McKellar Ridge Canberra District Riesling 2013 $22
You won’t find grape vines in McKellar, but their home address became the name of Brian and Janet Johnston’s wine label. Brian Johnston makes McKellar Ridge wines at the Point of View vineyard, Murrumbateman, sourcing fruit from Point of View and neighbouring growers. The Johnston’s riesling, from the Briar Hill vineyard, suggests yet another very good year for the variety in Canberra. At just 11 per cent alcohol it sits lightly on the palate and delivers, intense, citrusy varietal flavour and a dry, tending to austere, fresh acidic finish. (Available at cellar door and mckellarridgewines.com.au).

Punt Road Napoleone Vineyard Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2012 $22.80–$25
The name commemorates an 1850s vineyard located on Melbourne’s Punt Road, as it rises steeply from the Yarra River towards Toorak Road, in what is now the salubrious suburb of South Yarra. The vineyard is long gone. But the Napoleone family – Yarra Valley orchardists since 1948, and grape growers since 1987 – took the name for their label, inspired by an 1856 photo of the punt, the road and the vineyard. Kate Goodman makes the wines, including this outstanding 2012 chardonnay – a rich but finely textured, barrel-fermented dry white from the Napoleone vineyard at Coldstream.

Ariadne Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2013 $8.99
Former Canberra wine merchant, David Farmer, now operates from the Barossa Valley, making a wide range of South Australian regional specialties and selling direct to drinkers through his website (glug.com.au). Farmer’s sauvignon blanc – a blend from vineyards at Hahndorf, Mount Torrens and Forreston in the Adelaide Hills – captures the pungent, fresh fruitiness of the variety well. It’s a bargain at $8.99. Farmer comments, “You need a cool climate to make great sauvignon blanc and the height of the Adelaide Hills vineyards and the closeness of the cooling Southern Ocean provide ideal conditions for this variety”.

Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 15 September 2013 in the Canberra Times

Wolf Blass Grey Label Shiraz 2011 $28.85–$35
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Wolf Blass chief winemaker Chris Hatcher rates McLaren Vale shiraz as South Australia’s best in the cold, wet 2011 vintage. Blass Grey Label 2011 is classic McLaren Vale in style – densely coloured and crimson rimmed with deep, ripe fruit flavours cut through with mouth-watering savoury character, both oak and fruit derived. It’s a beautiful, modern wine – clean, fresh and vibrantly varietal, but also dark, brooding, savoury and layered with soft tannins. The oak and fruit work particularly well together, and the overall harmony, richness and structure suggest good medium-term cellaring potential.

Wolf Blass Gold Label Shiraz $16.90–$20
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
If ever you want to taste the difference between Barossa and McLaren Vale shiraz, try Wolf Blass’s Gold and Grey Label shirazes side-by-side. Grey Label presents McLaren Vale’s brooding, savoury character; Gold Label shows the fragrance, fleshy fruit and tender tannins of the Barossa – even in the difficult 2011 vintage. Crop losses were significant in the Barossa. But, as Gold Label demonstrates, some vineyards delivered decent fruit.

Cullen Diana Madeline 2011 $115
Cullen Vineyard, Margaret River, Western Australia
Like Penfolds Bin 707 2010 reviewed in June, Cullen Diana Madeline enjoys a cellaring potential measured in decades, not years. But the wines contrast starkly in style. Bin 707 shows an impenetrably dark, powerful face of cabernet – overwhelmingly dense and tannic as a young wine but becoming increasingly elegant as the decades pass by. Cullen is limpid and approachable on release – a wine of delicate violet-like aroma and seductive, subtle, supple, fine-grained palate. It’s a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, cabernet franc and petit verdot, planted forty years ago by winemaker Vanya Cullen’s parents, Kevin John and Diana Madeline. The fruit flavours are particularly pure and concentrated in 2011.

Domain Day “l” Lagrein 2010 $30
Domain Day vineyard, Mount Crawford, South Australia
Lagrein is a red variety cultivated in Alto Adige and Trentino, Northern Italy. Recent DNA analysis revealed it as a cousin of shiraz, though that’s unlikely to have been in Robin Day’s mind when he established lagrein at Mount Crawford. Day says, “At its best, it is intensely coloured, rich in flavour and yet soft and easy to drink, so the style is not at all difficult for many consumers to relate to”. And that’s exactly how it went down – people enjoyed its savoury, rustic tannins.

