Monthly Archives: August 2013

Wine review — Seppeltsfield, Wicks Estate and Tscharke

11 August 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Seppeltsfield Eden Valley Riesling 2012 $19.80–$22
After a couple of changes of ownership in recent years, Barossa’s historic Seppeltsfield belongs to four investors, led by winemaker and managing director, Warren Randall. Under an arrangement with former owner, Foster’s (now Treasury Wine Estates), Randall’s group can sell Seppeltsfield table wines only through the cellar door and mail order. However, it distributes the unique and superb Seppeltsfield fortified wines throughout and Australia. And Treasury continues to use the Seppelt brand for table and sparkling wines. Seppeltsfield riesling, under its beautiful retro label, provides the full flavoured delicacy of a great Eden Valley vintage. (Available at seppeltsfield.com.au).

Wicks Estate Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2012 $16.15–$20
In 1999, property developers Tim and Simon Wicks bought a 54-hectare property at Woodside, Adelaide Hills. They planted a 40-hectare vineyard and, in 2004, built a winery large enough to process the vineyard’s considerable grape output. The wines, made by Tim Knappstein, Leigh Ratzmer and Chris Parsons, have been outstanding at the price. On a recent visit to the winery, the 2012 shiraz appealed strongly. It’s of a similar quality and style to the gold-medal-winning 2010 vintage (there was no 2011), offering lovely fragrance, vibrant, ripe-berry and spicy flavours and silky soft tannins.

Tscharke Girl Talk Barossa Valley Savagnin 2012
As cooler areas inexorably dominate production of the crisp, zesty white styles demanded by consumers, some winemakers in warmer areas like the Barossa seek white varieties that make appealing wine in these warm, dry conditions. Damien Tscharke pioneered the Spanish variety, albarino, only to find it was savagnin. Whatever it’s called, though, the variety produces a soft, juicy and smooth textured dry white with a pleasant savouriness setting it apart from, say, sauvignon blanc or chardonnay. For the first time in the very good 2012 vintage, Tscharke fermented a small proportion of the wine in older oak – boosting the wine’s texture.

Lobethal beer

7 August 2013Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

A couple of Alistair Turnbull’s bottled beers enjoyed here in Canberra, prompted a visit to his Lobethal Bierhaus. We’d been in the Barossa, so motored up through Angaston and south along the Mounty Lofty ranges.

Henschke, at Keyneton, doesn’t open Sundays, so we continued south through Springton, Eden Valley and across the invisible border to the Adelaide Hills and its string of lovely villages, including Lobethal.

It’s winter but a balmy 19 degrees, tempting the Bierhaus crowd, largely families with kids, into the beer garden, though the hall inside fills up with lunch time revelers, too.

It’s hard to imagine a friendlier, more relaxed place, offering good local food and soft drinks as well as the exceptionally good beers Turnbull brews on site. It’s a must visit, and an easy drive from Adelaide, or via the scenic route, going to or from the Barossa.

Lobethal Hefeweizen 330ml $4.99
Lobethal Bierhaus makes its wheat beer in the southern Bavarian style, characterised by a highly aromatic fruity character. A yeast haze hangs in the lovely golden liquid, topped by a dense white foam. The generous, creamy textured palate refreshes with its fruity flavour and tangy dry finish.

Lobethal Bierhaus Red Truck Porter 330ml $4.99
Porter sits at the dark end of the ale spectrum, generally a tad lighter coloured than stout, though that distinction doesn’t always hold. The aroma suggests roasted grain, coffee and chocolate – flavours delivered generously on the palate. A subtle hops flavour adds freshness and a mild bitterness that offsets the generous malt flavours.

Wine review — Main Ridge, Prancing Horse Estate, Oliver’s Taranga, Paxton, Seppeltsfield and Langmeil

7 August 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Main Ridge Estate Chardonnay 2011 $55
Main Ridge vineyard, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
In a tasting of top-shelf chardonnays from the cold 2011 vintage, Main Ridge stood out from its bonier peers. The shift to leaner, tighter chardonnays in Australia has been overall a good thing, though some wines do seem a little too skinny, especially in very cool seasons. But even in one of the wettest, coolest vintages Nat and Rosalie white manage to keep some flesh on the bone. Theirs is an elegant chardonnay, in the best sense of the word – finely structured and delicate, but with beautiful fruit flavours, a subtle, sweet, caramel-like undercurrent (probably a result of malolactic fermentation) and smooth, silky mid palate and brisk, clean finish.

