Monthly Archives: July 2012

Wine review — De Bortoli Windy Peak, Tar and Roses, Tim Adams, Coriole and Holm Oak

11 July 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

De Bortoli Windy Peak Shiraz 2010 $12–$14 – wine of the week
Heathcote, Victoria
Sometimes less is more. And that’s what makes three-star Windy Peak wine of the week. It isn’t over-oaked. It isn’t over extracted. It isn’t tricked up in any way as some cheaper wines can be. It simply delivers what it says on the label – shiraz from Heathcote, Victoria. We expect and get something from that regional-varietal combination: a medium-bodied dry red with bright, spicy, shiraz flavour and a soft but savoury bite of tannin – a satisfying wine to enjoy now. Sarah Fagan, from one of Cowra’s grape-growing families, makes the wine at De Bortoli’s Dixon Creek Winery, Yarra Valley, under tutelage of chief winemaker, Steve Webber.

Tar and Roses Tempranillo 2011 $18.99–$24
Heathcote and Alpine Valleys, Victoria
The 2010 vintage Tar and Roses showed the concentrated fruit and strong tannins of the season. The style shifts markedly in the cool 2011 vintage, emphasising bright, fresh fruit character, a fleshy but mid-weight palate and soft, though dry and persistent tannins. Winemaker Narelle King writes, “Despite the challenges of a wet 2011 vintage we are extremely happy with our 2011 tempranillo. An extra parcel of Heathcote young-vine fruit was included to complete the blend, filling out the mid palate with ripe red fruits”. Tar and Roses Heathcote Shiraz 2010, released with the tempranillo, shows the power and savouriness of 2010, in a fine-boned Heathcote way.

Tim Adams Cabernet Malbec 2007 $23–$25
Clare Valley, South Australia
Tim Adams served his winemaking apprenticeship under Mick Knappstein at Clare’s Leasingham Winery. Decades later he returned to buy the historic site from Constellation Wines. In the intervening years, though, Adams had established his own Clare Valley brand. And included the range is this blend of cabernet and malbec, inspired by Leasingham’s legendary Bin 56 Cabernet Malbec. It’s a full-bodied, tasty combination, as malbec fleshes out cabernet’s slightly hollow mid palate, inserting its own dark-berry flavours, floral aroma and abundant tannins. The extra few years’ bottle age makes it all the more satisfying.

Coriole Lloyd Reserve Shiraz 2009 $85
Coriole Vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia
Mark Lloyd makes this wine, dedicated to his father Hugh, from a block of shiraz planted in 1919. The old, deep-rooted, unirrigated vines produce wines of remarkable colour and flavour concentration. Despite its dense colour, powerful flavours and mouth-coating tannin, Lloyd Reserve remains approachable – a big, juicy, savoury, earthy, harmonious red of great individuality. It’s the sort of wine to savour in its own right – say with a chunk of Silo bread and nothing more. Grandeur needs affirmation, not company.

Holm Oak Arneis 2011 $25
Home Oak Vineyard, Tamar Valley, Tasmania
Piedmont’s arneis grape makes wine with what we might politely call a subtle flavour. This no doubt prompted winemaker Rebecca Duffy to fiddle around with it in the winery – leaving grape solids in the ferment, fermenting a portion with wild yeast in barrels, followed by malolactic fermentation. The resulting bone-dry, savoury white leads with the feral, leesy, yeast-derived aromas and flavours, with a more subtle kernel of melon-like fruit underneath. It’s a unique and pleasing dry white if you love ‘em dust dry and savoury.

Holm Oak Chardonnay 2011 $30
Holm Oak Vineyard, Tamar Valley, Tasmania
In 2007 Rebecca and Tim Duffy planted a hectare of chardonnay to two different clones of chardonnay – one for the “mineral and citrus” character it gives to wine, the other, from Canada, for its “floral and aromatic” character. In the cool 2011 vintage the combination leans more to grapefruit-like varietal flavours with a touch of peach. Fermentation in a mix of new (30 per cent) and older French oak barrels, and partial malolactic fermentation, added textural richness to what is an incredibly good wine from such young vines. It’s a delight to drink now, should age well for three or four years, conservatively, and contains just 12.7 per cent alcohol.

