Monthly Archives: April 2011

Wine review — Eden Road, Ross Hill, Cullens, Brancott Estate and Innocent Bystander

Eden Road The Long Road Shiraz 2009 $21
Canberra and Hilltops districts, New South Wales

There’s a distinct winemaking style at Eden Road under Nick Spencer. The intense, pure restrained wines tend towards austerity in youth – a character notable in the Canberra Riesling 2010, Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2008 and Canberra Shiraz 2009. But the underlying fruit richness suggests they’ll evolve into worthy wines over time. The Long Road Shiraz seems the fleshiest and most easily approachable of the line up. It’s a delicious, fine-boned, cool-climate style showing little oak influence and the appealing aromatics and juicy, fleshy fruit flavour contributed by shiraz from the Hilltops region. It’s a really lovely, juicy quaffer at a fair price.

Eden Road RHE 2009 $21
Canberra District, New South Wales

The fine print on the back label says, “the wine is made up entirely of viognier from Canberra”. A Rhone Valley white variety, viognier makes the complex whites of Condrieu, towards the valley’s northern end, and co-mingles in the vineyard with shiraz in nearby Cote-Rotie – ultimately making up a few per cent of the red wine. Tim Kirk modelled Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier on this wine style. Viognier on its own tends to make richly textured, sometimes oily white wine. But Nick Spencer’s zesty, partially barrel fermented Eden Road captures the variety’s fragrance, juicy apricot-like flavour and rich texture without heaviness.

Ross Hill Pinnacle Series Pinot Noir 2009 $40
Orange, New South Wales

In a recent tasting of the Ross Hill Pinnacle Series, chardonnay and pinot noir performed best, to my palate. The pinot’s pale coloured but delivers so much of the special aromatics, flavours and textural richness of the variety – in its own comparatively high-acid style. We found drinking pleasure galore, but alas not the complexity we’d expect at this price. I see great promise in the wine (it’s only their second attempt at pinot), but don’t see great value in $40 for a one year old – especially when you can buy three and four year old wines of provenance, like Curly Flat, for $48.

Cullens Cabernet Merlot 2008 $38
Margaret River, Western Australia

In a recent masked tasting, Jeir Creek’s Kay Howell paired this absolutely beautiful, elegant red with its more powerful Margaret River neighbour, Moss Wood Ribbon Vale Vineyard Cabernet Merlot 2008. They’re very good regional wines, but I found the Cullens wines considerably more appealing. Its keynotes were elegance, poise, balance and, of course, lovely, ripe berry flavours. Descriptors like “gentle”, “elegant”, “fine” and “pass the bottle – again” paint the picture. This is a really beautiful wine to savour over the next ten years — and just 12 per cent alcohol!

Brancott Estate Ormond Chardonnay 2009 $24.29–$26.99
Gisborne, New Zealand
On a buying trip to Gisborn once, a local told me these were the world’s easternmost vineyards – and therefore the first to see the sun each day. That romantic view failed to crystallise sales as Marlborough, even back in 1984, proved the stronger drawing card. But Gisborn (at about 38 degrees south on the North Island) makes big, juicy chardonnays like this 2009 made by Brancott Estate (formerly Montana). It’s an unapologetically full-bodied, barrel-fermented style with significant, but balanced oak flavour. It’s a more in-your-face style than is currently fashionable in Australia, but avoids the excesses of those big butterballs we used to make.

Innocent Bystander Sangiovese 2009 $20.65–$22.95
Gateway Vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia
Innocent Bystander is the second, big-value label of Giant Steps Winery, located in the Yarra Valley. Where the Giant Steps label focuses on top-end, single-vineyard Yarra Valley pinot noir and chardonnay, Innocent Bystander is a free soul, wandering happily wherever its whims take it. The range includes shiraz, pinot gris, chardonnay, pinot rose, pinot noir, syrah, sangiovese, pink moscato and cordon cut viognier. To date it’s been a 100 per cent reliable choice, offering really good drinking at around $20 a bottle. Their latest sangiovese is on song, too, offering fleshy, cherry-like varietal flavour, meshed with sangiovese’s savoury, persistent tannins.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

The year to be adventurous”, Tim Kirk

It started with a tweet by Clonakilla’s Tim Kirk, “It may not look like much but this is exciting I tell ya. Our first Tumbarumba chardonnay… 1.4 tonnes of it”. Playfully, Capital Wines’ Jennie Mooney tweets back, “Are you guys bored or something?” – drawing Kirk’s response, “This is the year to be adventurous Jen, and making small batches of interesting wine is a lot of fun”.

