Category Archives: Wine

Wines for Christmas drinking

11 December 2013People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

While an unrelentingly strong Australian dollar retards exports and drives record levels of wine imports, Australian vignerons respond by making better wines than ever – across an amazing range of styles.

At Chateau Shanahan we enjoy the diversity exports bring. But we’re also content contemplating an all-Australian Christmas wine menu.

This year’s selections include an extraordinary Tasmanian sparkler – mature but fresh after 12 years in bottle; a delicate dry newcomer to the Canberra riesling scene; an opulent, refined Yarra Valley chardonnay; a range of vivid, earthy, Mornington Peninsula pinot noirs; a sublime and elegant Grampians shiraz; and a luscious, unique old fortified from historic Seppeltsfield.

Arras Methode Traditionelle Blanc de Blancs 2001 $57–$80
Pipers River and Upper Derwent, Tasmania
A top gold medal and special chair-of-judges trophy at the recent National Wine Show emphasise the remarkable qualities of Ed Carr’s 12-year-old sparkling chardonnay – a superb Christmas tipple. For Champagne buffs the name Salon-sur-Oger conjures images of delicate but powerful and complete sparkling wines made from chardonnay alone – unaided by pinot noir or pinot meunier, the majority varieties in most Champagnes. In good years chardonnay from the Salon sub-region stands alone, creating sublime wines personified in the rare and expensive Krug Clos du Mesnil and Salon le Mesnil. Australian sparkling maker Ed Carr says, “I have always been a fan of this style and to have a 2001 Tasmanian wine for the first release is as close to perfect as one could wish”. Many people, including me, share Carr’s excitement. His subtle and powerful Arras Blanc de Blanc 2001, matured on yeast lees for about a decade, is stunning – and so fresh at 12 years.

Capital Wines Gundaroo Riesling 2013 $28
Lambert Tallagandra Lane vineyard, Gundaroo, Canberra District, NSWIn 1998, Mark and Jennie Moonie planted Geisenheim clones of riesling on a north-facing, protected slope at Gundaroo. They sold the vineyard to Ruth and Steve Lambert in 2004 but in 2013 bought grapes from the vineyard for Capital Wines’ first single-vineyard riesling. Judges listed the wine among the top 100 in the recent NSW Wine Awards. And though the judges awarded the riesling trophy to its softer cellar mate, Capital Wines The Whip Riesling 2013 ($20), there’s a special intensity and vitality to the Gundaroo wine. It’s beautifully aromatic, intensely flavoured and delicate all at the same time. It delivers a lot of drinking pleasure at a realistic price – an aperitif style, suited to lighter foods, including salads and delicate seafood.

Coldstream Hills Rising Vineyard Chardonnay 2012 $42–$45
Rising vineyard, Yarra Valley, Victoria
Coldstream Hills, now part of Treasury Wine Estates, produces several Yarra Valley chardonnays – a general blend, a “reserve” version and, in 2012, two single-vineyard wines, “Deer Farm Vineyard” and “Rising Vineyard”. The latter demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between top-notch chardonnay and oak. Winemaker Andrew Fleming fermented then matured the wine in in French oak – 60 per cent of it new. That’s a high proportion and works only if the fruit is up to it and the oak exactly right. It’s a beautiful wine, seamlessly integrating intense, vibrant nectarine-like varietal flavours with spicy oak and all the subtle textural and flavour nuances derived from contact with the barrels and yeast lees. A chardonnay of this grace and opulence requires regal dinner company – fresh crayfish, perhaps.

Montalto Pennon Hill Pinot Noir 2012 $30
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Pinot makes a versatile food companion in a hot Australian Christmas. It sits comfortably with rich seafood, and white and red meats. And lightly chilled (15–18 degrees), it retains its delicate aromatics and fruitiness. Mornington Peninsula is a leading source of the variety. Of five Montalto pinot noirs tasted recently, Pennon Hill appealed for its vivid varietal character and the value for money it offers. It gives the true pinot experience at a fair price. And the three single-vineyard offerings ($65) from various parts of Mornington show a diversity of site-driven styles – and all offer a distinct lift in quality. Teurong, the lowest and northernmost vineyard, shows a dark, savoury and tannic side of pinot; Main Ridge, the southernmost, highest block, displays perfume and suppleness; and Merricks seems rich with firm, savoury tannins.

Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz 2011 $95
Langi vineyard 1963 block, Grampians, Victorian
The supremely elegant Langi shiraz comprises multiple parcels of wine from a block of shiraz planted in 1963, using cuttings from nearby Great Western. It’s a unique expression of Australian shiraz, far lighter in colour than most, and, in a cool year like 2011, it lies on the far end of the spicy, peppery, just-ripe spectrum. That’s a pleasing, teasing place to be, especially when intense, sweet berry flavours offset the lean, spicy, peppery character and fine, grippy tannins. This is indeed a noble wine – one to savour, perhaps, with Christmas duck or goose; or maybe as a course on its own, tempered only by one of Silo’s incomparable white breads.

Seppeltsfield DP38 Rich Rare Venerable $29–$35 500ml
Various locations, including Seppeltsfield, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Our December 2008 agreement with Europe spelled the end of “sherry”, “oloroso”, “amontillado” and “fino” on our wine labels. So, Seppeltsfield’s former “oloroso sherry” becomes “rich, rare and venerable” – descriptors that have always been apt for this glorious, sweet fortified wine. It’s never better than at Christmas, when we nibble on fresh nuts or finish our meals with traditional steamed pudding or fruitcake. A product of fractional blending through a “solera” system, DP38 offers a luscious, fruity sweetness, profoundly altered by long ageing in old oak barrels. Age gives a distinct yellow–tawny hue to the colour – one aspect of what the Spanish describe as “rancio”. Rancio includes distinct leathery, nutty and marmalade-like nuances resulting from prolonged barrel maturation.

Clare and Eden dominate 2013 International Riesling Challenge

13 November 2013WineChris Shanahan

This year’s Canberra International Riesling Challenge attracted 487 entries from eight countries – up from 426 entries from six countries in 2012.

Despite increasing entry numbers, the challenge remains largely an Australian event. Our 371 wines comprised 76 per cent of the 2013 total. Second biggest exhibitor, the USA, fielded 35 wines, followed by New Zealand (34), Germany (26), France (17), Czech Republic (2), with one each from Canada and South Africa.

A sweet riesling from German’s Rheingau district topped the awards; a Marlborough, New Zealand, wine beat all the other dry rieslings; and Ravensworth 2013 won the trophy as best Canberra district riesling.

