St Hallett Western Front Barossa Shiraz 2015 $14.30–$18
Japanese-owned Lion owns the Barossa’s St Hallett Winery and produces several outstanding regional shirazes. Western Front, made for Woolworths (Dan Murphy, BWS, Woolworths Liquor), sits in price between St Hallett Faith Shiraz ($17) and Gamekeepers Shiraz ($12) – two widely distributed St Hallett wines often discounted by retailers. Unlike its namesake, Western Front is designed never to be fought over. The name itself provides camouflage against direct price comparison for the simple reason that no one else stocks it. That’s a prime motive behind exclusive labels. The wine, however, provides absolutely delicious, ripe, juicy flavours with typically soft, easy Barossa tannins.

Chapel Hill The Vicar McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013 $61.75–$75
Only a very small proportion of all wines are suited for long-term keeping – whether for a memento of a special occasion, personal drinking pleasure or as a gift to a wine lover. Chapel Hill The Vicar offers that potential at a fair price considering its exceptional quality. The deep, crimson-rimmed colour suggests a wine of substance – an impression confirmed by the aroma and multi-layered palate. Powerful, fruity and savoury flavours mix with strong but smooth tannins in a harmonious wine that keeps luring the drinker back for another mouthful, despite its youth and power.

Jacob’s Creek Classic Chardonnay 2015 $7.50–$12
It’s late, you’ve been driving all day and there’s nowhere to eat in the small town but the local club. Choose a simple dish like steak and salad and you’ll be well nourished, if not excited. But what wine do you drink from a choice of unfamiliar club labels or Jacob’s Creek? The made-up labels seldom please. But Jacob’s Creek wines generally do the job nicely at a fair price. A recent encounter with Classic Chardonnay at a south coast club provided clear and melon- and peach-like varietal fruit flavour on a smooth, dry, medium-bodied palate.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2016
First published 29 May 2016 in the Canberra Times

Peter Lehmann Clancy’s Barossa Red Blend 2013 $11.40–$15
In the wine industry, new ownership or new marketing staff typically spells packaging changes, with the hope of increased sales. It seldom works, especially where the marketer shows little understanding of a brand’s underlying values. It came as no surprise therefore to see Peter Lehmann’s new owner, the Casella family, blast the publicity trumpets for its repackaging of the entry-level Clancy’s label. It seems to me, though, that the Barossa story comes second to the Banjo Patterson Clancy’s theme. However, the medium-bodied, soft wine behind the label offers easy drinking and fair value.

Zind-Humbrecht Terroirs d’Alsace Riesling 2011 $35–$46
On a cool night at Chairman and Yip’s new Barton home, a riesling from France’s Alsace region provided an interesting contrast to Australian styles. At five years the cork-sealed wine showed the deep gold colour of bottle age, but was otherwise fresh and lively with no sign of oxidation or cork taint. Typical of Alsace riesling, the wine’s distinctive, strong, ripe flavour came on a richly textured, slightly viscous palate with a firm, dry bite to the finish. It’s a unique and enjoyable style, suited to the Chairman’s richer dishes, but a little strong for the more delicate ones.

Mount Trio Porongurup Shiraz 2014 $22
The Porongurup range, a half-hour’s drive north of Albany, Western Australia, provides slightly cooler growing conditions than low lying areas in the vicinity – though both share the tug-of-war between hot continental air and cooler sea air to the south. The cooler conditions produce another subtle shade of wine flavours for the vast Great Southern region. Although Mount Trio shiraz weighs in at a hefty 14.5 per cent alcohol, it’s lively and fresh, laden with ripe-berry flavours and not as heavy on the palate as the alcohol level suggests. Bright fruit, smooth texture and soft tannins make for easy current drinking.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2016
First published  21 and 22 May 2016 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2016 – wine of the week
Florita vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
$13.90–$18
The first of the 2016 wines reviewed here comes from the Barry family’s historic Florita vineyard at Watervale, the Clare Valley’s southernmost sub-region. The late Jim Barry bought Florita from Lindemans in 1986. It had been source of many great, long-lived Lindemans and Leo Buring rieslings made by John Vickery from the 1960s. The new wine shows remarkable floral and citrus-like perfume – characters reflected on a fruity, brisk and thrilling dry palate. A modest outlay gives you a lot of drinking pleasure.

Hentley Farm The Stray Mongrel Red 2014
Hentley Farm vineyard, Seppeltsfield, Barossa Valley, South Australia
$26–$30
The Stray Mongrel combines two traditional Barossa red varieties, grenache and shiraz, with zinfandel. The stray in the pack is an early ripening, dark and tannic variety, originally from Croatia (where the oldest of its several names is tribidrag) but better known as Puglia’s primitivo or California’s zinfandel. The wine packs a lot of flavour and character, revealing the lively fruit and aroma of grenache, richness of shiraz and the distinctive grippy, drying tannins of the zinfandel. It’s quirky variation on a traditional Barossa theme.

