Parish Vineyard Riesling 2013 $25–$29
Parish vineyard, Coal River Valley, Tasmania
In 2012 Yalumba proprietor, Robert Hill-Smith, bought Frogmore Creek vineyard in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley. “Hiding among the rather large plantings of chardonnay and pinot noir”, writes winemaker Louisa Rose, “was an irresistible temptation to work with” – a three-hectare block of riesling, the signature white variety in Hill-Smith and Rose’s home turf in South Australia’s Eden Valley. Rose’s bone-dry riesling made from those vines is just lovely. Bone-dry, delicate and light bodied (11.5 per cent alcohol), it delivers the intense apple and lime-like flavours of Tasmanian riesling with a great purity and finesse.

Shotfire Shiraz 2012 $20–$25
Barossa, South Australia
David Clarke and family own 275 hectares of vineyards at three locations along the Eden Valley hills – between Truro in the north and Mount Crawford to the south – and one on the Barossa Valley floor, slightly south of Tanunda. These lie in the Eden Valley and Barossa Valley wine regions – which combined form the large Barossa zone, the appellation used on Shotfire Shiraz. This is a slightly bigger, stronger shiraz than its cheaper sibling, Sandpiper Shiraz 2012 ($15–$19). Shotfire delivers the ripe, black cherry flavours of warm-grown shiraz with the background vanillin character of American oak. The tannins are sturdy but soft.

Logan Weemala Shiraz Viognier 2012 $19
Weemala vineyard, Central Ranges, NSW
Winemaker Peter Logan makes starkly contrasting shirazes from two very different parts of the Great Dividing Range: Mudgee and the Central Ranges, in the vicinity of Orange, at higher altitude and almost one degree further south. The greater warmth creates bigger, more tannic shiraz in Mudgee while the cooler Central Ranges tends to make lighter, softer shiraz – in this instance with a touch of the white viognier. The wine shows an aromatic, floral face of shiraz – characters that flow through to a buoyant, lively, mid-weight, silk-textured palate. Brisk acidity and varietal spice add a gentle bite to this most appealing red.

Stoneleigh Pinot Noir 2013 $19–$22
Northern Wairau Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand
Stoneleigh, along with Brancott Estate (formerly Montana Wines), is a Marlborough-based brand of French-owned Pernod Ricard. By the mid nineties, Montana (owner of Stoneleigh, but not yet part of Pernod-Ricard) was investing heavily in pinot noir vineyards and winemaking techniques. Scaling up production presented unique quality challenges for the variety. Almost twenty years on, pinot noir is Marlborough’s red specialty and is largely responsible for a surge in that variety’s popularity in Australia. Stoneleigh offers a decent expression of the variety, featuring strawberry and raspberry-like varietal with some savouriness and fine, soft tannins.

Peter Lehmann H and V Verdejo 2014 $22
Fiebiger vineyard, Vine Vale, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Verdejo (Spain’s “fifth most planted white wine variety” according to Jancis Robinson) found its way to the Barossa after winemaker Andrew Wigan encountered it in London then “looked at the soil conditions in Rueda”, its Spanish home. Wigan persuaded Chris Fibiger to plant it at his Vine Vale vineyard in 2009, then in 2014 produced the first release. The wine is highly aromatic, low in alcohol (11.5 per cent), but quite full flavoured, with a grippy structure and pleasant lemony aftertaste.

Albarino (Bodegas Castro Martin) 2012 $38
Salnes Valley, Rias Baixas, Galicia, Spai
We discovered Castro Martin’s albarino over a sun-drenched winter lunch at Rick Stein’s Bannisters restaurant, Mollymook. Northern Spain’s signature white variety provided bright, fresh, modern drinking in a distinctive style. Though full-bodied and richly textured, its savouriness and pleasant lemony tartness refreshed as we munched joyously through piles of local seafood, raw and cooked. Spanish and Portuguese specialist, the Spanish Acquisition (spanishacquisition.com) imports and distributes the wines of Bodegas Castro Martin. Available at Plonk, Fyshwick Markets.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 25 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling 2012 $19–$22
Richmond Grove is riesling royalty – combining the long, distinguished pedigrees of Leo Buring-Lindemans and Orlando. The two streams combined in the nineties and included riesling luminaries Bernard Hickin (Orlando) and John Vickery and Phil Laffer (Buring-Lindeman). Hickin now heads the winemaking team, and Rebekah Richardson made the 2012 riesling. It continues the delicate, brisk, dry style, with its distinctive lime-like flavour and potential to age well for many years. I rate this the best vintage since the outstanding and still delicious 2002. I’m surprised, though, to see such a good wine still in the market, more than a year after its release. Lap it up.

