Petaluma Hanlin Hill Clare Valley Riesling 2006 $19-$23
Brian Croser fermented Petaluma’s first riesling – a 1976 from Mitchelton Vineyard, Nagambie – in a spent Maralinga rocket-fuel tank. From 1979, having acquired the Hanlin Hill vineyard, Clare Valley, he made the first of the single-vineyard Petaluma rieslings that’ve given the wine its well deserved blue-chip status. At a recent tasting of all the rieslings the oldest and youngest vintages stood out like bookends as if to say, young or old, this is a great wine. The 1979 and 1980 were both wonderfully fresh, albeit with the delicious patina of age. The 2005, the last made by Croser, is a classic. And 2006, Andrew Hardy’s first, is spectacularly aromatic and superb.

Petaluma Coonawarra 2002 $42-$58
2002 was one of the coolest seasons on record in much of eastern Australia. This boosted flavour intensity of reds in our warmer areas but in cool Coonawarra many vineyards seemed to struggle for ripeness – a character reflected in the leafy, not-quite-ripe character of many of the wines. Petaluma, however, achieved ripeness in its tiny crop to produce what to me is one of the finest since the first vintage in 1979. At a tasting of every vintage a few weeks back it appealed for its enormous flavour concentration in the elegant, firm, Coonawarra mould. It’s a classic, destined to give SSsdrinking pleasure for decades to come.

Stefano Lubiana Tasmania ‘Primavera’ Pinot Noir 2005 $29
Steve Lubiana produces two pinot noirs – this floral, abundantly fruity, aptly named Primavera and the more structured, Burgundian Estate Pinot Noir. I’ve not tasted the 2005 vintage of the latter, but it’ll be impressive judging by the power of fruit in Primavera. Steve writes that “2005 was one of the best – if not the best, Tasmanian pinot noir vintages ever”. What this means for the drinker is a wine offering pure ripe-berry aroma and plush, even Beaujolais-like, juicy varietal fruit flavour. But there’s tannin providing structure to all this fruit and a few years in bottle should see a shift from primary fruit to more savoury secondary characters.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Ravensworth Canberra District Sangiovese 2005 $22
I recommended this now gold medal winner back in March as a wine that “just needs a little time in bottle to emerge as a vibrant and sophisticated expression of the variety”.  As noted earlier this is one of the best Australian shots I’ve seen with this Italian variety, standing out for its bright, pure fruit aroma and flavour and taut, fine tannin structure. It’s developed beautifully with six months in the bottle and should continue to build in complexity and interest for many years. It bowled us judges over at last week’s Canberra Regional Wine Show. www.ravensworthwines.com.au.

Surveyors Hill Canberra District Riesling 2006 $25
Leigh Hobba’s Surveyors Hill vineyard produced the fruit for this stunning trophy and gold medal winning riesling. It was made for Leigh at Roger and Faye Harris’s Brindabella Hills Winery, about a kilometre from the Surveyors Hill vineyard. Leigh tells me that each year Roger gives trainee winemaker, Brian Sinclair, a project wine of his own and in 2006 this was it. The wine shows pristine varietal aromatics and intense but delicate palate with beautiful, fresh acid balance. It’s classic riesling and could hold its own in any company. Release is imminent, enquiries to Leigh Hobba 6230 2046

First Creek Canberra District Viognier 2005 $20
Expatriate Canberran, Jim Chatto, makes First Creek Viognier at the Monarch Winery, Pokolbin, from fruit grown on the Fischer family’s Nanima vineyard, Murrumbateman. It was one of two outstanding viognier’s exhibited at the Canberra Regional Show. In contrast to the purely varietal silver-medal runner up, our gold-medallist was a notably more complex wine showing the textural, aroma and flavour impacts of barrel fermentation beautifully integrated with the plush, distinctive, apricot-like viognier flavour. Like most top-notch viogniers, it’s a wine of huge flavour impact and should be savoured in small, intense doses. Cellar door phone 02 4998 7293.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

De Bortoli Yarra Valley Sauvignon 2006 $22
If one wine displays – deliciously — the fruit muting underway at DeBortoli Yarra Valley, it’s sauvignon blanc. They’ve even pruned the name to ‘sauvignon’, indicating that’s something’s up. And what’s up begins with low yields in the vineyard, hand picking, gentle handling and spontaneous fermentation (i.e. no cultured yeast added) in old oak barrels. Instead of the more customary brash, bright and pungent cold-fermented sauvignon blanc, De Bortoli’s — while still refreshing, juicy and unmistakably sauvignon — is more subtle. It’s like a varietal echo, muffled by a textural richness and secondary flavours derived from barrel fermentation and maturation, lees contact and yeast tag-team behind the ferment. Released October.

