Yearly Archives: 2013

Wine review — Henschke, Red Knot, Hungerford Hill, St Hallett and Hardy’s

23 January 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Henschke Johann’s Garden 2010 $36.09–$45
Barossa Valley, South Australia
Stephen and Prue Henschke’s sensational Johann’s Garden 2010 combines grenache (66 per cent), mourvedre (26 per cent) and shiraz from old, dry-grown Barossa vines. In a recent afternoon’s tasting with Barossa wine merchant David Farmer, it equalled JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett 2007 as wines of the day. The Mosel riesling’s, taut, acid-edged, delicate sweetness contrasted with the voluptuous silkiness of the ripe, spicy, juicy, elegant Barossa red. Most of the world doesn’t know Australia makes wine this good. It’s a gem, delivering amazing drinking pleasure at a fair price – a bargain, in fact, viewed against international competitors.

Red Knot by Shingleback Shiraz 2011 $9.90–$15
McLaren Vale, South Australia
The Davey family’s Red Knot range developed a big following because it offers such value for money – the ultimate accolade being its regular discounting by the big retailers, recognition of its quality-driven pulling power. Like earlier vintages, the 2011 is deeply coloured. However, in this very cool vintage, the flavours lean towards the savoury, rather than fruity, with notably less flesh than normal on the mid palate. It’s a triumph for the vintage and a decent drink, though lacking the flesh and depth of the 2010 vintage.

Hungerford Hill Classic Chardonnay 2010 $30
Tumbarumba, NSW
High, cool, Tumbarumba’s vineyards were established originally for sparkling wine production. However, chardonnay in particular proved suitable for high quality table wine as well and played a part in Penfolds “white Grange” project and the evolution of Hardy’s flagship white, Eileen Hardy. While the big companies’ quest for the best chardonnay moved further south, ultimately to Tasmania, Tumbarumba remains one of the best NSW sites for the variety. Hungerford Hill Classic, newly dressed in the original 1970’s label, shows delicious grapefruit and white-peach varietal flavour, with the spicy, funky edge of good oak and maturation on yeast lees.

St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz 2010 $34–$40
Ebenezer and Greenock, Barossa Valley, South Australia
There’s room for shiraz across the whole climate-induced flavour spectrum – from the edgy, white-pepper tinged New Zealand styles at the cool-climate extreme to the ripe and opulent warm-climate Barossa styles. What some cool-climate ideologists ignore, however, is the large number of drinkers wed to the richer, warmer styles and the extraordinary finessing of these styles over the last 20 years. Stuart Blackwell’s shiraz is a fine example. It’s ripe, full bodied and Barossa to the core. But it’s also vibrant and spritely on the palate, with deep, sweet fruit flavour and lovely, soft tannins.

Jacob’s Creek Riesling 2012 $6.90–$10
Barossa, Eden and Clare Valleys and Langhorne Creek, South Australia
The latest Jacob’s Creek shows the superior flavour qualities of a great riesling vintage. It won silver medals in the Melbourne and Hobart wine shows, then golds in Adelaide and Canberra’s National Wine Show of Australia. Winemaker Bernard Hickin says the fruit comes from the Barossa, Eden and Clare Valleys and Langhorne Creek. The combination gives the wine well-defined lime and lemon varietal flavours and a delicious fruit sweetness ¬– though the wine remains crisp and dry with only about three grams a litre of residual sugar (below our taste threshold). This is an extraordinarily good wine at the price.

Hardy’s HRB D651 Chardonnay 2010 $25–$30
Pemberton, Western Australia, and Yarra Valley, Victoria
Like the Jacob’s Creek reviewed today, Hardy’s HRB chardonnay won a gold medal at the 2012 National Wine Show of Australia. Where Jacob’s Creek combines riesling from three South Australian regions, Hardy’s crosses the continent, blending richer, fuller chardonnay from Pemberton, Western Australia, with finer, more citrusy material from the cooler Yarra Valley. It’s a pleasing result, showing Hardy’s mastery of chardonnay making and a nice bit of opportunistic blending. But I wonder about the future of cross-regional blends at this price in an age of regional marketing.

