Joseph Perrier Cuvee Royale NV Brut Champagne $47.49–$49.99
This Dan Murphy import first arrived in Canberra in the mid 1970s, imported by local wine merchants, Farmer Bros (RIP). In the late 1980s Joseph Perrier NV sweetened the meeting of a Canberra Times Sunday editor with her soon-to-be husband. The couple toasted their wedding with it in 1989, and celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary with it this month. It was the first real Champagne I tasted (in 1976). And even now, decades after my last commercial attachment with the brand, I rate Joseph Perrier as one of the gentlest, loveliest and best vale of non-vintages on the market. The price hasn’t moved in five years.

Wolf Blass Yellow Label South Australia Chardonnay 2013 $12.35–$12.99
Wolf Blass Yellow Label range occupies the middle turf of the brand’s three colour coded segments – red label for generic blends, yellow label for varietals (chardonnay in this instance) and gold label for regional-varietal matches (for example, Barossa shiraz, Adelaide Hills chardonnay). For these big blends, the company draws fruit widely to achieve an acceptable quality to price ratio. Yellow Label chardonnay sits in the high bronze to silver medal standard as it presents pure melon and peach varietal flavour of great freshness, with a smooth texture and dry, clean finish. Grapes come form Padthaway, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra and the Adelaide Hills.

Taylors Clare Valley Shiraz 2013 $13–$19
You can pay $19 for Taylors Shiraz. But as a perennial consumer favourite, its price regularly gets the chop from retailers. As I write, it’s on offer for as little as $13. The 2013 provides particularly rich, gutsy drinking. The ripe, sweet aroma – reminiscent of black cherries – leads to a big, juicy palate. While the initial impression is of endless fruit, waves of firm, rustic tannins soon ripple through giving the wine a dry, gripping finish. Mitchell Taylor attributes the flavour intensity to growing-season weather. “This was one of the driest growing season in around 150 years”, he said.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 18 May 2014 in the Canberra Times

Seppelt Drumborg Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012 $35–$45
Drumborg, Henty Region, Victoria
Former Seppelt winemaker Ian McKenzie once described Drumborg as the first landfall north of Antarctica. Indeed, the cold vineyard site near the southwestern Victorian coast struggled for decades after Karl Seppelt established it in 1964. During the two-decade McKenzie era from the early 1980s, the vineyard was renovated and extended, with significant pinot noir plantings added in 1986 and the mid nineties to those Seppelt had established in 1966 and 1968. McKenzie passed the winemaking baton to Emma Wood in the early 2000s and it passed, via Adam Wadewitz, to Adam Carnaby in 2012. The latter two produced this exceptional wine in 2012 from the 1986 and mid 1990s’ vines, says Carnaby. An exceptional wine, it offers a refined, harmonious and sensuous, but tightly tannic expression, of pinot noir, in keeping with the cool 2012 vintage.

Sugarloaf Ridge Pinot Noir 2010 $35
Sugarloaf Ridge vineyard, Carlton River, Tasmania
We enjoyed Sugarloaf Ridge pinot recently with tender, juicy duck at Malamay Restaurant, Barton. The sweetness of the duck matched the opulent fruit of the wine, though a leaner, more tannic style of pinot might have dealt better with such a fatty dish. Certainly the wine’s on the big, fruity side of pinot, and clearly varietal. But there’s more to good pinot than fruit, so hopefully the style might evolve so that savoury flavours and tannins restrain the overt fruitiness in future vintages. Fruit for the wine is grown at Sugarloaf Ridge vineyard, Carlton River, and the wine is made by Julian Alcorso at Winemaking Tasmania.

Penfolds Bin 128 Shiraz 2012 $31.90–$40
Coonawarra, South Australia
Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2012 was a standout in a recent tasting of the Penfolds bin-number reds released in March. Among the most cellared, traded and talked about wines in the country, the best vintages (like Bin 128 2012) age well and provide satisfying drinking. The 2012 is a particularly fragrant wine, mixing floral and red-berry aromas, with a touch of mint, often seen in Coonawarra reds. The supple, deep fruit on the palate pushes up through the substantial but soft tannins. The richness and harmony of the wine suggests fairly long-term cellaring potentially given cool, stable conditions.

