Beer review — 88 Balls and Southern Tier

12 May 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

88 Balls Belgian Lager 24x330ml $33–$35
Belgium’s Palm Brewery makes this lager for Barons Brewing, Australia. It’s in the mainstream, pleasingly aromatic, crisp Euro lager style – a decent quaffing beer with the light, piquant, very clean finish of the genre. It offers good value, especially if you find some local brews a little heavy and cloying.

Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout $17.95
Beer can be flavoured with everything from chilli to chocolate, not always with the success of this bold brew from Southern Tier Brewing of Lakewood, New York. Luxurious bittersweet chocolate sets an opulent tone matched by caramel malt and a heady 11-per-cent alcohol. I can imagine it with fresh strawberries or ice cream.

Belgian bargain set to shake beer market

12 May 2010BeerChris Shanahan

88 Balls lager – it’s new, wet, alcoholic, fresh, imported from Belgium and cheap as chips at $33 to $35 a slab. Good on Barons brewing for bring it in. But I’m guessing there’ll be more publicity than money in the venture. How much can be left over after fees for the Belgian brewer, packaging, shipping 20-thousand kilometres, distribution, retailer margins, excise and GST? A slip in the exchange rate might bring it all undone.

While it lasts, though, it’ll help keep a lid on prices, having lobbed straight into mainstream retailing. On the Anzac Day long weekend, for example, Coles-owned 1st Choice outlets advertised two slabs for $66, alongside Australia’s VB, Melbourne Bitter and Maxx Blonde at the same price. In the same ad, they offered the Australian-brewed, Belgian brand, Stella Artois, at $41.90.

Faced with real Belgian beer priced $9 below faux Belgian, some Stella drinkers might make the change – though I suspect buyers will, in the main, be brand-agnostic bargain hunters.

Coles and Woolworths, too, buy opportunistically. In this case they may simply be meeting market prices without dragging their own direct imports into the price fray. Next week or next year they might move on. Barons had better keep their eye on the ball.

Wine review — Shingleback, d’Arenberg, Chapel Hill, Brokenwood and Voyager Estate

9 May 2010Uncategorized, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Shingleback Red Knot McLaren Valley Shiraz 2008 $13–$15
d’Arenberg McLaren Vale The Footbolt Shiraz 2008 $16–$20
Chapel Hill McLaren Vale Shiraz 2008 $27–$33
Yum yum yum – there’s flavour galore in these shirazes from the uber-hot McLaren Vale 2008 vintage. They share ripeness, liveliness and a regional savoury undertone. Shingleback’s Red Knot displays the brightest most primary fruit flavours; d’Arenberg’s Footbolt seems slightly earthier – though both provide straightforward, easy drinking without much complexity. Chapel Hill turns up the flavour, savouriness and complexity volume and grows in interest with each glass. It’s smooth and supple in its own robust way.

Brokenwood Beechworth Nebbiolo 2008 $22–$25
Brokenwood Beechworth Indigo Vineyard Shiraz 2008 $45–$55
If any of us still distrusts lighter coloured reds, Brokenwood Nebbiolo is the wine to dispel it. It has the alluring fragrance of Piedmont’s notoriously difficult grape and an Aussie accent in the bright, sweet kernel of fruit lurking under its taut, fine, grippy, savoury tannins. This is a very good, thoroughly enjoyable drink with a difference. The medium bodied shiraz also takes us to new territory. The firm, sinewy tannin backbone reminds me a little shiraz from France’s Hermitage region. But the aroma and flavour are all-Australian, cool-climate shiraz, reminiscent of ripe, dark berries, black pepper and a pleasing earthy note. Outstanding wine.

Voyager Estate Margaret River Shiraz 2008 $30–$34
Voyager Estate Margaret River Chardonnay 2007 $38–$42
The shiraz looked smart in a recent small line up of varied Australian shiraz styles. I’d describe it as in the robust cool-climate style – fairly full bodied but with exceptionally vibrant, spicy, plummy fruit flavours and a tight structure built on high acidity and fine tannins. It was our mutual top wine of the tasting and the only bottle to be drained completely. Voyager’s chardonnay rates among Australia’s best. Winemaker Steve James says that in the hot 2007 he picked the fruit at comparatively low sugar levels, partly accounting for the exceptional vibrancy of this luxurious barrel-fermented white.

Mourvedre — venerable survivor

5 May 2010People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

The release this month of an extraordinary red, Hewitson 1853 Old Garden Barossa Valley Mourvedre 2008 ($69), begs the question, what is mourvedre? There’s not a lot of it grown in Australia – in 2008 just 785 hectares, mostly in the Barossa Valley – yet it’s survived here for almost two hundred years. And even if we’ve not heard of it, we’ve almost certainly enjoyed mourvedre (aka mataro), acknowledged or not in red blends or as an anonymous component in Australian “port”.

Descriptions of mourvedre contradict one another. Can it really be soft and fruity but also tannic and iron-hard; both low in acid with little colour and searingly acidic and opaque? The answer appears to be yes. Consider these contrasting accounts of Spanish and Australian mourvedre/monastrell/mataro from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine and Rolf Binder’s Veritas Winery website.

Jancis Robinson: “The wine produced from monastrell’s small, sweet, thick-skinned berries tends to be heady stuff, high in alcohol, tannins and a somewhat gamey almost animal flavour”. Rolf Binder: “A mataro berry is about 1.5 times larger than a shiraz berry so bleeding off juice increases the juice to skin ratio” – in short, Binder bleeds juice off to increase extraction of tannin and colour, something his Spanish peers don’t’ need to do.

Robinson also writes that in southern France “mourvedre is considered an improving structural ingredient – a sort of vinous RSJ” – suggesting its firm tannins give the backbone lacking in the companion varieties, shiraz, grenache and cinsault.