As well as taking out the top award, Germany enjoyed the highest medal strike rate. Twenty-two (85 per cent) of its 26 entries won medals – 11 bronze, four silver and seven gold. New Zealand and France tied for second place, each with a 77 per cent medal strike rate.

Australia’s 371 entries, from more than 35 regions, earned 230 medals. The strike rate of 62 per cent is impressive considering the large number of entries and their geographic diversity.

And the results highlight the continuing dominance of Australia’s traditional riesling heartland – the Clare and Eden Valleys. These two distinct regions lie on South Australia’s Mount Lofty Ranges – Eden Valley in the high country on the Barossa Valley’s east, with Clare a short distance to the north. A third region, High Eden, is a higher, cooler sub-region of the Eden Valley, registered separately in 2001.

Combined, Clare–Eden–High Eden exhibited 166 wines, or 45 per cent of the Australian total. And the three regions raked in 107 medals, 47 per cent of the Australian gongs.

Clare Valley alone entered 104 wines, the greatest number of any region or country, and won 13 gold, 13 silver and 42 bronze medals. The medal strike rate of 65 per cent, significantly below last year’s 73 per cent, underlines the stellar quality of the region’s 2012 vintage. The gold medal tally strengthens this perception – 16 from 90 entries in 2012, versus 13 from 104 entries in 2013.

As a pointer to the future, tiny Tasmania entered the greatest number of wines after Clare and Eden Valleys. The state’s 39 rieslings won 17 bronze, three silver and five gold medals – strike rate of 64 per cent. Like the Clare Valley, Tasmania’s performance in 2013 fell short of its 2012 results – 34 medals from 42 entries, a remarkable strike rate of 81 per cent. Tasmania is on track to be Australia’s capital for riesling as well as chardonnay and pinot noir.

Western Australia’s vast Great Southern zone, fielded 37 wines to win 26 medals (strike rate 70 per cent), comparable to last year’s 38 wines, 28 medals and 73 per cent strike rate. The high strike rate is consistent with the area’s long-established reputation as one of Australia’s leading riesling producers.

The serious underperformance of Canberra rieslings in the competition raises yet again the puzzling issue of inconsistency in wine show judging. A couple of weeks before the riesling challenge, judges at the Canberra and Region Wine Show awarded 21 medals, including six golds, to 26 wines in the 2013 vintage riesling class.

In the catalogue, the judges wrote, “An extraordinary class of glorious Rieslings – a true benchmark nationally and beyond. Purity, delicacy, beautiful fruit to the fore – a regional champion variety. Thank you”.

Fourteen of those 26 wines entered the riesling challenge. They won just six medals (one gold, one silver, four bronze) for a strike rate of 43 per cent. In the regional show, the same 14 wines won three gold, three silver and five bronze medals (strike rate 79 per cent).

Depending on which set of judges we believe, Canberra riesling is either pure, delicate and a national benchmark – or an also ran. The discrepancy is hard to explain. Both sets of judges can’t be right.

With that grain of salt then, we should troll the catalogue of results and always try before we buy.

Copyight © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 13 November 2013 in the Canberra Times and goodfood.com.au

Tempranillo — Spaniard with big future in Australia

9 October 2013People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

If I had to bet the house on one of the so-called “alternative” grape varieties it’d be Spain’s tempranillo. We crushed only about 3000 tonnes a year in Australia (equivalent to perhaps 225 thousand dozen bottles) – a mere splash compared to the more familiar varieties we grow.

In 2012, Australian vintners processed almost 380,00 tonnes of shiraz, 220,000 of cabernet sauvignon, 127,000 of merlot and almost 33,000 of pinot noir (much of it for bubbly). After that the volumes tail away, dropping sharply to 19,000 tonnes of petit verdot, 15,000 of grenache, 10,000 of ruby cabernet and 5,000 of mataro (aka mourvedre).

But the tiny tempranillo crush (2,818 tonnes according to the Winemakers Federation of Australia; 3,440 according to the ABS) reflects neither its geographic spread nor a growing fascination with it among vignerons and wine drinkers.

A web search of the variety turned up more than 100 Australia tempranillos (and blends) on offer from one retailer alone. And a 2012 ABS survey lists 341 tempranillo producers. The retailer list included wines from many regions in every state except Tasmania. But the ABS figures say even Tasmania crushed two tonnes in 2012 – just behind the ACT’s three tonnes and Queensland’s six tonnes.

Though widely dispersed – from Queensland’s Granite Belt in the north to Tasmania in the south, and from the Hunter in the east to Greater Perth in the west -– the majority of the plantings lie in warm continental climates rather than in milder coastal areas.

Tellingly, vineyards in the hot, dry climates along the Murray River in South Australia and Victoria, and the Murray and Murrumbidgee in NSW, account for one third of the 2012 tempranillo harvest. Significant plantings in these traditionally high-output, low-cost areas suggest tempranillo may already have begun its shift into the mainstream – or at least that growers in these areas, aided and abetted by winemakers, see it heading that way.

South Australia dominated production in 2012 (317ha, 1503 tonnes), followed by NSW (220ha, 1134 tonnes), Victoria (119ha, 520 tonnes) Western Australia (46ha, 272 tonnes), Queensland (6ha, 6 tonnes), ACT (2 ha, 3 tonnes) and Tasmania (2ha, 2 tonnes). Note, the ACT figure reflects only a small part of the Canberra region, located predominantly in NSW.

The Barossa holds the biggest planting for an individual region. Its 135ha produced a miserly 490 tonnes in 2012, a yield per hectare of just 3.6 tonnes. We could expect greater yields – perhaps double those of 2012 – in more favourable vintages. However, the Barossa can never hope to match South Australian Riverland’s almost 12 tonnes to the hectare.

Total Australian tempranillo plantings of around 700 hectares represents less than half a per cent of our 155,000 hectares of grape vines. So for us it truly is a niche or “alternative” variety. But in Spain it’s a different story.

In Wine Grapes (Robinson, Harding and Vouillamoz, Penguin 2012), Jancis Robinson writes, “Spain is the kingdom of tempranillo, a kingdom that extended to 206,988ha [greater than Australia’s total area under vine] in 2008, making it the most widely planted red variety. It is widely distributed across the country, albeit under a host of synonyms”.

Based on historical and DNA evidence, Wine grapes concludes tempranillo is a native of Spain, probably originating in two adjacent regions north west of Aragon – Logrono in La Rioja and Peralta in Navarra.

The vine fairly quickly found its way to Portugal, Italy, France and even to South America in the seventeenth century.

Spain’s tempranillo-based reds, particularly those from the cooler Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions, inspired our vignerons to try the variety in Australia, including Canberra

Mount Majura winemaker Frank van de Loo writes, “We believe it is a variety well suited to our site, with Canberra having high levels of climatic similarity to the leading Spanish regions Rioja and Ribera del Duero”.

