Monthly Archives: April 2013

Wine review — Clonakilla, Tim Adams, Crossroads, Wilson and Rob Dolan

29 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Clonakilla Ceoltoiri 2011 $36
Clonakilla Vineyard, Murrumbateman, NSW
It’s a blend of grenache, mourvedre and shiraz. But don’t shut your eyes and think of the Barossa, GSM’s Australian home base. This is Canberra material from a particularly cold, wet vintage that, in theory, should have written off mourvedre – a late-ripening variety that many would say just couldn’t work in Canberra, even in a warm year. So much for theory. And cheers for John Kirk’s skill in the vineyard and son, Tim’s, in the winery. Reflecting the season, Ceoltoiri (Irish for “musicians”), offers an harmonious, fine, medium bodied expression of this classic Rhone Valley blend. Tim Kirk calls it his Chateauneuf-du-Pape. However, few wines bearing that much-abused name show the fruit purity and high-toned spicy and peppery notes of Ceoltoiri; nor the lusciously textured mid palate. It has the prettiness and delicacy of Clonakilla’s other 2011 reds, but “some real grunt in the [mourvedre] tannins”, says Kirk. It’s due for release in the first week of May.

Tim Adams Cabernet Malbec 2008 $22.80–$29
Fairfield, Jenners, Sheoak and Maynard vineyards
Clare Valley, South Australia
Tim Adams learned winemaking under Mick Knappstein, creator of Leasingham Bin 56 Clare Valley Cabernet Malbec, a very exciting wine of its era. Adams reintroduces the excitement with this lovely blend. Like his other reds, it shows the finessing of his winemaking approach over the last few decades – capturing ripe, varietally expressive fruit and ripe tannins and supporting the wine with oak maturation, without the oak intruding on the fruit flavour. It’s a lovely, juicy mouthful of a wine, built on the blackcurrant-like flavour of cabernet, with the faintest hint of leafiness and assertive but soft tannins.

Crossroads Winemakers Selection Syrah 2010 $40
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
Even back in 1984, during my first wine tour of New Zealand, the best reds I encountered came from what some makers called the Ngatarawa triangle – an area of gravel soils along the old Ngaruroro riverbed in Hawkes Bay. In 2001, vignerons designated 800 hectares of this riverbed as the Gimblett Gravels – source of many beautiful, fine-boned syrahs. Crossroads demonstrates the beauty of the style with its vivid crimson colour, heady, berry-and-spice perfume and intense, supple, medium-bodied palate. It’s a pinot lovers’ shiraz of a very high order. It’s distributed in Canberra and NSW by Young and Rashleigh (youngandrashleigh.com).

Clonakilla Shiraz 2012 $28–$30
Hilltops, NSW
Heavy rain towards the end of February 2012 destroyed large volumes of ripe, or near ripe grapes in Canberra and surrounding districts. Clonakilla lost much of its Canberra fruit in the event. But, says Tim Kirk, they harvested most of their fruit from the Hilltops region (around Young, NSW), the day before the 200mm deluge arrived. The result is a delightfully rich red combining ripe, dark-cherry flavours with the spice and touch of black pepper we see from cooler areas. The wine’s medium bodied and shows the Clonakilla signature of great harmony and silky, juicy mid palate, though not with the length or intensity of the top wines. It’s due for release in the first week of May.

Wilson DJW Riesling 2012 $23.95
Wilson DJW vineyard, Polish Hill River, Clare Valley, South Australia
This comes from a 2.2-hectare vineyard planted by Daniel Wilson in 1997 on a fertile section of his father’s vineyard. The fertile site produced large vines, large bunches and bigger flavours than other parts of the vineyard, prompting the decision to bottle it separately. In 2012 the citrus and tropical fruit aroma gush from the glass and flood the palate deliciously. While big and juicy it retains a fine structure, zingy acidity and a modest alcohol content of 12.5 per cent. I enjoyed this on its release last August and even more at Easter over dinner at Starfish Deli, Batemans Bay.

