it didn’t please all tasters – one in particular preferred the rounder, softer wines to this more acidic style.

BRACKET 3

Craggy Range Hawkes Bay Block 14 Gimblett Gravels Syrah 2007 $28–$32
When we close our eyes and think of shiraz, New Zealand doesn’t normally come to mind. In general the climate there’s too cool to ripen shiraz. However, the Gimblett Gravels – a stony, well-drained part of the Hawke’s Bay region – produces some rippers, especially in warm seasons like 2007.

In our final bracket, featuring shiraz (aka syrah) from three countries, Craggy range showed the intense fragrance and pepperiness of its cool origins. And, like the Clonakilla wine before it, high acid and fine tannins seemed to accentuate the deep, juicy, delicious fruit flavours. It’s a wonderful wine, right out there on the coolest end of the shiraz spectrum. Well liked by the tasters.

Hermitage (Domaine des Martinelles) 2005 $72–$80
For almost two centuries Australians knew “hermitage” as a synonym for “shiraz”. But after we recognised “Hermitage” as a protected French name, we dropped the name from our labels – hence Grange Hermitage became Grange.

Hermitage, the hill on France’s Rhone Valley, grows shiraz and its powerful, long-lived reds once rated among the country’s finest. Although the status has slipped, our representative from this hot little hill, showed the legendary strength and backbone of the style – providing a great contrast to the New Zealand and Canberra wines either side of it in our tasting.

It’s powerful, but not in the style, say, of a big, bold, fruity Barossa wine – but in a more sinewy way: the flavours are strong, but not fleshy and backed by taut, firm tannins.

It’s a good, clean modern wine expressing the regional style – and enjoyed by all tasters.

Collector Canberra District Reserve Shiraz 2008 $45–$50
Alex McKay’s Collector Reserve 2008 won four trophies at the recent Sydney Royal Wine Show, topping Aussie greats like Vasse Felix Cabernet and Best’s Bin O Shiraz. Alex sourced the shiraz from the Kyeema Murrumbatemen Vineyard – and added a few buckets of the white variety, viognier, from Kyeema and Wayne and Jennie Fischer’s vineyard.

In our tasting we saw parallels with the Clonakilla wine in general structure and style: medium bodied and spicy with a backbone combining acid and fine tannins. But we noted, too, the distinctive stalky character derived from including whole-bunches (stalks and all) in the fermentation.

McKay says he worried at the time that he might have overdone the whole-bunch thing. However, though it’s apparent, it’s really seasoning in a superb, silky, sweet-fruited wine most of us ranked highly – one taster expressing a caveat on the stalkiness.

Wine review — Tyrrell’s, Pizzini and Grosset

28 March 2010Uncategorized, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Tyrrell’s Lost Block whites $14–$19

Hunter Valley Semillon 2009
Frankland River Sauvignon Blanc 2009

The popular vote’s with sauvignon blanc at present and Tyrrell’s version – sourced from Frankland River, Western Australia – scrubs up better than most as it has flesh and texture to match the tropical-fruit-like varietal flavour. Almost apologetically, Bruce Tyrrell’s press release calls it “the result of commercial necessity”. I suspect Tyrrell’s heart and palate are more in tune with the semillon. It’s a refreshingly low 11 per cent alcohol and features appealing, delicate, lemon-like regional flavour. But instead of the bone-dry austerity often seen in young Hunter semillons, especially those built for decades of cellaring, Lost Block’s round and soft and quite juicy, despite the low alcohol.

Pizzini King Valley

Pinot Grigio 2009 $18.50
Whitefields Pinot Grigio 2009 $25
Nebbiolo 2005 $45

Pinot gris, pinot grigio – same grape, but understandably the Pizzini family adopts the Italian name and northern Italian winemaking style. The cheaper version always rates well against its Aussie peers. But the new Whitefields 2009 offers a lovely extra fruit concentration – and the textural richness and complex flavour derived from barrel fermentation (with wild yeasts). At a recent tasting people quaffed the Whitefields down in preference to the Tyrrell’s semillon reviewed above. At the same tasting Pizzini Nebbiolo 2005 upstaged the other reds. It’s an exciting expression of this powerful, elegant and tannic Piedmontese style.

