Brokenwood Stanleigh Park Vineyard Semillon 2007 $45
Lower Hunter Valley, NSW
People tend to have or hate the Hunter Valley’s idiosyncratic semillon style. If, like me, you love it; or if you’ve heard of it but haven’t tried it, Brokenwood’s just-released 2007 provides the perfect opportunity. It’s travelled through the early, lemony, austere stage of its development, and at five and a half years reveals the first of the magic extras that come with bottle age. The classic, ultra-fresh lemon and lemongrass flavours remain. But bottle age has added the beginnings of richer toasty and honey characters. These fill the palate out deliciously, despite an alcohol level of just 10.5 per cent. (Available cellar door, www.brokenwood.com.au).

Majella Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $28.75–$33
Majella Vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia
Sensational – simply sensational. How else to describe Brian and Anthony Lynn’s latest release. They own one of Coonawarra’s great vineyards, established in 1968, and have tended it ever since – originally as suppliers to other wineries but from 1990 as winemakers, too.  Bruce Gregory makes the wine on site and in 2010 produced a particularly floral, fragrant wine to equal anything made to date from the property. The seductive violet-like aroma leads to an equally seductive, supremely elegant cabernet with layers of juicy, sweet fruit and fine tannins.

Ten Minutes by Tractor 10X Chardonnay 2011 $28–$30
Judd, McCutcheon and Wallis Vineyard, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Martin Spedding writes, “After a decade of warm and dry conditions the 2011 vintage broke the drought with over 600mm rain during the growing season versus an average of 350mm, the cool and wet conditions resulted in our latest harvest on record”.  The cooler season also produced a leaner, tighter chardonnay than usual. The aroma shows grapefruit and white peach varietal character with “struck match” notes derived from ageing on yeast lees in barrel. The richly textured palate, like the aroma leans more to citrus than stone fruit varietal flavours

Yalumba Y Series Shiraz 2010 $9.49–$15
Adelaide Plains, Barossa and Virginia, South Australia
Yalumba’s Y series wine provide high quality current drinking at realistic prices. This wine, from the very good 2010 vintage, delivers ripe, rich shiraz flavours reminiscent of dark berries. A post-ferment maceration and clever use of oak barrels helped build the soft tannins that give structure to the wine. The wide price range reflects periodic discounting by the big retailers. Made for drinking over the next year or two.

Vinaceous Divine Light Sauvignon Blanc 2012 $19–$21
Margaret River, Western Australia
Vinaceous — an export-focused venture created by wine marketer Nick Stacy and winemaker Michael Kerrigan features quirky labels and wines from several Australian regions. The pair’s fresh-from-the-vine Margaret River white delivers the lighter, herbal flavours of early picked sauvignon blanc. It’s well removed from the overt Marlborough style, but still clearly sauvignon blanc with its pungent, tangy edge. It’s a good aperitif quaffer and suited to shellfish, especially oysters.

Blandy’s Malmsey Madeira 10 Years Old $49.99
Madeira, Portugal
Madeira’s famous fortified wine ranges from dry to sweet – sercial, verdelho, bual and malmsey. It’s hard to find in Australia these days, but Woolworths’ owned Dan Murphys now imports the sweetest version, malmsey (made from the malvasia grape). Fortification with brandy arrests fermentation, leaving a considerable amount of natural grape sugar. Prolonged ageing in oak casks at varying temperatures produces the distinctive olive green colour of the rim and mellow, earthy aroma. The oak ageing also gives the wines its unique bite, cutting through the luscious sweetness.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First published 29 August 2012 in The Canberra Times

McLeish Estate Hunter Valley Semillon 2011 $23
The lower Hunter Valley’s idiosyncratic semillon style doesn’t please all drinkers, though it’s followed with passion by the true believers. McLeish 2011 – winner of a trophy and gold medal at the Hunter Valley Boutique Wine Show 2011 – is an excellent example of the style. The alcohol’s just 11.1 per cent and the aroma and flavour reveal a unique, delicate lemongrass-like character. The palate’s light, fresh and a little austere, in a pleasing, food-friendly way. Over time, the colour will darken from lemon to golden, the aroma and flavour will develop rich but fine honeyed and toasty characters. (Available through www.mcleishhunterwines.com.au).

