Category Archives: Wine review

Wine reviews – Joseph Chromy, Lustau and Stella Bella

31 August 2015People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Joseph Chromy Tasmanian Cuvee NV $25.50–$30
Czech-born Josef Chromy built a fortune in meat before investing in (and disposing of) various sizeable Tasmanian wineries. The latest venture, at Relbia, a short drive southeast of Launceston, includes 60-hectares of vines, a winery, restaurant and functions centre. Chromy’s non-vintage blend demonstrates, deliciously, why Tassie became the centre for Australia’s top-shelf sparklers. Cool-grown pinot noir (two thirds of the blend) and chardonnay give a great depth of flavour to this dry, delicate wine. Eighteen months maturation on spent yeast cells added depth and structure to the wine, but the fruit flavours remain at the centre.

Lustau Pedro Ximenez San Emilio Very Sweet Sherry 375ml $27.55–$30
What better company for a plush Debbie Skelton dessert than a mellow sweetie from Xerez, Spain? The makers sun dry their pedro ximenez grapes and allow the super sweet juice to ferment briefly. They arrest the ferment, add spirit to the still very sweet juice and move it to American oak casks in a “solera” system – a progressive ageing process that takes in young wine at one end and pushes out mature stuff at the other. The mature wine offers sensational raisin-like sweetness and dried-fruit flavours, with the ethereal texture and patina of aged characters derived from oak maturation.

Stella Bella Skuttlebutt Margaret River Cabernet Shiraz 2013 $18
Stella Bella, one of Margaret River’s larger producers, makes wines under the Stella Bella, Serie Luminosa, Suckfizzle and Skuttlebutt labels. Like so many other high quality makers of any scale, Stella Bella’s lower priced wines benefit from the considerable effort put into the top wines. You can enjoy the $30-odd Margaret River cabernet, knowing it’s in the mould of the flagship $75 Serie Luminosa cabernet. And the drink-now, $18 Skuttlebutt cabernet shiraz brings true Margaret River cabernet flavours and elegant structure, fleshed out pleasantly with the addition of shiraz and a splash of merlot.

Reviewed: Penfolds new Max Schubert Cabernet Shiraz 2012

26 August 2015Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Penfolds The Max Schubert Cabernet Shiraz 2012
Barossa Valley and Coonawarra, South Australia
$450
This new red marks Penfolds’ continuing move upmarket under Michael Clarke, chief of parent company Treasury Wine Estates. The wine salutes the late Max Schubert, whose deep purple thumbprint still marks Penfolds reds 64 years after he created Grange. Schubert was a master of the cabernet–shiraz blend, perfected perhaps in the legendary 1962 vintage Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet Kalimna shiraz. The new release’s intense crimson rim and opaque red–black colour put it firmly in the mould of the Schubert originals. A blend of Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon (48 per cent), Barossa Valley cabernet (13 per cent) and Barossa Valley shiraz (39 per cent), it currently offers a powerful but smooth matrix of fruit and oak flavours and tannin. Over the decades we can expect the fruit flavour to flourish and the elegant structure of the cabernet to emerge in what should be a great Australian red.

Hay Shed Hill Pitchfork Shiraz 2013
Margaret River, Western Australia
$16
Winemaker Michael Kerrigan continues to steer Hay Shed Hill’s Pitchfork wines in a delicious direction. While the recently reviewed cabernet merlot really stands out, his shiraz, too, provides outstanding drinking at the price. Sourced from a number of Margaret River vineyards, the medium-bodied wine delivers juicy, ripe varietal flavour in an elegant, drink-now style, with lovely soft tannins.

Oakridge Over the Shoulder Pinot Gris 2014
Spring Lane vineyard, Coldstream, Yarra Valley, Victoria
$18–$22
Winemaker David Bicknell opted to harvest grape early, ensuring fairly high acidity and comparatively low alcohol (12 per cent) for this difficult variety. Fermentation and maturation on grape solids gave the wine a rich texture and the funky notes of sulphur compounds which, in small doses, integrate tastily into overall flavour. But the richly textured palate, combined with lively acidity, is what this wine is all about.

Anderson Reserve Petit Verdot 2008
Rutherglen, Victoria
$26
The late budding, late ripening petit verdot grape struggles to ripen in Bordeaux, where it adds colour, spice and tannin to cabernet-based blends. In hot Rutherglen it ripens fully, producing for the Anderson family a deep, vividly coloured red of generous, if jammy-ripe fruit flavours, masses of soft tannins and a heady alcohol level of 14.8 per cent. This rich, solid, smooth winter warmer sells for $26 a bottle at cellar door and andersonwinery.com.au.

Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz 2014
Murrumbateman and Hall, Canberra District, NSW
$36–$48
Winemaker Tim Kirk calls O’Riada “an archetypal Canberra shiraz, full of red fruits and spice”. O’Riada fitted that broad description in our tasting, where we lined it up alongside Kirk’s flagship Shiraz Viognier 2014 ($90–$100) and cheaper Hilltops Shiraz 2014 ($28–$33). Our group of six enjoyed the solid Hilltops wine, but as the night wore on, the levels in the other two bottles declined more 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.

Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah 2013
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
$113–$120
From the lean, stony soils of Hawkes Bay’s Gimblett Gravels sub-region comes a shiraz mightily removed from the styles we see in generally warmer Australia. The back label says, “The vineyard is hand harvested in several passes late in the growing season and only the best and ripest bunches are selected”. Indeed, ripeness is the issue in this location, meaning part of thrill in drinking Le Sol is the tension between the barely ripe white and black pepper flavours and the riper berry characters. Although medium bodied, it’s a wine of considerable power and flavour intensity, revealing a deep, peppery, savoury face of shiraz.

Tasting Victoria’s wine spectrum, from the cool Yarra to hot Rutherglen

23 August 2015People, Vineyard, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Oakridge Over the Shoulder Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2014 $18.10–$22
Just-released Oakridge 2014 rates among the top few Australian chardonnays anywhere near $20 in price. There’s a thrill in every sip, underpinned by the most delicious fruit: imagine fresh, ripe nectarine with the added briskness of lemon or grapefruit juice. But there’s more to a really good wine than just the fruit. In this instance fermentation in oak barrels and maturation on spent yeast cells added a complementary patina of flavours and textures. These elements are the sauce to the main ingredient, fruit, which must always remain at centre. Congratulations to the chef, David Bicknell.

Oakridge Over the Shoulder Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2014 $18.10–$22
Oakridge Over the Shoulder pinot, like the chardonnay, offers most of the thrills of the variety at a fair price. However, where the chardonnay drinks beautifully now, the pinot, despite its rampant and lovely fruit, needs a year’s bottle age to move from fruitiness to what pinotphiles call “pinosity”. This is where the many elements of the wine come together as a fragrant, silky, seductive, satisfying whole. Right now the bright, ripe, pure varietal flavour hovers above the deeper savoury elements waiting to push through – which they did in the five days we spent with our bottle.

Anderson Verrier Rutherglen Durif Shiraz 2008 $32.50
Based largely on wines made from the durif grape, Rutherglen’s burly reds, have been called wines for heroes. Howard and Christobelle Anderson’s blend, from their unirrigated vineyard, fits the regional durif stereotype, mollified by the addition of shiraz. A deep and brooding winter warmer, it offers very ripe, earthy, porty aromas and flavours, fleshy mid palate, sturdy (but not hard) tannins and mellow bottle age. Durif, by the way, is an accidental cross of shiraz and peloursin, discovered in Montpellier, France, in 1880 by Francois Durif and imported to Australia by Francois de Castella in 1908.

Exceptional vintage revealed in Canberra, Tumbarumba 2015 wines

19 August 2015People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Ravensworth Charlie Foxtrot Gamay Noir 2014
Johansen vineyard, Tumbarumba, NSW
$30
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 before long Martin had two batches of gamay bubbling away: de-stemmed berries fermenting in an open-top vessel; and whole bunches, stems included, tightly sealed inside a tall, thin steel tank. In this oxygen-free environment they underwent enzymatic breakdown ahead of a regular yeast ferment. Well, the open-ferment wine matured in barrel for a short time, while the anaerobic one remained pure and fruity. Martin blended the components, ready for us to suck down in all its fragrant, fruity, juicy glory. It’s mainly about fruit. But there’s a savoury element and a teasing, subtle stemmy note derived from those whole bunches.

Ravensworth Riesling 2015
Murrumbateman and Wamboin, Canberra District, NSW
$25
The austere, lemon-like acidity of very young Canberra rieslings makes them, “a bit of an ordeal without sugar”, says winemaker Bryan Martin. So, he blends a little unfermented juice into both his own and Clonakilla rieslings. The addition introduces about four to five grams per litre of sugar into the wines – enough to offset the acidity, but not detectable as sweetness. For his own wine, Martin combines a pure, protectively made component with more richly textured material, spontaneously fermented on skins, grape solids and lees in a ceramic fermenter. The blend presents lemony tart, delicious Canberra riesling with the added flesh and grip contributed by the spontaneously fermented component.

