Category Archives: Wine review

Wine review — Zilzie and Henschke

29 May 2011Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Zilzie Regional Collection Victoria Viognier 2009 and Adelaide Hills Pinot Gris 2010 $14–$16
A couple of years back Murray-Darling based Zilzie branched out into regional varietals, including a Yarra Valley Chardonnay (reviewed last Wednesday) and these two whites. The Viognier comes from warmer parts of Victoria and the deep colour and big palate reflect this. Like most varieties, viognier comes in a spectrum of styles, in the case the warmer end, featuring generous marmalade and apricot flavours and a rich, firm texture. The pinot gris, from the cool Adelaide Hills, presents fresh, vibrant pear-like varietal flavour on a full, dry palate with a pleasantly savoury bite in the finish.

Zilzie Regional Collection Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009, Wrattonbully Merlot 2009 and Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $14–$16
Like the Zilzie whites, these reds deliver regional varietal flavours at a fair price, though, in fairness, probably not to a level offered by the best grower-makers in the same regions. The Barossa wine offers full, plump shiraz flavours with appropriately soft tannin. The merlot appeals because it actually smells and tastes like plummy, earthy merlot – it’s medium bodied, dry and suggests Wrattonbully is a good region for this variety. The Coonawarra cabernet, too, expresses the region and variety – with leafiness and cassis and firm backbone of tannin.

Henschke Barossa Johan’s Garden 2009 $40–$44
Barossa vignerons, including Stephen and Prue Henschke, rate 2009 very highly for grenache, the backbone of this unbelievably, mouth-wateringly, delicious blend. Stephen says it’s from “old vines on the foothills of the Light Pass Range where friable red clay and loam over limestone delivers spicy, elegant, structured grenache with gorgeous silky tannins”. That’s a realistic assessment of this high-toned, aromatic, silk-smooth blend. Grenache (71 per cent) sets the tone, but mourvedre (20 per cent) adds colour depth, spicy notes and savoury, taut tannins, while shiraz fattens up the mid palate. It’s irresistible now but should evolve well for five to ten years.

Wine review — Vasse Felix, Pepper Tree, Kangarillo Road, Tapanappa and Zilzie

25 May 2011Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2009 $55
Margaret River, Western Australia
Our best chardonnays almost invariably show the winemaker’s thumbprint, generally related to fermentation and barrel-ageing options and whether or not the maker allows or blocks the secondary malolactic fermentation (this softens the wines as it converts malic acid to lactic acid). What the best have in common is an intense fruit flavour that easily carries the winemaker’s “seasoning”. In Heytesbury, Virginia Willcock blocks the “malo”, ensuring the citrusy, taut acid sings all the way across the palate. It carries the vibrant fruit flavour and barrel-derived characters gracefully, providing one the most delicious chardonnay experiences imaginable.

Pepper Tree Limited Release Chardonnay 2010 $22
Mount View, Lower Hunter Valley, New South Wales
Last week we reviewed Pepper Tree’s chardonnay from the Venus vineyard, Orange – a beautiful white, revealing the keen acidity and intense nectarine-like flavours of cool-grown chardonnay. This week, Pepper Tree Hunter reveals the warmer end of the chardonnay flavour spectrum. It’s as fine and pure as the Orange wine, but it’s more peachy and rounded, with softer acid. It’s finely textured and despite the varietal purity, there’s a background flavour and structure complexity derived from oak fermentation and maturation. Both wines (and another chardonnay from Wrattonbully, South Australia) were made by Jim Chatto.

Kangarillo Road Primitivo 2008 $20–$22
Langhorne Creek and McLaren Vale, Fleurieu, South Australia
The two Kangarillo Road reds reviewed today reveal different aspects of the primitivo, or zinfandel grape. It’s not widely planted in Australia and perhaps most widely known through the Cape Mentelle Margaret River version. The cheaper of the Kangarilla Road pair, a Langhorne Creek-McLaren Vale blend, focuses on vibrant, fresh fruit flavours and an unusually high level of acidity. This seems to accentuate the fruit and add to the grip and structure of the wine. The flavour’s unique and it’s therefore a must for thrill seekers.

Kangarilla Road Black St Peters Zinfandel 2009 $32
McLaren Flat, McLaren Vale, South Australia
Here the Kangarilla Road crew emulate the Californian style, using the American name for the varietal (primitivo in Italy) and making a wine of substance and complexity. It’s from a cooler part of McLaren Vale, says the press release, and certainly the wine shows a fruit intensity consistent with that. It’s aromatic, deeply coloured, deeply fruity and cut through with acidity and a fine, firm backbone of tannin. The layering of tannins and savouriness with the fruit give it a more serious, complex tone than the primitivo reviewed here today.