Paxton The Guesser Cabernet Shiraz 2011 $15
Paxton vineyards, McLaren Vale, South Australia
The Guesser comes from three of the Paxton family’s biodynamically managed McLaren Vale vineyards, Thomas block, Jones block and Quandong Farm. This is the second vintage of the family’s modestly priced red blend, made by Michael Paxton, son of founder, David Paxton. A blend of cabernet sauvignon (52 per cent) and shiraz 48 per cent), wild-yeast fermented The Guesser delivers the Vale’s rich, ripe, vibrant fruit flavours mingled with a load of rustic, satisfying, firm tannins.

Yalumba Christobel’s Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2013 $10.45–$16
Barossa, South Australia
Yalumba’s popular Christobel’s blend (named for proprietor Robert Hill-Smith’s mother) has seen a number of identities in the 20-odd years since it was created. The current version – in its bright, botanical label – combines Barossa semillon (66 per cent) with Barossa sauvignon blanc (34 per cent). It’s a world removed from the lighter versions of this blend from the cooler Margaret River region. But the warm-grown semillon component provides its own enjoyable lemony flavours and body – without the herbal tang these varieties show when grown in cooler regions.

T’Gallant Imogen Pinot Grigio 2013 $18–25
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Pardon me for being sceptical of pinot gris (or grigio). It’s a variety I’ve tried but failed to love since first encountering it in the mid 1970s – labelled at the time as Tokay d’Alsace – and in the mid 1980s with Italy’s leaner styles. T’Gallant Imogen draws its inspiration from the strong Alsacian style, offering rich, ripe flavours and a level of viscosity. The flavours are more savoury than fruity, with perhaps a hint of pear, and certainly with alcohol after burn. A lot of people like these wines and this is a pretty good version of that bigger, riper style.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 14 May 2014 in the Canberra Times

Illuminati Ilico Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2011 $12.35–$16
Woolworths imports Ilico direct from the Illuminati family in Abruzzi, Italy, and offers it through its BWS and Dan Murphy outlets. We purchased our bottle from BWS Kingston for $16, though Dan Murphy offers it for $12.35 in a six-bottle buy. It’s a bargain at that price. This is a refined and elegant expression of the montepulciano variety, though still rich and savoury in its own delicate, understated way. Ilico comes from vineyards at 260 metres above sea level in the highly flavoured sub-region of Contraguerra, between the Adriatic and the Apennines.

Williams Crossing by Curly Flat Macedon Ranges Chardonnay 2012 $27
“Sensational” came to mind as we tasted Williams Crossing. It’s the vineyard’s second label – a blend of barrels that didn’t make the cut for the $42-a-bottle Curly Flat label. Essentially, you get 80–90 per cent of the quality for 35 per cent less outlay – an attractive sum, indeed. The wine offers chardonnay’s luxurious flavour and texture with great freshness and vivacity. It’s the product of fussy vineyard management, individual barrel ferments with wild yeasts and maturation in those high-quality, two-to-four-year-old French barrels.

Tyrrell’s Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz 2012 $19–$25
Shiraz presents so many faces in Australia, ranging from delicate and peppery to alcoholic blockbusters. Up in the Hunter, Tyrrells long ago mastered the idiosyncratic local, earthy, medium-bodied style. Then in 1997 they produced their first shiraz from Heathcote, Victoria – an altogether different beast from the Hunter styles. Fifteen years on, the now mature Heathcote style presents concentrated, vibrant berry and spice flavours, with quite firm, savoury tannins on an elegant, medium bodied palate. The Tyrrell winemaking mastery shows in the appealing harmony of the wine. Retailer discounts sometimes bring the price below $20.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 11 May 2014

Penfolds Bin 138 Shiraz Grenache Mataro 2012 $32–37
Barossa Valley, South Australia
After the skinny 2011 vintage, Penfolds Bin 138 returns to fleshy, juicy form in 2012. Though cooler than normal, the vintage provided sufficient heat to ripen the grapes fully – at the same delivering bold, heady, fruity aromas. The proportions of each variety varies considerably from year to year and in 2012 leads with shiraz (66 per cent), followed by grenache at 23 per cent and the rest mataro (aka mourvedre). Shiraz gives the wine great richness and depth of fruit flavour, but grenache adds greatly to the perfume and vibrant fruit flavour. Mataro is most likely the source of the persistent, grippy tannins behind the fleshy fruit. Could cellar for a decade or so in cool, stable conditions.

