Australia’s more than 2,400 vignerons make a greater diversity and higher quality wine than ever before in a wine history dating from the first fleet.

My top-15 therefore represents a wide range of Australian styles from seven distinct regions in four states, plus five multi-region blends, including one bubbly. Completing the lineup are two imports – a delicate riesling from Germany’s Mosel region, and a savoury montepulciano from Abruzzo, Italy.

While several wines in the selection bear recommended prices over $15, they are frequently discounted and you should never have to pay the full price. As a guide, the price ranges I give cover the lowest discount price at time of writing and the recommended price.

Happy drinking.

TOP WHITES

Hay Shed Hill Pitchfork Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2015 $14.25–$16
Winemaker Michael Kerrigan praises Margaret River’s 2015 vintage, but laments the tiny quantities. He writes, “We experienced some of the wildest, windiest weather for decades” resulting in the record low yields. However, a dry and balmy end to the season ensured lively, grassy, herbaceous flavours in this classic, slurpy Margaret River blend.

Tahbilk Nagambie Lakes Marsanne 2015 $12.35–$18.85
The Purbrick family’s beautiful Tahbilk property sits on an anabranch of Victoria’s Goulburn River. The property holds one of the world’s oldest and largest plantings of marsanne, a Rhone Valley white variety. The richly textured wine offers pleasantly tart and savoury citrus-like flavours on a bone-dry palate.

Jacob’s Creek Classic Riesling 2015 $7.85–$12
Humble Jacob’s Creek often upstages expensive wines. In the recent National Show, for example, Jacob’s Creek Classic Pinot Gris, topped its class and won the best “other white variety” trophy. Jacob’s Classic Riesling, an even better wine on my scoresheet, captures the aromatic appeal and lime-like flavour intensity of this great variety – on a delicate, dry and beautifully refreshing palate.

Peter Mertes Mosel Riesling 2014 $9.99
Aldi’s semi-dry riesling comes from the vicinity of Kues, the village opposite Bernkastel on Germany’s Mosel River. The area produces some of the world’s great rieslings, noted for delicacy and intense flavour. Mertes captures the regional style with its full flavour, delicacy and good balance of high acidity and grapey sweetness.

De Bortoli Windy Peak Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2013 $11.40–$14
De Bortoli’s classy touch with Yarra chardonnay shows even in their lower priced Windy Peak. Splitting the ferments between French oak casks and steel tanks combines freshness and varietal purity with depth and texture. The resulting wine presents deliciously fresh nectarine- and grapefruit-like varietal flavour on generous, vibrant, smooth dry palate.

Penfolds Koonunga Hill South Australia Chardonnay 2014 $13.30–$15
Like the De Bortoli wine, Penfolds chardonnay is produced in a combination of stainless steel tanks and oak barrels. The tank-fermented component preserves fresh peach- and melon-like varietal flavours; and the barrel component gives a smooth, creamy texture, a touch of spice and nut an exotic yeast-derived “funky” note.

Tyrrell’s Lost Block Hunter Valley Semillon 2015 $13–$18
Tyrrell’s offers a range of Hunter semillons from the austere, long-lived Vat 1 to this approachable Lost Block. It’s low in alcohol (11 per cent) and light and fresh on the palate, with the region’s delicious lemongrass- and citrus-like flavours. It’s one of Australia’s distinctive regional specialties.

TOP REDS

Mr Mick Clare Valley Novo Sangiovese 2015 $12.80–$17
Tim Adams’ Novo Sangiovese 2015 sparks memories of the vibrant, light and fruity reds of France’s Beaujolais region. It’s a wine to enjoy lightly chilled, with or without food, during the warm months. The light crimson colour, shimmering, summer-berry flavours and tart tannins provide easy, refreshing drinking.

Illuminati Riparosso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2013 $8.90–$12
A favourite since its Australian debut in 1991, Riparosso starts with clean, fresh fruit flavours – before delicious, teasing, Italian savouriness sets in, distinguishing it from the generally more fruity Australian red styles and giving it a satisfying, dry, grippy finish. A Woolworths’ import, it’s available at Dan Murphy and BWS.

