Monthly Archives: February 2014

Wine review — vignerons a Crezancy, Curly Flat and Vinaceous

Sancerre (Vignerons a Crezancy) 2011 $16.49
For a different take – in fact, the original – on dry sauvignon blanc, try Costco’s French import from the eastern Loire Valley town, Sancerre. Located at 47 degrees north, this cool region makes lean, acidic sauvignons a world away in style from the brash, fleshy, globally loved versions from Marlborough, New Zealand. It’s the difference that matters, so expect lighter body and herbal and savoury rather than capsicum-like flavours. This is a comparatively tame, soft expression of the regional style and slips down easily without becoming the centre of attention.

Curly Flat Lacuna Macedon Ranges Chardonnay 2013 $36
Australian winemakers continue to tweak chardonnay making it, in my view, our great national white specialty – much as shiraz, in all its similar diversity – carries our red-wine banner. Curly Flat’s second label, Lacuna, adds yet another hue to the ever-widening spectrum. Passing a portion of the grapes through rollers and foot crushing another small component adds grip and texture to an otherwise delicate wine, fermented in stainless steel tanks and the beautifully named, air-permeable Flextank cubes. The small amount of oxygen tones down the fruit and adds to this delicious, fresh, crisp wine’s savoury character.

Vinaceous Voodoo Moon Margaret River Malbec 2012 $20–$25
We hear much of Australia’s winemakers but not so much these days of wine merchants buying, blending (and sometimes making) wine for sale under their own labels. Victoria’s Seabrook family and Sydney’s late Harry Brown are great examples of these entrepreneurial merchants – known in France as negociants. Vinaceous, a newcomer to the ranks, combines the skills of marketer, Nick Stacy, and winemaker, Michael Kerrigan. Their small and excellent regional range includes this rich, ripe, aromatic, fruity malbec from Margaret River, Western Australia. The quirky label fits the happy, fruity, easy drinking style of the wine.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 23 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

Brews from Byron Bay and Okinawa

Two contrasting summer brews landed on the tasting bench this week – one from Stone and Wood Brewing Company, Byron Bay, the other from Orion Brewery, Okinawa, Japan.

They could be metaphors for the national stereotypes. Loud and cheery Stone and Wood Garden Ale, slaps you on the back, calls you maaaate, and pounds your palate with exuberant, brash (and delicious) hoppiness. And a comparatively low 3.8 per cent alcohol invites perhaps just one more stubby, maaate.

Orion bows discretely, lightly and politely onto the palate. Belying its five per cent alcohol, it offers delicate, refreshing flavours and softness – suggesting a fair slug of rice malt in the brew. It finishes bone dry and refreshing in the distinctive Japanese style. (It’s available at asianbeeronline.com.au).

Stone and Wood Limited Release Garden Ale 500ml
Reduce beer’s alcohol content and the flavour falls away; increase it and everything rises with it. In 3.8 per-cent-alcohol Garden Ale, the brewers very cleverly use Tasmanian Ella hops to fill the low-alcohol flavour gap. The hops add a striking citrus flavour and bitterness to accompany the lovely malt and dry finish.

Orion Premium Draft Beer 24-344ml bottles $74.90
Orion “is sure to satisfy Australian pallets this summer”, crows the press release. From Okinawa, Orion is light coloured and light bodied in the crisp, delicate, dry Japanese style. The low bitterness may surprise drinkers of mainstream lager, but it’s part and parcel of the style and well suited to delicate Japanese cuisine.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 23 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review — La Linea, Hoddles Creek, Clairault, Mount Majura, Coriole and Buchot-Ludot

La Linea Tempranillo 2012 $27
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
If I had to bet the house on one of the so-called “alternative” grape varieties it’d be Spain’s tempranillo. We crush only about 3000 tonnes a year in Australia (equivalent to perhaps 225 thousand dozen bottles) – a mere splash compared to the more familiar varieties we grow. However, despite the small volume, a recent ABS survey unearthed 341 tempranillo producers across the country. A standout among those is Peter Leske and David LeMire’s La Linea. Though consistently fragrant and floral in earlier vintages, the 2012 lifts another notch, especially in its juicy, fleshy, spicy medium-bodied palate – complete with the variety’s wave of tannins drying out the finish.

