Yalumba Eden Valley Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2005 $16 to $18
I’ve mentioned before the ‘trickle down effect’, where wineries spend decades developing their top wines at great expense and how this learning trickles down to lift the quality of cheaper wines. This is unquestionably the case with this wine – a junior sibling to Yalumba heavyweights like Heggies and The Virgilius. It delivers the flavour benefits of superb fruit masterfully captured and complemented by sophisticated use of wild-yeast ferment, partial barrel fermentation and maturation on yeast lees. It’s a powerful wine, but not heavy. And while those winemaking inputs add assertive flavours and texture, they remain interesting adornments to the fresh varietal flavour.

Saltram Winemaker Selection Limited Release Barossa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 $65
In the Barossa Valley, cabernet sauvignon tends to make sturdy reds without a great deal of varietal character. But in the cool 2002 vintage the area produced many solidly structured, clearly varietal cabernets. The best that I’ve tasted yet is this huge but graceful single-vineyard wine under a special Saltram label. It comes from the Dorrien sub-region, about half way between Tanunda and Nuriootpa. It was fermented in small, open fermenters then matured in French oak for 20 months. It’s a hefty price tag. But this is a heavyweight wine promising very long-term cellaring given ideal conditions.

Wither Hills Marlborough Pinot Noir 2004 $45-$50
At least one corner of Marlborough produces wine of a quality to challenge Martinborough and Central Otago in New Zealand’s pinot noir ratings. On the cooler, southern side of the Wairau Valley, Wither Hills — run for Lion Nathan by long-time Marlborough vigneron Brent Marris – makes what I believe are some of the best commercial pinots in the world. It didn’t happen overnight. But with maturing vines, a diversity of clones, multiple sites and a purpose built winery, Brent now makes bright, pure, beautifully fragrant and intense pinot like this stunning 2004. I’ve yet to taste the $50 French Burgundy that could hold a light to it.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2003 $9 to $15
As regular cannon fodder in the Coles Myer’s First Choice versus Woolworths’ Dan Murphy discount war, Koonunga Hill’s price is periodically shot down to about $9 a bottle — hence the very large price variance encountered in retail outlets. The 2003 is another solid wine under this label and treads a path somewhere between the all-fruit style and the oak-tannin-alcohol blockbusters. The flavours are built on ripe, plummy fruit. And the structure is classic Penfolds: quite firm and tannic, without being hard, and certainly in proportion to the fruit. It’s screw-cap sealed and should drink well for another four or five years.

Pikes Clare Valley Eastside Shiraz 2003 $22 cellar door
This is a comparatively refined Clare shiraz, offering delightful perfume and rich flavours without the distraction of too much oak. It’s a ripe, generous, rounded and soft style that starts and finishes with bright varietal character. Fourteen months’ maturation in predominantly French oak seems to have provided a mellowing effect while adding just a hint of oak character that complements the fruit nicely. Without a screw cap those appealing fruit flavours may not have been so beautifully preserved. The wine may evolve well for another few years, but it’s hard to see it ever being more appealing than it is right now.

Pirramimma McLaren Vale Shiraz 2002 $26.50 cellar door
The cool 2002 vintage produced stunning reds in warmer growing regions like McLaren Vale. The unusually cool conditions created intense varietal flavour in the grapes and resulted in wines of great power with more-elegant-than-usual structure. Pirramimma Shiraz 2002 is a brilliant example of what the vintage created. In this case, thirty-year-old vines responded to ideal conditions and winemaker Geoff Johnston guided them flawlessly from vine to bottle. This is pretty close to perfect shiraz – being ripe, well structured and absolutely delicious to drink. And it has the extraordinary intensity of flavour, without heaviness, that characterises the best wines of the season.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007

Bay of Fires Tasmania Pinot Gris 2005 $27
Bay of Fires is the premium Tasmanian brand of The Hardy Wine Company, made in Tasmania by Fran Austin. Fran’s pinot gris – sourced from the Coal River Valley near Hobart and from the Tamar River, north of Launceston – possesses some of the underlying textural richness experienced in Alsacian pinot gris. This boosts the body of what is otherwise a particularly fragrant and exceptionally lively and delicate pinot gris. My only quibble is that it’s pretty alcoholic at 14 per cent and this gives the wine a slightly distracting heat and astringency in the finish.