Tasting perspectives

23 January 2013WineChris Shanahan

No contrast could’ve been starker. Next to a tired and heavy Eden Valley riesling 1999 a Mosel of the same year seduced with its sweet, delicate freshness.

Australia’s Storton Vineyard Rhine Riesling 1999 didn’t get a second sniff. But Dr Weins-Prum Spaetlese Riesling 1999, from the great Sonnenuhr vineyard at Wehlen, showed the true beauty of the riesling grape. And we savoured it to the hilt.

After this masked tasting (hosted by Jeir Creek’s Rob and Kay Howell), we moved into festive mode – away from the formalities of the tasting bench to all the varied and relax sipping of the season.

Our first outing, in the Hyatt’s courtyard, brought home the huge advances of Australia’s sparkling wine makers over the last thirty years. The Hyatt offered on the day Moet et Chandon non-vintage Champagne at $85. It’s not a bad wine – delicate, in the Moet style, with tiny, lively bubbles, and soft, creamy texture. But where was the excitement?

We found more of this at other events in several Australian bubblies costing $50-$60. The most notable, Pirie Tasmania Blanc de Blancs 2007, drank so much better than Moet NV and several discount Champagnes we tried over the season.

However, our Christmas Champagnes – Pol Roger 1998 and Pol Roger 2000 –provided more drinking pleasure than anything we’ve seen to date from Australia. And even these rate a little behind the Krug Grande Cuvee enjoyed a few months earlier at a Clonakilla event. And sublime as it is, Grande Cuvee pales in comparison to our memories of Krug 1985, Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Rose 1988 and many other great vintage Champagnes savoured over thirty-six years in the trade.

This demonstrates quite a long pecking order even at the top of sparkling wine quality pyramid.

In the few weeks after Rob and Kay Howell’s masked tasting, where we enjoyed the Weins-Prum 1999 riesling, Mosel twice lit up our festive season. Over lunch under Chateau Shanahan’s 50-year-old gingko tree, JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett 2007 started a long afternoon of wine and conversation with Barossa wine merchant David Farmer.

Again, the fresh, delicately sweet Mosel proved irresistible, outclassing an older Australian riesling. Late in the day, however, Canberra’s Ravensworth Riesling 2012 held up well as a bright, young palate cleanser. A week or so later the light, ethereal delicacy of another JJ Prum riesling kabinett 2007 (from the Himmelreich vineyard, Graach) sat beautifully with food by Debbie Skelton.

Pooley Coal River Valley Pinot Grigio 2011 followed Prum’s riesling at the same dinner and required a significant palate recalibration. There’s nothing subtle about pinot grigio, a mutant of the pinot noir grape. Pooley’s, however, proved comparatively delicate for the variety, showing clear varietal flavour without heaviness – a product, presumably, of the cool climate, accompanied by good vine management and winemaking. The only red to distinguish itself on the night, Collector Reserve Canberra District Shiraz 2009, showed the fragrant, spicy elegance of cool-climate shiraz; it’s a beautiful wine and still evolving.

Over the festive period, we scrolled through the cellar, starting with pinot noir. A couple of old favourites, disappointed and remained in the decanter. Likewise the just-released Holm Oak Tasmania The Wizard ($60) didn’t push our pinot buttons. It’s a big, ripe, fruity red, impressive for the concentration of fruit flavour, but failing what we call the pinosity test. The similarly priced Bannockburn Geelong Serre Pinot Noir 2007 passed this test with aplomb. More pinots like this please.

A run of older wines from the cellar provided highlights, surprises and disappointments. Curse the cork is my first comment. At one dinner we decanted served side by side two cabernets from the 1986 vintage – a great year in both Bordeaux and eastern Australia.

Cork taint ruined the Chateau Pichon Longueville de Lalande 1986, a highly rated wine from Pauillac in Bordeaux’s Medoc region. The wine retained a lovely red colour, even at 26 years of age. And beneath the musty, mouldy cork taint, we could appreciate what might have been. So down the sink it went.