De Bortoli Yarra Valley Reserve Release Syrah 2004 $35 – $38
Few reds pulse and ripple across the palate like this sensational 2004. It’s opulent, silky, velvety, plush, juicy, utterly compelling, seductive and irresistible. What’s behind it? The great fruit of low yielding, mature vines (planted 1971); hand picking; hand elimination of all but perfect grape bunches; a high level of whole-bunches in the ferment (equals brighter fruit and gentler tannin extraction); and maturation in well-matched oak barrels. If you’re looking for something really special, this is as good an investment in pure drinking pleasure as you’ll find. This is one of the most exciting wines I’ve tried in years.

Bream Creek Tasmania Riesling 2004 $18 & Tasmania Pinot Noir 2004 $25
Located to the east of Hobart, near Marion Bay, Bream Creek, established 1972, is one of Australia’s southernmost vineyards. It produces wines of a finely sculpted, delicate style, dictated by the truly cool growing climate. In the riesling that means a structure and flavour more akin to those of Mosel, Germany, than our renowned Clare Valley styles. It’s simply delicious – packed with flavour but fragile and delicate at the same time. Similarly, the pinot noir may look pale but it overflows with varietal perfume and flavour, albeit in a very refined and subtle way — the sort of wine that slips down almost before you realise how good it is. See www.breamcreekvineyard.com.au

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Brindabella Hills Canberra District Sauvignon Blanc 2006 $15
It seems appropriate that Dr Roger Harris — the scientist whose CSIRO colleagues identified methoxypyrazene compounds as sauvignon blanc’s pungent flavour source — should make such a wonderful expression of it. The 2006 is just delicious – fresh and zesty with juicy, refreshing tropical-fruit flavours to enjoy over the warm months ahead. It’s a bargain at $15, cellar door. And at $25 Brindabella Hills Shiraz 2004 offers the fragrant, fine-boned, savoury richness of cool climate shiraz. To my taste this is the best yet from Roger and Fay Harris’s vineyard on the lower, warmer Murrumbidgee Valley side of Hall.

Clonakilla Canberra District Shiraz Viognier 2005 $78
Canberra’s most celebrated wine easily topped a tasting of local shirazes at Chateau Shanahan this week. That it did so comes as no surprise. And it’s worth remembering, too, that like most style benchmarks Clonakilla is no overnight sensation. Shiraz from the Kirk family vineyard was blended with cabernet from the mid seventies until the first straight shiraz appeared in 1990. In 1992, Tim Kirk added viognier to the blend (from vineyards planted in 1986) and hit the spot with international critics consistently from the late nineties. What we see now is a highly perfumed, silky red of great intensity and remarkable finesse.

Meeting Place Canberra District Viognier 2005 $15
It’s grown on a new vineyard at Holt, it’s irrigated with grey water from the lower Molonglo treatment works and it’s already recognised as one of the best value viognier’s in Australia. If it lacks the restraint and depth of Clonakilla’s $50 version, it pleases with, pure, full, citrus/apricot flavour and thick, viscous texture of the variety — beautifully made at Kamberra Winery by Alex McKay. Alex believes that the wine will become increasingly intense and interesting in future vintages as the vines mature. While it’s probably best to enjoy the 2005 as a young wine, the 2004 is still remarkably fresh and enjoyable.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 1996 $180-$240
In today’s salute to Len Evans it seems fitting to include two contrasting luxury Champagnes from the great 1996 vintage. The all-chardonnay Taittinger Comtes de Champagne – sourced from top-ranking vineyards in the Champagne district’s Cotes de Blancs sub region – has Champagne’s elusive combination of intensity and delicacy. Without pinot noir in the blend the colour is a deceptively pale lemon, belying its ten years’ age. But that prolonged bottle ageing prior to release added a subtle patina of aromas, flavours and textures that simply enhances the wine’s extraordinary vivacity and freshness. This is about as good as aperitif style Champagne gets.

Veuve Clicquot La Grand Dame Champagne 1996 $220 o $260
Veuve Clicquot’s luxury Champagne is a more traditional blend of two-thirds pinot noir and one-third chardonnay. The high pinot content gives the blend its deeper colour and assertive backbone but this is mollified by the more delicate chardonnay. La Grande Dame’s great flavour intensity comes from the quality of the grapes – all sourced from top-ranked vineyards: Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay and Bouzy for the pinot noir; and Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger for the chardonnay. While power with elegance is always the keynote of La Grande Dame, the 1996 seems particularly elegant though, from experience, the assertive pinot character tends to grow with bottle age.