Staying independent in Ainslie

11 July 2012People, WineChris Shanahan

When IGA Ainslie’s Manuel Xyrakis moved his liquor section out of the supermarket to a separate store nearby, industry colleagues told him he was mad. Every supermarket in Canberra sells liquor, they said. You will lose sales.

But he didn’t. Sales increased by 10 per cent. He knew the risks – mainly of losing impulse sales and convenience – and “would’ve been happy to be even at first”, says Xyrakis. But the advantage to customers of a bigger range, more space and not queuing up at the checkout seem to outweigh the inconvenience of making separate grocery and liquor transactions.

Shifting the liquor to the separate Ainslie Cellars, though, is part of Xyrakis’s broader response to increasing competition. It’s a terrific example of an independent operator exploiting a great location and unique merchandising proposition to head off the increasingly powerful supermarket chains.

Coles and Woolworths achieved their dominance of the Australian grocery market largely at the expense of the independent sector. According to research company Planet Retail (cited on www.lifehacker.com.au), the two giants increased their combined market share from 34 per cent in 1975, to 46 per cent in 1985, 58 per cent in 1995, 74 per cent in 2005 and 78 per cent in 2009. Their share of the liquor market followed a similar trajectory – and some in the industry believe they now control around 80 per cent of Australia’s wine market.

With the majors continuing to expand – and Aldi and Costco joining the fight, each in its own limited way – the outlook for independent liquor retailers overall looks shaky. But as Manuel Xyrakis demonstrates, the smartest and best located can continue to thrive.

He relishes the battle and, indeed, says he simply has to expand in smart ways to head off increasing competition, the latest from the nearby Dickson shopping centre.

In February, ACT Deputy Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, announced that two new supermarkets were to be built there – Aldi and another operator, to be selected following expressions of interest.

Faced with that sort of competition, says Xyrakis, “we can’t just be another supermarket”. For some time he’d wanted to expand the liquor section and the range of fresh produce, including meat and deli items.

He says that about 16 years ago his sister, Irene Mihailakis, led the business into specialty food items after her son’s diagnosis with diabetes. The interest expanded to other special diets and Ainslie IGA became an early stockist of gluten-free food. It later moved into organically grown food and high quality produce in general – giving the store an appeal beyond mere convenience.

Xyrakis’s expansion plans remained on hold, however, until the nearby pharmacy relocated. As his family owned the vacated store – separated from the supermarket by a walkway to the rear car park – he seized the opportunity, gutting the building and fitting it out beautifully to a design by Frank Arnold of Quantum Ideas.

The design features some pretty smart local joinery, 127-year-old floor timbers from a Goulburn tannery, a tasting bar as a feature near the window and custom-built Italian lighting – with plenty of floor space for shoppers to move comfortably around the display shelves. It’s a very pleasant space for a pretty good range of liquor – especially in the beer, cider and wine areas.

At the official opening, Dr Edgar Riek, founder of Lake George Winery, recalled the early days of the original store. Back then, Chris Mihailakis, Xyrakis’s brother in law, looked after liquor and “he’d bug me for my wine”, said Riek.

Xyrakis said his parents, Nick and Alice, established the store in 1963. Around 1975 they bought the adjoining Goodways shop from Coles, expanded their store and in 1976 got their liquor licence. Chris Mihailakis focused on wine from the start.

Many years later Xyrakis and other Canberra supermarket owners formed Local Liquor, a buying group. The group now services all of NSW and southern Queensland and with over 300 liquor stores has the buying power independents like Xyrakis need to compete with Coles and Woolworths.

The group uses Metcash’s liquor distribution arm, ALM, for warehousing and logistics – enabling 24-hour turnaround from ordering to delivery via ALM’s Fyshwick warehouse.

