Yearly Archives: 2012

Wine review — YarraLoch, De Bortoli, Church Road, Tim Adams, Punt Road and Chalmers

25 April 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

YarraLoch Stephanie’s Dream Pinot Noir 2010 $50
Coldstream, Yarra Valley, Victoria
Stephen Wood owns the YarraLoch brand and vineyards and wine is made under contract by David Bicknell. In 2010 the pinot’s an absolute stunner with its brilliant, medium hue, delicious perfume and thrilling, deeply layered palate. It’s produced from two clones of low-yielding pinot, converted to wine through three different fermentation techniques – including labour-intensive foot stomping and hand plunging for two components. The fermentations use a combination of wild and inoculated yeast and maturation is in range of French oak vessels of varying age and size. The result is pristine, highly concentrated, elegant pinot with deep underlying savouriness. Should evolve well for many years.

De Bortoli Windy Peak Pinot Noir 2010 $11.40–$1410
Yarra Valley, Victoria
The profound finessing of Australian wine now underway means we can marvel at a glorious pinot, like the Yarraloch Stephanie’ reviewed here today – or simply enjoy the exuberant varietality of a Windy Peak. The former flourished for days on the tasting bench – a wine with a future as well as a present. The latter provided a slurpy, pure-pinot juiciness, complete with tannin structure and rich texture – at its best the day we opened it.

Church Road Chardonnay 2010 $21–$26
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
Church Road, founded in the 1890s, now sits with Australia’s Jacob’s Creek and New Zealand compatriot wine brands, Brancott Estates and Stoneleigh, under the ownership of France’s Pernod Ricard. Church Road seems to be a style in transition from old-fashioned, turbo-charged oak-fruit-malo-leesy gob-filler, to a more refined modern style. I hear the 2011’s finer again than the 2010, which still sits in the big, ripe, juicy, richly textured style – clearly revealing the winemaking influences on the lovely fruit flavour. It’s a very appealing drink, but may be a little over the top for some palates.

Tim Adams Riesling 2011 $19–$22
Clare Valley, South Australia
Tim Adams’ searingly bone-dry riesling attacks with the intensity of unsweetened, fresh squeezed lime juice – exquisitely delicate and mouth puckering at the same time. It’s a little too mouth puckering to enjoy on its own. But the high acidity works well with fish, cutting through the oiliness; and it enhances the briny bite of oysters. The combination of intense flavour, delicacy and high acidity also suggest outstanding long-term cellaring potential. Over time, the varietal flavour and texture of wines like this build in very pleasing ways.

Punt Road Merlot 2010 $24–$27
Napoleone Vineyard, Coldstream, Yarra Valley, Victoria
Winemaker Kate Goodman made just 500 dozen of this wine from two older blocks of the Napoleone vineyard (established 1983). Goodman writes, “the fruit was crushed and soaked for three days to aid colour and flavour extraction. After fermentation, it was pressed and matured in a combination of new and seasoned oak for 12 months”. The result is vividly coloured wine of medium hue and body. The vibrant, fruity flavour comes coated in soft tannins. But these seem to tighten up a after the first glass – showing us that we should never take merlot too lightly.

Chalmers Fiano 2010 $20–$27
Euston, Murray Darling region, New South Wales
Fiano, an ancient Italian white variety widely planted in southern Italy and Sicily, seems at home in the Chalmers family vineyard at Euston, New South Wales. Kim Chalmers says they ferment two thirds of the blend in stainless steel, but complete the other third in old French oak barrels. They blend the barrel-aged portion with the stainless steel component, then age the blend in bottle for a year “to accentuate fiano’s unctuous texture and allow the highly acidic and delicately stone-fruity variety to develop some roundness and weight”. The leesy barrel component dominates the aroma. Nevertheless a unique, pleasantly tart, savouriness pushes through.

The finessing of Australian chardonnay

25 April 2012WineChris Shanahan

Quietly, as the great wave of New Zealand sauvignon blanc swept across Australia, Australian winemakers perfected chardonnay. Despite sauvignon’s dominance on Australian dinner tables over the last decade, chardonnay remained our most widely planted, consumed and exported local white variety.