In 2010, with other tempranillo producers, Van de loo introduced a series of TempraNeo workshops to study and promote the variety. The group held workshops again in 2011 and 2013.

Courtesy of van de Loo, I recently tasted the 2012 vintage wines from the workshop, and threw in the recently released Quarry Hill 2013 (Murrumbateman). The line up covered a spectrum of climates – Canberra, Barossa, Wrattonbully, Porepunkah (near Bright, Victoria), Heathcote, Alpine Valleys, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale.

The wines varied widely in style – from the medium bodied, spicy elegance of van de Loo’s Mount Majura 2012, to the confronting savouriness and puckering tannins of Don Lewis and Narelle King’s Tar and Roses 2012. And one outrider, Quarry Hill 2013, made by Alex McKay, revealed a contrasting, bright and fleshy face of the variety, bottled young and fresh.

Mount Majura Canberra District Tempranillo 2012 $42
Frank Van de Loo’s tenth vintage of the variety, rose to the top – appealing for its just-ripe cherry and plum varietal flavour, medium body, elegant structure and attractive spice and pepper notes. A day after the tasting we paired it deliciously with salmon in pastry with currants and ginger, cooked by Linda Peek. The other tempranillos would’ve overwhelmed this exceptional dish.

Quarry Hill Canberra District Tempranillo 2013 $18
Juicy and strawberry-musk fruit, buoyant and plush, with substantial tannins washing through. Pure, unadorned tempranillo fruit.

Running with Bulls Barossa Tempranillo 2012 $16–$22.95
Shows the Barossa’s ripe, generous fruit flavour and comparatively soft tannins, though somewhat firmer than in the region’s shiraz.

Running with Bulls Wrattonbully Tempranillo 2012 $16–$22.95
Same maker (Yalumba) as the Barossa wine, but fruit more fragrant and reminiscent of summer berries with elegant structure of fine but firm tannins.

Mayford Porepunkah Tempranillo 2012 $35
Savoury and acidic, with blueberry-like fruit buried deep down under layers of firm tannins.

Tar and Roses Heathcote–Alpine Valleys Tempranillo 2012 $24
Earthy, savoury and gamey, with powerful, mouth-drying tannins – a wine to enjoy with rare red meat or ultra savoury food.

La Linea Adelaide Hills Tempranillo 2012 $27
Medium bodied with sweet, cherry-like fruit, seasoned with spice and pepper and a solid wave of tannin washing across the palate.

Gemtree Luna Roja McLaren Vale Tempranillo 2012 $25
The fullest bodied of the wines, featuring ripe, black-cherry flavours on a round mid palate, cut through with rustic tannins.

More

www.tempraneo.com.au

Lind Peek’s recipe, Salmon in pastry with currants and ginger.

Shiraz, riesling and Tumbarumba chardonnay excite at Canberra 2013 show

9 October 2013People, WineChris Shanahan

Shiraz and riesling once again seized the glory at this year’s Canberra and Region Wine Show, judged at the showground in late September. Judges tweeted and emailed as they worked, revealing the flavour of the event, if not specific details, days before show organisers unveiled the official results.

The show – judged by Mike Bennie, Matt Skinner and local winemaker Nick O’Leary – received 233 entries, up 25 per cent on 2012. The show accepts entries from the Canberra District and surrounds, Southern Highlands, Shoalhaven Coast, Tumbarumba and southern NSW.

The one questionable aspect of the show this year, was a decision to include a local winemaker on the judging panel. In doing so, the new organising committee, led by Andrew Price, reintroduced a potential conflict of interest, whether perceived or real.

Price managed this, he says, by barring the judge, Nick O’Leary, from entering his own wines in the show. But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the show?

The show exists to benchmark and promote local wine. So how could it be beneficial to bar one of its brightest and best winemakers from entering? Surely it would be better for the public, the show and local winemakers to bring in an another outside judge – there are dozens available – and encourage O’Leary to throw his wines in the ring?

The 2012 vintage shirazes and 2013 vintage rieslings, in particular, excited the judges. Matt Skinner, for example, emailed, “Just judged riesling 13 – possibly the best bracket of riesling I’ve ever had the pleasure of judging”.

Judges Mike Bennie and Nick O’Leary shared Skinner’s thrill. The panel of three elected Ravensworth Murrumbateman Riesling 2013 as champion wine of the show – putting a riesling in the top spot for just the third time in 17 shows.

With the exception of 1999, when no champion’s trophy was awarded, shiraz monopolised the top spot from 1998 until 2009, when Helm Premium Riesling 2008 triumphed. Even then the judges, couldn’t quite make the break from shiraz, awarding the trophy jointly to Helm’s riesling and Eden Road The Long Road Hilltops Shiraz 2008.

Shiraz reclaimed the trophy in 2010 and 2011. But in 2012, Half Moon Braidwood Riesling 2010 won in its own right, paving the way for this year’s winner, Ravensworth.

The early dominance of shiraz in the show, and recent strong contention from riesling, parallels the emergence of the two varieties as our district specialties. Shiraz succeeded first in the hands of a few producers, notably Clonakilla, before settling as the standout red variety across Canberra and surrounding regions. Riesling’s acknowledgment lagged shiraz’s by perhaps a decade.

As a judge at the regional show during those transitional years, I recall the mounting riesling challenge. After several close calls, it could no longer be denied by 2009.

There’s now an expectation among judges for our rieslings and shirazes to rise to the top, as they did again this year. And a closer look at the results shows a widening diversity of styles – and, for shiraz in particular, success across a considerable geographic spread within the southern NSW slopes of the Great Divide.

But shiraz and riesling face a future potential champion in chardonnay from Tumbarumba. Though not quite in contention for the top gong yet, chardonnays from this high, cool region to Canberra’s south, completely dominated the variety’s awards.

The judges awarded five gold, nine silver and five bronze medals in a field of 24 chardonnays from the 2012 vintage. Tumbarumba won all of the medals bar one of the silvers and one of the bronzes. An amazing three quarters of wines in the class won either gold or silver medals.

Chardonnay gold medal winners
Echelon Tumbarumba Armchair 2012
Hungerford Hill Hh Classic Tumbarumba 2012
Moppity Vineyards Lock and Key Tumbarumba 2012 (Top chardonnay)
Moppity Vineyards Tumbarumba 2012
Barwang Estate 842 Tumbarumba 2012

While much is made of Canberra shiraz, the biggest grouping of shiraz in the show – 22 wines from the 2012 vintage – demonstrated high quality across a much larger area. The top wine in the class (and ultimate best shiraz of the show) came from Jason Brown’s Moppity Vineyards in the Hilltops region, around Young.