Jacob’s Creek South Australia Reserve Shiraz 2014 $14.25–$18
On a quality basis, Jacob’s Creek Reserve justifies its $18 recommended price. But it’s forever discounted, sometimes as low as $11. Lap it up and let the marketers worry about how they differentiate it from the standard Jacob’s Creek brand. The 2014 delivers pure, vibrant varietal fruit flavours on a medium-bodied, elegant palate.

De Bortoli Windy Peak Heathcote Shiraz 2014 $11.40–$15
Windy Peak provides a drink-now side of Heathcote shiraz. The region in general produces deep, dark savoury shiraz. But de Bortoli tames the beast by presenting more of the ripe, juicy, red-berry varietal flavours, with less grunt and savour. Fine, drying tannins and a savoury undercurrent add interest to a lovely red.

Taylors Estate Clare Valley Shiraz 2014 $13.95–$18
Taylors 2014 beat a who’s-who lineup to top the 2015 Great Australian Shiraz Challenge. The award followed a trophy and nine gold medals from other shows. The wine’s vivid fruit booms out of the glass and precisely predicts the juicy, soft palate that follows. Little wonder the judges lavished praise on it.

Twelve Signs Hilltops Cabernet Merlot 2014 $13–$14
The Hilltops region makes ripe, soft, medium-bodied reds with great drink-now appeal. Even at this modest price, Twelve Signs, from Moppity vineyards, captures the sweet-berry flavours of cabernet, the fragrance of merlot and the fine but strong tannins that distinguish good cabernet blends from other varieties.

Hesketh Twist of Fate Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 $12
Jonathon Hesketh and Phil Lehmann capture the spirit of cabernet in this bistro-style red from South Australia’s Fleurieu region. Though light in colour and made for current drinking, it offers particularly vibrant, lively cabernet aromas and flavours on a bright, buoyant, gently gripping palate.

A BUBBLY

Hardys Sir James Pinot Noir Chardonnay Cuvee Brut $8.99–$15
With big stocks on hand, Accolade Wines, Hardys parent company, dropped the price on one of Australia’s most popular bubblies. Independent retailers leaped in, dropping the price to under $10, leaving the big retailers flat footed. It’s a light, flavoursome bubbly with gentle varietal flavours, subtle yeast-derived brioche-like notes and deliciously fresh finish.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 19 and 20 December 2015 in goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times

Coldstream Hills Reserve Chardonnay 2014
Yarra Valley, Victoria
$52.25–$60
Gold medal winner, National Wine Show of Australia. Coldstream Reserve impressed at the National Wine Show. A few days later, in a line up of Coldstream Hills chardonnays dating back to the 1988 vintage, the 2014 Reserve stood out for the volume of aroma and powerful but very fine flavours. It combined all the elements of opulent, barrel-fermented chardonnay. The magnificent screwcap-sealed 2005 and 2006 vintages alongside it, demonstrated the wine’s impeccable provenance and cellaring capacity. If you want something truly memorable for Christmas lunch, or as a gift, this is one of Australia’s time-proven greats.

Jacob’s Creek Classic Pinot Grigio 2015
South Eastern Australia
$5.65–$10
It probably surprised Jacob’s Creek winemakers Bernard Hickin and Rebekah Richardson as much as it did the judges at the Australian National Wine. How does a sub-$10 wine top the pinot grigio class, then take on all comers to win the “best dry white other varieties” trophy? It reveals the levelling effect of masked tasting. Made in the bright and fruity light-bodied style (11.5 per cent alcohol) Jacob’s Creek offers pear-like varietal flavour, smooth texture and fresh, dry finish. Richardson says she sources grapes principally from the hot riverland regions, with “bits and bobs” from cooler sites.

Wynns Black Label Shiraz 2012
Coonawarra, South Australia
$24.85–$35
A few years back, Wynns introduced Black Label Shiraz, priced between the ever-popular grey label ($14–$22) and flagship Michael Shiraz ($114–$120). The 2012 appealed very much on its release in mid 2014 and again on the tasting bench last week at the National Wine Show of Australia, where it won a gold medal. The silky, medium bodied cool-climate style appeals even more with that extra bottle age. And surprisingly it’s still around in some retail outlets, alongside the current release (and equally good) 2013.