So why is it the year to be adventurous, we ask Tim Kirk, and what the hell are you doing out there? “We’re turning a negative into a positive in a difficult year”, he replies.

As we’ve heard a lot lately, it’s been a tough season across eastern Australia, Canberra included. The strong La Nina pattern, identified by weather forecasters last winter, crystallised into a wet, cool growing season.

The persistent wet periods brought serious outbreaks of mildew throughout the season, destroying crops in many vineyards and dramatically raising production costs through increased spraying and vineyard labour inputs.

As vintage neared, the botrytis cinerea mould arrived, wreaking more damage in some vineyards – but creating opportunities in others. Canberra vignerons therefore moved into vintage with a nervous eye on the weather and a fervent desire for sunshine and warmth, even heat.

If the sun failed to bear down with the heat loved by our local darling, shiraz, sufficient sunshine and warmth ripened most of the fruit remaining on vines. But the cool, wet season, in general, favoured whites more than reds. It also meant better prospects than usual for varieties that prefer really cool ripening conditions – pinot noir and chardonnay in particular.

The cool, wet season, then, provides the main rationale for Kirk’s vintage adventures. We’ll no doubt hear more stories from other wineries as the ferments settle down. But Clonakilla’s seasonal extras provide a good snapshot of the peculiarities.

This year, says Kirk, the season favoured pinot noir and chardonnay in his own vineyards. Then, serendipitously, Tumbarumba chardonnay grower, Steve Morrison, offered fruit from his vineyard at 730 metres above sea level.

The offer seemed too good to be true, says Kirk. Morrison said he’d send the fruit if Kirk paid the freight and to buy the fruit only if he liked it. But Kirk wouldn’t do business like that. He visited the vineyard over the weekend and tasted the “amazing” fruit. On Monday 1.4 tonnes arrived at the winery, setting off a train of tweets.

Kirk says the Tumbarumba chardonnay – in two barrels (600 litre and 228 litre) – sits beside a small quantity from Clonakilla’s vineyard. “It’s looking interesting this year”, says Kirk.

Kirk feels a new enthusiasm for chardonnay thanks to the taut, minerally, elegant styles now being made by some Australian producers, including Oakridge, Shadowfax, Hardys, Penfolds and Coldstream Hills.

He’s hopeful the Tumbarumba material might be in this mould. But if it’s not, we’ll never see it under a Clonakilla label, he adds.

Kirk loves great pinot noir, too. When he says, “I’ve observed and shared the frustrations of those who’ve made it almost but not quite good enough”, you know he wouldn’t be ramping up production this year without some hope of success.

Tim Kirk’s father, John, planted a small amount of pinot noir in 1978 and, in most years, Clonakilla makes about one barrel. Kirk generally blends this into the shiraz-viognier.

Then in 2004–05, Kirk planted another 500 vines on an east-facing slope of a vineyard he owns with wife, Lara. For the first time this year it cropped well. With fruit, some from the original plantings and a little from the neighbouring Long Rail Gully vineyard, he made 12 barrels.

Kirk seems hopeful of this “fruit from a monumentally cool season. It’s in very good French oak, 25 per cent new, and I’m watching it with intense interest”. He adds, he love to make a half-decent, succulent, juicy pinot. But it won’t appear under a Clonakilla unless it measures up.

While botrytis can be a great destroyer, on occasion it helps concentrate sugars, acid and flavour in local rieslings. Several makers, including Clonakilla, intend turning these disgusting looking, rotten grapes into golden nectar this year.

Kirk says Clonakilla’s last was in 1991 when his father made two versions labelled as spaetlese and auslese. He says this year’s pump-clogging, sticky juice achieved auslese-level sugars.

Clonakilla’s fourth adventure in 2011, though, presents a paradox. For the first time they’re making a grenache – a southern Rhone Valley style more likely to perform in hot, dry conditions, not in the cold and wet.

Kirk says his father, loving Rhone Valley grenache-based reds like Chateauneuf-du-Pape, planted small amounts of grenache, mourvedre and cinsault. A couple of days after I talk to Kirk, winemaker Bryan Martin tweets about the lovely grenache coming into the winery, adding “John’s mourvedre and cinsault”.

