Monthly Archives: September 2012

Apple isle cider style

12 September 2012CiderChris Shanahan

The two ciders reviewed today, like the Adelaide Hills products reviewed last week, show the breadth of the craft cider movement in Australia – a movement intent on using natural production techniques and locally grown apples and pears.

The Two Metre Tall Company, owned by Ashley and Jane Huntington, originally brewed real ale but moved to cider production when they discovered the Griggs family growing the traditional English apple cider variety, sturmer pippin, in the Huon Valley.

Ashley, formerly a winemaker for BRL Hardy in France’s Languedoc region, makes the ciders as well as beer from locally grown grains and hops.

The Cidery, located at Bridgetown, Western Australia, makes juice and a range of ciders from apples grown in the long-established Blackwood Valley orchard region.

The idiosyncratic ciders below contrast dramatically in style – the first revealing subtle, pure fruit flavour; the second the grungy characters of prolonged ageing.

The Two Metre Tall Company Farmhouse Dry Cider 500ml $9.90
Ashley Huntington makes this dry, 7.5 per cent, bottle-fermented cider from the traditional English variety, sturmer pippin, grown by the Griggs family in the Huon Valley. The alcohol disappears without trace in a pleasantly tart, dry palate. The fresh, natural apple acidity accentuates the subtle, fresh, delicate apple flavour.

The Cidery Scudamore’s Real Scrumpy Cider 330ml $5.00
The Cidery makes its ciders from pink lady apples grown in Western Australia’s Blackmore Valley. They add no sugar, water, preservative, concentrate or flavour. Their scrumpy storms deliciously over the palate with its eight per cent alcohol and the oxidative, vinegary and sherry-like notes derived from prolonged ageing in barrels.

Wine review — Thorn Clarke, Hahndorf Hill and West Cape Howe

9 September 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Thorn Clarke Shotfire Barossa Quartage 2010 $15.25–$20
Thorn Clarke’s extensive vineyard holdings in the Barossa wine zone (comprising the Barossa Valley and higher, cooler Eden Valley) contribute grapes to this big value blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec and merlot. It’s an harmonious blend of these Bordeaux varieties and none in particular dominates, although it’s clearly a cabernet driven blend: the varietal character shows in the aroma and structure, but the fleshy mid palate tells of malbec and merlot and presumably it’s the cabernet franc lifting the lovely perfume of the aroma. It has quite a track record now and in the very good 2010 vintage tastes particularly rich and satisfying.

Hahndorf Hill Winery Adelaide Hills Pinot Grigio $25
Pinot grigio disappoints more often than not, but Hahndorf Hill produces the goods regularly and excels in the cool 2012 vintage. The mild ripening conditions brought out the best in the variety, accentuating the pear-like varietal aroma but also adding a herbaceous element reminiscent of sauvignon blanc. That’s only a hint, however, and the pinot grigio stays at the centre of the vibrant, opulent palate. It’s juicy and plush but a strong backbone of acid and grape tannin give it grip and finish. Hahndorf Hill also makes wine from gruner veltliner and blaufrankisch – to be reviewed at another time.

West Cape Howe Book Ends Great Southern Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $22–$26.50
Cape Howe’s big, rich cabernet comes from estate-grown wines at Mount Barker, part of Western Australia’s very large Great Southern region. The area’s more renowned for shiraz than cabernet, but this wine mounts a good argument for the latter. The colour’s deep and crimson rimmed. The aroma’s ripe, showing both cassis and chocolate-like character. The powerful palate delivers more cassis and chocolate, coated in firm, ripe tannins and with an undertone of oak. Although it’s a big wine the structure remains elegant. Winemaker Gavin Berry sources it from three vineyards, including Fox River, planted in the 1970s.

Adelaide Hills turns to cider

5 September 2012CiderChris Shanahan

In 2010 Steve Dorman and Tobias Kline joined the fast-growing cider industry, sourcing apples and pears from the Adelaide Hills region.

Dorman, a winemaker, says he employs basic winemaking concepts for the ciders – making batches from different apple varieties, picked at different stages of ripeness, then blending to achieve balance between acidity and fruit flavour.

He says the apples and pears come only from the Adelaide Hills and the ciders are made without sugar or flavour additions.

His Hybrid Series combines Adelaide Hills cider with other Australian ingredients – for example, the apple and Queensland ginger cider below and for summer, co-fermented apple and Queensland mango.

A love delicate, dry pear cider ($16.99 330ml 6-pack) and the two ciders reviewed today are outstanding. They’re available at Jim Murphys, Local Liquor Hughes and Narrabundah and Ainslie Cellars, with cider on tap at Little Brussels, Kingston.

The Hills Cider Company Apple Cider 330ml 6-pack $16.99
How refreshing – a dry cider tasting of apples. They’re grown in the Adelaide Hills and deliver a lively, pale-lemon coloured cider with a pleasantly tart acidity accentuating the pure apple flavour – a sort of green apple acidity with ripe apple flavour. The finish is dry and clean, begging another mouthful.

The Hills Cider Company Hybrid Series Apple and Ginger Cider 750ml $15–$20
The hybrid series pairs Adelaide Hills fruit with other ingredients, in this instance fresh ginger from Queensland. The ginger, added during the fermentation, pleasantly dominates the aroma, but on the palate the apple flavour and tartness harmonise nicely with the pungent ginger, leaving a fresh, clean, dry apple-like aftertaste.

