Coldstream Hills Reserve Chardonnay 2014
Yarra Valley, Victoria
$52.25–$60
Gold medal winner, National Wine Show of Australia. Coldstream Reserve impressed at the National Wine Show. A few days later, in a line up of Coldstream Hills chardonnays dating back to the 1988 vintage, the 2014 Reserve stood out for the volume of aroma and powerful but very fine flavours. It combined all the elements of opulent, barrel-fermented chardonnay. The magnificent screwcap-sealed 2005 and 2006 vintages alongside it, demonstrated the wine’s impeccable provenance and cellaring capacity. If you want something truly memorable for Christmas lunch, or as a gift, this is one of Australia’s time-proven greats.

Jacob’s Creek Classic Pinot Grigio 2015
South Eastern Australia
$5.65–$10
It probably surprised Jacob’s Creek winemakers Bernard Hickin and Rebekah Richardson as much as it did the judges at the Australian National Wine. How does a sub-$10 wine top the pinot grigio class, then take on all comers to win the “best dry white other varieties” trophy? It reveals the levelling effect of masked tasting. Made in the bright and fruity light-bodied style (11.5 per cent alcohol) Jacob’s Creek offers pear-like varietal flavour, smooth texture and fresh, dry finish. Richardson says she sources grapes principally from the hot riverland regions, with “bits and bobs” from cooler sites.

Wynns Black Label Shiraz 2012
Coonawarra, South Australia
$24.85–$35
A few years back, Wynns introduced Black Label Shiraz, priced between the ever-popular grey label ($14–$22) and flagship Michael Shiraz ($114–$120). The 2012 appealed very much on its release in mid 2014 and again on the tasting bench last week at the National Wine Show of Australia, where it won a gold medal. The silky, medium bodied cool-climate style appeals even more with that extra bottle age. And surprisingly it’s still around in some retail outlets, alongside the current release (and equally good) 2013.

Eddystone Point Riesling 2014
Derwent and Coal River Valleys, Tasmania
$23.80–$27
In awarding the National Wine Show’s “best riesling” trophy to Eddystone Point, chair of judges Jim Chatto commented, “The judges deliberated over three wonderful expressions of riesling. Two in the classic citrus and floral styles of the Eden and Clare Valleys, the other a complex and spicy, off-dry, cool-climate expression from Tasmania”. In a similar comparison after the show, we noted the wine’s Germanic, apple-like flavours and the fine, intense acidity which offset the low-level sweetness and accentuated the delightful flavour.

S.C. Pannell Grenache Shiraz Touriga 2014
McLaren Vale, South Australia
$30
Gold medal and two trophies, National Wine Show of Australia. Steve Pannell’s juicy blend wowed a group of tasters in a post-wine-show tasting, just as it did the judges a week earlier. The musk-like fragrance of grenache lures the drinker to a joyously fruity, fleshy, slurpy palate. Pannell writes, “Grenache brings lifted aromatics and its trademark sandy tannins, shiraz chimes in with red fruits, spice and weight, whilst the touriga, a lusty, powerful Portuguese variety, adds pungent fruit characteristics of plum pudding, dried spices and floral notes”. It’s an irresistible medium bodied red to wallow in right now.

West Cape Howe Tempranillo 2014
Perth Hills and Frankland River, Western Australia
$17–$22
Gold medal and trophy, National Wine Show of Australia. West Cape Howe tempranillo combines fruit from the warmer Perth Hills and cooler Frankland region, located almost 400km south-east of Perth. Winemaker Gavin Berry says the Perth Hills component contributes earthy, savoury characters while the cool-grown Frankland component provides spicy and berry flavours. The combination gives a richly flavoured, medium-bodied red with deliciously vibrant red-berry-like flavours. Mouth-puckering tannins soon push through the fruit, reminding us tempranillo is a feisty Spanish variety, best enjoyed with savoury food.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 15 and 16 December 2015 in the goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times

Riesling and shiraz remain Canberra’s trump cards by a country mile, so they feature prominently in my 2015 selections. While each comes in a regional style, the wines selected represent various hues along that style spectrum.

When we extend our search to neighbouring regions along the Great Divide, the palate of mainstream varieties opens considerably. Higher, cooler Orange and Tumbarumba provide graceful, modern chardonnays. Orange and Hilltops give us outstanding cabernet sauvignon – one for the cellar and a lower priced version to enjoy now.

Complementing mainstream wines, our embrace of so-called alternative varieties adds a couple of delicious Canberra-grown wines to the menu: the Austrian white, gruner veltliner, and Spain’s red tempranillo. Hilltops shows its diversity with three Italian red varieties – nebbiolo, and a blend of rondinella and corvina. And Tumbarumba contributes a juicy gamay, the red grape of France’s Beaujolais region.