Stonier Pinot Noir 2011 $19.70–$25
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
One of Mornington’s older wineries continues to impress with the quality of its pinots and chardonnays. It produces a range of very good pinots, starting with this very well priced version that’s often on special at about $20 a bottle. The 2011, though a touch lighter than usual because of the cold season, is nevertheless ripe and silky textured with the perfume, flavour and structure that add up to real pinot. The 2012, due for release at the end of October offers a little more flesh and power.

Stonier Chardonnay 2012 $20.89–$25
Mornington Peninsula
Wolf Blass used to say of red wines, “No wood, no good” – a slogan that applies equally to chardonnay. Unoaked versions, in general, simply don’t cut the mustard. And Australian winemakers have long since learned how to use oak beneficially in chardonnay without injecting overt woody flavours. Stonier’s is an excellent example of the modern, cool-climate style. It uses an unoaked component for fruit purity, but ferments and matures the balance in oak barrels for the texture and complex aromas and flavours this gives. The result is a vibrant, rich, smoothly textured wine of great appeal.

Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 11 September 2013 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

Wolf Blass Gold Label Eden Valley Riesling 2012 $14.55–$25
Wolf Blass’s new release continues the run of brilliant rieslings from the great 2012 vintage. Once a blend of fruit from the Clare and Eden Valleys, the wine is from now on to be all Eden Valley as “that’s closer to our roots”, says winemaker Chris Hatcher. It’s a delicious wine all through, from the delicate, lime-like aroma and through its vibrant, intense, irresistibly fruity, fine-textured palate. Though a fruity, drink-now style, Gold Label, should develop well in bottle for four or five years. Retail discounts can be substantial, so watch for the specials.

Seppeltsfield Barossa Valley Grenache Rose 2011 $17
Rose comes in many forms, from light, dry and savoury with pale, onion-skin colour to much richer, fuller styles bordering on red. Seppeltsfield’s version, sourced from the estate’s old bush-pruned grenache vines, sits square in blush-pink rose territory. Those beautiful old vines, and low-temperature fermentation, deliver amazingly vibrant fruit flavours, reminiscent of strawberry and Turkish delight. It’s light, fresh and fruity on the palate and a small amount of residual grape sugar (eight grams per litres) adds to its fleshy, drink-now appeal. (Available at seppeltsfield.com.au). Tasted at Seppeltsfield on 25 July.

Tyrrell’s Old Winery
Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2012 $10.45–$12.99
Old Winery Chardonnay, first made in 1979 and fine-tuned ever since, rates among Australia’s best budget chardonnays. It combines liveliness and freshness with chardonnay’s full flavour and a rich, smooth texture. The appealing, ripe, varietal flavour comes from good fruit. And the rich, smooth texture, says Bruce Tyrrell, comes from “all the techniques of solids in the ferment and lees stirring but on a larger scale in a tank rather than a small barrel”. At the recent Hunter Wine Show, Tyrrell’s once again hauled in a great pile of medals and trophies.

Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 8 September 2013 in the Canberra Times

Tim Smith Wines Mataro 2012 $36
Greenock and Light Pass, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Tim Smith made wine at Yalumba for 15 years, but now produces his own delicious reds, like this one, discovered at Tanunda’s exciting FermentAsian restaurant. Smith says he loves mataro (aka mourvedre) and sees good cellaring potential in the variety, thanks largely to its firm tannic structure. However, he likes mataro’s fruit unadorned with oak, though the variety takes some taming in older, larger oak vessels before bottling. In the outstanding 2012 vintage, the beautiful, sweet, tender fruit makes for joyous drinking, though there’s sufficient tannin structure to see the wine through perhaps a decade in the cellar. (Available at timsmithwines.com.au).

Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Kabinett 2011 (Dr Loosen) $33–$36
Lay vineyard, Bernkastel, Mosel River, Germany
Ernie Loosen’s house and office, a stroll downstream from Bernkastel, sit just below the Lay vineyard. Loosen owns part of the vineyard and wines he makes from it carry the village, vineyard and grape varietal names. We bought the wine at Vintage Cellars, Adelaide markets, to accompany the outstanding food of Star of Siam, in Gouger Street. It’s a medium sweet wine of dazzling freshness, with the lightness, intense flavour, delicacy, high acid and rich texture typical of the vineyard. Australian versions of this style face an uphill battle in our warm climate. And few, if any, can match the class of this German original, from one of the great producers of the Mosel River.

