Monthly Archives: April 2014

Wine review – Bleasdale, Heemskerk, W Gisselbrecht, Clonakilla, Mad Fish and Turkey Flat

Bleasdale Old Vine Verdelho 2013 $29
Bleasdale 1930 vineyard, Langhorne Creek, South Australia
The jury’s still out on the origins of the white variety verdelho. It may be a native of Portugal’s sub-tropical Madeira, it may have come from the European mainland and it may be a relative of France’s savagnin. Whatever its origins, it arrived in Australia from Madeira in the 1820s and in 1850 the Potts family planted it at Langhorne Creek, South Australia. They’ve used it ever since in both fortified and table wines. In recent years, the family rejuvenated its oldest verdelho vines – a one-hectare block planted in 1930. Winemaker Paul Hotker saved the precious grapes from the blending vat and now makes a tiny quantity of wine from those venerable old vines. What a lovely, rich wine it is – the aroma and flavour suggest melon rind and lemon, and the smooth, medium-bodied palate finishes crisp, citrusy and dry. It’s available only at the cellar door, phone 08 8537 4022.

Heemskerk Abel’s Tempest Chardonnay 2012 $21.50–$25
Tasmania
Heemskerk is the Tasmanian face of Treasury Wine Estates, the troubled wine arm of Fosters, spun off in 2011 to become a separate company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Despite its shortcomings – which, some speculate, may lead to the company being split up and sold off as separate brands – Treasury continues to make beautiful wines across its many brands. At a modest price, Heemskerk reveals the special qualities of Tasmania’s chardonnay – pure, intense and fine-boned, with delicious grapefruit and white peach varietal flavours at its core.

Alsace Riesling (W. Gisselbrecht) 2009 $16.99
Schiefferberg vineyard, Alsace, France
This Costco import shows all too clearly why cork should never be let near delicate, aromatic white wines. We’ve tried several bottles of this Alsace riesling. The best have been pretty good, while others have been flattened by oxidation (a result of cork failure) and another spoiled by trichloroanisole, or cork taint. At its best, it’s a full-flavoured riesling, in the distinctive Alsace style, enhanced by bottle age. At its worst, it’s undrinkable; and in between, it’s, well, in between. The message for wine drinkers: expect bottle variation. The message for Costco: on behalf of your customers, lean on your suppliers for screw caps as Australian retailers do.

Clonakilla Syrah 2012 $90–$110
T and L vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Tim Kirk built Clonakilla’s and Canberra’s international reputation for shiraz with its fine-boned blend of shiraz with the white viognier – modelled on the reds of France’s Cote Rotie region. Kirk later followed with another class act, a straight shiraz. He says, “Each year we fill a single fermenter with pure shiraz from our north-east facing T & L vineyard. The winemaking is kept as simple as possible. Whole berries are fermented warm by their own native yeasts. The wine spends three weeks soaking on skins and fifteen months maturing in fine-grained French oak”. Followers of the style, myself included, put the straight shiraz (or syrah) up there with the shiraz–viognier flagship. The 2012 is an elegant cool-climate shiraz, showing the lighter body of the cool season, but nevertheless with the depth to age for many years.

Mad Fish Premium Red 2011 $14–$18
Margaret River, Great Southern and Geographe, Western Australia
Mad Fish is the budget brand of the Burch family’s Howard Park Wines, one of Western Australia’s leading producers. Cabernet sauvignon and related varieties, merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot comprise 90 per cent of the blend, giving distinct cabernet berry flavours and elegant structure to the wine. While it’s hard to say with certainty what the other components (tempranillo, seven per and pinot noir, three per cent) add to the blend, I suspect tempranillo contributes the firm, grippy tannins cutting in at the finish over the lovely, bright fruit flavours.

