Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2011 $30 – wine of the week
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
The two Canberra District 2011 rieslings reviewed here today probably share more similarities than differences – although there are distinctions. Both show the high acidity of the cool, wet growing season. But the high acidity seems to intensify the delicious fruit flavour. In Ken Helm’s wine this shows as a lemon-like varietal character in the aroma and flavour. It’s bone dry and definitely, at this early stage of its life, in the aperitif style. Ken says there’ll be no premium riesling this year because of crop losses on Al Lustenburger’s vineyard. The small production from the vineyard went to this outstanding classic dry.

Clonakilla Riesling 2011 $25–$30
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
Tim Kirk’s 2011 riesling is slightly more alcoholic than Helm’s wine (12 per cent, versus 11.2 per cent), suggesting marginally more ripeness. This reveals itself in the delicate floral notes in the aroma and flavour. The wine seems, overall, a little more delicate than Helm’s, perhaps because of the floral character and the absolutely delicious integration of the acidity and fruit flavour. Both wines should be candidates for gold medals at the regional wine show later this year. That’s how good they are. Either could have been wine of the week. 2011 looks exciting for Canberra whites.

De Bortoli Chardonnay 2010 $21.85–$28
Dixons Creek Vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
The concept of wine being too fruity may seem far-fetched for a product made from grapes – especially given Australia’s export success with fruity, “sunshine in a bottle” wines. But Australia’s best chardonnay makers, including De Bortoli’s Steve Webber, headed down this less fruity path a decade or more ago. Webber writes, “ whilst it is important to have nuance of variety and oak, the characters of site, season, texture and minerality are equally important to us”. Webber’s subtle, richly textured 2010 chardonnay is an affordable and excellent example of the style.

De Bortoli Pinot Noir 2010 $25.95–$33
Yarra Valley, Victoria
Leanne De Bortoli and winemaker husband, Steve Webber, drink lots of Burgundy, notably those from Domaine Armand Rousseau, one of the region’s greatest pinot noir makers. Benchmarking of this calibre sets a winemaker’s sights very high indeed – and it shows in the beautiful pinot noirs made by Webber. His latest estate-grown release captures so much of the variety’s magic – limpid colour, heaps of perfume, deep, juicy, plump fruit flavour, savouriness and an abundance of fine, soft, velvety tannins giving structure. Our bottle revealed a little more each day for four days, suggesting it’ll evolve well with several years’ cellaring.

Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2010 $25–$30
Hilltops, New South Wales
Tim Kirk’s new Hilltops shiraz shows the comparative elegance of a cool, post-drought vintage – following the plumper juicier wines of the warm 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons. Appropriately for a wine from Young, the flavour resembles fresh, ripe cherries – with a noted buoyancy and liveliness. Kirk says he picked a little earlier than usual, just beating the rain. This, along with a portion of whole-bunch fermentation (where the fermentation occurs in inside the berries), and a touch of viognier, added to the bright, berry-like flavours.

Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2009 $150
Graveyard Vineyard, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, New South Wales
Brokenwood’s Graveyard shiraz sits at the top of Australia’s collectible wines –alongside Penfolds Grange and 15 other wines comprising Langton’s “Exceptional” classification. It’s the only Hunter wine on the list and beautifully expresses the unique long-lived style of the region’s shiraz. It’s a generous wine, but medium bodied – rather than the full-blooded style we might expect of a region as far north as the Hunter is. It’s earthy and savoury and easily absorbs a sweet, spicy dose of new French oak. The palate’s an essence of Hunter shiraz – like a reduced stock in its flavour concentration and silk smooth texture.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 3 August 2011 in The Canberra Times

Helm Canberra District Half Dry Riesling 2011 $25
Bang! Hear the firing gun? It’s the opening of unwooded white season, as our winemakers launch the first of their 2011 vintages. In Canberra the main game is crisp, mainly dry rieslings — with some exceptions, like Ken Helm’s mouth-watering semi-dry style. The cool season delivered high natural acidity, a great virtue for this style. As the best of the German off-dry styles demonstrate, there’s magic in the combination of intense fruit flavour, delicacy, low alcohol and a strong line of acid offsetting the sweetness. Australian rieslings generally can’t emulate the delicacy of the German wines, but Helm’s ticks all the other boxes in 2011.