Its companion, however, showed the great glory of aged cabernet. Penfolds Bin 707 1986 (a blend from Coonawarra and the Kalimna vineyard, Barossa Valley), delivered the sweet, complex, cedary, fruity aroma of age, with a special lift and vibrancy – characters delivered also on the beautiful palate. This is a great wine by any measure, destined to drink well for decades to come.

Few wines blossom like this with bottle age. McWilliams Maurice O’Shea Hunter Valley Shiraz 2003, was OK, but not exciting. Penfolds RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz 2001 gave a little excitement, but nowhere near the heights of Bin 707.

And then out came Majella Coonawarra Shiraz 2002 – a good quaffer, we’d hoped, to accompany a late night game of 500. Well, what a gem it was, a red of some dimension and all the better for its long rest under Chateau Shanahan. This was elegant, berry and spice Coonawarra shiraz, sweet fruited and silky textured.

Wine review — Jim Barry, Freeman Vineyards and Stella Bella

20 January 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Jim Barry Lodge Hill Clare Valley Riesling 2012 $21–$23
Jim Barry’s Lodge Hill riesling won gold and an armful of trophies in Canberra’s 2012 National Wine Show of Australia. So, should we fall down in awe, worship at its feet? We picnicked with a bottle and pretty ordinary seafood behind the Yarralumla yacht club. The wine beat the seafood hands down. But it’s for those who like really full, fruity flavours. While, that’s a character of the 2012 Clare riesling vintage, Lodge Hill exaggerates fruitiness to the point it overwhelmed several palates, mine included. Others, including the show judges a month earlier, loved it – demonstrating how much individual taste varies.

Freeman Vineyard Hilltops Rondo Rose 2012 $20
Brian Freeman makes his dry, savoury rose from the Italian red variety, rondinella – a component, with corvina Veronese and molinara, in the wines of Valpolicella. Freeman makes a full-bodied red, adapted from Valpolicella’s Amarone style, as well as this rose. He runs juice off the skins after it picks up a rinse of pink colouring, then ferments and matures it in barrel. This produces a richly textured, pale pink wine that’s more savoury than fruity. The fresh, dry palate, rich texture and savouriness put it ahead of the many too-sweet roses on the market.

Stella Bella Margaret River Scuttlebutt Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2012 $18
Stella Bella Margaret River Scuttlebutt Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $18
Stella Bella’s latest sauvignon blanc-semillon blend includes a splash of the sometimes fat and oily viognier variety – but just enough to add a little richness to the palate. What you get is the herbal, passionfruit-like, zesty Margaret River style with a tad more weight than normal – a delicious drink-now style. Stuart Pym’s elegant, medium-bodied red blend combines shiraz with cabernet sauvignon – a bright, drink-now red with the focus on pure fruit flavours and smooth, fine tannins.

Wine review — Bay of Fires, Houghton, Penfolds, Wicks Estate and Jim Barry

16 January 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Bay of Fires Pinot Noir 2011 $32.30–$37
Tasmania
In November, Bay of Fires 2011 won the National Wine Show pinot noir trophy, repeating the success of the 2009 vintage at the 2010 show. We tried it over dinner recently alongside Giaconda Yarra Valley Beechworth 2008 ($85.49) and Eileen Hardy Tasmania Yarra Valley 2008 ($61.75). Eileen Hardy, Bay of Fires cellar mate, won the day. But runner up, Bay of Fires, ticked all the pinot boxes, except that of maturity. It’s a baby now, but a beautiful one, and only needs time for the intense, fine, fruit to take on secondary savoury, earthy notes. Some stores still carry the 2009 vintage, an equally beautiful wine revealing where the 2011 might go with bottle age. These are remarkable wines for the price.

Houghton Red Classic Cabernet Shiraz Merlot 2011 $8.55–$10
Western Australia
Houghton’s popular, keenly priced red earned its National Wine Show gold medal in the classes for commercial, large-volume wines. Wines in these classes do not need awards from other shows to enter. The wine’s floral and musky fragrance give it instant appeal – an appeal backed by the bright, fruity palate. Fresh acidity and fine tannins give life and structure to the medium-bodied palate. It’ll never be better to drink than it is right now.