Longview Red Bucket Adelaide Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $15–$17
The label says “Adelaide”, but that’s shorthand for a blend of 52 per shiraz from the Longview vineyard in the Adelaide Hills, the rest cabernet sauvignon from McLaren Vale. The Saturno family owns the Adelaide Hills vineyard and the wines are made under contract by Ben Glaetzer. In this instance it’s a clever, medium bodied wine combining the juicy, ripe flavours and pleasing aromatics of cool-grown shiraz and the structure, and leafy flavour notes, of cabernet sauvignon. It’s all about bright fruit, soft tannins – a joyous wine to enjoy right now.

Grant Burge Filsell Old Vine Barossa Shiraz 2010 $25.15 –$40
Winemaker Grant Burge says the Filsell vineyard contains one of the largest blocks of old (more than 90 years) shiraz in the southern Barossa Valley. Burge has made an impressive single vineyard wine from the block for some years now; but the 2010 really stands out after a run of drought-affected seasons. It’s full bodied, in the Barossa style, with particularly intense, bright, ripe fruit flavours and supple texture. The supple fruit comes layered with soft, ripe fruit tannins, with another structural and flavour lift from very high quality oak.  It’s a very high quality red with medium to long term cellaring potential.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First published 26 August 2012 in The Canberra Times

Turkey Flat Shiraz 2010 $38–$42
Bethany, Stonewell and Koonunga vineyards, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Christie and Peter Schulz say their magnificent 2010 shiraz is based on vines planted at Bethany in 1847 by Johann Fiedler. They compliment fruit from those venerable old vines with material from low-yielding vines at Stonewell and Koonunga. This is perhaps the best shiraz since the Schulz’s made the transition from grape growing to winemaking about 20 years ago. It’s big, and shows the lush ripeness and tender tannins of the Barossa Valley. But it’s so beautifully balanced, and the French oak so complimentary to the fruit flavour and tannin, that it sits lightly on the palate. It’s marvellous to think that vines planted in the wilderness continue to produce beautiful wine 165 years later.

Yalumba Galway Vintage Shiraz 2011 $9.49–$15.95
Barossa Valley, South Australia
Galway shiraz sits a long way stylistically from the Yalumba Galway Claret that raised Bob Menzies’ eyebrows in awe half a century ago. The firmer, more savoury style Menzies loved gave way to this bright, fruity modern style. In the cool 2011 vintage Galway shows the bright, fragrant, musky side of shiraz, both in the aroma and on the soft, juicy, drink-now palate. It’s a regular participant in the retail discount wars, sometimes falling below $10.

Scorpo Estate Pinot Noir 2010 $39.89–45
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
This is on the big, rich side of pinot – in an elegant, succulent pinot kind of way. Deep, juicy, sweet fruit flavours, reminiscent of black cherry, with notes of beetroot and an earthy, mushroomy note, held our attention to the end of the bottle. The slippery texture and firm, fine backbone of tannin completed an outstanding red that beautifully complimented the duck spring rolls at Lanterne Room, Campbell.

Scorpo Estate Pinot Gris 2011 $33.25–$36
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
The cold, wet 2011 season devastated many vineyards and in some areas grapes failed to ripen properly even if they escaped the mildew and botrytis. While most wines show the bony character of the vintage, some show exceptional concentration of fruit flavour – like this excellent Mornington Peninsula white. Ambient-yeast fermentation in old oak vessels gives the wine a rich, juicy, smooth texture. And the cool conditions intensified the elusive pear-like varietal flavour, contributing a crisp, fresh acidity to balance the succulent sweetness of the fruit.

Quartz Hill Syrah 2010 $32
Quartz Hill vineyard, Pyrenees, Victoria
What an enormous contrast there is between Quartz Hill Syrah and Turkey Flat Shiraz also reviewed here today, sitting at the opposite ends of Australia’s shiraz spectrum. Quartz Hill’s use of the French ‘Syrah’ salutes the fine-boned elegant styles made in the northern Rhone Valley. It’s a medium bodied red, with a ripe, sweet core of red berry fruit flavours, cut with savoury, varietal black pepper and spice flavours. Very fine, gentle tannins and fresh acidity give the wine structure, subtly augmented by fine French oak. (Available only through quartzhill@optusnet.com.au)

d’Arenberg Dry Dam Riesling 2011 $14.50
McLaren Vale, South Australia
The emergence of so-called semi or half dry riesling is simply a renaming of a style that’s been with us forever. It simply refers to retention of unfermented grape sugar (or in some case adding grape juice back to a dry wine). At very low levels, the sugar fills out the middle palate very pleasantly without adding overt sweetness. In d’Arenberg’s attractive version, residual sugar of 18.3 grams per litre gives a notable sweetness that’s offset – in a tangy, mouth-watering way – by a low pH (2.8) and acidity of 8.3 grams per litre. It accompanies spicy and chilli-hot food particularly well.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First published 22 August 2012 in The Canberra Times

