Yearly Archives: 2011

Wine review — Shingleback, Geoff Merrill, Peppertree, Tyrrell’s and Pio Cesare

18 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The Gate by Shingleback Shiraz 2006 $30–$35
McLaren Vale, South Australia
The bling-laden label raises expectations – four gold and five silver medals from wine shows around the world. Pull the cork, thankfully no cork taint, pour the wine and instant joy. This is beautiful McLaren Vale shiraz, grown on the Davey family’s Shingleback vineyard, made in small, open fermenters and matured in a mix of new and one-year-old American and French oak hogsheads. It’s full bodied and at five years combines layers of vibrant varietal berry flavours with fine tannin, the unique “winey” character of bottle age and a deep, satisfying savouriness. Was the first bottle emptied at a recent tasting – the ultimate review.

Geoff Merrill Cilento Sangiovese 2005 $27
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Generally it’s only the big-ticket wines released with bottle age. But here we have a modestly priced, very attractive six-year-old from veteran McLaren Vale winemaker, Geoff Merrill. Geoff writes that the wine spent three years in three and four year old American oak puncheons – it’s therefore had another three years mellowing in bottle. It’s Australian in style – meaning there’s more upfront sweet fruit than you see in its Italian sangiovese counterparts. But there’s a deep savouriness, tart acidity and tight tannic structure setting it apart from other varieties. It’s named after Merrill’s Italian great grandfather, Joseph Cilento.

Peppertree Venus Block Reserve Chardonnay 2010 $30
Orange, New South Wales
Canberra-raised winemaker Jim Chatto rates 2010 “the best yet” from Peppertree’s Venus block vineyard at Orange. This is what good modern chardonnay is all about – grown in a climate cool enough to produce intense nectarine- and fig-like varietal flavour and high acidity. The intense, fine fruit and acidity drive the wine, easily carrying the flavours and textures woven in during oak fermentation and maturation on spent yeast cells. That combination of bright fruit flavours and barrel complexity, held together by a tingly spine of acidity, gives Peppertree 2010 tremendous appeal. Chardonnay doubters should try this for real drinking excitement.

Tyrrell’s Wine Single Vineyard Shiraz 2008 $27–$38.50
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
During the Hunter’s disastrous 2008 vintage, Tyrrell’s bought eight tonnes of shiraz from Barton Estate, Murrumbateman. They trucked the grapes to the Hunter, made the wine and matured it in new 2,800-litre French oak casks. The wine turned out beautifully, winning a gold medal and trophy at last year’s National Wine Show, Canberra. In a recent masked tasting the Tyrrell’s wine and two other Canberra shirazes, Collector Reserve 2009 and Clonakilla O’Riada 2009, showed their class. The 2009s topped my scoresheet, but the Tyrrell’s rated highly, too, with its vibrant fruit, and tight, spicy elegant palate.

Pio Cesare Il Nebbio 2009 $33–$44
Langhe, Piedmont, Italy
Pio Cesare, based in Alba, Piedmont, owns about 50 hectares of vines in key appellations, including Barolo and Barbaresco, source of perhaps Italy’s greatest red wines, made from the nebbiolo variety. But the Pio Cesare family also offers a fresh, fruity (and less expensive) face of nebbiolo in Il Nebbio. Early picking, carbonic maceration, low-temperature fermentation in stainless steel and bottling after only few months in the steel tanks, captures the variety’s vitality. The alluring, fruity aromatics are matched by a juicy, jube-like fruity palate – for a brief and lovely second before nebbiolo’s legendary firm tannins move in. These rule out Il Nebbio as a drink-alone wine. But with food the tannins vanish and the delicious fruit rules.

Kendell’s estate-grown cider from Orange

18 May 2011Cider, PeopleChris Shanahan

The rapidly growing cider market includes a proliferation of niche brands and an increased demand for products made from fresh apples and pears – not juice and sugar.

At nearby Orange, Gail and James Kendell, adopted a winery-like approach, growing and making all of their product on site.

