Monthly Archives: April 2013

Penfolds 2013 Bin releases – 2010, 2011 and 2012 vintages

10 April 2013Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Penfolds 2013 release of its much-loved “Bin” wines includes two whites from the outstanding 2012 vintage and nine reds from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 vintages. The reds remain the most traded of any in the country and are the foundation of many Australian cellars. And the whites, though they live in the shadow of the reds, mix it with the best of their styles.

The retail prices of both vary considerably as eager discounting trims the prices considerably, as demonstrated in the price ranges given with each wine. These are simply the recommended price and the lowest price I could find as I wrote, just before Easter. The prices can and do change weekly, so it pays to Google around.

The Bin 51 riesling and Bin 311 show the extra flavour depth of a great white vintage. And they show the polish of a company committed to all the fine detail in the vineyard and winery. You can’t go wrong with these, provided, of course, that you like the styles.

The reds can be split into long-cellaring and early drinking styles (noted in the reviews) and can also be separated by vintage. The lone 2012 wine, Bin 23 pinot noir, gives a unique Penfolds take on this classic variety in a very good year.

The 2011s all show the effects of the cold, wet 2011 vintage, but they succeed nevertheless, albeit with a caveat on the Bin 138. But they’ll never reach the heights of the brilliant 2010s – all exceptional wines.

I make no comment on the investment potential of the wines, other than to direct readers to the price guide on langtons.com.au for the latest price realisations on past vintages.

It’s safer to simply buy the wines for drinking pleasure, knowing that the good vintages have an outstanding cellaring record.

Penfolds Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling 2012 $23.75–$29.99
Sourced from the High Eden and Woodbury vineyards in the Eden Valley, Bin 51 shows the class of the 2012 riesling vintage. It offers riesling’s delicacy. The aroma shows floral, citrus and apple-like varietal character. And all of these show on the delicate but intensely flavoured palate. Although the sweet fruit softens the palate, the season’s brisk acidity gives the wine real backbone and a clean, refreshing finish. It drinks well now but should age well for many years if cellared in the right conditions.

Penfolds Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2012 $31.90–$39.99
Like the three chardonnays reviewed in Quaffers today, Bin 311 is a sophisticated, barrel-fermented style, focusing on fruit flavour. Penfolds came to Tumbarumba through its sister company Seppelt, which went there initially in search of chardonnay and pinot noir for sparkling wine. However, the cool region’s chardonnay proved excellent for table wine, too. The latest vintage lies at the subtler end of the chardonnay spectrum. It’s pale coloured and combines high acidity with varietal flavour reminiscent of a blend of fig, nectarine and grapefruit – a wine of considerable finesse to enjoy over the next five or six years.

Penfolds Bin 23 Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2012 $32.29–$39.99
Bin 23 sits squarely in the Penfolds’ rich, solid mould. But it also captures the unique character of pinot noir, albeit at the bigger end of the spectrum. The ripe, varietal aroma comes liberally anointed with savoury and earthy notes – characters that come through on the juicy, multi-layered, firmly tannic palate. This is high quality pinot in a distinctive style and probably capable of ageing very well in the medium term.

Penfolds Bin 138 Barossa Valley Shiraz Grenache Mataro 2011 $27.90–$37.99
For an old company with such deep Barossa roots and a long history of multi-region blending, Penfolds came late to producing straight Barossa reds on a regular basis. But it now offers several, including the sub-regional Bin 150 (below) and Bin 138. In the cool, wet 2011 vintage, shiraz dominates the Bin 138 blend, grenache provides aromatic high notes and bright fruitiness to the palate and mataro adds spice and structure. The three combine into a big, earthy red with firm, chunky tannins; but a little too much so for my taste. One of the rare Penfolds reds I don’t enjoy drinking.

Penfolds Bin 2 South Australia Shiraz Mourvedre 2011 $34.19–$37.99
Bin 2 has been an on-again, off-again wine for Penfolds, made initially in 1960. Originally marketed as shiraz mataro, Bin 2 adopts the French name “mourvedre” for the latest release. Confusingly, Bin 138 (above) made the change from “mourvedre” to “mataro”, leaving Penfolds with a bet on both names. Sourced from the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, the medium-bodied Bin 2 2011 offers a combo of ripe berries, spice and savouriness on a supple, soft palate.

Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2011 $27.90–$37.99
Bin 128 succeeds in the difficult 2011 season. It’s a tad lighter bodied than normal, but that comes hand in hand with the lovely, sweet perfume of cool-grown shiraz. This carries over to a lively, elegant palate, cut through with fine tannins and a sympathetic spiciness from the French oak. Drinks well now and should evolve for five or six years.

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2010 $27.55–$37.99
Bin 28 combines shiraz from the war Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek and the slightly cooler Wrattonbully and Robe on the Limestone Coast. Clearly it’s an excellent year, though I sense also a tweak to the Bin 28 style, too, principally in the brightness and freshness of fruit aroma and flavour and less obvious oak. The colour’s deep red-black and the aroma combines bright, ripe-cherry varietal character, seasoned with spice. The plump, ripe palate reflects the aroma and it’s layered with ripe, assertive-but-soft fruit tannins. This is an outstanding Bin 28 with good cellaring potential.

Penfolds Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz 2010 $59.75–$74.99
The Barossa Valley’s Marananga sub-region produces outstanding red wine and has long been favoured by Penfolds. Not surprisingly their first sub-regional label, Bin 150, came from this area. The fruit has the power to handle maturation in 50 per cent new oak (a mix of French and American). The lively, deep, sweet-spicy fruit absorbs the oak and has a special buoyancy and depth. It’s a very special expression of Barossa shiraz and probably capable of long-term cellaring, though it hasn’t been around long enough to say that with certainty.

Penfolds Bin 8 South Australia Cabernet Shiraz 2011 $29.90–$37.99
Winemaker Peter Gago says he made this early drinking blend (62per cent cabernet, the rest shiraz) in response to international media interest in the traditional Australia blend of cabernet and shiraz. He sources fruit from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Upper Adelaide, all warm regions. The wine captures fruit aromatics and vibrant fruit flavours, with sufficient tannin to provide red wine structure, as you’d expect from Penfolds. Berry and leafy cabernet characters dominate the flavour and shiraz fattens out the mid palate. An early drinking style.

Penfolds Bin 389 South Australia Cabernet Shiraz 2010 $55.45–$74.99
The finessing of the Penfolds style apparent in the Bin 28 shows, too, in a particularly lively Bin 389 – a true multi-regional blend (51 per cent cabernet, the rest shiraz) from Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Wrattonbully, Robe, McLaren Vale, Padthaway and the Adelaide Hills. The cabernet component generally dominates Bin 389, but in 2010 the two become inseparable. Instead we smell and taste a juicy, supple red with an attractive spicy-sweet character from the oak weaving through the fruit. Cabernet finally asserts itself in the firm but finely textured finish. What a classy wine – and built long cellaring. The oak is all American, 40 per cent of it new.

Penfolds Bin 407 South Australia Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $55.55–$74.99
Bin 407 provides an expression of ripe, but not overripe, cabernet sauvignon – blackcurrant-like with no discernible leafy or herbal characters. To achieve this, winemaker Peter Gago selects suitable fruit from Coonawarra, Wrattonbully and Padthway on the Limestone Coast and McLaren Vale, a few hundred kilometres to the north. The oak used for maturation comprises French and American barrels of various ages, a little under half it new. Impressively vibrant, dense, pure-varietal fruit fills the palate, cut with ripe, fine-textured tannins. This is an exceptionally complete, well balance cabernet with long cellaring potential.

Wine review — Yering Station, Kate Hill, Finca Rosal, Galli Estate and Howard Park

10 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Yering Station Village Pinot Noir 2011 $21–$25
Yarra Valley, Victoria
The Rathbone family produces several pinots from its Yarra Valley vineyards. And as we see often in the wine industry, a company achieving superior quality in its top-shelf wines generally leads the pack in lower priced wine as well. Yering Station’s entry-level Village pinot delivers the thrill of the variety at a fair price. The wine’s pale colour belies its depth of mouth-watering “pinosity” – a combination of detailed varietal flavour, fine supporting tannins and silky texture.

