Devil’s Corner Tasmania Chardonnay 2012 $14.25-$17
Few new releases offer as compelling a reason to buy as Devil’s Corner. It delivers high quality at the right price. And it all gets back to growing grapes where they perform best. In this instance Tasmanian chardonnay – grown in the Tamar Valley and the East Coast, near Freycinet– delivers intense white peach and citrus varietal flavours on a dazzling fresh palate of great purity. There’s no oak; and the amazing thing is that the fruit stands on its own. Brown Brothers’ expertise completes the story. They acquired Tamar Ridge, its vineyards and the Devil’s corner brand from Gunns in 2010.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Shiraz 2009 $16.15–$23.30
The wide gap between the recommended and on-special price indicates the strong appeal of this old and solid wine from the Purbrick family. The historic property lies at a similar latitude to Coonawarra. But the continental climate (versus Coonawarra’s maritime one) means a significantly different wine style. Both are medium bodied. But Tahbilk’s are more spicy and savoury with quite strong, sometimes tough tannins giving a firm grip to the wines. At four years’ the shiraz offers satisfying drinking – its savoury flavours and assertive tannins well matched to high-tannin food, especially red meats, and also to more savoury, spicy food, like pepperoni pizza.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $14.90–$23.30
If you’re driving to Melbourne it’s worth the detour off the Hume Highway, via Violet Town and Nagambie, to Tahbilk. The cellar door and café sit on a beautiful anabranch of the Goulburn River, a short walk from the historic nineteenth century underground cellars. Vines, too, date from1860, though most were planted after the Purbrick family purchased the property in the 1920s. Winemaking passed direct from Eric Purbrick (first vintage 1931) to his grandson, Alister Purbrick, the current winemaker. Tahbilk’s medium bodied cabernet delivers rich, ripe varietal flavour, the underlying fresh fruit cut through with assertive, satisfying tannins.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 24 February 2013 in The Canberra Times

Chandon Vintage Brut Rose 2008 $27.85–$35
Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania
Chandon’s bubbly rosé combines material from the Yarra Valley, King Valley, Goulburn Valley, Strathbogie and Macedon, Victoria; the Adelaide Hills, South Australia; Great Southern, Western Australia; and the Coal River Valley, Tasmania. Winemaker Dan Buckle says it comprises 30 individual cuvees, including a pinot noir component fermented on skins – source of the lovely salmon-pink colour. The quality of the fruit, prolonged ageing on yeast lees and the red-wine component all contribute to a round, soft, creamy-textured scrumptiously fruit bubbly. We served it with baked whole salmon from FishCo, Fyshwick. The fruitiness matched with sweet flesh, while the fresh acidity cut through the fat. Buckle emailed, “this is my go-to wine for yum cha at the moment”.

Mt Monster Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $15
Padthaway, South Australia
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. Cabernet performs well in the mild maritime climate, producing this bright, clearly varietal, medium bodied version for current drinking.

Sassy Pinot Noir 2010 $30
Sassy vineyard, Orange, NSW
In 2005 Fliss and Rob Coles moved uphill from Cowra to Orange’s brisker climate – establishing a vineyard, including three clones of pinot noir, at an elevation of 900 metres. Their first pinot, a light to medium bodied style made by neighbour Peter Logan, delivers vibrant, delicate pinot aromas and flavours. Fine tannins give it a gently, dry, savoury finish. It’s a well-made wine with lovely fruit – one to watch in future as the vines age, delivering deeper, more complex flavours.

Tahbilk Eric Stevens Purbrick Shiraz 2007 $69.95
Tahbilk vineyard, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
Alister Purbrick, makes this wine from older shiraz vines (average age 35 years) on Tahbilk’s extensive vineyards, located on a beautiful anabranch of the Goulburn River. It’s a medium bodied red, with intense, verging on syrup-rich, plummy, spicy fruit, cut by assertive but soft tannins – far from the more aggressive styles we once say from Tahbilk. The wine drank beautifully over several days – a satisfying memento to Purbrick’s grandfather and mentor, the late Eric Stevens Purbrick.

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Riesling 2012 $10.70–$18
Barossa, South Australia
The on-special price of Jacob’s Creek Reserve often drops close to the standard price of the cheaper Classic Riesling. In 2012 they’re both outstanding dry rieslings – the slightly fuller-bodied reserve version offering greater floral character on the nose and brisk, lime-like varietal intensity on the palate. Even at full price it offers good value but becomes a bargain on special. Should provide outstanding drinking over the next five or six years.

Picante Espana Grande Meseta Tempranillo Shiraz 2010 $13.99
Meseta, Spain
Picante Espana gives us a clean, fresh modern, screw-cap sealed take on Spain’s great red specialty, tempranillo, tempered by shiraz. The bright, spicy and fruity aroma (like a compote of fresh summer berries) appeals greatly. After an initial hit of vibrant fruit on the palate, tempranillo’s firm tannins close in, adding a mouth-watering savoury element to the otherwise fruity and delicious wine.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 20 February 2013 in The Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

Angoves Vineyard Select Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $18
South Australia’s 2010 vintage produced excellent red wines, with vibrant fruit flavours and smooth, round tannins. We see this from the Barossa in the north to Coonawarra in the south. In this instance Angove’s Vineyard Select gives us the true Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon experience at a comparatively low price. The elegant wine delivers vibrant, ripe, red-berry varietal character, subtly seasoned with sweet oak. Grippy but fine, smooth tannins complete the cabernet picture and there’s just a hint of varietal leafiness in the aftertaste. The back label suggests cellaring, but I see it as a medium-bodied, drink-now wine.