Oxford Landing Estates Shiraz 2011 $6–$9
Oxford Landing shiraz provides good daily quaffing at a fair price. Though the recommended retail is around $9, it’s often discounted to around $7 and sometimes to a little below $6. It’s generally a medium bodied, drink-now style. But in the very cool 2011 it’s a little lighter bodied than usual, but still based on bright, fresh fruit flavours and soft tannins. So, it’s not for lovers of big, gutsy reds, but definitely a good buy if you like light, fresh, fruity flavours. It’s moderately alcoholic at 13 per and sourced mainly from the Hill Smith family’s Oxford Landing vineyard near Waikerie, South Australia.

Quartz Hill Pyrenees Viognier 2010 $32
Shane and Michelle Mead planted their tiny vineyard in the Pyrenees in 1995 and have their wine made by Michelle’s brother, Darrin Gaffy, at Principia Wines, Mornington.  The production is tiny but the quality is very, very high. The barrel fermented and matured Quartz Hill Viognier 2010 shows a very fine, cool climate side of viognier, a variety that tends to fatness, even oiliness. The wine ginger and apricot-like varietal flavours on a richly textured but not heavy palate. It’s deliciously fresh and the oak flavour very subtle and supportive of the fruit. (Available only by email – quartzhill@optusnet.com.au).

Paxton MV McLaren Vale Shiraz 2011 $18–$20
The Paxton family’s extensive vineyard holdings in McLaren Vale produce a range of high quality wines at various price points.  Their MV shiraz, sourced from biodynamic-in-conversion vineyards, delivers typically generous McLaren Vale flavours, combining bright fruit with a satisfying earthy, savoury undertone. It’s an amazingly good wine at the price. The fruit comes from four Paxton vineyards – Quandong Farm, Maslin Vineyard (near the coast), Jones Block and 19^th Vineyard. The diversity of fruit sourcing, a range of winemaking techniques and maturation in a mix of French and American oak account for its completeness.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First published 19 August 2012 in The Canberra Times

Turkey Flat Mourvedre 2010 $32
Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia
In 1847 Johann Fiedler planted shiraz on the southern slopes of Tanunda Creek. In 1865, the Schultz family bought the site and 125 years later, fourth generation Peter Schultz and wife Christie became winemakers as well as grape growers. Today they grow, make and bottle the wine on site, not far from the still-productive 1847 vines. The very late ripening mourvedre (aka mataro or monastrell) thrives in the valley floor’s hot, dry conditions making this unique spicy, earthy, savoury red with its distinctive, mouth watering, dry tannin structure.

Helm Half Dry Riesling 2012 $25
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Ken Helm rates 2012 the vintage of a lifetime – a belief supported by his stunning botrytis riesling reviewed two weeks ago. His Classic Dry and Premium rieslings are to be released later in the year and he’s just released this semi-dry version. Its voluminous, citrus-like aroma and rich palate belie the modest 10.3 per cent alcohol. The rich, citrusy varietal flavour and acidity wrestle a little on the palate at the moment. But from past experience these will harmonise with another few months in bottle.

Peppertree Elderslee Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $42
Elderslee Road vineyard, Wrattonbully, South Australia
Until the mid nineties, Wrattonbully, known at the time as Koppamurra, consisted of a few isolated vineyards. Its similarity to the adjoining, time-proven Coonawarra region and lower land prices prompted large-scale planting to feed the red wine boom. As the vines mature, we’re seeing some excellent wines, including this beautiful, juicy cabernet sourced from a favoured site on Pepper Tree’s 100-hectare holding. This is an elegant, supple cabernet with a tasty interplay between the fruit and high-class French oak. Made by Jim Chatto.

Kooyong Massale Pinot Noir 2011 $26.59–$33
Kooyong and Ballewindi vineyards, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Today’s two Kooyong pinots represent two interpretations of the variety by winemaker Sandro Mosele – the more savoury, earthy, firmly structured Estate wine versus the younger, simpler Massale with its fresh, primary fruit flavour. It’s paler coloured than the Estate wine and still has a savoury, sappy current under the bright, fresh fruit. The palate is brisk and fresh relying on both acid and fine, slightly tart tannins for structure.

Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir 2010 $36.85–$39
Teurong, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
We love a pinot with a solid backbone of tannin and savoury as well as fruity flavours. Sandro Mosele’s latest Kooyong Estate delivers all of this. It’s an harmonious, intensely flavoured, elegantly structured pinot, the fruit flavour reminiscent of dark, ripe cherries but with a deep, earthy, savoury undertone. Some of the structure and savouriness probably comes from Mosele’s decision to increase the total oak maturation time from 16 to 20 months, six to ten months of that in 6,300-litre foudres following a period in 220-litre barriques.

Chapel Hill Bush Vine Grenache 2010 $30–$35
McLaren Vale, South Australia
This excellent follow up to the fleshy 2009 vintage, captures the rich, earthy flavours of old McLaren Vale bush vines (vines grown as individual bushes, without trellising), planted in 1926, 1952 and 1967. Winemakers Michael Fragos and Bryn Richards say they hand picked the grapes and made the wine in small batches in open fermenters “to facilitate a long, slow, gentle extraction”. Subsequent maturation in older French oak hogsheads further ameliorated the tannins. The result is a pure grenache featuring the earthiness and pronounced tannins of the vintage – with a background of spice.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First Published 15 August 2012 in The Canberra T’imes

Ben Haines Warramunda Vineyard Yarra Valley Marsanne 2011 $28
Ben Haines, a young Australian winemaker with international experience – and most recently at Mitchelton and Yering Station wineries, Victoria  – recently launched his own brand. And wow, what wines they are, sourced from Haines’ favoured vineyard sites. His marsanne, from the Warramunda vineyard in the Coldstream Hills sub-region of the Yarra, stunned a few palates at a recent tasting. A gentle vanilla-like aroma (from fermentation and maturation in good French oak) invites the first sip. The palate reveals mouth-watering citrusy flavours, underpinned by barrel-derived textural richness and enlivened by the cool season acidity. (Available through www.benhaineswine.com)

Oxford Landing Estates South Australia Sauvignon Blanc 2012 $5.65–$9
I’m seeing very exciting whites from the 2012 vintage. Like 2011, 2012 was a cool vintage, but produced overall much healthier fruit than the mildew and botrytis-ravaged 2011. The cool conditions produced intense varietal flavours and high natural acidity – a combination that prompted the Oxford Landing winemaker to write, “The varietal expression of our 2012 sauvignon blanc was more typical of cooler climate regions with complex fruit flavours evident early”. The wine comes from the normally hot stretches of the Murray. But in 2012 it offers a zingy fresh palate with delicious, passion fruit-like varietal flavour.

Taylors South Australia Tempranillo 2010 $12.99–$18.95
The label doesn’t reveal the wine’s origins, but it’s a blend of material from the Clare Valley and Wrattonbully (on the Limestone Coast, adjoining Coonawarra’s northern boundary). The cool season produced a light to medium bodied red with bright, delicious fruit flavour, reminiscent of blueberries. The winemakers handled various batches of the wines in different ways, including cold soaking one component on skins before fermentation (producing softer tannins), barrel-fermentation of a second component and using open fermenters for another. The varied approaches produced both fruity and savoury characters and resulted in a very fine, soft tannin structure.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First published 12 August in The Canberra Times

The Investigator by Jacques Lurton 2006 $70 – wine of the week
The Islander Estate vineyards, Kangaroo Island, South Australia
French winemaker Jacques Lurton believes in cabernet franc, an aromatic red variety that plays a key but not dominant role in the wines of Bordeaux’s St Emillion and Pomerol sub-regions. But in Kangaroo Island’s warmer climate, he says, “it pushes to another dimension and walks away from everything green”. The Investigator, first made in 2004, is Lurton’s best shot at a cabernet franc-dominant red. In 2004, the first vintage, he included 27 per cent sangiovese in the blend; cutting the proportion to five per cent in 2005. But as the savoury sangiovese tended to dominate, in 2006 the blend became 90 per cent cabernet franc, the rest malbec – a seductive and elegant combination that allows cabernet franc’s aromatics and fine tannins to star, sympathetically fleshed out by the malbec.

Ben Haines Syrah 2009 $58
Central Victoria, Victoria
Very exciting wine here from Ben Haines, a young bloke with global grape growing and winemaking experience – recently as winemaker for Mitchelton and currently as consulting winemaker to Yering Station. For his own label, Haines sources grapes from standout vineyards – in this instance from what is clearly a wonderful, if undisclosed, Nagambie Lakes shiraz site, planted between 1985 and 1992. The unfiltered, unfined wine delivers heady varietal aromatics and an amazingly seductive, rich, silk-smooth, fine-boned palate that simply pulses with life. (Available at www.benhaineswine.com).