Kate Hill Cabernet Merlot 2010 $24–$30
Coal River and Tamar Valleys, Tasmania
At a recent tasting, Kate Hill’s wine sat beside a comparable blend from Bordeaux sub-region, Puisseguin-Saint Emillion. I’d hoped for contrast but also some similarities. Contrast we got; similarities zero. Kate Hill’s vivacious cabernet merlot blend thrilled with its musky perfume and lively palate – based on ripe berry flavours, seasoned with the pleasing leafiness these varieties deliver in cool climates. Fine, soft tannins added to the wine’s drink now charm. It’s an uncomplicated, delicious expression of the cool climate and the two varieties. The French wine, on the other hand, proved a poor representative from a region capable of making charming, elegant reds.

Finca Rosal Old Vines Monastrell 2010 $20
Yecla, Murcia, Spain
Thanks to the strong Australian dollar we can enjoy this bright, fresh Spanish wine at a realistic price. It’s made from monastrell, a Spanish red variety known in Australia since the 1830s as mataro and more recently by its French name, mourvedre. The wine is made in the clean, bright, modern style. It’s limpid and vibrantly coloured, featuring sweet, blueberry-like fruit flavours, with earthy and spicy notes, layered with soft, drying tannins.

Yering Station Village Chardonnay 2011 $21–$25
Yarra Valley, Victoria
The three beautiful chardonnays reviewed today present shades of the contemporary Australian oak-fermented style. In body, Yering Station sits between the fuller Howard Park wine and the more delicate Galli Estate version. Yering Station (80 per cent barrel fermented) leads with vibrant, citrus and nectarine-like varietal flavour. A subtle funky note and smooth texture (from partial wild-yeast fermentation and maturation in yeast lees) season the fruit with detracting from its vitality.

Galli Estate Camelback Chardonnay 2012 $17–$20
Sunbury, Victoria
Galli Estate, the lightest and leanest of the three chardonnays reviewed today, captures the racy, grapefruit-like, just-ripe flavour of cool-grown chardonnay. Although the entire blend was fermented in oak barrels, and 80 per cent of it kept there for maturation on yeast lees, the oak is barely, if at all, detectable. Its use will have added to the texture of the wine, but for the drinker this is all about fine fruit flavour, intensified by brisk acidity.

Howard Park Miamup Chardonnay 2011 $23–$27
Southern Margaret River, Western Australia
Howard Park Miamup chardonnay offers a bolder expression of chardonnay than we see in the two expressions reviewed today. The fuller, rounder stone-fruit-like flavour comes bundled with assertive funky notes (injected by the winemaking techniques) and oak flavours. It’s not a return to the fat, oak chardonnays of the past but a bright, fresh, modern approach that’s not afraid to let the winemaking inputs stand equally with the fruit. If you were enjoying a chardonnay dinner, you might begin with Galli Estate and oysters, move on to garfish and Yering Station – and finish on lobster and Howard Park.

Beer review — Young’s and Gage Roads

10 April 2013Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Young’s Luxury Double Malt Chocolate Stout 500ml $5.90
There’s chocolate in the brew and it shows up as a dry, bitter note in the finish – like strong high-cocoa chocolate. But more than anything it’s a full-bore stout featuring rich, roasted malt flavour, all-round opulence, smooth texture and assertive hops bitterness. A small glass on a cold night would be perfect.

Gage Roads Abstinence Belgian Dubbel Chocolate Ale 640ml $7.90
Western Australia’s Gage Roads, partly owned by Woolworths, made this Belgian style ale using Belgian yeast strains and Gabriel chocolate from Margaret River. Delicious chocolate flavour, tinged with hops, permeates the lively 7.4 per cent alcohol palate. Alas, the ale lost its head almost instantly.