Prancing Horse Estate Pinot Noir 2010 $65
Prancing Horse vineyard, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Prancing Horse vineyard dates from 1990. But after a change in ownership in 2002, writes Tony Hancy, it was “rejuvenated with an extreme pruning regime. Additional clones were grafted into the sit alongside the existing MV6 and great effort went into changing the trellis system from Scott Henry to VSP [vertical shoot positioning]”. Hancy engaged Burgundian biodynamic wine consultant, Pascal Marchand, a soil expert, Professor Yves Herody, and winemaker Sergio Carlei. The team is clearly getting it all right as this is an outstanding pinot, showing intense, savoury fruit flavours and a strong, fine backbone of tannin.

Oliver’s Taranga Fiano 2013 $24
Oliver’s Taranga Vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia
Put this spritely white in you notebook for spring. Winemaker Corrina Wright, a sixth generation Oliver of Taranga, McLaren Vale, mixes several Italian and Spanish varieties in the family’s extensive plantings of more traditional cultivars. Wright’s fiano, an Italian white variety, is bracingly acidic but also richly textured, with a sweet kiss of residual grape sugar offsetting the high acid. Wright says the very low pH of two needed a little sugar coating. It’s something different and exhilarating for the coming summer.

Paxton AAA Shiraz Grenache 2011 $20
Paxton vineyards, McLaren Vale, South Australia
David Paxton and family operate several vineyards in McLaren. Paxton originally grew and sold grapes, and was involved in establishing several significant vineyards – including Hardys highly regarded Hoddles Creek vineyard in the Yarra Valley. However, the Paxtons moved to wine making a few years back and intend ultimately to process all of their own grapes for the Paxton label. AAA, a delicious, savoury, medium-bodied blend, is their biggest seller, offering the regional style at a fair price.

Seppeltsfield Solero DP117 Pale Dry Flor 500ml $29–$32
Seppeltsfield vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia
That unique Barossa wine estate, Seppeltsfield, sits on a treasure trove of fortified wine, stretching back in an unbroken sequence to the 1878 vintage. The company’s stocks include a solera of this thrilling, salty, briny, tangy fino “sherry” style made from palomino grapes grown on the estate. With an average age of eight years in barrel, it offers a fine and thrilling expression of this Spanish inspired style, so suited to savoury food like olives and anchovies.

Langmeil Eden Valley Riesling 2012 $25
Eden Valley, South Australia
On a cold Barossa day we arrived at Tanunda’s 1918 restaurant ready for a hot meal and cold drink. We asked the waitress for something refreshing, and she delivered Langmeil’s delicious Eden Valley riesling. The shimmering green-gold colour appealed enormously and the thrill carried through to the generous, vigorous, lime-like flavours. It’s a fuller-bodied version of the Eden Valley style, giving great drink-now appeal but without sacrificing vibrancy and freshness.

Wine review — Clonakilla, Turkey Flat and Red Knot

4 August 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2012 $28–$32
Heavy rain towards the end of February 2012 destroyed large volumes of ripe, or near ripe grapes in Canberra and surrounding districts. Clonakilla lost much of its Canberra fruit in the event. But, says Tim Kirk, they harvested most of their fruit from the Hilltops region (around Young, NSW), the day before the 200mm deluge arrived. The result is a delightfully rich red combining ripe, dark-cherry flavours with the spice and touch of black pepper we see from cooler areas. The wine’s medium bodied and shows the Clonakilla signature of great harmony and silky, juicy mid palate.

Turkey Flat Butcher’s Block Barossa Valley
Marsanne Roussanne Viognier 2012 $19.95
This is exactly the sort of white Barossa makers ought to specialise in. Made from three varieties well suited to warm, dry regions, Butcher’s Block offers texture and savouriness rather than the aromatics and fruitiness cooler regions do better. Christie Schulz polished the style over the years, treating each of the components separately, including skin contact for the viognier, early picking for the marsanne and later picking and whole bunch pressing for the roussanne – with 50 per cent of the blend matured in oak. It’s a full-bodied, richly textured dry white with subtle, underlying nectarine and apricot-like flavours.

Red Knot by Shingleback McLaren Vale
Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2012 $10.90–$15
The Davey family’s Red Knot range delivers some of the best value for money drinking in the market. Red drinkers twigged to this a few years back, and retailers responded by including the wines among their regular discounts. The wines easily deserve $15 a bottle. But they’re bargains when the price drops closer to $10 – as they were when I wrote this review. The 2012 blend leads with the lovely musk-like fragrance of grenache, supported on the soft and juicy palate by the richness of shiraz and spiciness of mourvedre.