Shingleback Davey Estate Shiraz 2010 $19.90–22.95
The Davey Estate, McLaren Vale, South Australia
The Davey family grows good grapes and makes wine that always impress on our tasting bench and succeed in wine shows – three gold and three silver medals already for their 2010 shiraz. Winemaker John Davey says he makes lots of little batches from various parts of the vineyard and matures them in French and American oak hogsheads before assembling the final blend. It’s a generous wine, featuring bright, ripe fruit, with a savoury, earthy McLaren Vale edge and soft, rustic tannins.

Loire Sauvignon Blanc La Promesse 2010 $10–$13.99
Touraine, Loire Valley, France
Coles Liquor imports La Promesse for sale through its 1^st Choice and Vintage Cellars outlets. It’s a restrained version of sauvignon blanc, still clearly varietal, but without the high alcohol or in-your-face fruitiness of the popular Marlborough versions. At just 12 per cent alcohol it sits lightly on the palate, delivering lean, crisp, herbaceous, lemony flavours and a fresh, bone dry finish – a versatile and delicious style. Screwcap sealed.

Marques de Riscal Rueda 2010 $14.99
Rueda, Spain
Rueda is a northwestern Spanish wine region. The local white variety, verdejo, was originally used to make sherry-like wines until Marques de Riscal developed a delicate table wine style from it in the 1970s. It’s a distinctive dry white – juicy and mouth-watering, with a pleasantly tart, savoury dry finish. Like the Loire sauvignon reviewed today, it sits lightly on the palate with its modest alcohol content and suits a wide range of foods. Woolworths imports Marques de Riscal wines for sale through its Dan Murphy’s outlets.

Domaine Chandon Chardonnay 2011 $27.95
Yarra Valley, Victoria
Domaine Chandon says its chardonnay comes “primarily from the cooler, elevated sites of the upper Yarra Valley” to provide citrus-like varietal flavour at low sugar levels, and high natural acidity. It also takes small parcels from warmer sites lower in the valley to add stone-fruit varietal flavour. In the very cool 2011 season that combination delivers a comparatively lean, but still lovely chardonnay, with more emphasis on citrus than stone-fruit flavours. Fresh acid and textural richness resulting from barrel fermentation and maturation, completes a satisfying white with good medium term cellaring potential.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First publised 8 August 2012 in The Canberra Times

De Bortoli Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2011 $21–$30
The recommend price is $30, but as I write Dan Murphy’s charges $23.75 as part of a six-bottle buy, beaten by Costco Canberra’s $20.99, no quantity hurdle. The wine comes from mature vines, average age 20 years, says winemakers Steve Webber. He crushes the grape bunches, stalks and all, and allows the juice to settle before spontaneous fermentation in old 225-litre and 5,700-litre oak casks – followed by maturation on the spent yeast cells. In the cool 2011 vintage, tangy, citrusy varietal flavour sits deliciously with the flavour and texture derived from whole-bunch pressing, spontaneous fermentation and barrel maturation on yeast lees.

De Bortoli Vinoque Roundstone Vineyard Gamay Noir 2011 $24
De Bortoli’s new vinoque range, available on-premise and at cellar door only, features single-vineyard wines, “mainly in development stage”, write Leanne De Bortoli and winemaker husband, Steve Webber. They sourced gamay grapes (the red variety of Beaujolais, southern Burgundy), from the Roundstone vineyard, “at Steels Creek on the western edge of the central Yarra”.  Like Beaujolais, it’s a lighter bodied wine to quaff happily with food, with a modest 12.5 per cent alcohol.  The inclusion of whole bunches, including stalks, in the fermentation, adds a teasing and pleasant stemmy/stalky bite to the juice ripe berry flavours.

Oxford Landing Estates Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2010 $7–$9.50
Yalumba’s Wyndham Hill-Smith established Oxford Landing vineyard on the Murray River, South Australia, in 1958. In the 1980s Hill-Smith’s son, Robert, launched the Oxford Landing Estate range as a fighting brand to take on the big companies. The meticulously managed estate still contributes grapes to a brand that sits with the best in its price range. But the company also sources grapes from other growers in the region – hence the subtle rebranding from ‘estate’ to ‘estates’. This is all you could ask for at the price – clean, fresh, deliciously fruity and clearly made from cabernet, fleshed out with a touch of shiraz.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012
First published 5 August 2012 in The Canberra Times