Ross Hill Pinnacle Series Shiraz 2012 $36
Ross Hill Griffin Road vineyard, Orange, NSW
During the Orange food week a tasting of Ross Hill’s outstanding Pinnacle shiraz prompted a visit the following morning to winemaker Phil Kerney at the winery. There we smelled the open fermenters of 2014 reds, still ticking over, and tasted the sensational 2013 Pinnacle shiraz and pinot noir from barrel. These are definitely wines to try on release next year. Right now, though, the 2012 Pinnacle shiraz provides magnificent drinking – in the spicy, peppery, taut-structured cool-climate mould. Ripe, delicious fruit bubbles away under the surface of this lovely wine.

Mawson’s Far Eastern Party Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $12–$16
Wrattonbully, Limestone Coast, South Australia
In the export boom of the 1990s, Yalumba’s Robert Hill-Smith joined the scramble for broad-acre viticultural land in Wrattonbully – an undulating limestone formation sprawling 40 kilometres north–south along the Naracoorte tableland, touching Padthaway to the north and Coonawarra to the south. The vineyard, named for Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson, is now home to Hill-Smith’s Mawson’s brand. Largely because of the climate, the region produces pure cabernet varietal flavour and the elegant structure we associate with nearby Coonawarra. Skilled use of oak adds complexity to a wine drinking beautifully now, four years after vintage. It delivers satisfying drinking and outstanding value for money. Watch for the retailer discounts.

Andrew Thomas Braemore Semillon 2013 $24–$30
Braemore vineyard, Pokolbin, lower Hunter Valley, NSW
Though sold out at cellar door, Andrew Thomas’s Hunter classic can still be found in some retail outlets. The grapes come from the sandy soils of the Braemore vineyard, planted in 1969. Delicate fruit handling and protective winemaking produce from these grapes a pure, delicate, long-lived expression of the Hunter’s unique semillon style. Delicate and light bodied (10.8 per cent alcohol) in youth with vivid lemongrass and lemon aromas and flavours, the wine will build in honeyed, toasty richness with prolonged bottle age.

Angullong Fossil Hill Tempranillo 2012 $19–$24
Angullong vineyard, Orange
During the export boom of the late nineties, Orange attracted several broad-acre vine plantings, including the Crossing family’s 220-hectare Angullong vineyard. The vineyard straddles the Orange–Central Ranges wine boundary for no other reason other than that part of it lies below the 600-metre altitude mark, Orange’s lower limit. Angullong offered its attractive, medium bodied savoury tempranillo at the outdoor night market during the recent Orange food week. Very comforting it was, too, in the cold, wet conditions. The Great Dividing Range now offers a wonderful diversity of good wines.

Kirrihill Noble Vineyard Fiano 2013 $25
Waikerie, Murray Valley, Riverland, South Australia
Southern Italy’s white variety, fiano, makes a range of styles in Australia, from McLaren Vale’s comparatively polished and suave Coriole, to this more rustic version from South Australia’s hot Riverland district. It offers a drinking experience well removed from our every day fare – with big, ripe, apricot-like aroma, full, slick-textured palate and slightly hot, grippy, tart finish. Hamish Seabrook makes it at Clare Valley-based Kirrihill winery.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 7 May 2014 in the Canberra Times

Turkey Flat Butchers Block Barossa Valley White 2013 $20–$22
The Rhone varieties marsanne, viognier and roussanne seem well suited to the warm, dry Barossa Valley, producing in 2013 a notably fleshier Turkey Flat blend than the also loveable 2012. The wine offers texture and savouriness, with underlying apricot-like flavours typical of warm-grown viognier. Christie Schulz says she sourced the grapes from vineyards in the Barossa’s Bethany and Stonewell sub-regions. Each variety received its own treatment before blending, including oak maturation for the marsanne component. It’s a delicious and more-ish wine, one of a growing number of similar blends out of the Barossa.