In future years our winemakers will likely offer even greater diversity. A poll I conducted in September revealed 23 Canberra wineries now work with 14 alternative red varieties, while 17 process five alternative whites.

Many more wines might easily have been included in the list but for various reasons could not. These include high quality, small-production wines that simply sold out. While another, gold-medal-winning Lerida Estate Josephine Pinot Noir 2014, made the grade but won’t be released until 2016.

With the exception of Penfolds Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2014, the wines in the list come from small producers and are not widely distributed. It’s the nature of our local, boutique wine industry. It means in many cases buying direct from the producer – a please weekend activity – or a phone call to find where wines are stocked.

Happy hunting and merry Christmas.

TOP 10 WHITES

1. Ross Hill Pinnacle Series Chardonnay 2014 $35
   Ross Hill Griffin Road vineyard, Orange, NSW
   The varied altitudes (and climates) of the Robson family’s vineyard (750 to 1000 metres) gives winemakers Phil and Rochelle Kerney an extraordinary palate of varieties to work with. Chardonnay comes from the family’s Griffin Road vineyard at 750 metres. Handpicked, whole-bunch pressed and fermented spontaneously in French oak barrels, it’s about as natural as wine gets. It showed great promise tasted from barrel about a year ago and now delivers on that promise: a seamless, plush, vibrant chardonnay, combining cool-climate, grapefruit-and-nectarine varietal flavour with the textural richness and flavour nuances derived from fermentation and maturation in barrel.
2. Penfolds Chardonnay Bin 311 2014 $35.15–$40
   Tumbarumba, NSW
   Ultra-fresh Bin 311 2014 combines melon-rind and grapefruit-like varietal flavours with the texture and the slightly funky, biscuity influence of fermentation and maturation on yeast lees, without obvious oak flavours. The wine is an offshoot of Penfolds Australia-wide quest for the best chardonnay it could make. The $180 a bottle Yattarna was the result. But its by-product, Bin 311, is as good an expression of Tumbarumba chardonnay as you’ll find.
3. 3. Lark Hill Gruner Veltliner 2015 $45
   Lark Hill vineyard, Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, NSW
   Lark Hill 2015 gruner veltliner surpasses the quality of its very good 2014, created in a very difficult season. In contrast, “2015 provided optimum vintage conditions and we picked higher than normal quantities of fruit, with incredible quality and intensity”, writes winemaker Chris Carpenter. The intensely flavoured, deeply textured white supports Carpenter’s excitement. A multi-dimensional expression of this Austrian variety, it tingles and thrills with lemon- and melon-rind -like tartness on a sensuous palate, with a subtle rasp of skin tannins and taut, invigorating acid.
4. Clonakilla Riesling 2015 $30–$35
   Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   Clonakilla’s 2015 riesling could be the finest of the 40 vintages made to date. Very young rieslings tend not to reveal all their fruit flavours and take many months, sometimes years, to flourish. However, the 2015 already reveals great purity and intensity and is my favourite of the Canberra 2015 rieslings tasted to date. It topped the riesling class at the Canberra regional wine show and earned several trophies.
5. Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2015 $35
   Helm and neighbouring vineyards, Nanima Valley, Canberra District, NSW
   In the subtly varying world of Canberra riesling, Ken Helm heads down a different path than, say, Ravensworth or Clonakilla. Helm keeps his Classic Dry bone dry, with residual sugar of just 2.5 grams a litre and comparatively low alcohol of11.8 per cent. It’s therefore lean and delicate and, at this very early stage of development, with floral aromas and intense lemon-like varietal flavours. Gold medal winner at the Canberra regional wine show.
6. The Vintner’s Daughter Riesling 2015 $28
   Vintner’s Daughter vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   Ken Helm’s daughter, Stephanie and husband Ben Osborne’s first riesling showed early class, winning trophies as best riesling of the 2015 Winewise Small Vignerons Awards and best Canberra riesling of the International Riesling Challenge. It’s absolutely delicious, delivering pure, varietal, floral and citrus flavours, cut through with shimmering, fresh acidity. A small amount of residual grape sugar rounds and softens the palate, but it remains fine, delicate, dry and suited to medium-term cellaring.
7. Capital Wines Gundaroo Vineyard Riesling 2015 $28
   Gundaroo, Canberra District, NSW
   In 1998, Mark and Jennie Moonie planted Geisenheim clones of riesling at Gundaroo. They sold the vineyard to Ruth and Steve Lambert in 2004. But in 2013, by now co-owners of Capital Wines, they bought grapes from the vineyard for a special single-vineyard riesling. This, the third vintage, is in the tight, slow-evolving style typical of winemaker Andrew McEwin. It’s delicate, yet steely with delicious citrus like varietal flavour just beginning to push through.
8. Nick O’Leary “White Rocks” Riesling 2013 $37
   Westering vineyard, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
   Canberra winemaker Nick O’Leary sources grapes for White Rocks from one of Canberra’s oldest vineyards, planted by Captain Geoff Hood in 1973. These venerable old vines, with huge trunks, produce tiny crops of powerfully flavoured grapes. O’Leary’s definitely onto something special with this unique, powerful yet delicate riesling, with its intense, citrusy varietal flavour and invigorating, lemony-tart finish. This is another notch above the excellent 2013 reviewed last year.
9. Ravensworth Riesling 2015 $25
   Murrumbateman and Wamboin, Canberra District, NSW
   Acidic young Canberra rieslings can be “a bit of an ordeal without sugar”, says winemaker Bryan Martin. To soften Clonakilla and Ravensworth rieslings, he blends in a splash of unfermented juice to offset the acidity. With Ravensworth, Martin combines a pure, protectively made component with material spontaneously fermented on skins, grape solids and lees. The blend presents lemony tart, delicious Canberra riesling with the added flesh and grip contributed by the spontaneously fermented component. Gold medal winner.
10. Gallagher Blanc de Blanc 2010 $50
    Gallagher vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
    Greg Gallagher’s 2009 vintage won a silver medal at the Canberra regional wine show. It sold out in November. But the 2010’s just as good. A full-bodied style, it offers really fresh and vibrant melon-like varietal flavours, with the patina of brioche-like flavours and creamy, chewy texture derived from ageing on yeast lees in bottle for five years. Gallagher makes, bottles, matures and despatches his outstanding bubblies from his own purpose-built cellars.