Canberra’s Wig and Pen to brew for awards dinner

10 April 2013BeerChris Shanahan

Canberra’s Wig and Pen Brewery has been selected to brew beer for the presentation dinner following this year’s Australian International Beer Awards. The Wig earned this precious gig through its performance at last year’s awards.

The awards, conducted annually by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) and the University of Ballarat, enjoys a strong reputation globally.

This year’s event has attracted a record 1,480 entries from 270 brewers in 35 countries. The 12 per cent increase includes greater entry numbers from Australia, New Zealand Brazil, Japan and the United States.

The RASV is also behind the Royal Melbourne Wine Show. And the University of Ballarat became involved because of its courses in brewing and malting. Chief judge of the event this year will be Brad Rogers, brewer and partner at Stone and Wood brewery, Byron Bay.

Wine review — Peter Lehmann, Quilty and Toppers Mountain

7 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Peter Lehmann H and V Adelaide Hills Pinot Gris 2012 $22
Minor mutations of the pinot vine explain how we can enjoy white (pinot blanc), pink-grey (pinot gris) and red (pinot noir) wine from a single vine variety. All three deliver their best flavours in cool climates. For Peter Barossa-based Lehmann wines, that means sourcing fruit from a couple of cooler, high-altitude vineyards in the Adelaide Hills. Though there’s none of the pink-grey colour we often see in pinot gris, the wine shows the variety’s silky texture, enhanced by fermentation of a portion in oak barrels. The flavour is delicate – a little like fresh pear – leaving the focus on texture and racy freshness.

Quilty Silken Thread Mudgee Petit Verdot 2011 $22
The late-ripening Bordeaux variety petit verdot gives colour and complexity to blends with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot. However, recent genetic research, writes Jancis Robinson, puts it in a separate vine family, including little known varieties, ardonnet, gros verdot and petit verdot faux. Like the Bordelaise, Australian wine makers tend to blend petit verdot away. But Des Quilty and others let petit verdot standalone. At a recent tasting of lesser-known varieties, Quilty’s version appealed to a range of first-time petit verdot tasters. Not as deep as some I’ve tasted, perhaps because of the cool vintage, it delivered ripe, juicy flavour on a pleasingly elegant palate.

Toppers Mountain New England Gewurztraminer 2012 $35
In Wine Grapes: A complete guide to 1368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, Jancis Robinson describes gewürztraminer as “one of the most headily and distinctively aromatic varietals of all with strong lychee flavours and high alcohol levels”. She says the latest genetic research classifies the variety as “an aromatic mutation of savagnin rose” that probably occurred in Germany’s Rheingau region. Toppers Mountain’s version, from the cool New England region, NSW, resembles more the plush, highly aromatic, almost viscous versions from Alsace, France. A little bit goes a long way. But I can imagine this with pork sausage, pate, or, alternatively, with the spicy tang of Thai food.

Mourvedre – venerable survivor

3 April 2013UncategorizedChris Shanahan

Hewitson Old Garden mouvrede vine — Venerable survivor -- mourvedre vine, planted 1853, Roland Flat, Barossa Valley

The release of the 2011 Penfolds Shiraz Mourvedre Bin 2, an old label from the 1960s resurrected in the 1990s, and a “march mataro madness” campaign by Barossa wine merchant David Farmer, begs the question of what this great old variety really is. There’s not a lot of it grown in Australia – in 2008 just 785 hectares, mostly in the Barossa Valley – yet it’s survived here since the 1830s. And even if we’ve not heard of it, we’ve almost certainly enjoyed mourvedre (aka mataro), acknowledged or not in red blends or as an anonymous component in Australian “port”.

Descriptions of mourvedre contradict one another. Can it really be soft and fruity but also tannic and iron-hard; both low in acid with little colour and searingly acidic and opaque? The answer appears to be yes. Consider these contrasting accounts of Spanish and Australian mourvedre/monastrell/mataro from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine and Rolf Binder’s Veritas Winery website.