Eddystone Point Riesling 2014
Derwent and Coal River Valleys, Tasmania
$23.80–$27
In awarding the National Wine Show’s “best riesling” trophy to Eddystone Point, chair of judges Jim Chatto commented, “The judges deliberated over three wonderful expressions of riesling. Two in the classic citrus and floral styles of the Eden and Clare Valleys, the other a complex and spicy, off-dry, cool-climate expression from Tasmania”. In a similar comparison after the show, we noted the wine’s Germanic, apple-like flavours and the fine, intense acidity which offset the low-level sweetness and accentuated the delightful flavour.

S.C. Pannell Grenache Shiraz Touriga 2014
McLaren Vale, South Australia
$30
Gold medal and two trophies, National Wine Show of Australia. Steve Pannell’s juicy blend wowed a group of tasters in a post-wine-show tasting, just as it did the judges a week earlier. The musk-like fragrance of grenache lures the drinker to a joyously fruity, fleshy, slurpy palate. Pannell writes, “Grenache brings lifted aromatics and its trademark sandy tannins, shiraz chimes in with red fruits, spice and weight, whilst the touriga, a lusty, powerful Portuguese variety, adds pungent fruit characteristics of plum pudding, dried spices and floral notes”. It’s an irresistible medium bodied red to wallow in right now.

West Cape Howe Tempranillo 2014
Perth Hills and Frankland River, Western Australia
$17–$22
Gold medal and trophy, National Wine Show of Australia. West Cape Howe tempranillo combines fruit from the warmer Perth Hills and cooler Frankland region, located almost 400km south-east of Perth. Winemaker Gavin Berry says the Perth Hills component contributes earthy, savoury characters while the cool-grown Frankland component provides spicy and berry flavours. The combination gives a richly flavoured, medium-bodied red with deliciously vibrant red-berry-like flavours. Mouth-puckering tannins soon push through the fruit, reminding us tempranillo is a feisty Spanish variety, best enjoyed with savoury food.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 15 and 16 December 2015 in the goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times

Riesling and shiraz remain Canberra’s trump cards by a country mile, so they feature prominently in my 2015 selections. While each comes in a regional style, the wines selected represent various hues along that style spectrum.

When we extend our search to neighbouring regions along the Great Divide, the palate of mainstream varieties opens considerably. Higher, cooler Orange and Tumbarumba provide graceful, modern chardonnays. Orange and Hilltops give us outstanding cabernet sauvignon – one for the cellar and a lower priced version to enjoy now.

Complementing mainstream wines, our embrace of so-called alternative varieties adds a couple of delicious Canberra-grown wines to the menu: the Austrian white, gruner veltliner, and Spain’s red tempranillo. Hilltops shows its diversity with three Italian red varieties – nebbiolo, and a blend of rondinella and corvina. And Tumbarumba contributes a juicy gamay, the red grape of France’s Beaujolais region.

In future years our winemakers will likely offer even greater diversity. A poll I conducted in September revealed 23 Canberra wineries now work with 14 alternative red varieties, while 17 process five alternative whites.

Many more wines might easily have been included in the list but for various reasons could not. These include high quality, small-production wines that simply sold out. While another, gold-medal-winning Lerida Estate Josephine Pinot Noir 2014, made the grade but won’t be released until 2016.

With the exception of Penfolds Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2014, the wines in the list come from small producers and are not widely distributed. It’s the nature of our local, boutique wine industry. It means in many cases buying direct from the producer – a please weekend activity – or a phone call to find where wines are stocked.

Happy hunting and merry Christmas.