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2009 $10.90–$17.99
Here’s to Jacob’s Creek for moving to regional naming on its Reserve range – matching varieties to region. But why not go the whole hog and supply rich technical detail to reviewers, as most other winemakers do? Alas, the labels might have changed, but the fast moving consumer goods marketing mentality still prevails in the company’s dumbed-down press material. That quibble aside, the wines are remarkably good – even the pinot, a difficult variety to produce well at this price. It looks, smells and tastes like pinot and avoids the sometimes confection-like character found in some cheaper version. It’s made to drink now.

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Barossa Shiraz 2008 $10.90–$17.99
It’s so good after almost forty years of the Jacob’s Creek brand to see the Barossa name on one of the cheaper wines in the range – not just as an address for the brand, but as the single origin of the wine in the bottle. And it’s a bloody good Barossa shiraz – deeply coloured but not opaque, still youthfully crimson at the rim, ripe, but not over-ripe, and full flavoured but not heavy. There’s a nice core of plump, vibrant, juicy, cherry-like fruit, but it’s mingled with soft tannins and even a touch of oak – the real thing at a fair price. Watch for the discounts.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 31 July 2011 in The Canberra Times

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Chardonnay 2008 $10.90–$17.99
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Reflecting the growing trend to regional marketing, Jacob’s Creek, part of French-owned Pernod-Ricard, recently moved to regional labelling on its reserve range. The range was originally launched in 2000 as multi-region blends. They’ve always hit the sweet spot for quality and value – especially during bursts of sharp retail discounting. The re-badged reserve chardonnay delivers exceptionally high quality at the price. It’s bright, fresh and young, albeit plump, at three years and reveals appealing citrus and ripe-peach flavours of Adelaide Hills chardonnay, enhanced by oak fermentation and maturation.

Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache 2009 $17–21.95
Barossa, South Australia
Yalumba captures grenache beautifully in this realistically priced version, sourced from low-yielding Barossa bush vines. It’s a blend of many batches, crushed and fermented separately and aged in four to six year old French, American and Hungarian oak barrels. These provide an oxidative maturation environment without inserting overt woody tastes. The result is a highly aromatic, deeply fruity, slightly spicy, moderately savoury, silk-smooth, soft red to enjoy right now. It avoids the confection character sometimes seen in grenache.

Picardy Pinot Noir 2009 $38
Picardy Vineyard, Pemberton, Western Australia
Picardy was the palest coloured wine in a recent small line up of pinots – one each from Martinborough and Marlborough, New Zealand, plus Yarra Valley, Tasmania and Pemberton, Australia. Behind the deceptively pale colour, though, lurked an exceptionally delicious pinot noir. The penetrating aroma combined a stalkiness, presumably from whole-bunch fermentation, with a gaminess and ripe-cherry fruit. The palate really sang – lively and fresh and mouth-wateringly delicious, with an intensity belying the pale colour. Made by Dan Pannell, son of Bill Pannell, founder of Moss Wood, Margaret River, and later Picardy.

Coriole Sangiovese Shiraz 2009 $16
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Coriole was an early Australia pioneer of the Italian red variety, sangiovese, establishing vines at McLaren Vale in 1985. It’s now one of the leading producers of the style – reaching a notable high point with its Reserve Sangiovese 2007. Here, though, we see comparatively austere, tannic, savoury sangiovese mollified by plush and juicy shiraz. Shiraz fattens out the palate nicely, but the tight, dry, savoury sangiovese tannins have the final say. These work particularly well with savoury food like olives and tomato-based sauces.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Chardonnay 2011 $16–22.99
Coonawarra, South Australia
Coonawarra’s cool enough to make decent, if not cutting edgy chardonnay. And winemakers Sue Hodder and Sarah Pidgeon rightly capture the region’s bright melon-rind, peach and nectarine-like varietal flavours in a drink-now, not overworked style. Pidgeon says they ferment and mature around half of the blend in oak barrels and the other half in stainless steel tanks – of that ,they clean up a portion when it’s pristine, fresh and fruity; the remainder they allow to sit on yeast lees, gaining texture. The final blend is zingy fresh, with clear varietal flavour and a rich, smooth texture. It’s made for early drinking.