Thorn Clarke Barossa Sandpiper Shiraz 2012 $15–$19
David Clarke and family own 275 hectares of vineyards at three locations along the Eden Valley hills – between Truro in the north and Mount Crawford to the south – and one on the Barossa Valley floor, slightly south of Tanunda. These lie in the Eden Valley and Barossa Valley wine regions – which combined form the large Barossa zone, the appellation used on Sandpiper Shiraz. From these vineyards winemaker Helen McCarthy makes a range of excellent wines, including this generous, satisfying shiraz. It combines bright, plump, ripe varietal flavour with a sympathetic touch of oak and the soft tannins characteristic of Barossa shiraz.

St Erth Geelong Pinot Noir 2011 $14.25–$15
The privately owned Ballande Group, based in New Caledonia, owns the Tisdall Winery, established in 1971 in Echuca, Victoria. The company exports under a number of labels and also owns the St Erth brand, which it sells exclusively to the Woolworths-owned Dan Murphy chain. A Geelong-based winemaker sources fruit and makes St Erth in Geelong for Ballande. The just-released 2012 steps up a notch in body and flavour depth from the 2011 reviewed last year, albeit still in pinot’s lighter mould. Bright, varietal fruit flavour underpins the wine. But pleasingly for a wine at this price, pinot’s earthy, savoury character comes through, too.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 22 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

Ten Minutes by Tractor McCutcheon Pinot Noir 2012 $75
McCutcheon Vineyard, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
A group of us tasted McCutcheon pinot alongside three contrasting styles –Lerida Estate Cullerin Canberra District 2013 ($35, also reviewed today), Tout Pres by Farr Geelong 2011 ($110) and Hurley Vineyard Garamond Mornington Peninsula 2012 ($75). The wines all rated well with the group. But the McCutcheon finally towered above all but Tout Pres by Farr (a story for another day). It delivered all the aromatic, ripe, sappy, juicy character of this great grape variety – backed by the firm tannins to see it through many years in bottle. The intense colour and flavour noted by the winemakers at harvest comes through in the final wine. They attribute this intensity, in part, to the “longest ever veraison–harvest interval (70 days vs 57 day average)”.

Lerida Estate Cullerin Pinot Noir 2013 $35
Lerida Estate, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
At our little masked tasting of pinots, Lerida, from the warmer 2013 vintage, immediately stood out from the 2012s, both from Mornington Peninsula and both around double the price. It showed the bright, fresh, strawberry-like aromas and flavours of very young pinot, medium body and dry, tightly structured but soft finish. The eight tasters rated it highly, albeit with a caveat from some about whether it might take on more of pinot’s savoury character with bottle age. Time will tell. But it’s a good pinot and to me rates a silver medal score.

Lerida Estate Chardonnay 2012 $24.50
Lerida Estate, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
In another masked tasting, eight of us compared three very different chardonnays: Lerida 2012, Shaw and Smith M3 Adelaide Hill 2013 and Ten Minutes by Tractor McCutcheon 2012. Each represented a distinct style – respectively, lean and austere with assertive winemaker inputs; elegant, pure and varietal with fruit on centre stage; and voluptuous – a celebration of fruit, oak and winemaker inputs. The tasters enjoyed all three styles. We saw Lerida as Chablis-like in its lean, acidic structure, but not in its flavour. At present the sulphide compounds, which season many barrel-matured chardonnays, stand out against the grapefruit-like varietal flavour. However, this is all in a tasty, teasing sort of way. Lerida’s Jim Lumbers remains confident the fruit will blossom with time.