Hilltops shirazes took three of the seven gold medals, Canberra won three and the other went to Tumblong Estates, Gundagai. Canberra won two of the silver medals and Hilltops one, while the fourth went to a Gundagai–Canberra blend. Canberra won five of the seven bronze medals, while Hilltops and Gundagai won one each.

A class of 16 shirazes from 2011 and earlier vintages produced 13 medals – three gold, five silver and five bronze. Canberra wines claimed all of the golds and all of the bronzes. But the silvers went one each to Canberra and Tumbarumba and three to Hilltops.

Chair of judges, Mike Bennie, said no other wine show he’s judged at shows such a concentration of high quality producers. The shiraz classes, he said, revealed an amazing diversity of medium bodied savoury styles.

Shiraz and shiraz–viognier gold medal winners
Gallagher Canberra District 2012
Ravensworth Canberra District 2012
Barwang Estate Hilltops 2012
Tumblong Estates Gundagai Domain Paulownia 2012
Moppity Vineyards Hilltops 2012 (Top 2012 shiraz)
Mount Majura Canberra District 2012
Grove Estate Hilltops 2012
Mount Majura Canberra District 2011 (Top Canberra shiraz)
Pialligo Estate Canberra District 2007
Quarry Hill Canberra District 2009
Ravensworth Canberra District 2007 (Top museum red)

Riesling sparked even more excitement than shiraz, albeit with a much tighter focus on Canberra than outlying regions. Judge Matt Skinner called it the best line up of riesling he’d ever tasted. Collectively, the judges described the class of 25 rieslings from the 2013 vintage as “an extraordinary class of glorious rieslings – a true benchmark nationally and beyond”.

Thirty-three dry rieslings won seven gold, seven silver and 14 bronze medals – a medal strike rate of 85 per cent. Wines from the Canberra District took six of the seven golds, four of the seven silver medals and eight (perhaps nine) of the bronzes.

The Southern Highlands earned one gold and one silver. Braidwood and Hilltops took one silver each and bronze medals went also to wines from Lake Bathurst, Braidwood and Hilltops.

Riesling gold medal winners
Mount Majura Canberra District 2013
Dionysus Canberra District 2013
Clonakilla Canberra District 2013
Helm Canberra District Classic Dry 2013
Ravensworth Canberra District 2013
McKellar Ridge Canberra District 2013
Tertini Wines Southern Highlands 2012

Sauvignon blanc disappointed overall, though Pankhurst Wines, Murrumbateman, won a gold medal for 2013 sauvignon blanc semillon blend.

Canberra has its cabernet true believers, but yet again in 2013 the variety fared poorly. Judges awarded just one silver medal and seven bronzes to the 26 wines exhibited. However, Mount Majura Dinny’s Block 2012, hidden in the “other varieties and/or blends” class won a gold medal. This blend of cabernet franc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon may point the way for cabernet-related varieties in the district.

Pinot noir also performed poorly. The judges awarded seven medals (six bronze, one silver) to 16 wines – all except one to wines from Tumbarumba. However, the judges see potential in Tumbarumba pinot, commenting, “the best examples show complexity, savouriness and textural intrigue. A work in progress to find best sites”.

In the white classes for “other varieties and/or blends”, Coolangatta Estate, Nowra, won gold medals for its 2005 and 2006 vintage semillons – perennial winners at this show. And Clonakilla won gold for its 2012 Viognier.

Awarding five medals (four bronze and one silver), judges described a field of eight sparkling wines as “a curious class”. Judge Mike Bennie wondered why there were not more wines entered from Tumbarumba – an accomplished region for this style.

See the full catalogue of results.

Wine review — Paxton, Rockford, Turkey Flat, Penfolds and Holm Oak

21 August 2013People, WineChris Shanahan

Paxton Quandong Farm Shiraz 2011 $30
Paxton’s Quandong farm vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia
David Paxton changed from almond growing and processing to grape growing in the early eighties. He established his own vineyard in McLaren Vale and later consulted to vineyards around Australia, including at Plantagenet, Western Australia, Coldstream and Hoddles Creek in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, and on Kangaroo Island. After attending a 2004 biodynamic workshop at Beechworth, Paxton began converting his own McLaren Vale vineyards, starting with Quandong Farm. The vineyard, source of this lovely red is now certified biodynamic. I tasted the wine at cellar door with David on 24 July. It appeals for its lively, generous fruit, taut structure, hints of stalk from the whole bunches included in the ferment, and lingering, savoury finish. It combines intensity with elegance.

Rockford Rod and Spur Shiraz Cabernet 2010 $32
Barossa Valley, South Australia
The Barossa accommodates winemaking of every scale, from the vast tank farm cum city of Jacob’s Creek, at Roland Flat, to small-scale, hands-on producers like Rockford, at Krondorf. Rockford’s elegant reds capture the ripe, earthy flavours and soft tannins of this warm region. The wines age well and invariable give great drinking satisfaction. On a recent cold weekend in the Barossa, Rod and Spur, tasted by the fireplace in the stone cellar door, appealed very strongly. Though a near 50:50 blend of cabernet and shiraz, cabernet character dominated the exuberant aroma. But on the buoyant, generous, sweet-berry palate the two varieties became inseparable –until the cabernet tannins tightened up and dried out the finish.

Turkey Flat Mourvedre 2010 $32
Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia
I reviewed this wine about a year ago and tasted it again in late July at cellar door with Turkey Flat owner, Christie Schulz. The conversation turned to the tongue-twisting varietal name. When visitors struggle with “mourvedre”, Schulz turns discomfort to a smile with, “move over dear”. It seems English customers prefer “mourvedre”, while in the Barossa it’s more widely known as “mataro” (though one producer opts for the Spanish “monastrell”). Schulz says the vines produce very small, thick-skinned berries. These make a unique red, in this instance with blackberry-like fruit, with a dusting of spice and loads of fine, grippy tannins from those thick skins.

Turkey Flat Butchers Block Red 2012 $19
Turkey Flat vineyard, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Butchers Block combines the three classic Barossa red varieties, shiraz (45 per cent), grenache (30 per cent) and mourvedre (25 per cent). Mark Bulman’s light hand in the winery unleashed the ripe and gentle beauty of these varieties in an excellent Barossa vintage. The high-toned aroma reveals the vitality of the fruit – the musk-like grenache being particularly seductive. The palate’s all fleshy, juicy, vibrant fruit flavour cut through with fine, gentle tannins.