Grosset

Piccadilly Chardonnay 2008 $53
Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2008 $66
Clare Valley Gaia 2007 $60

We tasted Grosset’s Piccadilly after a run of very good chardonnays. And it stood out – not because it was bigger or bolder; but for its delicacy and harmony. It’s a wine of great underlying power and richness – and it’s seamlessly absorbed all the winemaking inputs that often build layers of distinct flavours around chardonnay. One bottle seemed hardly enough. Likewise Grosset’s pinot delivered buckets of flavour and in the most subtle, enjoyable, more-ish way. And Gaia, a blend of cabernet sauvignon franc and merlot, delivered juicy, ripe berry flavours cocooned in firm, dry tannins.

Beer review — Urquell and Velkopopovicky

24 March 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Pilsner Urquell 330ml $3.50
Perhaps it’s not as bitter as it used to be – but Urquell remains in the classic Bohemian Pilsner mould – richly malty but dry, with the appealing pungency of Saaz hops and a lingering, refreshing hops bitterness. It’s distributed by Coca Cola Amatil in a joint venture with Uquell’s owner, SABMiller.

Velkopopovicky Kozel Premium 500ml $4.00
Kozel, also from Plzen, is slightly more alcoholic and fuller bodied than Urquell and the hops less pungent and spicy. The hops provide a deep bitterness on the palate, offsetting the opulent maltiness, then linger on in the aftertaste. It’s a complex beer, thankfully in a decent sized bottle.

Czech craft brewers on the rise

24 March 2010Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

In the New York Times recently, Evan Rail reported on the Czech Republic’s growing craft beer industry and its support by a number of pubs disappointed by the limited beer choices in Prague’s bars. Rail writes “many bars are locked into exclusive agreements with large breweries, which often install and control the taps”.

Prague’s not unique in that respect. But given Bohemia’s long and diverse brewing history, Prague’s beer tourists could be short changed should their tippling choice be limited to Gambrinus, Staropramen, Urquell and Budejovicky Budvar – the big local and global brands from the region.

If you’re travelling to Prague, you can Google Rail’s article for his list of recommended pubs. But us Canberra-bound drinkers face a more limited choice of Bohemian brews. I found five on the shelves at Plonk, Fyshwick, all except one in the robust, golden, bitter lager style pioneered by Urquell in the town of Plzen in 1842.

Urquell scrubbed up well in the tasting. It’s richly malty and has the signature fragrance, flavour and bitterness of the local Saaz hops, albeit slightly toned down to how I remember it in the past.
Budvar disappointed, however; but Krusovice and the beautifully fresh, lively Kozel hit the mark, as did the amber, sweet, malty, alcoholic Primator in its own idiosyncratic style.

Canberra – vintage 2010 a rollercoaster

24 March 2010People, Uncategorized, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

What might vintage 2010 hold for Canberra wine drinkers? The season began exceptionally hot and dry in November, turned cool and wet at Christmas, warmed up in January, then dumped rain again in February and March – encouraging berry split and fungal diseases. A slightly too-cool week following the early March rain retarded grape ripening. But as I write the mercury’s rising and we’re moving into a final, idyllic run of cool nights and warm days.

This is likely to save the day for the district’s red grapes. But the vintage could be down as much as fifty per cent for both reds whites, due largely to outbreaks of the fungal disease botrytis cinerea and berry split.

Ken Helm at Murrumbateman calls 2010 “the most topsy-turvy vintage ever”. Pessimism set in as the November heatwave stressed vines and seemed likely to bring vintage forward by weeks. But optimism rose at Christmas when four days of rain and cool weather revived the vines and put vintage back on a normal track.

Optimism faded with the February rain and outbreaks of mildew and botrytis – especially after bird netting made anti-fungal spraying a nightmare. But Helm and his grape growers found a workaround, using a small tractor and an improvised technique to spray a mix of hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid through the nets.

By now Helm had written off the chance of making a premium riesling in 2010, despite a record crush of the variety. Yes, there’s botrytis in some of it. But Helm is amazed by the combination of high sugar, exceptionally low pH and high acidity of the riesling juice – enough to revive hopes of a ‘premium’ riesling. It’s still a long shot and he says the jury’s out until the wine’s bottled in June.