Ainslie Cellars also maintains direct accounts with many wineries, including Canberra’s leading makers. The locals enjoy a solid representation on the shelves – and a dedicated tasting for a featured maker every week.

Xyrakis’s nephew, Keith Mihailakis, managed the Ainslie liquor section from 2006. He now runs the new store with Kate O’Leary, formerly of The Grape (Brisbane), Vintage Cellar and Negociants – the import and distribution arm of Robert Hill-Smith’s wine group.

Casella unveils new brews

11 July 2012Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Bland or blander seem to be the options. Winemaker Casella’s move into the beer market promised drinkers the perfect lager, based on an iPhone-based consumer survey in April.

Casella says 3,000 beer drinkers responded, giving “valuable information to Casella’s brew masters about preferred flavour profiles and tastes”. Noting two broad streams of opinion, the brewer made two lagers, Arvo Brew 34 and Arvo Brew 51, now released in mixed six-packs.

Brewer Andy Mitchell says Brew 34 targets drinkers who prefer a “hop-driven lager, with fruity aromas and subtle malt characters”, and describes Brew 51 as “a really easy-drinking lager style with less prominent hop character”.

Casella intends to brew only one style in future, based on consumer feedback through its website. To me, though, it’s a choice of which pleasant but me-too lager joins an already crowded and competitive market.

Arvo Brew 34 and Arvo Brew 51 mixed 330ml 6-pack $18.99
Casella’s two new brews offer minor variations on popular lager styles. Pale lemon-coloured Brewed 34 appeals for its freshness and light, crisp, delicately hopped finish. Without the same delicate hopping, Brew 51, fresh as it is, disappears almost without trace. They’re both perfectly sound beers. But where’s the excitement?

Penfolds, McWillams and Xanadu

8 July 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Penfolds Bin 311 Henty Chardonnay 2011 $40
Penfolds Bin 311 is partly a spin-off of the “white Grange” project of the early nineties that created Yattarna Chardonnay as the company’s flagship white. But Bin 311 also owes much to the Seppelt winemaking culture, in particular the Drumborg vineyard, established by Karl Seppelt in 1964. The vineyard, in Victoria’s very cool Henty region, near Portland, produces superb chardonnay. In the particularly cool 2011 vintage this chardonnay gives Bin 311 an intense, grapefruit-like varietal flavour and bracing, taut acid structure. Fermentation and maturation in older French-oak barrels fleshes the wine out nicely.

McWilliams Hanwood Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $8.55–$12
The label’s daggy, but the wine inside the bottle’s terrific – thanks to clever fruit sourcing and blending. For less than $9 on special, you get the ripe, cassis-like berry fruit flavours and fine but firm structure of good-quality cabernet sauvignon. It’s a multi-region blend, drawing excellent cabernet character from Coonawarra, South Australia, the largest component, backed by material from Hilltops, NSW, and Heathcote, Victoria. Fruit from the Riverina’s high-volume, low-cost vineyard helps keep the price down. The wine won a gold medal at the 2011 Sydney Royal Wine Show.

Xanadu Margaret River Next of Kin Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $18–$20
What more do you get by moving from the $10-ish McWilliams Hanwood cabernet to the $20 Next of Kin? Not double the quality – but you’ll certainly enjoy the shift in style and the greater finesse and brightness of the Margaret River wine. It’s a seductive drop, luring us in with the lovely, sweet perfume of its fruit. It then takes from one glass to another with the delicious brightness of the fruit on the palate and elegant, refined structure. Xanadu sources the fruit predominantly from Margaret River’s Walcliffe sub-region. Matured in French oak barrels, 30 per cent of them new.

Savour the Bins, but don’t bank on them

4 July 2012People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The once modestly priced Penfolds bin wines remain the foundation of many Australian cellars. Collectively, they underpin Australia’s wine auction system. And though the wines appear out of favour with many critics, the ripe, bold, multi-layered, oak-influenced style developed by Max Schubert in the 1950s continues to appeal to many drinkers.