Yalumba Patchwork Shiraz 2012 $18–$22
Barossa Valley, South Australia
Patchwork shiraz brings together fruit from nine Barossa-floor sub-regions: Stockwell, Ebenezer, Light Pass, Seppeltsfield, Kalimna, Krondorf, Vine Vale, Marananga and Greenock. These are names well known to Barossa winemakers but only now coming before the drinking public, albeit slowly. These cover the east, north and west of the valley, but not the south, nor the higher cooler, Eden Valley (part of the Barossa zone) to the east. From the valley floor we expect, and get in Patchwork, a ripe, robust wine, suggesting juicy black cherries. The tannins are soft but savoury and the flavour is enhanced by very clever, sympathetic use of several oak types for maturation.

Krinklewood Verdelho 2013 $22
Broke Fordwich, Hunter Valley, NSW
Cuttings of the verdelho vine found their way separately to the east and west of Australia last century, direct from the Island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean, about 700 kilometres west of Morocco. Those that found their way to the Hunter likely came from Dr William Redfern’s collection, planted at Campbelltown in 1824. It proved suited to the warm conditions and remains today as an important niche for the valley. The 2013 from the biodynamic Krinklewood vineyard is exceptional – a beautifully pure, highly aromatic wine with a particularly racy, passionfruit-like flavours. Like sauvignon blanc, this is all about fruity refreshment.

Veuve Fourny et Fils Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Champagne $55–$70
Les Mont-Ferres, Vertus, Champagne region, Franc
Non-vintage Champagne generally combine pinots noir and meunier with chardonnay – drawn from multiple vineyards across France’s very large Champagne region. Veuve Fourny Blanc de Blancs, however, comes only from chardonnay grown on warmer south and south-east slopes of Les Mont-Ferres, near the village of Vertus. It shows the delicate, racy, elegant beauty of the variety ripened under very cool conditions. The winemakers build the richness and texture of the wine by blending in older reserve wines and maturing each batch for 30 months on yeast lees in bottle. The current release contains wine from the 2010 vintage (80 per cent) with the balance from the 2009, 2008 and 2007 seasons.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 18 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

Moorilla Muse Tasmania Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc 2012 $40
Pinot noir remains the great red hope in cool Tasmania. But warmer sites down there produce good cabernet, including Muse, from Moorilla’s St Matthias vineyard in the Tamar Valley. I put it in a masked tasting alongside the superb Vasse Felix Heytesbury 2011 ($90) and respectable, if not exciting, Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 (70). Cool-grown Muse’s floral, fragrant character contrasted with the greater power and tannic backbone of the other two wines. It provides an elegant, early drinking style of cabernet, with softer tannins, bright fruit and a leafy edge revealing its cool origins.

Red Knot by Shingleback McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013 $10.40­–$15
Red Knot provides delicious proof that winemakers can deliver high quality regional specialties at a modest price. Shiraz and McLaren proved a natural fit from the mid-nineteenth century. The variety gave its full, ripe flavours to fortified wines and, later, to the rich, warm, savoury table wines we enjoy today. Ripe, vibrant fruit flavours and a full, soft palate give Red Knot Shiraz the instant, easy drinking appeal that’ve made it such a huge success. It’s available from the cellar door in McLaren Vale and in the Woolworths’ owned Dan Murphy and BWS chains.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 15 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

Dawson and James Chardonnay 2011 $48
Gerald Ellis’s Meadowbank vineyard, Derwent Valley, Tasmania
Gerald Ellis grows great fruit. Peter Dawson and Tim James do their best not to muck it up. They write, “Ultimately we see the vineyard as the driver of quality and our winemaking approach is to support fruit quality through the avoidance of potentially obtrusive secondary characteristics. We willingly tread a fine line in this regard, recognising the supporting role of quality oak and natural fermentation”. In truth, making great wines always requires more than great fruit. But the fruit flavour, plus the winemaker inputs (in this in this instance, natural fermentation, then maturation in oak barrels), must exceed the sum of the parts. The second vintage of Dawson and James chardonnay reveals the beauty of this fruit and oak combination, keeping the pure, fine fruit flavour as the focus.

