Domain Day Mount Crawford One Serious Riesling 2008 $20
Search ‘Mount Crawford South Australia’ on Google Earth and you’ll see that it’s in the hilly country (450 metres altitude) to the east and slightly south of the southern Barossa town of Lyndoch. It just scrapes into the Barossa boundary, but has a significantly cooler climate than the Barossa, or even the elevated Eden Valley, immediately to Mount Crawford’s north and forming the Barossa’s eastern flank. The cool location shapes Robin Day’s wines, including his deliciously fine, intense riesling – a style consistent with the taut, lowish-alcohol, bone-dry end of the Eden Valley spectrum. If serious rieslings put a grin on your face, then this one’s serious.
Domain Day One Serious Sangiovese 2005, One Serious Pinot Noir 2005, $28
Now flip from Google Earth to domainday.com.au and check what grape varieties Robin Day grows – riesling, garganega, viognier, pinot noir, lagrein, sangiovese, saperavi, merlot, nebbiolo and sagrantino. A few old friends make the list, but it’s made up largely of Robin’s own eclectic mix, selected across almost forty years of travel and winemaking. The sangiovese’s notably bolder than most we see in Australia, but it’s still medium bodied, featuring rich, savoury flavours with a touch of oak plumping up the mid palate. The pinot belies its pale colour with a full, ripe, savoury, red-wine palate and a kiss of sweet oak. These are complex, interesting wines.
Domain Day One Serious ‘L’ Lagrein 2005, One Serious ‘S ‘Saparavi 2005 $28
Robin describes lagrein as a ‘great surprise hiding away in the north of Italy among all those savoury, meaty Italian reds’. It’s deeply coloured, still crimson rimmed at four years with bright, juicy berry flavours and layers of soft tannins. It’s easy to love, teasingly familiar, but not quite like any of our known wine flavours and textures. Saparavi, says Day, is the main red variety of the 500 natives grown in Georgia, the probable cradle of grape cultivation. It’s a big, deep, purple-rimmed, sweet-fruited (but dry) drop – definitely serious – but bright, fresh and lively, finishing with a lovely wave of very, very serious tannins.
Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009