All posts by Chris Shanahan

1853 vineyard Aussie mourvedre, viognier’s new face and Aldi’s Mosel bargain

9 August 2015People, Vineyard, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Barossa Valley Mourvedre vines, planted in1853

Hewitson Old Garden Barossa Valley Mourvedre 2012 $88
“In 1853 Friedrich Koch planted this mourvedre vineyard in the heart of the Barossa Valley in the area now known as Rowland Flat. Nurtured in deep sand over a bed of limestone the vines flourished. By the 1880s the local vignerons had already acknowledged the vineyard as the Old Garden”, writes winemaker Dean Hewitson. In 2012 those venerable159-year-olds provided the fruit for Hewitson’s timeless red. Hewitson’s fine tuning since 1998 – the year he rescued the fruit from the blending vat – gives us in 2012 a limpid, elegant red. It glows with spice and fruit flavours, suspended in taut, silky tannins, reminiscent in a structural sense, of high-quality pinot.

Clonakilla Canberra District Viognier Nouveau 2015 $24–$28
Clonakilla 2015 portrays the fresh and fruity face of a variety deeply woven into Clonakilla’s global success. At the suggestion of son Jeremy, John Kirk planted the then little-appreciated variety in 1986, punting it might give Clonakilla a point of difference over larger competitors. But in 1991, another son, Tim, returned from France inspired by Marcel Guigal’s northern Rhone shiraz–viognier blends. He emulated the style, and it became the benchmark for new-world versions of the Rhone model. But the Kirks also make two straight viogniers: a serious oak-fermented style, and this bright, fresh wine that pulses with juicy, apricot- and ginger-like varietal flavour.

Peter Mertes Mosel Riesling 2013 $9.99
Aldi’s semi-dry riesling comes from the vicinity of Kues, the village opposite Bernkastel on Germany’s Mosel River. These days the area carries the name Bernkastel-Kues, and the hyphen is perhaps symbolic of the bridge joining the two villages. The middle Mosel produces some of the world’s great rieslings bearing both the name of an individual vineyard and the nearest village. Bernkastler Doctor wines, for example, come from the Doctor vineyard at Bernkastel. Aldi’s wine bears only the Mosel name. It’s an impressive regional style at this price: full flavoured but delicate, low in alcohol and with high acidity nicely balancing the grapey sweetness.

Aussie wine reviews – seven varieties, six regions, four states

5 August 2015People, Uncategorized, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Jim Barry Veto Riesling 2015
Lodge Hill vineyard, Clare Valley, South Australia
$35
Peter Barry and sons Tom and Sam put a bit of the mongrel into their new riesling. It zigs away from Australia’s traditional pure, delicate, lime-like style towards greater ripeness, with notably more body, grip and texture. Later harvesting, partial barrel fermentation in older oak and prolonged ageing on spent yeast cells contributed to the more assertive style. However, it remains bright, fresh, vibrant and recognisably riesling. The intensity of fruit flavour and strong acid backbone suggest good ageing potential. However, it remains to be seen whether the richer texture and grip add to its age-worthiness or bring the wine to early maturity.

Bremerton Graciano 2013
Langhorne Creek, South Australia
$24
The red variety, graciano, grows in small quantities in Spain, Portugal and Sardinia. In Spain it makes a “fresh and aromatic contribution to Rioja blends, and the small but growing number of varietal wines”, writes Jancis Robinson. At Canberra’s Mount Majura winery, Frank van de Loo, includes it blends, but also makes a straight varietal. And down in Langhorne Creek sisters Lucy and Rebecca Willson let graciano loose in this cellar-door wine (bremerton.com.au). Deep coloured, with vivid crimson rim, it offers vibrant berry and herbal flavours on a brisk, acidic palate

Curly Flat Chardonnay 2013
Curly Flat vineyard, Macedon Ranges, Victoria
$44
Fermentation and maturation in oak barrels introduces aromas, flavours and textures not found in the grape itself. The affect of oak varies from resiny, woody and intrusive to a symbiotic one, where the oak lifts the whole wine to another level of drinking pleasure, even of beauty. We find this in the painstakingly handcrafted wines of Curly Flat. The interplay of intense fruit flavours with the oak, and the spent yeast cells during maturation, results in a powerful, multi-dimensional, silky, elegant dry white.