James Kendell says they’ve planted a wide range of English heritage cider apple varieties, including Kingston Blacks. The special varieties, he says, produce better cider than eating varieties partly because of their distinctive flavours but also because they contain skin tannins and high natural acidity – important components in cider’s flavour and structure.

The diversity, he says, allows him to produce a range of ciders (see www.smallacrescyder.com.au) based on traditional English styles. The still Somerset style reviewed today, for example, combines 13 apple varieties in the full and delicious west-country style.

Beer and cider review — Small Acres, Daleside and Westons,

18 May 2011Beer review, CiderChris Shanahan

Small Acres Somerset Still Cyder (Orange, New South Wales) 750ml $16
This delicious cider comes from Gail and James Kendall’s property at Orange. James says they grow traditional English heritage cider varieties on the property and make the cider on site from fresh-picked apples. Somerset Still, says James, approximates England’s west country style. It’s made from 13 different varieties, pulped, pressed through cloth into stainless steel vats and fermented dry using an aromatic white wine yeast. The result is just lovely – a still, earthy, slightly grippy cider, unquestionably made from apples, and finishing with fresh, natural acidity.

Daleside Old Leg Over Yorkshire Beer 500ml $8.20
Gentle sweet fruity, malt aroma leads the away into Daleside – flavours that continue on the lively, rich, balanced palate. A touch of malted wheat injects its own briskness, independent of the hops bitterness and bite that that subtly finish off this delicious, one-more-glass Yorkshire ale.

Westons Premium Organic Pear Cider 500ml $7.60
The cliché-riddled website reveals little about cider growing or making. The cider, however, is wet and refreshing – not as crystal clear in its peariness, nor as delicate, as the best Norman versions across the Channel, but solid, rich, refreshingly low on gas and finishing with keen, tart acidity.

Wine review – John Duval and Yellowtail

15 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

John Duval Plexus
Barossa Valley Marsanne Roussanne Viognier 2010 $30
Barossa vignerons face a challenge making whites to compete with popular varieties, like sauvignon blanc and chardonnay from much cooler regions. The Barossa succeeds on a limited scale with semillon, and the slightly cooler Eden Valley, to the east, makes wonderful riesling. Rather than trying to emulate cool area wines, John Duval sets out “to build structure and texture, rather than just acid crispness”. His new blend, partly matured and aged in mainly old oak, achieves that deliciously. Its pleasant, citrusy aroma leads to a soft, tasty, savoury, medium-bodied palate with a gentle texture and fresh but not acidic finish.

John Duval Plexus
Barossa Valley Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre 2009 $37–$39
Former Penfolds Grange maker, John Duval, shows his great mastery of fruit selection, winemaking and blending in this beautiful red. It’s a blend of old-vine shiraz (48 per cent) from Krondorf and Marananga, grenache (31 per cent) from old bush vines in Stockwell and Krondorf and mourvedre (21 per cent), some vines more than 100 years old, in Light Pass and Krondorf. It’s appealingly aromatic – led by the grenache – and vibrantly fruity, savoury and spicy on the palate, finishing with delicious ripe berry flavours and soft, fine tannins. It’s a wonderful, harmonious, satisfying drink – with the structure and depth to age well.

Yellow Tail 2010 vintage reds $8.55–$10

Pinot Noir
Merlot
Shiraz 2010
Cabernet Sauvignon

The Casella family’s legendary Yellow Tail took America by storm some time back, selling millions of cases there every year. It started as an adventure, using an off-the-shelf label from Barbara Harkness design, Adelaide, then succeeded beyond anyone’s maddest guess. Amazingly, the Casella’s funded the massive expansion and retained control of a business that focuses squarely on the business end of wine. The winemaking aims at capturing flawless, ripe, friendly, fruity wines on a very large scale, and succeeds – particularly with the full, soft shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. They’re decent wines at a fair price.