Tyrrell’s Reserve Belford Hunter Valley Semillon 1999 $29
The Elliott family planted the Belford vineyard in the Hunter in 1933 and a fourth generation still controls it. However, Tyrrell’s lease and manage the vineyard which is source of some their best semillon. Typically these are very pale, minerally and delicate as young wines, gradually taking on a fuller, honeyed character with bottle age. Fortunately, Tyrrell’s hold small volumes back for later release, giving the majority of drinkers without cellars a chance to taste the glories of aged semillon. The 1999 is a lovely drop that’s just beginning to show some of the classic maturation characters while retaining great freshness. Cellar door phone 02 4993 7000.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2006 $25 & Premium Riesling 2006 $39
Ken Helm’s been out of the blocks quickly with his 2006 rieslings having hit a gold-medal score for the Premium Riesling at the recent Winewise Small Vignerons Awards and winning bronze medals for both in the 2006 Melbourne Show – where the cheaper Classic Dry outscored the Premium. This is not unusual as the softer, slightly sweeter Classic Dry has strong drink-now appeal where the more austere, slow-evolving Premium blossoms with a few years’ bottle age. Unquestionably to me the Premium is the better wine in the long run. Both are to be released on September first at cellar door, phone 6227 0555.

Gallagher Canberra District Riesling 2006 $17
In a tasting of eight local 2006 rieslings Gallagher and Helm Premium drew my top scores with the victory finally going to Gallagher by a tiny margin. This is a lovely, fresh, citrusy and delicate drop sourced from Graeme Lunney’s Four Winds Vineyard, Murrumbateman. The previous vintage, from the same vineyard, won gold at last year’s local show and this one seems to be of a similar quality, if a little more full flavoured. The pale, bright, colour, varietal purity and fine structure all suggest a long and interesting flavour evolution in bottle. Cellar door phone 6227 0555.

West Cape Howe Western Australia Tempranillo 2005 $19
This is a delicious, drink-now red made from Spain’s tempranillo – a thick skinned, dark coloured, early ripening variety. It’s widely used in Spain to give backbone to blends and is especially well known as partner to garnacha (grenache) in the Rioja region. This version, sourced from the warm Perth Hills region, shows little of the variety’s backbone and more of its ripe, slurpy berry flavours with a pleasant spicy edge and sufficient soft, easy-on-the-gums tannin to give structure and satisfaction. The winemaker note suggests a two to four year drinking frame, but I doubt it will ever be better than it is now at its freshest and fruitiest.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Tulloch Hunter Chardonnay 2006 $14.99
After decades in various corporate hands the Tulloch label finally moved back to the Hunter in 2001 following Southcorp’s acquisition of Rosemount Estate. A syndicate consisting of the Tulloch family, Inglewood Vineyards of Denman and the Angove family now owns the brand and out sources the winemaking. Canberra-bred Jim Chatto made the wine at Monarch Winery using fruit from the Inglewood Vineyard, Denman, and JYT vineyard, Pokolbin. Jim’s lovely touch with winemaking shows in this delicious drop’s crystal clear, rich-but-not-heavy varietal character and a more-ish, brisk freshness.

Coriole McLaren Vale Shiraz 2004 $24 to $29
Coriole’s little amphitheatre of vines sits on one of the plum sites in McLaren and for decades now, under Mark Lloyd, has produced appealing, ripe, rich reds at reasonable prices. This particular sample stood out from a few other shirazes on the tasting bench then graduated to the kitchen table and disappeared – a sure sign of quality. There were no notes taken just happy little sips with a rich winter beef and mushroom casserole. From memory, the wine started with the particularly lifted fragrance of the 2004 vintage then offered ripe, round, sweet fruit flavours and soft tannins – all seasoned with savoury, earthy edge of McLaren Vale.

Water Wheel Bendigo Shiraz 2004 $14 – $19
After the extremely difficult 2003 vintage, Bendigo winemakers probably thought the worst as an extreme two-week heat wave hit in February 2004. Fortunately, the shiraz was some way from ripeness and survived the heat to ripen in ideal, mild conditions a month later. In this instance the little berries produced a modestly priced red of an extraordinary, don’t-spit-me-out succulence. It has the impact of an essence of juicy, super-ripe black cherries of great density and weight and one-more-sip appeal. While the oak flavour is reasonably assertive, it simply can’t outweigh such lashings of ripe fruit.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Chateau Pato Hunter DJP Shiraz 2004 $45 & Old Pokolbin Vineyard Shiraz 2004 $29
Chateau Pato, founded by the late David John Paterson and now run by his son, Nick, makes impossibly small batches – 160 dozen and 180 dozen respectively – of these classic Hunter Shiraz styles. The first, bearing David’s initials and from a family vineyard planted in the eighties, has a sweet, earthy aroma and a juicy and very concentrated but typically Hunter soft palate. The other, from an eighty-year-old vineyard, is leaner and tighter in style – slightly reminiscent of Chianti, though softer – with a lovely earthy, savouriness to it. Despite the style contrasts, each is stamped with Hunter earthiness and softness. Cellar door phone 02 4998 7634.