Where sauvignon blanc unleashes it true character only under cool growing conditions, chardonnay makes tasty varietal wines across a surprisingly broad range of climates. And even if it retreats from the hottest Australian growing areas, chardonnay’s here to stay in a diversity of climates – from the warm Hunter Valley, to moderate Margaret River to cool southern Victoria and Tasmania.

Chardonnay arrived in Australia in the nineteenth century. But it rose to prominence only after an explosion in table wine consumption during the 1970s and 1980s.

When it did take off, demand exceeded supply for the best part of a decade. According to one early eighties estimate, Australia sold more chardonnay than it produced. And to stretch their precious chardonnay supplies, some makers blended it with hard-to-sell semillon. But the successful, if curious, semillon-chardonnay hybrid faded as chardonnay production grew.

Pioneering small vignerons planted chardonnay in cool climates, modelling their wines on the superb oak-fermented whites of Burgundy, especially the renowned vineyards of Corton Charlemagne and Puligny and Chassagne Montrachet.

The steady, and ultimately profound achievements of these pioneers, though, occurred parallel to the rise of mass-produced, largely warm-climate chardonnay.

In the late seventies few Australians drank chardonnay, if only because we produced so little of it. Those that did, probably cut their chardonnay teeth on Burgundy or even one of the growing number of Californian versions.

As chardonnay plantings exploded during the eighties, our winemakers learned how to deal with what was for them a new variety. Never in our long winemaking history had our vignerons faced such large volumes of grapes from newly planted vines.

Not surprisingly, they threw every winemaking trick they knew at it – oxidising grape must, fermenting in oak barrels, fermenting in stainless steel and transferring finished wine to barrel, encouraging malolactic fermentation, ageing on yeast lees and adding oak chips.

In the early days when much of the crop probably delivered little grape flavour, these practices tended to overwhelm varietal character. But the wines proved popular, attracting many fans to the rich, peachy, buttery style – the latter a reference to a strong buttery, or sometimes butterscotch or caramel-like, flavour derived from the secondary malolactic fermentation (converting malic to lactic acid and reducing total acidity).

Later, consumer resistance to more over-the-top styles sparked a rash of “unwooded” chardonnays, notable for their blandness, or in some instances, reliance on a buttery malolactic character. The late, great Len Evans described these as a great con – not arguing against unoaked chardonnay per se, but against the cynicism behind so many of the bland offerings.

Meanwhile, winemakers were making progress, albeit slowly. Tyrrell’s, for example, began making chardonnay in the 1970s after Murray Tyrrell famously pinched cuttings from a neighbouring Penfolds vineyard.

At a vertical tasting in the early nineties, Tyrrell’s how well the seventies chardonnays had aged, while the eighties wines had turned fat, flabby and tired. In the seventies, they’d made the wine much as they made semillon. In the eighties, they’d adopted all the tricks described above. It took a decade to realise they’d gone too far.

Rather than retreat to the techniques of the seventies, though, they retained the Burgundian practices that suited Hunter grapes. This meant less new oak, more temperature control in the maturation environment and the complete abandonment, for a time of malolactic fermentation. Bruce Tyrrell questioned at the time why they’d used this acid-reducing technique in a warm area where grapes often lacked acidity.

They’ve continued to fine-tune their approach, making a distinctive, complex chardonnay capable of long-term cellaring. We continue to enjoy mid-nineties vintages at Chateau Shanahan.

By the mid nineties, the finessing of Australian chardonnay was well advanced, especially at the top end. The vines and winemaking skills of small makers had matured. And the big companies had poured resources into their flagship products. Penfolds produced its first Yattarna Chardonnay in 1995 and by the turn of the century its quality was as good as any in the country. Likewise, by 2000 Hardys flagship Eileen Hardy chardonnay had settled largely into the style and fruit sourcing it has today.

What the big companies learned flowed down into better, finer, mass-produced products, too. Meanwhile mid-tier companies, notably De Bortoli and McWilliams, developed their own styles – joining the big and small makers in the chardonnay revolution.

