Wolf Blass Original Collection McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013 $20
We bought this satisfying McLaren Vale red at BWS, Broome, packed it into the back of our Hilux and headed off for the Gibb River Road. It survived endless corrugations and finally, at the 3,200-square-kilometre Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary, emerged red-dusty and delicious onto the camp table. After a hot day, relieved by swims in the Fitzroy and Adcock Rivers, Wolfie’s shiraz warmed our cool Kimberley night. It delivered the generous, ripe flavours of McLaren Vale shiraz in an excellent season – complete with the region’s distinctive savouriness and silky, seductive tannins big winemaking companies manage so adeptly.

John Duval Plexus Barossa Valley White 2014 $25–$30
John Duval’s Plexus combines the Rhone Valley white varieties, marsanne, roussanne and viognier. The exuberant viognier, with its at times in-your-face apricot-like flavours, comprises just 13 per cent of the blend. The more demure marsanne and roussanne therefore lend the wine some restraint – albeit in a particularly fruity style in the 2014 vintage. The vibrant, upfront fruit gives the wine immediate appeal. But oak fermentation and maturation of part of the blend contributes a smooth texture and savouriness – giving it even greater appeal and setting it apart from our usual white menu of riesling, semillon, chardonnay or sauvignon blanc.

Neve Marlborough Pinot Noir 2013 (Aldi) $7.99
German chain Aldi continues to apply the blow torch to its competitors’ nether regions with amazingly well targeted, low priced, high quality wines like this. You can hear Coles and Woolies squealing as, at last, the German upstart applies real margin-pinching competition to Australia’s east coast. The chain’s Neve Marlborough 2013 brings us the previously unthinkable – drinkable pinot at $8 a bottle. The pinot grape requires modest yields and a cool climate to produce its distinctive, lighter bodied reds – with Marlborough the frontrunner for this increasingly popular style. Neve offers simple, light, fresh, true varietal flavours.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 23 June and 5 July in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Domaine Chandon Shiraz 2013
Yarra Valley, Victoria
$25–$32
Today’s reviews cover six faces of shiraz, Australia’s great red specialty. Domaine Chandon carries the cool-climate banner with a beautifully aromatic, medium bodied style. Winemaker Dan Buckle writes, “In 2013 we made the decision to move our shiraz production from Heathcote to the Yarra Valley”. In a tweet, he added, “We have some xlnt Yarra vineyards at our doorstep. Literally”. The regional change means a shift from Heathcote’s power and savour, to a spicier, highly aromatic Yarra style – a supple, smooth, richly flavoured wine that sits lightly on the palate and drinks beautifully right now.

Majella Shiraz 2013
Majella vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia
$30–$35
Majella shiraz caught our attention from the very first vintage, 1991 – the year the grape-growing Lynn family began its gradual, and now complete, transition to winemaker. Their shiraz, though elegant and fine boned in the Coonawarra style, nevertheless requires cellaring to bring out its best, perhaps even more so in the powerful 2013 vintage. Behind the light, vivid, limpid colour lie deep, sweet berry fruit flavours, tightly bound up in fine but assertive fruit and oak tannins. The wine has its charms now, but from past experience we can expect the delicate and lovely fruit to flourish with a decade or so of cellaring.

Sevenhill Inigo Shiraz 2013
Sevenhill vineyards, Clare Valley, South Australia
$17–$28
Winemaker Liz Heidenrech says the 2013 Clare vintage arrived early, but disease free and characterised by small intensely flavoured berries. Heidenrech fermented the shiraz from the estate’s very old vines in open slate fermenters, mined from nearby Mintaro. Although the wine weighs in at 15.2 per cent alcohol, it remains graceful and well balanced, with seductive, juicy, deep, ripe, vibrant fruit flavours – seasoned with varietal spice and a hint of oak-derived vanilla. Soft, round tannins meld smoothly with the fruit flavours, making a big, bold wine immediately approachable.

Torbreck Woodcutters Shiraz 2013
Barossa Valley, South Australia
$22.80–$25
The big and beautiful Barossa Valley produces big and varied shiraz styles, characterised by full, ripe flavours and tender tannins. For its entry-level shiraz, Torbreck sources grapes from a number of distinct Barossa sub-regions: Marananga, Greenock, Ebenezer, Gomersal, Moppa, Lyndoch and Kalimna. It’s a hearty, 15-per-cent-alcohol style, combining ripe, dark-cherry-like fruit flavours with a chewy, satisfying lode of soft, savoury tannin.