Chardonnay withstood the botrytis charge less well and is a complete write off – there’ll be none made in 2010. A little sauvignon blanc survived to make a botrytis affected semi-dry style.

Helm’s main red variety, cabernet sauvignon, sourced from Al Lustenburger’s block, looks healthy, he says but won’t ripen until early April.

Clonakilla’s Tim Kirk calls 2010 “a difficult year that’s not in the same league as 2008 and 2009 – and in fact shows what remarkable years they were”. He’s glad to have picked riesling before the early March rain and says because it’s on the low-alcohol, high-acid side, it’ll be a delicate style.

By 13 March, he’d already processed 70 tonnes of “fantastic” red grapes from the warmer Hilltops region, but still had some whites and all of his reds hanging on the Murrumbateman vineyards. He anticipated harvesting the reds between mid March and early April. “It’ll be a selective pick”, Kirk said, “and some of the fruit will be declassified”.

Roger Harris of Brindabella Hills, Hall, describes 2010 as complex, “even the vines are confused”, he says, with cabernet ripening ahead of shiraz when it’s normally the other way around. Harris says he escaped disease but berry split (followed by shrivelling) caused by the rain reduced his crop significantly.

He’s made tiny amounts of good sauvignon blanc and riesling (crops are down 50 per cent) and, if weather forecasts prove correct, he anticipates a small but high quality shiraz crop.

At our highest and coolest vineyard, Lark Hill, vintage generally begins later – the first fruit generally coming in as the rest of the district polishes of the last of its whites. Running against the district trend, Sue Carpenter calls 2010 “our most striking vintage yet” with picking of pinot noir and chardonnay for sparkling wine scheduled for 19 March and chardonnay and riesling for table wine a day later. She expects to wrap vintage up on 15 April, harvesting the Austrian variety gruner veltliner and riesling for Lark Hill’s legendary auslese.

Carpenter says the vineyard has no botrytis and attributes this to biodynamic vineyard management. She believes that mulching interferes with botrytis’s life cycle. As well, the berry skins are too thick for the botrytis to penetrate and it therefore dies.

Down the hill at Lerida Estate on Lake George, Jim Lumbers reports good quality but quantities severely reduced by a “huge amount of botrytis”. He says he salvaged 50 per cent of the chardonnay by using sorting tables – eliminating rotten fruit and sending only clean fruit to the fermenters. The resulting wine should be on the light and delicate side, reflecting the low sugar and high acid of the cool vintage.

Lumbers says unlike other recent cool vintages, 2002 and 2005, 2010 received far more rain. The combination of cool weather and moisture means big crops losses to botrytis and significantly later ripening for the red varieties.

Lumbers anticipates losing half of his pinot noir crop and sees his vineyard “sitting on the boundary of possibility” – meaning that when the chances of ripening fruit is marginal there’s also the possibility, given a run of slightly warmer days, of producing exceptional wine.

At this stage, he says, merlot and cabernet franc are “bursting with health, with berries like melons – but they need weeks to ripen”. And shiraz, says Lumbers, “is as green as green and needs ages. Perhaps Edgar Riek was right after all” (Dr Riek, founder of the neighbouring Lake George vineyard believed Lake George foreshore too cool to ripen shiraz).

At this stage, with the whites largely in the vat and the reds still on the vine, we can’t assess the vintage properly. What we do know is that quantities are down and the whites will be on the delicate side. The fate of our reds depends on weather conditions over the next few weeks. No rain dances, OK.

Wine review — Bloodwood, Toolangi, Champy, Punt Road, L’Enclave des Papes and Ruffino

21 March 2010Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Bloodwood Orange Chardonnay 2009 $22–$25
Toolangi Yarra Valley Reserve Chardonnay 2006 $70–$75
Meet the yin and yang of cool-grown chardonnay – one almost unmarked by winemaker artifice; the other laden with it. The yin is Stephen and Rhoda Doyle’s Bloodwood 2009 – an extraordinarily intense, high-acid, taut, super fine chardonnay, fermented in steel vats, with only a passing (and undetectable) nod to oak. The yang is the equally intense Toolangi chardonnay – with the whole winemaker toolbox thrown at it by Rick Kinzbrunner: wild-yeast fermentation in oak, full malolactic fermentation and prolonged oak maturation. They’re striking wines indeed. But we didn’t finish either. We’d have like more artifice in Bloodwood and less in Toolangi — yin and yang in the one bottle.