TOP 10 WHITES

1. Ross Hill Pinnacle Series Chardonnay 2014 $35
   Ross Hill Griffin Road vineyard, Orange, NSW
   The varied altitudes (and climates) of the Robson family’s vineyard (750 to 1000 metres) gives winemakers Phil and Rochelle Kerney an extraordinary palate of varieties to work with. Chardonnay comes from the family’s Griffin Road vineyard at 750 metres. Handpicked, whole-bunch pressed and fermented spontaneously in French oak barrels, it’s about as natural as wine gets. It showed great promise tasted from barrel about a year ago and now delivers on that promise: a seamless, plush, vibrant chardonnay, combining cool-climate, grapefruit-and-nectarine varietal flavour with the textural richness and flavour nuances derived from fermentation and maturation in barrel.
2. Penfolds Chardonnay Bin 311 2014 $35.15–$40
   Tumbarumba, NSW
   Ultra-fresh Bin 311 2014 combines melon-rind and grapefruit-like varietal flavours with the texture and the slightly funky, biscuity influence of fermentation and maturation on yeast lees, without obvious oak flavours. The wine is an offshoot of Penfolds Australia-wide quest for the best chardonnay it could make. The $180 a bottle Yattarna was the result. But its by-product, Bin 311, is as good an expression of Tumbarumba chardonnay as you’ll find.
3. 3. Lark Hill Gruner Veltliner 2015 $45
   Lark Hill vineyard, Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, NSW
   Lark Hill 2015 gruner veltliner surpasses the quality of its very good 2014, created in a very difficult season. In contrast, “2015 provided optimum vintage conditions and we picked higher than normal quantities of fruit, with incredible quality and intensity”, writes winemaker Chris Carpenter. The intensely flavoured, deeply textured white supports Carpenter’s excitement. A multi-dimensional expression of this Austrian variety, it tingles and thrills with lemon- and melon-rind -like tartness on a sensuous palate, with a subtle rasp of skin tannins and taut, invigorating acid.
4. Clonakilla Riesling 2015 $30–$35
   Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   Clonakilla’s 2015 riesling could be the finest of the 40 vintages made to date. Very young rieslings tend not to reveal all their fruit flavours and take many months, sometimes years, to flourish. However, the 2015 already reveals great purity and intensity and is my favourite of the Canberra 2015 rieslings tasted to date. It topped the riesling class at the Canberra regional wine show and earned several trophies.
5. Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2015 $35
   Helm and neighbouring vineyards, Nanima Valley, Canberra District, NSW
   In the subtly varying world of Canberra riesling, Ken Helm heads down a different path than, say, Ravensworth or Clonakilla. Helm keeps his Classic Dry bone dry, with residual sugar of just 2.5 grams a litre and comparatively low alcohol of11.8 per cent. It’s therefore lean and delicate and, at this very early stage of development, with floral aromas and intense lemon-like varietal flavours. Gold medal winner at the Canberra regional wine show.
6. The Vintner’s Daughter Riesling 2015 $28
   Vintner’s Daughter vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   Ken Helm’s daughter, Stephanie and husband Ben Osborne’s first riesling showed early class, winning trophies as best riesling of the 2015 Winewise Small Vignerons Awards and best Canberra riesling of the International Riesling Challenge. It’s absolutely delicious, delivering pure, varietal, floral and citrus flavours, cut through with shimmering, fresh acidity. A small amount of residual grape sugar rounds and softens the palate, but it remains fine, delicate, dry and suited to medium-term cellaring.
7. Capital Wines Gundaroo Vineyard Riesling 2015 $28
   Gundaroo, Canberra District, NSW
   In 1998, Mark and Jennie Moonie planted Geisenheim clones of riesling at Gundaroo. They sold the vineyard to Ruth and Steve Lambert in 2004. But in 2013, by now co-owners of Capital Wines, they bought grapes from the vineyard for a special single-vineyard riesling. This, the third vintage, is in the tight, slow-evolving style typical of winemaker Andrew McEwin. It’s delicate, yet steely with delicious citrus like varietal flavour just beginning to push through.
8. Nick O’Leary “White Rocks” Riesling 2013 $37
   Westering vineyard, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
   Canberra winemaker Nick O’Leary sources grapes for White Rocks from one of Canberra’s oldest vineyards, planted by Captain Geoff Hood in 1973. These venerable old vines, with huge trunks, produce tiny crops of powerfully flavoured grapes. O’Leary’s definitely onto something special with this unique, powerful yet delicate riesling, with its intense, citrusy varietal flavour and invigorating, lemony-tart finish. This is another notch above the excellent 2013 reviewed last year.
9. Ravensworth Riesling 2015 $25
   Murrumbateman and Wamboin, Canberra District, NSW
   Acidic young Canberra rieslings can be “a bit of an ordeal without sugar”, says winemaker Bryan Martin. To soften Clonakilla and Ravensworth rieslings, he blends in a splash of unfermented juice to offset the acidity. With Ravensworth, Martin combines a pure, protectively made component with material spontaneously fermented on skins, grape solids and lees. The blend presents lemony tart, delicious Canberra riesling with the added flesh and grip contributed by the spontaneously fermented component. Gold medal winner.
10. Gallagher Blanc de Blanc 2010 $50
    Gallagher vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
    Greg Gallagher’s 2009 vintage won a silver medal at the Canberra regional wine show. It sold out in November. But the 2010’s just as good. A full-bodied style, it offers really fresh and vibrant melon-like varietal flavours, with the patina of brioche-like flavours and creamy, chewy texture derived from ageing on yeast lees in bottle for five years. Gallagher makes, bottles, matures and despatches his outstanding bubblies from his own purpose-built cellars.

