Mt Monster Limestone Coast Chardonnay 2012 $15.95
The Bryson family owns two vineyards, totalling 170 hectares, at Padthaway on South Australia’s Limestone Coast – about an hour’s drive north of Coonawarra. The family manages the vineyards and marketing of its Moorambro Creek, Jip Jip Rocks and Mt Monster brands but they hire Ben Riggs to make the wines. For a time Padthaway produced some of Australia’s leading chardonnays, until the focus moved to cooler sites further south. However, the area continues to make tasty chardonnays with a distinctive melon-like varietal flavour – in this instance without the influence of oak.

Mt Monster Limestone Coast Shiraz 2011 $15.95
In the cold, wet 2011 vintage, the Bryson family harvested a much-reduced shiraz crop three weeks later than usual. The winemaking technique – static fermenters and controlled temperatures – is aimed at preserving bright, ripe berry flavours, then building in soft tannins by leaving the wine on skins for a week or so after completion of the fermentation. It’s a successful approach as it captures the region’s lovely berry flavours and elegant structure in a soft, drink-now style with chewy, soft tannins on the mid palate.

Capital Wines The Treasury Late Picked Riesling 2011 375ml $25
Capital’s Jennie Mooney says fruit for this wine came from four Canberra District vineyards – Lambert’s Tallagandra, Four Winds and Long Rail Gully. The cold wet season resulted in large crop losses, largely because of fungal disease. However, we’ve seen many very good, albeit lighter style reds from the vintage and some intensely flavoured high acid whites, like this one. That’s a good combination in a sticky as the acid provides a delicate balance to the sweetness – in this case tinged with the attractive orange-marmalade-like flavour of botrytis (although Mooney says the majority of the fruit as clean at harvest).

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 10 February 2013 in The Canberra Times

Windy Peak Shiraz 2012 – $11.40–$14
Heathcote, Victoria
Sometimes less is more. And that’s what makes modestly priced 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 riche but medium-bodied dry red with bright, spicy, shiraz flavour and a soft but savoury bite of tannin – a satisfying wine to enjoy now. Clever winemaking gives it an appealing combination of bright fruitiness and mellow red wineyness: the winemakers mature part of the blend in older oak casks (giving mellow, red wine character) and the balance in tank to retain fruitiness.

Capital Wines Ministry Series The Whip Riesling 2012 $19
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
The attractive Whip riesling comes from four different Murrumbateman vineyards, writes Capital’s Jennie Mooney. Approaching its first birthday, the wine’s delicate lime-like flavours are beginning to rise above the racy acidity – suggesting even better drinking ahead as it evolves over the next two or three years.

Capital Wines Ministry Series The Ambassador Tempranillo 2011 $27
Kyeema Vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
The Ambassador won gold at last year’s regional wine show, demonstrating how even the rottenest vintages, like 2011, can produce decent wines – largely through amazing amounts of work in the vineyard. It’s a medium bodied red, far removed in style from Spanish tempranillo. The sweet core of ripe berry flavours comes with a dash of spice and the savoury bite of the variety’s distinctive tannins. This vintage will probable be at its best over the next two or three years.

Tower Estate Pinot Noir 2011 $30
Cradoc and Coal River Valley, Tasmania
In Not my memoirs (Union Publishing, Sydney, 2012) the late Len Evans recounts the story of the Hunter Valley’s Tower Estate, his final creation and scene of one of the greatest wakes in history. Evans mentions the quest for Tasmanian pinot noir, and here we see a blend from the Panorama vineyard, near Cradoc, and the Meadowbank vineyard in the Coal River valley. It’s a pleasing, moreish wine, ticking most of the pinot boxes. I think Len would’ve seen it as a promising start.

Robert Stein Riesling 2012 $40
Stein Vineyard, Mudgee, NSW
What does Mudgee stand for as a winemaking region? I’ve visited there, judged there, and tasted wines from there since the late seventies, all without spotting a regional hero. Chardonnay stood out more than any other. Riesling, however, didn’t register until Robert Stein’s caught our attention a few years back. Winemaker Jacob Stein, sources riesling from the family’s mature vines, at an altitude of 600 metres – considerably higher up than most Mudgee vineyards. Almost certainly the cooler site gives Stein riesling its racy edge and intense, fine, lime-like varietal flavour. It’s beautifully made and a pleasure to drink, from first drop to last. Should age well for many years.

Clover Hill Brut Rose Cuvee Exceptionnnelle 2008 $55
Pipers River, Tasmania
Over Christmas we drank quite of lot of French non-vintage Champagne in this price range and generally rated them well below comparably priced Tasmanian bubblies from the House of Arras, Pirie and Clover Hill. The French, however, pulled away once we move into the more expensive vintage Champagnes. Clover Hill Rose, a blend of pinot noir and pinot meunier, appealed for its delicate, supple fruitiness and gentle texture, derived from prolonged ageing on yeast lees.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 6 February 2013 in The Canberra Times

Hartz Barn Eden Valley Reserve General Store Riesling 2012 $25
Sydney-based Estate Wines distributes Penny Hart’s and David Barnett’s wines in NSW, including Canberra’s south-coast holiday patch. We discovered the excellent 2011 vintage riesling at Quarterdeck Restaurant, Narooma, which prompted a request to taste the even better 2012. Typical of the vintage it reveals loads of floral, round and juicy fruit flavours. But behind the fruit lies the crisp, taut acidity of the Eden Valley region – suggesting drink pleasure in the future as well as right now. It’s available online for $25 (hartzbarnwines.com.au_ and in selected restaurants along the coast for a little over $30.

Sibling Rivalry Geelong Pinot Noir 2010 $26
Sibling Rivalry, an addition to the Four Sisters brand, created by the late Trevor Mast, debuted on Chateau Shanahan’s tasting bench over the Christmas break. It’s a lovely, medium bodied pinot made to drink now and rated highly by English visitors more attuned to these lighter styles than traditional big Aussie reds. It comes from high-quality, maritime pinot country at Geelong. The winemakers applied traditional hands-on pinot techniques (like small-batch ferments and gentle hand plunging) to produce a fragrant, juicy, silky red for current drinking. It has flavour and character without heaviness.

Capital Wine Ministry Series The Swinger Sauvignon Blanc 2012 $19
Reflecting the sauvignon-blanc fatigue of so many in the wine industry (not seen in the market), Capital’s Jennie Mooney writes, “Yes, I know its just sauvignon blanc, but I want you to give this wine a little more attention please”. Well, we do. And what we find is sauvignon blanc – yelling at us with ripe, passionfruit-like aromas and flavours, plush and pleasantly tart at the same time. We think: cold salad, icy, briny oysters, as cold as the wine itself, and shade out of the 36 degree heat. Even partial barrel fermentation can’t blunt the overt sauvignon blanciness of this back slapper.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 3 February 2013 in The Canberra Times