Ravensworth Pinot Gris 2015
Long Rail Gully, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$25
We’re sure to hear lots more of Bryan Martin’s ceramic egg – a small fermentation vessel that “allows oxygen circulation without the flavour of an oak barrel”, says Martin. In 2015 he made three wines in the vessel: a component of his riesling, a yet-to-be released grenache and this pinot gris. It’s a bright, fresh dry white with pear-like varietal flavour and, perhaps more importantly, a rich, smooth texture, derived from spontaneous fermentation of the cloudy juice and contact with yeast lees. Sulphur compounds, noticeable on first opening the bottle, add interest to the palate.

Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2015
Helm and neighbouring vineyards, Nanima Valley, Canberra District, NSW
$35
In the subtly varying world of Canberra riesling, Ken “Mr Riesling” Helm heads down a different path than Ravensworth or Clonakilla. Helm keeps his Classic Dry effectively bone dry, with residual sugar of just 2.5 grams a litre. It’s also slightly lower in alcohol at 11.8 per cent. It’s therefore leaner and more delicate and, at this very early stage of development, doesn’t have the body of wines with higher levels of sugar. Nevertheless the floral aromas and intense lemon-like varietal flavours are there and, from experience, the palate will begin fleshing out over the next six months or so in bottle. This is a notable riesling and even though lean and taut now, appears fleshy in comparison to Helm’s Premium wine.

Helm Premium Riesling 2015
Lustenberger and Helm 1832 vineyards, Nanima Valley, Canberra District, NSW
$48
Assessing Helm’s Premium riesling now, when it’s barely out of the fermenter, is really about guessing where it’s headed in future. Right now it’s delicate and fine, lower in alcohol than his Classic Riesling and also slightly lower in acidity. As an act of faith, based on past vintages, we can predict a bright future. I suspect its slightly more forward, cheaper sibling could pull in the gold medals from later this year. But the Premium will almost certainly pull ahead in a couple of years and show the class previously displayed by wine from the Lustenberger vineyard. However, we must rate it on how it appears now – probably a great wine in waiting.

Helm Half Dry Riesling 2015
Nanima Valley, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$28
Helm’s ninth vintage of half-dry demonstrates how a little bit of sugar helps the riesling go down. To be precise, 18 grams of residual grape sugar in every litre of wine provides a delicate counter to the eight grams of acid. The sugar adds a juicy richness to the wine’s mid palate, while the acidity provides vitality and freshness. The modest sugar level remains well short of dessert-wine sweetness and, indeed, this style goes really well with highly spiced food.

Wine reviews – Clonakilla, Hay Shed Hill and Pikes

16 August 2015Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Clonakilla Canberra District Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2015 $22–$25
We know Clonakilla best for its cutting edge shiraz-viognier blend, shiraz, riesling and viognier. But like many small vignerons, the Kirk family grows many other grape varieties – some planted in the early years to test the region’s potential, and others to meet consumer demand. Sauvignon blanc and semillon fall into both categories and today provides the Kirks, and their followers, with an affordable white quaffer for early drinking. The bone-dry wine brims with vibrant, herbaceous varietal fruit flavours, cut through with refreshing, tingly acid.

Hay Shed Hill Margaret River Pitchfork Cabernet Merlot 2013 $14.25–$16
Pitchfork cabernet merlot offers outstanding drinking for its modest price. And its maker, Michael Kerrigan, explains what’s behind it: “100 per cent Margaret River grapes sourced from a small group of growers that I have worked with for many years. I am determined to give the customer a bottle of wine that exceeds their expectations so they come back for more. The reds are barrel aged for about 10 months in French oak barriques, not tank matured chip or plank treated wines”. This is a lovely, drink-now Margaret River style, based on bright, ripe regional–varietal flavours and structure.

Pikes Clare Valley Eastside Shiraz 2013 $23.75–$28
Riesling, from Germany’s cool Mosel and Rhine rivers, and shiraz, from France’s climatically variable Rhone Valley, may seem strange vineyard partners. Yet they thrive side by side in several Australian regions, notably Canberra, Clare Valley, Eden Valley and Great Southern. If riesling scales the greatest heights at Pikes in the Clare Valley, shiraz offers rich, satisfying flavours, albeit not with the stellar qualities of riesling. In the warm 2013 vintage, their Eastside shiraz offers deep, chewy fruity–earthy flavours mingled with solid but soft tannin.