Tapanappa Cabernet Shiraz 2007 $51
Joanna, Wrattonbully, South Australia
After Lion-Nathan’s acquisition of Brian Croser’s much-loved Petaluma Wine, Croser established Tapanappa with Jean-Michel Cazes of Chateau Lynch-Bages, Bordeaux, and Societe Jacques Bollinger, the parent company of Champagne Bollinger. In 2003 Tapanappa acquired Koppamurra Vineyard (established in 1974 by John Greenshields). The vineyard, since extended and renamed Whalebone, contributed the cabernet sauvignon to this blend, the shiraz coming from neighbour, Rob Hooper. Croser made the wine in the Petaluma Winery, Adelaide Hills. It’s very ‘Petaluma’ in style – clean, fresh and ripe but not over-ripe, beautifully balanced and not a hair out of place, so to speak. It’s elegant, restrained and likely to evolve well over time.

Zilzie Regional Collection Chardonnay 2010 $14–$16
Yarra Valley, Victoria
Although based in the Murray-Darling region making good value, locally grown wines, Zilzie added a range of regional varietals to its portfolio in 2009. In 2010 they added this Yarra Valley chardonnay to the regional range. It sits well with the other two chardonnays reviewed here today as it offers yet another slant on this complex variety. Like the other two it’s barrel fermented, but the more melon-like flavour comes in a generous, reasonably complex palate that seems all about current drinking – without the delicate structure of the Hunter or finesse and complexity of the Margaret River wine.

Wine review — Peter Lehmann and Rosemount

22 May 2011Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Peter Lehmann Eden Valley

Classic Riesling 2010 $9–$12
Eden Valley Riesling 2010 $13.49–$18

We’re not sure what “classic” means any more, certainly it gives no clue about what lies inside the Lehmann “classic” bottle. Pour it in the glass, though, and we have delicious, soft, delicate low-alcohol riesling with a pleasing, moderate sweetness, balanced by crisp acidity – a pleasant, easy-drinking wine, whatever it’s called. But Lehmann’s dry riesling represents what I would call the “classic” Eden Valley style – a beautifully aromatic riesling with intense citrusy varietal flavour and a tight and tangy line of acid creating a mouth watering desire for another glass. It’s a wine to enjoy any time over the next four or five years.

Rosemount District Release Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $18–$20
Rosemount enjoys a long connection with Coonawarra, having owned a substantial vineyard towards the southern end of the famous “terra rossa” strip. It’s now part of Treasury Wine Estates, spun out of Foster’s. Treasury owns large tracts of Coonawarra, but whether the wine comes from the original Rosemount vineyard is not stated. Not that it matters, because the wine’s utterly delicious – a fine-boned, pure expression of elegant Coonawarra cabernet made specifically for early drinking. That means lots of vibrant, ripe, varietal fruit upfront and soft tannins – although there’s still a cabernet feel to them. An outstanding regional varietal at this price.

Rosemount District Release Robe Chardonnay 2010 $17–$20
Back in the 1990s Southcorp Wines established a vineyard on the Woakwine Range, a low ridge running parallel to the coast near Robe, South Australia. It’s slightly north and to the west of Coonawarra on the Limestone Coast. The vineyard produced graceful, elegant chardonnays under various labels, but now finds a home, it seems, in the Rosemount cellar. This is beautiful chardonnay, built on intense nectarine-like varietal flavour and delicate, bracing acidity. Fermentation and maturation in new and older oak barrels adds subtle, background leesy characters and a pleasing textural richness. This is drop-dead gorgeous for the price.

Tasting John’s Blend 1990 to 2006

18 May 2011People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

In 1967 Wolf Blass winemaker, John Glaetzer, received a load of “beautiful, concentrated” cabernet sauvignon from Bill Potts’ vineyard, Langhorne Creek. Glaetzer turned those grapes into the first Wolf Blass Grey Label Cabernet Sauvignon.

Seven years later, inspired by those beautiful grapes, Glaetzer (still working for Blass) made John’s Blend No. 1 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, using fruit from Bill Potts’ vineyard.

Glaetzer’s small-production wine developed a loyal following, its reputation spread mainly by word-of-mouth. And in Canberra, the word spread mainly through wine merchant Jim Murphy, a long-term supporter of Wolf Blass and John Glaetzer.

A couple of weeks back, a disparate group of 11 Canberra followers – led by Charlotte Galloway, an ANU lecturer in Art History and Curatorship – raided their cellars to hold a John’s Blend vertical tasting: all the vintages, bar 1992, from 1990 to 2006.