TOP 10 REDS

1. Freeman Rondinella Corvina Secco 2010 $35
   Freeman vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
   Brian Freeman’s blend emulates the highly distinctive Amarone reds of Valpolicella, Italy, made by co-fermenting fresh-picked and dehydrated rondinella and corvina grapes. Freeman dries part of his rondinella and corvina grapes in a neighbour’s prune dehydrator, then ferments it with fresh-picked material. Freeman’s 2010 presents very strong, sour-cherry- and port-like flavours, meshed with the distinct aromas and flavours of oak, on a potent and tannic palate that some will love and others will hate.
2. Moppity Vineyards Lock and Key Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $14–$18
   Moppity vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
   After much TLC in the vineyard, and several changes of contract winemaker, we’re seeing the best wines yet from Jason and Alecia Brown’s Moppity vineyard. This is perhaps best seen when a great vintage like 2013 comes along. For a modest sum, Lock and Key provides a pure, fruity expression of cabernet, with cassis-like flavour, subtle, complementary oak and an elegant structure. You get a lot of wine for the price.
3. Ross Hill Pinnacle Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $40
   Ross Hill Griffin Road vineyard, Orange, NSW
   In 2013, The Ridge, a section of the Robson family’s Griffin vineyard, produced evenly ripened cabernet of a quality rarely seen in Orange. Winemaker Phil Kerney successfully captured the varietal flavour and richness of those grapes. A deep, vividly coloured wine, Pinnacle shows equally vivid, ripe berry flavours in a deep, sweet palate, cut through with cabernet’s assertive, ripe tannins. This is powerful, harmonious and elegant cabernet with good cellaring potential.
4. Ravensworth Charlie Foxtrot Gamay Noir 2014 $30
   Johansen vineyard, Tumbarumba, NSW
   Earlier this year winemaker Bryan Martin eagerly accepted a small parcel of red gamay grapes from the Johansen vineyard, Tumbarumba. With fruity, drink-now Beaujolais in mind, Martin picked the brains of a visiting French winemaker. The Frenchman contacted winemaking mates in Beaujolais and voila, Ravensworth Gamay Noir emerged. Fleshy, fruity and delicious it provides huge drink-now pleasure. It won a gold medal and trophy at the Canberra regional wine show.
5. Mount Majura Vineyard Tempranillo 2014 $45
   Mount Majura, Canberra District, ACT
   After the deeper, darker 2013 vintage, Mount Majura 2014 reveals a fragrant, fruity side of Canberra-grown tempranillo. The aroma and palate both suggest ripe, red berry characters, which push through the variety’s distinctive firm but fine tannins. The bright fruit character gives the wine tremendous drink-now appeal – though the tannins and underlying savouriness should see it evolve for three or four years in bottle.
6. Capital Wines Kyeema Tempranillo Shiraz 2014 $36
   Kyeema vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   Capital wines offers two tempranillos – the bright, fruity, irresistible Ambassador 2014 ($25) and this denser, deeper blend of tempranillo and shiraz, sourced from the Kyeema vineyard. The combination works seamlessly. Tempranillo’s blueberry-like fruit flavour and firm, fine tannins, remain. But shiraz adds spicy flavours and flesh to the mid palate. It’s an elegant and satisfying red, made by veteran Canberra winemaker Andrew McEwin.