Turkey Flat Vineyards Grenache 2012 $21.85–$28
Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia
The 2012 vintage seems to have coaxed the best possible fruit from Christie Schultz’s grenache vines, mostly more than 100 years old. The aroma mixes varietal musk and cherry flavours with spice. But it’s on the palate the true sweetness and richness of the fruit shows up in syrup-like concentration. The potent fruit flavours, however, come with savouriness, spice and soft but abundant tannin. The ripe, juicy combination adds up to a unique Barossa wine, with some cellaring potential.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 30 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review – Bouchot-Ludot, Manners and Ross Hill

Chablis (Bouchot-Ludot) 2011 $16.49
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. The high-acidity of Chablis, which suits fresh-shucked oysters particularly well, made it our Easter coastal tipple. 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 realistic price.

Manners Mudgee Gewurztraminer 2013 $20
James Manners’ impressive 2013 gewürztraminer kicked off a superb fixed price Bistro Ceello dinner during Orange’s recent food week. Manners’ father, Michael Manners, returned to his alma mater (formerly Selkirks) to cook with Bistro Ceello owner, Michael Want. The dry gewürztraminer, sourced from a high altitude vineyard in the Mudgee region, accompanied a rich, silk-smooth prawn custard, served with prawn bisque, watercress and cucumber. Gewurztraminer could easily have overwhelmed this dish. But Manners’ version featured just enough of the variety’s distinctive Turkish delight and lychee flavours to harmonise with the food. (It’s available at wellmanneredwine.com.au).

Ross Hill Benny and Taylor Orange Shiraz 2012 $22
Bistro Ceello’s Orange food week dinner included a confit of duck leg, served with a risotto of walnut, parsley and Second Mouse washed rind cheese. The crunchy, very fresh walnuts and pungent sweetness of the local cheese added to the warm, comforting opulence of the duck. The accompanying wine came from Ross Hill, established in 1994 and now with two vineyards at around 800 metres and 1000 metres respectively. The shiraz, from warmer sites and a cool vintage, offers attractive spicy and peppery aromas, medium body and a tight, fine, savoury palate with delicious underlying ripe-berry flavours.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 27 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review – Moss Wood, Houghton Jack Mann, Penfolds, Hill-Smith Estate, Oakridge and De Bortoli

Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $95–$112
Moss Wood vineyard, Margaret River, Western Australia
Moss Wood earned its wine of the week possie by a slim margin over Houghton Jack Mann Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, also reviewed today. These are great cabernets by any measure, both with proven cellaring potential and both, therefore, collectible as either special-occasion mementoes or simply as fabulous wines to enjoy decades from now. Moss Wood is the more floral and aromatic of the two, with deep, supple, ripe cabernet flavours welling up through the firm structural tannins. Its sweet, accessible fruit put it a nose ahead of Jack Mann in the first 24 hours after opening. But in the following days the wines proved equally impressive, albeit in distinctive styles.

Houghton Jack Mann Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $93–$115
Frankland River, Western Australia
We’re not quite addicted to Jack Mann cabernet, but we’ve consumed enough of it, both young and old, to see it as one of Australia’s greatest cabernets. It emerged as the flagship Western Australian red of BRL Hardy (now subsumed into Accolade Wines) when the company owned or managed vast areas of vineyards in Western Australia’s southwest. In the outstanding 2011 vintage, the wine comes from the Justin vineyard, Frankland River. Although very tight, closed and tannic when first opened, the wine revealed its deep, sweet core of fruit during three days on the tasting bench. The flavour intensity, taut structure, deep fruit and harmony mark this as a very special wine indeed, with good long-term cellaring potential.

Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay 2013$35.15–$40
Tumbarumba, NSW
In the early nineties Penfolds put its mind to making a white flagship – a white equivalent to Grange. Though the search began with semillon, riesling and chardonnay, the latter fairly quickly became the sole focus. During this search, Tumbarumba chardonnay made the initial cut, but soon bowed out to components from the Adelaide Hills and, later, Tasmania. However, Penfolds didn’t abandon Tumbarumba altogether and the region generally contributes partly or solely to the brilliant Bin 311 – a rich, fine and sophisticated chardonnay. It has immediate drinking appeal and potential to evolve in the cellar for several years.