No, not a sniff and spit tasting, but a leisurely stroll through the sequence over lunch on a crisp, sunny autumn day – hosted by Warwick McKibbin and fiancée, Renee Fry, and attended by Galloway, Jac and Kathy Cousin, Jenny and Peter Gibson, James Horne, Heather Smith, Martin Parkinson and yours truly.

A confession here: Chateau Shanahan contributed the 2002 and 2003 vintages, but John Glaetzer had given these to us some years back – we’d seldom tasted John’s Blend, so entered the tasting with few preconceptions.

We tasted the wines in pairs from oldest to youngest, therefore starting with the 1990 and 1991 and finishing at 2006. It’s an effective tasting method as there’s no rush, no palate overload and a natural pairing of wine with food.

We found wonderful consistency of style across the vintages – the thread linking all of the wines being a distinctive mint-eucalypt note associated with cabernet sauvignon from Langhorne Creek.

The wines go through an interesting transition from oakiness to fruitiness as they age. In the fully mature wines, oak seems barely detectable; and in the young vintages it’s an oak-fruit arm wrestle – a style that’s not in vogue today.

In this regard, the wines reminded me of a tasting, with Wolf Blass and John Glaetzer, of all the Wolf Blass Black Label wines a few years back. The veteran tasters, remembering the dark, oaky young Black Labels of the mid seventies, wondered where the oak had gone. All we could taste now were supple, mellow old wines with fruit to the fore.

Similarly, John’s Blend reminds us that it’s all a matter of balance – powerful fruit’s capable of gobbling up lots of oak over time, and the symbiotic combination produces complex long-lived wines.

John Glaetzer says there’s been no significant change to his winemaking technique or oak-maturation regime over the years. He ferments the wine a little cooler than industry standard, to preserve vibrant fruit flavours. He believes warm temperatures “boil off the fruit”.

And in a technique picked up from Wolf Blass (in turn learned by Blass from Grange creator, Max Schubert) Glaetzer finishes the ferments off in oak barrels.

Glaetzer continues to source fruit from Bill Potts’ Langhorne Creek Vineyard. However, in 1992 and 1993 he and Potts established the 32-hectare Pasquin vineyard nearby. In recent years, says Glaetzer, John’s Blend comes about 50:50 from the two vineyards. He makes only 1,000 cases of John’s Blend each year – but made none in 2011 for lack of suitable fruit.

Langhorne Creek, near Lake Alexandrina (south east of McLaren Vale), is one of Australia’s largest premium wine grape regions. A massive expansion there in the late nineties saw most of its fruit blended anonymously into multi-region blends. Blass reputedly called the region, “Australia’s middle palate”.

The Potts family pioneered the area from 1850 and remain in control today of Bleasdale Winery and vineyards. Bill Potts, one of the family, supplies Glaetzer from his own vineyard.

One of the most enduring reds from the area is Stonyfell Metala Shiraz Cabernet. It was made from 1932 by Jack Kilgour, and marketed originally as Stonyfell Private Bin Claret. Kilgour’s successor, Bryan Dolan, put the vineyard name, Metala, on the label. Dolan won the inaugural Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1962 with the 1961 Metala, the first vintage to bear the new label.

Langhorne Creek triumphed again in 1974, 1975 and 1976 with Wolf Blass’s historic Jimmy Watson trophy hat trick. But Blass’s powerful branding of his Black Label overshadowed the regional credentials.

In John’s Blend, Langhorne Creek cabernet sauvignon reveals its idiosyncratic charm consistently across the decades, with little peaks and troughs driven by vintage variations. With so much focus now on regional specialties, Glaetzer’s 37-year-old brand (like Kilgour’s 1932 Stonyfell Private Bin Claret) reminds us that this is not a new idea at all, but the perennial wine theme.

The current-release 2007 vintage John’s Blend (not in the tasting) is available at Jim Murphy’s for $29.95 and Kemeny’s of Sydney offer the 2006 at $29.99. Few wines at this price offers such a pedigree and proven long-term cellaring potential.

John’s Blend No 17 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1990
A perfect start to the tasting with this mature but still lively, sweet-fruited vintage with distinctive Langhorne Creek minty-eucalypt cabernet sauvignon to the fore. Has years ahead of it.

John’s Blend No 18 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1991
Looked, smelled and tasted older than the vibrant 1990 to its left, but nevertheless an appealing, if fading, old wine.

John’s Blend No 20 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1993
Tasted at the end of the lunch when our host, Warwick McKibbin, generously retrieved a magnum from the cellar. 1993 was a wet, disease-ridden vintage, comparable to 2011. But the wine defied the vintage stereotype, with its complex aroma and lean, taut palate still revealing mint-eucalyptus varietal flavour. Drying out a bit but still thoroughly enjoyable.