The finessing we’ve witnessed over the last 20 years puts Australia firmly among the world’s top chardonnay producers. The world talks about our shiraz now. But chardonnay could be the variety that finally breaks the stereotype of us as one big, hot county making homogenous wine.

Beer review — Brewboys and Wigram Brewing Co

25 April 2012Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Brewboys Maiden Ale 330ml $4.42
South Australia’s Brewboys makes its beers and offers them for tasting at its cellar door, Regency Road, Croydon Park Adelaide. Their deep-amber Maiden Ale appeals for its luxurious head, lovely, citrus-like hops aroma, smooth, malty palate and tart, citrusy, moderately bitter finish. A resiny hops flavour dominates after a few glasses.

Wigram Brewing Co Bristol Best Bitter 500ml $8.08
No, not from England, but Christchurch, New Zealand – though brewed in the English ‘best bitter’ style, a branch of the pale ale family. This one’s deep amber in colour with a big, malt-sweet, opulent palate. And just when it seems a little too malt sweet, layers of countervailing hops bitterness flood the palate.

The punter’s top beers of 2011

25 April 2012BeerChris Shanahan

The increasing reach of social media gives us a glimpse into what thousands of drinkers voted as their favourite premium brews of 2011.

On 26 January, the popular Local Taphouse Blog (www.thelocaltaphouse.blogspot.com) named “the hottest 100 Aussie craft beers” from a selection of over 800 products.

It’s an eclectic blend of names, where tiny brewers rub shoulders with the craft arms of brewing giants Lion Nathan and Foster’s.

In the top 20, for example, Foster’s fielded 13th favourite, Matilda Bay Fat Yak – while Lion Nathan got a look in with 18^th-placed Knappstein Enterprise Brewery Reserve Lager and beers from Little Creatures and White Rabbit (in which it holds a stake) in second, fifth and tenth places

Australia’s third largest brewer, Cooper’s, earned 16^th spot with its perennial favourite, Pale Ale.

The top three beers were Byron Bay’s Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, Little Creatures Pale Ale and Feral Brewing Company Hop Hog.

Wine review — Peter Lehmann, Squitchy Lane and Zema Estate

22 April 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Peter Lehmann Barossa Portrait Semillon 2011 $18
Peter Lehmann Barossa Margaret Semillon 2006 $25.65–$32
In the late 1990s Peter Lehmann winemaker, Andrew Wigan, moved away from ripe, oak-fermented semillon styles to an earlier-picked, fresher unwooded style. The lighter, fresher, lower alcohol wines appealed to wine drinkers. Lehmann recently released two versions of the style. Portrait Semillon 2011, appeals for its zesty, citrusy, bone-dry lightness (10.5 per cent alcohol). And Margaret Semillon 2006, sourced largely from 80–90 year old vineyards, weaves the magic of nutty and honeyed flavours of bottle age to the delicate, zesty theme. Wigan rates 2006 as “one of the greatest white vintages the Barossa has ever seen”.

Squitchy Lane Vineyard Yarra Valley Fume Blanc 2011 $26
Squitchy Lane Vineyard Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2010 $32
Californian winemaker Robert Mondavi coined the term fume blanc in the 1960s. The term saluted the Loire Valley sauvignon blanc, Pouilly Fume, and differentiated Mondavi’s dry wine from its sweet competitors. The term took off in Australia in the eighties but is rarely used now. It usually indicates a sauvignon blanc that’s been oak fermented. In this case, winemaker Robert Paul made 420 cases from fruit grown on Mike Fitzpatrick’s vineyard at Gruyere, Yarra Valley. The barrel influence mutes sauvignon’s fruity exuberance, but adds texture and delicious layers of flavour derived from contact with spent yeast cells.

