Pipers Brook Riesling 2014 $34
Pipers Brook vineyard, Tasmania
Tasmania may well become Australia’s premier riesling-growing region, upstaging the variety’s traditional heartland of the Clare and Eden Valleys, South Australia. OK, let’s include comparative newcomers, Canberra District and Great Southern, Western Australia, too. For Tasmania, the question remains whether the whole island gets in on the act, or if the stars emerge from north, south or the east coast. Tasmanian veteran, Pipers Brook stakes its claim with this full-flavoured but delicate, high-acid riesling. Ironically, it weighs in with higher alcohol (13 per cent) than many of its warm-climate peers on the mainland. The alcohol contributes to the full flavour, but can’t push its head through the racy, citrusy flavours and comparatively austere acidity. Should age well for many years.

Bremerton Special Release Malbec 2013 $24
Bremerton vineyard, Langhorne Creek, South Australia
Langhorne Creek’s broad-acre vineyards contrast with the scattered, smaller plots seen in regions like the Canberra district. The Willson family’s 117-hectare Bremerton vineyard, while sizeable for a private holding, looks small compared to other holdings in the district, including Pernod-Ricard’s 300-plus hectare site, a major source for Jacob’s Creek wines. Sisters Lucy and Rebecca Willson make and market Bremerton wine from the family property but also sell fruit to other winemakers. The sisters’ special release malbec 2013, a blend from favoured barrels, offers the fragrant, plummy richness of the variety, complete with firm but rounded tannins and the spicy effect of maturation in Hungarian oak. It’s available at bremerton.com.au.

Golden Ball Shiraz 2012 $50–$55
Golden Ball Vineyard, Beechworth, Victoria
James and Janine McLaurin’s elegant, intensely savoury, highly distinctive shiraz sits comfortably within our preconceptions of Beechworth wine. Since Rick Kinzbrunner (Giaconda Wines) set the standard decades ago, the region proved an irresistible magnet for others with near fanatic perfectionism. And perfectionism has its price – based on low volumes and high production costs. The market generally supports Beechworth’s high prices. And in silky, savoury, more-ish wines like Golden Ball Shiraz 2013 you’ll find no argument from me. Limited distribution and sales, including at goldenball.com.au.

Mount Horrocks Shiraz 2013  $34–$40
Mount Horrocks vineyard, Watervale, South Australia
Stephanie Toole’s 2013 shiraz tastes slightly fuller and juicier than the lovely 2012 reviewed last year. It provides an interesting contrast to the Golden Ball 2012 reviewed today – and demonstrates the great diversity of styles now being made in Australia. Toole’s wine shimmers with bright, ripe fruit character, but there’s much more to it. The fruit comes deeply layered with soft tannins and a slick, chewy mid-palate, enriched by maturation in good quality oak barrels. It’s a generous warm-climate shiraz without that sits joyously on the palate.

Cross Stitch Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 $15
McLaren Vale and Coonawarra, South Australia
Some of Australia’s greatest reds have been blends of the Bordeaux variety, cabernet sauvignon, and Rhone Valley variety, shiraz. No one did it better than Grange creator, Max Schubert, with his fabulous, long-lived combinations of Barossa shiraz with Coonawarra cabernet. The practice continues today. In Cross Stitch, Angove’s winemakers effectively combine shiraz from McLaren Vale with cabernet from Coonawarra. The medium bodied wine shimmers with fresh fruit flavours, cut with the cabernet’s fine, firm tannins. While shiraz gives generosity, cabernet makes the wine leaner and tighter. It’s a pleasing style at a good price

Mad Fish Premium White 2014 $13.30–$18
Margaret River, Great Southern and Geographe, Western Australia
Behind the vague “premium white” name lurks a decent dry white, made entirely from chardonnay grown in the south west of Western Australia. The wine shows the bright, fresh, citrus-like flavours of chardonnay fermented in stainless steel, rather than oak barrels. An exotic note of passionfruit adds even more appeal to this rich, vibrant, all-purpose dry white. Affordable unoaked chardonnay has come along under the winemakers at Burch Family Wines, owners of Mad Fish, Howard Park, and Marchand and Burch.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 10 June 2015 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

Evans and Tate Metricup Road Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2013 $17.10–$24
Evans and Tate – founded in 1974 at Metricup Road, Margaret River – now belongs to Griffith-based McWilliams Wines, giving the brand much-needed stability and distribution. The wine’s prime focus is on the dazzling fresh fruit flavours of semillon and sauvignon blanc. In Margaret River, that takes on a, herbaceous, pungent dimension, reminiscent of cut grass, canned peas, lemongrass and lemon. However, winemaker Matt Byrne allowed a portion of the blend to ferment spontaneously in oak barrels and mature there on yeast lees. This added a textural richness which fattens the mid palate and adds to the overall interest of the wine.

