Clonakilla Canberra District Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2015 $22–$25
We know Clonakilla best for its cutting edge shiraz-viognier blend, shiraz, riesling and viognier. But like many small vignerons, the Kirk family grows many other grape varieties – some planted in the early years to test the region’s potential, and others to meet consumer demand. Sauvignon blanc and semillon fall into both categories and today provides the Kirks, and their followers, with an affordable white quaffer for early drinking. The bone-dry wine brims with vibrant, herbaceous varietal fruit flavours, cut through with refreshing, tingly acid.

Hay Shed Hill Margaret River Pitchfork Cabernet Merlot 2013 $14.25–$16
Pitchfork cabernet merlot offers outstanding drinking for its modest price. And its maker, Michael Kerrigan, explains what’s behind it: “100 per cent Margaret River grapes sourced from a small group of growers that I have worked with for many years. I am determined to give the customer a bottle of wine that exceeds their expectations so they come back for more. The reds are barrel aged for about 10 months in French oak barriques, not tank matured chip or plank treated wines”. This is a lovely, drink-now Margaret River style, based on bright, ripe regional–varietal flavours and structure.

Pikes Clare Valley Eastside Shiraz 2013 $23.75–$28
Riesling, from Germany’s cool Mosel and Rhine rivers, and shiraz, from France’s climatically variable Rhone Valley, may seem strange vineyard partners. Yet they thrive side by side in several Australian regions, notably Canberra, Clare Valley, Eden Valley and Great Southern. If riesling scales the greatest heights at Pikes in the Clare Valley, shiraz offers rich, satisfying flavours, albeit not with the stellar qualities of riesling. In the warm 2013 vintage, their Eastside shiraz offers deep, chewy fruity–earthy flavours mingled with solid but soft tannin.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 15 August 2015 in goodfood.com.au  and the Canberra Tmes

Stella Bella Serie Luminosa Chardonnay 2012
Forest Grove and Gnarawary Road vineyards, Margaret River, Western Australia
$65
Stella Bella’s flagship chardonnay momentarily upstaged a memorable lunch at Canberra’s Chairman and Yip restaurant. Even the Chairman’s signature pungent, chewy, savoury, salted squid couldn’t detract our attention form the wine’s shimmering beauty. This is modern Australia chardonnay at its most luscious, irresistible best. We could strip it down to the component flavours and textures of fruit, barrel-fermentation, malo-lactic fermentation (conversion of austere malic acid to soft lactic acid), maturation on spent yeast cells and a couple of years’ bottle age But these elements all sing together, led by Margaret River’s dazzling fresh, fleshy fruit and completed by the rich, fine texture.

Stella Bella Chardonnay 2012
Margaret River, Western Australia
$29–$32
At about half the price, Stella Bella chardonnay provides much of the drinking thrill of its $65 cellar mate, Serie Luminosa. Like the flagship wine, it’s fermented and matured in high quality French oak barrels and bottle aged for a couple of years before release. And the wine delivers Margaret River’s fleshy, refined fruit flavours, seasoned by all of those winemaking inputs. It provides great sensual pleasure, if not the attention-grabbing intensity, elegance and sheer beauty of the flagship.

Mitolo Angela Shiraz 2013
Sandra’s block, Willunga, McLaren Vale, SA
$33–$35
There’s nothing flashy about Canberra’s Civic Pub. But it’s a comfy watering hole, serving fresh, simple food and fairly priced wine to accompany it. On a cold winter’s day a rare sirloin, with crisp, steamed string beans, a couple of spuds and tangy pepper sauce, paired deliciously with Mitolo Angela Shiraz. What simple pleasure: hot, fresh food and a warming, ripe, fruity­ red, with the savour and soft tannins typical of McLaren Vale. Two blokes, one bottle and happy smiles.

Chateau Les Maurins 2013
Entre-deux-Mers, Bordeaux, France
$9.99
For the first time since the 2010 vintage, this Aldi import landed on the Chateau Shanahan tasting bench. From the region between Bordeaux’s Dordogne and Garonne rivers, the wine offers a ripe fruity aroma, somewhat surprisingly for this cool area. On the palate, powerful, mouth-puckering tannins swamp the fruit, giving a very grippy, dry finish. The style may not please palates used to softer, fruitier Australian reds. But it has its place, preferably with red meats as the protein softens the tannins.