Longview Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2013 $14.25–$17
Longview Vineyard, Macclesfield, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Longview delivers straightforward fruity drinking pleasure. Unlike, say, the Dawson a James chardonnay reviewed today, Longview is made in a way that preserves the aromatics and flavours of the two varieties in the blend, leaving little trace of winemaking inputs. Although sauvignon blanc comprises just one third of the blend, it contributes the key passionfruit-like aromas and flavours. Semillon, however, turns that down to an acceptable volume, and gives a refreshing citrus-like zest to the finish.

Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon 2011$32–$40
Vasse Felix vineyards, Margaret River, Western Australia
Vasse Felix’s fortieth cabernet combines cabernet sauvignon (94 per cent) with Malbec (five per cent) and 0.5 per cent each of petit verdot and cabernet franc. A highly perfumed, seductive aroma brings together cabernet’s bright, blackcurrant-like varietal flavour with a touch of leaf and herb and well-matched oak. These characters come through, too, on a superb, surprisingly sturdy palate, with strong, persistent varietal tannins. Winemaker Virginia Willcock attributes some of the deep colour and strong tannin to the small but potent malbec component.

De Bortoli Estate Pinot Noir 2013 $21–$30
De Bortoli Dixon Creek Vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
Southern Victoria’s 2013 pinots seem generally plumper and juicier than the 2012s. De Bortoli shows the vintage character, but that’s in the context of a medium bodied red – meaning you get a plump, fruity mid-palate in a finely textured, subtle sort of way. Reflecting the warm season, the fruit presents more of the ripe-cherry than strawberry side of pinot’s spectrum. The fruit is meshed with fine tannins and a pleasing savoury character.

Farrside By Farr Pinot Noir 2012 $68
Farrside vineyard, Geelong, Victoria
Father and son team Gary and Nick Farr make three single-vineyard pinots under their By Farr label. At a recent Melbourne tasting, we compared their about-to-be-released Farrside 2012 with Mermerus Bellarine Peninsula 2012 and Dawson and James Derwent Valley Tasmania 2011. Mermerus showed the pretty, strawberry-like fruit character of the variety; Dawson and James showed a leaner, tighter side; and Farrside showed greater power – ripe, bright fruit, backed by firm tannins and a rich, savoury character.

Matteo Corregia Roero Nebbiolo 2011$35
Roero, Piedmont, Italy
The very cool City Wine Shop, 159 Spring Street Melbourne, offers wine by the glass (or by the bottle from its wide range), for enjoyment in-store, including at its convivial communal long table out back. Here we discovered this lean, elegant, savoury nebbiolo from Piedmont’s Roero district. It’s a thoroughly bright, clean, modern expression of nebbiolo, nicely capturing its varietal fragrance and flavours and retaining the firm, assertive tannins without the hardness that sometimes takes over. The wine is imported and distributed by Prince Wine Store (princewinestore.com.au). A new shipment is expected in June.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 11 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

Chardonnay by Farr 2012 $68
Geelong, Victoria
Australian chardonnays are the best they’ve ever been. Given their abundance, diversity and excellence, they are arguably our second national specialty – our white equivalent of shiraz. They cover a spectrum of styles from the lean and austere through to a handful, including Chardonnay by Farr, that reveal the true grandeur of this noble grape variety. Father and son team, Gary and Nick Farr, specialise in the Burgundian varieties, with winemaking experience in Burgundy, California and Oregon. Nick also worked in Central Otago, New Zealand, another of the world’s pinot centres. The Farr’s small production chardonnay delivers the succulent fruit flavour of an outstanding vineyard in a great vintage – richly meshed with flavours and textures derived from fermentation and maturation in high quality French oak barrels. This interplay between the oak and fruit is a key to the world’s great chardonnays.

De Bortoli Estate Grown Chardonnay 2013 $20.90–$30
De Bortoli Dixon Creek Vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
The wine deserves its $30 recommended price, but the quality of the wine, and its appeal to drinkers, mean the retailers nearly always price it in the low $20s, meaning outstanding value. Winemaker Steve Webber describes 2013 as “a riper season due to warmth”. That means a generous wine, built on juicy, melon and citrus varietal flavours. It also carries the smoothness and pleasing background flavours introduced by barrel fermentation and maturation. Brisk acidity and elegant structure gives it a lightness on the palate and suggest good cellaring for three or four years.