Penfolds Thomas Hyland Cool Climate Chardonnay 2011 $15.25–$24
Predominantly Adelaide Hills, South Australia
We could call Thomas Hyland the forgotten Penfolds range – sitting quietly in the shade of the much-hyped bin and icon wines. The chardonnay debuted in 2001, an offshoot of the “white Grange” project that delivered the flagship Yattarna and Adelaide Hills Reserve Bin chardonnays. The style evolved with the times, and in the 2011 vintage we enjoy a trim, taut wine that looks a steal when the big retailers discount it below $20. At a modest 12 per cent alcohol, it delivers the acid backbone and lemon and grapefruit varietal flavour of the cool vintage. Fermentation and maturation in French oak barrels added nutty and spicy flavours and a smooth, rich texture to support the fruit. Gold medallist at the National Wine Show.

Wicks Estate Shiraz 2010 $16.15–$20
Wicks Estate vineyard, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
This gold medal winner from the Royal Adelaide and National wine shows offers absolutely delicious drinking right now. Estate-grown and made, it shows the ripe-berry, spice and medium body of cool-grown shiraz – the fresh, juicy, berry flavours, in particular, light up a gentle, completely seductive palate. The winemaker says, “the elegant fruit and tannin structure will reward careful cellaring”. This may be true. But it’s hard to imaging the wine every being more charming than it is now, just bristling with fruit. Originally reviewed in May 2012, and retasted in November, Wicks offers quite a thrill for the price.

Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2012 $13.85–$19
Florita vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
Jim Barry’s Watervale tasted good on its release last June and even better now as the beautiful fruit flavours unfold – evidenced by its National Wine Show gold medal. From the former Leo Buring Florita vineyard (purchased from Lindemans by the Barry family in 1986) the 2012 hits the palate with impressive lime-like briskness. Dry as a plank, but intensely fruity, it teases and satisfies the palate at the same time. The high acid and fine, intense, lime-like fruit flavour make it an excellent oyster wine. But it’ll mellow and flesh out with cellaring, providing drinking pleasure in various guises for a decade or more.

Bay of Fires Riesling 2012 $25.65–$30
Derwent and Coal River Valleys, Tasmania
The Bay of Fires winery at Pipers River is the Tasmanian arm of Accolade Wines (formerly Constellation Wines and Australia and before that, BRL Hardy). The winery makes table wines and base wines for the wonderful bubblies Ed Carr produces in Adelaide for the Sir James, Bay of Fires and House of Arras labels. This delightful gold medal winner at the National Show, shows a cool-grown face of riesling. It shares some of the apple-like character of German riesling in its own Tasmanian way – with a lean, tight, mineraliness and dry, citrusy, riesling finish.

Ed Carr’s slow road south

16 January 2013People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

Australia’s sparkling wine king, Ed Carr first put bubbles in wine in 1977. Charged with sorting out “some issues with secondary fermentation”, Carr, a microbiologist, joined senior winemaker Pam Dunsford at Seaview’s Glenloth winery, Reynella.

“We got through, though I was straight out of uni”, recalls Carr. At the time, Dunsford made the base wines for Seaview “Champagne”, as it was then called. The wines were finished off by Norm Walker at Seaview’s sparkling cellars in the Adelaide suburb of Magill.

Today that division of labour seems as foreign as the grapes our sparkling makers used just a generation ago. The classic sparkling varieties, pinot noir and chardonnay, were little planted in Australia at the time. And our sparkling makers used neutral grape varieties. They intentionally created a blank canvas on which they painted the aromas, flavours and textures arising from bottle fermentation and maturation on spent yeast cells.

Carr recalls using muscadelle, chenin blanc and even a touch of grenache. “Pinot noir and chardonnay didn’t come onto our agenda until the late eighties”, he says. “But Seaview 1990 was a big year for us, our first pinot noir chardonnay”. The fruit came from Wynns vineyards (also part of the Penfolds group) at Coonawarra and Padthaway.