Fox Creek McLaren Vale Shiraz Grenache 2004 $17 & Reserve Shiraz 2004 $70
$70-a-bottle reds are more read about than consumed. But it’s reassuring to screw the caps off a small maker’s flagship and workaday red side by side and discover a credible quality/price ratio. Making good wines across the price spectrum is something Australian winemakers do well. Fox Creek’s $17 shiraz and grenache blend delivers the lovely perfume of the vintage and a really attractive medium-bodied palate for current drinking. In short, you get McLaren Vale richness at a modest price. The Reserve 2004, though, has real gravitas with its immensely powerful, ripe shiraz flavour and structure – a regional specialty to savour slowly.

Mount Horrocks Watervale Semillon 2005 $27
Poor old semillon barely gets a look in on its own these days. Blended with sauvignon blanc it’s going berserk. And in the best of these semillon is the key to complexity. Yet semillon enjoyed great popularity in Australia until generic labels like ‘white burgundy’, based on European place names, began giving way to varietal naming around twenty years ago. Thus hugely popular generically labelled semillons like Basedow of Barossa and Quelltaler of Clare faded from view. Inherently, though, as Stephanie Toole shows with this brilliant Watervale version, it makes a rich, vivacious white with the subtle nutty complexity – but not woodiness – of oak fermentation and maturation.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz 2005 $15 to $18
At a tasting in Sydney last week (full report in next week’s column) winemaker Andrew Wigan presented all but two of the Peter Lehmann shirazes from the inaugural 1980 vintage to the current release 2004 – all made by himself. It was an extraordinary line up of lovely, rich, soft – almost tender – Barossa wines. It was all the more extraordinary because the wine has always been modestly priced yet cellars well for a quarter century – the 1980 being one of the highlights. The current release appeals already with its pretty, floral nose, juicy varietal flavour and soft, tend tannins.
Wirra Wirra Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2005 $25, Arneis 2005 $25
The good-humoured Wirra Wirra team, led by industry veteran, Tim James, seems right on the money with this complex, traditional, barrel-fermented chardonnay and new fangled arneis – a variety native to Italy’s Piedmont region. There’s a herbal, zesty not in Arneis reminiscent in some ways of sauvignon blanc. Pizzini’s King Valley is perhaps the best Australian version I’ve tried though this one goes close – but wins the honest back label award, “It is a typical arneis if you ask us”, it claims, “the only problem being we are not sure what a ‘typical’ arneis is”.
Majella Coonawarra Merlot 2004 $28, Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 $28
Majella’s first ever merlot, a stunner, and a blinder cabernet lead a raft of new releases from the Lynn family’s very special patch of dirt down in Coonawarra. From experience the cabernet ages beautifully, maintaining pure varietal character as it mellows over time. And if you think merlot is either green, tough and weedy or light, sweet and soft, try this one to see how elegant and refined and but still quite firm this variety can be. Another standout, at $17, is the 2005 ‘The Musician’, a fruity and soft cabernet shiraz blend – all from the Majella vineyard – made specifically for early drinking.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

McWilliams Hanwood Shiraz 2005 $7.99 to $11
This, to me, personifies, the general superiority of brands over cleanskins. While the latter come and go and vary in quality from batch to batch, brands like Hanwood evolve steadily for the better over time. What began as a predominantly Riverina product is now a blend from higher-quality areas – reflecting increasing fruit availability — and contains only about five per cent Riverina material. The result is a budget wine (selling for as little $7.99 on special) that’s big on plummy, sweet varietal flavour with the rich, soft tannin structure to make early drinking thoroughly enjoyable.
Di Georgio Coonawarra Emporio 2002 $23
After acquiring Rosemount a few years back, the late Southcorp (Southcorpse?) sold Rouge Homme winery and 13.5 hectares of lovely old vines to the Di Giorgio family. These vines are in the heart of old Coonawarra, next door to Wynns. Combine these unique vines with the viticultural experience of the Di Giorgio’s and winemaking expertise of Coonawarra veteran Peter Douglas and you get a stunning result at modest prices. The Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 and Shiraz 2002 are excellent examples of their styles. But Emporio – an elegant, refined blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc – really hits the excitement button. www.digiorgio.com.au
Pizzini King Valley Pinot Grigio 2006 $19
& Sangiovese 2005 $26
At Wine Australia, Darling Harbour, last weekend, Fred Pizzini’s wines captured my attention for pure varietal expression and good value. It’s difficult to coax the best from pinot gris and sangiovese, but Fred ranks amongst the best in Australia with these two varieties. There’s a shimmering purity to the just-released 2006 pinot grigio, made in the tight, dry Italian style. Not that many Italian versions come near it in quality. And the same might be said of the pure, bright and fruity but dry and savoury sangiovese – a delightful red that simply wipes the floor with many commercial Chiantis. See www.pizzini.com.au

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007