John’s Blend No 21 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1994
One of the standout vintages, seventeen years old but still red rather than brown with vibrant mint-eucalypt cabernet aroma and a juicy, elegant palate, finely-sculpted palate. Many years left.

John’s Blend No 22 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1995
One of the most talked about wines, championed by Charlotte Galloway and notable for its strident, chunky style, flanked on either side by the elegant 1994 and 1996 vintages. The mint-eucalypt character seemed particularly strong in this wine, matched by a firmer tannin structure.

John’s Blend No 23 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1996
My favourite drinking wine on the day, a particularly elegant, ethereal expression of its style – all sweet fruit, grace and suppleness. Long and delicious finish, many years of life ahead, but right now showing both youth and maturity.

John’s Blend No 24 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1997
A lesser vintage but in terrific condition, its lively palate notably leaner than the 1996 before it, but still sweet and supple.

John’s Blend No 25 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
Generally considered a great vintage but our first bottle seriously cork tainted and the second bottle showing a strange vegetal character and hollow palate. John Glaetzer reckons we struck two dud corks. He regards it as one of the greats. Down with cork.

John’s Blend No 26 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1999
A beautiful wine with a limpid, youthful colour, seductive ripe blackcurrant aroma pushing through the by now familiar mint-eucalypt. Despite the generous nose, the fruit on the palate comes teasingly wrapped in firm tannins – a delicious and elegant combination, suggesting heaps more drinking pleasure in the years to come.

John’s Blend No 27 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
Looks, smells and tastes older than the exceptional 1999. Aged, autumn-leaf aromas join the mint-eucalypt notes and the palate seems old and tiring – a lesser vintage, remarkable that it’s still going after 11 years.

John’s Blend No 28 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2001
A bit of a closed shop this one, some chocolate joining the mint-eucalypt theme on a full but tight, tannic palate – though there’s fruit peeking through and probably a long life ahead of it. Seems to be neither young nor mature, so best left for a few more years.

John’s Blend No 29 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
First bottle cork tainted. Second bottle in good condition and just a baby – the first wine to show obvious oak aroma and flavour (the older wines had simply gobbled up all the oak, leaving fruit to star). A lovely aroma combining mint-eucalypt with cedary oak – these characters come through, too, on the tightly-bound palate. One of the greats but best left to mature for a few more years.

John’s Blend No 30 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2003
We’re now squarely among the young, oaky wines. Ripe mint-eucalypt-chocolate-blackcurrant fruit joins the oak but there’s not the length of flavour. It needs more time but probably won’t rate among the best.

John’s Blend No 31 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Well, yum yum, this one’s saturated with fruit – and oak, too, after three years in new French and American barrels. But as the old wines demonstrate, the oak will fade over time as the wine becomes finer and the fruit steps to the front. A very good vintage.

John’s Blend No 32 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
A big, ripe, crimson-rimmed wine: juicy, vibrant summer-berry flavours mingle with the regional mint-eucalypt. Big and chocolate-rich on the palate in an oak-fruit arm wrestle – but we know the winner in the long run, don’t we.

John’s Blend No 33 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
A magnificent, deeply coloured, crimson-rimmed wine to finish. Enough oak to build a weekender, but in a complex matrix with deep, ripe varietal fruit (yes, tinted with mint-eucalypt). There’s great depth to the supple fruit and despite the wine’s youth and power, the structure’s poised and elegant. One of the greats.

Wine review — Shingleback, Geoff Merrill, Peppertree, Tyrrell’s and Pio Cesare

18 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The Gate by Shingleback Shiraz 2006 $30–$35
McLaren Vale, South Australia
The bling-laden label raises expectations – four gold and five silver medals from wine shows around the world. Pull the cork, thankfully no cork taint, pour the wine and instant joy. This is beautiful McLaren Vale shiraz, grown on the Davey family’s Shingleback vineyard, made in small, open fermenters and matured in a mix of new and one-year-old American and French oak hogsheads. It’s full bodied and at five years combines layers of vibrant varietal berry flavours with fine tannin, the unique “winey” character of bottle age and a deep, satisfying savouriness. Was the first bottle emptied at a recent tasting – the ultimate review.

Geoff Merrill Cilento Sangiovese 2005 $27
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Generally it’s only the big-ticket wines released with bottle age. But here we have a modestly priced, very attractive six-year-old from veteran McLaren Vale winemaker, Geoff Merrill. Geoff writes that the wine spent three years in three and four year old American oak puncheons – it’s therefore had another three years mellowing in bottle. It’s Australian in style – meaning there’s more upfront sweet fruit than you see in its Italian sangiovese counterparts. But there’s a deep savouriness, tart acidity and tight tannic structure setting it apart from other varieties. It’s named after Merrill’s Italian great grandfather, Joseph Cilento.