Shortly after, Tim Kirk tweets, “John and Julia [his parents] were out picking the grenache yesterday. Looks good”.

And what’s the grenache role model? Chateau Rayas, says Kirk, “The greatest grenache there is in my experience”. He’s referring to an all-grenache Chateauneuf-du-Pape made by the Reynaud family and regarded as the greatest (and most expensive) of the region.

Perhaps that’s a long stretch for vintage one. But by knowing the world’s best, wineries like Clonakilla become their own most relentless critics – and that’s what leads to such profoundly good wines.

But on the way to that destination they’re being adventurous, having fun and making terrific wines for us to enjoy.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Beer review — Krusivice and Orkney

Krusivice Imperial Czech Premium Beer 330ml $3.80
Krusovice Imperial, part of Heineken International’s portfolio, sits square in the Czech rich, bitter lager mould. The colour’s deep golden, and the aroma sweetly malty with an overlay of hops. The palate offers full, smooth malt, mingled with hops flavours and finishing a dry, delicious hops bitterness.

Orkney Brewery Dragonhead Stout 500ml $9.50
The very dark brown/black colour suggests the brooding beast it is – modestly alcoholic at four per cent, but assertively bitter, even slightly smokey, from all that roast grain character, like very dark chocolate. Despite the intense flavours, though, it’s dry on the palate, finishing clean and bitter.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Gundaroo’s crunchy cider

If you find the popular apple ciders on tap in bars too sweet, a couple of outlets around town offer the zippier, drier Jolly Miller – made at Gundaroo by Ron Miller.

Miller’s cider making started as a retirement hobby but quickly became a very busy business. He now struggles to meet demand for kegs at Zierholz (Fyshwick), Phoenix (Civic) and at the Wine Bar and Grazing Restaurant in Gundaroo.

Seeking a take-away package, Miller ruled out bottles as impracticable on a small scale. Instead, he opted for five-litre kegs, due for release this week at around $50 retail.

Miller currently uses granny smiths, pink ladies and “whatever else is available”. But an experimental batch made from Kingston Blacks, a specialist cider variety, points to the future. He expects an increased supply next year from Borry Gartrell’s Borrodell orchard at Orange. From these he’ll make a new, top-shelf cider.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Wine review — d’Arenberg, Jim Barry and Innocent Bystander

d’Arenberg Stump Jump Adelaide Hills McLaren Vale Sauvignon Blanc 2010 $10.79–$11.99
The great flood of New Zealand sauvignon blanc flowing into Australia must scare the pants off Australian winemakers. It’s not just the depressed prices, but also the fact that great swathes of Australian vineyards lie in areas not well suited to producing a competing style. And where we do grow sauvignon blanc well, yields tend to be low and production prices commensurately high. d’Arenberg cleverly leaps this hurdle by blending intensely varietal Adelaide Hills sauvy with presumably cheaper McLaren Vale material. The blend works well, delivering vibrant, fresh passionfruit-like varietal flavour at a competitive price.

Jim Barry Watervale (Clare Valley)

  • Riesling 2010 $14.25–$16.95
  • Lavender Hill Sweet Riesling 2010 $13.45–$14.95

No matter how much we talk up riesling, it remains a stubbornly niche variety delivering wonderful flavours at bargain prices. In this pair, both from the Clare Valley’s Watervale sub-region, we see contrasting sweet and dry styles. The dry version captures the sub-region’s unique lime-like varietal flavours and delicacy. It’s a great aperitif wine, with potential to fill out and take on attractive honeyed flavours with bottle age. Lavender Hill, with 22 grams of residual grape sugar to the litre, shows the regional lime-like flavours but with a considerable sweetness, balanced by crisp, fresh acidity.

Innocent Bystander Victoria Syrah 2009 $16.95–$22.95
Innocent Bystander is the second label of Giant Steps Winery, located at Healesville in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. The appellation “Victoria” simply indicates sourcing from a number of Victorian regions – presumably cooler ones by the style of this very attractive shiraz. If the deep, crimson colour suggests a burly wine, the spicy, savoury aroma immediately points the other way. The palate supports this message with its savoury, slightly funky flavours, and supple, fine-textured, soft tannins – complexities and textures consistent with wild-yeast fermentation in open vats, whole bunches in the ferments and extend pre-fermentation maceration.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Jacques Lurton’s Kangaroo Island adventure

In 2000, renowned French “flying winemaker”, Jacques Lurton, established an 11-hectare vineyard on Kangaroo Island. His business at the time made wine around the world, with Lurton and his winemakers, including Australians, hopping from one country to another.