Hay Shed Hill Shiraz Tempranillo 2012
Margaret River, Western Australia
$18–$20
In 2012 eastern Australian vignerons shivered through their second consecutive cool, wet vintage. But their Western Australian counterparts experienced, “an almost complete lack of summer rain with early season high temperatures giving way to mild middle and late vintage pattern”, writes Hay Shed Hill owner, Michael Kerrigan. The sunshine shows in Kerrigan’s lovely blend. Ripe, juicy, soft shiraz forms the base of the blend, while a small amount of tempranillo adds tannic grip and exotic spicy notes.

Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2014
Hunter Valley, NSW
$12.99–$20
If you enjoy Hunter semillon’s idiosyncratic style, Elizabeth remains one of Australia’s best value cellaring wines – and a great beneficiary of the screw cap. For a modest price, you can cellar a dozen, drink a bottle every year or two, and enjoy the journey from the light and lemony freshness of youth to the honeyed, toasty mellowness old age. The screw cap ensures the sound condition of every bottle opened over the years. Before the screw cap, cork-sealed semillons yielded widely varying results, from the brilliant to undrinkably oxidised, or cork tainted.

Lindemans St George Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2012
St George vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia
$44.90–$60
A recent masked tasting paired Lindemans St George Vineyard Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon1998 with Chateau Calon-Segur 1996. The host, Bob Irwin and wife Chizuru, couldn’t have found more perfect examples of these regional specialties. From the first sniff, wine number one could only have been a Coonawarra cabernet; and wine number two a classic “claret” – a blend of cabernet and merlot from Bordeaux’s Medoc sub-region. The 17-year-old St George remained vibrant, varietal and beautifully elegant – and an absolute pleasure to drink. The current-release 2012 vintage possesses similar qualities and should provide outstanding drinking for several decades.

Brewing up history – Goulburn’s Bradley Grange

5 August 2015Beer, Beer review, PeopleChris Shanahan

Bradley Grange, Goulburn. Photo Chris Shanahan

The remarkable Bradley Grange property, housing the Old Goulburn Brewery, lies behind the big merino’s arse, near the Goulburn back roads Canberrans once navigated to avoid main-street.

Grange’s buildings, designed by Francis Greenway and built from 1833, housed “the various activities associated with brewing, malting, milling, coopering, smithing and stabling”, according to the brewery website.

Amazingly, the buildings survived the centuries. And now restored to their original shapes, if not full functionality, they stand as a unique museum of colonial architecture and commerce.

We visited for the beer and finally did taste it in the old malt house. Before that, however, the ghosts of brewers, coopers and maltsters past lured us through the old buildings.

There’s a homespun feel to the displays. But beautifully written information boards in the various galleries give profound insights into the brilliant mind of Francis Greenway, and the diverse – and surprising – influences on his designs.

Old Goulburn Brewery Goulburn Gold 750ml $9.50
The Old Goulburn Brewery barman, Michael, isn’t telling us much. In fact he’s serving the pale golden beer blind, leaving us to work out what it was. Well, it was delicious, surprisingly so for an ale of just 2.7 per cent alcohol: gentle, soft and malty with an assertive, refreshing hops bitterness.

Orkney Brewery Skull Splitter 330ml $7.50
Orkney’s “wee heavy” delivers the dessert-like richness of traditional, strong Scottish ale. Forget about hops and bitterness. This is all about rich, sweet malt flavours – including caramel- and –molasses-like characters – combined with a heady 8.5 per cent alcohol. It’s a delicious, harmonious, winter warmer – in fact, far from skull splitting.