Rymill The Yearling Cabernet Sauvignon $12.35–$15
Rymill Vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia
Ribena anyone? Well, not quite. But Rymill The Yearling captures the ripe, cassis-like varietal flavours of cabernet sauvignon so often at the heart of Coonawarra’s best reds. However, in this drink-now version of the style, fruit remains all the way across the palate, undistracted by oak or the more powerful tannins required in long-lived wines. There’s an attractive leafy edge to the fruit – another part of cabernet’s varietal spectrum, and the tannins are fine and easy on the palate in this elegant and seductive wine.

Wolf Blass Red Label Chardonnay 2013 $8.55–$14
South Eastern Australia
The internationally recognised appellation South Eastern Australia reflects the Australian practice of blending large-volume commercial wines from multiple regions, crossing state borders. However, the compendium name doesn’t rule out the use of grapes from some of our top growing regions. These are often used to bolster the quality of mass blends made to a price point. In this instance Wolf Blass, part of Treasury Wine Estates, makes a delicious, bright, modern chardonnay with generous peach and melon varietal flavour, smooth texture and vibrant, fresh, dry finish.

Swinging Bridge M.A.W. Pinot Noir 2012 $38
Rowlee Vineyard, Orange, NSW
Tom and Georgie Ward’s impressive M.A.W. pinot comes from the Rowlee vineyard, Orange, 910 metres above sea level. These cooler, more elevated sites, seem likely to produce the region’s finest pinots and chardonnays, while the lower, warmer sites better suit varieties like shiraz and cabernet. Tom Ward says he made the wine from two pinot clones, and matured the wine in a combination of small and large French oak barrels. The wine offers bright, fragrant, cherry-like varietal flavour, with attractive savoury undertones. The palate reflects the aroma and finishes with savoury, dry tannins. (Available from swingingbridge.com.au).

Brothers in Arms Side-by-Side Shiraz 2012 $27
Metala vineyards, Langhorne Creek, South Australia
Brothers in Arms wines come from Langhorne Creek’s Metala vineyard, established in 1891. The vineyard provided fruit for Jack Kilgour’s legendary Stonyfell Private Bin Claret from 1932 until 1959, when Kilgour’s winemaking successor, Bryan Dolan, renamed the wine Stonyfell Metala. Dolan’s 1961 Metala won the first Jimmy Watson memorial trophy in 1962, the year of Jimmy Watson’s death. Treasury Wine Estates owns the Metala brand, but the Metala vineyard, now greatly expanded, belongs to the Adams family, descendants of founder, William Formby. Guy and Liz Adams produce Side-by-Side shiraz, a generous, earthy expression of the variety, with plump mid palate and firm, fine tannins.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 8 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

Pikes Clare “Traditionele” Valley Riesling 2013 $20–$23
The Pike family makes several Clare Valley rieslings, ranging from the soft, drink-now “Traditionele” to the more austere, long-lived “The Merle”, from the Clare’s Polish Hill sub-region. We grabbed a bottle of Traditionele 2013 from Richmond Cellars on a recent visit to Melbourne – then enjoyed it with excellent Vietnamese food just a few doors away. The delicious, citrusy flavours of the aromatic riesling worked with widely varied food and seasonings, ranging from the gentle sweetness of steamed rice to prawns, pork, egg and eggplant to the more assertive flavours like pepper, mint and chilli.

Coriole Redstone McLaren Vale Shiraz 2012 $18–$20
Fruity, soft shiraz makes a good companion to spicy food – so Coriole Redstone joined Pikes Traditionele at our Melbourne Vietnamese dinner. Surprisingly, the bottle shop offered the 2010 vintage, which proved sturdier and more tannic and savoury than the current release 2012. Most outlets will, however, offer the 2012. This vintage shows a particularly fragrant, lively and fruity side of the variety, cut by soft, savoury tannins, with a lift of alcoholic warmth in the finish.