Rob Dolan True Colours Cabernet Shiraz Merlot 2012 $22
Yarra Valley, Victoria
Former Port Adelaide Ruckman, Rob “Sticks” Dolan, turned to footy to winemaking. He worked for Yarra Ridge, St Huberts and Bailey’s and was later helped build the Sticks and Punt Road in the Yarra Valley. For his new venture Dolan says he sources fruit “from growers who have stuck by me for almost 20 years”. The new range is excellent, delivering rich but elegant wines at a fair price. I liked the pinot noir and this fragrant cabernet blend in particular. Cabernet leafiness provides a refreshing seasoning to the ripe, vibrant berry flavour and fine, persistent tannins give a satisfying red-wine finish.

Wine review — d’Arenberg, Riddoch and Grant Burge

28 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

d’Arenberg Footbolt McLaren Vale Shiraz 2010 $18–$20
The wine bears the name of Footbolt, a racehorse whose success helped Joseph Osborn purchase d’Arenberg’s first vineyard in 1912. Osborn’s descendants, d’Arry and son, Chester, continue to run the business. The Footbolt remains one of Australia’s big-value wines. It offers robust McLaren Vale shiraz flavour and savouriness, supported by mouth coating but soft, ripe tannins. It’s exceptionally rich and satisfying at this price and has the depth to age well for five to ten years if well cellared. We recently enjoyed this by the glass at Agosti Restaurant, on the Newcastle waterfront.

Riddoch Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $14.95–$20
This is a Woolworths’ controlled brand, available through its Dan Murphy, BWS and Woolworths Liquor outlets. Through its Barossa-based Cellarmaster subsidiary, Woolworths is now a major wine producer, though the company employed the services of Katnook Estate Coonawarra winemaker, Wayne Stehbens, in putting this attractive red together. It has the deep colour, rich flavours and ripe tannins of the outstanding 2010 vintage – a varietally pure, elegantly structured Coonawarra style. It’s medium bodied and made for early drinking. The price varies from around $15 on special to $20 among the various Woolies retail brands.

Grant Burge Thorn Eden Valley Riesling 2012 $16.15–$23.95
Grant Burge’s 2012 riesling delivers the exceptionally rich fruit flavours of the vintage in a fuller, softer style than many other Eden Valley wines of the same year. Burge rates the 2012 whites as “some of the best I’ve ever made”. He attributes the exceptional fruit quality to mild days, cool nights, good sub-soil moisture, healthy vines and moderate yields. These conditions, says Burge, produced grapes with “very balanced sugar to acid ratios and flavours”. The wine reflects the quality of the grapes with its fully, citrusy varietal flavour, round, smoothly textured palate and backbone of fresh acidity.

Beer review — Matilda Bay and Bridge Road

24 April 2013Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Matilda Bay Beez Neez Honey Wheat Beer 345ml 6-pack $20
If there’s a bee’s knees of Aussie honey wheat beers, this is it. It’s a highly polished brew with the lightness and zesty freshness of wheat beer filled out and softened ever-so-subtly on the mid palate by the honey. It seems the honey adds a structural element rather than overt flavour.

Bridge Road Brewers Beechworth Chestnut Pilsner 330ml $4.65
Brewer Ben Kraus added locally grown chestnuts to the mash, adding another dimension to this very attractive, medium-bodied, light-golden pilsner. Galaxy hopes from the Ovens Valley add their own appealing fragrance and gentle, spicy bitterness. This is an exceptionally polished, harmonious beer without a rough edge anywhere.

260 Aussie breweries since 1984 says Stubbs

24 April 2013BeerChris Shanahan

On April 12, in Australian Brews News, Dr Brett Stubbs set the record straight on post-war brewing in Australia. Stubbs rejects the myth that the Sail and Anchor Pub Brewery (Fremantle 1984) was the first to be built after the end of World War Two.

Stubbs tallies, “thirteen new breweries opened across the country between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the opening of the Sail and Anchor nearly forty years later”.

Stubbs list includes new facilities built to replace old ones in both Perth and NSW. But the list includes three new breweries in Darwin – Swan Brewery, Carlton United Breweries and the short-lived Ellis-Kells Brewery – and Victoria’s brave but ultimately ill-fated Courage Brewery, commissioned in August 1968.