Lark Hill triumphs in difficult vintage

11 May 2011People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

In a vintage plagued by mildew and botrytis outbreaks, biodynamic Lark Hill, like several traditionally managed Canberra vineyards, overcame the vine diseases and ultimately harvested good quantities of healthy grapes.

During our post-vintage visit to Lark Hill, David and Sue Carpenter and son Chris seem relaxed, perhaps relieved to have all the good stuff bubbling away in the winery. There’s a fair bit of it, too, says David Carpenter, estimating a yield of about six tonnes a hectare – double 2009’s crop and significantly up on 2010. It’s a wonderful outcome for a vineyard at 860 metres in a cool, wet season.

The fight against disease began early, says David. In winter 2010 Australian grape growers had been warned to expect a cool, wet spring and summer – ideal conditions for mildew – “so we could see it coming”, says David, “and commenced a protective regime”.

That meant spraying before outbreaks of mildew, beginning very early in the season with cupric oxide (permitted in biodynamic farming). “By doing it early we used only a little bit of spray on a small target”, says David. Later in the season sprays included a canola base with tee tree and, after fruiting, copper based spray followed by a biodynamic preparation aimed at building up natural predators.

While spraying can kill mildew spoors, a long-term regime aims at building healthy soils and strong, resistant plants – based on “spraying the vineyard with various preparations and endless involvement with deep composting”.

Even in traditional viticulture “spraying makes up only about 20 per cent of the arsenal against mildew – the rest’s vineyard management”, says David. He’s referring to practices like shoot and leaf thinning and hedging vines to maximise air circulation and allow penetration of sunlight.

The Carpenters say their commitment to biodynamics began at a conference in 2003 at Beechworth. Sue recalls “lots of arms folded tightly across chests”, theirs included, at the beginning, but a rush to sign up towards the end – sparked largely by a visit to Julian Castagna’s magnificent vineyard.

In their current newsletter, the Carpenters write, “from inception, we avoided insecticides and steered a careful path utilising biological controls wherever possible, but it is in the last eight years that we have fully entered the totally biodynamic regime”.

Biodynamics is sort of like organics with the added principles espoused by Rudolph Steiner. This includes the use of seemingly mysterious biodynamic preparations, numbered from 500 to 508, and adherence to the lunar calendar – practices, write the Carpenters, that some “regard with the deepest suspicion”. They add, “we assure you our attire has not progressed to sandals and loin cloths”.

However, a big part of biodynamics, certainly as practised by the Carpenters, appears to be giving tremendous attention to care of the land and vines. Who can argue against composting, deep mulching and keeping potentially hazardous chemicals out of the environment.

The more astrological components of biodynamics, such as planting, harvesting and racking wine by phases of the moon draws derision and satire from some quarters. And there’s much scepticism regarding the 500-series preparations – particularly regarding the legendary the cow horn full of dung – sometimes scoffed at as a belief in channelling cosmic forces.

But even scientists like the Carpenters have to stick with the Steiner precepts to be accredited as biodynamic producers – which they have been from vintage 2008.

They explain, for example, that the cow horn of dung isn’t about channelling cosmic or any other forces. It’s the beginning of breeding program for useful bacteria and fungal spores. It’s the base for the “500” preparation. Each autumn they fill the horns with cow dung, seal them with clay and bury them in shallow pits on beds of compost.

In spring they dig up the horns and use the dung as a starter culture in warm rainwater – adding 50 grams to every 200 litres and aerating it. The theory is that at around body temperature the bacteria and spores breed rapidly. The Carpenters then spray the mix around the vineyard where the microbes fix nitrogen in the soil and spores stimulate growth of fungi that enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the vines.

Whatever we make of the more arcane elements of biodynamics, the Lark Hill vineyard looks a treat and is delivering probably the best wines since the Carpenters began planting it in 1978.

Across the years they’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. As a result, they’ve pared the vineyard back to the proven varieties, riesling, chardonnay and pinot noir. And following a suggestion from Jancis Robinson, a visit to Austria tasting gruner veltliner – and the fortuitous discovery of two vines of the variety in Tasmania – propagated a thousand vines and planted them in 2006.