Zema Estate Coonawarra Shiraz 2008 $23.75–$26
Zema winemaker, Greg Clayfield (formerly of Lindemans), offers a few comments on what makes Zema shiraz special, “There is a good diversity of vineyards, from the subtly cooler Cluny block at the southern end of the renowned terra rossa strip, to the comparatively riper and drier Glenroy block at the northern end of Coonawarra… complemented by the home block which sits right in the heart of the original John Riddoch Fruit colony”. The 2008 vintage weaves together juicy, delicious, ripe-berry and spicy shiraz flavours with sweet but subtle oak and persistent, very fine tannins – a wine that should evolve well over the next decade.

Wine review — Swinging Bridge, Kilikanoon and Domaine A

15 April 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Swinging Bridge Orange Sauvignon Blanc 2011 $18.95
Marlborough, New Zealand, dominates Australia’s sauvignon blanc market. But our cooler Australian regions like the Adelaide Hills and Orange often give the Kiwis a run for their money, albeit in different styles. This one, from the Ward family vineyard at Orange, captures an exuberant, passionfruit-like, pure and fruity face of the variety. The striking passionfruit aroma, flows through to a delicious, riotously fruity palate that sings with fresh acidity and finishes crisp and dry. Vignerons Tom and Georgie Ward attribute the wine’s flesh and texture to lees stirring and partial barrel fermentation.

Kilikanoon Blocks Road Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $30–$35
We placed Blocks Road in a recent line up of cabernet from seven different Australian regions. The widely varied climates represented in the tasting delivered a range of styles, consistent with their origins – like the chalk and cheese represented today by the warm Clare Valley and cool Tasmania. Our Clare wine, from very low yielding vineyards, showed rich, ripe, intense, chocolate-like varietal flavour of the warm region. Layers of firm, ripe tannin supported the rich fruit flavours, creating a big but not heavy wine that looked better and better with increasing aeration.

Domaine A Stoney Vineyard Tasmania Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 $30
From the heart of pinot noir country, in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley, comes this beautiful cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, petit verdot blend. Owner Peter Althaus writes that it’s grown on a warm, north-facing vineyard. And, no doubt, intense vine management and restricted yields allow cabernet to ripen at this latitude. Despite 33 months in oak barrels, the lovely, elegant varietal aroma dominates the aroma and flavour – showing both ripe berries and an attractive leafy edge. There’s an interplay between the fruit and tannins, the overall impression being of finesse and elegance.

Wine review — Vasse Felix, De Bortoli, PHI, Oxford Landing Estates and Dopff au Moulin

11 April 2012Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Vasse Felix Cabernet Merlot 2010 – wine of the week $20.89–$26
Northern Margaret River, Western Australia
At a recent cabernet tasting Virginia Willcock’s shimmering blend attracted drinkers to it like gold diggers to a new lode. Fragrance, purity, deliciousness and finesse drew many of us back for second and third helpings. Willcock says cabernet sauvignon provides the structural tannin and blackcurrant fruit flavour and merlot adds a soft, luscious mouth feel. A splash of malbec contributes another layer of fruit, fragrance and tannin. It’s a seductive example of Margaret River’s specialty, made to enjoy young – quite a contrast to Vasse Felix’s more powerful Heytesbury reviewed here today.

Vasse Felix Heytesbury 2009$85.49–$90
Northern Margaret River, Western Australia
Vasse Felix’s flagship cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, malbec blend presents the powerful but elegant, potentially very long lived side of the Bordeaux style. We use descriptors like fragrant, pretty and delicate for the drink-now blend reviewed alongside. But for Heytesbury we move to deep, brooding, ripe, leafy, intense, firm, grippy and multi-layered. It’s a potent, well-proportioned blend of cabernet sauvignon (69 per cent), petit verdot (16 per cent) and malbec (15 per cent) needing many years in the cellar. Winemaker Virginia Willcock says the cabernet’s from their oldest vines, dating from the late 1960s.

De Bortoli Windy Peak Chardonnay 2011 $11.25–$14
Yarra Valley, Victoria
The trickle-down effect almost invariably means that bigger companies making the very finest wines also make the best cheaper wines. In this instance, for a modest price, we enjoy a scrumptious, fine-boned, silky-textured Yarra chardonnay that’s a spin-off from decades of vineyard and winery work on De Bortoli’s top end products. Leanne de Bortoli and winemaker husband, Steve Webber, write, “where something is grown dictates the aroma and flavour”, hence the decision, arrived at over many years, to source Windy Peak chardonnay exclusively from the Yarra Valley.