However, the 13 breweries established between 1945 and 1984 pales in comparison to the roughly 260 established since 1984, notes Stubbs.

Wine review — Angullong, Tim Adams and Lowe

21 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Angullong The Pretender Central Ranges Savagnin 2012 $22
During the export boom of the late nineties, Orange attracted several broad-acre vine plantings, including the 220-hectare Angullong vineyard. The vineyard straddles the Orange/Central Ranges wine boundary for no other reason other than that part of it lies below the 620 metre altitude mark, Orange’s lower limit. While this ancient variety has the same DNA profile as traminer and gewürztraminer, it’s a distinctly different clone and was planted in Australia in the mistaken belief it was the Spanish variety, albarino. In this instance savagnin makes a vibrant, distinctive, smoothly textured wine with passionfruit-like highlights and savouriness.

Tim Adams Clare Valley Shiraz 2010 $22.80–$29
Tim Adams sourced this mouth-watering shiraz from four Clare Valley vineyards – Irelands, Bayes, Rogers and Senecas, the first three owned by Adams and his wife, Pam Goldsack, the third belonging to Pat Seneca. The fruit from these vineyards was clearly sensational in the 2010 vintage as the wine is simply saturated with juicy, ripe, plummy varietal flavours. It’s round and gentle, but layered with soft tannins. While it may age well for a decade – there’s certainly enough fruit flavour there to suggest so – it’s just so joyously fruity now it’s hard to imagine it ever being a better drink.

Lowe Tinja Mudgee Chardonnay 2012 $20
In the mid nineties, Len Evans called unoaked chardonnay a con – referring to tricked-up wines then replacing fat, woody ones. The truth, it turned out, lay in making better, subtler use of oak. A few small makers nailed this in the eighties and of the big companies, Penfolds and Hardys succeeded by the mid to late nineties, leading a trend that continues to blossom. With Tinja, David Lowe of Mudgee shows his former employer, the late Len Evans, that unoaked chardonnay can indeed be subtle, fine, delicious and unoaked and, at 12.5 per cent, not too alcoholic.

Canberra vintage report 2013

17 April 2013WineChris Shanahan

After the cool, wet, disease-ravaged 2011 and 2012 vintages, the drier, warmer 2013 season saw a return to generally healthy fruit and reasonable yields across the Canberra district. Quality appears to be very good for both reds and whites, with lovely, clean, disease-free fruit arriving at wineries.

Hall vigneron, Allan Pankhurst, offers unconditional praise for the vintage, describing it as “fabulous, really amazing”. He continues, “We’ve had dry conditions, beautiful fruit, no disease and it’s all in except for semillon”. (He’s hoping for noble rot and a chance to make a luscious dessert wine).

Pankhurst’s neighbour, Roger Harris of Brindabella Hills winery shares the enthusiasm. He says, “the quality’s fantastic for reds and whites”.

Pankhurst describes grape yields as “more measured”, referring to a dry period during flowering that held back crops and vineyard management techniques aimed at improving fruit quality.

After heavy shoot and bunch thinning (literally cutting and dropping shoots and bunches on the ground), sangiovese vines, for example, yielded less than three tonnes to the hectare but produced “amazing fruit”, he said.

Overall Pankhurst rates 2013 as “one of the best for more than 10 years. The beauty of 2013 is that it had some cooler periods as well [as a heat wave in January]”.

Harris rates sangiovese from both his own and Pankhurst’s vines (he makes both wines) as “the pick of the lot”. He says, “ripening conditions for reds were fantastic”, delivering terrific sangiovese, tempranillo, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon – the latter completely ripe in the “fresh blackcurrant” spectrum, with no trace of green characters.

He says shiraz cropped perhaps a touch heavier than normal, with “lovely flavours not reflecting the heat of January”. Fortunately, the January heat wave arrived pre veraison (that is, before the grapes began to soften and change colour) and good water supplies prevented vine stress.