Lindemans Bin Series whites 2012 $5.45–$10
Cheap wines can be a good litmus of vintage quality. The recently reviewed Jacobs Creek Riesling 2012, for example, being one of the best under-$10 whites you’re ever likely to buy. The perennial unpopularity of riesling allowed its makers to source fruit from the best riesling-growing regions, despite the low price. Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay 2012 and Bin 95 Sauvignon Blanc 2012, on the other hand, come from warm inland regions rather than the best areas for those varieties. In the mild 2012 season this translated to vibrant varietal flavours and great freshness – meaning good drinking at a low price.

Cherubino Permberton Sauvignon Blanc 2012 $35
As Hardy’s winemaker in Western Australia, Larry Cherubino enjoyed access to a thousand hectares or more of plum vineyards across the state’s south, including Margaret River, Pemberton and the various sub-regions of Great Southern. Since going solo in 2005, Cherubino and wife Edwina source fruit from their own Frankland River vineyard and growers in Margaret River, Pemberton and the Porongurups. Cherubino’s sauvignon blanc offers a subtle and lovely alternative to the Marlborough style. It leans to the passionfruit-like riper end of the varietal spectrum, in a charming way, with fresh, soft acidity and fine, smooth texture.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 17 February in The Canberra Times

Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne 2003$45
Tahbilk vineyard, Nagambie, Victoria
Winemaker Alister Purbrick’s late grandfather, Eric, built Tahbilk’s reputation for marsanne, a Rhone Valley white variety. Alister worked alongside his grandfather after graduating as a winemaker, eventually taking the reins. Over time, he finessed the potentially long-lived style, brightening and freshening the fruit in the basic marsanne and absolutely mastering it in this special bottling from the estate’s oldest marsanne vines. At ten years it remains absolutely fresh and vibrant – the mouth-watering, citrusy flavours showing barely a hint of honeyed aged character. At 11 per cent alcohol, it sits lightly on the palate and invites another mouthful.

Frankland Estate Poison Hill Vineyard Riesling 2012$27
Poison Hill Vineyard, Frankland River, Western Australia
Frankland Estate makes three rieslings from individual vineyards within the Frankland River region. Last time we drove through the area, in late 2010, it was baking hot and the countryside look dry as a plank. It didn’t feel like riesling country. But the saviour is a cool ocean breeze, pushing in from the south, ameliorating the hot breath of the continent, and making delicate riesling like this possible. It’s full flavoured for riesling, but the low alcohol (10.5 per cent), bright, fresh citrusy varietal character and dusty, dry finish give it a delicious, appealing lightness and pleasant tartness on the palate.

Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Shiraz 2010 $32
Isolation Ridge vineyard, Frankland River, Western Australia
Frankland River gives yet another Australian interpretation of medium-bodied shiraz – different again from, say, Canberra, Hunter and the Pyrenees. The palate’s strikingly pure with spicy, ripe-berry varietal flavours. But there’s a savoury undertone and a supple, silky texture contributed by the fine-boned tannins. The tannins also dry out the finish with a savoury bite that seasons the lingering berry fruit flavours.

Xanadu Shiraz 2010 $29
Xanadu Stevens Road vineyard, Margaret River, Western Australia
Like Coonawarra, Australia’s other great maritime cabernet specialist, Margaret River makes decent shiraz, too – albeit not as consistently well as it does cabernet. This version comes from a single vineyard and included whole berries in the ferment, partial barrel fermentation and a touch of the white variety, viognier. It’s a solid shiraz that remained intact for days after opening – a slightly chewier, chunkier wine than its WA mate, Frankland Estate, reviewed today, and with some alcoholic heat in the finish.

Quilty Black Thimble Shiraz 2011 $28
Burundulla, Mudgee Region, NSW
Des and Emma Quilty make just 450 cases of wine a year, says their website, “hand plucking the best possible grapes from the most interesting parcels of land. In this instance Des Quilty made just 175 dozen bottles from “low-yield vines in the hills just south of Mudgee. Now Mudgee’s a generally warm area, but this wine shows a pepperiness normal associated with much cooler places – suggesting the influence of the unusually cold season. There’s a bit of magic to this medium-bodied, idiosyncratic wine.

d’Arenberg Vintage Fortified Shiraz 2006 $40
McLaren Vale, South Australia
In the old days we would’ve called this vintage port. But the name now belongs exclusively to Portuguese winemakers, while our fortified makers revert to regional and varietal naming. This is a traditional Australian style, made from very ripe shiraz, sourced from old, low-yielding vines. It was partially fermented before the addition of fortifying brandy arrested the fermentation. This created a big, sweet wine, combining intense, juicy, ripe shiraz flavours, integrated with clean, heady brandy character. At seven years, it’s soft, approachable and still very fruity – and set for a long, long flavour evolution in the bottle. It should drink well for decades.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 13 February 2013 in The Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

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