Bourgogne Pinot Noir (Maison Champy) 2008 $17.49–$24.99
Punt Road Yarra Valley Napoleone Vineyards Pinot Noir 2008 $25–$28
The Meurgey family’s profound influence on wine quality shows in Maison Champy’s lovely, entry-level Bourgogne. It’s screwcap sealed, clean, bright and a world removed from the feeble, grubby Burgundy’s passed off on unsuspecting drinkers for so long. It’s light bodied and finely structured, with fresh, slightly stalky varietal aroma and flavour and lightly acidic dry finish. Imported by Coles Liquor, owners of Vintage Cellars and 1st Choice. Punt Road’s pinot noir, from the Napoleone family’s vineyards, offers a more robust Australian expression of the variety – notably fuller, rounder and more tannic, but still the real pinot experience.

Cotes-du-Rhone L’Enclave des Papes 2008 $10.49–$14.99
Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale (Ruffino) $36–$40
These are imported by the Coles Liquor Group – Cotes-du-Rhone available in Vintage Cellars and 1st Choice; the Chianti Classico only at Vintage Cellars. Like the Champy Bourgogne reviewed above, the screwcap sealed Cotes-du-Rhone shows the bright, modern face of French winemaking — influenced by international competition and retailers like Coles insisting on screw caps and clean wine. It’s made predominantly from grenache and is therefore of medium colour and body with an attractive, dry, savouriness – a contrast to the sweet fruited Australian versions. Riserva Ducale is as good as Chianti gets – powerful and tannic but elegant, with a core of sweet ripe fruit.

Beer review — Murray’s

17 March 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Murray’s Craft Brewing Co Pilsner 330ml $3.95
Don’t be put off by the hazy appearance. Unusual for a pilsner style, Murray’s is bottle conditioned. But I’ve tasted better bottles than this one – the head collapsed quickly; though the palate delivered big on citrusy, lingeringly bitter hops. Hops heads will love it; others might find the hops overwhelming.

Murray’s Craft Brewing Co Whale Ale 330m $3.95
It’s got a use-by date of 25 December 2010. But the bottle I opened on 3 March (bought in a local retail store) was gone – dull, muddy colour; no head; little aroma; and a flat, lifeless palate. Now Murray’s has a good reputation, so I’m guessing something’s wrong in the bottling, shipping or storage.

Prepare for the new-season hop brews

17 March 2010BeerChris Shanahan

It’s the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. I know this not by the fruit laden vines that round the thatch-eaves run (who has eaves these days?) — but by the Hobart Mercury ad for hop-pickers.

Tasmania’s our main hop-growing area, and the ad, closing march 3, sought workers to put in10 hours a day, six days week for three weeks. Hopefully the ad worked, because I’m told hop picking commenced in Victoria on 3 March and Tasmania won’t be far behind. The New Zealanders will soon be flat chat, too.

Much of the crop will be dried and pelletised for year-round brewing use. But increasingly we’re seeing brewers big and small putting those fresh, sappy, pungent, resiny hop flowers to stunning effect in seasonal brews.

It’ll only be a matter of weeks before we taste them in rich, malty beer flowing through the Wig & Pen’s hopinator. We’ll also keep and eye out for Red Hill Brewery beers made shortly after harvest ¬– they grow their own down there on the Mornington Peninsula and the fresh hop taste is a signature.

And a couple of months down the track we’ll enjoy two widely distributed bottled products – James Squire Hop Thief and Cascade First Harvest from Lion Nathan and Foster’s respectively.

