Kaiora Bay Reserve Central Otago Pinot Noir 2013 $14.99
Marlborough, New Zealand’s biggest, most valuable wine region, accounts for a remarkable $NZ 1 billion of the country’s $NZ 1.3 billion wine exports. Sauvignon blanc makes up 86 per cent of Marlborough’s wine production, while pinot noir, the number two variety, claims only six per cent. Several degrees south of Marlborough in Central Otago, pinot noir accounts for 70 per cent of vine plantings, albeit on a smaller scale than Marlborough. The region makes a comparatively robust pinot style, with savoury and dark-fruit varietal flavours and quite strong tannins. Aldi’s own label provides a sound introduction to the style at a fair price.

St John’s Road Motley Bunch Barossa Valley GSM 2013 $18–$22
Barossa winemaker Phil Lehmann and marketer Jonathon Hesketh collaborate on a number of wine labels, including Hesketh and St John’s Road. In Motley Bunch they bring together three time-proven Barossa varieties, grenache, shiraz and mataro (aka mourvedre). The inviting blend delivers the bright, ripe, juicy flavours of the warm 2013 vintage. Grenache provides musk-like high notes and plush fruit; shiraz contributes body, colour and structure; and mataro brings savoury character and firm tannins. The three work together to produce wonderful warm, earthy, fruity drinking pleasure.

Port Phillip Estate Mornington Peninsula Sauvignon 2014 $26
Marlborough New Zealand produces vast quantities of dazzling, fresh sauvignon blanc with consummate ease. Elsewhere the variety tends to make leaner wine styles, requiring careful input from winemakers to put a bit of meat on the bone. On the Mornington Peninsula, Sandro Mosel applies a couple of winemaking tricks to the local grapes and comes up with a most enjoyable drink. Spontaneous fermentation with ambient yeasts, fermentation of a portion in old oak barrels, and several months’ maturation on spent yeast cells all contribute to aroma, flavour and, most of all, texture. The result: a fleshy, smooth textured sauvignon of outstanding quality.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 28 March 2015 in goodfood.com.au and 29 March in the Canberra Times

Houghton Frankland River Crofters Shiraz 2013
Crofters won a gold medal in the same 2014 National Wine Show of Australia shiraz class topped by Canberra’s Lerida Estate Shiraz Viognier 2013 ($49.95). Just half a point out of 60 (55.5 versus 56) separated the two wines. The quality gap, however, is greater than that slim margin suggests – highlighting what a “bumpkin calculus” wine scores can be. If the Houghton wine lacks the finesse of the Lerida, it offers – at one-third the price – pure drinking pleasure with its sweet, perfumed aroma, vibrant palate and fairly solid, savoury tannins, typical of Frankland River.

Willem Kurt Alpine Valleys Vermentino 2014 $25
If you’re visiting Beechworth, Victoria, Mike and Heather Allen’s Press Room tapas bar offers savour food and a well-selected range of local and Spanish wines. We enjoyed several by-the-glass wines, including this very good vermentino, made by Daniel Balzer. Originally from Sardinia, the Liguria coast and Corsica, the variety seems well suited to Australia’s warm, dry conditions – in this case from the north-eastern Victorian Alpine Valleys region. Willem Kurt is a savoury, tangy, pleasantly tart, lighter bodied dry white, well suited to savoury food. (Available at willemkurtwines.com.au).

Ten Minutes by Tractor 10X Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay 2013 $13
An Australia day lunch at Ten Minutes by Tractor winery confirmed the great beauty of the company’s wines – and their ageing ability. The superb, maturing Wallis Vineyard Chardonnay 2011 and Judd Vineyard Pinot Noir 2010 thrilled with every mouthful; and both should continue to evolve for many years yet. And in the cellar door area, 10X Chardonnay 2013, from the Osborn, Judd and McCutcheon vineyards, displays the flavours of a warm vintage in a cool climate. Generous melon and white-peach-like flavours, with a brisk, grapefruit-like acidity lie at the centre of this richly textured barrel-fermented dry white.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 8 February 2015 in the Canberra Times and on Fairfax digital sites.

Capital Wines Gundaroo Vineyard Riesling 2014 $28
Gundaroo, Canberra District, NSW
In 1998, Mark and Jennie Moonie planted Geisenheim clones of riesling on a north-facing, protected slope at Gundaroo. They sold the vineyard to Ruth and Steve Lambert in 2004. But in 2013, by now the owners of Capital Wines, they bought grapes from the vineyard for a special single-vineyard riesling – a wine of outstanding quality. The second vintage, from the 2014 vintage, shows similar class, with its delicate, alluring perfume and intense, Germanic palate. This winner of four trophies is pure and beautiful riesling of a very high order.