TOP 10 REDS

1. Freeman Rondinella Corvina Secco 2010 $35
   Freeman vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
   Brian Freeman’s blend emulates the highly distinctive Amarone reds of Valpolicella, Italy, made by co-fermenting fresh-picked and dehydrated rondinella and corvina grapes. Freeman dries part of his rondinella and corvina grapes in a neighbour’s prune dehydrator, then ferments it with fresh-picked material. Freeman’s 2010 presents very strong, sour-cherry- and port-like flavours, meshed with the distinct aromas and flavours of oak, on a potent and tannic palate that some will love and others will hate.
2. Moppity Vineyards Lock and Key Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $14–$18
   Moppity vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
   After much TLC in the vineyard, and several changes of contract winemaker, we’re seeing the best wines yet from Jason and Alecia Brown’s Moppity 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.
3. Ross Hill Pinnacle Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $40
   Ross Hill Griffin Road vineyard, Orange, NSW
   In 2013, The Ridge, a section of the Robson family’s Griffin vineyard, produced evenly ripened cabernet of a quality rarely seen in Orange. Winemaker Phil Kerney successfully captured the varietal flavour and richness of those grapes. 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 with good cellaring potential.
4. Ravensworth Charlie Foxtrot Gamay Noir 2014 $30
   Johansen vineyard, Tumbarumba, NSW
   Earlier this year winemaker Bryan Martin eagerly accepted a small parcel of red gamay grapes from the Johansen vineyard, Tumbarumba. With fruity, drink-now Beaujolais in mind, Martin picked the brains of a visiting French winemaker. The Frenchman contacted winemaking mates in Beaujolais and voila, Ravensworth Gamay Noir emerged. Fleshy, fruity and delicious it provides huge drink-now pleasure. It won a gold medal and trophy at the Canberra regional wine show.
5. Mount Majura Vineyard Tempranillo 2014 $45
   Mount Majura, Canberra District, ACT
   After the deeper, darker 2013 vintage, Mount Majura 2014 reveals a fragrant, fruity side of Canberra-grown tempranillo. The aroma and palate both suggest ripe, red berry characters, which push through the variety’s distinctive firm but fine tannins. The bright fruit character gives the wine tremendous drink-now appeal – though the tannins and underlying savouriness should see it evolve for three or four years in bottle.
6. Capital Wines Kyeema Tempranillo Shiraz 2014 $36
   Kyeema vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   Capital wines offers two tempranillos – the bright, fruity, irresistible Ambassador 2014 ($25) and this denser, deeper blend of tempranillo and shiraz, sourced from the Kyeema vineyard. The combination works seamlessly. Tempranillo’s blueberry-like fruit flavour and firm, fine tannins, remain. But shiraz adds spicy flavours and flesh to the mid palate. It’s an elegant and satisfying red, made by veteran Canberra winemaker Andrew McEwin.