Majura Vineyards Canberra District Pinot Gris 2005 $16
Local vigneron, Frank van de Loo says on his back label, “we pick our pinot gris when the berries have taken on a deep purple-pink colour as they develop the rich, musky flavours that make the variety so appealing”. That’s an honest summary of one of the biggest, juiciest wines in this week’s pinot gris tasting. But it’s not just big and ripe. There’s a wonderful intensity to what I saw as pear-like fruit flavour, as well as vibrancy and freshness. As in the Bay of Fires wine above, alcohol weighs a little too heavily on the finish.

Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Pinot Gris 2005 $22.95
Pewsey Vale is both a brand and a vineyard within the S. Smith & Son group (aka Yalumba) controlled by Robert Hill-Smith. The vineyard, located on the elevated slopes of the Eden Valley — a short drive from the Barossa winery — produces all of the fruit for the brand, including what was clearly outstanding fruit for this wine, my favourite of this week’s line up. Made by Louisa Rose, it delivers the variety’s silky richness without becoming fat or coarse. It has a lively acidity that seems to carry the fresh fruit flavour and, at the same time, provide a fine, firm backbone.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Balnaves Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 about $35
2002 in Coonawarra was a small and very cool vintage. This produced many wines with great flavour concentration but also many cabernets showing the distinct leafy, green edge of under ripened fruit. Presumably through rigorous fruit selection, winemaker Pete Bissell sidestepped the latter problem to produce this particularly fragrant, elegant and silky cabernet — albeit with the firm backbone typical of the variety. At four years’ age it delivers powerful cabernet varietal aroma, flavour, structure and elegance but also the complexity and drinking satisfaction that comes with a little bottle age.

Tim Adams Clare Valley Shiraz 2004 about $26
Tim Adams began cranking out robust, satisfying Clare shiraz about twenty years ago. Gradually, as traced in this column a few years back, he refined the style, turning up the fruit volume and settling into a sympathetic oak maturation regime. While the incremental improvements show to the fullest in his flagship shiraz, The Aberfeldy, this one’s a chip off the old block. It shows typical Clare perfume that says “I’m shiraz and I’m from Clare”, and a matching buoyant, vibrant fruitiness on the palate. It has the intensity to carry a fair load of warming alcohol and a sturdy but soft tannin frame.

Deen De Bortoli Vat 8 Shiraz 2004 about $9.99
With a recommended price of $9.99 it’s odds on you’ll be able to find this rich, juicy drop for dollars a bottle cheaper. Company blurb says it’s sourced from the Riverina district and a few sips says the Riverina’s doing well with this variety – the aroma, flavour and structure are all about juicy, ripe, slightly spicy varietal shiraz. It’s soft and flavoursome and ready to enjoy now. Unusually for a wine of this price, it was matured for a year in older oak barrels – an incredibly important step in making satisfying, mellow red wines. It’s ready to enjoy right now.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Bridgewater Mill Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2005 $16 to $18
In general I’d rate Marlborough sauv blancs a country kilometre ahead of those from the Adelaide Hills. Marlborough’s offerings deliver buckets of pungent varietal character plus the full, juicy mid-palate richness often lacking in the local versions plus a unique, racy acidity. The 2005 vintage, however, seems to have tripped the sauv blanc switch at Bridgewater Mill, producing all the giggle and slurp deliciousness you’d ever want from the variety. It’s stunningly fresh, rippling with in-your-face varietal fruitiness (a spectrum of flavours from passionfruit to capsicum) and with a pleasing, teasing dryness, accentuated by a spine of zingy acidity.

De Bortoli Hunter Valley Shiraz 2004 $15 to $17
You can do amazing things with weird, wonderful, idiosyncratic Hunter shiraz. It’s off most red drinkers’ radar. But how many other red wines stand up to chilli, cardamom, cumin and the like – as this one did at Flavours of India restaurant, Civic. It’s not big and brawny like a Rutherglen shiraz; not opulent and alcoholic like a Barossa; nor supple and elegant like the Seppelt shiraz below. No. None of those would’ve worked. De Bortoli took on the heat and kaleidoscope of spicy flavours not with power or subtleness but with love-em-or-hate-em, earthy, raunchy, savoury Hunter flavours. Pass the bottle please.