Eddystone Point Pinot Noir 2011 $25.70–$30
Derwent Valley, Coal River Valley and East Coast, Tasmania
Eddystone Point, a new brand, comes from Accolade Wines’ Bay of Fires winery, Tasmania. This is the winery behind the Tasmanian components of Eileen Hardy Pinot Noir, one of Australia’s finest pinots, and the outstanding Bay of Fires Pinot Noir. Eddystone gives us the Tasmania pinot experience, from an expert team, at a more modest price. Tasted on a number of occasions, it captures pinot’s vibrant red berry flavours but also provides much of the deeper, more savoury and silky textured elements of the variety.

Moores Hill Tasmania Pinot Noir 2013 $34
Tamar Valley, Tasmania
Some kind soul send a bunch of impressive Tasmanian pinot noirs, including Moores Hill and Eddystone Point reviewed today. In the warm 2013 vintage, Moores Hill, run by Julian Allport, Fiona Weller and Lance Weller, produced a fuller version of pinot than the Eddystone. Pure, ripe-cherry-like varietal aromas and flavours gave the wine instant appeal. Behind the fruit lay a satisfying, smooth tannin structure and deeper, earthier pinot characters.

Grant Burge Summers Chardonnay 2013 $28
Eden Valley and Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Australia’s current golden age of chardonnay provides us with an extraordinary diversity of styles. Almost universally, the best are fermented in oak barrels and then matured in contact with spent yeast cells. The variations on this approach – combined with the enormous range of sites, viticultural practices and clonal selection – throws up a thousand shades of chardonnay. Grant Burge’s sits in a comfort zone – a complex wine built on vibrant fruit, subtly backed by the barrel influence ­– but without pushing the limits, as some do, on yeast-derived, oak, or other winemaker inputs. It’s simply a pleasure to drink.

Bleasdale Second Innings Malbec 2012 $15–$22
Langhorne Creek, South Australia
In a promotional poster for its three 2012 vintage malbecs, Bleasdale neatly sums up the character of the variety as “perfumed as pinot noir, mid-palate of shiraz and structure like cabernet” – or for those not up on wine lore, a perfumed red with a fleshy, fruity palate and firm, dry finish. The company claims to crush 10 per cent of Australia’s malbec in a winery accounting for 0.1 per cent of the nation’s total crush. Bleasdale entry-level malbec offers alluring ripe-plum aromas and a full, fleshy palate but through with soft, smooth tannins.

Bleasdale Double Take Malbec 2012 $65
Langhorne Creek, South Australia
Winemaker Paul Hotker reckons Langhorne Creek’s makes its best malbecs in years like 2012 when cool night breezes come in from a full Lake Alexandrina. A step up from “Second Innings” malbec is the more opulent, powerful $35 “Generations” version. And at the top of the pile, made only in outstanding years, comes the cellar door only “Double Take” – a deep and brooding wine of intense fruit flavours, cut through with persistent, firm tannins. This is one for long-term cellaring, though the strong tannins would disappear, leaving only fruit, if enjoyed with a big, juicy steak. (Available only at bleasdale.com.au).

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 3 and 4 February 2015 in Fairfax digital media and the Canberra Times

Eden Road The Long Road Tumbarumba Pinot Noir 2013 $30
Like Clonakilla and Ravensworth, Murrumbateman’s Eden Road winery sources fruit from high, cool Tumbarumba. Pinot noir for The Long Road, says winemaker Nick Spencer, comes from the Courabyra and Maragle vineyards. Restaurant 86, Braddon, offers it by the glass, so we paired it happily with cured kangaroo fillets. It’s a lighter style pinot noir, featuring bright fruit, stemmy notes and fine, silky tannins. It offers fair value and points to Tumbarumba’s potential with the variety. The area was originally planted to pinot for sparkling wine production. The transition to table wine making demands the considerable changes to vineyard management now under way.

d’Arenberg The Sticks and Stones McLaren Vale
Tempranillo Grenache Suzao Tinta Cao 2010 $30
Chester Osborn’s “Iberian Peninsula” blend includes Spain’s tempranillo, grenache (of French origin but equally at home in Spain) and Portugal’s port varieties, suzao and tinta cao. Osborn fermented the various components in five-tonne batches, matured them in older oak barrels, then blended and bottled the wine without fining or filtration. The result is a deeply coloured red that’s surprisingly nimble and gentle on the palate – despite its deep, fruity, tarry, savoury, earthy flavours. A bonus for drinkers are the mellow, integrated flavours of a complex wine allowed to bottle age for four years before release.