Penfolds Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir 2012 $50
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Peter Gago made Penfolds’ first Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir in 1997. Since then it’s evolved considerably in style from sturdy Penfolds red to a fine, deeply layered, top-shelf pinot. It’s made in the original open fermenters at Magill Estate – the same ones Max Schubert used for Grange. In this case they’re cradle to a substantial pinot – highly aromatic and varietal, intensely flavoured, fleshy, vibrant, silky textured with an exotic undertone of “stalkiness”, derived from whole grape bunches included in the ferment. Tasted at cellar door, Magill, 28 July. Available direct from Penfolds.

Holm Oak Vineyards Ilex Pinot Noir 2012 $22
Holm Oak vineyard, Tamar Valley, Tasmania
Rebecca Duffy recently released three very good pinot noirs, Holm Oak Ilex 2012 $22, Holm Oak Vineyard 2012 $32 and Holm Oak The Wizard 2010. There’s a family resemblance, but the quality lifts more or less in proportion to the prices and the styles vary. The entry level Ilex offers a true pinot experience focusing on fruity fragrance and bright raspberry-strawberry-like flavours, though with adequate tannin structure. The $32 offers more concentration and quite lush, slippery texture. And The Wizard steps up again, delivering more intense fruit flavour, firmer tannins, savouriness and the beginnings of secondary, age-derived flavours.

Truffle and wine moments — Canberra Times truffle dinner 13 August 2013

31 July 2013WineChris Shanahan

I love wine. But I’ve never felt a wine moment as profound as that first encounter with truffle. In winter 2009, local truffle grower, Wayne Haslam, arrived at Chateau Shanahan, beaming with a secret knowledge. He knew the coming effect on me – and a day later, on the Food and Wine team – of the knobbly black nugget inside the clip-lock bag he held.

I can’t describe that first sniff better than Elizabeth Luard did in Truffles (London, 2006), “I breathe deeply. The fragrance almost overpowers me, filling my nostrils with a scent so exciting, so overwhelming, so astonishingly familiar that my head swims and I have to sit down on a tree-stump… What exactly is it that makes the scent of a truffle so thrilling? Well. The chemists tell us it’s the pheromones, the stuff that tells Noireau [her companion’s truffle-sniffing dog] that the neighbour’s bitch is on heat. There’s no other way to explain the effect. It reminds some of us – not all, no doubt – of those nights when we held our first lover in our arms and learned, once and for all, what this thing they talked about in books was all about. Sex, actually – but all new-minted and carrying with it none of the baggage of later years. I breathe deeply again. These words spring to mind: sweet almonds, ripe grapes, thyme, rosemary, juniper, the scent of heather-roots, bonfire embers after rain”.

That sweet, pungent, earthy, sometimes cloying, sexy, power of the raw, fresh black truffle subsides to greater or lesser degree in food. But wherever the black truffle appears, it’s too exotic and expensive to be anything but centre stage.

Therefore the wine selection for our coming truffle dinner, doesn’t compete with the food. Pairs of wines with each course offer comparisons of Australian and imported styles that should sit comfortably with the food.

We selected local wines from the list at pop-up restaurant, 10 Yards, added Bryan Martin’s Ravensworth sangiovese, at Food and Wine editor Kirsten Lawson’s request, and then brought in an imported equivalent to accompany each.

The wine pairings place a local wine against wines from the homes of those varieties – sangiovese from the Chianti Classico zone Tuscany, Italy; a viognier-roussanne-marsanne blend from the southern Rhone Valley, France; and a sweet riesling from the impossibly steep slopes of the Goldtropfchen vineyard, opposite the town of Piesport on Germany’s Mosel river.

SPARKLING WINE

Centenary of Canberra Chardonnay Pinot Noir Cuvee Centenary
In 2008 a group of local winemakers produced a shiraz and a riesling for release in Canberra’s centenary year, 2013. Then in 2011, the group decided to add a sparkler to the list. Our local bubbly specialist, Greg Gallagher, made and blended the wine with Jeir Creek’s Rob Howell. It’s an excellent wine, getting better with age and makes a good starter for the truffle dinner.

WHITES – a Canberra Rhone-inspired blend and an original

Collector Lamp Lit Canberra District Marsanne 2011
Alex McKay’s marsanne a pleasing and sophisticated wine – savoury, richly textured (but not fat) and underpinned by a gently, citrusy varietal flavour, subtly meshed with a pleasing character derived from barrel ageing on yeast lees. The slightly fuller and rounder (but now sold out 2010) indicates benefits from bottle ageing – and that this could be a slow and graceful evolution. McKay says both wines underwent full malo-lactic fermentation, adding texture, and the 2011 contains a splash each of viognier and roussanne.

Cotes du Rhone Blanc (Guigal) 2009
Leading wine producer, Guigal, makes a fresh and fruity style by fermenting this blend at low temperature in stainless steel tanks. While Guigal, like McKay, also uses viognier, roussanne and marsanne, viognier, rather than marsanne, leads the blend. And, of course, there’s no oak influence.

REDS – sangiovese from Canberra and Tuscany

Ravensworth Le Querce Canberra Sangiovese 2012
Le Querce is packed with the black-cherry wholesomeness of Italy’s ubiquitous red grape variety, sangiovese. The vibrant cherry-like varietal flavour comes with attractive herbal, spicy, savoury notes. A combination of acid and fine, persistent tannins provide vibrance and structure to the medium body.

Chianti Classico Peppoli (Antinori) 2009
Here the 600-year-old producer Antinori presents a modern face of Chianti Classico. The fruit’s bright and fresh and the inclusion of merlot and shiraz with the local sangiovese adds flesh and ameliorates Chianti’s savoury-to-firm tannins. A couple of years bottle age adds to the contrast between Peppoli and the fresh, young, screw-cap sealed Ravensworth.
A STICKY END

Barton Estate “Elva” Late Picked Riesling 2008
In the cool, moist mornings of a Canberra autumn Barton Estate’s riesling developed noble rot. Ultimately the uber-ripe, shrivelled berries made the estate’s first luscious dessert wine.

Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Auslese 2005 (Reichsgraff von Kesselstatt)
Compare a Canberra “auslese” style with the original from Germany’s Mosel river. This is probably as close as we’ll get to truffle-like experience with wine. The south and south-east facing Goldtropfchen vineyard slopes steeply away from the Mosel on one of its extreme bends, near the ancient town of Piesport. President John F Kennedy reportedly enjoyed the 1959 vintage kabinett at a 1963 breakfast in Berlin. And in June this year Berliners presented President Barack Obama with a bottle of Reichsgraff von Kesselstatt estate’s 2011 spaetlese riesling from the same vineyard.

See good food for details of the dinner and how to book.