Mawson’s The Vickers Limestone Coast Chardonnay 2013 $15.95
In the export boom of the 1990s, Yalumba’s Robert Hill-Smith joined the scramble for broad-acre viticultural land in Wrattonbully – an undulating limestone formation sprawling 40 kilometres along the Naracoorte tableland and touching Padthaway to the north and Coonawarra to the south. The vineyard, named for Douglas Mawson, is now home to Hill-Smith’s Mawson’s brand. The wine benefits from Yalumba’s long-term work with chardonnay. It captures the appealing, melon and stone fruit flavours of the variety, woven with the texture of skilled oak fermentation and maturation. It delivers richness without heaviness at a modest 12.5 per cent alcohol.

Printhie MCC Orange Shiraz 2012 $36
Printhie shiraz comes from the company’s Phalaris block towards the lowest, warmest point of the Orange district. Even so, MCC 2012 sits at the cooler end of cool-climate shiraz styles. It’s highly aromatic – combining bright, strawberry-like character, overlaid with the spice and white pepper indicative of very cool growing conditions. The latter often points to green, unripe flavours in shiraz. But Printhie just makes it over the line – the white pepper, acidity and fine, firm tannins balancing delicately with the vibrant fruit flavour. We found warmth and comfort in a bottle on a recent cold, wet night at Orange’s recent food week.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 4 May 2014

Bleasdale Old Vine Verdelho 2013 $29
Bleasdale 1930 vineyard, Langhorne Creek, South Australia
The jury’s still out on the origins of the white variety verdelho. It may be a native of Portugal’s sub-tropical Madeira, it may have come from the European mainland and it may be a relative of France’s savagnin. Whatever its origins, it arrived in Australia from Madeira in the 1820s and in 1850 the Potts family planted it at Langhorne Creek, South Australia. They’ve used it ever since in both fortified and table wines. In recent years, the family rejuvenated its oldest verdelho vines – a one-hectare block planted in 1930. Winemaker Paul Hotker saved the precious grapes from the blending vat and now makes a tiny quantity of wine from those venerable old vines. What a lovely, rich wine it is – the aroma and flavour suggest melon rind and lemon, and the smooth, medium-bodied palate finishes crisp, citrusy and dry. It’s available only at the cellar door, phone 08 8537 4022.

Heemskerk Abel’s Tempest Chardonnay 2012 $21.50–$25
Tasmania
Heemskerk is the Tasmanian face of Treasury Wine Estates, the troubled wine arm of Fosters, spun off in 2011 to become a separate company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Despite its shortcomings – which, some speculate, may lead to the company being split up and sold off as separate brands – Treasury continues to make beautiful wines across its many brands. At a modest price, Heemskerk reveals the special qualities of Tasmania’s chardonnay – pure, intense and fine-boned, with delicious grapefruit and white peach varietal flavours at its core.

Alsace Riesling (W. Gisselbrecht) 2009 $16.99
Schiefferberg vineyard, Alsace, France
This Costco import shows all too clearly why cork should never be let near delicate, aromatic white wines. We’ve tried several bottles of this Alsace riesling. The best have been pretty good, while others have been flattened by oxidation (a result of cork failure) and another spoiled by trichloroanisole, or cork taint. At its best, it’s a full-flavoured riesling, in the distinctive Alsace style, enhanced by bottle age. At its worst, it’s undrinkable; and in between, it’s, well, in between. The message for wine drinkers: expect bottle variation. The message for Costco: on behalf of your customers, lean on your suppliers for screw caps as Australian retailers do.

Clonakilla Syrah 2012 $90–$110
T and L vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Tim Kirk built Clonakilla’s and Canberra’s international reputation for shiraz with its fine-boned blend of shiraz with the white viognier – modelled on the reds of France’s Cote Rotie region. Kirk later followed with another class act, a straight shiraz. He says, “Each year we fill a single fermenter with pure shiraz from our north-east facing T & L vineyard. The winemaking is kept as simple as possible. Whole berries are fermented warm by their own native yeasts. The wine spends three weeks soaking on skins and fifteen months maturing in fine-grained French oak”. Followers of the style, myself included, put the straight shiraz (or syrah) up there with the shiraz–viognier flagship. The 2012 is an elegant cool-climate shiraz, showing the lighter body of the cool season, but nevertheless with the depth to age for many years.