Hill-Smith Estate Chardonnays 2012 $25–$35
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Every now and then, along comes a wine that makes you look twice at the label – could this wine really be so good? Robert Hill-Smith’s chardonnays always rate well. But in the great Adelaide Hills 2012 vintage the wine lifts another couple of notches, offering intense, mouth-watering fruit flavours, so beautifully integrated with all the add-ons from wild yeast fermentation in French oak. Hill-Smith’s makers experimented with this technique decades before it moved to mainstream chardonnay making. Their mastery of it now shows when a special vintage comes along. Pile in for the 2012.

Oakridge Local Vineyard Series Merlot 2012$26
Oakridge vineyard, Coldstream, Yarra Valley
What is merlot? Is it light, full, soft, firm, sweet or dry? You could answer yes or no to any of those questions and be correct – simply confirming the confusion surrounding it. At it’s best, though, merlot produces substantial dry reds, tending to medium body and elegant structure, but with quite firm, persistent tannins. Oakridge is an outstanding expression of this style, showing the ripe, plummy, earthy depth of the variety, cut through with firm tannins. Right now it needs protein rich food to cut through the tannins. But a few years in bottle should allow its full, fruity elegance to emerge.

De Bortoli La Boheme Act One Riesling 2013 $20
Yarra Valley, Victoria
Leanne De Bortoli and husband Steve Webber’s La Boheme range includes this delicious white, made from riesling (89 per cent) plus gewurtztraminer and pinot gris. While delicate riesling drives the aromatics and citrus-like flavour, gewürztraminer adds a light but distinctive lychee-like and, with pinot gris, a slippery texture not seen in riesling on its own. It all adds up to pleasing aromas and flavours, great freshness and a satisfying feeling in the mouth. De Bortoli and Webber attribute recent improvements in their riesling-vineyard management to young winemaker Sarah Fagan.

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

Wine review – Long Rail Gully, Baron Amarillo and Aldi

Long Rail Gully Canberra District Riesling 2013 $17.08–$20
It’s an understatement to say the Parker family hides its light under a bushel. They make some of Canberra’s finest wines, but they don’t make much noise about it. A group of us enjoyed their 2013 riesling at Quarterdeck restaurant, Narooma, during the recent oyster festival – a Moruya-markets-meets-the-oyster farmer kind of event. The Parker’s light, delicate, lime-like Long Rail Gully 2013 proved delicious company for our local Sydney rock oysters. Garry and Barbara Parker established Long Rail Gully at Murrumbateman. Their son Richard makes the wine. The cellar door price (longrailgully.com.au) is $102.50 for six bottles.

Baron Amarillo Rioja Reserva (Aldi) 2008 $9.99
Aldi recently became the third largest of Australia’s grocery retailers. It overtook the Metcash-supplied independent stores as the distant third to industry giants Coles and Woolworths. Most of what you find in Aldi are its own brands, including the well-selected beers and wines. England’s Decanter magazine awarded Aldi’s Rioja Reserva a stingy two stars out of five. But I think most drinkers would be more generous. This is not great Rioja. But who’d expect that for $10? Instead, it’s decent Rioja, offering generous fruit flavour, medium body, savouriness and abundant but tame tannins.

Cotes du Rhone Villages Cuvee Reserve (Aldi) 2012 $8.99
French winemakers don’t make it easy for Australian wine drinkers not up on French wine lore. Even knowing where the Cotes du Rhone is doesn’t tell unfamiliar drinkers a red wine of that appellation will be a blend of grenache, shiraz, mourvedre and possibly other associated varieties. Full marks to Aldi for at least sourcing this one under a hygienic screw cap and offering a clean, fresh expression of the region’s earthy, presumably grenache-led blend. It’s medium bodied and, in the French style, has layers of savoury, earthy tannins overlying the fruit – which is there, though not the first thing that leaps out at you.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 20 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review – Capital Wines, Quarry Hill, Trinity Hill, Mount Monster, Bleasdale and Forester Estate