While riesling and sauvignon blanc ripened fully at fairly low sugar levels, a violent storm arrived right on harvest time – a year to the day after a comparable event in 2012. The storm destroyed half of Harris’s riesling and sauvignon blanc crop, but the surviving grapes remained in excellent condition.

At Murrumbateman, Clonakilla’s Tim Kirk, sidesteps fermentation pots littering the winery floor, and reports his biggest crop ever. Kirk’s winemaker, Bryan Martin, puts this year’s grape crush at around 290 tonnes (250 for Clonakilla, the rest under contract to other growers). Martin says in 2008, the previous biggest year, the winery processed 240 tonnes, 180 of it for Clonakilla. By my estimate, 2013’s 290 tonne crush equates to roughly 20 thousand dozen bottles.

Kirk estimates a 20 per cent increase in yields overall, with wide variation from block to block. He says, “the quality is amazing” with “close to perfect numbers [for acid and sugar levels]”.

“After the challenging 2010, 2011 and 2012 vintages, the question has become where to put all the amazing quality fruit rather than where’s all the fruit?” he adds.

As we walk around the catwalks, the winery floor and even in the concrete driveway, fermentation vessels, including picking bins drafted to the cause, occupy every inch of space. Each has it thick cap of red grape skins at the surface. And the press dribbles its last precious drops of old-vine viognier juice, ready for fermentation.

Kirk says he expects the crush to remain at around 300 tonnes in future years and plans to extend the winery area by 50 per cent and add more fermenters before next vintage.

On vintage quality, Kirk says, “I struggle to think of a variety that didn’t look fantastic”.

While I’m there we seize the opportunity to try barrel samples of pinot noir, each of the four from a different clone of the variety. These are distinctive wines, a couple of them pretty exciting. But we’ll have to wait about a year to try the final blend – a follow up to the silky, juicy 2012 shortly being released to mailing list customers.

We taste, too, barrel components of the soon-to-be-blended 2012 Shiraz Viognier and the 2012 Syrah – Clonakilla’s two flagship reds. The Shiraz Viognier components point to a highly fragrant, elegant final blend, somewhat bigger than the lighter and pretty 2011. There was no 2011 Syrah. But anyone who tried and tasted the previous release will love the 2012, a real knockout.

Clonakilla’s O’Riada 2012, now blended and ready for bottling, like the shiraz viognier, offers a lift in body and depth over the charming but early-drinking 2011.

Kirk’s Murrumbateman neighbour, Ken Helm, reports exciting quality from a vintage that “will go down as one of the greats”. Helm expected to receive 35–40 tonnes of riesling from his own vineyard and local growers. But he received just 25 tonnes, prompting a search for additional material in Tumbarumba, where he sourced six tonnes.

Helm says riesling quality in 2013 reminds him of the 2008. And the best parcel in his expanded winery, he says, comes, as it always has, from the late Al Lustenburger’s vineyard.

When I spoke to Helm, his red specialty, cabernet sauvignon, remained on the vine, ready for picking a few days later. He said the small berries were perfectly ripe and ready for picking, with the best material being on the Lustenburger vineyard.

At Mount Majura vineyard, winemaker Frank van de loo tempers enthusiasm with caution, commenting, “quality of course is excellent overall, because winemakers always say that. Actually I don’t usually rush to judge these things, but I’m pretty excited by the riesling and chardonnay already, so we’ll see how we feel later on when everything is in barrel”.

Like others across the district, van de loo reports a disease-free vintage, allowing him “to pick to ideal ripeness rather than rushing fruit off early as we had to last year”. But he adds, “The flipside of that is that with the very cool summer last year we had flavour and phenolic ripeness early/at low sugar levels, whereas this year we’re giving the reds some extra time to get phenolics and seeds ripe. Tempranillo is coming off today [3 April] and looks fantastic, though if we were to pick only on sugar we could have taken it a couple of weeks ago”.

He reports solid yields as “a relief after the small crops in the last two years”.

At Lerida Estate, Lake George, Jim Lumbers rates vintage 2013 as a cross between the outstanding 2008 and 2009 seasons, but leaning more to the warmer 2009. He expects to crush a record 100 tonnes of grapes after a previous vintage crush of around 85 tonnes in 2008.