But though they sell well and in volume at auction, the gap between retail and auction prices should alarm anyone viewing the wines as investments. I’ve raised this point several times in past columns, but if you’re after mature Penfolds reds, then you’re likely to find them at auction at substantially lower prices than the current releases.

That’s partly because sellers bought the wines at lower prices in the past, meaning that even if they’re at an apparent discount, the seller might still be in front. But the gap between current auction prices of recent vintages and retail pricing of this year’s releases, raises serious doubts the wine could ever give a return to buyers.

The wines are distinctive, brilliant and, with the exception of the drink-now Bin 23 Pinot Noir, built for long-term cellaring. But to illustrate the price risk, I’ve included Langton’s Auction’s most recent price for each style. The price is my estimated net cost to the buyer after adding buyer’s premium and GST to the hammer price.

Penfolds Bin 23 Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2011 $32–$40
Last auction sale: $28.75, 2009 vintage, 2012
A satisfying pinot, albeit a little off the Penfolds beaten path. The teasing, stalky character reveals whole-bunch fermentation – mainstream for pinot makers. But the chewy, tough-edged tannins seemed a world away from the highly polished Penfolds style. The cloudiness, too, zigged away from the normal pristine purity. An email to winemaker Peter Gago drew the immediate response, “The P/Noirs made at Magill are all cold-soaked, naturally fermented, and spend their maturation in barrique on lees … almost always bottled unfiltered, never fined. The cost of this ‘hands-off’, flavour-retentive approach is occasional turbidity”. I would call it cloudy but fine – a delicious drinking experience.

Penfolds Bin 138 Barossa Valley Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2010 $29.45–38
Last auction sale: $25.30, 2008 vintage, 2012
Grenache reveals itself in the bright, fruity aroma and buoyant palate, shiraz in the flesh and richness, and mourvedre in the spiciness and assertive tannins. It’s a generous, earthy and graceful wine with good cellaring potential.

Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2010 $29.45–$38
Last auction sale: $20.70, 2009 vintage, 2012
An exceptionally fragrant, silky and soft Bin 128, featuring, deep, concentrated, sweet berry flavours and layers of juicy fruit and oak tannins. The Coonawarra elegance will reveal itself increasingly as the wine ages. Classy.

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2009 $29.45–$38
Last auction sale: $24.15, 2008 vintage, 2012
A burlier shiraz than Bin 128, Bin 28 reveals rich, round ripe-cherry varietal flavours – a big mouthful of earthy shiraz supported by equally robust tannins. Should cellar well for a decade or two.

Penfolds Bin 150 Marananga Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009 $57–$75
Last auction sale: $90.85, 2008 vintage, 2012
Marananga, towards the western side of the Barossa, produces powerful shiraz, often making the grade for Grange. The quality of shiraz from the area prompted large-scale vineyard expansion there in the nineties, opening the way for Penfolds to produce a sub-regional wine, Bin 150, in 2008. The second vintage, matured in both French and American oak, is a powerful but graceful Barossa shiraz. The oak and fruit work beautifully together, the fruit always at the centre but enriched by the oak flavour and tannins. Note the healthy auction price for the only other vintage of Bin 150. Watch this wine.

Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $50.35–$65
Last auction sale: $36.80, 2009 vintage, 2012
Consistently since its introduction 1990, Bin 407 has represented the pure, ripe varietal flavour of cool-climate cabernet sauvignon – with the Penfolds stamp of firm structure, layers of fruit and tannin and a definite oak influence. It’s a multi-regional blend, usually based on material from South Australia’s Limestone Coast, particularly Coonawarra.

Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 2009 $56.99–$75
Last auction price: $47.15, 2008 vintage, 2012
Cabernet reveals itself in the aroma, flavour and elegant, firm structure. But shiraz shows its face, too, adding generosity to the palate. Neither variety dominates the powerful blend, with its layers of fruit, tannin and oak – a unique, potentially very long-lived wine, revealing nature in its beautiful grape flavours, and human ingenuity in the complex assembly of so many flavour and structural elements.