Robert Stein Harvest Gold 2009$25 375ml
Mudgee, New South Wales
This is an estate-grown wine made by Jacob Stein from semillon grapes affected by the fungus, botrytis cinerea (aka, noble rot). The fungus looks disgusting, but in some circumstances creates extraordinary sweet wines by dehydrating grape berries, thus concentrating their sugars, acids and flavours. In this version, modelled broadly on the stickies of Bordeaux, we taste intense apricot and marmalade-like flavour of stunning sweetness – but without the offsetting acidity seen in Bordeaux versions. It’s nevertheless a luscious wine, probably best suited to stinky, runny cheeses.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 27 July 2011 in The Canberra Times

Brokenwood Indigo Vineyard Beechworth Chardonnay 2010 $30
Hunter based Brokenwood planted its Beechworth, Victoria, vineyard in 1999 – the chardonnay inspired by the beauty of wines made by neighbour Rick Kinsbrunner’s Giaconda winery. Brokenwood’s version, made in the Hunter by Iain Riggs and P-J Charteris, is a wine of exceptional purity and finesse – built on an underlying rich but delicate stone-fruit (white peach and nectarine) varietal flavour. Clean, refreshing acidity accentuates the flavour and fine-ness, giving buoyancy and life to the rich texture, derived from a wild yeast ferment and maturation on lees in barrel. It’s easy to drink now but should evolve well for some years.

Taylor’s Estate Clare Valley Shiraz 2009 and Tempranillo 2009 $17–$18.95
Family-owned Taylors owns about 550 hectares of vines in the southern Clare Valley. By my estimate that equates to about 400 thousand dozen bottles. They play on a big scale and claim their shiraz accounts for 29 per cent of Australian red wine sales, though that seems unlikely. Whatever their market position, Taylor’s wines offer excellent value. The shiraz delivers the pretty fruit of the vintage – a big, juicy, soft warm red that slips down all too easily. The tempranillo is a fair interpretation of this Spanish red variety, with vibrant blueberry like fruit and savoury, quite firm tannins.

Coriole McLaren Vale Shiraz 2009 $28
A thoughtful letter from owner, Mark Lloyd, charts the course of wine fashion since his father produced the first Coriole shiraz in 1970 – from big, to light to natural (but sometimes microbially spoiled) to super-ripe, extractive and oaky (for the American market) and back to a more balanced style over the last decade. The 40th vintage exemplifies that last style beautifully – delivering on the Lloyd family’s 40 years of honing their grape-growing and winemaking skills. It’s deep and generous, in the Vale style, but supple and evenly balanced with a savoury vein running through the ripe shiraz flavours.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 24 July 2011 in The Canberra Times

Domaine Chandon Shiraz 2009 $33.95
Colbinabbin Vineyard, Mount Camel Range, Heathcote, Victoria
This was my pick from a recent tasting of five shirazes – one each from Coonawarra, Margaret River, Heathcote, McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley. It appealed for its enticing, floral aroma, vibrant ripe-cherry fruit flavour and assertive, savoury tannins – a complete and satisfying red that pulled away from its impressive company as the tasting lingered on. Winemaker Lilian Carter says it “comes from a longstanding collaboration with the highly regarded Colbinabbin Vineyard located on the eastern slope of the Mount Camel Range”.

Quarry Hill North Block Dry White 2011 $20
Quarry Hill Vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
A wine region’s sophisticated when it makes both world-class flagship wines and beautifully made and presented affordable wines like Quarry Hill’s North Block. It’s a collaboration between Professor Dean Terrell, grape grower, and winemaker Alex McKay. An unoaked blend of 40 % sauvignon blanc and 60 % savagnin (thought to be albarino when planted), the wine is brilliantly clear and pale – and as crisp and fresh as a granny smith apple, complete with a subtly apple-like aftertaste. It’s bone-dry, softly textured and beautifully clean and fresh. Available at www.quarryhill.com.au

Curly Flat Chardonnay 2009 $42
Curly Flat Vineyard, Macedon Ranges, Victoria
We test drove our Curly Flat at Artisan, Narrabundah – definitely worth the $15 corkage, and the excellent food made the wine even more enjoyable. It’s a bigger style of chardonnay and quite a contrast to the more austere 2007 vintage and subtle 2008. But it’s a case of big being good – the generous, ripe, citrus and nectarine varietal flavours melding deliciously with the very high quality oak. The rich, fine texture and subtle undertones of oak fermentation and maturation only added to the appeal.

Houghton Cabernet Shiraz Merlot 2010 $8.55–$11
Western Australia
Good luck to the new owners of Houghton, that venerable Western Australian brand – once independent, then, over time, part of Thomas Hardy, BRL Hardy, Hardy Wine Company, Constellation Wines Australia and now Accolade Wines. Fortunately, Houghton had access to a huge range of top vineyards spread through Western Australia’s south west. The quality of fruit shows in this often-discounted red. It offers ripe, plummy flavour, medium body and elegant structure, albeit with a slight rustic edge to the tannins. Great value here.