Capital Wines The Ambassador Tempranillo 2013 $25
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Though volumes remain small, the Spanish variety, tempranillo is perhaps the strongest contender to be Canberra’s second specialty red variety after shiraz. Outstanding examples from Mount Majura, Capital Wines and, from 2013, Quarry Hill, all hit the excitement button. At a recent masked tasting, Capital Hill The Ambassador 2013 and Quarry Hill Lost Acre 2013 thrilled the tasters and split the table over first preference. Finally, Capital Hill pulled in front, to my taste, as it captured the vibrant, blueberry-like fruitiness of the variety while weaving in savoury notes and finishing firm and tight – another of the variety’s signatures.

Quarry Hill Lost Acre Tempranillo 2013 $18
Quarry Hill vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
I rated this very highly in a tasting of 18 tempranillos last year. It impressed again at another recent tasting, alongside today’s wine of the week from Capital Wines. Quarry Hill 2013, the first from this Murrumbateman vineyard, struts the naked beauty of the variety fresh from the vine. Quarry Hill’s Russell Kerrison described “the delicate juggling at harvest to get good fruit without going either side of it [neither over- nor under-ripe]”. Winemaker Alex McKay praised “the quality of fruit in a very good year”. The excellent balance of fruit, acid and tannin in the fruit, he said, suited production of a fruity, early-bottled style. Kerrison and McKay both see boldness, and an element of risk, in a style outside the mainstream for the variety in Australia. The risk paid off, as this is a joyous, fruity wine with tempranillo’s strong but rounded tannins.

Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Syrah 2012 $38–$40
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
Decades ago Hawkes Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, emerged as a producer of high quality reds. And in recent years the Gimblett Gravels sub-region emerged as the hottest spot within Hawkes’s Bay. Elegant, fine-boned shirazes, like John Hancock’s Trinity Hill, excite with their intensity of spice and just-ripe, peppery varietal flavours. In the cool 2012 vintage the wine sits on the cusp of ripeness, which means wonderful aromatics and white as well as black pepper character. The wine’s medium bodied and despite the white pepper character (sometimes a pointer to unripeness), fills the mouth with deep, sweet berry flavours and a satisfying, rich texture.

Mount Monster Shiraz 2012 $15–$16
Padthaway, South Australia
The Bryson family owns two vineyards, totalling 170 hectares, at Padthaway on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, about an hour’s drive north of Coonawarra. The vineyard hold could produce, by my estimate around 120 thousand dozen bottles in a good year – fairly large production for a family holding in Australia. The family manages the vineyards and marketing of its Moorambro Creek, Jip Jip Rocks and Mt Monster brands. The 2012 shiraz provides earthy, plump, juicy drinking, with varietal plummy, spicy flavours and shiraz’s tender tannins.

Bleasdale Potts’ Catch Verdelho 2013 $15.20–$19
Langhorne Creek, South Australia
Like Australia’s red hero, shiraz, the white variety, verdelho, shifts seamlessly from fortified to table wine production. The Potts family have used it for both styles since they first planted the variety at Bleasdale, Langhorne Creek, in 1850. Over the last 30-odd years, verdelho survived the onslaught of changing consumer tastes, first for chardonnay, then sauvignon blanc. In Langhorne Creek’s comparatively warm climate, the variety delivers appealing flavours, while retaining acidity. The 2013, at a modest 12 per cent alcohol offers teasing, fresh, sappy flavour and zingy, fresh acidity.

Forester Estate Chardonnay 2012 $28–$33
Margaret River, Western Australia
Northern Margaret River’s Forester Estate produces one of the region’s tastiest semillon-sauvignon blends as well as this lovely, ripe chardonnay. In 2012 the fruit came from a neighbouring 34-year-old vineyard. The juice was fermented partly in French oak barrels and partly in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats (before maturation in oak). The technique captured chardonnay’s fresh, appealing melon and peach varietal flavour, and built its rich, smooth texture.