7. Ravensworth Nebbiolo 2014 $35
   Hilltops, NSW
   As Bryan Martin and David Reist launched their book, Tongue and Cheek, in March, guests quaffed Martin’s 2014 nebbiolo. The Piedmontese variety makes lighter coloured, highly fragrant reds of great power and elegance, with firm, grippy tannins. Martin’s wine sits at the darker end of the nebbiolo scale, with alluring fragrance and a round, soft palate. The tannins do come back and bite in the end, but this is already a friendly and distinctive drink.
8. Collector Reserve Shiraz 2013 $58
   Kyeema and Nanima vineyards, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
   In a masked tasting of 20 Canberra 2013 vintage shirazes last year, Collector Reserve rated very highly on first tasting, and even higher after a second, closer look. It presents a deeply layered spicy, savoury, fruity, supple side of Canberra shiraz. It’s one of the best from district in the great 2013 vintage and has the advantage of being still available. It should cellar extremely well.

9. Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz 2014 $36–$48
   Murrumbateman and Hall, Canberra District, NSW
   We compared O’Riada to Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2014 ($90–$100) and Hilltops Shiraz 2014 ($28–$33). Six tasters enjoyed the solid Hilltops wine, but as the night wore on, the levels in the other two bottles declined rapidly. Ultimately, in vocal opinions, as well as volume consumed, the intense, silky shiraz viognier won the day by a comfortable, but not wide, margin, over the classy, harmonious O’Riada, a gold medal winner at the Canberra regional wine show.
10. Nick O’Leary Shiraz 2014 $30
    Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
    Nick O’Leary’s 2014 shiraz topped its class at this year’s Canberra regional wine show. A month later, judges at the NSW Wine Industry Awards named it NSW Wine of the Year. The limpid 2014 offers sweet and alluring red-berry and spice aromas. The vibrant, fresh, medium-bodied palate precisely reflects the aroma, with its spicy, rich, berry fruit flavours. Soft, silky tannins give the wine its smooth texture and gentle finish.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 1 and 2 December 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Hesketh Lost Weekend Chardonnay 2014 $12
Georgina Hart’s romantic label sets the tone for a bright, fresh chardonnay, with extra flavour and structure contributed by ageing about a fifth of the blend in new French-oak barriques. Marketer Jonathon Hesketh and winemaker Phil Lehmann write, “The wine is effectively used to season the new oak, which then goes on to its real job of ageing premium reds”. While the oak adds to the dimension of the aroma and flavour, fresh melon-like varietal character of the Coonawarra fruit gives the wine delicious, drink-now appeal.

Paladino Puglia Sangiovese 2014 $15
Vintage House, a distribution business belonging to the Angove family, imports Paladino from the Rocca family of Puglia, Italy. The wine provides a medium bodied, savoury alternative to Australian red-wine styles. Savoury, in this sense, means flavours more akin to, say, black olives than ripe fruit. The wine’s lean, grippy tannins further hold the fruit in check. But the varietal flavour pushes through in a teasing, tart, sour-cherry way that works well with the tannins. The savouriness and bity tannins perfectly suit savoury foods, but don’t invite stand-alone drinking.

Lerida Estate Lake George Cullerin Pinot Noir 2014 $35
Lerida Estate dominated the pinot class at the 2015 Canberra regional wine show, winning gold medals for its 2014 estate ($26) and Josephine ($65) pinots and a bronze medal for this wine. All three come from Lerida’s vineyard, located at around 700 metres altitude, on the lower slopes of the Cullerin Range, flanking the western side of Lake George. The cool site reliably ripens pinot every year, says owner Jim Lumbers. And after years of adjusting vine management and winemaking techniques with winemaker Malcolm Burdett, the wines show more intense fruit and softer tannins – as in this light, fragrant, mildly grippy style.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 28 and 29 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Nick O’Leary “White Rocks” Riesling 2013
Westering vineyard, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
$37
Canberra winemaker Nick O’Leary sources grapes for White Rocks from one of Canberra’s oldest vineyards, planted by Captain Geoff Hood in 1973. These venerable old vines, with huge trunks, produce tiny crops of powerfully flavoured grapes. O’Leary’s definitely onto something special with this unique, powerful yet delicate riesling, with its intense, citrusy varietal flavour and invigorating, lemony-tart finish. This is another notch above the excellent 2013 reviewed last year. O’Leary says the old, unirrigated vines yielded just two tonnes to the hectare.