Mr Mick Clare Valley Riesling 2014 $13.30–$17
During the 1970s, legendary Clare winemaker Mick Knappstein taught Tim Adams about riesling making in the historic Leasingham winery. Decades later, Adams purchased his old alma mater and resurrected one of Knappstein’s most successful wine styles – a pure, delicate, fruity riesling with the smallest kiss of residual grape sugar – marketed as Leasingham Bin 5 Riesling. Mr Mick 2014 is a beautiful, fresh, tasty, fruity and effectively dry all-round quaffer, perhaps a little rounder and fuller than the 2013 vintage.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 31 January and 1 February 2015 in Fairfax digital media and the Canberra Times

Delamere Naissante Pinot Noir 2012 $23–$27
Tamar Valley, Tasmania
A leisurely new year’s eve dinner at Moruya’s River Restaurant provided three of today’s wine recommendations. Delamere pinot accompanied the fourth of seven courses – a luxurious duck and ham hock terrine, with shallot chutney and truffle vinaigrette. The wine’s bright, plush fruitiness added to the sweetness of the duck and ham hock. After the initial fruity hit, Naissante revealed deeper savoury flavours and the fine, silky tannins of a satisfying, serious pinot noir. Husband and wife team Shane Holloway and Fran Austin (formerly Bay of Fires) make the wines. (See delamerevineyards.com.au). Fran Austin writes, “The fruit is sourced from five little independent growers around the Tamar Valley, eastern and western banks, just little pockets we think are interesting”.

Fass 4 Gruner Veltliner (Weingut Bernhard Ott) 2012
Wagram, Austria $32–$39
What all-purpose, off-the-regular-Australian-menu-white could we enjoy with the first three courses at River Restaurant, Moruya? What could roll successfully through Horseradish and beetroot, cured salmon, and crab-filled zucchini flowers? We chose Austria’s signature white, gruner veltliner, grown in the Wagram region, at latitude 48 degrees north. Bernhard Ott’s 2012 excited with its shimmering, pale lemon-green colour and pristine, spicy–fruity aroma. The delicate but intense palate revealed spice and melon-rind flavours, smooth texture and refreshing, dry finish. Served too cold initially, it gave its best as it warmed to around 10 degrees.

Crozes-Hermitage (E. Guigal) 2010 $35–$38
Crozes-Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley, France
The wines of Crozes-Hermitage generally rank below those of its northern Rhone shiraz-producing neighbours, Cote-Rotie and Hermitage. Thankfully, that means a lower price and, at its best, yet another unique expression of shiraz from the variety’s home. From River Restaurant’s wine list, we selected Guigal’s 2010 vintage as company for our grilled eye fillet. We’d normally opt for a more tannic wine, like cabernet. But Guigal’s ripe, medium bodied, spicy shiraz worked with this tender, sweet cut of beef. The wine also had sufficient fine tannin and savour to add life to all the protein and fat.

Chablis (Domaine Fevre) 2012$36
Chablis, France
At restaurant 86, Braddon, we rediscovered a simple and great wine–food combination: fresh oysters and Chablis. The restaurant presented Clyde River oysters at their best: ice cold and ultra-fresh with the briny tang of the sea. That briny tang overwhelms many wines. But austere Chablis stands up to the attack, adding the unique flavours of mouth-wateringly acidic chardonnay grown in France’s cold north. Ergo Wine Imports distributes Domaine Fevre mainly to restaurants, including 86, and to one Canberra retail outlet, Plonk, Fyshwick Markets.

Tyrrell’s Lost Block Shiraz $15–$18
Heathcote, Victoria
Tyrrell’s Lost Block began as a single wine in 1993 – a bottling from a block of semillon grapes harvested as an after thought. The latest iteration features quirky labels on a small range of regional–varietal specialties, including this shiraz from Heathcote, Victoria. Tyrrell’s bring the fruit to the Hunter for winemaking. The winemaking and maturation techniques capture vibrant fruity–savoury varietal flavour, reminiscent of ripe black cherries. The combination of fruit and soft, savoury tannins give Lost Block great drink-now appeal.

Richard Hamilton Riesling 2014 $19.95
Bryskies vineyard, Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia
Richard Hamilton is perhaps best known for his Richard Hamilton McLaren Vale and Leconfield Coonawarra reds. However, in 2014, Hamilton’s winemaker, Paul Gordon, sourced riesling from the time-proven Bryskies vineyard in Watervale, at the southern end of the Clare Valley. The result is a beautiful example of this great regional specialty. It offers Watervale’s pure, lime-like varietal aromas and flavours and a light, delicate, soft palate, cut with brisk, drying acidity.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 27 and 28 January 2015 in Fairfax digital media and the Canberra Times

Mt Monster Limestone Coast Shiraz 2013 $13–$16
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. By my estimate a vineyard of that size might produce 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 2013 shiraz pours deep and crimson-rimmed, offering ripe mulberry-like aromas and a generous, fruity mid palate, with soft, easy tannins.