Wine review – Leo Buring, Aldi and Hewitson

2 August 2015Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Leo Buring DWR18 Leonay Watervale Riesling 2014 $33–$40
Leonay is Australian riesling royalty, descended from beautiful, long-lived whites created by John Vickery in the 1960s. Amazingly, and despite numerous changes of ownership and management over the decades, the wine retains its integrity. And, thanks to the screwcap (championed by Vickery while working for rival company Richmond Grove in the late nineties), the wines evolve magnificently for many years. We recently tasted Leonay Watervale 2005, which at ten years displayed the region’s intense, fresh, lime-like vivacity, with the subtle, honeyed patina of age. The intensely fruity, yet delicate, 2014 offers comparable ageing potential and quality.

Aldi 5171 McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $12.99
A couple of extravagant reviews for Aldi’s $13 cabernet sent Chateau Shanahan’s BS metre into overdrive. We all want Grange for $10, but we’re yet to find it. However, we regularly find excellent drinking, even bargains, among the big retailers’ private label wines. At present Aldi’s taking challenge to Woolies and Coles. While that provides good, cheap, drinking for consumers, winemakers must worry at the growing number of retailer labels displacing producer brands. Oh, yes, the wine: this is solid, chunky cabernet, packed with flavour and burly tannins, if not finesse.

Hewitson Baby Bush Barossa Valley Mourvedre 2013 $28
Baby Bush comes from mourvedre vines propagated from a Barossa vineyard planted in 1853. The venerable old vines produce Hewitson’s distinctive Old Garden Mourvedre ($88). But, Hewitson wonders, has the Baby Bush name had its day? “The oldest Baby Bush vines are now 18 years old, so not quite babies any more”, he writes, and adds, “The youngest vines to qualify are ten years old”. Generally the junior partner in the classic three-way blend with grenache and shiraz, mourvedre provides exotic drinking on its own: a robust, spicy red with currant-like fruit flavours pushing through quite firm, rustic tannins.

Wine review – Stella Bella, Mitolo, Chateau Les Maurins, Angullong, Shaw and Smith

29 July 2015Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Stella Bella Serie Luminosa Chardonnay 2012
Forest Grove and Gnarawary Road vineyards, Margaret River, Western Australia
$65
Stella Bella’s flagship chardonnay momentarily upstaged a memorable lunch at Canberra’s Chairman and Yip restaurant. Even the Chairman’s signature pungent, chewy, savoury, salted squid couldn’t detract our attention form the wine’s shimmering beauty. This is modern Australia chardonnay at its most luscious, irresistible best. We could strip it down to the component flavours and textures of fruit, barrel-fermentation, malo-lactic fermentation (conversion of austere malic acid to soft lactic acid), maturation on spent yeast cells and a couple of years’ bottle age But these elements all sing together, led by Margaret River’s dazzling fresh, fleshy fruit and completed by the rich, fine texture.

Stella Bella Chardonnay 2012
Margaret River, Western Australia
$29–$32
At about half the price, Stella Bella chardonnay provides much of the drinking thrill of its $65 cellar mate, Serie Luminosa. Like the flagship wine, it’s fermented and matured in high quality French oak barrels and bottle aged for a couple of years before release. And the wine delivers Margaret River’s fleshy, refined fruit flavours, seasoned by all of those winemaking inputs. It provides great sensual pleasure, if not the attention-grabbing intensity, elegance and sheer beauty of the flagship.

Mitolo Angela Shiraz 2013
Sandra’s block, Willunga, McLaren Vale, SA
$33–$35
There’s nothing flashy about Canberra’s Civic Pub. But it’s a comfy watering hole, serving fresh, simple food and fairly priced wine to accompany it. On a cold winter’s day a rare sirloin, with crisp, steamed string beans, a couple of spuds and tangy pepper sauce, paired deliciously with Mitolo Angela Shiraz. What simple pleasure: hot, fresh food and a warming, ripe, fruity red, with the savour and soft tannins typical of McLaren Vale. Two blokes, one bottle and happy smiles.

Chateau Les Maurins 2013
Entre-deux-Mers, Bordeaux, France
$9.99
For the first time since the 2010 vintage, this Aldi import landed on the Chateau Shanahan tasting bench. From the region between Bordeaux’s Dordogne and Garonne rivers, the wine offers a ripe fruity aroma, somewhat surprisingly for this cool area. On the palate, powerful, mouth-puckering tannins swamp the fruit, giving a very grippy, dry finish. The style may not please palates used to softer, fruitier Australian reds. But it has its place, preferably with red meats as the protein softens the tannins.