Forester Estate Shiraz 2012
Margaret River, Western Australia
$17.10–$24
Forester Estate provides a full-bodied expression of Margaret River shiraz, with a vivid purple hue – perhaps attributable to the inclusion of alicante bouschet in the blend. Deeply coloured alicante bouschet, a cross of petit bouschet and grenache, was historically used to add colour to lighter red wines. Whatever its contribution, shiraz remains the keynote in a full-flavoured red, featuring plum- and dark-cherry-like varietal flavours, a touch of black pepper, rustic tannin and brisk acidity.

Tyrrell’s Shiraz 2013
Hunter Valley, NSW
$18.50–$24
Releasing his new Hunter Valley range, Bruce Tyrrell asked how important region is when Australians make wine-buying decisions. He said, “A study by Wine Intelligence found that 55 per cent of Australian wine drinkers choose region to be the number one influencer” when they decide what to buy. The same study pointed to the Hunter Valley, with three million visitors a year, as the number one region for awareness. Perhaps there’s a Sydney bias in the survey. But who cares as Tyrrell’s 2013 shiraz really captures the idiosyncratic Hunter style: limpid and medium bodied with sweet fruit, cut with savoury, spicy flavours, finishing dry and soft.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 30 June and 1 July 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

De Bortoli Yarra Valley Windy Peak Pinot Noir 2014 $9.95–$15
De Bortoli’s Windy Peak offers the juicy, pure varietal flavour of ripe, cool-grown pinot at an amazingly low price. I paid around $15 for it in Broome, where it became our much loved, campsite red, enduring the corrugations and dust of the Gibb River and Cape Leveque roads. Many retailers offer it for about $11, and Dan Murphy sells the previous, marginally better 2013 vintage online for $9.95. Remarkably for a pinot at this price, it provides some of the savour and backbone as well varietal fruit flavour.

Rolling Central Ranges Cabernet Merlot 2013 $12.95–$15
Rolling is a brand of Cumulus Estate Wines of Orange. Variations in the estate’s altitude mean that vines above the 600-metre mark lie within the Orange region boundary, while those below 600 metres fall under the Central Ranges appellation. It’s a fine line to draw as wines from, say, 650 metres bear more resemblance to those from 590 metres than to those at 750, 850 or even over 1,000 metres – all captured in the Orange boundary. But that’s for the locals to worry about. Rolling cabernet merlot, enjoyed in Qantas cattle class recently, provides pleasant berry flavours with cabernet’s herbaceous edge and fine tannins.

Brookland Valley Verse 1 Margaret River Chardonnay 2013 $13.30–$15
The trickle-down effect can never be underestimated for large-company wines. In this instance, Brookland Valley, part of Accolade Wines, produces cutting-edge Margaret River chardonnay, alongside the group’s other fine chardonnays, including Bay of Fires (Tasmania) and the flagship, Eileen Hardy. The group skills trickle down all the way to Brookland’s Verse 1 chardonnay, which provides way above average drinking for the price. Its keynote is pure, fresh peach-and-melon varietal flavour of great freshness, backed by textural richness derived from barrel maturation of some components.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 27 and 28 June 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Ross Hill Pinnacle Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Ross Hill Griffin Road vineyard, Orange, NSW
$40
From 1994, the Robson family planted their Griffin Road, Orange, vineyard at elevations varying from 750 to 850 metres. In 2008, the family added another five hectares at 1018 metres, near their Wallace Road winery. In the benign 2013 vintage, five years after winemaker Phil Kerney arrived, The Ridge, a section of the lower, warmer Griffin vineyard, produced evenly ripened cabernet of a quality rarely seen in the district. Kerney successfully nurtured the fruit through the winery and ultimately to bottle under the company’s Pinnacle label. A deep, vividly coloured wine, Pinnacle shows equally vivid, ripe berry flavours in a deep, sweet palate cut through with cabernet’s assertive, ripe tannins. This is powerful, harmonious and elegant cabernet that might be enjoyed now with protein rich food. However, its best lies in the years ahead.

Chrismont La Zona Prosecco NV
King Valley, Victoria
$18–$22
In 2007 Arnie and Jo Pizzini planted the Italian white variety, prosecco, in their vineyard at Cheshunt, in Victoria’s King Valley. With it they emulate the light, delicate dry sparkling wines made with the variety in north-eastern Italy. La Zona starts as a still table wine matured on yeast lees for a few months before being blended with components from earlier vintages then undergoing a secondary fermentation in steel tanks. It’s a unique, good-fun style – pale, comparatively low in alcohol, at 11.5 per cent, and with a light, delicious, pleasant, intensely tart, dry palate.