Angullong Fossil Hill Sangiovese 2013
Angullong vineyard, Orange, NSW
$24
Sangiovese, the principle grape of Italy’s Chianti zone, tends to make medium bodied, savoury reds with a notable tannic grip. Fossil Hill Sangiovese, from Orange, NSW, has a light to medium hue and a savoury aroma – reminiscent of tobacco – with a touch of cherry-like fruit. The palate reflects the aroma precisely, combining savour and fresh fruit in a wine of medium body, with fine, firm tannins giving a food-friendly tweak to the finish.

Shaw and Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2015
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
$23.80–$26
Just as Cloudy Bay paved the way for other sauvignon blancs from Marlborough, New Zealand, Shaw and Smith set the pace for Australian styles. And every year, owner Michael Hill-Smith presents the new vintage, fresh from the vine, at a series of Australia-wide lunches. Perhaps there are better drinks than sauvignon on a miserably cold, wet Canberra day. But dozens of trade dutifully attended this year’s launch. Eyeing the reds to follow, we succumbed to the new sauvignon’s charms. It really is as good as the variety gets in Australia, seducing with its dazzling fresh, passionfruit-like juiciness.

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

Torbreck The Struie Shiraz 2013
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
$45–$49
Like a black hole sucking in stars, Torbreck “The Laird” Shiraz 2010 ($700) held 30 tasters captive, powerless to reach the other nine reds on the table. And little wonder. The Laird’s deep, dark power sucked the marrow from our bones and filled our heads with awe. But further out in the Torbreck constellation, we later found the heavenly, if not divine, Struie. Powerful shiraz from the Barossa Valley, tamed by more elegant Eden Valley fruit, gives The Struie sumptuous, earthy, savoury richness, with layers of harmonious flavours and tannins.

Angullong Fossil Hill Barbera 2013
Fossil Hill vineyard, Orange, NSW
$24
Fossil Hill vineyard lies at the lower altitude limit of the Orange region, at around 600 metres. The site successfully ripens northern Italy’s barbera grape and the winemakers successfully capture its zesty, fruity character. They allow about a fifth of the harvest to ferment as whole berries – which means the fermentation begins anaerobically inside the berries, contributing the wine’s fruity freshness. The result is pale to medium coloured red, of medium body, with fresh fruit flavours to the fore, albeit with a savoury edge. Fairly high acidity combines with fine tannins to give a pleasantly tart finish to a distinctive style.

Mad Fish Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2014
Great Southern and Margaret River, Western Australia
$12.50–$18
The Burch family’s budget brand, Mad Fish, benefits from all the care lavished on the more expensive wines sold under its Howard Park, and Marchand and Burch labels. For as little as $12.50 (at time of writing) you can enjoy the pure and distinctive taste of Western Australia’s sauvignon blanc-semillon blend. There’s nothing fancy or complex about the wine. Rather, it captures vigorous herbaceous flavours of the two varieties and throws in the plump and juicy mid palate all too often missing from these blends.

Longview Red Bucket Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Macclesfield and Kuitpo, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
$14.25–$17
Brothers Peter and Mark Saturno provide consistently good drinking with their entry-level Red Bucket wines. The red blend, from two comparatively warm sites in the Adelaide Hills, offers particularly fleshy, ripe flavours in the excellent 2013 vintage. The wine has the bright berry flavours, medium body and elegant structure, expressive of a warm site in a cool region. While shiraz gives a juicy richness to the mid palate, the tell-tale leafy notes of cabernet season the wine and its tannins provide backbone.

Oakridge Local Vineyard Series Arneis 2014
Murrummong vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
$26
Necessity became the mother of Oakridge Arneis when neighbouring winery Yarra Loch no longer wanted the fruit. For ever-inventive winemaker David Bicknell, that meant another white to fiddle with each vintage. The Piedmontese variety tends to be neutral. It therefore challenges winemakers to find a balance between winemaking tricks that add character, or going too far and overwhelming the wine. In the 2014, Bicknell produced a wine of striking melon and citrus aromas and a dry palate of great vitality and interest. It’s available only at oakridgewines.com.au.