Gruner veltliner, say the Carpenters gives them a high-quality white that sits in style somewhere between the delicacy of riesling and opulence of chardonnay.

Like all of their table wines, bar riesling, it’s fermented by indigenous yeasts. Unfortunately the sensational 2010 sold out recently. But, says Chris Carpenter, the 2011 (still a lovely, sweet, acidic juice when I visited) will be released around October.

Wine review — Lark Hill, Red Knot by Shingleback, John Duval and Pewsey Vale

11 May 2011Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Lark Hill Chardonnay 2008 $35
Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, New South Wales
If Lark Hill makes chardonnay this good in a warm year, then we’ve much to look forward to in the 2011, now bubbling away in barrels at the winery. At three years the 2008 seems barely to have begun life, it’s so vibrant, youthful and alive with juicy, ripe varietal flavour. The palate has breadth, depth and rich texture – attributable, says winemaker Chris Carpenter, to glycerol from an indigenous yeast fermentation and extended contact with yeast lees after fermentation. High natural acidity, however, tightens the structure and, in combination with the pure, intense fruit flavour, suggests a long, graceful evolution with bottle age.

Lark Hill Pinot Noir 2008 $35
Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, New South Wales
It’s been a long time between drinks, but Lark Hill seems to be nailing pinot noir again. On the Chateau Shanahan tasting bench recently the 2008 (for release in June) and 2010 (for release in June 2012 as there’s no 2009), drank well for days. The delicate, refined 2010, with its distinctive tight tannin structure, appealed most. But the darker, chunkier 2008 also rated well. It’s far removed from Australia’s generally more aromatic pinots, featuring instead earthy, savoury notes and quite firm (but fine) tannins. The more we drank it, the more we liked it. It’s pushing up to four-star pinot quality – and the 2010s already there.

Red Knot by Shingleback Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $10.45–$14.99
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Red Knot Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Davey family’s Shingleback vineyard, McLaren Vale, evokes words like ripe, juicy, fruity, varietal and soft – a bright, fresh, flavoursome, lovable, red made to enjoy now. But it’s a bit more than that too – a great example of the sophistication of modern Australian winemaking. Why? Despite the low price it’s not propped up by over-extraction, over oaking or over-ripeness as we used to see. It’s a graceful, lovely, modestly priced wine, based on fruit quality not winemaking tricks.

John Duval Entity Shiraz 2009 $46–$48
Krondorf, Ebenezer, Tanunda and Eden Valley, Barossa Zone, South Australia
What comes after making Grange? John Duval faced that question a few years back after stepping down from the top winemaking job at Penfolds. Thankfully he stayed put in the Barossa making wonderful wines like “Entity”. It’s at the elegant end of the Barossa shiraz spectrum – partly due to inclusion of material from the higher, cooler Eden Valley (part of the Barossa zone) and partly due to a season noted for fragrant, “pretty” reds. Matured in a mix of old and new fine-grained French hogsheads, Entity presents a fragrant, medium bodied, smooth, spicy and savoury face of Barossa shiraz.

John Duval Eligo Shiraz 2008 $105
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
John Duval doesn’t reveal precise vineyard locations for Eligo, just that it’s sourced from “some excellent vineyards in the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley regions”. But the wine speaks for itself. It’s a more powerful expression of Barossa shiraz than Entity, darker in colour, matured longer in barrel and with more new oak (80 per cent versus 39 per cent). It’s a beautiful, big but graceful wine, deeply coloured but not opaque. It’s saturated with ripe, blueberry-like varietal shiraz, cut through with savoury, spicy oak – the flavours rapidly merging together. The deep, sweet fruit flavours linger on, layered with fruit and oak tannins. Be in no rush to drink this.