By this time, Seaview had become part of the Penfolds Wine Group. In 1986 Carr relocated to the new sparkling wine cellars in the Barossa. The state-of-the-art facility had originally been planned as an underground cellar at Glenloth, but ultimately built above ground at Penfolds’ Nuriootpa site.

The fruit from Coonawarra and Padthaway, however, fell a long way short of ideal, largely because both regions were too warm. By this time, says Carr, fruit sourcing occupied his mind. And Seaview’s joining with the Penfolds group opened new opportunities.

A mid-1980s trip with fellow winemaker Rob Gibson opened Carr’s eyes to the potential of cooler growing areas. The pair swung through the Yarra Valley, where Chandon was just beginning, to high, cool sites in the Pyrenees and on to Tasmania.

In Tasmania they met with Julian Alcorso at Moorilla Estate, on the Derwent near Hobart, and Dr Andrew Pirie at Piper’s Brook, near Launceston. Though it would a decade before Carr sourced fruit from Tasmania, he decided on that trip, “this was the place to be”.

At about the same time, Seppelt became part of the Penfolds group, bringing Carr into contact with wines made by Warren Randall and Ian McKenzie from Tumbarumba, NSW, and Drumborg, southwestern Victoria.

The two regions made different styles, recalls Carr – those from young, highly cropped vines at Tumbarumba being less intense than those from mature vines in the very cold Drumborg region.

In 1994, Hardys recruited Carr as head of sparkling wine production. Carr says they lagged the other large wine companies in sparkling wine making at the time, despite runaway success with the Sir James brand.

The company wanted to make top sparkling wines and poured in the resources to achieve the goal. At about the same time as they hired Carr, they acquired a substantial Yarra Valley vineyard, near Gembrook.

The vineyard had been set up specifically for sparkling wine production by well-known viticulturist, David Paxton. It belonged to a syndicate of wine companies, including Hardys, and until 1994 sold fruit to the various shareholders.

However, from 1995, Hardys, now the sole owner, took all the fruit for its upmarket sparklers. In the same year they planted large areas of pinot noir along the Riverland to feed its big-volume, cheaper Omni brand.

And in 1995, Carr took his first small batches of Tasmanian fruit. He says, “I visited Tassie and let it be known we were after grapes and would see what turned up”. He spread the world largely through winemaker Steve Lubiana and viticultural consultant, Fred Peacock, owner of Bream Creek Vineyard.

Hardys paid good market prices, says Carr, and over the next few years the grape volumes and range of vineyards they sourced from grew rapidly. Table wines, particularly chardonnay and pinot came on the agenda, too.

In 2001 Hardys acquired the Bay of Fires winery and vineyard. Until then, Tasmanian contract wineries pressed, chilled and shipped juice to Carr in Adelaide. Following the acquisition, Bay of Fires made all of the group’s Tasmanian table wines on site and took over the pressing, chilling and shipping juice for sparkling wine production, which remains totally under Carr’s control at Tintara.

Carr says, “It took 10 to 15 years to get a picture” of what worked and where. Many sites can be managed for both table and sparkling wine production, he says. But for sparkling wine, sourcing moved south to include vineyards along the East Coast, near Swansea and Cranbrook, the Coal River Valley, and the Meadowbank vineyard, on the Derwent near New Norfolk, west of Hobart.

Winemaking follows traditional French techniques, including prolonged ageing on yeast lees in bottle following the secondary fermentation. This vital stage of sparkling production adds subtly to the aroma, flavour, structure and bubble size of sparkling wine.

Carr says when he began making top-shelf sparklers for Hardys, he aimed for four years’ maturation on yeast lees before release. But by holding museum stock for longer periods, he’s learned that the best wines, particularly those from Tasmania, develop beautifully with much longer maturation. This led to the release of a late disgorged product, matured on lees for 10 years.

Carr believes it’s difficult to separate the characters derived during yeast autolysis from aged varietal character and other winemaking inputs, such as maturation of base wines in oak barrels before the secondary fermentation. However, he says, “it’s the total mix that matters”.