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Wynns vineyard, Coonawarra, South Australia
$30.30–$45
The latest Wynns Black Label (due for release 5 August) reflects one of Australia’s longest running, most effective wine-improvement programs. Early this century Wynns winemaker, Sue Hodder, with viticulturist Allen Jenkins, began restructuring Wynns’ massive vineyard holdings and, at the same time, deconstructing (then reconstructing) winemaking processes. A deep understanding of individual vineyard plots has enabled harvesting of multiple, comparatively small grape batches progressively at proper ripeness. A new winery built to handle multiple batches gave Hodder precise control over quality and style. We now see the results in all its varietal purity, elegance and strength in this, Black Label’s sixtieth vintage.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2015
First published 21 and 22 July 2015 in goodfood.com.au and the Canberra Times

The maturity and breadth of our local wine industry shows in this selection of the top-10 whites and top-10 reds of 2014.

The selection could easily have come from the Canberra district alone, so rich are the pickings from vineyards spread at altitudes varying from around 550-metres to 860-metres above sea level.

However, our surrounding regions on the Great Dividing Range, share much with Canberra. They too reveal a spectrum of shades of flavour driven by different grape varieties, different altitudes and latitudes and different approaches to grape growing and winemaking.

The choice, then, remains mostly within the Canberra District, but includes wines from higher, cooler Tumbarumba and Orange, the warmer Hilltops region and one outlier from near sea level at Bermagui, on the NSW south coast.

The mix of regions and winemakers takes us well beyond Canberra’s red and white specialties, riesling and shiraz, though they, deservedly, comprise the majority.

The coast gives us savignan, a savoury white, originally thought to be Spain’s Albarino. Tumbarumba provides two of its specialties – chardonnay and bubbly. Hilltops gives us a purely varietal cabernet sauvignon and an excellent example of Piedmont’s noble red variety, nebbiolo. And Orange contributes a fragrant, silky pinot grown at around 900-metres above sea level.

A spectrum of rieslings and shirazes leads the Canberra line up. But the region’s versatility shows in a marsanne-led white blend, a high altitude local expression of Austria’s gruner veltliner, a tempranillo (Spanish red variety), a sangiovese (Italian red variety), and a red blend of the Rhone Valley varieties grenache, shiraz, mourvedre and cinsault.

These are all small producers and wines may not be widely distributed. Their websites and cellar door generally offer direct sales and, of course, you can phone for details of retail distribution. Half of the thrill is in the hunt.

TOP 10 WHITES

Ravensworth ‘The Grainery’ 2013 $27–$30
Murrumbateman, Canberra District
Winemaker Bryan Martin describes The Grainery 2013 as, “a blend of mainly marsanne, roussanne, chardonnay and viognier, plus a mixture of aromatic varieties, riesling, pinot gris, gewürztraminer and sauvignon blanc”. Whole-bunch pressing and spontaneous fermentation in oak barrels produced a bright, medium-lemon coloured, full flavoured wine. Richly textured, bordering on viscous, with a pleasantly tart, melon-rind-like bite, it’s a most loveable and distinctive dry white.

Rusty Fig Savarino 2014 $16.50–$23
Rusty Fig vineyard, Bermagui, NSW
In 2002, Gary Potts and Frances Perkins planted the 1.6-hectare Rusty Fig vineyard near Bermagui. However, their Spanish white variety, albarino, turned out to be France’s savagnin blanc. So they coined the name ‘Savarino’ for this delicious medium bodied, savoury dry white – made at Brindabella Hills Winery, Hall, by Brian Sinclair. It’s available at Plonk Fyshwick, several south coast bottle shops between Moruya and Eden and by the dozen only online (at rustyfigwines.com.au).

Lark Hill Gruner Veltliner 2014 $45
Lark Hill Vineyard, Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, NSW
The Carpenter family describe 2014 as, “one of the most challenging vintages to date” at Canberra’s highest vineyard. Frost and unsettled spring weather disrupted flowering, reducing the crop. But what remained of the Austrian variety, gruner veltliner, successfully weathered the hottest, driest summer and wettest autumn on record. Spontaneously fermented in older oak barrels, the wine offers aromas of spice and melon and a richly textured palate with unique flavours reminiscent of spice, herbs and melon rind. Steely acidity accentuates the flavours.