Pewsey Vale Riesling 2010 $14.99–$22.99
Pewsey Vale Vineyard, Eden Valley, South Australia
It won’t be long before the 2011 rieslings trickle into the market. But if you’re after absolutely outstanding drinking right now, mop up the rest of Pewsey Vale’s extraordinarily delicious 2010. It’s widely discounted, as low as $14.99, but more commonly to around $15–$16 (though you can pay more if you want). It’s from the Hill-Smith family’s 50-hectare Pewsey Vale vineyard, located on the edge of the Eden Valley. Louisa Rose makes the wine just a few kilometres down the hill at the Yalumba Winery, Angaston, centre of the Hill-Smith wine operations.

Beer review — Samuel Smith and Weihenstephaner

11 May 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery Pale Ale 550ml $8.50
Smith’s unique ale is brewed in old, shallow square stone vats at Tadcaster, England. It entices with a warm, sweet, fruity-malty aroma, seasoned with herbal hops. The smooth, rich palate matches the aroma and because it’s only lightly carbonated the luxurious malt flavour, with its subtle, bitter, hops edge, remains at centre stage. Yum.

Weihenstephaner Korbinian Dunkles Starkbier 500ml $7.90
This is a strong (7.4 per cent alcohol), very malty specialty beer from Bavaria’s ancient Weihenstephan Brewery. The colour’s dark tan, bordering on black, and the opulent, sweet, caramel-and-malt palate, with its wine-like smoothness, reveals wonderful complexity at around 10 degrees. Hops bitterness balances out a unique, big, graceful beer.

Wine review — Wallaroo, Eden Road and Vasse Felix

8 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Wallaroo Wines Canberra District Riesling 2009 $20
Wallaroo Vineyard, Hall, belongs to ABC Europe correspondent Philip Williams and family. It’s a near neighbour of Brindabella Hills Winery, where Roger Harris makes the wine. We happened on the 2009 at Taj Agra Indian Restaurant, Dickson, over Easter. What a great discovery – especially at $27, a modest mark up on the $20 cellar door price. It’s a really delicious, racy young riesling with probably years of good drinking still in it. At present it’s lemony, brisk and dry, with deep, pure riesling flavour and still with the austerity of youth. It’s an outstanding wine.

Eden Road Wines

Canberra District Riesling 2010 $21
Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2008 $45

Eden Road Wines, established in 2006, leased Kamberra Winery, Watson, from the Elvin Group until its recent purchase of Doonkuna Estate, Murrumbateman. Winemaker Nick Spencer makes wines from Canberra and surrounding districts, focusing on regional varietal specialties. Here we see the strength of Canberra riesling and Tumbarumba chardonnay, made in Spencer’s distinctive taut, slow evolving style. It all starts with grape selection of course. The pure, lean, acidic riesling is about as tight and austere as they come. Over time the lovely varietal flavour unwinds, suggesting long-term cellaring potential. Similarly the complex, three-year old chardonnay is still slowly revealing itself.

Vasse Felix Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2009 $18–$25
On a Margaret River tour late last year, Vasse Felix’s wines pushed the excitement button right across the range, from their cheaper products to the top of the line “Heytesbury” label. Their mid-price cabernet merlot, made by Virginia Wilcock, offers a pure, elegant, drink-now expression of the region’s great red specialty. The colour’s limpid and vibrant, with the aroma and palate delivering vivid, fresh berry character. There’s an irresistible juiciness to the fruit flavour. But this is cabernet, after all, and fine tannins cut through the sweet fruit to complete the red-wine equation.

Canberra’s Eden Road buys Doonkuna Estate

4 May 2011People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Last week Chris Coffman’s Eden Road Wines took over Doonkuna Estate, one of Canberra’s oldest vineyards. The purchase lands Eden Road plum in Murrumbateman’s reputation-making shiraz and riesling belt – giving the vineyard perhaps its best hope in nearly forty years.

Doonkuna’s history of hope, death and almost making it, began in 1972 when Wing Commander Harvey Smith established the first vines. Smith sold the property to Sir Brian and Lady Jane Murray in 1978. The Murray’s built a winery in 1980 and made their first estate-grown wines in 1981.