Mount Majura Tempranillo 2010 $40
Mount Majura Vineyard, Canberra District, Australian Capital Territory
Winemaker Frank van de Loo says tempranillo has become Mount Majura’s signature variety – “even as our most expensive wine, it is the wine that many customers seek us out for”, he writes. And they won’t be disappointed in the 2010 when it’s release early next month. It’s of medium colour and body with appealing, vibrant blueberry-like aroma, with a touch of spice. The same lively fruit and spice comes through on a concentrated, juicy palate – the fruit quickly enveloped by tempranillo’s signature firm, but not hard, tannins.

Mount Majura TSG (Tempranillo Shiraz Graciano) 2010 $28
Mount Majura Vineyard, Canberra District, Australia Capital Territory
In this exotic blend, Frank van de Loo sandwiches Australia’s good old workhorse shiraz, between the Spanish varieties Tempranillo and Graciano. Frank says that tempranillo and shiraz work best on the site, but graciano “proves to be a good partner in the blend, adding spice and lift”. It’s a highly aromatic red, tempting with its sweet, spicy red-berry character – and completely delicious on the palate, combining the soft generosity of shiraz with the tannic bite of tempranillo and buoyancy of graciano.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 20 July 2011 in The Canberra Times

Balnaves of Coonawarra

• Shiraz 2009 $24
• The Blend 2009 $18
• Cabernet Merlot 2009 $24

We have a winter-warmer red fest here today, starting with these big-value reds from the Balnaves family, Coonawarra. The shiraz appeals because it doesn’t try to be bigger and burlier than it really do – as we sometimes see in overworked Coonawarra shiraz. The wine’s limpid, vibrant with ripe-berry flavours, medium bodied and simply a delight to drink right now – an ideal luncheon red. The slightly more potent blend combines cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. It’s clearly cabernet based, with a slight leafy edge, elegant structure and firm tannins – characters that come through, too, in the riper, more concentrated Cabernet Merlot.

Williams Crossing by Curly Flat Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir 2009 $24
Curly Flat owners Phillip and Jeni Moraghan are about to replace the recently reviewed 2008 vintage with the 2009 – a serious pinot at a modest price. Each vintage the Moraghans make multiple small batches of pinot noir from estate-grown fruit, every batch intended for their $48 flagship blend. As the wines mature in oak barrels, however, they declassify some components. These become Williams Crossing, perhaps the best value pinot noir in Australia as it’s about 80 per cent as good as the $48 wine but half the price. The 2009 is a fragrant, ripe, pinot with a tight tannin structure and fine but rich texture.

Hewitson Mad Hatter McLaren Vale Shiraz 2009 $65–$70
Winemaker Dean Hewitson developed Mad Hatter from the 2002 vintage on, trialling various winemaking techniques and oak maturation regimes. It’s from a single, low-yielding north-west facing vineyard in McLaren Vale’s Blewitt Springs sub-region. Hewitson’s new release shows the great fragrance of the vintage. And the wonderful, deep fruit flavour simply belies its two years in 100 per cent new French oak barrels. Vivid, ripe-cherry fruit flavour underpins the wines, but it’s woven in with fruit and oak tannins and subtle, sweet and savoury inputs of the oak. It’s an intense, elegant shiraz, magnificent to drink but with years of development ahead.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 17 July 2011 in The Canberra Times

Majella The Musician Cabernet Shiraz 2010 $15.90–$20
Majella Vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia
The new vintage maintains The Musician’s status as one of Australia’s most delicious under-$20 reds — with a clear regional identity. There’s very little oak influence in Musician, allowing Coonawarra’s vibrant, ripe-berry aromas and flavours to sing. It’s a medium-bodied blend of 56 per cent cabernet sauvignon and 44 per cent shiraz – the cabernet providing classic Coonawarra elegance and blackcurrant varietal flavour and the shiraz subtly plumping out the mid palate. You can drink Musician time and again without tiring of the unique, pure, Coonawarra flavours. It’s made by Bruce Gregory from fruit grown on the Lynn family’s Majella vineyard.

Glaymond “Landrace” Shiraz Mataro 2008 $32
Marananga, Barossa Valley, South Australia
If you’ve visited that great Barossa Valley landmark, Seppeltsfield, then you’ve been to Marananga, one of the valley’s loveliest sub-regions and source of magnificent reds. Winemaker Damien Tscharke grew up there and continues a multi-generation family connection – expressed in this ripe and powerful blend of shiraz and mataro (aka mourvedre). It’s blacker than a dark hole, and features sumptuous, ripe, black cherry shiraz flavours and wrapped in layers of firm but not hard tannins, contributed, to a large extent, by the mataro.