Wine reviews – Clonakilla, Damien Coquelet, Huia, Pizzini and Pikes

12 August 2015People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Clonakilla Riesling 2015
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$30–$35
The first of Canberra’s 2015 vintage whites flowing onto the market gives us an opportunity to judge the merits of a much-loved season. As the last of the grapes rolled in earlier this year, Ken Helm declared, “The 2015 has outdone even 2013. It ticked every box and is the best across all varieties”. And Clonakilla’s Tim Kirk wrote of “perfect ripening conditions”. Kirk’s 2015 riesling, to be released on 1 September, 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. It’s clearly of gold-medal standard now even though its best drinking lies in future.

Morgon Cote du Py (Damien Coquelet) 2014
Cote du Py vineyard, Morgon, Beaujolais, France
$54
In 1395 Duc Philippe le Hardi banned the gamay grape from Burgundy, writing, “And this wine of Gaamez [gamay] is of such a kind that it is very harmful to human creatures, so much so that many who had it in the past were infested by serious diseases”. Gamay retreated to Beaujolais, at Burgundy’s southernmost extremity, where it now brings happiness, rather than serious disease, to the many who love it. It can be joyous, light and fruity. Or there are more cerebral versions, like this limpid, medium bodied 2014, made by Beaujolais star, Damien Coquelet. The wine captures a darker, stronger side of gamay, with quite assertive tannins separating it from the finesse of pinot noir. (Gamay is a natural offspring of pinot noir and gouais blanc). It’s available through the importer, orders@vinous.com.au.

Huia Chardonnay 2008
Marlborough, New Zealand
$27–$30
Whether by design or accident, I don’t know which, we can still buy Huia’s seven-year-old chardonnay. We took our bottle to the outstanding 2 Yummy restaurant, Belconnen, where it washed down wholesome, tasty dishes, including dry-roasted eggplant with chicken mince. The wine remains fresh and delicate, despite the bottle age, with full, ripe varietal flavour, a patina of barrel-derived flavours and viscous, silky texture. This is a distinctive, ageing chardonnay at a fair price.

Pizzini Forza di Ferro Sangiovese 2013
Pizzini vineyard, King Valley, Victoria
$60
To accompany the crunchy, juicy perfection of 2 Yummy’s roast duck, we generally choose top-notch Australian pinot noir. It’s a great combination: simple, inexpensive, well-prepared food and a sumptuous, elegant wine style well suited to it. For a change, we tried Pizzini’s flagship sangiovese, Forza di Ferro – and it worked. This is a lighter coloured, highly fragrant red of great flavour intensity, with firm, silk-smooth tannins gripping the supple fruit. Natalie Pizzini says the release date is undecided, but it may be before Christmas. Watch pizzini.com.au for announcements.

Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2014
Hilltops, NSW
$28–$33
Winemaker Tim Kirk says he’ll release the new vintage of his popular Hilltops shiraz on 1 October. However, for the impatient, or thirsty, the slightly better 2013 vintage remains available in retail outlets and direct from clonakilla.com.au. The chances of the 2014 vintage bettering the amazing 2013 were non-existent. But in a tasting alongside two other of Kirk’s 2014s (O’Riada Shiraz and Shiraz Viognier), Hilltops rated highly indeed – albeit in a notably chunkier style than the delicate, spicy O’Riada or plush, elegant Shiraz Viognier. However, it remains medium bodied in the Australian shiraz spectrum. And, appropriately for a red from Young, the ripe fruit flavour is reminiscent of black cherry, laced with spice and savour, with quite firm, fine tannins.

Pikes “The Assemblage” Shiraz Mourvedre Grenache 2013
Pikes Polish Hill River vineyard, Clare Valley, South Australia
$21–$25
Pike’s red blend reflects it origins in the Polish Hill River, a higher, cooler sub-region of the Clare Valley in an outstanding vintage. By proportion, shiraz leads the blend. But grenache upstages the leader with its attractive floral, fruity aroma. However, shiraz takes over on the palate, spreading its fleshy richness, albeit buoyed up by lively grenache, then, finally, being cut through with the satisfying tannins of mourvedre. The three varieties add up to a single, joyous, medium bodied, fruity red of great appeal.

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.

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.