Nick O’Leary Shiraz 2014 $30
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$30
Nick O’Leary’s 2014 shiraz topped its class at this year’s Canberra regional wine show. A month later, judges at the NSW Wine Industry Awards named it NSW Wine of the Year, a double for O’Leary after winning the same award in 2014. The limpid 2014 offers sweet and alluring red-berry and spice aromas. The vibrant, fresh, medium-bodied palate precisely reflects the aroma, with its spicy, rich, berry fruit flavours and underlying savouriness. Soft, silky tannins give the wine its smooth texture, gentle finish and elegant structure.

Capital Wines The Whip Riesling 2015
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$19
Capital’s wines, white and red, share a trait – what wine judges call “closed” or “tight”. The jargon appears pejorative, suggesting something unpleasant or unapproachable. In fact, the words generally refer to wines in which structural elements – acid for whites, tannin for reds – initially mask the underlying fruit flavours. The Whip certainly falls into this category as the lemony acid zings across the palate. But a bit of aeration, or bottle age, reveals a slowly blossoming and delicious fruit flavour. The acid then accentuates the fruit, preserves it over time and provides a refreshing dry finish.

Capital Wines The Frontbencher Shiraz 2013
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$25
In a fast-paced masked tasting of 20 Canberra 2013-vintage shirazes last year, The Frontbencher led with its tannin structure. The underlying fruit barely peeped through. Fourteen months later, a more relaxed Frontbencher reveals sweet and spicy berry-like varietal flavour welling up through the still assertive tannins. The two harmonise, giving a taut, savoury dry red of great appeal.

Gallagher Blanc de Blanc 2010 $50
Gallagher vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
$50
Greg Gallagher’s 2009 Blanc de Blanc won a silver medal at the Canberra regional wine show. It’s almost old out in November. But the equally good 2010 is due for release on 1 December. A full-bodied style, it offers really fresh and vibrant melon-like varietal flavours, with the patina of brioche-like flavours and creamy, chewy texture derived from ageing on yeast lees in bottle for five years. Gallagher makes, bottles, matures and despatches his outstanding bubblies from his own purpose-built cellars at Murrumbateman.

Lark Hill Riesling 2015
Lark Hill vineyard, Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, NSW
$35
Lark Hill’s riesling vines, planted in 1978, sit a couple of hundred metres higher than most of their Canberra district peers. The higher altitude means cooler, later ripening and, for the resultant wine, a notably different flavour and structure to those grown on lower, warmer sites. The aroma, reminiscent of some German rieslings, combines apple-like character with Australian riesling’s more familiar lime-like intensity. A richly textured palate delivers the same flavours, strung along a fine, assertive acid backbone.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 24 and 25 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Lark Hill Gruner Veltliner 2015
Lark Hill vineyard, Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, NSW
$45
Lark Hill 2015 gruner veltliner surpasses the quality of its very good 2014, created in a very difficult season. In contrast, “2015 provided optimum vintage conditions and we picked higher than normal quantities of fruit, with incredible quality and intensity”, writes winemaker Chris Carpenter. The intensely flavoured, deeply textured white supports Carpenter’s excitement. A multi-dimensional expression of this Austrian variety, it tingles and thrills with lemon- and melon-rind -like tartness on a sensuous palate, with a subtle rasp of skin tannins and taut, invigorating acid.

Taylors Estate Shiraz 2014
Clare Valley, South Australia
$13.95–$18
Taylors cheap and cheery 2014 Estate Shiraz beat several big names – including $147 Wolf Blass Platinum Label and $58 Seppelt St Peters – to pull off first place in the 2015 Great Australian Shiraz Challenge. The award came on top of its trophy for best shiraz in the Perth Royal Wine Show and nine gold medals awarded at various events. The wine’s vivid fruit booms out of the glass and precisely predicts the juicy, soft palate that follows. Little wonder the judges ranked it so highly in a no-doubt daunting line up of robust young reds.

Seppelt Drumborg Pinot Noir 2013
Seppelt Drumborg vineyard, Henty, Victoria
$40–$52
The very cool Drumborg vineyard, located near the southwestern Victorian coast, struggled for decades after Karl Seppelt established it in 1964. From the early 1980s, Seppelt renovated and extended the vineyard. In 1986 and the mid nineties they added extensively to the original pinot plantings of 1966 and 1968. In the early 2000s, Emma Wood succeeded Ian McKenzie as winemaker, and in 2012 she passed the baton, via Adam Wadewitz, to Adam Carnaby. In the warm and sunny 2013 season, Carnaby made this idiosyncratic, exciting pinot: low in alcohol (12.5 per cent); vivid but pale in colour; then layered and strong in aroma and flavour. Delicate fruit sits in a matrix with spicy, savoury and stalky characters and firm, fine tannins. It should evolve in bottle for ten years or more.