In 2007 Lurton sold out to his brother and partner to concentrate on his own French and Australian brands. By then, says Lurton, he’d experienced 60 vintages across 25 regions in 10 countries.

An oenology graduate from the University of Bordeaux, Lurton worked initially for his father, a major vineyard owner in Bordeaux. But in1984 he visited Australia for a vintage with McWilliams in Griffith, New South Wales. Then in 1985 he joined Brian Croser at Petaluma in the Adelaide Hills – developing friendships with influential Australian winemakers, including Croser and his then business partner, Dr Tony Jordan.

The Australian connections endured. Over the coming decades Lurton employed 10 Australian flying winemakers, and visited Australia at least once a year from 1984.

In Canberra last week he said because of the strong connection “I decided to make my own investment and, ideally, live half of my time here”. With the help of McLaren Vale based David Paxton, Lurton eventually selected Kangaroo Island.

He subsequently planted 11 hectares to cabernet franc, grenache, shiraz, malbec, viognier, semillon and sangiovese, and established a winery on a site, “about in the middle of the island”.

By the time Lurton parted the flying winemaker business in 2007, he’d acquired from cousins in Bordeaux a six-hectare merlot vineyard, La Martinette. And in the Loire Valley he’d established long-term relationships with sauvignon blanc growers in Touraine and Pouilly.

Therefore the Jacques Lurton brand (see www.jacqueslurton.com) now includes two Loire sauvignon blancs, Touraine Sauvignon and Pouilly Fume; one Bordeaux merlot, Domaine de la Martinette; and a range of Islander Estate Vineyards wines from Kangaroo Island.

Partly because of his Bordeaux background, Lurton selected cabernet franc as a flagship variety, originally to pair it in a blend with sangiovese. He says, “I’ve worked with cabernet franc in the Loire Valley and, in Bordeaux, at St Emilion and also a little bit in Pomerol. It makes fragrant, fresh and elegant wines and they age well”.

As well, he adds it’s tough variety and easy for grape growers to look after. Aptly for Australian growers, it resists heat well, he says, citing its success in Bordeaux’s searingly hot 2003 vintage.

He says cabernet franc originated in Navarra Spain. But it’s now widely planted in south-western France, including Bordeaux, where it’s used mainly as a blending variety — as it is here in Australia.

Kangaroo Island cabernet franc appeals to Lurton because it “avoids the herbaceousness” of the cold-to-marginal Loire climate and cooler Bordeaux vintages.

Lurton’s first flagship Kangaroo Island red in 2004 included a fairly high proportion of sangiovese with the cabernet franc. But observing how the sangiovese matured more rapidly than the cabernet franc, Lurton wound back the sangiovese to just six per cent in the just-released 2005 and even further in subsequent years. There’s also a smidge of malbec in future vintages, he says.

For trademark reasons he also changed the name from Islander Estates Yakka Jack (named after a local soldier settler) to The Investigator, after Matthew Flinders ship, an early white visitor to the island.

In Canberra for the launch last week, Lurton lined up The Investigator 2005 ($60) with three French cabernet francs – giving us a snapshot of very different styles, two from the Loire, the other from St Emilion, Bordeaux.

St Nicolas de Bourgueil Les Malgagnes 2006, from a biodynamic vineyard at Bourgueil, Loire Valley, showed cabernet franc’s gently plush, ripe-berry elegance – an otherwise alluring, elegant wine, marred by a touch of brettanomyces (a spoilage yeast).

Chinon Clos de L’Echo (Couly-Dutheil) 2005 bounced in like a heavyweight after the elegant Bourgueil. Densely coloured and opulent of cabernet franc, it showed traces of herbaceousness despite its fifteen per cent alcohol. Lurton attributed this to alcohol extracting unripe tannins from the seeds and skins. But the herbaceousness was a minor blemish in an otherwise delicious, albeit big, wine.

Le Petit Cheval St Emilion Grand Cru 2003, second wine of legendary Chateau Cheval Blanc, supported Lurton’s views on cabernet franc in hot years. His cousin, Pierre, runs Cheval Blanc and in the severe heat of the vintage found little but cabernet franc suitable. The blend ended up at 95 per cent cabernet franc, five per cent merlot – a big shift from the usual 60:40 ratio.