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

Wine review – Domaine Belluard, Forester Estate and Mount Monster

Vin De Savoie Le Feu (Domaine Belluard) 2011 $57
The village of Ayze, 450 metres up in France’s Savoie region, is home to Domaine Bulluard’s 12-hectares of the gringet vine. Jancis Robinson writes just 22-hectares of the variety remain in Ayze, with Domain Belluard now the only commercial producer. Robinson quotes 19th century writing on the variety’s unique “property of not causing inebriation so long as one does not leave the table”. Apparently the cold night air does the damage. The 2011 (available from importer livingwines.com.au), provides, exotic and delicious full-bodied drinking. It’s bone dry, with teasingly tart acidity, melon-rind-like flavours and viscous, smooth texture.

Forester Estate Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2012 $17–$24
Margaret River’s classic blend of semillon with sauvignon blanc can offer so much more drinking interest than straight sauvignon blanc – while retaining much of the variety’s vibrant, fruity character. In this blend, semillon comprises 53 per cent of the blend and sauvignon blanc 45 per cent, with a splash of chardonnay making up the balance. A tiny portion of barrel-fermented material adds subtly to the texture. But the main game is the dazzling fruit festival in your mouth. The wine has a string of show medals, including a blue-gold medal at the Sydney International Wine Competition and a gold medal at the Royal Hobart Wine Show 2013.

Mount Monster Padthaway Cabernet 2012 $14–$16
The Bryson family owns two vineyards, totalling 170 hectares, at Padthaway on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, about an hour’s drive north of Coonawarra. The vineyard hold could produce, by my estimate around 120 thousand dozen bottles in a good year – fairly large production for a family holding in Australia. The family manages the vineyards and marketing of its Moorambro Creek, Jip Jip Rocks and Mt Monster brands. Their cabernet offers exceptional richness and purity of ripe varietal flavour. The mid-palate is juicy, plump and satisfying, but the wine still retains the elegant, regional structure.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 13 April 2014

Wine review – Tyrrell’s, Rolf Binder, Clonakilla, Eddystone Point and Ravensworth

Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz $80–$90
Ashmans property, lower Hunter Valley, NSW
Where vignerons in much of eastern Australia struggled in the cold, wet 2011 vintage, Hunter winemakers turned out remarkable shirazes, like Tyrrell’s Vat 9. Always a regional benchmark of the medium bodied, long-lived style, Vat 9 in 2011 shows the extra fruit intensity of the good season. It’s sourced from old vines (average age 50 years) grown in the red volcanic soils of the Weinkeller and Short Flat vineyards on Tyrrell’s Ashmans property. Made from hand picked fruit, fermented in open vats and matured in large-format French-oak casks (2700-litre), the wine reveals the delicious flavour of outstanding fruit, gently handled. Maturation in oak, apart from polishing the silky tannins, gave a liveliness and aromatic lift that completes a harmonious, gentle, sensuous wine.

Tyrrell’s Stevens Shiraz 2011 $32.30–$38
Stevens family Old Hillside vineyard, lower Hunter Valley, NSW
Stevens shiraz shows a family resemblance to Vat 9 (above), but in a distinctly brawnier style. It offers the rich, juicy fruit flavours of the good season, with an underlying earthiness and savouriness, backed by solid, but soft, tannins. The grapes come from the Stevens family vineyard in Pokolbin, the traditional heart of the lower Hunter region. Tyrrell’s say the oldest vines on the block were planted in 1867 and “may be the oldest vines still in production in the Hunter Valley”.