Hoddles Creek 1er Chardonnay 2012 $40
Hoddles Creek Estate, Yarra Valley, Victoria

Winemaker Franco D’Anna sources grapes for this wine from an east-facing and presumably comparatively cool site on the family vineyards. However, he picks the grapes riper than he does for the estate’s standard label, resulting in a full flavoured still finely texture, elegant style. The wine shows the cool-grown citrusy side of chardonnay, with underlying stone-fruit flavours. It also shows the “struck match” character of fermentation and maturation in oak – a character that overwhelms skinnier wines, but adds seasoning to a wine of this generosity and calibre.

Clairault Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2013 $22
Margaret River, Western Australia

Margaret River’s distinctive white blend tempers sauvignon blanc’s turbo fruitiness with semillon’s backbone and seriousness – a combination greatly enriched by fermenting and maturing a component in oak barrels. The resulting wine remains vivacious and fruity, but not overwhelmingly so, with attractive mid-palate texture and a savoury note. Sealed with a screw cap, the wine should evolve well and remain fresh for four or five years.

Mount Majura Vineyard The Silurian Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2008 $30
Mount Majura vineyard, Canberra District, ACT

Frank van der Loo’s chardonnay-pinot bubbly matured for about five years in bottle. The long contact with spent yeast cells (left over from the secondary fermentation in bottle) added subtly to the wine’s aroma, flavour and texture. However, at almost six years its fresh, delicate, lemon-like chardonnay flavours draw more attention than the yeast-derived characters do. This is a very pleasant aperitif style. It’ll be interesting to see how future vintages evolve, especially in regard to use, or not, of other bubbly-making tricks, such as use of reserve wines in the blend, to build more complexity.

Coriole Sangiovese 2012 $21–$25
Coriole vineyards, McLaren Vale, South Australia
The Lloyd family planted sangiovese at Coriole in 1985, joining Montrose of Mudgee, under Carlo Corino, as an early pioneer of Italian varieties. Corino eventually returned to Italy. But the Lloyds persevered, and recently released their 26th vintage. From the very good 2012 vintage, it’s a little fuller and rounder than usual, though the variety’s savouriness comes through and the fine, firm tannins leave no doubt that it’s sangiovese, and the regional red specialty, shiraz.

Chablis (Bouchot-Ludot) 2011 $15.79
Chablis, France
Chablis – Burgundy’s northernmost sub-region, at around latitude 47 degrees – makes unique and delicious, lean, intense chardonnays, reflecting the very cool climate. The best, like those of Raveneau, can be sublime. But more workmanlike wines, like this Costco import, still capture the unique and loveable regional style. Bouchot-Ludot is very easy to love. And because it’s not at all like an Australian chardonnay, it adds variety to our drinking. Costco’s global buying power allows us to drink it at a bargain price.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
Firsts published 19 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

Game of vines – Canberra’s season of ice and fire

Vintage 2014 seems a song of ice and fire for much of the Canberra region. Frost nipped vine buds in October and intense heat waves followed in January and February.

The frost affected many, though not all vineyards. While no one escaped the heat – growers with adequate water are faring better than those without. Those with inadequate supples struggle to keep vines, let alone crops, healthy; while others see promising, if reduced, crops ripening under protective leaf canopies.

It gets down to who has ready access to water”, says Four Winds winemaker Bill Crowe. Crowe reckons Four Winds’ crop to be down by around 60 per cent, largely because of the October frost. But, says Crowe, “we have lots of water” and vineyard manager (and brother in law), John Collingwood, has maintained healthy canopies capable of ripening the reduced fruit load.

While vines generally shut down when temperatures climb to the high thirties, Crowe sees steady progress in veraison (where grapes change colour and soften) and ripening. “Riesling seems on track to ripen by early March”, he observes. “And veraison all but complete for the reds”.

However, he says they’ve already harvested sangiovese from Gundagai – fruit that normally ripens around Anzac day.

At Hall, Brindabella Hills Vineyard’s Roger Harris, echoes Crowe’s sentiment, “Right now dry is more of a problem than the heat. It’s the longest stretch of heat I’ve seen in my 30 years in Canberra. I started with a full dam, now it’s two-thirds depleted”.

Luckily, believes Harris, a lack of wind saved further vine stress. And a high water table coming into the vintage got the vines off to a good start. He adds, “If this heat had come at the end of a drought it could’ve been catastrophic”.

Nevertheless, Harris remains optimistic of harvesting healthy riesling, sauvignon blanc and shiraz, albeit in lower than average volumes.