John Duval Plexus 2012 $25–$30
Barossa Valley, South Australia
A warm area like the Barossa floor is seldom going to make riesling to match the quality of those from the high, cooler Eden Valley in the hills to the Barossa’s east. If any white styles are to match the region’s reds in quality in future, I’d put my money where John Duval does with Plexus. He uses the Rhone valley varieties, marsanne (55 per cent), roussanne (35 per cent) and viognier (10 per cent), sourced, respectively from Marananga and Seppeltsfield, Kalimna and the Eden Valley. A combination of fermentation regimes, including both tank and barrel, created a full, fresh, richly textured dry white with a distinctive flavour, reminiscent of that sweet-tart area between the flesh and rind of rockmelon. It’s delightful, different and in 2012, particularly rich and sweet fruited.

Domain Day One Serious Sangiovese 2009 $30
Domain Day vineyard, Mount Crawford, Barossa Valley, South Australia
One of Tuscany’s great sangioveses, Brunello di Montelcino, inspired Robin Day to plant the variety at Mount Crawford, a comparatively cool site at 450 metres, on the border of the Barossa and Eden Valleys. Day’s is an earthy, savoury expression of the variety – the savouriness wrestling with its core of ripe, sweet and sour cherry flavour. In the 2009 vintage, the savouriness and earthiness seem even more pronounced than usual, setting the wine apart from tamer beasts like shiraz, cabernet and pint noir.

Ashton Hills Piccadilly Valley Pinot Noir 2012 $30
Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
In a good season, Stephen George makes three pinot noirs – estate and reserve from his own vineyards, and a lighter, fruitier style under the Piccadilly Valley label. In 2012, he sourced the latter 70 per cent from his own vineyards with the remainder coming from a nearby Piccadilly Valley neighbour. In such a good season, however, “lighter and fruitier” takes on a new meaning, as this is far richer and more concentrated than usual ¬¬– though nothing compared to the reserve version reviewed last week. This is way above average pinot, offering really satisfying drinking.

Redbank The Long Paddock Shiraz 2012 $9.50–$13
Victoria
Redbank won’t let us in on the regional sourcing secrets. But there’s no doubting, even at the price, that it includes pretty good material. Its fragrant, ripe and supple, with medium body and spicy, peppery notes derived from cool climate components of the wine. The winemakers added sangiovese to the blend (six per cent of the total) – injecting savour and grip to the otherwise soft tannins. Redbank is a Victorian based brand belonging to the Hill-Smith family’s Yalumba group.

Copyright  Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 4 September 2013 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

Champagne Taittinger Brut Resérve NV $50–$60
With a little more chardonnay in the blend than most NV’s (40 per cent versus about 33 – the remainder pinot noir and pinot meunier), good old Taitts giggles on the light and cheery side of Champagne, with seemingly little lees-aged character. Nevertheless, it’s a lovely, delicate aperitif style with the lightness of chardonnay and yummy brioche-like nuances of pinot meunier, the lesser of the two pinots, but indispensable nevertheless. Pinot meunier tends to fill the frost-prone dips in the Champagne region and is more fruitful than pinot noir in this situation as it buds later, giving it better odds of missing the chill.

Chianti Classico (Corte Carista) 2009 $10
Aldi’s Tuscan import takes us well away in style from Australian wines made from the same grape variety, sangiovese. It’s light to medium bodied, taut, bone-dry, earthy and savoury with its cherry-like fruit flavour buried well inside the fine, firm tannins. Like all the Aldi wines I’ve tried to date, it fits the specification, offering very good value for money. The withered little cork snapped in half as we coaxed it from the bottle. But at least the wine emerged clean, fresh and untainted by the cork – something drinkers always risk with this outmoded seal.

Tscharke Barossa Valley The Potter Garnacha 2011 $24
Barossa winemaker Damien Tscharke favours the Spanish ‘garnacha’ over the French ‘grenache’. But call it what you will, it’s a variety long established in the Barossa’s Marananga sub-region where it works as well in fortified wine as it does in table wine. We tasted the 2011 at cellar door in July, where the staff told us Tscharke had “picked it [the fruit] early in this shitty season”. Indeed, miserably cold, wet weather destroyed much of the Barossa’s crop that year. Tscharke, however, succeed in making an attractive, spicy, peppery red, albeit lighter, more savoury and less fleshy than usual, but one we enjoyed.

Copyright Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 1 September 2013 in the Canberra Times