Peppertree Venus Block Reserve Chardonnay 2010 $30
Orange, New South Wales
Canberra-raised winemaker Jim Chatto rates 2010 “the best yet” from Peppertree’s Venus block vineyard at Orange. This is what good modern chardonnay is all about – grown in a climate cool enough to produce intense nectarine- and fig-like varietal flavour and high acidity. The intense, fine fruit and acidity drive the wine, easily carrying the flavours and textures woven in during oak fermentation and maturation on spent yeast cells. That combination of bright fruit flavours and barrel complexity, held together by a tingly spine of acidity, gives Peppertree 2010 tremendous appeal. Chardonnay doubters should try this for real drinking excitement.

Tyrrell’s Wine Single Vineyard Shiraz 2008 $27–$38.50
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
During the Hunter’s disastrous 2008 vintage, Tyrrell’s bought eight tonnes of shiraz from Barton Estate, Murrumbateman. They trucked the grapes to the Hunter, made the wine and matured it in new 2,800-litre French oak casks. The wine turned out beautifully, winning a gold medal and trophy at last year’s National Wine Show, Canberra. In a recent masked tasting the Tyrrell’s wine and two other Canberra shirazes, Collector Reserve 2009 and Clonakilla O’Riada 2009, showed their class. The 2009s topped my scoresheet, but the Tyrrell’s rated highly, too, with its vibrant fruit, and tight, spicy elegant palate.

Pio Cesare Il Nebbio 2009 $33–$44
Langhe, Piedmont, Italy
Pio Cesare, based in Alba, Piedmont, owns about 50 hectares of vines in key appellations, including Barolo and Barbaresco, source of perhaps Italy’s greatest red wines, made from the nebbiolo variety. But the Pio Cesare family also offers a fresh, fruity (and less expensive) face of nebbiolo in Il Nebbio. Early picking, carbonic maceration, low-temperature fermentation in stainless steel and bottling after only few months in the steel tanks, captures the variety’s vitality. The alluring, fruity aromatics are matched by a juicy, jube-like fruity palate – for a brief and lovely second before nebbiolo’s legendary firm tannins move in. These rule out Il Nebbio as a drink-alone wine. But with food the tannins vanish and the delicious fruit rules.

Wine review – John Duval and Yellowtail

15 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

John Duval Plexus
Barossa Valley Marsanne Roussanne Viognier 2010 $30
Barossa vignerons face a challenge making whites to compete with popular varieties, like sauvignon blanc and chardonnay from much cooler regions. The Barossa succeeds on a limited scale with semillon, and the slightly cooler Eden Valley, to the east, makes wonderful riesling. Rather than trying to emulate cool area wines, John Duval sets out “to build structure and texture, rather than just acid crispness”. His new blend, partly matured and aged in mainly old oak, achieves that deliciously. Its pleasant, citrusy aroma leads to a soft, tasty, savoury, medium-bodied palate with a gentle texture and fresh but not acidic finish.

John Duval Plexus
Barossa Valley Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre 2009 $37–$39
Former Penfolds Grange maker, John Duval, shows his great mastery of fruit selection, winemaking and blending in this beautiful red. It’s a blend of old-vine shiraz (48 per cent) from Krondorf and Marananga, grenache (31 per cent) from old bush vines in Stockwell and Krondorf and mourvedre (21 per cent), some vines more than 100 years old, in Light Pass and Krondorf. It’s appealingly aromatic – led by the grenache – and vibrantly fruity, savoury and spicy on the palate, finishing with delicious ripe berry flavours and soft, fine tannins. It’s a wonderful, harmonious, satisfying drink – with the structure and depth to age well.

Yellow Tail 2010 vintage reds $8.55–$10

Pinot Noir
Merlot
Shiraz 2010
Cabernet Sauvignon

The Casella family’s legendary Yellow Tail took America by storm some time back, selling millions of cases there every year. It started as an adventure, using an off-the-shelf label from Barbara Harkness design, Adelaide, then succeeded beyond anyone’s maddest guess. Amazingly, the Casella’s funded the massive expansion and retained control of a business that focuses squarely on the business end of wine. The winemaking aims at capturing flawless, ripe, friendly, fruity wines on a very large scale, and succeeds – particularly with the full, soft shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. They’re decent wines at a fair price.

Wine review — Lark Hill, Red Knot by Shingleback, John Duval and Pewsey Vale

11 May 2011Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Lark Hill Chardonnay 2008 $35
Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, New South Wales
If Lark Hill makes chardonnay this good in a warm year, then we’ve much to look forward to in the 2011, now bubbling away in barrels at the winery. At three years the 2008 seems barely to have begun life, it’s so vibrant, youthful and alive with juicy, ripe varietal flavour. The palate has breadth, depth and rich texture – attributable, says winemaker Chris Carpenter, to glycerol from an indigenous yeast fermentation and extended contact with yeast lees after fermentation. High natural acidity, however, tightens the structure and, in combination with the pure, intense fruit flavour, suggests a long, graceful evolution with bottle age.