Stella Bella Tempranillo 2013
Margaret River, Western Australia
$25.50–$35
Spanish red variety, tempranillo, finds a number of expressions in Australia, from full and fleshy to lean and tannic. Climate largely determines the style, though winemaking approach also contributes. Stella Bella sits toward the lighter, tighter end of the style spectrum, influenced by both of these factors. The bright, limpid colour points to the medium body confirmed in a fresh, taut palate that combines fruity and savoury elements. Fine tannins sweep across the palate giving bite to the dry finish.

Wilson Watervale Riesling 2015
Watervale, southern Clare Valley, South Australia
$19
Wilson Watervale riesling won a gold medal the 2015 Royal Melbourne Wine Show. The judges were perhaps attracted by its bold and powerful style – a contrast to the often delicate, lime-like rieslings from this Clare Valley sub-region. However, the Wilsons say they sought vineyards “offering the most powerful aromatic wines”. Their preference shows in this highly aromatic white, with its full, intense flavour and delicious lemony dryness.

Penfolds Max’s Shiraz and Max’s Shiraz Cabernet 2013
Multi-region, South Australia
$28.50–$35
Shortly after launching its $450 The Max Schubert Cabernet Shiraz 2012, Penfolds released two reds under a new Max’s label. Like the more expensive wine, the new releases exploit the legacy of Grange creator, the late Max Schubert. Whether the new wines attract customers or simply confuse us all remains to be seen. The shiraz offers vibrant, full varietal fruit flavour in typically tannic but approachable Penfolds style. The blend does likewise, with the added grip of cabernet sauvignon. These are good, sturdy wines, but fully priced in the current market, even when discounted to $28.50.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 17 and 18 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times

Sancerre (Domaine des Grosses Pierres) 2013 $19–$28
This delightful unoaked French sauvignon blanc showed up in a masked tasting alongside oak-fermented 10X Mornington Peninsula Sauvignon Blanc 2014 ($28). They’re both comparatively delicate sauvignons, though poles apart in style. The 10X wine showed varietal tang and herbaceousness, overlaid with the rich texture and charry aroma derived from barrel fermentation. The wine from Sancerre, Loire Valley, on the other hand showed delicately herbal and tropical-fruit-like flavours, with great freshness and vivacity. The lightness and purity of the wine is preserved by a screwcap and therefore a safer buy than cork-sealed wines from sauvignon’s French heartland.

Mr Mick Clare Valley Novo Sangiovese 2015 $12.80–$17
Many years back the success of the light, fruity, young reds of France’s Beaujolais region fanned a brief craze for Australian lookalikes. Winemakers large and small plunged in. However, demand for both the French and local versions quickly receded and Australians reverted to drinking big, solid reds. The release of Tim Adams’ Novo Sangiovese 2015, sparked memories of those vibrant, light and fruity styles. It’s a wine to enjoy lightly chilled, with or without food, during the warm months. The light crimson colour, shimmering, summer-berry flavours and tart tannins provide easy, refreshing drinking.

Richmond Grove Limited Release McLaren Vale Shiraz 2012 $12.90–$22
The term “limited release” surely means little on a widely distributed, deeply discounted red from one of Australia’s largest wine groups, French-owned Pernod Ricard Australia. Not in question though is the wine’s quality, authenticity and sheer good value. It combines the bright, fresh, pure varietal flavours of modern winemaking, with the deeper savoury character of McLaren Vale shiraz. Oak maturation also adds to the savouriness, while building richness on the mid palate and mellowing the wine’s earthy tannins.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 14 and 15 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Times

Hurley Vineyard Hommage and Garamond Pinot Noirs 2013
Hommage and Garamond vineyards, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
$70 and $85
This review covers two Hurley Vineyard 2013 pinots – one from the Hommage block ($70), the other from Garamond block ($85). They were tasted masked, then, after unveiling, consumed over the next hour or so. Hommage shows a vibrant, ripe, pure and mouth-filling side of pinot – fragrant, generous and round, but with a good backbone of soft tannin. The more intense Garamond shows pinot’s tighter, leaner face, with stemmy and savoury characters woven in with the fruit, and quite firm tannins attenuating a long, satisfying finish.

Chapel Hill The Parson Shiraz 2014
McLaren Vale, South Australia
$15.20–$18
Winemakers Michael Fragos and Bryn Richards consistently turn out excellent McLaren Vale reds. While the best of these sell for around $75, the winemakers take their entry-level shiraz very seriously indeed. The Parson captures the essence of modern McLaren Vale shiraz. Bright, fresh and clean, it combines plummy varietal flavours, which dominate the wine now, with the Vale’s earthy savour and fine but grippy tannins. Bigger retailers discount the wine regularly, currently to $15.20 in six bottle lots. This is a bargain.