Ross Hill Orange Cabernet Franc Merlot 2012 $25
The best wines of St Emillion and Pomerol (districts of France’s Bordeaux region) reveal the symbiotic blend of the related varieties cabernet franc and merlot. Cabernet franc is a parent of both cabernet sauvignon and merlot. It joined with sauvignon blanc to create cabernet sauvignon, and Magdelaine noir des Charentes to form merlot. The floral fragrance and light body of cabernet franc lends an elegance to its blend with merlot, which introduces earthier flavours and stronger tannins. Winemaker Phil Kerney’s version, made from Ross Hill’s Griffin Road vineyard, at 750 metres elevation, captures that appealing fragrance and elegance.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 8 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

De Bortoli Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2013 $4.75–$7
Drinkers of fine wine might now connect the De Bortoli family with their superb Yarra Valley products, particularly pinot noir and chardonnay. But the bulk of De Bortoli’s wine, like the Sacred Hill range, still comes from the NSW Riverina district. This blend plays on one of the Riverina’s strengths – large volumes of low-cost semillon (93 per cent of the blend) – seasoned with more pungent sauvignon blanc from Victoria’s King Valley (yes, De Bortolis is there, too). The result is a light, fresh and lively dry white, built on semillon’s lemon-like flavours, with an herbaceous twist provided by the sauvignon blanc.

Brothers in Arms Side by Side Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 $27
Brothers in Arms wines come from Langhorne Creek’s Metala vineyard, established in 1891. The vineyard was source of Jack Kilgour’s legendary Stonyfell Private Bin Claret from 1932 until 1959, when Kilgour’s winemaking successor, Bryan Dolan, renamed the wine Stonyfell Metala. Dolan’s 1961 Metala won the first Jimmy Watson memorial trophy in 1962, the year of Jimmy Watson’s death. Treasury Wine Estates owns the Metala brand, but the Metala vineyard, now greatly expanded, belongs to the Adams family, descendants of founder, William Formby. Guy and Liz Adams produce Side-by-Side cabernet, a sturdy and satisfying example of a style Langhorne Creek does particularly well.

Eddystone Point Tasmania Pinot Gris 2012 $26
Like its red sibling, pinot noir, the pinot gris vine gives its best fruit in a cool climate – in this instance Tasmania’s Tamar Valley and East Coast regions. Winemaker Penny Jones fermented (then matured the wine for four months on the spent yeast cells) in stainless steel tanks. The technique captured the variety’s elusive aromas and flavours and built a silky smoothness to the texture. A small amount of residual grape sugar (5.5 grams a litre) adds further body to the wine, but leaves it effectively dry. Those subtle aromas and flavours are pear like and sit well in the soft, smooth palate.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 1 June 2014 in the Canberra Times

Moorilla Muse Pinot Noir 2012 $48
Moorilla vineyard, Derwent Valley, Tasmania
David Walsh bought Moorilla from the Alcorso family in 1995. But it’s only in recent years we’ve seen the wines consistently achieving outstanding quality under winemaker Connor van der Reest. Two new-release pinots demonstrate that quality. Praxis 2013 ($30), from the Matthias vineyard, Tamar Valley, presents the fragrant, fruity, silky and soft drink-now face of pinot – with a pleasing, fine tannin structure. But Muse 2013, from the original Derwent site (now also home to Walsh’s MONA gallery) presents some of pinot’s profound beauty – a wine of greater dimension, with more concentrated fruit flavour and a chewier, built-to-last tannin structure.

Brothers in Arms Side by Side Malbec 2012$27
Metala vineyards, Langhorne Creek, South Australia
Malbec remains a niche variety in Australia, with just 2,500 tonnes harvested in 2013 (about 180 thousand dozen bottles). Though widely used as a blender, it makes sturdy, satisfying wines in its own right. Brothers in Arms, grown and made by the Adams family, owners of the historic Metala vineyard, offers a fragrant, rich and joyous expression of the variety – a big, friendly, fruity wine with loads of soft tannins.