Mudgee wine versus hot and spicy Thai food

24 July 2013People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

In a brave and confident display early July, winemaker David Lowe pitted his solid, tannic Mudgee red wines, and a couple of whites, against the spice and fire of Thirst’s exciting Thai food.

The combinations got us talking about wine and food matching in general, about what goes, or not, with spicy food and, in particular, with chilli – the most widely used spice in the world.

The chilli pepper family derives its palate scorching powers from the alkaloid, capsaicin. Ironically, what attracts us to it – its burning power – was probably nature’s way of protecting plants from hungry predators – like us.

Yet we dose up on it, dowse the fire momentarily, or aggravate it, with cool liquid, then, like palate pyromaniacs, come back for more – as we did at Thirst a few weeks back.

Before the fireworks began, we tasted Louee Nullo Mountain Riesling 2012 – a searing, delicate beauty of a dry white, needing time to tame, and due for release in a few years, says Lowe. It’s from the Louee vineyard, 1100 metres above sea level on Nullo Mountain, near Rylestone – a colder site than Lowe’s Mudgee vineyards, 50 kilometres away and almost 700 metres lower down.

The riesling follows us to dinner, where it joins Louee Nullo Mountain Pinot Grigio 2012 and Thirst’s chilli-laden fish cakes. It’s a strikingly aromatic pinot grigio, suggesting drinking pleasure ahead. My neighbour, Nick Bulleid, gets to the wine before the food and says the flavour matches the aroma – delicious. But I hit the chilli first and the wine seems flavourless, albeit cold and fresh. The high-acid riesling, on the other hand, maintains some flavour through the chilli peak. Neither puts out the fire.

So here we have wine and food shouting for attention. It’s a flavour adventure, not flavour matching. The food creates its own urgency, pain and thrill, while the wine flavours pop up momentarily between waves of spice and chilli heat. The pinot grigio, for example, comes back to life between courses.

This is a familiar flavour battle and one I’ve cherished for decades, putting many beers and wines to the test. The question becomes do we want to soothe the pain, fan the flame or go for the big flavour shoot out?

How about a bit of each? Drive the devil out with Beelzebub, so to speak, by turning on the flavour kaleidoscope. An old beer-judging mate, Bill Taylor, chief brewer at Lion, once told me the capsaicin family meets its match in really hoppy, bitter beers.

For example, the original Czech pilsners, and some Australian versions of the style, have the stuffing to put the chill on chilli anytime. They won’t dowse the fire, but they’ll make it sputter and fizz as capsaicin and hops joust for palate space. It’s a particularly interesting battle, too, because capsaicin and hops both have exceptionally lingering flavours.

Less bitter beers, on the other hand, tend to temper the heat. But, like the pinot grigio, they sit in the background, subdued by chilli heat and flavour.

But these beers are cheap, and being cold and wet is all we ask of them. However, if I’m drinking wine costing $20 or more a bottle, I want to taste it, even when the chilli’s burning.

Some wines step up to the mark. Lowe’s young riesling did. And it’ll no doubt look even better over time as the fruit flavour blossoms, ultimately outweighing the acidity.

In general, fruity, soft wines, whether red or white maintain flavour through the spice and chilli attack.

Aromatic and floral white wines offer a purity of fruit flavour, refreshing acidity and, quite often, a gentle sweetness. In combination, these elements not only refresh but also broaden the flavour impressions of a wide range of spicy and even mildly hot dishes. Riesling is a favourite, especially those with modest amounts of residual sugar.

In the discussion at Thirst, partner in Winewise magazine, Lester Jesberg, mentioned Beaujolais – a soft, juicy, light-bodied, fruity red made from the gamay grape at the southern tip of France’s Burgundy region.

I’ve enjoyed the style with hot and spicy foods and agree with Jesberg. The lovely fruitiness runs side by side with chilli, without taking the edge off the heat. But no wine I know of achieves the latter.

In the last few years, I’ve tried a wide range of red wines with Indian food, covering a spectrum of spicy flavours and, at times, intense chilli heat. We’ve yet to find one that mollifies the heat. But fruity wines with soft tannins consistently hold their flavours with the food. In particular, we’ve enjoyed Australian warm climate shiraz and grenache and blends where those two varieties dominate.

At the Thirst-Lowe dinner and tasting, a long run of shirazes, from 2002 vintage to 2011 (with some gaps) as well as zinfandel and nebbiolo and found much to love. However, Mudgee reds in general carry a formidable tannin load, giving a firm, sometimes-tough finish. I don’t think these work with hot and spicy food.

To me, the most appealing with the food were the fruitier zinfandels (though the tannins took the edge off) and Lowe’s Block 8 Shiraz 2011 – a fragrant and silky, soft wine from an unusually cold vintage. Lowe called it his “stalky Murrumbateman style”.

Overall, though, the people attending the dinner didn’t seem too fussed about whether the wine and food matched or clashed. They enjoyed both, they said, and weren’t silly enough to be deflected from a good night out and exploring a great diversity of flavours.

A tribute to Peter Lehmann

17 July 2013People, WineChris Shanahan

Peter Lehmann’s flagship red, Stonewell shiraz, carries his profile on label; and I can never open a bottle without thinking of Lehmann, his witty quips and his profound influence on the Barossa Valley.

In the end, the company he founded belonged to the Swiss group, Hess Family Estates. But that was an outcome Lehmann engineered ten years ago, in the third and final battle he fought and won in the interests of Barossa grape growers and, indeed, the identity of his own company and the Barossa in general.

The first battle came in 1977 when pastoral company, Dalgety, owner of Saltram Winery, decided not to buy grapes for the 1978 vintage. As winemaker at Saltram, Lehmann refused to abandon the growers. And in a gutsy effort, with support from his wife Margaret, good mate Robert Hesketh and others, established Masterson Wines to buy grapes and make wines under contract at Saltram in vintages 1978 and 1979.

In 1980, when new owners, Seagram, banned contract making at Saltram, Lehmann, under considerable financial duress rushed to build new winery at Tanunda in time for the coming vintage.

Long serving Lehmann winemaker, Andrew Wigan recalls of the vintage, “The winery was still being built around us. The Italian concreters went crazy every time fresh juice was spilt onto the setting concrete. Cellar hands and winemakers alike had to jump from tank to tank because we did not have scaffolds or catwalks”.

Later, Masterson Wines became Barossa Vignerons Pty Ltd and then Peter Lehmann’s Wines Pty Ltd, after Cerebos took a controlling interest.

In 1987, Adelaide based McLeod’s acquired the majority of the company, at the same time folding Hoffmans and Basedows into it. Peter and Margaret Lehmann, via a family trust, held eight per cent of the new entity.