His main vineyard suffered no frost losses, though a newer, one-hectare plot of sangiovese (with a little sauvignon blanc), at a slightly lower altitude, was badly affected. He attributes the smaller volumes to grape bunches not being as full as they should be, though rainfall could change that.

Twenty millimetres would be good”, he chuckles hopefully. Then adds, “But that’s not promising as the tropical monsoons failed and that’s where our rain comes from”.

Despite the adverse conditions, Harris says ripening in riesling and sauvignon blanc, measured by sugar content, was exactly the same on 10 February 2014 as it was on 10 February 2013.

In Murrumbateman, new YouTube star, Ken Helm, assures readers no red wine was lost or damaged in the making of Plonk, episode 1, Murrumbateman (see youtube.com/user/roadtoplonk).

The October 2013 frost smashed Helm’s home block, wiping out 80 per cent of his riesling crop and 30 per cent of the cabernet sauvignon. The substantial riesling losses, however, allowed Helm to redirect scarce water from those vines to the survivors. These are carrying healthy fruit with no sunburn, says Helm, and he expects to make a reduced quantity of his Classic Dry, though none of his benchmark Helm Premium Riesling.

Helm now contacts riesling from Julia Cullen’s Tumbarumba vineyard as a backstop against local crop losses and with an eye to future expansion. He trialled the fruit successfully in 2013, releasing a small run of Helm Tumbarumba Riesling.  For similar reasons, Helm’s also sampling fruit from a vineyard between Cargo and Orange in the Central Ranges Zone.

Following this year’s crop losses Helm withdrew from a UK wine exhibition for lack of stock. He says grape sourcing from nearby regions will, over time, increase his ability to export wine.

Helm’s Murrumbateman neighbour (and fellow YouTube star), Eden Road’s Nick Spencer, grows mainly shiraz on what used to be the Doonkuna vineyard. He says it’s hard to assess the crop at present, though he feels more positive than he did a few weeks ago.

The vines looked tired, then, he says, but the leaf canopy remains healthy (largely because of good rainfall in recent vintages), giving him hope for ripening.

Frost struck Eden Road vineyard, knocking off 30–40 per cent of the shoots. But thanks to above average rainfall in 2011 and 2012, shoot numbers were high. So, despite the frost, the shiraz crop from the surviving shoots remains at an estimated six tonnes to the hectare – which is high in a dry, late ripening climate like Canberra’s.

Spencer planned to begin dropping about two tonnes a hectare off the vines from 11 February, leaving a modest four tonnes to the hectare to ripen. After the fruit thinning, he expects the grapes to race through veraison, which was about three quarters complete on 10 February.

He’s concerned with the inconsistency of ripening following a frost – as much as two weeks in a single vineyard. This, more than a reduced crop yield, becomes the main the issue for wine quality, he says. Following the event they marked frost-damaged sections of the vineyard, so these won’t be harvested.

Like Four Winds, Eden Road is already taking fruit from Gundagai. “It’s very ripe”, says Spencer, “and it looks good but inconsistent”. He’ll therefore be taking less volume than he could have.

Tumbarumba, source of Eden Road’s pinot noir and chardonnay, “Looks great”, says Spencer. “It has better rain, good water and it’s a little cooler”.

At Lark Hill, on the top of the Lake George Escarpment, Chris Carpenter, laments the dryness following little rainfall in winter and during the growing season. While the vines tend to shut down in the heat, he says, he’s seeing veraison in Lark Hill’s pinot and shiraz (in their Dark Horse vineyard, Murrumbateman).

Frost hit both vineyards, taking out half of the chardonnay at Lark Hill, half of the viognier at Dead Horse, 20 per cent of Lark Hill’s pinot noir and some of the Dead Horse shiraz. Because the frost hit late, when bunches had already formed, “the vines had little scope to recover”, says Carpenter.

Both vineyards are short of water, he says, and anticipates a small crop of very small berries with high skin to flesh ratios – meaning concentrated flavours and a challenge in the winery.

Down the hill a little, on the western foreshore of Lake George, Lerida Estate’s Jim Lumbers reports a slightly bigger than normal crop, comparable to 2009’s.  The vineyard avoided frost damage, while the two to its north reportedly were hit fairly hard.

After recent, wet, disease-riddled seasons, the dry and hot 2014 vintage has been free of disease. As well, says Lumbers, very deep soils, with significant water reserves, means healthy leaf canopies to ripen the crop. He says he considering selling grapes this year.

On Canberra’s northern edge, Mount Majura escaped the frost but suffered some minor late October hail damage.