Tolpuddle Pinot Noir 2013
Tolpuddle vineyard, Coal River Valley, Tasmania
$75
In May, Tolpuddle vineyard, owners Michael Hill Smith and Martin Shaw, celebrated a huge success at London’s International Wine Challenge. Tolpuddle 2013, just the second pinot from vineyard in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley, won trophies as best Tasmanian pinot, best Australian pinot and best Australian red – of any variety. Smith and Shaw sell the majority of their fruit to other winemakers, but make small quantities of pinot noir and chardonnay for their Tolpuddle label. Pure, primary fruit flavours push through the wine’s fine, smooth tannins, but savouriness and complexity give extra dimension to the first class pinot so loved by the London judges.

Forester Estate Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2014
Yallingup, Margaret River, Western Australia
$17.10–$254
Forester Estate take Margaret River’s regional white blend to a high level of flavour intensity and purity. Distinctive snow-pea-like characters, with a citrus-like tang, define this two-variety blend in Margaret River. And Forester Estate’s screams from the glass, leaving drinkers in no doubt what they’re about to encounter. The style can sometimes be a little skinny on the palate, but this one gives a plush and juicy feeling. And then the zippy acid carries the snow-pea flavour on to a long, refreshing finish.

Torbreck The Struie Shiraz
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
$47.50–$50
Torbreck creator David Powell departed the scene a couple of years ago after a public and bitter split with Torbreck’s American owner, Peter Kight. However, Torbreck and its winemaking remain intact, producing extraordinary reds like The Struie. It combines elegant, refined shiraz from the higher, cooler Eden Valley with fuller, riper shiraz from the warmer Barossa. The wine hits the palate with sweet, stock-like concentration – a chewy, slinky amalgam of ripe but spicy shiraz, soft tannin and mocha-like flavours from high-quality oak, which also adds a slight bitterness to the aftertaste.

Mad Fish Premium Red Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2013
Margaret River, Great Southern and Geographe, Western Australia
$13.30–$18
The Burch family’s budget red blend comprises mostly cabernet sauvignon (54 per cent) and merlot (35 per cent) with a gloop each of cabernet franc, sangiovese, shiraz and petit verdot. Cabernets and the related merlot give the wine its distinctive berry and tomato-leaf characters and lean, taut palate. And sangiovese probably adds to the grippy tannins, though it’s hard to discern what the shiraz contributes. Overall, it’s a high quality, good value cabernet blend. Watch for the retailer discounts, as they tend to lop around $5 a bottle off the recommended price.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 23 and 24 June 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Torbreck Barossa Valley Cuvee Juveniles 2013 $25
Originally made for Juveniles bistro, Paris, Torbreck provides an exuberant, unoaked expression of the Barossa’s signature blend of grenache, shiraz and mataro (aka mourvedre). Despite its hefty 15-per-cent alcohol, Juveniles sits bright, fresh and fruity on the palate, with little sign of alcoholic heat. Grenache (60 per cent of the blend) leads the aroma, musk-like flavour and liveliness of the palate. Shiraz adds body and soft tannins to the blend, while mataro contributes spice, savour and tannic grip to a remarkably fruity, buoyant finish.

Redbank Sunday Morning King Valley Pinot Gris 2013 $17.90–$22
Pinot gris and pinot grigio are just the Italian and French names respectively for the same grape variety. “Grigio” and “gris” mean “grey”, indicating the skin colour, which can range through grey and pink to light red. While there’s no formal definition of the styles suggested by the names, “grigio” more often than not indicates the leaner, dry style produced in northeastern Italy; and “gris” represents the more luscious, sometimes sweet styles of Alsace, France. Redbank, from high-altitude vineyards in Victoria’s King Valley, sits towards the off-dry, plush French style, with a pleasant, light spiced pear-like flavour.

Partisan McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013 $15.20–$18
McWilliams Wines remains one of Australia’s largest family owned wineries, with an ever-extending reach away from their Griffith base, and a kaleidoscope of regional brands. The Partisan label represents a step into McLaren Vale’s signature red variety, shiraz. And, typical of a McWilliam brand, the quality greatly exceeds what we’d expect at the price. If not offering Grange at $15–$18 a bottle, Partisan certainly deliver rich, ripe, shiraz with the chewy, savoury, satisfying depth characteristic of McLaren Vale. Discounted to around $15 a bottle, it’s an absolute bargain.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 20 and 21 June in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times