7. Ravensworth Nebbiolo 2014 $35
   Hilltops, NSW
   As Bryan Martin and David Reist launched their book, Tongue and Cheek, in March, guests quaffed Martin’s 2014 nebbiolo. The Piedmontese variety makes lighter coloured, highly fragrant reds of great power and elegance, with firm, grippy tannins. Martin’s wine sits at the darker end of the nebbiolo scale, with alluring fragrance and a round, soft palate. The tannins do come back and bite in the end, but this is already a friendly and distinctive drink.
8. Collector Reserve Shiraz 2013 $58
   Kyeema and Nanima vineyards, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   In a masked tasting of 20 Canberra 2013 vintage shirazes last year, Collector Reserve rated very highly on first tasting, and even higher after a second, closer look. It presents a deeply layered spicy, savoury, fruity, supple side of Canberra shiraz. It’s one of the best from district in the great 2013 vintage and has the advantage of being still available. It should cellar extremely well.

9. Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz 2014 $36–$48
   Murrumbateman and Hall, Canberra District, NSW
   We compared O’Riada to Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2014 ($90–$100) and Hilltops Shiraz 2014 ($28–$33). Six tasters enjoyed the solid Hilltops wine, but as the night wore on, the levels in the other two bottles declined rapidly. Ultimately, in vocal opinions, as well as volume consumed, the intense, silky shiraz viognier won the day by a comfortable, but not wide, margin, over the classy, harmonious O’Riada, a gold medal winner at the Canberra regional wine show.
10. Nick O’Leary Shiraz 2014 $30
    Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
    Nick O’Leary’s 2014 shiraz topped its class at this year’s Canberra regional wine show. A month later, judges at the NSW Wine Industry Awards named it NSW Wine of the Year. The limpid 2014 offers sweet and alluring red-berry and spice aromas. The vibrant, fresh, medium-bodied palate precisely reflects the aroma, with its spicy, rich, berry fruit flavours. Soft, silky tannins give the wine its smooth texture and gentle finish.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 1 and 2 December 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Hesketh Lost Weekend Chardonnay 2014 $12
Georgina Hart’s romantic label sets the tone for a bright, fresh chardonnay, with extra flavour and structure contributed by ageing about a fifth of the blend in new French-oak barriques. Marketer Jonathon Hesketh and winemaker Phil Lehmann write, “The wine is effectively used to season the new oak, which then goes on to its real job of ageing premium reds”. While the oak adds to the dimension of the aroma and flavour, fresh melon-like varietal character of the Coonawarra fruit gives the wine delicious, drink-now appeal.

Paladino Puglia Sangiovese 2014 $15
Vintage House, a distribution business belonging to the Angove family, imports Paladino from the Rocca family of Puglia, Italy. The wine provides a medium bodied, savoury alternative to Australian red-wine styles. Savoury, in this sense, means flavours more akin to, say, black olives than ripe fruit. The wine’s lean, grippy tannins further hold the fruit in check. But the varietal flavour pushes through in a teasing, tart, sour-cherry way that works well with the tannins. The savouriness and bity tannins perfectly suit savoury foods, but don’t invite stand-alone drinking.

Lerida Estate Lake George Cullerin Pinot Noir 2014 $35
Lerida Estate dominated the pinot class at the 2015 Canberra regional wine show, winning gold medals for its 2014 estate ($26) and Josephine ($65) pinots and a bronze medal for this wine. All three come from Lerida’s vineyard, located at around 700 metres altitude, on the lower slopes of the Cullerin Range, flanking the western side of Lake George. The cool site reliably ripens pinot every year, says owner Jim Lumbers. And after years of adjusting vine management and winemaking techniques with winemaker Malcolm Burdett, the wines show more intense fruit and softer tannins – as in this light, fragrant, mildly grippy style.

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

Nick O’Leary “White Rocks” Riesling 2013
Westering vineyard, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
$37
Canberra winemaker Nick O’Leary sources grapes for White Rocks from one of Canberra’s oldest vineyards, planted by Captain Geoff Hood in 1973. These venerable old vines, with huge trunks, produce tiny crops of powerfully flavoured grapes. O’Leary’s definitely onto something special with this unique, powerful yet delicate riesling, with its intense, citrusy varietal flavour and invigorating, lemony-tart finish. This is another notch above the excellent 2013 reviewed last year. O’Leary says the old, unirrigated vines yielded just two tonnes to the hectare.