Angullong Fossil Hill Sangiovese 2013
Angullong vineyard, Orange, NSW
$24
Sangiovese, the principle grape of Italy’s Chianti zone, tends to make medium bodied, savoury reds with a notable tannic grip. Fossil Hill Sangiovese, from Orange, NSW, has a light to medium hue and a savoury aroma – reminiscent of tobacco – with a touch of cherry-like fruit. The palate reflects the aroma precisely, combining savour and fresh fruit in a wine of medium body, with fine, firm tannins giving a food-friendly tweak to the finish.

Shaw and Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2015
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
$23.80–$26
Just as Cloudy Bay paved the way for other sauvignon blancs from Marlborough, New Zealand, Shaw and Smith set the pace for Australian styles. And every year, owner Michael Hill-Smith presents the new vintage, fresh from the vine, at a series of Australia-wide lunches. Perhaps there are better drinks than sauvignon on a miserably cold, wet Canberra day. But dozens of trade dutifully attended this year’s launch. Eyeing the reds to follow, we succumbed to the new sauvignon’s charms. It really is as good as the variety gets in Australia, seducing with its dazzling fresh, passionfruit-like juiciness.

Canberra brewer’s gypsy pact

29 July 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Pact Beer Co, Canberra’s ambitious new brewer. Photo Giancarlo Del Miglio

Like the Wig and Pen, Zierholz, and Bent Spoke, Canberra’s new brewer, the Pact Beer Co, arose from the vibrant, anarchic underworld of home brewing.

In 2014, Kevin Hingston, a keen home brewer, became national winner of the Australian Amateur Brewing Championships.

His appetite whet, Hingston moved into the professional ranks this year. With the backing of Canberra-raised mates Mark Grainger and Tim Osborne, Hingston brewed Pact Beer Co’s first ales at craft breweries in Sydney and Melbourne – a widespread practice known as gypsy brewing.

He offers the beers on tap at the Transit Bar, the Durham Castle, the Pot Belly, the Old Canberra Inn and A. Baker, and take-away “growlers” at Plonk.

Hingston plans to introduce bottled beer into Canberra by September, and has ambitions to build a sizeable brewery here in future. “We’d like a brewery larger than the existing Canberra operators – large enough to supply wholesale”, Hingston said.

Pact beers reviewed

Pact Beer Co Brickworks Brown Ale schooner $7
“Gypsy” brewer Kevin Hingston launched Brickworks Brown Ale at the Durham Castle, Kingston, on 16 July. The beer pours deep amber with an abundant, inviting head. Strong, floral hops aromas leads to a rich, warming palate, with flavours of caramel, malt and roasted grains under the pervasive hops, which linger in flavour and bitterness.

Pact Beer Co Tennent Pale Ale schooner $7
A big, bold beer in the American pale ale style, Tennent sets pungent, resiny hops against rich, sweet, malty flavours. Hops dominate from first sniff to the lingering aftertaste, in an harmonious and characterful interpretation of the style. On tap at Durham Castle, Transit Bar, Pot Belly and Old Canberra Inn.

Wine review – Corte Carista, Hardys and Seppelt

26 July 2015Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Chianti Classico (Corte Carista) 2012 $9.99
Aldi’s Tuscan import takes us well away in style from Australian wines made from the same grape variety, sangiovese. It’s medium bodied, taut, bone-dry, earthy and savoury with sour-cherry-like fruit characters in the aroma. On the palate this cherry-like flavour wells up through tough, pervasive, savoury tannins. It fits the Chianti Classico specification, albeit in a pleasantly rough and rustic way. Last time we tried one of these, a withered little cork snapped in half as we coaxed it from the bottle. The cork survived the operation this time.