Wine review — Freeman, Soumah, Greywacke, A Retief, De Bortoli Windy Peak and McWilliams Hanwood

4 July 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Freeman Rondinella Corvina Secco 2008 $30
Freeman Vineyards, Hilltops, NSW
In 1999 Dr Brian Freeman established near Young several blocks of vineyards totalling 40 hectares. He included in the vineyard rondinella and corvina, the red varieties behind Verona’s famous red, Valpolicella, and its illustrious offshoot, Amarone, made from dried berries. A decade ago Freeman launched his own interpretation of the Amarone style, made from fermenting raisened grapes (dried in a neighbour’s prune dehydrator) with whole berries. Like the originals from Verona, the wine’s pale coloured but powerful and well removed in style from mainstream red drinking. The aroma’s earthy and savoury, with fungal and bitter cherry notes. These come through too on an elegantly structured palate with delicious, sweet and sour cherry-like flavours. The fruit sweetness quickly gives way to strong, savoury drying tannins.

Soumah Chardonnay 2011 $33–$35
Butcher family vineyard, Gruyere, Yarra Valley, Victoria
The Butcher family owns vineyards in the Gruyere-Coldstream sub-region of the Yarra Valley and created the acronym Soumah (south of the Maroondah Highway) as its brand name. Wines released under this label include Savarro (savagnin blanc), pinot noir, pinot grigio and shiraz. And the Butchers have plans to make nebbiolo and brachetto. The chardonnay sits at the delicate end of the varietal spectrum at just 12 per cent alcohol, perhaps reflecting the unusually cool 2011 vintage. The wine displays delicate grapefruit varietal flavours, pleasantly supported by spicy oak and the textural richness derived from barrel fermentation and maturation.

Greywacke Pinot Noir 2010 $45
Southern Valleys, principally Yarrum vineyard, Marlborough, New Zealand
Winemaker Kevin Judd took Marlborough to the world with the stunning wines he created for Cloudy Bay, pinot noir included. The same class reveals itself in Judd’s Greywacke wines. The latest pinot noir, a blend of components made from various clones, delivers beautifully ripe, cherry-like varietal character – tinged with the subtle stalky character of whole-bunch fermentation. The palate’s silky smooth and quite firm tannins provide the structure and finish to go with the deep, sweet fruit flavour.

A. Retief Shiraz 2009 $28
Winbirra vineyard, Gundagai, NSW
Winemaker Alex Retief sources grapes from growers in Canberra, Hilltops and Tumbarumba, but makes this wine from his parent’s vineyard near Wagga, in the Gundagai wine region. His parents planted the vineyard in 1997, it was certified organic in 2003 and biodynamic in 2005. Retief writes, “On what used to be quite compact hard ground, you can now dig up handfuls of rich brown soil that is teeming with soil”. Whatever they’re doing in the vineyard, they should keep doing as this wine reveals juicy, ripe and spicy fruit flavours layered with soft, easy-on-the gums tannin.

De Bortoli Windy Peak Cabernet Merlot 2010 $11.40–$14
De Bortoli vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
De Bortoli recently revamped its big-value Windy Peak range, brightening the labels and focusing on regional varietal wines linked to food suggestions – in this instance slow cooked garlic and rosemary lamb shanks (recipe on windypeak.com.au). It’s a brilliant wine at the price, featuring the sweet fragrance and delicate berry flavours of cool-grown cabernet sauvignon and merlot. The palate’s rich but not heavy, elegantly structured and a sensible 13 per cent alcohol. It’d be very easy to drink too much of it.