But the Murray’s tenure, too, proved comparatively short, and interrupted by Sir Brian’s term as Governor of Victoria. After he died in 1991, Lady Janet continued the business for a time, but in 1996 sold to pathologist, Dr Barry Moran and wife Maureen.

With great energy and vision, Moran and family expanded the vineyard sixfold and built a new winery and cellar door. Despite these efforts, however, Doonkuna’s wines still lagged the quality of Canberra’s best when Moran died in 2009.

But Eden Road winemaker Nick Spencer sees great potential in the vineyard, located on granite soils, similar to those at Clonakilla and other proven sites nearby.

“We always had a long-term plan to look for a vineyard and build a winery in the district”, he says. And when Doonkuna came on the market it proved almost a perfect fit.

It’s in a plum location, has mature vines and there’s a well-equipped winery with capacity to process around 500 tonnes of grapes (equivalent to around 35 thousand dozen bottles).

“There’s something exciting about Murrumbateman in general”, says Spencer. “It’s a special feeling walking up and down rows of vines every day, getting to know them intimately. It helps quality and it’s an inspiration. We need to have a home and it’s very exciting having our own patch of soil and trying to express a sense of place”.

Even before last week’s settlement, Eden Road had begun moving wine barrels from its old home in Elvin Group’s Kamberra complex, Watson, to Doonkuna. But the main game, once they’ve moved the tanks of bulk wine, will be in restructuring the vineyard.

Spencer expects to halve the current plantings of around 14 hectares to around seven or eight, “focusing almost entirely on shiraz and riesling, with a touch of viognier”.

The half that’s coming out lies in a frost hollow, so nothing can save them. But the vines, many of them mature, are in generally in good shape. Spencer expects in reshaping the vineyard to graft rather than replant, especially among the older vines.

Though he expects to commence vineyard work this winter, Spencers says they’ll look carefully at the whole vineyard before restructuring.

Even with its own vineyard, though, Eden Road intends to continue sourcing grapes from growers in Canberra and surrounding regions. Spencer sees great excitement in material from Canberra, Hilltops, Tumbarumba and the Southern Highlands.

Though Hardys left the area five years ago, he says they left two lasting legacies: vines planted by numerous growers, originally to meet Hardy’s needs; and grape growing know-how as they taught growers how to manage vineyards for wine production. He adds that as these vines mature, they’re contribution to a huge improvement in local wine quality.

And while shiraz and riesling remain the main game in Canberra, he points to the white viognier as an important niche variety. Small amounts co-fermented with shiraz contribute to fragrance and structure.

But he says, “Canberra is an exciting area for viognier. Here you can pick it early while the acid’s still high and it still has varietal flavour – this is special. It means you can make nice tight wines”. Elsewhere, he says, it tends to deliver flavour at high sugar levels, meaning big, soft, sometimes oily wines.

And Tumbarumba he singles out for two varieties, chardonnay and pinot noir. The area already enjoys a strong and growing reputation for taut, long-lived table wines made from chardonnay. But pinot has been principally grown for sparkling. He believes this is changing.

Spencer attributes the big price difference between Tumbarumba chardonnay and pinot noir to the earlier recognition of chardonnay as a table wine variety.

This probably dates back to Southcorp’s “white Grange” project, to make the best white it could from whatever variety or region, and a similar quest by Hardy’s with its Eileen Hardy chardonnay. Both companies included Tumbarumba chardonnay in their searches.

But Spencer believes growing demand for pinot noir will see Tumbarumba emerge as an outstanding region as growers reduce yields and change overall management in return for higher prices. The wines, he believes, will be become more concentrated and complex but “remain light and graceful and feminine”.

The beautiful wines we’ve seen from Eden Road to date suggests that Doonkuna’s vines will, at last, produce wines up there with the region’s best. And they’ll be accompanied by others from surrounding areas.