PHI Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2010 $38–$45
Shelmerdine Lusatia Park Vineyard, Woori Yallock, Yarra Valley, Victoria
The Phi brand combines the winemaking and viticultural skills of the De Bortoli and Shelmerdine families respectively. Hand-picked, hand-sorted bunches from the Shelmerdine’s Lusatia Park vineyard were whole-bunch pressed and the juice, after overnight settling, went to oak barrels for spontaneous fermentation (followed by malo-lactic fermentation). It’s all a very natural affair, resulting in a really beautiful drink – deeply, smoothly textured; intensely flavoured (grape fruit and melon-rind varietal, integrated with the leesy background of barrel maturation); with brisk acidity holding the flavour and structural elements together.

Oxford Landing Estates Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2010 $7–$9.50
Riverland Region, Murray River, South Australia
Yalumba’s Wyndham Hill-Smith established Oxford Landing vineyard on the Murray River, South Australia, in 1958. In the 1980s Hill-Smith’s son, Robert, launched the Oxford Landing Estate range as a fighting brand to take on the big companies. The meticulously managed estate still contributes grapes to a brand that sits with the best in its price range. But the company also sources grapes from other growers in the region – hence the subtle rebranding from ‘estate’ to ‘estates’. This is all you could ask for at the price – clean, fresh, deliciously fruity and clearly made from cabernet, fleshed out with a touch of shiraz.

Dopff au Moulin Riesling 2010 $13.29–$14
Alsace, France
Alsace riesling provides a tasty contrast to Australian style. Sourced from Dopf’s vineyards in the vicinity of the lovely old town of Riquewihr. It’s a highly aromatic wine with a distinct musk note, reminiscent of gewürztraminer, if not as rampant. The deeply fruity, fresh palate reflects the aromatics and has a viscosity unique to Alsace wines. It finishes dry, though not bone dry. Woolworths imports the Dopff au Moulin range for sale through its Woolworths Liquor, BWS and Dan Murphy outlets.

China’s growing taste for fine wine

11 April 2012WineChris Shanahan

In the year to November 2005, Australia’s wine exports to China didn’t rate a separate mention in the official figures. Now, just six years later, China ranks as our fifth largest export destination, by volume, behind the UK, USA, Canada and Germany.

In calendar 2011, Wine Australia approved 41 million litres of wine for export to China – compared with 248 million litres for the UK, 179 million litres for the USA, 50 million litres for Canada and 41 million litres for Germany.

As China modernises, its overall consumption of wine, both foreign and domestic, is increasing rapidly. Figures released at the recent China Worldwide Wine Summit Forum, at Hefei, Anhui Province, reveal a near doubling in the value of imports in the past year and an annualised growth rate for locally produced product of 18 per cent between 2006 and 2010.

Imports totalled $US1.27 billion ($AD1.23 billion) in 2011. Meanwhile, revenue for the domestic wine industry reached 34.2 billion yuan ($AD5.24 billion) – 36.3 per cent up on 2010.

China’s import figures and Australian export approvals aren’t precisely synchronous. But they’re near enough to put our approvals of $200 million in 2011 at around 16 per cent of China’s import market.

China came from nowhere six years ago to become our fifth largest wine export market by volume in 2011. But future prospects appear even brighter when we look at the detail.

In the more profitable bottled-wine segment, China ranked third, and growing rapidly, behind the declining USA and UK markets. The value of bottled wine exports to the USA declined 18 per cent in 2011 to $422 million. And exports to the UK declined by a more dramatic 38 per cent to $228 million.

However, Wine Australia attributes much of the decline to our larger companies shipping in bulk, for bottling in the UK. That is, the UK consumer buys the bottled Australian brand, but the wine leaves Australia in tanks.

Whatever way we view that, China is rapidly closing the gap on the UK, with $184 million of bottled Australian wine shipped their way in 2011 – an increase of 37 per cent).