Jancis Robinson: “The wine produced from monastrell’s small, sweet, thick-skinned berries tends to be heady stuff, high in alcohol, tannins and a somewhat gamey almost animal flavour”. Rolf Binder: “A mataro berry is about 1.5 times larger than a shiraz berry so bleeding off juice increases the juice to skin ratio” – in short, Binder bleeds juice off to increase extraction of tannin and colour, something his Spanish peers don’t’ need to do.

Robinson also writes that in southern France “mourvedre is considered an improving structural ingredient – a sort of vinous RSJ” – suggesting its firm tannins give the backbone lacking in the companion varieties, shiraz, grenache and cinsault.

Barossa vigneron Dean Hewitson offers two possible reasons for southern French mourvedre’s comparative toughness. The first, and most likely, he believes, is that varieties are mixed in the vineyard in the Rhone Valley but they ripen at different times. Therefore if a grower harvests a plot of ripe grenache, the mourvedre mixed in it with it will be unripe, with hard tannins.

The second is that the devastation of European vineyards by phylloxera in the late nineteenth century may have resulted in significant clonal differences between Australia and Europe. Barossa plantings are all pre-phylloxera and may be “clonally softer in tannin”, suggests Hewitson.

But then as we digest that, Penfolds notes, based on Barossa fruit, seem more consistent with Robinson’s, “Mourvedre is dark in colour, smells of Provençal herbs and spices and has plenty of tannin stuffing. This is a wine varietal greatly valued by Penfolds winemakers for its blending attributes; toning down the exuberant qualities of shiraz, while adding overall complexity and palate grip”.

Because mourvedre buds and ripens very late, it needs plenty of late season heat. Little wonder, then, that it’s at home in the hot Barossa and Spain, but pushes only into southern France, and even there can struggle to ripen.

In Australia as in France and Spain, mourvedre plays mainly a support role to other varieties, historically for “port” and increasingly for red table wine. In the mid eighties the so-called Rhone Rangers led the Barossa revival of grenache-shiraz-mourvedre blends. This group, including Charlie Melton, Rocky O’Callaghan and Bob McLean, Chris Ringland and Rolf Binder, took the unique beauty of the Barossa’s very old vines to the world.

Mourvedre played a key role in the blends. But they weren’t the first to gain recognition, as Penfolds Shiraz Mataro Bin 2, made from 1960, remained popular until its discontinuation in the seventies. Penfolds resurrected it in 1980 and 1981, then discontinued it, shipping the remainder to the UK. Production of Bin 2, now labelled as shiraz mourvedre, commenced again in 1990.

In The Rewards of Patience, edition four, 2000, Penfolds claims Bin 2 opened the UK market to Australian wine, “Originally, Bin 2 was a result of experimental work on the medium-bodied, soft-finishing ‘Australian Burgundy’ style, traditionally based on shiraz. The addition of mourvedre may also explain Bin 2’s success with British wine drinkers, as this variety has the effect of moderating the richness of shiraz, making the wine leaner and more European in both style and structure”.

Mourvedre seems set to continue its supporting role to shiraz and grenache. But Hewitson and Binder have both made jaw-dropping straight varietals as thrilling as any red on the market.

However, Dean Hewitson cautions, “It’s a matter of understanding when it’s a blending grape and when it’s not to blend”. He sources mourvedre from a dozen or so vineyards across the Barossa, several of them more than a century old, but still uses it principally as a blender, “to add complexity to Miss Harry [his grenache, shiraz, mourvedre, cinsault blend] and dimension to Ned and Henry’s [shiraz with a splash of mourvedre]”.

He adds that mourvedre’s not as forgiving a variety as shiraz or cabernet and it needs to be from a very special site – typically in sandy soils – to stand on its own.

Hewitson made his first straight varietal in 1998 from eight rows of mourvedre vines, remnants of a larger vineyard planted by Friedrich Koch in 1853, near the North Para River at Roland Flat, Southern Barossa. He believes the vines to be direct descendents of the collection brought to Australia by James Busby in1832.

Those remaining vines, he says, witnessed all the fads and fashions of the Australian wine industry, from fortified to table wine, and even contributed fruit to Orlando Carrington Blush bubbly in the eighties. The mourvedre plantings had been more extensive, but the Koch family replaced them progressively with more fashionable varieties until Hewitson contracted the last eight rows in 1998.