Nick O’Leary Shiraz 2014 $30
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$30
Nick O’Leary’s 2014 shiraz topped its class at this year’s Canberra regional wine show. A month later, judges at the NSW Wine Industry Awards named it NSW Wine of the Year, a double for O’Leary after winning the same award in 2014. The limpid 2014 offers sweet and alluring red-berry and spice aromas. The vibrant, fresh, medium-bodied palate precisely reflects the aroma, with its spicy, rich, berry fruit flavours and underlying savouriness. Soft, silky tannins give the wine its smooth texture, gentle finish and elegant structure.

Capital Wines The Whip Riesling 2015
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$19
Capital’s wines, white and red, share a trait – what wine judges call “closed” or “tight”. The jargon appears pejorative, suggesting something unpleasant or unapproachable. In fact, the words generally refer to wines in which structural elements – acid for whites, tannin for reds – initially mask the underlying fruit flavours. The Whip certainly falls into this category as the lemony acid zings across the palate. But a bit of aeration, or bottle age, reveals a slowly blossoming and delicious fruit flavour. The acid then accentuates the fruit, preserves it over time and provides a refreshing dry finish.

Capital Wines The Frontbencher Shiraz 2013
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$25
In a fast-paced masked tasting of 20 Canberra 2013-vintage shirazes last year, The Frontbencher led with its tannin structure. The underlying fruit barely peeped through. Fourteen months later, a more relaxed Frontbencher reveals sweet and spicy berry-like varietal flavour welling up through the still assertive tannins. The two harmonise, giving a taut, savoury dry red of great appeal.

Gallagher Blanc de Blanc 2010 $50
Gallagher vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$50
Greg Gallagher’s 2009 Blanc de Blanc won a silver medal at the Canberra regional wine show. It’s almost old out in November. But the equally good 2010 is due for release on 1 December. A full-bodied style, it offers really fresh and vibrant melon-like varietal flavours, with the patina of brioche-like flavours and creamy, chewy texture derived from ageing on yeast lees in bottle for five years. Gallagher makes, bottles, matures and despatches his outstanding bubblies from his own purpose-built cellars at Murrumbateman.

Lark Hill Riesling 2015
Lark Hill vineyard, Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, NSW
$35
Lark Hill’s riesling vines, planted in 1978, sit a couple of hundred metres higher than most of their Canberra district peers. The higher altitude means cooler, later ripening and, for the resultant wine, a notably different flavour and structure to those grown on lower, warmer sites. The aroma, reminiscent of some German rieslings, combines apple-like character with Australian riesling’s more familiar lime-like intensity. A richly textured palate delivers the same flavours, strung along a fine, assertive acid backbone.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 24 and 25 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Lark Hill Gruner Veltliner 2015
Lark Hill vineyard, Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, NSW
$45
Lark Hill 2015 gruner veltliner surpasses the quality of its very good 2014, created in a very difficult season. In contrast, “2015 provided optimum vintage conditions and we picked higher than normal quantities of fruit, with incredible quality and intensity”, writes winemaker Chris Carpenter. The intensely flavoured, deeply textured white supports Carpenter’s excitement. A multi-dimensional expression of this Austrian variety, it tingles and thrills with lemon- and melon-rind -like tartness on a sensuous palate, with a subtle rasp of skin tannins and taut, invigorating acid.

Taylors Estate Shiraz 2014
Clare Valley, South Australia
$13.95–$18
Taylors cheap and cheery 2014 Estate Shiraz beat several big names – including $147 Wolf Blass Platinum Label and $58 Seppelt St Peters – to pull off first place in the 2015 Great Australian Shiraz Challenge. The award came on top of its trophy for best shiraz in the Perth Royal Wine Show and nine gold medals awarded at various events. The wine’s vivid fruit booms out of the glass and precisely predicts the juicy, soft palate that follows. Little wonder the judges ranked it so highly in a no-doubt daunting line up of robust young reds.