Tower Estate Panorama Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009 $55
Panorama Vineyard, Huon Valley, Tasmania
Tasmanian wine made in the Hunter Valley? You bet, says winemaker Samantha Connew. With so much fresh produce coming out of Tasmania it’s easy to load a refrigerated truck with hand picked grapes from Michael and Sharon Vishacki’s Panorama Vineyard, Huon Valley. The truck drives and floats north, arriving about three days later at Tower Estate for a warm-to-hot ferment, maceration on skins and maturation, on lees, in French oak barrels. The result: a delicate but intense savoury, earthy, richly textured pinot, with the subtly stalky overtone of whole-bunch ferment. This is just the beginning says Connew. There’ll be a Derwent Valley version as well from next year.

Giesen “The Brothers” Pinot Noir 2009 $28–$40
Marlborough, New Zealand
Giesen’s Marlborough pinot provides a marked style contrast to Tower Estate’s Tasmanian one — same vintage, same variety, different locations, both recognisably pinot but one opulent, the other lean and savoury. Giesen The Brothers, a selection of the winery’s best pinot of the season, weighs in at 14 per cent alcohol (compared to Tower’s 12.5 per cent). This adds body to the already fuller, rounder fruit flavours, albeit held in check by fine tannins and a fairly high level of acidity.

Swinging Bridge Chardonnay 2009 $17.95
Canowindra and Orange, New South Wales
Swinging Bridge’s tasty, cleverly made chardonnay, sits somewhere between the lean, tight, cool-climate style and the plump, peachy versions from warmer areas. Being built mainly on warm-grown material, the juicy, white peach varietal flavours dominate the generous palate. But winemaker Tom Ward says he “tightened” the wine up, using a component (nine per cent of the blend) from high, cool Orange. This adds a zesty citrus flavour and tang and probably accounts for the wine’s beautiful freshness at two years’ age.

Swinging Bridge Merlot 2010 $19.95
Orange, New South Wales
Swinging Bridge’s vineyard holdings extend from the lower western slopes, at Canowindra, to the high country near Orange — source of this very good merlot, distinctly not of the bland, sweet style rejected by Miles in the movie Sideways. Mind you, merlot remains a step sideways from mainstream cabernet or shiraz, so it’s not to everyone’s taste. This one’s big on plummy varietal perfume. This flavour comes through on the palate, too, mixed with earthy and chocolate-like flavours. These give the  kernel of sweetness peeping through merlot’s quite assertive, firm tannins. They’re distinctly savoury and work well with casual, savoury food like pizza.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 13 July 2011 in The Canberra Times

Taylors Promised Land South Australia $10.45 to $13.95

• Shiraz 2010,
• Merlot 2010
• Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

Taylors’ entry-level reds offer a big generous mouthful of clear-cut varietal flavour at a fair price – especially at discount time, which is frequent in the big retailers. At just over a year old the flavours are all grapey and vibrant. The very aromatic shiraz offers the roundest, most opulent flavours of the trio with easy, soft tannins. In the merlot ripe, plummy aromas lead to an equally plummy palate, cut with merlot’s quite firm tannins. The generous, firm cabernet combines ripe, cassis flavours with the variety’s slightly leafy notes. It’s sourced from Clare Valley and Padthaway.

Moppity Vineyards Hilltops Lock and Key Shiraz 2009 $13–$15
In the last few years Jason and Alecia Brown’s  69-hectare vineyard, near Young, moved swiftly from near invisible near ubiquitous – driven by high quality, modest prices and clever marketing. The current release Lock and Key Shiraz clicks all of the correct wine hyperlinks – high quality, great vintage, expressive of variety and region and well priced. A winner of two gold medals and one trophy, it captures the structure and flavour now marking Hilltops as a key shiraz region. It’s ripe but spicy, and a touch savoury, generous but medium bodied, with fine, soft tannins. It’s ready to drink right now.