Wine review — Helm and Wynns Coonawarra Estate

14 March 2010UncategorizedChris Shanahan

Helm Canberra District Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 $27–$32
There’s bad news and good news. First the bad – frost decimated Ken Helm’s cabernet crop in 2007. And now the good news – the small, crop, much of it second-growth fruit, developed ripe flavours at low sugar levels, meaning lower alcohol wine. And more good news – Ken backed off on the new oak, using mainly two and three year old barrels. The result is a fragrant, elegant, delicious cabernet, rippling with sweet, supple varietal fruit, counterbalanced by cabernet’s assertive, drying tannins. This is a big step away from the too-oaky wines of past vintages, liberating the bright, berry fruit flavours.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz 2008 $9.90–$20
Put this and the cabernet in the next column on your bargain-watch list. Both are phenomenally good wines and occasionally the big retailers prices slash the prices to ridiculously low levels. It’s a beautifully aromatic, vibrant, cool climate shiraz featuring ripe but spicy and juicy fruit flavours and ever-so-fine, soft tannins. It’s sourced from central and northern Coonawarra and matured for just six months in older French and American oak barrels. I suspect, however, that another few months in oak and an extra year in bottle might have taken this to an even higher level. It drinks well now and will flourish for decades if well cellared.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate ‘Black Label’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 $19–$32
A severe frost in October 2006 nipped much of the 2007 vintage in the bud, reducing production of Black Label by 80 per cent. What’s left, though, is a world-class cabernet, at the elegant end of the Coonawarra spectrum. The colour’s vibrant and limpid. And though the aroma’s ripe and purely varietal, the palate is medium bodied, with the unique, and delicious, underlying power and structure of Coonawarra cabernet. It’s already drinkable and showing some savoury notes. But there’s the depth and harmony here for a good ten years, probably more, in a good cellar.

Canberra importer finds Italy’s sweet spot

10 March 2010UncategorizedChris Shanahan

Can a wholesale import business focussed on sweet Italian wine succeed in Australia? Canberra’s Brian and Carol Keil, with Italian based Imogen McNamara, will soon know. With the first shipment of their Pilgrim Wines now in Australia, the Keils paraded their sweeties, and a few dry wines as well, in front of the Canberra trade two weeks ago.

I offer my impressions below. But bear in mind that distribution has barely begun and prices are estimates only, based on list wholesale price. You should send queries about pricing and availability to brian.keil@pilgrimwines.com.au

DRY WINES

Maso Martis Brut Rosé 2009 (Trentino) $90 750ml
A very good, if very young, 100 per cent pinot noir bottle-fermented bubbly rosé, with a strong acid backbone that seems slightly separate from the intense varietal flavour. Distinctive style, but when you can buy 1999 Pol Roger Champagne for around $80, it’s hard to see value in this youngster.

Volpe Pasin Sauvignon 2008 (Colli Orientali del Friuli) $60 750ml
A bright, fresh, intensely flavoured, finely textured sauvignon blanc. It’s pure and varietal but not as in your face as Marlborough styles. $60 seems a lot to pay for sauvignon, especially when you can buy similarly restrained styles from Sancerre (in France’s Loire Valley) for $20–$30.

Russiz Superiore Friulano 2008 (Friuli Venezia) $60 750ml
Made from the friulano grape, also known as sauvignon vert, sauvignonasse and, formerly, as tocai Friulano. The wine’s reminiscent of gewürztraminer in its grapey intensity, viscous texture and firm finish. Idiosyncratic and not to my taste.

Volpe Pinot Grigio (Colli Orientali del Friuli) 2006 $82 750ml
There’s no doubting the intensity of varietal flavour. But it’s marred, in my opinion, by oak flavours that aren’t integrated with the fruit. It reminded me of poorly oaked wines we made in Australia thirty years ago, before our vignerons learned to ferment (not just mature) whites in oak barrels.

Palari Faro 2006 (Sicily) $117 750ml
Did I miss something? Let’s, euphemistically, call this much-awarded red “rustic”.

Marco Donati Sangue di Drago 2007 (Trentino) $82 750ml
Made from old teroldego vines (the variety shares a parent with shiraz), this unique wine is bright, crimson rimmed and brimming with succulent, jube-like aromas and flavours. The palate’s velvet textured with fine, bone-dry tannins.