Heartland Langhorne Creek Spice Trader Red 2013 $14–$16
In Heartland Spice Trader, the Langhorne Creek region (located near Lake Alexandrina) demonstrates why Australia’s winemakers fall over each other for its grapes. The area’s broad-acre vineyards produce large volumes of high-quality grapes that convert to rich, juicy, inexpensive wine. In Spice Trader, winemaker Ben Glaetzer captures the bright, varietal character of both varieties and beautifully balances the earthy, ripe flavours and softness of shiraz with the backbone and elegant structure of cabernet. This is very, very good wine at a bargain price.

Voyager Estate Margaret River Girt by Sea Cabernet Merlot 2012 $21.90–$28
Girt by Sea delivers an affordable and delightful, drink-now expression of the region’s great red specialty. Blended principally from cabernet and merlot (sometimes with a splash each of shiraz and malbec), it’s a rich but elegant, fine-boned red, based on sweet, ripe, red-berry flavours, with an attractive overly of cedar and tobacco-like character that seems to come partly from the oak and partly from the varietal blend. The very good 2012 vintage seems up to the very high quality of the 2011 vintage reviewed last year.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 6 and 7 June 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Blue Pyrenees Shiraz 2012
$14.95–$18
Blue Pyrenees vineyard, Pyrenees, Victoria
Every so often a wine comes along that runs off the value-for-money scale. The latest, Blue Pyrenees Shiraz 2012, provided camp-fired comfort during a wintery outdoor party. The bottle sat unloved on the bar, ignored as other reds came and went. What turned people off; perhaps the blue capsule or the unprepossessing label? Ah, but the wine inside couldn’t have been better for the occasion: medium bodied, fruity, spicy and savoury all at once – and oh, so soft, gentle and more-ish. It’s a triumph for the bargain hunter, and a salutary lesson not to judge wine by its label. A string of gold medals and trophies (awarded out of sight of the label) confirm the wine’s drink-now appeal.

Jacob’s Creek Riesling 2014 $9–$12
Barossa Valley, Langhorne Creek, Clare and Eden Valleys, South Australia
From Blue Pyrenees, a label many may never have seen, we come to Jacob’s Creek, a brand as familiar as Vegemite, but also delivering amazing quality for the price. And little wonder. The grapes come from the best South Australian addresses for the variety (Barossa, Clare and Eden Valleys) and, increasingly, from Langhorne Creek, to the south near Lake Alexandrina. Jacob’s Creek 2014 shows the floral and citrus aroma and flavours of riesling on a brilliantly fresh, dry palate. A very good riesling, but modestly priced, Jacob’s Creek often outscores pricier products in wine shows.

Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2014 $11.90–$20
Hunter Valley, NSW
In another time and labelled as riesling, not semillon, Elizabeth rated among the biggest selling white wines in Australia. Sometime during the switch from generic to varietal labelling (but not because of it) Elizabeth’s popularity waned. Yet it remains much the same, if a little brighter, fresher and younger at release. The aroma suggests lemongrass, and the light, bone-dry, lemony palate appeals in its tart, zesty, savoury and idiosyncratic way. Some will love this style; others may hate it. Watch for the retail specials and confidently cellar it to enjoy the extra richness age brings.

Red Knot by Shingleback Shiraz 2014 $12.40–$15
McLaren Vale, South Australia
The Davey family of Shingleback Wines, McLaren Vale, makes Red Knot for export markets, cellar door sales and for retail in Australia exclusively by Woolworths (Dan Murphy, BWS and Woolworths Liquor). They make an equivalent and interchangeable wine, Vin Vale by Shingleback, for Woolies’ archrival, Coles (Vintage Cellars, 1^st Choice and Liquorland). Shingleback’s winemakers reliably capture the ripe, earthy flavours of McLaren Vale shiraz, with its savoury undertones and soft, drink-now tannins.

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay 2014 $9.40–$16
Padthaway and Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Wolf Blass made his first Yellow Label wines in 1966 and over time built one of Australia’s enduring wine brands, loved for their fruitiness and soft, easy drinkability. Blass sold the business decades ago, but the brand lives on under the ownership of Treasury Wine Estates. A recent note from winemaker Chris Hatcher says the wines now all bear regional labels. The delicious 2014 chardonnay, for example, combines from Padthaway (an hour’s drive north of Coonawarra) and Adelaide Hills, on the Mount Lofty Ranges, abutting Adelaide’s eastern suburbs. It’s an amazingly good, bright, loveable chardonnay, often discounted to around $10 a bottle.

Moppity Vineyards Lock and Key Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $14–$18
Moppity vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
In 2004 Jason and Alecia Brown bought the 78-hectare Moppity Vineyard from the receivers. Established in 1973, and the second oldest in Hilltops, the vineyard was mature but run down. After much TLC in the vineyard, and several changes of contract winemaker, we’re seeing a period of stability – and the best wines yet from what is clearly an outstanding vineyard. This is perhaps best seen when a great vintage like 2013 comes along. For a modest sum, Lock and Key provides a pure, fruity expression of cabernet, with cassis-like flavour, subtle, complementary oak and an elegant structure. You get a lot of wine for the price.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 2 and 3 June 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times