Seppelt Victorian Shiraz 2004 $14 to $17
After enduring Canberra’s record hot summer, it’s probably hard to recall the two-week February heat wave that literally cooked the flavour out of much of Australia’s 2004 wine harvest. However, winemaker Arthur O’Sullivan’s central, western and southern Victorian domain missed the worst of the February heat then entered a benign, mild ripening season. “It’s a memorable vintage”, Arthur says – a view supported by the first of Seppelt’s 2004 red releases. A blend from the Grampians, Pyrenees, Glenlofty, Strathbogies and Bendigo, this is a fragrant, supple, and very fine example of just-one-more-glass-please cool climate shiraz. It’s screw cap sealed and should evolve well for about a decade.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Ravensworth Canberra District Marsanne 2005, Sangiovese 2005 $22
Two wines due for release on March 22nd confirm Bryan and Jocelyn Martin’s Ravensworth as one of Canberra’s defining labels. The Marsanne is a weighty, viscous and highly distinctive drop, bristling with delicious, vibrant, honeyed flavours. And the Sangiovese rates as one the best Australian shots I’ve seen with this Italian variety. Tuscan versions range from dire to divine, with the best examples offering lifted perfume and tight elegant structure. Ravensworth is headed in the latter direction with its bright, pure fruit aroma and flavour and taut, fine tannin structure. It just needs a little time in bottle to emerge as a vibrant and sophisticated expression of the variety.

Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay 2005, Bin 50 Shiraz 2005 $7 to $9
Be ready for a massive new roll out of wines sealed with screw caps – led by the 2005 vintage of Lindemans popular bin range. In Melbourne two weeks ago, Chris Hatcher, winemaking boss of Fosters, said that with consumer acceptance of these seals on premium and super premium wines, the time had come to introduce screw caps on lower-priced wines, too. The first two Lindemans screw cap releases, with their focus on pure varietal fruit flavour, really suit this clean, reliable closure. The chardonnay is zesty, full flavoured and creamy textured; the Shiraz, too, is bright, fresh and fruit laden with soft, easy tannins giving structure.

Teusner Barossa Valley Joshua 2005 $24, Avatar 2004 $29
For all the talk of invaluable, very old Barossa vines, many small growers there are struggling to sell fruit — such is the severity of the grape glut and paucity of strongly branded Barossa wines from the major producers. The ready availability of such superb fruit has prompted a new generation of young winemakers, like Kym Teusner, to capture the unique and lovely flavours produced by the Valley’s old grenache, shiraz and mourvedre vines. Kym currently offers two of these wonderful GSM blends – the unoaked, juicy and delicious Joshua and the beautifully, deep, savoury and supple Avatar from the outstanding 2004 vintage.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Wolf Blass Black Label Shiraz Cabernet Malbec 2002 $125
Black Label’s renaissance seems to have begun in about 1996 and to have gathered pace with the arrival of winemaker Caroline Dunn, the opening of a new small-batch cellar at the Blass winery in 2001, the encouragement of Fosters’ chief winemaker, Chris Hatcher, and the co-operation of John Glaetzer, Wolf’s original winemaker. From the great 2002 vintage, this one has the succulent depth of superior fruit and the tight structure to evolve for many years. Unusually for Black Label it contains more shiraz than cabernet – a vintage aberration, says Hatcher, as subsequent vintage return to cabernet predominance. A stunning wine.

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz & Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2003 $19 to $26
The release of Penfolds bin number reds is an important event for the simple reason that the line provides such reliable drinking and cellaring. And strong consumer interest, invariably leads to near-cost discounting with Canberra prices this week as low as $18.95. Bins 28 and 128 are the warm-climate, cool-climate shirazes of the range — the former robust and chocolaty, the latter supple and driven by lovely ripe-berry flavours. My only caveat is that both samples had poor corks: wine penetration was half the length of the Bin 128 cork and one centimetre into Bin 28’s. That’s not good enough for wines of this calibre.