Winemaker Frank van der Loo says that because the vineyard lies on limestone, with good ground water, the vines show little sign of stress. He says Mount Majura is on track for a good but not big harvest, largely because of small bunch sizes.

Just as a tree is best measured when it’s down, the only true measure of a vintage comes out of the bottle. Canberra’s wide weather swings, particularly notable in recent years, nearly always throws challenges and heartache at vignerons. But even in the toughest seasons – like cold, wet 2011 and hot, dry, frost-ravaged 2014 – our winemakers come up with many lovely wines, each indelibly stamped with the season that shaped it. Here’s to ice and fire in 2014.

A happy sequel
Between the writing and publishing of this story, Canberra vignerons received reviving rainfalls.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 19 February 2014 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

Wine review — Penfolds, Frankland Estate and Wirra Wirra

Penfolds Hyland Cool Climate Adelaide Chardonnay 2012 $18–$23
We could call Thomas Hyland the forgotten Penfolds range – sitting quietly in the shade of the much-hyped bin and icon wines. The chardonnay debuted in 2001, an offshoot of the “white Grange” project that delivered the flagship Yattarna and Adelaide Hills Reserve Bin chardonnays. The style evolved with the times, and in the 2012 vintage we taste a rich but tightly structured wine showing terrific fruit flavour woven in with textures and flavours derived from fermentation and maturation on yeast lees in oak barrels. The on-special price seems to have snuck up a few dollars in the last year, but it still offers good value when under $20.

Frankland Estate Rocky Gully Frankland River Cabernets 2012 $16–$18
Frankland River lies a little to the south, and well to the east of Margaret River, Western Australia’s capital of cabernet blends. Part of the Great Southern zone, Frankland River, while better known for its shiraz and riesling, makes good wine from cabernet and related varieties on some sites. Frankland Estate Rocky Gully provides and affordable, drink-now introduction to the style. It’s medium bodied and built on gentle, ripe-berry varietal flavours with sufficient tannin to give backbone and bite to the dry finish.

Wirra Wirra Lost Watch Adelaide Hills Riesling 2013 $18.05–$22
Wirra Wirra’s Lost Watch, from the cool Adelaide Hills, provides a delicious contrast to the better-known rieslings from the Eden and Clare valleys (located to the north, on the same Mount Lofty Ranges). Our sample moved from the tasting bench to the dinner table on a warm summer’s evening. The wine’s delicate, pleasantly tart acidity, green-apple and lemon-like varietal flavours sat well with fresh prawns and cut through the heavier flavours and oiliness of barbecued salmon. It’s a particularly delicate riesling, with the flavour intensity, acidity and harmony to age well over the next four or five years.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 16 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review — Rymill, Angove, Tyrrell, Pooley, Bilgavia and De Bortoli

Rymill The Surveyor Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $80
Rymill vineyard, northern Coonawarra, South Australia
Coonawarra vigneron John Rymill launched his new flagship, The Surveyor, late last year. He dedicated it to his grandfather, John Riddoch Rymill, leader of a surveying expedition to the Antarctica peninsula from 1934 to 1937. Winemaker Sandrine Gimon says, “We picked the grapes from our established vines, averaging 35 years in age… and the wine matured in new and one year old French oak barriques for 18 months. We then selected the finest five barrels to create 1,400 bottles.” Surveyor justifies the effort as it delivers the unique power and elegance seen in the best Coonawarra cabernets. It’s delightfully aromatic and already shows some complexity, as it combines ripe berries with a dusting of leafiness and beautiful but unobtrusive oak. These are all reflected on the elegant, deeply layered palate, which should evolve for decades in a good cellar. I question only the heavy bottle (just under 2 kg, versus 1.3–1.4 kg for most bottles) and the use of a cork and heavy-duty plastic seal. The latter just seem like annoying, out-dated barriers between wine and drinker. Give me a screw cap, please. (Available at rymill.com.au).

Angove Long Row Riesling 2013 $8–$11
Nanya Vineyard, Riverland, South Australia
For everyday quaffing, Long Row offers true citrus-like riesling varietal aromas and flavours in a round, soft, vibrant and dry style. It comes from Angove’s Nanya vineyard on the hot stretches of the Murray – not ideal conditions for riesling. It’s therefore all the more impressive that Angoves produced such good flavours – probably the result of such long experience in the region. The vines are “heritage” clone, planted by Tom Angove in the early 1970s.