Dominio di Bagnoli Friularo Vendemmia Tardiva 2001 (Veneto) $81 500ml
Late picked friularo grapes give this red particularly ripe fruit flavours that jut through the high acid and austere tannins. It’s idiosyncratic and ageing well but I suspect uninvited microbial guests may be behind the accompanying “rustic” notes.

SWEET RED WINES

Maso Martis Moscato Rosa 2008 (Trentino) $94 375ml
Who can resist muscat – especially a limpid, delicately pink, penetratingly musky, aromatic luscious one like this. Simply delicious.

Bonotto delle Tezze Raboso Passito 2007 (Veneto) $84 500ml
The Bonotto family’s sweet red offers a tour de force of deep purple colours and sweet-and-sour juicy, fruity, stalky flavours. It’s made from late picked air-dried grapes and matured for two years in small oak barrels.

Dominio di Bagnoli Friularo Passito 2001 (Veneto) $82 750ml
Proprietor Dr Borletti makes his passito from friularo grapes dried in the estate’s grainary. The wine is matured in oak barrels for three years and emerges intensely raisin like and sweet, lifted by volatile acidity (aka vinegar – a minor but useful component of all wines). But underlying the seductive sweetness are the very dry, grippy, firm, red-wine tannins.

Le Salette Recioto della Valpolicella 2005 (Veneto) $101 500ml
This wine could’ve been a blend of very ripe, sweet black cherries laced with balsamic vinegar – complex and fascinating but way out on the vinegar limb. It certainly stretches the concept of wine to the limits and tests the boundary between wine and vinegar – intense, sweet fruitiness being the flux.

Trabucchi Recioto della Valpolicella 2005 (Veneto) $129
Like the Le Salette wine above, the flavours resemble super ripe, sweet black cherries; but there’s little balsamic in this recioto; instead very dry, persistent, red-wine tannins acting as a foil to the plush, sweet fruit. A wonderful and distinctive drink.

Tramin Gewurztraminer 2007 (Alto Adige) $80 375ml
This is a richly textured but very fine, luscious, barrel-aged, late-picked gewürztraminer, that avoids the heaviness and hardness often associated with the variety.
Tramin Gewurztraminer Terminum Vendemmia Tardiva 2006 (Alto Adige) $130 375ml
Sample cork tainted; unable to rate. Dear Italians, wake up to screw cap.

SWEET WHITES

Le Salette Passito Cesare 2005 (Veneto) $87 500ml
This is made from dried malvasia and garganega grapes and aged in oak for twenty months. Presumably this oxidative process explains the wine’s slightly bronzed colour and touch of sherry-like tang overlying the intensely sweet, dried-fruit flavours.

Suavia Recioto di Soave Acinatum 2005 (Veneto) $86
This beautiful, fine, soft wine is made from dried garganega grapes, fermented and matured in oak barrels. The shimmering lemon-gold colour belies its age and fit with its lively, luscious, lovely apricot-like flavours.

Trabucchi Recioto di Soave 2005 (Veneto) $110 500ml
This another glorious recioto di Soave, this time fermented in steel tanks and matured in oak. Luscious, apricot flavours are at the core, but there’s a beautiful lift and buoyancy and a lively, fresh acidity drying out the finish.

Marco Cecchini Picolit 2006 (Friuli-Venezia-Guilia) $110 500ml
A comparatively dull wine after the Soaves, presentable and luscious with flavours reminiscent of honeycomb; but, alas, didn’t push our buttons.

Marco Cecchini Verlit 2006 (Friuli-Venezia-Guilia) $85 500ml
This is made from dried verduzzo grapes fermented and matured in oak barrels ¬– a winemaking regime that adds a slightly varnishy, sherry-like complexity to the concentrated, luscious sweet fruit flavours.

Cantine Viola Moscato di Saracena 2007 (Sardinia) $122 500ml
What an extraordinary wine – it’s a golden-amber colour; the aroma is high-toned and penetrating with subtle, underlying caramel notes. The palate is lively ¬– the plush, sweet, caramel and toffee flavours tempered by an intense, acidic backbone. It’s made from gently heated, crushed malvasia and guarnaccia grapes, with slowly-dried moscato grapes added.