Yering Station Chardonnay 2013
Yering Station vineyards, Yarra Valley, Victoria
$40
Where riesling largely expresses varietal fruit flavours, unadorned by winemaker inputs, the best chardonnays carry the winemaker’s thumbprint. In modern Australian winemaking that means aromas, flavours and textures introduced by fermentation and maturation in oak barrels – plus other factors, including whether grape solids are included in the ferment, the type of yeast (inoculated or indigenous) and whether malolactic fermentation occurs, either partially or fully. Yering Station builds on juicy, vivid grapefruit- and -nectarine-like varietal flavour with barrel-derived texture and funky aroma.

Richmond Grove Limited Release Riesling 2015
Watervale, Southern Clare Valley, South Australia
$18.05–$22
Way back in 1998, inspired by winemaker John Vickery, Richmond Grove led the modern charge into screw caps – arguably the wine industry’s greatest quality breakthrough in a generation. Vickery retired from Richmond Grove in 2009, but his winemaking style continues with this delicious riesling. From the warm 2015 vintage, it’s fuller and rounder than usual, but remains packed with Watervale’s signature lime-like aromas and flavours and brisk, refreshing finish.

Pouilly-Fume Close des Criots (Domaine Christian Salmon) 2013
$32.90–$39
Before Marlborough seized Australia’s sauvignon blanc market, what little of the variety Australians enjoyed came mainly from Pouilly-sur-Loire and Sancerre in France’s Loire Valley. This excellent Pouilly-Fume shows a shy, demure side of sauvignon, the antithesis of Marlborough’s uber-fruity style. Herbal and savoury varietal flavours come on a fresh, soft, supple, smooth-textured palate. Loire sauvignons can be green and austere, but this one offers ripe flavours and slips down easily. Available at Jim Murphy’s Airport Cellars. (Stocks of the 2013 vintage are low but the 2014 is being distributed).

Colvin Wines Sangiovese 2005
De Beyers Vineyard, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, NSW
$33.35–$35
The Colvin family owns De Beyers vineyard, located near Tyrrells at the base of the Brokenback Ranges – a majestic backdrop to the lower Hunter Valley wine region. The family grows Hunter staples, semillon and shiraz, but added Tuscany’s sangiovese in 1995 and 1996. Though Tyrrells now make the wine, this early vintage was made by the late Trevor Drayton, a good friend of John Colvin. Ten years after vintage, the medium-bodied wine combines freshness and sweet fruit with the mellow flavours of age, a unique Hunter earthiness and tender tannins. It’s available in limited quantities, along with other vintages, at colvinwines.com.au.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 10 and 11 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Greywacke Pinot Noir 2013
Yarrum and other vineyards, southern valleys, Marlborough, New Zealand
$40–$45
Marlborough makes its red specialty, pinot noir, mostly in the light and fruity, drink-now style. However, the area’s cool, sunny climate suits the variety and the best equal those of more glamorous New Zealand pinot regions like Central Otago and Martinborough. Kevin Judd’s Greywacke is one of those. His beautifully harmonious, 2013 delivers deep, ripe, varietal flavours, meshed with the earthy, savoury, smoky flavours and silky texture of great pinot noir.

Soumah Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2014
Soumah vineyard, Gruyere, Yarra Valley, Victoria
$31–$40
Soumah 2014 topped the chardonnay classes at this year’s Royal Sydney Wine Show to win the chardonnay trophy, then the best-white-of-show trophy. The judges no doubt loved the completeness of a wine built on outstanding stone-fruit and grapefruit-like varietal flavour, with the extra dimension contributed by skilled winemaking: barrel fermentation with indigenous yeast, barrel maturation and partial malolactic fermentation (converting harsh malic acid to soft lactic acid). That all adds up to a full-bodied, smooth-textured, refined chardonnay, seasoned with barrel-derived flavours.

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Shiraz 2014
Padthaway, Coonawarra and Bordertown, Limestone Coast, South Australia
$10.90–$18
On a quality basis, Jacob’s Creek Reserve justifies its full $18 recommended price. But why pay that when it’s perennially discounted, currently to $10.90 as part of a six-bottle buy? Lap it up and let the marketers worry about how they differentiate it from the standard Jacob’s Creek brand. The 2014 delivers pure, vibrant varietal fruit flavours on a medium-bodied, elegantly structured palate.

d’Arenberg d’Arry’s Original Shiraz Grenache 2013
McLaren Vale, South Australia
$16–$19
d’Arry Osborn popularised this rich, warm blend of shiraz and grenache decades ago as d’Arenberg Burgundy. Varietal labelling from the early 1990s made no difference to its quality, style or long-term cellaring ability – the latter a rare thing in sub-$20 reds. The new release shows the extra body and depth of a very good vintage. It offers full-flavoured, bright fruit, deeply layered with firm, satisfying tannins – perhaps a touch firmer and more assertive than usual.