Hardys Tintara McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013 $18.90–$28
Hardys, now part of Accolade Wines, began as a Tintara, McLaren Vale, producer in nineteenth century. The Tintara label reflects those roots. The 2013 vintage provides an opulent, drink-now expression of the regional shiraz style. The deep, crimson-rimmed colour suggests a strong wine with youth vitality. The aroma and palate confirm this with full, ripe, vibrant fruit flavours, reminiscent of ripe, black cherries. Behind the fruit flavours we detect dark-chocolate and other savoury characters weaving through the smooth, soft tannins.

Seppelt Jaluka Chardonnay (Henty, Victoria) 2013 $23.75–$27
The Drumborg vineyard, planted by Karl Seppelt in1964, lies a little to the north of Portland on Victoria’s southwest coast. The cool, maritime climate presented huge viticultural challenges in the early days. But over the decades its managers coaxed ever better fruit from the site, culminating in elegant, charming wines like Jaluka chardonnay. The very good 2013 shows us an intense, fine-boned face of modern Australian chardonnay from a very cool climate. Delicate, grapefruit-like varietal flavours underpin a complex, barrel-fermented wine. Possibly the best value for money chardonnay made in Australia.

Wine review – powerful Barossa shiraz leads trans-continental Aussie wine line up

22 July 2015Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Torbreck The Struie Shiraz 2013
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
$45–$49
Like a black hole sucking in stars, Torbreck “The Laird” Shiraz 2010 ($700) held 30 tasters captive, powerless to reach the other nine reds on the table. And little wonder. The Laird’s deep, dark power sucked the marrow from our bones and filled our heads with awe. But further out in the Torbreck constellation, we later found the heavenly, if not divine, Struie. Powerful shiraz from the Barossa Valley, tamed by more elegant Eden Valley fruit, gives The Struie sumptuous, earthy, savoury richness, with layers of harmonious flavours and tannins.

Angullong Fossil Hill Barbera 2013
Fossil Hill vineyard, Orange, NSW
$24
Fossil Hill vineyard lies at the lower altitude limit of the Orange region, at around 600 metres. The site successfully ripens northern Italy’s barbera grape and the winemakers successfully capture its zesty, fruity character. They allow about a fifth of the harvest to ferment as whole berries – which means the fermentation begins anaerobically inside the berries, contributing the wine’s fruity freshness. The result is pale to medium coloured red, of medium body, with fresh fruit flavours to the fore, albeit with a savoury edge. Fairly high acidity combines with fine tannins to give a pleasantly tart finish to a distinctive style.

Mad Fish Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2014
Great Southern and Margaret River, Western Australia
$12.50–$18
The Burch family’s budget brand, Mad Fish, benefits from all the care lavished on the more expensive wines sold under its Howard Park, and Marchand and Burch labels. For as little as $12.50 (at time of writing) you can enjoy the pure and distinctive taste of Western Australia’s sauvignon blanc-semillon blend. There’s nothing fancy or complex about the wine. Rather, it captures vigorous herbaceous flavours of the two varieties and throws in the plump and juicy mid palate all too often missing from these blends.

Longview Red Bucket Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Macclesfield and Kuitpo, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
$14.25–$17
Brothers Peter and Mark Saturno provide consistently good drinking with their entry-level Red Bucket wines. The red blend, from two comparatively warm sites in the Adelaide Hills, offers particularly fleshy, ripe flavours in the excellent 2013 vintage. The wine has the bright berry flavours, medium body and elegant structure, expressive of a warm site in a cool region. While shiraz gives a juicy richness to the mid palate, the tell-tale leafy notes of cabernet season the wine and its tannins provide backbone.

Oakridge Local Vineyard Series Arneis 2014
Murrummong vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
$26
Necessity became the mother of Oakridge Arneis when neighbouring winery Yarra Loch no longer wanted the fruit. For ever-inventive winemaker David Bicknell, that meant another white to fiddle with each vintage. The Piedmontese variety tends to be neutral. It therefore challenges winemakers to find a balance between winemaking tricks that add character, or going too far and overwhelming the wine. In the 2014, Bicknell produced a wine of striking melon and citrus aromas and a dry palate of great vitality and interest. It’s available only at oakridgewines.com.au.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Wynns vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia
$30.30–$45
The latest Wynns Black Label (due for release 5 August) reflects one of Australia’s longest running, most effective wine-improvement programs. Early this century Wynns winemaker, Sue Hodder, with viticulturist Allen Jenkins, began restructuring Wynns’ massive vineyard holdings and, at the same time, deconstructing (then reconstructing) winemaking processes. A deep understanding of individual vineyard plots has enabled harvesting of multiple, comparatively small grape batches progressively at proper ripeness. A new winery built to handle multiple batches gave Hodder precise control over quality and style. We now see the results in all its varietal purity, elegance and strength in this, Black Label’s sixtieth vintage.