The volume of bottled wine exported to China increased by just 28 per cent, indicating a seven per cent increase, to $6.01, in the value per litre – a pleasing and profitable result for exporters, given the high Australian dollar.

Conversely, exports of bulk wine to China declined by 44 per cent to only $16 million – a relief after years of surplus production China-bound at bargain-basement prices. Bulk shipments to the UK increased nine percent to $183 million (representing 53 per cent of bulk wine shipment). Wine Australia attributes much of this to bulk shipping for bottling in the UK, as mentioned above.

Bulk sales to the USA increased 14 per cent to $55 million. And the Germans roared into third place with a 30 per cent increase to a total of $32 million. The top four bulk importers (China came fourth) account for 83 per cent of our bulk exports.

Consistent with reports of it as the new hot spot for top-end wines, China became in 2011 Australia’s number one destination for wines valued, on shipment, at over $7.50 a litre.

Exports in this category totalled $78 million for China, $50 million each for the USA and Canada, $35 million for Hong Kong (how much of this went on the China?), $31 million to the UK and $30 million to Singapore.

The official figures don’t give details of wine values in this category. But we know, for example, that chief winemaker, Peter Gago debuted Penfolds $1,000-a-bottle Bin 620 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2008 at Shanghai’s Waldorf Astoria hotel. “This signifies the importance of China to Penfolds”, he said at the launch in November last year.

Penfolds was simply joining the range of suitors, including the great producers of Bordeaux and Burgundy, lining up before China’s burgeoning class of multi-millionaires.

With Europe and the USA in deep malaise, the world’s wine producing nations see Asia, in general, and China, in particular, as markets with outstanding potential. For example, Australian bottled wine exports to Asia as a whole totalled $400 million in 2011 – 24 per cent up on 2010.

But despite massive growth in China it won’t be an easy sell. We can expect China’s domestic industry to continue its rapid expansion. And competition from the world’s wine producing nations can only intensify. Finally, there’ll be jostling among Australian exporters. Wine Australia says that in 2011 our suitors for the China market totalled 812 – far more than the 304 Australian exporters in the UK market, 270 in Canada, 201 in the USA or 124 in Germany.

Beer review — McLaren Vale Beer Company and Bootleg Brewery

11 April 2012Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Vale India Pale Ale (IPA) 330ml 4-pack $14.99
The McLaren Vale Beer Company operates the Vale Inn Taphouse and Kitchen in McLaren Vale and a brewery at nearby Willunga. Their IPA tones down the style a little, but still delivers a big hit of resiny hops aromas and flavours, support by a full, round, rich maltiness. Available at Dan Murphy, BWS and Woolworths Liquor.

Bootleg Brewery Settler’s Pale Ale 330ml $4.15
“An oasis of beer in a desert of wine” trumpets the website of Bootleg Brewery, located in the heart of Margaret River. We’ve washed away our cabernet overload there in the past, but found this bottle at Plonk, Fyshwick. It’s a pale colour with a pungent hops aroma, full, fruity palate and lingering, bitter hops finish.

Craft beer festival, Canberra, 14 April

11 April 2012BeerChris Shanahan

Although the Schwarz Family Company shelved plans for a brewery at its Canberra hotel (the Mercure, formerly Olims), the company continues to sell its own Sydney-brewed beer there and to run its annual craft beer festival.

This year’s event – to be held at the Mercure next Saturday from 11am to 6pm – features beers from 15 brewers: Schwartz, Coopers, Little Creatures, Malt Shovel, Lord Nelson, Paulaner, Stricklands, Harts Rocks Brewery, Matilda Bay, Stone and Wood, Mudgee Brewing Company, 4 Pines, Pinchgut, Hop Dog and Dalgety Brewing.

Canberra’s Zierholz and Wig and Pen are notable absentees. Nevertheless, with over 80 beers and ciders on tasting, it’s a significant event for local beer lovers.

A $25 pass ($35 for families) includes a cup and ten tasting tickets. Full details and tickets are available at www.canberrabeerfest.com