Chapel Hill McLaren Vale Verdelho 2014 $12.80–$16
In the nineteenth century, cuttings of the verdelho vine found their way separately to the east and west of Australia direct from the Island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean, about 700 kilometres west of Morocco. The vine adapted well to Australia’s hot dry conditions and over its almost 200-year history here, winemakers have used it in both fortified and table wines. These days it’s used mainly in light to medium bodied table wines and offers an alternative to our big-volume favourites, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Chapel Hill’s offer bright, fresh passion fruit- and –citrus-like flavours on a light to medium bodied palate with pleasantly tarty finish.

Tyrrell’s Belford Vineyard Hunter Valley Semillon 2009 $26–$35
The Elliott family planted the Belford vineyard in the Hunter in 1933 and still controls it. However, Tyrrell’s lease and manage the vineyard which is source of some their best semillon. Typically these are very pale, minerally and delicate as young wines, gradually taking on a fuller, honeyed character with bottle age. Fortunately, Tyrrell’s hold small volumes back for later release, giving the majority of drinkers without cellars a chance to taste the glories of aged semillon. The 2009 is a great and delicious example of this unique style, currently displaying a combination of aged and youthful characteristics.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 24 and 25 January 2015 in Fairfax digital media and the Canberra Times

Tyrrell’s Belford Chardonnay 2012 $33.50–$40
Belford, lower Hunter Valley, NSW
Tyrrell’s led Australia’s charge into chardonnay decades ago, albeit misnamed as “pinot chardonnay” for many years on its Vat 47 label. In theory the Hunter ought to be too warm to make cutting edge chardonnay. But Tyrrell’s top version, Belford and Vat 47, easily stand alongside more expensive wines from cooler southern regions. Belford 2012 lifts even higher in quality than usual, offering quite powerful chardonnay fruit flavour on a fine, richly textured palate, subtly seasoned by partial fermentation and maturation in French oak barrels. The wine bears two trophies, four gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

Tim Adams Riesling 2014 $19–$22
Clare Valley, South Australia
Australia’s best dry riesling provide beautiful drinking at modest prices – partly because they’re released young, and therefore not burdened with holding costs, and don’t require expensive treatments such as oak maturation. Clare Valley producer Tim Adams makes a particularly fine and pure expression of the style. Picking fruit early (at around 11.5 per cent alcohol potential) gives an austere, lemony edge to the acidity. This gives life and freshness to delicate but generous lime-and-lemon-like varietal flavours.

Fighting Gully Road Aglianico 2012 $40
Alpine Valleys, Victoria
Winemaker Mark Walpole describes Aglianico as, “my climate change variety. I think the site may be a little cool at the moment, but if things warm up as predicted the hopefully I’ll have some old vine aglianico in the perfect climate”. Aglianico, the most extensively planted red variety of Campania and Basilicata, southern Italy, buds early, ripens late and produces high quality very tannic reds. Walpole’s version, from a cool vintage, displays a limpid colour and vibrant, fresh, berry aromas with a touch of spice and pepper. The medium-bodied, elegantly structured palate reflects the aroma, especially in its berry and pepper character. It finishes with quite firm, fine, lingering tannins. (Available at fightinggully.com).

Hesketh “Small Parcels” Touriga 2014 $25
Tscharke vineyard, Seppeltsfield, Barossa Valley
Jonathon Hesketh and winemaker Phil Lehmann collaborate on the “small parcels” range, sourcing “fruit grown by specialist growers who are friends of either Phil or Jonathon and have a particular parcel that Phil believes will make something special”, write the pair. Their touriga (a Portuguese red variety) comes from the western Barossa’s Seppeltsfield sub-region. The limpid, purple-rimmed wine offers delightful floral and musk-like aromas. The fine-boned palate reveals more musk, a lick of pepper, a pinot-like texture and quite a firm backbone of fine tannins.

Zeppelin Big Bertha Shiraz 2013 $16–$19
Barossa Valley, South
For a modest price, Zeppelin, a brand of the McWilliams family, delivers the power, richness and ripeness of a warm Barossa Valley vintage. Although the wine is in the big regional style with abundant (though soft) tannin, the fruit remains vibrant and lively. Winemaker Andrew Higgins says he makes the wine from “low-yielding vineyards, traditional hands-off winemaking, open fermenters and basket pressing before bottling with minimal fining and filtration”. You can taste its wholesome goodness.

Tyrrell’s Stevens Vineyard Semillon 2009 $32.30–$35
Neil Stevens Glen Oak vineyard, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, NSW
The lower Hunter’s idiosyncratic semillon style divides drinkers into lovers and haters. True believers, agnostics and the uninitiated should be tempted by Tyrrell’s latest release. From the outstanding 2009 vintage, it reveals the power and delicacy of the style: at just 11 per cent alcohol, it combines some of the lemony tartness of a young wine with the first honeyed richness of bottle age. Tyrrell’s source the grape from one of the Hunter’s great vineyards, planted between 1911 and 1966.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 20 and 21 January in Fairfax digital media and the Canberra Times