Fat Yak sires lazy offspring

22 July 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Herd mentality

The release this month of CUB’s Lazy Yak – first offspring of Matilda Bay’s successful Fat Yak Pale Ale – reveals much about the rapidly growing craft beer market. It also supports predictions the big brewers are best placed to profit from it.

Fat Yak was itself a toned-down version of Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale. Brewed originally at the CUB’s Matilda Bay Garage Brewery in Dandenong, the astonishingly bitter, malt-sweet Alpha displayed the sheer power and idiosyncrasy of the American Pale Ale style.

The enormous success of Alpha’s less astonishing offspring, Matilda Bay Fat Yak, saw Fat Yak supplant Matilda Bay as the brand drinkers recognised.

And now to appeal to a growing herd of less savvy craft beer drinkers, the Yak herd expands. The new member, not yet tasted, tones down the bitterness considerably from the original while remaining an all-malt brew.

Beer reviews

Rye River Brewing Co McGargles Granny Mary’s Red Ale 330ml $4.20
Granny Mary’s warm, burnished mahogany colour comes from the roasted malt used in its making. Subtle roasted-grain flavours push through the beer’s malt and caramel-like flavours, giving a pleasant tartness to the dry, moderately bitter finish. The ale comes from Rye River Brewing of County Kildare, Ireland.

Hawthorn Brewing Co Pilsner 330ml $4.20
Hawthorn Brewing’s pilsner emulates the classic Czech style from the town of the same name. It succeeds to a large degree with its bright golden colour and fresh, full, malty palate, cut through with lingering hops bitterness. It’s more fun to drink than the average mass-made pilsner, thanks largely to its notable hops bitterness.

Wine review– Pizzini, Wirra Wirra and Ferngrove

19 July 2015Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Pizzini King Valley Rosetta Sangiovese Rosé 2014 $17–$19
Joel Pizzini’s sangiovese rosé pours a light and bright pink colour. The inscrutable appearance, shared by most modern rosés, offers no hint about the style. It could be sweet and bland; soft, gentle and delicately fruity; or dry, savoury and grippy. The aroma yields a few clues – strawberry-like, perhaps a touch of sour cherry, and not sweet. The fresh and lively palate provides the answers: this is a light and refreshing expression of the sangiovese grape. Gentle, savoury tannins give a pleasantly tart tweak to the dry, fruity-but-restrained palate.

Wirra Wirra Original Blend McLaren Vale Grenache Shiraz 2013 $19–$25
Wirra Wirra’s new release combines grenache (70 per cent) with shiraz (30 per cent) from McLaren Vale’s McLaren Flat and Seaview sub-regions. Gentle winemaking techniques (including hand plunging of the skins and basket pressing), combined with maturation in older oak barrels, captured the unique characters of the two varieties. The lovely floral notes of grenache combine seamlessly with earthier, fuller-bodied shiraz in a vibrant, round, juicy wine with soft, caressing tannins. It’s a sensuous, jolly, happy wine made to enjoy right now.

Ferngrove Frankland River Orchid King Malbec 2012 $29–$32
Ferngrove’s seriously good malbec comes from Frankland River, about 270 kilometres southeast of Margaret River, Western Australia. While malbec remains largely a blending variety in Australia, it can stand on its own when grown in the right conditions. And clearly they are in this remote corner of the continent. Orchid King delivers the heady, plummy aroma of the variety, along with its deep colour, intense flavour and strong, tannic backbone. Indeed so good is the fruit, it easily absorbed and benefited from extended maturation in new French and Hungarian barrels. The oak influence is notable and, in this instance, symbiotic.