Tyrrell’s Lost Block Chardonnay 2012 $15–$18
Hunter Valley, NSW
Tyrrell’s has its white-wine making peers in the Hunter, but no one makes better wines. Their chardonnay quality trickles down through the range, from the flagship Vat 47, to the bargain-priced Lost Block. At a modest 12.5 per cent alcohol, the wine delivers chardonnay’s stone-fruit and melon varietal flavours on a fine, fresh palate, lifted in texture and flavour by maturation on spent yeast cells.

Pooley Tasmania Pinot Noir 2012 $35
Principally Coal River Valley, Tasmania
The Pooley family planted vines in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley, near Richmond, in 1985. The second and third generations now run the vineyards and make the wines, including this alluring pinot noir. The wine shows a ripe and fruity face of the variety with a balancing undercurrent of savouriness and persistent soft tannins – a lovely match to Debbie Skelton’s lunch a few weeks back. The website (pooleyswines.com.au) says it’s available from Plonk, Fyshwick Markets.

Bilgavia Estate Semillon 2013 $26
Broke Fordwich, Hunter Valley, NSW
Broke Fordwich is a sub-region of the lower Hunter Valley, one valley over from the original heartland around Pokolbin. In general, Broke semillons seem a little rounder and softer than the classic, austere, long-lived versions from Pokolbin – though they remain broadly similar in style in other characteristics. Picked early, they offer fairly low-alcohol (this one’s 11 per cent), lightness and refreshingly lemon-like, vibrant flavours. We enjoyed our bottle with seafood among the gums and cicadas of the south coast.

De Bortoli Villages Pinot Noir 2012 $16–$22
Dixons Creek, Tarrawarra and Woori Yallock, Yarra Valley, Victoria
You’ve been on a long kayak paddle, it’s hot and time for lunch under the lakeside trees – what do you drink? De Bortoli’s light, fruity pinot found its mark by lovely Lake Conjola, lightly chilled (about 15–18 degrees) and served for sobriety’s sake after a long suck on the water bottle. It appealed for its pure varietal aroma, fresh and plump (but not heavy) palate, and smooth, soft texture. It’s real pinot at a realistic price.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 12 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review — De Bortoli, Illuminati and Mad Fish

De Bortoli Villages Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2012 $18–$22
Despite Australia’s love affair with sauvignon blanc – especially those from Marlborough, New Zealand – chardonnay remains by far our biggest locally grown white variety. By volume, it’s second only to shiraz and it’s increasingly viewed as one of our great specialties. Like shiraz, it comes in many styles, driven largely by regional variations in climate, tempered by particular winemaking and viticultural practices. De Bortoli’s Villages chardonnay, for example, shows the elegant fruit character and structure of the cool Yarra Valley, combined with the subtle textural and flavour nuances of fermentation with ambient yeasts in oak casks.

Illuminati Riparosso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2011 $9.49–$11.40
We rediscovered Dino Illuminati’s medium-bodied, savoury red at Woolies, Batemans Bay, in early January. A Chateau Shanahan favourite since its Australian debut in 1991, the wine begins with clean, fresh fruit flavours. Then a delicious, teasing, Italian savouriness sets in, distinguishing it from the generally more fruity Australian styles. The Illuminatis make the wine from the local red variety, montepulciano. Dino Illuminati’s grandfather, Nico, established the business in 1890 and Dino took over on his death. Now in his 80s, Dino remains active in the business with his son, Stefano, largely holding the reins.

Mad Fish Gold Turtle Margaret River Chardonnay 2012 $14.25–$15
A mad fish and a gold turtle seem unlikely companions in a wine name. But the wine, from Jeff and Amy Burch’s Howard Park Winery, Margaret River, offers extraordinarily good drinking at a bargain price. Sourced from the Wilyabrup and Karridale sub-regions, Gold Turtle Chardonnay offers bright, fresh nectarine-like varietal flavour with lively acidity and a rich texture derived from a natural fermentation in barrel and extended maturation on yeast lees. The screw cap on wines of this calibre enables reliable cellaring for perhaps five years from vintage. It’s a notably fruitier, rounder style than the more elegant De Bortoli wine reviewed today.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 9 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

Whisky review — Chas Mackinley & Co

Chas Mackinlay and Co Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky $200 700ml Predominantly Speyside and Highlands, some Jura, Scotland
This facsimile (both in contents and packaging) of the Scotch carried by Shackleton’s 2007 Antarctic expedition combines a large number of components, varying in age from eight to 30 years, “all married in the finest sherry butts”. The whisky appeals immediately for its pristine mid-lemon colour and refined aroma, suggestive of its maturity and high-quality oak. Even at 47.3 per cent alcohol (a bare minimum for Antarctic expeditions), the palate’s smooth and tasty, revealing more with each sip – and changing subtly with a splash of water. It’s available at Dan Murphys.