As to the tiny bubbles in good sparkling wine, he says he doesn’t understand the cause chemically but it relates to surface tension and long maturation on yeast lees. He observes a clear pattern between bubble size and length of maturation.

Carr sees a clear distinction between the minerality of Tasmanian sparkling wine and the fruitier quality of mainland fruit – a quality making it well suited to great bottle ageing.

His style for both House of Arras, the flagship Tasmanian brand, and Bay of fires includes fermentation and maturation of components in oak barrels and full malolactic fermentation.

Future tweaking will include a little more reserve wine blended into the base wines and the influence of new plantings, yet to bear fruit.

Beer review — William Bull

16 January 2013Beer reviewChris Shanahan

William Bull William’s Pale Ale 330ml $18
De Bortoli makes this complex, quaffable brew at their William Bull brewery in Griffith, New South Wales. It’s pale lemon coloured and highly aromatic with a light but tasty and very brisk palate. Lively carbonation and terrifically clean, lingering hops bitterness give it a delicious tangy freshness.

William Bull Brewing Co William’s Pilsener 330ml $18
De Bortoli’s new beer stretches the endlessly elastic word “Pilsener” even further. What was originally a richly malty brew, featuring the exciting flavour and lingering bitterness of Saaz hops, now includes the fresh acidity of wheat malt and the teasing tartness of lactic acid, against a quite rich, malty background.

Against the grain

16 January 2013BeerChris Shanahan

Grape and grain don’t always mix well commercially. Just look, for example, at the vast capital destruction following Foster’s acquisition of Southcorp Wines. But in Griffith – one of Australia’s biggest wine-producing regions – two wineries turned successfully to brewing on vastly different scales.

The De Bortoli family quietly makes and distributes three beers (including two reviewed today) from its William Bull Brewing Company.

But the neighbouring Casella family, maker of Yellow Tail wine, plans a far bigger push into the beer market. The company launched its Arvo brand earlier in the year, saying at the time it aimed for a five per cent slice of the local market.

Shortly afterwards, Coca-Cola Amatil said it was lending $46 million to Casella’s Australian Beer Company to expand production. The loan will convert to equity at the end of 2013. CCA boss, Terry Davis, says he has15 per cent of the premium beer market in sight.

Wine review — Annie’s Lane and Amberley Estate

13 January 2013Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Annie’s Lane Clare Valley Riesling 2012 $13.30–$21
Annie’s Lane, part of Treasury Wine Estates (spun out of Foster’s), provides a comparatively full, soft style of riesling (made by Alex McKenzie). I tasted, liked and reviewed the wine on its release in June. However, since then the fruit aromas and flavours have really blossomed, revealing a juicy spectrum of floral and citrus-like characters. This is common with riesling, especially in tighter, more acidic styles – some of which may take years to open up. And in great riesling vintages like 2012 the drinking rewards are greater. Annie’s Lane will probably be at its best over the next three or four years.

Amberley Western Australia Estate Shiraz 2011 $18.99
Amberley, part of Accolade Wines (previously Constellation Wines Australia, and before that BRL Hardy) won gold medals at the National Wine Show of Australia for both reds reviewed today. In 2011 as vineyards in the eastern states suffered from rain, fungal disease and cold weather, the west enjoyed balmy, dry conditions. These are expressed in the vibrant, berry aromas of the wine and a lively, plummy, juicy palate. It’s medium bodied, simple, fruity and ready to drink now. The region is given as “Western Australia”, suggesting a blend of regions, most likely the cooler areas to the south.

Amberley Estate Secret Lane Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2011 $19.99
This gold medal winner from the National Wine Show of Australia comes from Margaret River, a mild maritime climate well suited to production of the Bordeaux varieties cabernet sauvignon and merlot. The wine’s attractive aroma reveals the ripe berries, with underlying leafy notes, typical of good cabernet. Oak contributes, too, adding a pleasant dusty, cedar-like overlay that works well with the fruit. The elegant, medium bodied palate reflects the aroma. Fine tannins give the wine structure, but gently and softly – which makes for pleasant current drinking. It’s a style to drink young fresh – no cellaring future here.