Mad Fish Premium Red 2011 $14–$18
Margaret River, Great Southern and Geographe, Western Australia
Mad Fish is the budget brand of the Burch family’s Howard Park Wines, one of Western Australia’s leading producers. Cabernet sauvignon and related varieties, merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot comprise 90 per cent of the blend, giving distinct cabernet berry flavours and elegant structure to the wine. While it’s hard to say with certainty what the other components (tempranillo, seven per and pinot noir, three per cent) add to the blend, I suspect tempranillo contributes the firm, grippy tannins cutting in at the finish over the lovely, bright fruit flavours.

Turkey Flat Vineyards Grenache 2012 $21.85–$28
Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia
The 2012 vintage seems to have coaxed the best possible fruit from Christie Schultz’s grenache vines, mostly more than 100 years old. The aroma mixes varietal musk and cherry flavours with spice. But it’s on the palate the true sweetness and richness of the fruit shows up in syrup-like concentration. The potent fruit flavours, however, come with savouriness, spice and soft but abundant tannin. The ripe, juicy combination adds up to a unique Barossa wine, with some cellaring potential.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 30 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Chablis (Bouchot-Ludot) 2011 $16.49
Chablis – Burgundy’s northernmost sub-region, at around latitude 47 degrees – makes unique and delicious, lean, intense chardonnays, reflecting the very cool climate. The best, like those of Raveneau, can be sublime. But more workmanlike wines, like this Costco import, still capture the unique and loveable regional style. The high-acidity of Chablis, which suits fresh-shucked oysters particularly well, made it our Easter coastal tipple. And because it’s not at all like an Australian chardonnay, it adds variety to our drinking. Costco’s global buying power allows us to drink it at a realistic price.

Manners Mudgee Gewurztraminer 2013 $20
James Manners’ impressive 2013 gewürztraminer kicked off a superb fixed price Bistro Ceello dinner during Orange’s recent food week. Manners’ father, Michael Manners, returned to his alma mater (formerly Selkirks) to cook with Bistro Ceello owner, Michael Want. The dry gewürztraminer, sourced from a high altitude vineyard in the Mudgee region, accompanied a rich, silk-smooth prawn custard, served with prawn bisque, watercress and cucumber. Gewurztraminer could easily have overwhelmed this dish. But Manners’ version featured just enough of the variety’s distinctive Turkish delight and lychee flavours to harmonise with the food. (It’s available at wellmanneredwine.com.au).

Ross Hill Benny and Taylor Orange Shiraz 2012 $22
Bistro Ceello’s Orange food week dinner included a confit of duck leg, served with a risotto of walnut, parsley and Second Mouse washed rind cheese. The crunchy, very fresh walnuts and pungent sweetness of the local cheese added to the warm, comforting opulence of the duck. The accompanying wine came from Ross Hill, established in 1994 and now with two vineyards at around 800 metres and 1000 metres respectively. The shiraz, from warmer sites and a cool vintage, offers attractive spicy and peppery aromas, medium body and a tight, fine, savoury palate with delicious underlying ripe-berry flavours.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 27 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $95–$112
Moss Wood vineyard, Margaret River, Western Australia
Moss Wood earned its wine of the week possie by a slim margin over Houghton Jack Mann Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, also reviewed today. These are great cabernets by any measure, both with proven cellaring potential and both, therefore, collectible as either special-occasion mementoes or simply as fabulous wines to enjoy decades from now. Moss Wood is the more floral and aromatic of the two, with deep, supple, ripe cabernet flavours welling up through the firm structural tannins. Its sweet, accessible fruit put it a nose ahead of Jack Mann in the first 24 hours after opening. But in the following days the wines proved equally impressive, albeit in distinctive styles.

Houghton Jack Mann Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $93–$115
Frankland River, Western Australia
We’re not quite addicted to Jack Mann cabernet, but we’ve consumed enough of it, both young and old, to see it as one of Australia’s greatest cabernets. It emerged as the flagship Western Australian red of BRL Hardy (now subsumed into Accolade Wines) when the company owned or managed vast areas of vineyards in Western Australia’s southwest. In the outstanding 2011 vintage, the wine comes from the Justin vineyard, Frankland River. Although very tight, closed and tannic when first opened, the wine revealed its deep, sweet core of fruit during three days on the tasting bench. The flavour intensity, taut structure, deep fruit and harmony mark this as a very special wine indeed, with good long-term cellaring potential.

Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay 2013$35.15–$40
Tumbarumba, NSW
In the early nineties Penfolds put its mind to making a white flagship – a white equivalent to Grange. Though the search began with semillon, riesling and chardonnay, the latter fairly quickly became the sole focus. During this search, Tumbarumba chardonnay made the initial cut, but soon bowed out to components from the Adelaide Hills and, later, Tasmania. However, Penfolds didn’t abandon Tumbarumba altogether and the region generally contributes partly or solely to the brilliant Bin 311 – a rich, fine and sophisticated chardonnay. It has immediate drinking appeal and potential to evolve in the cellar for several years.

Hill-Smith Estate Chardonnays 2012 $25–$35
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Every now and then, along comes a wine that makes you look twice at the label – could this wine really be so good? Robert Hill-Smith’s chardonnays always rate well. But in the great Adelaide Hills 2012 vintage the wine lifts another couple of notches, offering intense, mouth-watering fruit flavours, so beautifully integrated with all the add-ons from wild yeast fermentation in French oak. Hill-Smith’s makers experimented with this technique decades before it moved to mainstream chardonnay making. Their mastery of it now shows when a special vintage comes along. Pile in for the 2012.

Oakridge Local Vineyard Series Merlot 2012$26
Oakridge vineyard, Coldstream, Yarra Valley
What is merlot? Is it light, full, soft, firm, sweet or dry? You could answer yes or no to any of those questions and be correct – simply confirming the confusion surrounding it. At it’s best, though, merlot produces substantial dry reds, tending to medium body and elegant structure, but with quite firm, persistent tannins. Oakridge is an outstanding expression of this style, showing the ripe, plummy, earthy depth of the variety, cut through with firm tannins. Right now it needs protein rich food to cut through the tannins. But a few years in bottle should allow its full, fruity elegance to emerge.

De Bortoli La Boheme Act One Riesling 2013 $20
Yarra Valley, Victoria
Leanne De Bortoli and husband Steve Webber’s La Boheme range includes this delicious white, made from riesling (89 per cent) plus gewurtztraminer and pinot gris. While delicate riesling drives the aromatics and citrus-like flavour, gewürztraminer adds a light but distinctive lychee-like and, with pinot gris, a slippery texture not seen in riesling on its own. It all adds up to pleasing aromas and flavours, great freshness and a satisfying feeling in the mouth. De Bortoli and Webber attribute recent improvements in their riesling-vineyard management to young winemaker Sarah Fagan.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 23 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Long Rail Gully Canberra District Riesling 2013 $17.08–$20
It’s an understatement to say the Parker family hides its light under a bushel. They make some of Canberra’s finest wines, but they don’t make much noise about it. A group of us enjoyed their 2013 riesling at Quarterdeck restaurant, Narooma, during the recent oyster festival – a Moruya-markets-meets-the-oyster farmer kind of event. The Parker’s light, delicate, lime-like Long Rail Gully 2013 proved delicious company for our local Sydney rock oysters. Garry and Barbara Parker established Long Rail Gully at Murrumbateman. Their son Richard makes the wine. The cellar door price (longrailgully.com.au) is $102.50 for six bottles.

Baron Amarillo Rioja Reserva (Aldi) 2008 $9.99
Aldi recently became the third largest of Australia’s grocery retailers. It overtook the Metcash-supplied independent stores as the distant third to industry giants Coles and Woolworths. Most of what you find in Aldi are its own brands, including the well-selected beers and wines. England’s Decanter magazine awarded Aldi’s Rioja Reserva a stingy two stars out of five. But I think most drinkers would be more generous. This is not great Rioja. But who’d expect that for $10? Instead, it’s decent Rioja, offering generous fruit flavour, medium body, savouriness and abundant but tame tannins.