Rolf Binder Shiraz 2012 $20
Barossa Valley, South Australia
Barossa winemaker Rolf Binder delivers huge value in this rich, ripe, satisfying Barossa shiraz. It’s notably fuller bodied than, say, the two Hunter wines reviewed today, with stronger, earthier tannins. Although it’s big and ripe, the wine’s harmonious without the heaviness or over-ripeness we once saw in many Barossa shirazes. Binder writes, “fruit was taken from a collection of five Barossa Valley shiraz vineyards with varying characteristics to add more complexity to this wine”. Binder singles out the northern Barossa and Marananga as key sub-regions in the blend.

Clonakilla Ceoltoiri 2013 $36–$45
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Tim Kirk’s Ceoltoiri (the musicians) salutes the red blends of France’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. It combines “grenache, shiraz, mourvedre and a tiny splash of cinsault”, writes Kirk, adding, “it may surprise you”. It’s certainly different from last year’s release from the cool 2011 vintage. From the warm 2013 vintage, this year’s release offers the alluring, sweet, musk-like fragrance of ripe grenache, seasoned with spice and pepper. The brisk, medium bodied palate reflects the aroma, though the spicy character asserts itself through the fine, soft, savoury tannins.

Eddystone Point Riesling 2013 $26
Derwent and Coal River valleys, Tasmania
Eddystone Point, a new brand, comes from Accolade Wines’ Bay of Fires winery, Tasmania. The first Eddystone Point riesling, from the warm, early 2013 vintage, sets a high standard for following vintages, having won gold medals in the Hobart and Melbourne wine shows last year. The wine offers floral and lemon-like varietal aromas and an intense, juicy, mouth-watering palate. The wine’s intense acidity masks the almost seven-grams a litre of residual grape sugar, which simply fleshes out the palate of a unique and loveable riesling.

Ravensworth The Grainery 2013 $27–$30
Ravensworth vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
If it’s in the vineyard, it’s in the blend, it seems. Local winemaker Bryan Martin describes The Grainery 2013 as, “a blend of mainly marsanne, roussanne, chardonnay and viognier, plus a mixture of aromatic varieties, riesling, pinot gris, gewürztraminer and sauvignon blanc”. All were whole-bunch pressed to 600-litre barrels for spontaneous fermentation, with no wine maker additions other than sulphur dioxide, says Martin. The result is bright, medium-lemon coloured, full flavoured wine. Richly textured, bordering on viscous, with a pleasantly tart, melon-rind-like bite, it’s a most loveable and distinctive dry white.

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

Wine review – Magpie Estate, Rolf Binder and Tahbilk

 Rolf Binder Eden Valley Riesling 2013 $22
In 1955 Rolf Binder senior and his wife Franziska bought a winery on Langmeil Road, Tanunda, and named it Veritas. In 2005, Rolf Binder junior renamed the winery in memory of his later father. Binder now makes the red wines while his sister, Christa Deans, looks after the whites, including this impressively tasty and delicate riesling. Sourced from two vineyards on the western side of the Eden Valley, it presents a most delightfully pure, floral and citrus varietal aroma. These characters come through on the intense, delicate, dry palate. This is a beautiful riesling with good cellaring potential as well as drink-now appeal.

Magpie Estate Barossa Valley The Schnell Shiraz Grenache 2010 $20
Barossa winemaker Rolf Binder and UK wine man Noel Young created the Magpie Estate wine brand in the 1990s as a vehicle for Barossa-grown Rhone Valley varieties, shiraz, grenache and mourvedre. Binder says The Schnell is one of their most popular blends globally, though one wonders why the 2010 remains available when the market is generally full of 2012s. The wine offers the rich, full, spicy flavours of shiraz, lifted by aromatic, soft grenache. A backbone of sturdy tannins gives satisfying grip to the finish.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $17.09–$24
Tahbilk’s long-lived, medium bodied cabernet comes with a mother load of tannins – sturdy, grippy tannins that permeate the underlying fruit flavours, giving a satisfying, chewy texture. In the 2010 vintage, those tannins seem even more prominent than usual. Though the underlying fruit flavour provides an offsetting sweetness, tannin defines Tahbilk cabernet and account in large part for its great longevity. Serve the wine with juicy, pink lamb or beef, though, and the protein strips away the tannin to reveal the ripe, blackcurrant-like varietal flavour.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 6 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wine review – Ravensworth, Fox Gordon, Saltram, Scarborough, Wolf Blass and Main Ridge