Dalwhinnie Pyrenees single-vineyard Pyrenees shirazes

• The Pinnacle 2008 $80
• Southwest Rocks 2008 $80
• The Eagle 2005 $158

Dalwhinnie’s trio of magnificent shirazes comes from individual blocks on the Pyrenees’ estate. Winemaker David Jones employs similar winemaking techniques across the range (hot fermentation in small pots, basket pressing and maturation for about 18 months in mainly new French oak barriques). The Pinnacle gives a big warming hug – it’s packed with sweet, ripe-cherry varietal flavour and has a savoury touch, too. Southwest Rocks offers floral high notes then a tight, firm, beautifully textured palate with lovely underlying sweet and spicy fruit. The Eagle seems closed and brooding – earthy notes melding with ripe, plummy fruit, richly coated in soft tannins.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 10 July 2011 in The Canberra Times

Mount Majura Chardonnay 2010 $26
Mount Majura Vineyard, Canberra District, Australian Capital Territory
While by and large Canberra’s a little too warm for cutting-edge chardonnay, Mount Majura makes a delicious, age-worthy style, like the 2005 that won a gold medal in last year’s regional show. Winemaker Frank van de Loo writes that earlier picking and blocking most components from malo-lactic fermentation increases the tautness and longevity of the wine. And, in recent years, increasing the proportion of wild yeast ferments added to the texture and length of flavour. We bought our bottle at Grazing, Gundaroo, and came back for seconds such were its juicy delights.

Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvee $59.90–$125
Champagne region, France
Bollinger’s Australian agent, Fine Wine Partners, must hate it, but parallel importing means we can enjoy this glorious non-vintage Champagne way below the “official” price. I paid $62 for the review bottle, imported direct from god-knows-where by First Choice. And the price fell to $59.90 in six-packs. It’s one of the most delightful non-vintage Champagnes, in its own distinctive style – full-bodied, but amazingly delicate and lively. The flavour and structure reveal a high pinot component (pinot noir 60 per cent, pinot meunier 15 per cent) — but chardonnay provides the liveliness and adds to its elegance. Meunier subtly fleshes out the mid palate.

Dalwhinnie Moonambel Shiraz 2008 $55–$60
Pyrenees, Victoria
Fine-tuning in vineyard and winery over many years brings a wine to the best it can be. We see this now in the near perfect, long-living regional shirazes made at Dalwhinnie – established in 1976 by Ewan Jones and now run by his son, David. David thanks consultant and friend Gary Baldwin for a Bordelaise winemaking technique that tames the sometimes-formidable Pyrenees’ tannins. The 2008 vintage delivers opulent, ripe, black cherry and spice flavours on a medium bodied, elegantly structured palate where fruit intertwines with the burnished, persistent tannins.

Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier 2009 $24.30–$27
Ravensworth Vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales

We loved this wine on its release in 2010 and almost a year on it’s looking even better. Over lunch at Grazing, Gundaroo, we warmed up on the juicy Capital Wines “The Ambassador” Tempranillo 2009, then moved up another notch in power and complexity to Ravensworth. It held our interest through two bottles – Sydneysiders, locals and English drinkers all impressed. It’s an aromatic, medium-bodied shiraz, featuring ripe berry and spice aromas and rich, supple, silky palate, with a long, savoury, dry finish. It’s a beautiful drink and destined for a five-star rating – just waiting to see how the wines age first. Made by Bryan Martin.

Pazo Barrantes Albarino 2009 $21.85–$22.99
Rias Baixas region, Galicia, Spain
Albarino is the signature white variety in Rias Baixas. Pazo Barrantes, imported by Dan Murphy, comes from a 12-hectare albarino vineyard. It’s hand picked, gently pressed, cool fermented and matured for a short time on yeast lees to build texture. I suspect Murphy’s are a year behind on imports as the 2010 is the current release, according the winemaker’s website. I suspect, also, that it’s a style best enjoyed very young, though the 2009 still appeals for its passionfruit-like aroma, savoury dryness – accompanied by a thickening texture and phenolic bite that goes well with savoury foods.

Brown Brothers Limited Release Durif 2009 $19.90
Heathcote, Victoria
Durif, a signature red of hot, dry north eastern Victoria, clearly likes the cooler climes of the Mount Camel Range, near Heathcote. In Rutherglen, durif tends to be deep, dark and tannic – truly a wine for heroes. Nothing much changes when the variety moves to Heathcote. The deep red/black colour and abundant tannins remain. But the ripe, plummy, black-cherry fruit seems more buoyant – though still reined in by those awesome tannins. Persistent as the tannins are, they’re quite soft – though there’s still nothing subtle about the wine. Is an unabashed bruiser for those what loves ‘em big.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2011
First published 6 July 2011 in The Canberra Times