From 1996 Hewitson propagated new vineyards using cuttings from the best of the old vines. These gradually increased the volume of mourvedre available for blending and, after ten years, contributed fruit to a second straight mourvedre, Baby Bush.

Hewitson believes we’ll see more straight mourvedre in the near future. He suspects recent sales of Baby Bush and Old Garden to fellow Barossa makers to be for benchmarking their own products.

We’ll have to wait and see. But even if more flow into the market, it’ll be a tiny volume. Mourvedre accounts for less than one per cent of Australia’s red plantings, and these vines produce only six to seven thousand tonnes of grapes a year.

Production may be small, but it’s a key variety, a great blender, sensational on its own on occasion and now, I’m told, the best grapes fetch very high prices. In the Barossa this means a small army of makers, many of them quite small, hunting down those very special, very old parcels.

On glug.com.au, David Farmer notes the long history of the variety in the Barossa Valley and warm inland regions. He warns of the marketing danger of using two names for the one variety, especially given the difficulty of pronouncing “mourvedre” and the much longer usage of “mataro” in Australia.

He writes, “To persist with the term mourvedre risks failure as no one is confident in pronouncing it. At Glug we will stick to Mataro as it is a tough, honest sounding and avoids a name which is far too French for our taste. The Barossa Valley Wine Show and Penfolds should do likewise. To get the Australian red wine drinker interested in this wonderful variety will require serious effort and using dual names is a disaster”.

Farmer notes that of the 43 straight or blended mataros listed on Dan Murphy’s website, 20 use “mataro”, 22 use “mourvedre” and one uses the Spanish, “monastrell”. Clearly, winemakers remain split on which name to use, though I suspect the pendulum has swung to “mourvedre”, especially among the young.

In Wine grapes: A complete guide to 1368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours (2012), Jancis Robinson lists the variety as “monastrell” and says the evidence points to it being of Spanish origin, with the first known mention of it in the 1380s. She says the variety probably found its way to southern France in the sixteenth century.

Call it what we will, mourvedre remains an important niche variety. Farmer observes from the hot Barossa, as wine writers lean increasingly towards cool-climate wines, “our job is to make customers aware of long established varieties like mataro, grenache and carignan and the flavours they develop in a warm climate”.

Wine review — Printhie, Brokenwood, Xanadu and Kate Hill

3 April 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Printhie MCC Shiraz 2011 $36
Printhie Phalaris vineyard, Orange, NSW
Some time back, vignerons in Orange, NSW, nominated sauvignon blanc as their hero variety. But Printhie’s Dave Swift puts shiraz and chardonnay at the top of the regional pile. He writes, “These are the varieties that are proving to be the region’s best performers”. Shiraz performs best in Printhie’s lower (620 metres), warmer sites while chardonnay shines at a significantly cooler 900 metres. The two wines reviewed today support Swift’s claim brilliantly. Either could’ve been wine of the week. The deeply coloured shiraz offers the intense spice and pepper, medium body and fine tannins typical of cool-grown shiraz. It holds a couple of trophies and gold medals, including one from the very competitive Royal Sydney Wine Show 2013.

Printhie MCC Chardonnay 2011 $36
Orange, NSW
Every now and then Orange throws up an elegant chardonnay of great purity and beauty. I recall several under Murray Smith’s Canobolas Smith label, and an absolutely beautiful Rosemount Estate 1994, made by Philip Shaw, a wine that went on winning show medals for many years. Printhie’s 2011, made by Drew Tuckwell, joins this elite group. It no doubt enjoyed all the tricks winemakers throw at chardonnay. But an intense citrus- melon-like varietal character remains at the centre, completely subsuming the winemaker inputs into the rich texture and complex flavours. This is a classy chardonnay and probably good for five or six years in the cellar.