Penfolds Bin 138 Barossa Valley Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2004 $19 to $26
Grenache lacks the popular appeal of shiraz. Its musk-like fragrance and sometimes confection-like flavours in youth don’t always register as red wine. So, if you don’t like grenache, you probably won’t like Bin 138 at present. For despite the beautiful, plush depth of flavour and real red-wine structure, grenache is the keynote. However, with a reliable screw cap seal (and great track record) this one has the stuffing to evolve to a more earthy and savoury style over the next five to ten years as the primary grenache highnotes mellow, allowing the generous shiraz and firm mourvedre to flourish.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Hanging Rock Heathcote Cambrian Rise Shiraz 2003 $27
Winemaker John Ellis calls this the ‘son’ of Hanging Rock’s flagship $55 shiraz reviewed last week – and it is very much a chip off the old block. At half the price, it offers great value as it has the rich flavour, silky smoothness and finesse of Heathcote shiraz, albeit without the extraordinary concentration of its parent. It’s a blend from various vineyards sprinkled along the red soils — supposedly of Cambrian origin – on the eastern slopes of the north-south orientated Mount Camel Range – heart of Victoria’s Heathcote region. Cambrian Rise should drink well and evolve for up to ten years if well cellared.

McWilliams Hunter Valley Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon 2000 $45
One year before Max Schubert created Grange Hermitage, Maurice O’Shea made the first semillon from the Lovedale vineyard – a flat, sandy and unprepossessing site, planted in 1946. Known variously, over the years, as Lovedale Riesling, Anne Riesling and, finally, Lovedale Semillon, the wine has become a long-lived benchmark of the unique, idiosyncratic Hunter style. This new release, from the very cool 2000 vintage, seems to be particularly slow maturing. Less than a year ago it showed the grassy, sauvignon-blanc-like character of the cool year. It’s now slipped into a more lemony, taut, typical and glorious Hunter semillon mode with decades of life ahead.

Rochford Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir 2003 $29
This is a step up in price and quality from the very good Rochford Latitude pinot noir reviewed a few weeks ago. At $19 it offered a convincing introduction to pinot noir. For an extra $8 a bottle this one — sourced from mature vines located 600 metres above sea level in Victoria’s Macedon region – takes the experience another step or two towards the real excitement offered by Burgundy’s classic red variety. The pale colour belies the heady, seductive perfume, great fruit depth and tight but very fine structure of a truly delicious red made to savour over the next 3 to 4 years.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007

Hanging Rock Heathcote Shiraz 2003, about $55
This one’s got class stamped all over it – a wonderful red from one of Australia’s leading shiraz producing regions, stretched along the red-soils-above-Cambrian-bedrock of the Mount Camel Range, Victoria. The label declares an alcohol content of 15 per cent. But there’s nothing heavy about the wine.  The colour’s a brilliant crimson-rimmed red and it’s extraordinarily rich and concentrated yet finely structured. The flavours sit in the ripe, cool-climate spectrum with intense, sweet plummy fruit and a savour note. The deep flavour, elegant structure and great balance all point to good medium to long term cellaring.

Meeting Place Canberra Region Viognier 2004 $15
I recommended this last year prior to release and tasted it again recently. It’s terrific. Sourced from a company-managed vineyard at Holt, it’s a blend of tank-fermented and wild-yeast, oak-fermented components. It’s pure viognier from first sniff to last drop. That means an exotic, heady apricot aroma and flavour and a round, soft, slightly viscous texture. There’s certainly a ‘wow’ factor in full-blown viognier, although food matching can be difficult. So drink it on its own or perhaps as winemaker Alex McKay suggests, with pear and Gorgonzola salad. Made to enjoy now.

Houghton Shiraz 2003 $9 to $12
Houghton is the Western Australian arm of Hardy Wine Company, itself a subsidiary of US owned Constellation brands. With over 1000 hectares of vines under its control in the cooler southerly parts of the West, Houghton offers everything from the sublime depths of its Jack Mann and John Gladstones wines to the delicious, big-value white label range, with a lineage going back 60-odd years. Winemaker Rob Bowen tells me the 2003 shiraz comes principally from Frankland River and Mount Barker regions of Great Southern. This explains the wine’s medium body, tight structure and savoury varietal flavour. Brilliant value, especially on special under $10.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2006 & 2007