Hentley Farm The Old Legend Grenache 2015
Hentley Farm vineyard, Seppeltsfield, Barossa Valley, South Australia
$62–$65
Whether in France’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape or the Barossa Valley, grenache generally finds itself blended with other varieties, notably shiraz and mourvedre. On its own it tends to give a strong confection-like character reminiscent of bubble gum. But we now see a number of excellent straight grenaches, including Hentley Farm’s, made by Andrew Quinn. Owner Keith Hentschke believes earlier picking, and a 60–90 maceration of the wine on skins, dumbs down the fruit a little. The result is a bright red wine, harmonising fruit with savoury, spicy and earthy characters. A backbone of fine tannins gives a satisfying grip to the finish.

Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Tahbilk vineyard, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
$17.10–$24
Tahbilk’s long-lived, medium bodied cabernet comes with a mother load of sturdy, grippy tannins that permeate the underlying fruit flavours. Though the sweetness of the underlying minty- and blackcurrant-like varietal flavours offsets the tannin, it remains a wine to tame with age or by serving with high-protein food. Pink, juicy lamb, for example, will strip away the tannin and expose the really lovely fruit at its heart. It offers exceptional quality for the price and has a proven ability to evolve deliciously over many years given cool, stable cellaring conditions.

Mount Trio Pinot Noir 2014
Mount Trio vineyard, Porongurup, Western Australia
$20–$22
The Porongurups Range is a granite knob rising from the landscape about half an hour’s drive north of Albany, Western Australia. In the late 19980s, husband and wife Gavin Berry and Gill Graham and partners planted vines there, some of the first in this particularly cool part of the vast Great Southern region. The couple’s pinot captures much of the aromatic, flavour and textural charm of the variety. Delicious, sweet fruit, a touch of savour, and a backbone of fine tannin lift this above many pinots in this price range.

Xanadu Stevens Road Chardonnay
Xanadu Stevens Road vineyard, Margaret River, Western Australia
$56–$70
Xanadu, the western arm of Rathbone Wine Group, makes several excellent chardonnays, ranging in price from the $14.40–$18 Next of Kin, through the $29.60–$37 Xanadu, to the $56–$70 Reserve and Stevens Road wines. Stevens Road comes from the best rows in a vineyard of that name. Quality is further refined by using only the best barrels in the final blend. Mouth watering and juicy, with dazzling acid cutting through grapefruit- and nectarine-like varietal flavours, it’s a wine to revel in now, though bottle age may add new layers to it.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2016
First published 17 and 18 May 2016 in the Canberra Times and ct app

Wily Trout Vineyard Canberra District Pinot Noir 2015 $30
Until recently Susan and Robert Bruce’s Wily Trout vineyard lived in the shadow of Poacher’s Pantry, the couple’s successful food outlet located on the same site. However, their son Will now runs the vineyard and oversees winemaking at Eden Road winery. He’s determined to lift the quality and profile of the wines, and plans a few surprises too – including a hop-infused sauvignon blanc, made jointly with BentSpoke brewery. Bruce’s 2015 pinot shows a fresh and fruity face of the variety, with smooth texture and fine, mouth-drying tannins. It’s not a pinotphiles pinot, but a lovely, moreish drink indeed.

Mount Trio Porongurup Riesling 2015 $22
The Porongurups Range is a granite knob rising from the landscape about half an hour’s drive north of Albany, Western Australia. In 1989, husband and wife Gavin Berry and Gill Graham and partners planted vines there, some of the first in this particularly cool part of the vast Great Southern region. The small operation made just 266 dozen bottles of this delicious riesling in the 2015 vintage. Riesling from the region can be shy when young, but this one leads with assertive, citrus-like varietal aromas and flavours. However, the palate remains delicate and bone-dry with tingly, refreshing acidity.

d’Arenberg McLaren Vale Footbolt Shiraz 2013 $13.95–$18
Time and again at tastings, bottles of McLaren Vale shiraz empty well ahead of their more delicate, cool-climate peers. People praise the latter, but drain the former. Why? It seems nothing pleases the senses more than a deep, dark red, rippling with earthy, ripe fruit flavours, backed by savour and tannin. Pleasingly, the pleasure remains in reach as even the modestly price d’Arenberg Footbolt delivers the true Vale experience. It’s ripe, rich, fruity, savoury and satisfyingly grippy, without being heavy or porty.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2016
First published 14 and 15 May 2016 in goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times