Wine review — The Islander Estate Vineyards, Port Phillip Estate, Chalmers, Eden Road and Wirra Wirra

4 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The Islander Estate Vineyards “The Investigator” 2005 $60
Kangaroo Island, South Australian
In 2000 French winemaker Jacques Luton staked a claim on Kangaroo Island –198 years after its discovery by Matthew Flinders and circumnavigation by French Captain Nicholas Baudin. Magnanimously, Luton named his flagship wine The Investigator, after Flinders’ ship. The flagship wine, however, salutes south-western France, Bordeaux in particular. Made principally from cabernet franc (with a dash of sangiovese), The Investigator presents a ripe, fine-boned face of this fragrant variety. There’s a ghost of Bordeaux’s St Emilion in the aroma and flavour, but a sunny Australian smile, tempered by a faint Gallic leafiness, on the delicious palate. It’s a unique, beautiful wine, destined for five-star status as the vines mature and the wine gain greater length.

Port Phillip Estate Quartier Arneis 2010 $23–$26
Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Downing platters of succulent oysters at Lake Conjola, we moved from the lovely, austere Simmonet-Febvre Petit Chablis ($19) to Sandro Mosele’s arneis. The variety originates in Piedmont, Italy, where it makes full bodied dry white wines. Mosele’s Mornington version, sourced from a neighbouring vineyard at Red Hill, had the succulence, stunning freshness and minerally dryness to match our still-living oysters. We lingered on it afterwards, too, savouring its fresh, crunchy texture. What a lovely and different drop it is – one to enjoy to the hilt right now. Move onto the 2011 as soon as it’s released.

Port Phillip Estate Pinot Noir 2009 $35.15–$38
Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Winemaker Sandro Mosele writes that a freakish, week long heat wave in February 2009 scorched and shrivelled grapes on the western side of the estate’s pinot vines. The grapes dropped off, reducing yields by around 50 per cent, but leaving a healthy crop to mature in the subsequent benign conditions. The resulting wine reveals fragrant, ripe, varietal aromas, reminiscent of cherry. The medium bodied palate builds in interest as you sip through the bottle, the underlying ripe, vibrant varietal flavour in the grip of firm, fine tannins – setting it apart from many softer Australian styles.

Chalmers Vermentino 2010 $20–$24
Murray Darling, New South Wales
Many Australian vignerons seem hopeful that vermentino, a major variety on the coasts of Liguria, Sardinia, Tuscany and Corsica, might deliver bright fresh flavours in Australia’s warm growing regions. The Chalmers family cultivate many of these alternative varieties and throw up quite a challenge to our palates with the 2010 vermentino. Wild-yeast fermented on grape solids, it reveals probably as much about the winemaking as it does of the variety. Leesy, rustic characters push strongly through a savoury dry white that’s far removed from our usual fare. It’s idiosyncratic, for sure – meaning you’ll either love it or hate it.

Eden Road Shiraz 2009 $45
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
Eden Road’s flagship red sits at the very taut, savoury, firm end of the fine-boned Canberra spectrum. Winemaker Nick Spencer sources his fruit from Murrumbateman (with a splash from Hilltops), aiming for what he calls “a structural style, with gravelly tannins plus perfume”. He says the 2009 shirazes appeared powerful and opulent at bottling (usually this knocks the fruit out for a time) but “have closed up now” – suggesting they’ll evolve well. Eden Road fits this “closed up” description – starting savoury and firm when first poured then, over time, revealing marvellously complex, aromatic characters with a deep, sweet core of fruit. This is knocking on five stars.

Wirra Wirra Catapult Shiraz 2009 $20–$22
McLaren Vale, South Australia
This is a distinctive style of McLaren Vale shiraz, focussing on riotously vibrant, in-your-face fruit aromas and flavours. It’s deeply coloured and the aroma lures with its musky, floral high notes. The palate is juicy, plush and chewy with the vibrancy suggested by the floral aroma, and flavours akin to ripe, black cherries. Layers of tannin remind us this is red wine, not fruit juice. The distinctive buoyancy and aromatic high notes probably arise from a small amount of the white viognier in the blend.