In 1993 Margaret and Peter Lehmann became a vocal minority when McLeod’s decided to offload their interest in the company. But McLeod’s were backed into a corner as they could sell to no one but the Lehmanns. Once again, the Lehmanns placed the family jewels (and Peter’s super money) on the line as they sought to finance a buyout. The outcome, after a short period of intense anxiety for the Lehmanns, was a listing of Peter Lehmann Wines on the Australian stock exchange in 1993 – $5.8 million oversubscribed in just three weeks.

But the listing ultimately exposed the company to a hostile takeover bid by British giant Allied Domecq in 2003. Lehmann, thoroughly aware of the enormous damage wrought to the Australian wine industry by large corporate takeovers, refused to sell his block of shares. He successfully engineered a friendly buyout by Switzerland’s Hess Family Estates – an option he believed offered greater security for the company’s Barossa identity and the grape growers behind it.

Another perhaps less appreciated achievement of Lehmann lay in saving century old winemaking tradition from extinction.

Lehmann had been winemaker at Saltram since 1959. He’d taken the reins from Bryan Dolan when Dolan moved to sister company Stonyfell, replacing Jack Kilgour who’d been making Stonyfell wines since 1932.

Dolan, in turn, had spent his first four years at Saltram working alongside Fred Ludlow before taking over in 1949. And Fred had been there since 1893, making wine for the last fifteen years of his remarkable sixty-year service.

In his time under Dolan, Lehmann continued the tradition of making sturdy, long-lived reds, introduced the flagship “Mamre Brook” red, sourced from a vineyard of that name, and introduced the use of new oak for red wine maturation in 1973.

So, in 1979 when Lehmann walked – with the stranded Barossa growers and offsider, Andrew Wigan – he effectively transplanted the Saltram winemaking culture to his new venture, Masterson Barossa Vignerons. Saltram subsequently fell into a deep hole for fifteen years.

The winemaking achievements of the old Saltram culture can’t be underestimated. In a tasting marking Saltram’s 140^th anniversary in 1999 — attended by Bryan and Nigel Dolan and Peter Lehmann – reds from the Ludlow through to Lehmann eras, spanning the years 1946 to 1979, drank remarkably well.

As Saltram lost the plot, Lehmann, even under enormous financial constraints, kept the Barossa red-tradition alive, starting with the 1980 vintage.

Then in 1987, Lehmann, with Andrew Wigan, made the first Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz. Lehmann once described Stonewell to me as, “a continuation of the Mamre Brook dream – aided and abetted by Andrew Wigan”.

This marvellous wine (current release 2008 vintage, retail around $95), remains for me a memento of this exceptional man, son of a Lutheran pastor, winemaker from 1947, businessman and loyal and courageous friend and supporter of hundreds in the Barossa Valley.

Viognier — genetic and vinous buddy of shiraz

19 June 2013People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The Rhone Valley white variety, viognier, is and will remain a niche variety, representing around two per cent of total white plantings in Australia. Nevertheless, it remains an important variety, principally because of its close relationship to our national red hero, shiraz.

The relationship is both genetic and vinous. In Wine Grapes (Penguin Group, 2012), Jancis Robinson writes, “Through DNA parentage analysis, a parent-offspring relationship has been discovered between viognier and mondeuse blanche, which makes viognier either a half-sibling or a grandparent of syrah”.

The vinous connection comes because in its northern Rhone home, vignerons co-planted and co-fermented viognier with shiraz – notably in the aromatic silky reds of Cote-Rotie.

But largely because of its susceptibility to fungal disease, the variety almost disappeared from France. Plantings had shrunk to just 14 hectares in the northern Rhone by the late 1960s.

However, it staged a remarkable comeback to 4395 hectares in France by 2009. By that time, viognier, with its viscous texture and distinctive apricot-like aroma and flavour and spread around the world, including Australia.

James Halliday reports it as present in the CSIRO’s collection at Merbein, Victoria, under the care of the late Allan Antcliff. Halliday writes, “It was from Antcliff that Baillieu Myer of Elgee Park obtained the first vines for a single-vineyard planting on his Mornington Peninsula vineyard in 1972, around the same time as the late Dr Bailey Carrodus interplanted a small number of viognier vines with shiraz at Yarra Yering”.

Later in the seventies, Heathcote winery in central Victoria probably trialled the variety. And, in the Barossa, Yalumba acquired cuttings from Montpellier, France in 1979. Yalumba propagated these cuttings and planted 1.2 hectares on the Vaughan vineyard, Eden Valley, in 1980. They claimed this as the first commercial viognier planting in Australia. The distinctive and lovely whites subsequently made by Louisa Rose stimulated consumer and winemaker interest in the variety.

As the Yalumba viognier vines matured, Dr John Kirk planted the variety at Clonakilla, Murrumbateman in 1986. In the next decade his son Tim combined grapes from these with vines shiraz to create Australia’s most influential take on the classic Cote-Rotie shiraz-viognier style.

Yalumba’s success with white viognier and Clonakilla’s with the red blend stimulated interest in the variety and plantings took off early in the new century.

Viognier, first showed up in Australian Bureau of Statistics figures in 2003 at 541 hectares, including non-bearing vines. This had increased to 1401 hectares in 2008 (representing about two per cent of Australia’s 72 thousand hectares of white varieties).

However, Winemaker Federation of Australia surveys pre-date ABS data on viognier. The federation’s 1999 survey indicated a total viognier crush of 254 tonnes. The crush peaked at 13,338 tonnes in 2009, then declined slightly in 2010, 2011 and 2012. But the declines probably relates to vintage conditions rather than any decline in plantings.

If we assume a productive capacity of around 13 thousand tonnes, then Australia’s vignerons might produce a little under a million dozen bottles of viognier a year. However, much of the production goes to blends with shiraz (and sometimes other red varieties) and also with other whites, principally viognier’s Rhone relatives, marsanne and roussanne.

Just what goes where is anybody’s guess. But a search of “viognier” on the website of Australia’s largest wine retailer, Dan Murphy, brought up 73 wines – 48 shiraz viognier blends; 19 straight viogniers; one dessert-style viognier; one rose (a blend with grenache); and four white blends.

If this sample is representative, then much of Australia’s viognier goes to blends with shiraz – with one caveat, the blends usually contain only about five per cent viognier.

On its own, viognier’s exotic apricot and ginger flavours and viscous palate perhaps deliver too much flavour for regular drinking. As with other assertive whites – gewürztraminer, for example – a little goes a long way.

But these can be delightful drinks and indeed our winemakers, notably Yalumba and Clonakilla, now produced highly polished versions that retain varietal character without overwhelming the senses.