Brokenwood Semillon 2012 $25
Lower Hunter (Pokolbin and Broke-Fordwich) and Upper Hunter, NSW
Brokenwood’s new release semillon draws fruit from its home base in Pokolbin, the adjoining Broke valley and vineyards further up the Hunter Valley. It weighs in at just 10.5 per cent alcohol, contains an undetectable 4.8 grams per litre of residual grape sugar and acidity of 6.9 grams a litre. That combination gives a light, gentle, crisp, dry white featuring the distinctive citrus and lemongrass-like aromas and flavours of early picked semillon. It’s a delicate, aperitif style with the ability to develop rich, honeyed flavours with bottle age.

Xanadu Next of Kin Shiraz 2011 $18
Margaret River, Western Australia
Xanadu is the Margaret River arm of the Rathbone Group, comprising, as well, Yering Station (Yarra Valley), Mount Langi Ghiran (Grampians) and Parker Estate (Coonawarra). Xanadu’s Next of Kin range offers really good, drink-now regional wines at prices well below the premium offerings. The shiraz, though 14.5 per cent alcohol, seems more medium than full-bodied. Vibrant berry flavours drive the wine, but these are satisfying layered with spicy and savoury notes and soft, easy tannins.

Kate Hill Riesling 2012 $28
Tasmania
Kate Hill sources fruit from growers in Tasmania’s Derwent, Coal River and Huon Valleys and makes wine in her Huonville winery, a converted 100-year-old apple cool store. Her delicate, dry riesling (11.8 per cent alcohol) is far removed in style from the ones we know from warm mainland sites like Clare Valley, Eden Valley and Canberra. It’s more akin to the German style in flavour, though somewhat fuller and firmer. This and a few others I’ve tasted make it easy to imagine Tasmania as Australia’s riesling capital in the years ahead.

Kate Hill Pinot Noir 2010 $36
Coal River Valley and Derwent Valley, Tasmania
Australia’s pinot scene grows more exciting and varied every day, with Tasmania steadily moving from potential to achievement. Kate Hill’s sits in the latter category ¬¬– a richly textured, medium-bodied style of modest alcohol (13 per cent). It features ripe, cherry-like varietal character, a subtle, stalky note and a finely structured palate with quite firm tannins. We see this positive character quite often in Burgundy but not so much in Australia’s generally softer styles. This is a brand to watch. Hill says she’ll be planting one to two hectares of pinot noir this spring and opening a cellar door in 2014. See katehillwines.com.au for stockists.

Beer review — Robinsons and Moon Dog

3 April 2013Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Robinsons Old Tom Strong Ale with Ginger 330ml $5.85
The back label says this is a blend of respected UK brands, Old Tom Strong Ale and Fentiman’s Ginger Beer. The luxurious, six-per-cent alcohol, deep mahogany ale leads with a seductive earthy, spicy, gingery aroma. The generous, warm, piquant, gingery palate matches the aroma precisely.

Moon Dog Love Tap Double Lager 330ml $5.32
From Abbotsford, Victoria, Moon Dog Double Lager combines four malts (pilsner, carared, carapils and chocolate) with three hops varieties (galaxy, motueka and tettenang). This produces a deep-golden colour, a rich, sweet, malty palate, balanced by layers of bitterness and citrus-like flavours from the hops.

Brewer defends Aussie Guinness

3 April 2013BeerChris Shanahan

A former Foster’s brewer and beer-judging colleague of mine, Dermot O’Donnell, recently defended locally brewed Guinness. James Davidson wrote in Australian Brews News two days before St Patrick’s Day, “the money you spend on such a pint [Australian brewed Guinness] and the beverage you subsequently consume may actually be more distant to Ireland than the foam shamrock hat on your head that you purchased from a two dollar shop”.

O’Donnell’s response traced the modern history of Guinness, including the development in Ireland of a vital flavouring component, called Guinness flavour extract. “This is the X factor in Guinness which gives it is unique character”, he wrote – adding that Guinness therefore has the unique taste of Ireland no matter where it’s brewed in the world.

O’Donnell called for a fair go for Guinness and “us Irish who love the black stuff on Paddy’s Day”.