Cotes du Rhone Villages Cuvee Reserve (Aldi) 2012 $8.99
French winemakers don’t make it easy for Australian wine drinkers not up on French wine lore. Even knowing where the Cotes du Rhone is doesn’t tell unfamiliar drinkers a red wine of that appellation will be a blend of grenache, shiraz, mourvedre and possibly other associated varieties. Full marks to Aldi for at least sourcing this one under a hygienic screw cap and offering a clean, fresh expression of the region’s earthy, presumably grenache-led blend. It’s medium bodied and, in the French style, has layers of savoury, earthy tannins overlying the fruit – which is there, though not the first thing that leaps out at you.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 20 April 2014 in the Canberra Times

Capital Wines The Ambassador Tempranillo 2013 $25
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Though volumes remain small, the Spanish variety, tempranillo is perhaps the strongest contender to be Canberra’s second specialty red variety after shiraz. Outstanding examples from Mount Majura, Capital Wines and, from 2013, Quarry Hill, all hit the excitement button. At a recent masked tasting, Capital Hill The Ambassador 2013 and Quarry Hill Lost Acre 2013 thrilled the tasters and split the table over first preference. Finally, Capital Hill pulled in front, to my taste, as it captured the vibrant, blueberry-like fruitiness of the variety while weaving in savoury notes and finishing firm and tight – another of the variety’s signatures.

Quarry Hill Lost Acre Tempranillo 2013 $18
Quarry Hill vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
I rated this very highly in a tasting of 18 tempranillos last year. It impressed again at another recent tasting, alongside today’s wine of the week from Capital Wines. Quarry Hill 2013, the first from this Murrumbateman vineyard, struts the naked beauty of the variety fresh from the vine. Quarry Hill’s Russell Kerrison described “the delicate juggling at harvest to get good fruit without going either side of it [neither over- nor under-ripe]”. Winemaker Alex McKay praised “the quality of fruit in a very good year”. The excellent balance of fruit, acid and tannin in the fruit, he said, suited production of a fruity, early-bottled style. Kerrison and McKay both see boldness, and an element of risk, in a style outside the mainstream for the variety in Australia. The risk paid off, as this is a joyous, fruity wine with tempranillo’s strong but rounded tannins.

Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Syrah 2012 $38–$40
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
Decades ago Hawkes Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, emerged as a producer of high quality reds. And in recent years the Gimblett Gravels sub-region emerged as the hottest spot within Hawkes’s Bay. Elegant, fine-boned shirazes, like John Hancock’s Trinity Hill, excite with their intensity of spice and just-ripe, peppery varietal flavours. In the cool 2012 vintage the wine sits on the cusp of ripeness, which means wonderful aromatics and white as well as black pepper character. The wine’s medium bodied and despite the white pepper character (sometimes a pointer to unripeness), fills the mouth with deep, sweet berry flavours and a satisfying, rich texture.

Mount Monster Shiraz 2012 $15–$16
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 vineyard hold could produce, by my estimate around 120 thousand dozen bottles in a good year – fairly large production for a family holding in Australia. The family manages the vineyards and marketing of its Moorambro Creek, Jip Jip Rocks and Mt Monster brands. The 2012 shiraz provides earthy, plump, juicy drinking, with varietal plummy, spicy flavours and shiraz’s tender tannins.

Bleasdale Potts’ Catch Verdelho 2013 $15.20–$19
Langhorne Creek, South Australia
Like Australia’s red hero, shiraz, the white variety, verdelho, shifts seamlessly from fortified to table wine production. The Potts family have used it for both styles since they first planted the variety at Bleasdale, Langhorne Creek, in 1850. Over the last 30-odd years, verdelho survived the onslaught of changing consumer tastes, first for chardonnay, then sauvignon blanc. In Langhorne Creek’s comparatively warm climate, the variety delivers appealing flavours, while retaining acidity. The 2013, at a modest 12 per cent alcohol offers teasing, fresh, sappy flavour and zingy, fresh acidity.

Forester Estate Chardonnay 2012 $28–$33
Margaret River, Western Australia
Northern Margaret River’s Forester Estate produces one of the region’s tastiest semillon-sauvignon blends as well as this lovely, ripe chardonnay. In 2012 the fruit came from a neighbouring 34-year-old vineyard. The juice was fermented partly in French oak barrels and partly in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats (before maturation in oak). The technique captured chardonnay’s fresh, appealing melon and peach varietal flavour, and built its rich, smooth texture.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 16 April 2014 in the Canberra Times