Wine review — John Duval, Helm, Giesen, Yalumba and Parker Coonawarra Estate

5 September 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

John Duval Plexus 2010 $31–$39
Barossa Valley, South Australia
Following the disastrous Southcorp acquisition of Rosemount, former Penfolds chief winemaker, John Duval, struck out on his own. In Duval’s Plexus we taste the plush and lovely combination of Barossa shiraz (52 per cent), grenache (29 per cent) and mourvedre – sourced from old vines (some more than 100 years) in Krondorf, Marananga, Ebenezer, Stockwell and Light Pass. Duval knows the vines and wines of these Barossa sub-regions intimately – and how to make, mature and blend them. Plexus combines the generosity and softness of shiraz, perfume and juiciness of grenache and the spiciness and firm tannins of mourvedre. It’s a symbiotic, seamless combination providing exceptional drinking pleasure now and for another five to ten years in a good cellar.

Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2012 $30
Helm Valley, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Ken Helm calls 2012 the vintage of his lifetime, a credible claim based on the two rieslings reviewed today. Diseased caused by wet conditions destroyed much of the crop. But the clean fruit Helm salvaged from the his own and the neighbouring Lustenberger, Rawlings and Mumberson vineyards achieved ripeness at low sugar levels, with high natural acidity. The 10.3 per cent alcohol Classic Riesling shows intense citrus-like varietal flavour (with perhaps a hint of botrytis influence) cut with an austere, drying acidity. Helm will release the wine in October. By this time the varietal flavour should be asserting itself in harmony with the high acidity.

Helm Premium Riesling 2012 $48
Lustenberger Vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
The acidity level’s higher in this than in Helm’s Classic (10 grams per litre versus 8.5) but the extra fruit sweetness and intensity, and sheer power of the wine mollifies the acidity. The wine’s bone dry and austere at present, but the underlying fruit flavour, from past experience, will blossom in time – with a notable step up during spring as the wine warms up. I suspect I’ll move to a five-star rating then going on what I’m tasting now. Helm will release the wine in October.

Giesen Gisborne Merlot 2010 $16–$18
Gisborne, North Island, New Zealand
The success of New Zealand sauvignon blanc opened the minds of Australia wine drinkers to the country’s other wines. Chardonnay and pinot noir followed sauvignon blanc, the latter in considerable volume. Then for the cognoscenti came the extraordinary wines of Hawkes Bay’s Gimblett gravels sub-region. Lesser known in Australia, though, are the wines of Gisborne, the world’s easternmost vineyards. Giesen’s merlot shows plummy varietal aroma and earthy flavours on a medium body. An herbaceous, stalky note reveals the cool origins of the fruit.

Yalumba Patchwork Barossa Shiraz 2010 $13.45–$21.95
Barossa, South Australia
The Hill-Smith family’s Yalumba winery at Angaston, sits on a road linking the Barossa Valley to the Eden Valley. The winery sources fruit from both regions, which together are known under Australian law as the Barossa Zone – the appellation on Patchwork’s label. At 13.5 per cent, the alcohol level is modest by Barossa standards. But this is not at the expensive of ripe, plush fruit flavours and juicy, soft ripe tannins – both thumbprints of Barossa shiraz. In a recent tasting it looked good against some pretty expensive competition. Watch for the discounts.

Parker Coonawarra Estate Terra Rossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 $40
Parker Estate vineyard, Southern Coonawarra, South Australia
To the casual eye Coonawarra looks uniform and flat, barely changing in elevation in the roughly 15-kilometre drive from the southernmost to northernmost vines. Yet the southern vines ripen weeks later than the northern ones, more than could be accounted for by the miniscule difference in latitude. While the old names of Coonawarra tend to cluster at the northern end, comparative newcomers like Parker Estate (planted 1985 by John Parker but now part of the Rathbone Wine Group) make beautiful wines. Parker 2008 shows Coonawarra’s pure, ripe-berry flavours and elegant structure. Very good oak adds an attractive cedar-like perfume and pulls all the flavour and structural elements together.

Wine review — Waterwheel, Brand’s Laira and Hahndorf Hil

2 September 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Waterwheel Bendigo Shiraz 2010 $14.25–$18
The vineyard, now covering more than120 hectares, was established in 1972 and acquired by the Cumming family in 1989. Presumably the scale of production enables continued production at such a reasonable price. It’s deep and brightly coloured and the palate fleshy and rich – dense with ripe, black-cherry fruit flavours, layered with quite solid but not hard tannins. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks and undergoes malolactic fermentation (a secondary ferment converting hard malic acid to soft lactic acid) before maturation in new, one and two year old American oak hogsheads.

Brand’s Laira Coonawarra Blockers Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $20.65–$28
Decades ago Eric and Nancy Brand purchased the Laira Vineyard, plum in the heart of Coonawarra’s terra soils. The family later planted more vines on the black soils some distance to the west, though I notice under McWilliams ownership the Laira name seems to apply to the new as well as the old plantings. The wine, however, is very good at the price, providing true Coonawarra varietal flavour and fine structure. It won gold medals at the Limestone Coast and Riverina wine shows – the former being particularly important as Coonawarra lies within the Limestone Coast wine zone.

Hahndorf Hill Winery Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc2012 $23
The cool 2012 vintage ended with a mild ripening period and produced outstanding white wines from what I’ve seen to date. Hahndorf Hill’s sauvignon blanc, a bronze medal winner at Canberra’s Winewise Small Vignerons Awards, shows the rich, pleasing fruit flavours of the vintage. The attractive tropical-fruit character of the aroma flows through to the generous, fleshy, juicy palate. And the high acid of the cool season gives a very fresh, invigorating finish to the wine. Australia struggles with sauvignon blanc, a variety suited to generally cooler climates, but in 2012 we’re likely to see many more high quality wines like this one.