I review below five examples that recently came across the tasting bench, including three superb wines from Yalumba, true masters of the variety with 29 hectares of viognier on hand.

Yalumba South Australia Organic Viognier 2012 $18.95
Yalumba’s entry-level viognier – pure and apricot-like with smooth texture and fresh, dry finish

Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2012 $24.95
A more opulent expression of viognier, incorporating the creamy texture of barrel fermentation and maturation. This is exceptional at the price.

Yalumba The Virgilius Eden Valley Viognier 2010 $49.95
Yalumba’s barrel-fermented flagship introduces an exotic ginger note to the varietal apricot character. This is a sumptuous but restrained, distinctive and delightful wine to savour slowly. Classy.

Mount Avoca Pyrenees Viognier 2010 $24
When first opened, this revealed the distinctive “bacon rind” character of barrel fermentation, a character that overshadowed the fruit. Oaky flavours then cut through the palate, a flavour quite separate from the good fruit.

Quartz Hill Pyrenees Viognier 2011 $32
Shane Mead’s is another fine expression of viognier. While the oak influence is apparent it sits well with the fruit, if not as completely integrated as it is in Yalumba’s wines. The spritely, slightly leaner palate appeals very much.

Penfolds Grange, Henschke Hill of Grace – investing a tricky business

13 June 2013People, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The recent release of Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace at record prices raises the age-old question of what they’re really worth. The short answer is, they’re worth what people pay for them. And as Penfolds and Henschke sell out every year, the answer has to be that they’re not overpriced, notwithstanding substantial domestic discounting in the case of Grange.

The discounting reminds us that we don’t all pay the same price. Indeed the gap between recommended retail and price on special may run to $100 or more a bottle. But over time, both wines tend to appreciate in value, though not at an even or predictable rate. So whether or not a purchase stacks up as an investment, as many buyers hope, depends on paying the right price at the right time (and not drinking it while you wait). Achieving this is no easier than picking stock price movements.

A story published in the Canberra Times on 30 May provided a real-life glimpse of Grange as an investment. The story reported prices Jackie Chan is said to have paid on a buying spree at Jim Murphy’s Fyshwick store in 1999.

Chan’s purchases included four vintages of Grange – 1991, 1990 and 1989 at $390 a bottle each and 1983 at $300, according on an order form retained by a former Murphy employee. Based on the current retail prices of those wines in the same store, the report concluded, “at least some of his purchases may now be proving a savvy investment”.

Unfortunately for Chan, though, it doesn’t work like that. A private owner has little chance of selling at retail prices. Why? Because people wanting to buy old Grange don’t phone Jackie Chan. If they’re in a rush, they’ll visit a retail store. And if they’re not, they might go to auction and save a great deal of money.

Collectors wanting to sell wine, generally don’t have customers, so they go to auction or to an upmarket retailer. In other words, they sell into a wholesale market. And from my experience as one of those retailers, auction prices continue to provide the best guide to current wholesale value.

So if Chan took the Granges he bought in 1999 to auction today, the result could be sobering. In nominal terms, he’d be ahead on the 1990, 1991 and 1983 vintages and behind on the 1989 vintage. However, after inflation adjusting his 1999 dollars, he’d be seriously behind on all four vintages. The position would be even worse were we to calculate the opportunity cost of money tied up without return for 14 years. The table below shows the detailed estimates.

The same table shows the net price you’d pay as a buyer at auction after adding the auctioneer’s quaintly named “buyer’s premium” and GST. Comfortingly, these prices, with the exception of the 1983, sit well below the retail prices quoted in the Canberra Times report – underlining the value of auctions.

And to illustrate the importance of timing, those who bought Grange1983 at $50 in 1988 could pocket a tidy profit – nominally $377 a bottle, or $325 after adjustment for inflation.

The top of the table shows Langton’s auction prices for various vintages of Grange and Hill of Grace. The generally high prices confirm their desirability. But it also demonstrates an age-old pattern – you can generally buy beautiful mature old vintages for less than you’d pay for a current release.

For drinkers rather than investors, though, there’s comfort in buying and cellaring a wine on release. That way, as the decades tick by, you know exactly where the wine’s been and how it’s been cellared. I suspect this is where Jackie Chan’s coming from.

And Grange and Hill of Grace sit at the top of the auction pile because they will cellar reliably for decades. I reviewed the new-release 2008 Grange a few weeks back, and last week had the opportunity to taste the just-released Hill of Grace 2008.

Ainslie Cellars hosted a customer tasting of Henschke wines, including the two single-vineyard flagships, Mount Edelstone Shiraz 2009 ($115) and Hill of Grace 2008 ($650).

I’ll review the range over the coming weeks. For today, though, let’s consider just the majestic 2008 Hill of Grace, sourced from 150-year-old shiraz vines in the Eden Valley. It’s deeply coloured but limpid and just beginning to show a little age at the rim. The complex, multi-faceted aroma suggests a big, powerful wine, built on intense, ripe black-cherry-like fruit, laced with sympathetic oak. The palate surprises after the aroma as it’s ethereal and elegant in structure, though waves of intense fruit and tannins sweep across the palate. It’s a classy and idiosyncratic shiraz, as gnarled and stately as the ancient vines it springs from.

Penfolds and Henschke blue-chip reds – market prices

Wine	RRP	Mean hammer price	Seller gets	Buyer pays

Grange 2008	$785	No sale	No sale	No sale
Grange 2007		$425	$383	$537
Grange 2006		$550	$495	$695
Grange 2005		$445	$400	$562
Grange 1996		$475	$427	$600
Grange 1990		$555	$500	$702
Grange 1986		$550	$495	$696
Grange 1983		$475	$427	$600

Hill of Grace 2008	$650	No sale	No sale	No sale
Hill of Grace 2007		No sale	No sale	No sale
Hill of Grace 2006		$445	$400	$562
Hill of Grace 2005		$400	$360	$506
Hill of Grace 1999		$365	$328	$461
Hill of Grace 1990		$480	$432	$607
Hill of Grace 1986		$360	$324	$455
Hill of Grace 1983		$220	$198	$278

The Jackie Chan Granges	What Jackie paid 1999*	What he’d get now	What you’d pay now
Grange 1991	$390/$575	$450	$632
Grange 1990	$390/$575	$500	$702
Grange 1989	$390/$575	$320	$449
Grange 1983	$300/$443	$427	$600

Auction price sources: langtons.com.au
Seller’s price assumes 10% commission to Langton’s
Buyer’s price assumes 15% commission to Langton’s and GST

*Nominal price/inflation adjusted price in brackets

© Chris Shanahan 2013 June 2013