Lark Hill Pinot Noir 2008 $35
Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, New South Wales
It’s been a long time between drinks, but Lark Hill seems to be nailing pinot noir again. On the Chateau Shanahan tasting bench recently the 2008 (for release in June) and 2010 (for release in June 2012 as there’s no 2009), drank well for days. The delicate, refined 2010, with its distinctive tight tannin structure, appealed most. But the darker, chunkier 2008 also rated well. It’s far removed from Australia’s generally more aromatic pinots, featuring instead earthy, savoury notes and quite firm (but fine) tannins. The more we drank it, the more we liked it. It’s pushing up to four-star pinot quality – and the 2010s already there.

Red Knot by Shingleback Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $10.45–$14.99
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Red Knot Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Davey family’s Shingleback vineyard, McLaren Vale, evokes words like ripe, juicy, fruity, varietal and soft – a bright, fresh, flavoursome, lovable, red made to enjoy now. But it’s a bit more than that too – a great example of the sophistication of modern Australian winemaking. Why? Despite the low price it’s not propped up by over-extraction, over oaking or over-ripeness as we used to see. It’s a graceful, lovely, modestly priced wine, based on fruit quality not winemaking tricks.

John Duval Entity Shiraz 2009 $46–$48
Krondorf, Ebenezer, Tanunda and Eden Valley, Barossa Zone, South Australia
What comes after making Grange? John Duval faced that question a few years back after stepping down from the top winemaking job at Penfolds. Thankfully he stayed put in the Barossa making wonderful wines like “Entity”. It’s at the elegant end of the Barossa shiraz spectrum – partly due to inclusion of material from the higher, cooler Eden Valley (part of the Barossa zone) and partly due to a season noted for fragrant, “pretty” reds. Matured in a mix of old and new fine-grained French hogsheads, Entity presents a fragrant, medium bodied, smooth, spicy and savoury face of Barossa shiraz.

John Duval Eligo Shiraz 2008 $105
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
John Duval doesn’t reveal precise vineyard locations for Eligo, just that it’s sourced from “some excellent vineyards in the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley regions”. But the wine speaks for itself. It’s a more powerful expression of Barossa shiraz than Entity, darker in colour, matured longer in barrel and with more new oak (80 per cent versus 39 per cent). It’s a beautiful, big but graceful wine, deeply coloured but not opaque. It’s saturated with ripe, blueberry-like varietal shiraz, cut through with savoury, spicy oak – the flavours rapidly merging together. The deep, sweet fruit flavours linger on, layered with fruit and oak tannins. Be in no rush to drink this.

Pewsey Vale Riesling 2010 $14.99–$22.99
Pewsey Vale Vineyard, Eden Valley, South Australia
It won’t be long before the 2011 rieslings trickle into the market. But if you’re after absolutely outstanding drinking right now, mop up the rest of Pewsey Vale’s extraordinarily delicious 2010. It’s widely discounted, as low as $14.99, but more commonly to around $15–$16 (though you can pay more if you want). It’s from the Hill-Smith family’s 50-hectare Pewsey Vale vineyard, located on the edge of the Eden Valley. Louisa Rose makes the wine just a few kilometres down the hill at the Yalumba Winery, Angaston, centre of the Hill-Smith wine operations.

Wine review — Wallaroo, Eden Road and Vasse Felix

8 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Wallaroo Wines Canberra District Riesling 2009 $20
Wallaroo Vineyard, Hall, belongs to ABC Europe correspondent Philip Williams and family. It’s a near neighbour of Brindabella Hills Winery, where Roger Harris makes the wine. We happened on the 2009 at Taj Agra Indian Restaurant, Dickson, over Easter. What a great discovery – especially at $27, a modest mark up on the $20 cellar door price. It’s a really delicious, racy young riesling with probably years of good drinking still in it. At present it’s lemony, brisk and dry, with deep, pure riesling flavour and still with the austerity of youth. It’s an outstanding wine.

Eden Road Wines

Canberra District Riesling 2010 $21
Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2008 $45

Eden Road Wines, established in 2006, leased Kamberra Winery, Watson, from the Elvin Group until its recent purchase of Doonkuna Estate, Murrumbateman. Winemaker Nick Spencer makes wines from Canberra and surrounding districts, focusing on regional varietal specialties. Here we see the strength of Canberra riesling and Tumbarumba chardonnay, made in Spencer’s distinctive taut, slow evolving style. It all starts with grape selection of course. The pure, lean, acidic riesling is about as tight and austere as they come. Over time the lovely varietal flavour unwinds, suggesting long-term cellaring potential. Similarly the complex, three-year old chardonnay is still slowly revealing itself.