McWilliams Hanwood Estate Chardonnay 2009 $7.95–$12
Riverina, Tumbarumba, Hilltops and Hunter Valley, NSW
Alpine Valleys, Victoria; and Margaret River, Western Australia
Chardonnay sales must be slow at McWilliams. Why else would they be offering a three-year-old, drink-now commercial style? However, thanks to the screw cap and some pretty fancy fruit sourcing, the wine still drinks very well. Riverina fruit forms the base of the wine, but the other little bits and pieces, especially the ten per cent of the blend from Tumbarumba, give it the flavour intensity, structure and legs to hang in there. It’s a bright and fruity style, quite full, round and peachy, but not fat; and still with fresh, bright acidity. As I write Dan Murphy’s offer it at $7.95 each as part of a six bottle buy.

Beer and cider review — Mad Brewers and Old Mout

4 July 2012Beer review, CiderChris Shanahan

Mad Brewers Ginger Chops Alcoholic Ginger Beer 330m 4-pack $16.99
Mad Brewers’ delicious ginger beer contrasts in style to the full-bodied, alcoholic, malty Kiuchi reviewed on 6 June. This is a lighter bodied version (4.2 per cent alcohol), tempered further by the use of malted wheat. It’s light, fresh and dry with the tangy bite of ginger adding a little heat to the finish.

Old Mout Boysencider 750ml $10
Boysencider, from Nelson New Zealand, combines apple cider with boysenberry wine, hitting a wine-like eight per cent alcohol. Juicy berry flavours and a good dose of sugar wrestle with the extreme eye-scrunching, mouth-puckering tartness of seemingly unripe fruit. It’s uniquely sweet and sour but really very appealing in small quantities.

Savouring more of the hops spectrum

4 July 2012BeerChris Shanahan

In the old days in Australia, beer was beer. Hops provided bitterness, offsetting the body and sweetness of malt, and perhaps adding subtle aromas and flavours, too. But the rise of specialty beers means we can now enjoy a wide spectrum of hops aromas and flavours.

The diversity comes partly from the varieties of hops brewers use, but also from the brewing technique.

Traditionally, bittering hops were effectively cooked during boiling, a process that emphasises bitterness in the hops oils. But adding hops late during the boil (late hopping) carries more of the aromas and flavours through to the final product. You can see this used to good effect in the Cooper’s 150 Celebration Ale reviewed recently.

Dry hopping (adding hops during the fermentation rather than boil), captures even more of the plant’s flavours – demonstrated deliciously in the passionfruit-like character in the popular Little Creature’s Pale Ale.

Wine review — Zeppelin, Hewitson and Bleasdale

1 July 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Zeppelin Eden Valley Riesling 2010 $16–$20
Zeppelin wines are made by Barossa specialists Kym Teusner and Corey Ryan and distributed by McWilliams. Ryan made this wine and writes, “Sourced from a 25 year old, low yielding, dry grown vineyard. Hand picked and then whole bunch pressed with only the lowest yielding free run juice used”. This translates in the very cool 2011 vintage to an intensely flavoured but delicate riesling with a bracing spine of acidity. The acidity accentuates the lemony varietal flavour, dries out the finish and probably guarantees a good cellaring life for the wine.

Hewitson McLaren Vale The Mad Hatter Shiraz 2010 $70
Hewitson Old Garden Barossa Valley Mourvedre 2010 $110
These are tiny production wines from old vineyards located in McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley, both matured in all-new oak carefully (and successfully) selected to match the fruit. The Mad Hatter comes from a very old vineyard at Blewitt Springs, and Old Garden from a Barossa vineyard planted in 1853. Winemaker Dean Hewitson believes these to be the oldest mourvedre vines in the world. Both are great and unique wines, expressing the fruit flavours of their vineyards, enhanced and not overwhelmed by all the new oak.

Bleasdale Langhorne Creek Uncle Dick’s Malbec 2010 $99 dozen
Bleasdale channels bits and pieces of its substantial and diverse production into the Uncle Dick’s label, created especially for its online wine club. This is good news for drinkers because the wines are very good but cheaper than the mainstream Bleasdale label. Malbec – a red variety the Langhorne Creek region does particularly well – appeals for its rich, ripe, plummy flavours and firm but not hard tannins. It’s a little different, but easy to love and very cheap at $99 a dozen – available only through the cellar door.