What a wine, though: limpid and complex, combining fully ripe cabernet franc berry character with age and oak – a fragrant, soft, elegant and delightful drink with a distinct Bordeaux stamp, despite the heat.

And finally, to Lurton’s The Investigator 2005 – a limpid, bright, youthfully coloured wine, featuring fragrant, ripe-berry varietal character, soft, gentle palate and elegant, persistent tannin structure. It’s an exciting wine indeed, based on one quick tasting. We’ll review it fully after we can put it to the full-bottle test.

The Investigator and other Jacques Lurton wines, including Old Rowley, reviewed today, are distributed in Canberra by Bill Mason’s Z4 group.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Wine review — Alkoomi, Kalleske, Campbells, Ross Hill, The Islander Estate and Castello di Romitorio

Alkoomi Jarrah Shiraz 2007 $39–$44.69
Frankland River, Great Southern, Western Australia
Because shiraz reveals its beauty in so many different ways in Australia, it’s become our signature variety. Alkoomi’s wonderful flagship – named for the towering jarrah trees (eucalyptus marginata) native to the area – comes from a gravelly site planted to vines over 40 years ago. This is deeply layered, elegant shiraz of a rare dimension – built on intense, varietal cherry-and-spice flavours, bound by fine, soft oak and fruit tannins. It’s an understated wine of many parts, in perfect harmony, looking youthful at four years and destined for a long cellar life.

Kalleske Clarry’s Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2010 $16.20–$180
Barossa Valley, South Australia
The Kalleske family settled in the Barossa in the mid nineteenth century and today sixth generation Troy Kalleske makes the wine named for his grandfather, Clarry. Clarry tended the vines from the 1920s to the 1990s. It’s a luxurious, friendly blend – highly aromatic and densely packed with juicy, vibrant mouth-watering fruit flavours. Grenache probably contributes the floral aromatic high notes, while shiraz and mataro (aka mourvedre) contribute body and tannin structure respectively. It’s a rollicking regional specialty to enjoy over the next four or five years.

Campbells Pedro Ximenez 1997 $35
Rutherglen, Victoria
A glass of the lovely, delicate 1991 vintage prompted last week’s feature story on Campbell’s unique dry white – made from Spanish sherry variety, pedro ximenez. A week later samples arrived: the not-yet-released 2007 vintage, under both cork and screwcap, and the currently available, at cellar door, 2004 ($25.90) and 1997 ($35). The small tasting revealed a journey from tartness and austerity in the 2007, to the fresh, delicate honey notes of 2004, to the still fresh, but mellow, richer, toast-and-honey of the 1997. It’s a curio, for sure, but a delightful one enjoyed by most people at the tasting.

Ross Hill Chardonnay 2009 $27–30
Orange, New South Wales
Terri and Peter Robson established Ross Hill in 1994 and planted chardonnay on their home block in 1996. In 2008 Greg and Kim Jones joined the business “to build the Ross Hill winery and plant further, higher elevation vines on the slopes of Mount Canobolas”. Winemaker Phil Kearney then joined the team, and in 2009 produced the first wines to be made on-site. The wines include this wild-yeast, barrel-fermented chardonnay from the home block – a rich, bright, fine-textured chardonnay with a core of sweet, nectarine-like varietal flavour, looking very young at two years.

The Islander Estate Vineyards Old Rowley 2006 $37
Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Frenchman Jacque Lurton grows and makes his grenache, shiraz, viognier blend on an 11-hectare vineyard, planted on Kangaroo Island in 2000. It’s a surprisingly fine, elegant and savoury wine, given the blend – so often in Australia grenache tends to a musky, even confectionary character; and the white viognier can be intensely apricot-like and oily textured. Instead we have a lighter coloured red, of light to medium body with a lean, savoury, spicy palate and persistent, fine, tannic finish.