Vasse Felix Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2009 $18–$25
On a Margaret River tour late last year, Vasse Felix’s wines pushed the excitement button right across the range, from their cheaper products to the top of the line “Heytesbury” label. Their mid-price cabernet merlot, made by Virginia Wilcock, offers a pure, elegant, drink-now expression of the region’s great red specialty. The colour’s limpid and vibrant, with the aroma and palate delivering vivid, fresh berry character. There’s an irresistible juiciness to the fruit flavour. But this is cabernet, after all, and fine tannins cut through the sweet fruit to complete the red-wine equation.

Canberra’s Eden Road buys Doonkuna Estate

4 May 2011People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Last week Chris Coffman’s Eden Road Wines took over Doonkuna Estate, one of Canberra’s oldest vineyards. The purchase lands Eden Road plum in Murrumbateman’s reputation-making shiraz and riesling belt – giving the vineyard perhaps its best hope in nearly forty years.

Doonkuna’s history of hope, death and almost making it, began in 1972 when Wing Commander Harvey Smith established the first vines. Smith sold the property to Sir Brian and Lady Jane Murray in 1978. The Murray’s built a winery in 1980 and made their first estate-grown wines in 1981.

But the Murray’s tenure, too, proved comparatively short, and interrupted by Sir Brian’s term as Governor of Victoria. After he died in 1991, Lady Janet continued the business for a time, but in 1996 sold to pathologist, Dr Barry Moran and wife Maureen.

With great energy and vision, Moran and family expanded the vineyard sixfold and built a new winery and cellar door. Despite these efforts, however, Doonkuna’s wines still lagged the quality of Canberra’s best when Moran died in 2009.

But Eden Road winemaker Nick Spencer sees great potential in the vineyard, located on granite soils, similar to those at Clonakilla and other proven sites nearby.

“We always had a long-term plan to look for a vineyard and build a winery in the district”, he says. And when Doonkuna came on the market it proved almost a perfect fit.

It’s in a plum location, has mature vines and there’s a well-equipped winery with capacity to process around 500 tonnes of grapes (equivalent to around 35 thousand dozen bottles).

“There’s something exciting about Murrumbateman in general”, says Spencer. “It’s a special feeling walking up and down rows of vines every day, getting to know them intimately. It helps quality and it’s an inspiration. We need to have a home and it’s very exciting having our own patch of soil and trying to express a sense of place”.

Even before last week’s settlement, Eden Road had begun moving wine barrels from its old home in Elvin Group’s Kamberra complex, Watson, to Doonkuna. But the main game, once they’ve moved the tanks of bulk wine, will be in restructuring the vineyard.

Spencer expects to halve the current plantings of around 14 hectares to around seven or eight, “focusing almost entirely on shiraz and riesling, with a touch of viognier”.

The half that’s coming out lies in a frost hollow, so nothing can save them. But the vines, many of them mature, are in generally in good shape. Spencer expects in reshaping the vineyard to graft rather than replant, especially among the older vines.

Though he expects to commence vineyard work this winter, Spencers says they’ll look carefully at the whole vineyard before restructuring.

Even with its own vineyard, though, Eden Road intends to continue sourcing grapes from growers in Canberra and surrounding regions. Spencer sees great excitement in material from Canberra, Hilltops, Tumbarumba and the Southern Highlands.

Though Hardys left the area five years ago, he says they left two lasting legacies: vines planted by numerous growers, originally to meet Hardy’s needs; and grape growing know-how as they taught growers how to manage vineyards for wine production. He adds that as these vines mature, they’re contribution to a huge improvement in local wine quality.

And while shiraz and riesling remain the main game in Canberra, he points to the white viognier as an important niche variety. Small amounts co-fermented with shiraz contribute to fragrance and structure.

But he says, “Canberra is an exciting area for viognier. Here you can pick it early while the acid’s still high and it still has varietal flavour – this is special. It means you can make nice tight wines”. Elsewhere, he says, it tends to deliver flavour at high sugar levels, meaning big, soft, sometimes oily wines.

And Tumbarumba he singles out for two varieties, chardonnay and pinot noir. The area already enjoys a strong and growing reputation for taut, long-lived table wines made from chardonnay. But pinot has been principally grown for sparkling. He believes this is changing.

Spencer attributes the big price difference between Tumbarumba chardonnay and pinot noir to the earlier recognition of chardonnay as a table wine variety.