From Lark Hill, Canberra’s highest and coolest vineyard, at 860 metres, Chris Carpenter calls 2013, “a pretty spectacular vintage”. However, yields at both Lark Hill and the Carpenter’s Dark Horse vineyard, Murrumbateman, came in at about 70 per cent of expectation. Carpenter attributes this partly to vines adjusting after delivering large crops in 2011 and 2012 and to “shaky weather during flowering”.

When we spoke, riesling and chardonnay had already been harvested from Lark Hill vineyard, along with marsanne, roussanne and viognier from Dark Horse. Pinot noir and gruner veltliner (an Austrian variety) and pinot noir at Lark Hill and shiraz at Dark Horse were about a week from harvest – and all looking disease free.

While winemaker excitement in 2013 rises partly from relief after two wet, diseased seasons, the ripeness and balanced natural acidity of the grapes harvested to date point to pretty good quality. But as the proof of the wine is in the drinking, we’ll have to wait to see if the promise turns to reality.

Wine review — Toolangi, Turkey Flat, Shaw and Smith, Paddy Borthwick and Blackjack

17 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Toolangi Estate Pinot Noir 2010 $40
Toolangi Vineyard, Dixon’s Creek, Yarra Valley, Victoria
Garry and Julie Hounsell bought and planted their Dixon Creek vineyard in 1995 but outsource their winemaking – in this instance to one of Australia’s cutting-edge pinot makers, David Bicknell of Oakridge Wines. In short, it’s a classy double act – the beautiful fruit captured in great detail by Bicknell. The wine’s limpid, highly perfumed and over several days on the tasting bench became increasingly lovely to drink. The intense flavour and fine, silky texture make it a pinot to savour, drop by drop. It should age well for another five or six years.

Turkey Flat Butcher’s Block Marsanne Roussanne Viognier 2012 $19.95
Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia
This is exactly the sort of white Barossa makers ought to specialise in. Made from three varieties well suited to warm, dry regions, Butcher’s Block offers texture and savouriness rather than the aromatics and fruitiness cooler regions do better. Christie Schulz polished the style over the years, treating each of the components separately, including skin contact for the viognier, early picking for the marsanne and later picking and whole bunch pressing for the roussanne – with 50 per cent of the blend matured in oak. It’s a full-bodied, richly texture dry white with subtle, underlying nectarine and apricot-like flavours.

Shaw and Smith M3 Chardonnay 2012 $42–$45
Predominantly M3 vineyard, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Shaw and Smith settled into a style of chardonnay making some time back – meaning the wines we taste each year reflect seasonal variations rather than changes in winemaking methods. The new release expresses the upfront fruit flavour of the excellent 2012 vintage. I’ve seen this in many rieslings, too – rich, juicy, fruit flavours coupled with a very fine structure and clean, fresh acidity. In M3 chardonnay, these characteristics mingle, as well, with flavour and textural inputs derived from wild yeast fermentation, barrel maturation and partial malolactic fermentation. It’s an impressive wine with potential to evolve in bottle for a few years.

Paddy Borthwick Pinot Noir 2010 $42–$50
Borthwick family vineyard, Wairarapa, New Zealand
In 1996, winemaker Paddy Borthwick established 27 hectares of vines on his family’s farm, located in the Wairarapa region, a little to the northeast of Wellington. His pale coloured pinot noir impresses for its purity of plummy varietal character, smooth, fine, texture and complex savoury notes. It’s a subtle and lovely wine that grows in interest as you work your way through the bottle – as we did over well-matched duck dish at the Dumpling House, Dickson.

Paddy Borthwick Chardonnay 2011 $29–$38
Borthwick family vineyard, Wairarapa, New Zealand
Paddy Borthwick’s chardonnay rests on nectarine and citrus-like varietal character, layered subtly with the flavours and textures derived from barrel fermentation and maturation. These include nutty flavours and a light touch of caramel (from malolactic fermentation). An assertive line of acid pulls all the flavours together, lengthening the dry finish and giving the wine an appealing elegance.