Quara Estate Malbec 2012 $19
Cafayate Valley, Salta, Argentina
Malbec, the black grape of Cahors, France, arrived in Argentina in 1852. Today, plantings in Argentina total around 31 thousand hectares, dwarfing France’s 5,000 hectares. The country’s signature variety is easy to love. First, it’s big, rich and delicious. And second, with such large volumes being made, the price is reasonable. Quara Estate’s is a lovely example, providing excellent drinking at around $19. Canberra importer, Alex Stojanov, of Latin Grapes, says it’s sprinkled around Canberra retailers (including Plonk, Fyshwick Markets, where I tasted it) and restaurants. He expects the 2013 vintage (not tasted yet) to replace the 2012 shortly.

Port Phillip Estate Quartier Arneis 2013 $26
Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
A number of Australian winemakers, principally in Victoria’s King Valley, now cultivate arneis, a white variety first documented in Piemonte, Italy, in the fifteenth century. Port Phillip Estate’s version, from a vineyard at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, presents a lively, full-flavoured expression of the variety, with unique, sappy, slightly pear-like flavours and savoury, vigorous dry finish. The 2013 seems a little fleshier than the 2012. Winemaker Sandro Mosele writes, “[the wine] comes from a 0.61-hectare parcel planted in Red Hill. Handpicked fruit is whole-bunch pressed, tank fermented without inoculation in stainless steel tanks”. Four months lying on spent yeast cells rounds out a delicious wine.

Xanadu Next of Kin Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2013 $16–$18
Margaret River, Western Australia
Margaret River’s signature blends of sauvignon blanc and semillon come in a spectrum of styles – ranging from sip-and-savour, long-lived oak fermented versions like Cullens, to bouncy, light and fruity styles like Next of Kin. It captures the pungent, penetrating side of sauvignon blanc (sometimes described as “canned pea”), filled out on the palate by the semillon component. It’s a love-it or hate-it style, made to drink icy cold and as close to vintage as possible.

Mount Horrocks Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 $30–$38
Clare Valley, South Australia
In this elegant cabernet, winemaker Stephanie Toole demonstrates the great finessing of Australian regional wine styles now underway. Clare Valley makes good cabernet. But more often than not in the past they’ve tended to be on the burly side. Nothing wrong with burly on a cold winter’s night. But Mount Horrocks lifts the style to a higher level, delivering even more drinking pleasure. The pure varietal perfume and flavour, balanced palate, and smooth tannins put it way above the pack, although the wine seems somewhat leaner than the 2010 reviewed two years ago. O’Toole sources the fruit from a single vineyard on her estate.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 28 May 2014 in the Canberra Times

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 $12.35–$15
Wolf Blass, part of Treasury Wine Estates, produces what can be a confusingly wide range of wines. But at any price point they’re reliably up there with the best of their peers. The mid-priced Yellow Label range generally combines wines from a number of the best South Australian regions for the variety. This information isn’t revealed on the label. But very clearly by the aroma, flavour and structure of this 2012 cabernet, they are the right regions. The wine gives true cassis and leafy varietal flavour, with a generous mid palate and the firm but fine tannins that define the variety.

Tulloch Vineyard Selection Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2013 $18
Tulloch Winery, located at Pokolbin in the lower Hunter Valley, sources grapes its Vineyard Selection chardonnay from Denman, in the upper Hunter. Although a less revered location than Pokolbin, the upper Hunter nevertheless produces an appealing, generally lighter bodied style of chardonnay. For a fair price, Tulloch’s delivers a pure, peach-and-citrus varietal aroma. This varietal purity comes through, too, on the crisp, fresh, smooth palate. At a little under 13 per cent alcohol, it’s a little lighter bodied than mainstream Australian styles.

Mount Horrocks Watervale Shiraz 2012 $39
Winemaker Stephanie Toole says she crushed a portion of the whole bunches for this wine by foot. But there’s not a trace of old-sock, or any other undesirable traits in this beautifully refined but full-bodied shiraz from Watervale, at the southern end of the Clare Valley. The inclusion of whole bunches introduces stems into the fermentation and any pre- or post-ferment maceration. Provided the stems are ripe, the practice introduces desirable changes to a wine’s tannin structure and subtle, pleasing stalky notes to the aroma and flavour. That element seems barley noticeable in Toole’s very slinky, slippery shiraz.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published 25 May 2014 in the Canberra Times