Read the fascinating story of a stash discovered in the Antarctic in 2007 and its subsequent re-creation by Mackinlays.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 5 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review — Grant Burge, Seppelt, Frankland Estate, Coriole and De Bortoli

Grant Burge Corryton Park Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $50
Burge Corryton Park Vineyard, Barossa, South Australia
Grant Burge’s Corryton Park vineyard sits on a high, cool site near Mount Crawford, in the southern Barossa. The site produces cabernet of outstanding varietal definition and flavour intensity. Grant Burge bought the site in 1999 and, over time, polished the wine to its current very high level. In the very good 2010 vintage, the wine seems saturated with ripe, blackcurrant-like varietal flavours while maintaining the wine’s usual elegant structure. This is exceptionally high-class cabernet with many years cellaring ahead of it.

Seppelt Jaluka Chardonnay 2012 $24–$27
Henty, Victoria
A generation ahead of his time, Karl Seppelt planted a vineyard for the then family company at Drumborg in 1964. It’s a cold site, near Portland in the Henty district, southwestern Victoria. Some say it’s the first landfall north of Antarctica. The vineyard and others in the area grow beautiful chardonnay – high in natural acid, with intense flavours at the cool, grapefruit and melon end of the spectrum. In an outstanding year like 2012, the wine really sings and, given cool cellaring, has the potential to develop well for another five or so years.

Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Chardonnay 2012 $25–$27
Frankland Estate, Frankland River, Western Australia
Frankland River, part of Western Australia’s vast Great Southern area, sits on the south-western edge of the continent. At around 34 degrees south and with little elevation above sea level, the area succeeds with chardonnay (a variety that prefers cool ripening conditions) through the chilling influence of the Southern Ocean. Recent vintages show a lightening and refinement that founders Barrie Smith and Judi Cullam attribute to earlier picking and use of larger oak barrels. The resulting higher natural acidity and textural richness (without oak flavour) produced a particularly pleasing 2012 wine – medium bodied, with ripe, stone-fruit-like varietal flavour, tight structure and vibrant, dry finish.

Coriole Fiano 2013 $25
Coriole vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia
Coriole planted the very old southern Italian variety, fiano, in 2001 and released the first wine from it four years later. A number of other Australian producers now make wine from the variety. Our sample bottle appealed to a range of drinkers of varying ages. The flavour reminded me of melon rind, with just enough fruit sweetness to offset the tartness of the rind, and lifted by a fresh, citrus-like character. The wine is fairly full bodied with a pleasingly chewy texture and dry finish.

De Bortoli La Boheme Act Four Syrah Gamay 2012$18–20
Dixons and Steels Creek, Yarra Valley, Victoria
Winemaker Steve Webber says he and wife, Leanne De Bortoli, found inspiration for Act Four while drinking the fruity reds of Ardeche in Paris bistros. Our encounter with the couple’s Yarra Valley version was more an outdoor rashy and croc affair, after a few hours’ kayaking on Lake Conjola. Lightly chilled, Act Four appealed for its fruity perfume and vibrant, juicy, supple, refreshing palate. Presumably much of the perfume came from gamay, the red grape of France’s region. It works well with the slightly fuller, spicy character of shiraz.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 5 February 2014 in the Canberra Times

 

Beer review — Lord Nelson and Bootleg Brewery

Lord Nelson Brewery Three Sheets Ale 330ml $4
In January, Three Sheets met garfish fillets at Narooma’s waterside Quarterdeck restaurant. It proved to be a happy meeting in a gorgeous setting. Three Sheets, with its pronounced fruity, tangy, citrus-hoppy aroma and smooth, rich, refreshing palate, contrasted with the delicate fillets without overwhelming them.

Bootleg Brewery Wils Pils 330ml $3.75
Margaret River’s Bootleg Brewery (a must visit) makes excellent ales, doesn’t quite match the standard with its lager, Wils Pils, in my opinion. It’s a pleasant enough brew – clean and fresh and well balanced, but I looked in vain for a little more punch, especially in the hops department.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 5 February 2014 in the Canberra Times