Coppabella “The Crest” Chardonnay 2012 $20–$30
Coppabella vineyard, Tumbarumba, NSW
Jason and Alecia Brown own the 68-hectare Moppity vineyard in the Hilltops region and the 70-hectare Coppabella vineyard at higher, cooler Tumbarumba. The Browns produce three beautiful chardonnays, including “The Crest”. This is genuine cool-climate chardonnay, with grapefruit-like varietal flavour and the thrilling acidity that gives the wine elegance, freshness and great length of flavour.

Courabyra 805 Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pinot Meunier 2001 $65
Gairn family Vineyard, Tumbarumba, NSW
Courabyra is a collaboration between Stephen Morrison and his sister and brother in law, Cathy and Brian Gairn. Together they own some of Tumbarumba’s earliest plantings, developed from 1981 specifically for sparkling wine production. As the wine predates the Courabyra brand, we can assume Ed Carr originally made it for Hardy’s ill-fated Canberra winery, Kamberra. This gold-medal winner delivers delicate, fresh fruit flavours, brisk acidity and the patina of textures and flavours derived from a decade’s maturation on yeast lees. (Available at courabyrawines.com).

Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2014 $35
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
“Our vineyards and some of those in our region and other parts of NSW and Victoria suffered pretty badly as a result of the frosts in October”, writes Ken Helm. He salvaged sufficient Murrumbateman fruit, however, to make his excellent Classic Dry Riesling, though not enough to make the flagship premium product. Classic Dry 2014 impresses for its brightness, clean citrus-like varietal flavour, and steely, dry finish.

Mount Majura Riesling 2014 $27
Mount Majura vineyard, Canberra District, ACT
Canberra 2014 vintage rieslings earned several big gongs during October. Four Winds Vineyard won a gold medal at the Melbourne show. And at Canberra’s International Riesling Challenge, Mount Majura won trophies as best dry riesling of the show and best Canberra district riesling.It offers aromatic and delicious, full-throttle varietal flavour with quite high acidity that refreshes and accentuates the fruit flavour.

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. From them O’Leary makes an extraordinarily concentrated riesling – a wine of great power but also of finesse and delicacy.

Four Winds Vineyard Riesling 2014 $22
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
The impressively aromatic, purely varietal Four Winds riesling won gold at the 2014 Royal Melbourne Wine Show. The intense flavour belies the mere 11.2 per cent alcohol. However, with that intensity comes a high level of acidity that gives some austerity to the palate. This is normal for Canberra riesling and is easily resolved by giving the wine another 6–12 months in bottle.

Jeir Creek Riesling 2014 $25
Jeir Creek vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Rob and Kay Howell’s Jeir Creek Riesling 2014 won a gold medal at this year’s Canberra Regional Wine Show. The aroma combines lemony and floral varietal characters that come through, too, on a generous, fruity palate. Typical Canberra acidity cuts through the fruit, giving great freshness in a pleasantly tart lemony way. The combination of rich fruit and high acidity promises a pleasant flavour evolution for some years in a good cellar.

TOP 10 REDS

Capital Wines “The Ambassador” Tempranillo 2013 $25
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Though volumes remain small, the Spanish variety, tempranillo, may become another Canberra red specialty. Outstanding examples from Mount Majura, Capital Wines and Quarry Hill, all hit the excitement button. At a masked tasting, Capital Hill The Ambassador 2013 and Quarry Hill Lost Acre 2013 thrilled the tasters and split the table over first preference. Finally, Capital Hill pulled in front, to my taste, as it captured the vibrant, blueberry-like fruitiness of the variety while weaving in savoury notes and finishing firm and tight – another of the variety’s signatures.

Four Winds Sangiovese 2013 $25
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
A recent tasting of Canberra sangiovese demonstrated this Italian variety’s great potential in the region. But it’s not an easy variety, says Winemaker Bill Crowe. In 2013 he dropped much of the crop on the ground – reducing the yield from an unripen-able 20-tonnes to the hectare to just under nine perfectly ripe tonnes. The medium-bodied, drink-now wine, shows exuberant, bright fruit flavours, cut through with the variety’s tight, fine, savoury tannins.