Huntington Estate Semillon 2015
Huntington Estate vineyard, Mudgee, NSW
$22
Huntington Estate, founded in 1969 by Bob and Wendy Roberts, built a reputation as much for its music festival as for its long-lived red wines. Tim Stevens bought Huntington a decade ago and continues making wine in the styles established by Roberts. Stevens’ new semillon, weighing in at just 11.7 per cent alcohol, provides light, lemony, juicy flavours on a soft, drink-now palate. Available at huntingtonestate.com.au.

Tulloch Pokolbin Dry Red Shiraz 2014
Pokolbin, Lower Hunter Valley, NSW
$30
There’s a paradox in Hunter shiraz: a warm to hot region this far north ought to make ink-deep, high-alcohol, big and tannic wines. Instead it makes limpid, medium bodied shiraz of moderate alcohol (13.5 per cent), with soft, silky tannins. The Tulloch family’s 2014, a great example of the regional style, sits light and bright on the palate, with fruit flavours reminiscent of red summer berries. Soft tannins weave through the fruit and together they create a well balanced, satisfying but gentle red. It’s enjoyable now, but a few years’ bottle age should see the Hunter’s earthy characters come into the picture.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 3 and 4 November 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

Balnaves “The Tally” Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010
Balnaves family vineyards, Coonawarra, South Australia
$90
The dense colour and vivid purple meniscus suggest a five-year old of great staying power. The aroma and palate confirm the wine’s youth and could accurately be described as essence of cabernet. Ripe cassis-like varietal flavour saturates a powerful palate, deeply layered with fruit and tannin, part of it oak derived. Despite the wine’s power, it retains Coonawarra’s elegant structure. Were it not for the ProCork seal – a cork coated with a wrinkly, plastic membrane at each end – this would be a five-star wine. Wine has already travelled past the membrane, raising questions about the seal’s long-term integrity, crucial in a potentially very long lived wine.

Lerida Estate Pinot Noir 2014
Lerida vineyard, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
$26.50
Lerida Estate lit up an inconsistent pinot noir class at the local agricultural society’s Canberra and Region Wine Show 2015, winning the only two gold medals among16 entrants. Judges rated the $65 Lerida Josephine 2014 slightly ahead of the $26 wine, which is due for release in about three months, says owner Jim Lumbers. Lerida’s $35 Cullarin Pinot Noir 2014 won a bronze medal in the same class. Lumbers long-term vineyard and winery work on pinot, in conjunction with winemaker Malcolm Burdett, is paying off. He says pinot is the only red variety to ripen reliably on this elevated, cool site. Continuing tweaks to canopy management and winemaking regime produced this aromatic, fine-boned, silky style.

Battle of Bosworth Shiraz 2013
The Hill, Braden’s and Chanticleer vineyards, McLaren Vale, South Australia
$23.75–$25
Nothing fancy about Battle of Bosworth 2013, just a big mouthful of ripe, juicy shiraz flavours, reminiscent of luscious black cherries or, as one taster saw it, sour cherry. In the ripe, early 2013 vintage that lovely fruit flavour remains at the heart of the wine, where in cooler years the spicy and savoury characters of McLaren Vale shiraz tend to be more pronounced. Ripe, soft tannins match the sweet fruit and complete a delicious, drink-now red.

Mount Horrocks Semillon 2014
Watervale, Southern Clare Valley, South Australia
$30
Stephanie Toole’s semillon provides the full body and texture of an oak-fermented white but unique flavours, far removed from our usual oak-fermented tipple, chardonnay. Semillon’s unique lemon- and lemongrass-like characters come through in both the aroma and flavour and give delicious vigour and life to the deep, satisfying palate. The 2014 perhaps shows a little less flesh and more lemongrass character than the 2013.

Traviarti Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Fighting Gully vineyard, Beechworth, Victoria
$30
Simon Grant moved to north-eastern Victoria to head a grape-grower cooperative before buying land in Beechworth. He established a vineyard devoted mainly to Piedmontese variety nebbiolo, with a smaller amount of Spain’s tempranillo. While waiting for his own vineyard to produce, Grant sourced cabernet grapes from Mark Walpole’s neighbouring Fighting Gully Road vineyard. It’s a tasty first effort, offering ripe, well-defined cabernet varietal flavours, with good mid-palate richness (often missing from cabernet) and assertive tannins, which give a firm, dry finish.

d’Arenberg The Hermit Crab Viognier Marsanne 2014
McLaren Vale, South Australia
$14.25–$16
McLaren Vale’s warm climate appears to suit Rhone Valley white varieties viognier and marsanne better than it does chardonnay, riesling and sauvignon blanc. Chester Osborne’s blend puts the bolder of the two varieties, viognier, in the driver’s seat. This gives the wine its distinctive apricot- and ginger-like character and slick texture, ameliorated somewhat by the marsanne. For a reasonable price it provides vibrant, rich, dry drinking with unique flavour and texture.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 27 and 28 October 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times