Ravensworth Nebbiolo 2013 $32
Grove Estate vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
Piedmont’s nebbiolo grape teases with a promise, seldom realised, of sublime, elegant reds, supposedly smelling of tar and roses and offering intense flavours coupled with the mighty tannic grip of a blacksmith’s handshake. On the point of despair some 20 years ago, we finally saw the light at posh Asti restaurant, Gener Nev. There we explored mature (and sublime) Barolos from famed producer Angelo Gaja. They remain our benchmark for a style that too often starts with tar and roses before descending into Mike Tyson tannins. The appealing aromatics of Ravensworth nebbiolo – winemaker Bryan Martin’s first – encouraged a wary sip. The bright fruit promised by the aroma flowed through on the medium bodied palate. The tannins arrived quickly enough. They were firm but velvety and contributed a savoury note as well as nebbiolo’s unique grip.

Fox Gordon The Sicilian Nero d’Avola 2012 $24.95
Adelaide Hills, South Australi
Several Australian producers now cultivate nero d’Avola, Sicily’s most widely planted red grape variety. It produces deeply coloured reds, a characteristic that saw it widely used in the past to add colour to paler wines. However, it’s now commonly used in its own right and in Australia offers an interesting change from our usual red menu. Fox Gordon 2012 delivers the deep colour of the variety, ripe, vibrant, jube-like fruit flavours and rustic, savoury tannins.

Saltram Pepperjack Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 $21.85–$25
Barossa Valley, South Australia
Saltram Pepperjack brand is part of Treasury Wine Estates, the now separately listed former wine arm of Fosters. For reasons unknown, you can enjoy the fabulous Pepperjack Barossa Shiraz 2012 for as little as $15.90 (reviewed in my Sunday 30 March column) while paying far more for the also impressive cabernet. The excellent 2012 vintage looks like one of those once or twice a decade seasons where Barossa cabernet matches it with the local specialty, shiraz. The wine offer rich, ripe cassis-like varietal flavours, with a leafy edge, on a plush, juicy palate cut with soft cabernet tannins.

Scarborough Shiraz 2011 $27
Lower Hunter Valley, NSW
At Canberra’s recent Winewise Championship, judge James Halliday commented on the high quality of Hunter shiraz from 2011 – a cold, wet vintage in most of eastern Australia and associated with lacklustre, skinny wines. Scarborough 2011 doesn’t sit with the finest from the Hunter 2011 vintage. But it appeals for its medium body, modest alcohol content (13 per cent) and its rustic, savoury tannin and pleasantly tart finish.

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay 2013 $12.35–$15
Padthaway, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra and Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Wolf Blass Yellow Label range occupies the middle turf of the brand’s three colour coded segments – red label for generic blends, yellow label for varietals (chardonnay in this instance) and gold label for regional-varietal matches (for example, Barossa shiraz, Adelaide Hills chardonnay). For these big blends, the company draws fruit widely to achieve an acceptable quality to price ratio. Yellow Label chardonnay sits in the high bronze to silver medal standard as it presents pure melon and peach varietal flavour of great freshness, with a smooth texture and dry, clean finish.

Main Ridge Chardonnay 2012 $50–$55
Main Ridge vineyard, Mornington Peninsula, Victori
What a contrast there is between the Wolf Blass and Main Ridge chardonnays reviewed today. The former provides good varietal flavours, produced to the best standard possible at a set production cost. The latter, on the other hand, presents the best possible product Nat and Rosie White can coax from their vines, then polish in their winery. The exceptional vintage produced a wine of amazingly powerful flavours and luxurious texture – but in the very, fine, delicate Main Ridge style. This is a great Australian chardonnay.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 2 April 2014 in the Canberra Times