Rosso di Montalcino (Castello di Romitorio) 2007 $38.50–$54.99
Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy
This is sort of uber Chianti – a magnificent, elegant red made from the sangiovese grosso variety, grown at Montalcino, near Sienna, Tuscany. Brunello di Montalcino, also made from sangiovese grosso, is one of Italy’s great wines and Rosso di Montalcino is its slightly lesser cellar mate. The colour’s medium and limpid and already showing signs of age ¬– though this is common for sangiovese. The aroma and palate, though, are all excitement with sweet, tobacco-like, earthy and gamey flavours underlying a firm, sinewy tannin structure. It’s an elegant, unique wine that grows in interest and, suddenly, regrettably, the bottle’s empty.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Beer review — Wig & Pen and Sierra Nevada

Wig and Pen Venom Imperial Ale half-pint $6
Choose your poison? It’s a hard call at the Wig – so many stunningly good brews. But this week it’s Venom: seduced by the estery, apricot-like aroma, then totally won over by a fleshy, velvety, luxurious palate and exciting interplay of unctuous malt and intensely bitter hops.

Sierra Nevada Porter 350ml $6.90
What a beaut porter this is from the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California. The aroma and palate reveal rich, roasted malt character – reminiscent of dark chocolate and toffee. It weighs in at a solid 5.6 per cent alcohol, but it’s lively and balanced on the palate with a refreshing chocolaty, bitter finish.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Creative genius at Canberra’s Wig & Pen

The creative genius of brewer Richard Watkins puts Canberra’s Wig and Pen brewpub in a category of its own. Few small breweries in the world could match the diversity and quality of beer currently on tap there.

On a recent visit, the Wig offered 15 beers and an apple cider, all made in the tiny cellars.

To the core of regular beers, Watkins frequently adds seasonal specialties. Most excitingly, there’s a growing range of specialty ales fermented and matured in oak barrels – inspired partly by Watkins’ recent visit to classic European breweries.

The three just released “Brewer’s Stash” ales, all served in brandy balloons, are simply sensational – albeit idiosyncratic styles to sip and admire.

Big Ass Barley Wine (one year in barrel) offers sumptuous, toffee-like malt flavours balanced by hops bitterness. Lunch with the Monks (six months in barrel), inspired by Belgium’s Triple style, is complex, sweet-malt and buoyantly fruity. And Bob’s Armpit (eight months in barrel), modelled on Orval, is an intriguing sweet and sour beer brewed with yeast and a cocktail of bacteria.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011

Wine reviews — Kirrihill, d’Arenberg and Henschke

Kirrihill Single Vineyard series $15.25–$16.95

  • Clare Valley Slate Creek Riesling 2010
  • Adelaide Hills Serendipity Pinot Grigio 2010
  • Adelaide Hills Barton Springs Sauvignon Blanc 2010

There’s great value in these single-vineyard whites made by Donna Stephens. The riesling, sourced from 30-year-old vines in Watervale, southern Clare Valley, offers full, rich lemony flavours with lively, delicate, refreshing acidity. The sauvignon blanc, from the higher cooler Adelaide Hills to the south of Clare, delivers sauvignon’s familiar herbaceous flavours and little more text and grip than we see in most. Pinot gris, also from the Adelaide Hills, is more spicy and pear-like in flavour, backed by a textural richness, courtesy of extended contact on yeast lees.

d’Arenberg McLaren Vale The Stump Jump range  $10.75–$11.95

  • Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2009
  • Shiraz 2009
  • Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

d’Arenberg’s Stump Jump range delivers true regional flavours at a modest price. They’re ready to drink now, but more complex than most reds you’ll find at the price. In the blend Grenache gives a lighter colour and fragrant high notes, shiraz adds a solid, earthy flavour and richness and mourvedre contributes spice and grippy tannins. The shiraz is all McLaren Vale – its varietal fruitiness wrapped in savoury tannins, managing to be full flavoured but not plump, and finishing fairly firm. The cabernet, too, is purely varietal with its tight, lean-but-tasty palate and firm, tannic finish.

Henschke Barossa Henry’s Seven 2009 $30.60–$34

This juicy and lovely wine combines shiraz, grenache, viognier and mourvedre – seemingly a blend of blends, combining two distinct Rhone valley styles. In the northern Rhone’s Cote Rotie area, co-fermented shiraz and viognier (a white variety) produce one of the world’s great red styles – shiraz of great fragrance and finesse. Canberra’s Clonakilla is modelled on this style. Further south, grenache, shiraz and mourvedre dominate earthier, medium bodied, multi-varietal blends. In Henry’s Seven, Stephen Henschke captures the high toned fragrance and plump fruitiness of viognier and grenache, but tempers it with the more savoury character of shiraz and spicy grippiness of mourvedre.

Follow me on Twitter @ChateauShanahan

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011