This probably dates back to Southcorp’s “white Grange” project, to make the best white it could from whatever variety or region, and a similar quest by Hardy’s with its Eileen Hardy chardonnay. Both companies included Tumbarumba chardonnay in their searches.

But Spencer believes growing demand for pinot noir will see Tumbarumba emerge as an outstanding region as growers reduce yields and change overall management in return for higher prices. The wines, he believes, will be become more concentrated and complex but “remain light and graceful and feminine”.

The beautiful wines we’ve seen from Eden Road to date suggests that Doonkuna’s vines will, at last, produce wines up there with the region’s best. And they’ll be accompanied by others from surrounding areas.

Wine review — The Islander Estate Vineyards, Port Phillip Estate, Chalmers, Eden Road and Wirra Wirra

4 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The Islander Estate Vineyards “The Investigator” 2005 $60
Kangaroo Island, South Australian
In 2000 French winemaker Jacques Luton staked a claim on Kangaroo Island –198 years after its discovery by Matthew Flinders and circumnavigation by French Captain Nicholas Baudin. Magnanimously, Luton named his flagship wine The Investigator, after Flinders’ ship. The flagship wine, however, salutes south-western France, Bordeaux in particular. Made principally from cabernet franc (with a dash of sangiovese), The Investigator presents a ripe, fine-boned face of this fragrant variety. There’s a ghost of Bordeaux’s St Emilion in the aroma and flavour, but a sunny Australian smile, tempered by a faint Gallic leafiness, on the delicious palate. It’s a unique, beautiful wine, destined for five-star status as the vines mature and the wine gain greater length.

Port Phillip Estate Quartier Arneis 2010 $23–$26
Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Downing platters of succulent oysters at Lake Conjola, we moved from the lovely, austere Simmonet-Febvre Petit Chablis ($19) to Sandro Mosele’s arneis. The variety originates in Piedmont, Italy, where it makes full bodied dry white wines. Mosele’s Mornington version, sourced from a neighbouring vineyard at Red Hill, had the succulence, stunning freshness and minerally dryness to match our still-living oysters. We lingered on it afterwards, too, savouring its fresh, crunchy texture. What a lovely and different drop it is – one to enjoy to the hilt right now. Move onto the 2011 as soon as it’s released.

Port Phillip Estate Pinot Noir 2009 $35.15–$38
Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Winemaker Sandro Mosele writes that a freakish, week long heat wave in February 2009 scorched and shrivelled grapes on the western side of the estate’s pinot vines. The grapes dropped off, reducing yields by around 50 per cent, but leaving a healthy crop to mature in the subsequent benign conditions. The resulting wine reveals fragrant, ripe, varietal aromas, reminiscent of cherry. The medium bodied palate builds in interest as you sip through the bottle, the underlying ripe, vibrant varietal flavour in the grip of firm, fine tannins – setting it apart from many softer Australian styles.

Chalmers Vermentino 2010 $20–$24
Murray Darling, New South Wales
Many Australian vignerons seem hopeful that vermentino, a major variety on the coasts of Liguria, Sardinia, Tuscany and Corsica, might deliver bright fresh flavours in Australia’s warm growing regions. The Chalmers family cultivate many of these alternative varieties and throw up quite a challenge to our palates with the 2010 vermentino. Wild-yeast fermented on grape solids, it reveals probably as much about the winemaking as it does of the variety. Leesy, rustic characters push strongly through a savoury dry white that’s far removed from our usual fare. It’s idiosyncratic, for sure – meaning you’ll either love it or hate it.

Eden Road Shiraz 2009 $45
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
Eden Road’s flagship red sits at the very taut, savoury, firm end of the fine-boned Canberra spectrum. Winemaker Nick Spencer sources his fruit from Murrumbateman (with a splash from Hilltops), aiming for what he calls “a structural style, with gravelly tannins plus perfume”. He says the 2009 shirazes appeared powerful and opulent at bottling (usually this knocks the fruit out for a time) but “have closed up now” – suggesting they’ll evolve well. Eden Road fits this “closed up” description – starting savoury and firm when first poured then, over time, revealing marvellously complex, aromatic characters with a deep, sweet core of fruit. This is knocking on five stars.

Wirra Wirra Catapult Shiraz 2009 $20–$22
McLaren Vale, South Australia
This is a distinctive style of McLaren Vale shiraz, focussing on riotously vibrant, in-your-face fruit aromas and flavours. It’s deeply coloured and the aroma lures with its musky, floral high notes. The palate is juicy, plush and chewy with the vibrancy suggested by the floral aroma, and flavours akin to ripe, black cherries. Layers of tannin remind us this is red wine, not fruit juice. The distinctive buoyancy and aromatic high notes probably arise from a small amount of the white viognier in the blend.