Swinging Bridge M.A.W. Pinot Noir 2012 $38
Rowlee Vineyard, Orange, NSW
Tom and Georgie Ward’s impressive M.A.W. pinot comes from the Rowlee vineyard, Orange, 910 metres above sea level – an altitude with growing temperatures suited to chardonnay and pinot noir. Tom Ward says he made the wine from two pinot clones, and matured the wine in a combination of small and large French oak barrels. The wine offers bright, fragrant, cherry-like varietal character, with attractive savoury undertones and a silk-textured tannins. (Available from swingingbridge.com.au).

Freeman Nebbiolo 2012 $35
Freeman Altura vineyard, Hilltops, NSW
Brian Freeman gave Piedmont’s notoriously difficult nebbiolo a head start by grafting it onto thoroughly established 40-year-old pinot noir vines. And in 2012 he made from them an elegant, distinctive red well removed from Australia’s generally fleshy styles. The wine shows nebbiolo’s typically pale colour, floral- and -savoury aroma and taut, firmly tannic, medium bodied palate. Delicious, ripe fruit flavours push teasingly through those tannins ahead of the firm, savoury, lingering finish.

Moppity Vineyard Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $30
Moppity vineyard, Hilltops region, NSW
Canberra’s neighbouring and slightly warmer Hilltops region rivals us in shiraz quality but appears to have the edge with cabernet sauvignon. Jason and Alicia Brown’s 2013 Moppity, with three trophies and three gold medals, shows what the region can do. The medium-bodied, elegant red displays pure, bright, ripe-berry varietal aroma and a palate to match – complete with juicy mid-palate flesh that easily carries the firm backbone of tannin.

Clonakilla Ceoltoiri 2013 $36–$45
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Tim Kirk’s Ceoltoiri (the musicians) combines “grenache, shiraz, mourvedre and a tiny splash of cinsault”, writes Kirk, adding, “it may surprise you”. It’s certainly different from last year’s release from the cool 2011 vintage. The warmer vintage offers the alluring, sweet, musk-like fragrance of ripe grenache, seasoned with spice and pepper. The brisk, medium bodied palate reflects the aroma, though the spicy character asserts itself through the fine, soft, savoury tannins.

Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier 2013 $32
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Ravensworth 2013 is one of the greatest reds to come out of the Canberra District, a very fine but powerful expression of the local specialty – shiraz co-fermented with small amounts of the white, viognier. The wine reveals in a youthful way Canberra’sdistinctive floral aroma, vivid berry-and-spice varietal flavours and sensuous, supple texture. It appeals now, but will deliver even more with bottle age.

Mount Majura Shiraz 2012 $32
Mount Majura vineyard, Canberra District, ACT
As everyone swoons over Canberra’s 2013 reds, Mount Majura’s 2012 reminds us of the limitations of vintage generalisations. The 2012 won gold medals in the 2013 Canberra and Region Wine Show and Winewise Small Vignerons Awards. Then five judges at the 2014 Winewise Championship rated it as the best in its category. The highly aromatic 2012 shiraz shows varietal spice and a strong stemmy character, derived from the inclusion of whole bunches in the fermentation. The medium bodied, silky palate reveals good fruit, seasoned with stem and spice.

Nick O’Leary Bolaro Shiraz 2013 $55
Fischer family Nanima vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, NSW
Nick O’Leary’s makes Bolaro from Great Western clone shiraz, grown on Wayne and Jennie Fischer’s Nanima vineyard, Murrumbateman. His 2013 vintage reveals the great flavour intensity and solid tannin structure produced by these outstanding vines. A quick encounter with the wine hints at the delicious, spicy fruit held by those firm tannins. Tasted over a couple of days, however, the fruit’s alluring sweetness reveals itself fully, albeit integrated with the wine’s spicy, savoury character and beautiful tight but silky tannins. (Gold medal, national wine show 2014).

Lerida Estate Shiraz Viognier 2013 $49.50
Lerida Estate vineyard, Lake George, Canberra District, NSW
Lerida Estate led an impressive Canberra District performance in the 2013 shiraz class at the 2014 National Wine Show of Australia. Rated the best of three Canberra gold-medal winners, it went on to win the Chair of Judges’ trophy. A slow-evolving style, it offers bright, red-berry fruit, seasoned with typical Canberra spice, with underlying savoury characters and quite tight, though fine, tannins. Owner Jim Lumbers expects to release the wine mid 2015. Put this one on your wish list.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2014
First published:

• 2 December 2014 in goodfood.com.au
• 3 December 2014 in the Canberra Times