Blackjack Major’s Line Shiraz 2010 $25
Norris Vineyard, Faraday, Bendigo, Victoria
Named for the route Major Thomas Mitchell took through Victoria in 1836, Major’s Line reveals the savouriness and medium body of Bendigo shiraz in a good vintage. The sweet, plummy, spicy fruit flavour sits well with the savoury notes that seem to come from both the American oak and the fruit itself. The sweet fruit and soft, fine tannins means easy drinking now, though the wine has the flavour concentration and structure to cellar for four or five years.

Beer review — Viking and Fullers

17 April 2013Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Viking 330ml 6-pack $18.99
The latest starter in Australia’s exploding, so-called “premium” beer market uses “glacial water from Iceland”, declares the press release. And the brewers seem to have taken great care not to overwhelm the pristine water with hops and malt flavour – nor with body as it’s a modest 4.4 per cent alcohol.

Fullers Golden Pride Superior Strength Ale 500ml $8.40
Fuller’s luxurious ale carries its 8.5 per cent alcohol with grace and style. High alcohol tends to dominate beer flavour, but here it’s absorbed by the plush maltiness (pale-ale and crystal malts) and balanced by richly flavoured, bitter northdown, challenger and harvest hop varieties. It’s a sumptuous ale to savour with food.

Lion to release take-away draft beer

17 April 2013BeerChris Shanahan

Lion brewing isn’t saying much, but according to The Shout – a hotel, bar, club and liquor industry newsletter – the company plans to release a beer dispenser, to be named the Tap King, and a range of draft beers for home consumption later this year.

Australian Brews News says Lion revealed its plans to members of the Australian Hotels Association. Some members of the association believe the move could take business from them, it reported.

Lion’s plans are doubtless in response to weak beer sales and a continuing trend for people to drink at home.

The problem for hotels could be exacerbated by intense competition among retailers offering Tap King refills. This could further consolidate the market power of Coles and Woolworths who could smoothly fit the new products in with their existing beer ranges.

Wine review — Leasingham, Blackjack and Paddy Borthwick

14 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Leasingham Bin 7 Clare Valley Riesling 2012 $16.15–$23
It’s a brand without a home. But there’s no denying the juicy, drink-now charm of trophy and gold medal winning Leasingham Bin 7 Riesling. The press release describes Leasingham “as one of the Clare Valley’s oldest wineries, established in 1893”, implying a continuing connection with the brand. In fact, Constellation Wines Australia sold the winery to Clare winemaker Tim Adams and wife Pam Goldsack in January 2011. The newly formed Accolade Wines, with Champ Private Equity and Constellation as shareholders, acquired the Leasingham brand. The brand has no connection, other than by name, with the historic, and now renamed winery.

Blackjack Chortle’s Edge Bendigo Shiraz 2010 $18–$20
Winemaker Ian McKenzie describes 2010 as an “idyllic vintage lodged between the drought years of 2008 and 2009 and the deluges that were to follow in 2011 and 2012”. The benign season created an impressive Chortle’s Edge, Blackjack’s entry level shiraz, sourced from the Turner’s Crossing and Fielder family vineyards, Bendigo. It’s a medium bodied red, with ripe red-berry varietal flavours, overlaid with spiciness and a gently savoury grip – consistent with the regional style. Ian McKenzie and Ken Pollack make it in open fermenters, hand plunging the fruit and maturing the wine in older American oak barriques.

Paddy Borthwick Wairarapa Riesling 2011 $25
New Zealand’s Wairarapa region, a little to the northeast of Wellington, lies at around 41 degrees south, not far north of Marlborough. The sunny but cool location produces fine riesling, more akin to German than mainland Australian style, though not quite as delicate as the Germans. Paddy Borthwick’s 2011 thrilled a few drinkers down the coast over the Easter break with its intense, delicate Germanic aroma and equally intense, finely structured palate. We noted riesling’s familiar lime-like flavours with a touch of green apple (the German element) and a hint of sweetness, nicely balanced by brisk acidity.