Seppelt Drumborg Pinot Noir 2013
Seppelt Drumborg vineyard, Henty, Victoria
$40–$52
The very cool Drumborg vineyard, located near the southwestern Victorian coast, struggled for decades after Karl Seppelt established it in 1964. From the early 1980s, Seppelt renovated and extended the vineyard. In 1986 and the mid nineties they added extensively to the original pinot plantings of 1966 and 1968. In the early 2000s, Emma Wood succeeded Ian McKenzie as winemaker, and in 2012 she passed the baton, via Adam Wadewitz, to Adam Carnaby. In the warm and sunny 2013 season, Carnaby made this idiosyncratic, exciting pinot: low in alcohol (12.5 per cent); vivid but pale in colour; then layered and strong in aroma and flavour. Delicate fruit sits in a matrix with spicy, savoury and stalky characters and firm, fine tannins. It should evolve in bottle for ten years or more.

Stella Bella Tempranillo 2013
Margaret River, Western Australia
$25.50–$35
Spanish red variety, tempranillo, finds a number of expressions in Australia, from full and fleshy to lean and tannic. Climate largely determines the style, though winemaking approach also contributes. Stella Bella sits toward the lighter, tighter end of the style spectrum, influenced by both of these factors. The bright, limpid colour points to the medium body confirmed in a fresh, taut palate that combines fruity and savoury elements. Fine tannins sweep across the palate giving bite to the dry finish.

Wilson Watervale Riesling 2015
Watervale, southern Clare Valley, South Australia
$19
Wilson Watervale riesling won a gold medal the 2015 Royal Melbourne Wine Show. The judges were perhaps attracted by its bold and powerful style – a contrast to the often delicate, lime-like rieslings from this Clare Valley sub-region. However, the Wilsons say they sought vineyards “offering the most powerful aromatic wines”. Their preference shows in this highly aromatic white, with its full, intense flavour and delicious lemony dryness.

Penfolds Max’s Shiraz and Max’s Shiraz Cabernet 2013
Multi-region, South Australia
$28.50–$35
Shortly after launching its $450 The Max Schubert Cabernet Shiraz 2012, Penfolds released two reds under a new Max’s label. Like the more expensive wine, the new releases exploit the legacy of Grange creator, the late Max Schubert. Whether the new wines attract customers or simply confuse us all remains to be seen. The shiraz offers vibrant, full varietal fruit flavour in typically tannic but approachable Penfolds style. The blend does likewise, with the added grip of cabernet sauvignon. These are good, sturdy wines, but fully priced in the current market, even when discounted to $28.50.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 17 and 18 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times

Sancerre (Domaine des Grosses Pierres) 2013 $19–$28
This delightful unoaked French sauvignon blanc showed up in a masked tasting alongside oak-fermented 10X Mornington Peninsula Sauvignon Blanc 2014 ($28). They’re both comparatively delicate sauvignons, though poles apart in style. The 10X wine showed varietal tang and herbaceousness, overlaid with the rich texture and charry aroma derived from barrel fermentation. The wine from Sancerre, Loire Valley, on the other hand showed delicately herbal and tropical-fruit-like flavours, with great freshness and vivacity. The lightness and purity of the wine is preserved by a screwcap and therefore a safer buy than cork-sealed wines from sauvignon’s French heartland.

Mr Mick Clare Valley Novo Sangiovese 2015 $12.80–$17
Many years back the success of the light, fruity, young reds of France’s Beaujolais region fanned a brief craze for Australian lookalikes. Winemakers large and small plunged in. However, demand for both the French and local versions quickly receded and Australians reverted to drinking big, solid reds. The release of Tim Adams’ Novo Sangiovese 2015, sparked memories of those vibrant, light and fruity styles. It’s a wine to enjoy lightly chilled, with or without food, during the warm months. The light crimson colour, shimmering, summer-berry flavours and tart tannins provide easy, refreshing drinking.

Richmond Grove Limited Release McLaren Vale Shiraz 2012 $12.90–$22
The term “limited release” surely means little on a widely distributed, deeply discounted red from one of Australia’s largest wine groups, French-owned Pernod Ricard Australia. Not in question though is the wine’s quality, authenticity and sheer good value. It combines the bright, fresh, pure varietal flavours of modern winemaking, with the deeper savoury character of McLaren Vale shiraz. Oak maturation also adds to the savouriness, while building richness on the mid palate and mellowing the wine’s earthy tannins.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 14 and 15 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times