Dean Hewitson offers two possible reasons for southern French mourvedre’s comparative toughness. The first, and most likely, he believes, is that varieties are mixed in the vineyard in the Rhone Valley but they ripen at different times. Therefore if a grower harvests a vineyard when the grenache is ripe, the mourvedre will be unripe, with hard tannins.

The second, is that the devastation of European vineyards by phylloxera in the late nineteenth century may have resulted in significant clonal differences between Australia and Europe. Barossa plantings are all pre-phylloxera and may be “clonally softer in tannin”, suggests Hewitson.

Because mourvedre buds and ripens very late, it needs plenty of late season heat. Little wonder, then, that it’s at home in the hot Barossa and Spain, but pushes only into southern France, and even there can struggle to ripen. (Follow a Rolf Binder 100-year-old Barossa bush-vine mourvedre from budburst to harvest to vinification at www.rolfbinder.com/index_alt.php?cmi=6001).

In Australia as in France and Spain, mourvedre plays mainly a support role to other varieties, historically for “port” and increasingly for red table wine. In the mid eighties the so-called Rhone Rangers led the Barossa revival of grenache-shiraz-mourvedre blends. This group, including Charlie Melton, Rocky O’Callaghan and Bob McLean, took the unique beauty of the Barossa’s very old vines to the world.

Mourvedre played a key role in their blends. But they weren’t the first to gain recognition, as Penfolds Shiraz Mataro Bin 2, made from 1960, remained popular until its discontinuation in the seventies. It was resurrected in 1980 and 1981, then discontinued and the remainder shipped to the UK. Production of Bin 2, now labelled as shiraz mourvedre, commenced again in 1990.

In The Rewards of Patience, edition four, 2000, Penfolds claims Bin 2 opened the UK market to Australian wine, “Originally, Bin 2 was a result of experimental work on the medium-bodied, soft-finishing ‘Australian Burgundy’ style, traditionally based on shiraz. The addition of mourvedre may also explain Bin 2’s success with British wine drinkers, as this variety has the effect of moderating the richness of shiraz, making the wine leaner and more European in both style and structure”.

Mourvedre seems set to continue its supporting role to shiraz and grenache. But Hewitson and Binder have both made jaw-dropping straight varietals as thrilling as any red on the market.

However, Dean Hewitson cautions, “It’s a matter of understanding when it’s a blending grape and when it’s not to blend”. He sources mourvedre from a dozen or so vineyards across the Barossa, several of them more than a century old, but still uses it principally as a blender, “to add complexity to Miss Harry [his grenache, shiraz, mourvedre, cinsault blend] and dimension to Ned and Henry’s [shiraz with a splash of mourvedre]”.

He adds that mourvedre’s not as forgiving a variety as shiraz or cabernet and it needs to be from a very special site – typically in sandy soils – to stand on its own.

Hewitson made his first straight varietal in 1998 from eight rows of mourvedre vines, remnants of a larger vineyard planted by Friedrich Koch in 1853, near the North Para River at Roland Flat, Southern Barossa. The vines are direct descendents of the collection brought to Australia by James Busby in1832.

Those remaining vines, he says, witnessed all the fads and fashions of the Australian wine industry, from fortified to table wine, and even contributed fruit to Orlando Carrington Blush bubbly in the eighties.

The mourvedre plantings had been more extensive, but the Koch family replaced them progressively with more fashionable varieties until Hewitson contracted the last eight rows in 1998.

From 1996 Hewitson propagated new vineyards using cuttings from the best of the old vines. These gradually increased the volume of mourvedre available for blending and, after ten years, contributed fruit to a second straight mourvedre, Baby Bush.

Hewitson believes we’ll see more straight mourvedre in the near future. He suspects recent sales of Baby Bush and Old Garden to fellow Barossa makers to be for benchmarking their own products.

We’ll have to wait and see. But even if more flow into the market, it’ll be a tiny volume. Mourvedre accounts for less than one per cent of Australia’s red plantings, and these vines produce only six to seven thousand tonnes of grapes a year.

Production may be small, but it’s a key variety, a great blender, sensational on its own on occasion and now, I’m told, the best grapes fetch very high prices. In the Barossa this means a small army of makers, many of them quite small, hunting down those very special, very old parcels.

Mourvedre will remain a niche variety. But it won’t remain anonymous. Watch for a review of Hewitson Old Garden in my Sunday Top Drops column.

Cider and beer review — Napoleone & Co and Coopers

5 May 2010Beer review, CiderChris Shanahan

Napoleone & Co Yarra Valley Apple Cider 330ml 4-pack $18
This is made at the Punt Road Winery using a variety of apples from the nearby Napoleone orchard, established in 1948. It’s pale coloured with a light, clean and fresh appley aroma. The palate’s fresh, clean and dry, with pure apple flavour, though lacking punch and vibrancy.

Coopers Original Pale Ale 375ml 6-pack $14.99
Stupidly, got caught up arguing Coopers Pale Ale versus Coopers Sparkling Ale, both bottle conditioned, the former 4.5 per cent alcohol, the latter 5.8 per cent. Like all faith arguments (Macintosh versus PC, for example) it went nowhere. Thank god, though, for the delicious, bitter, refreshing Pale Ale, what a winner.

Judges thousand-beer taste off

5 May 2010BeerChris Shanahan

Beer judges this year gave up their Anzac Day holiday to taste draught brews in the eighteenth Australian International Beer Awards. The annual event, organised by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria and the University of Ballarat, attracts entries from brewers all over the world.

This year’s Awards received 1,107 entries – 622 from Australia and 485 from other countries, including Czech Republic, Belgium, Chile, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Germany, UK and the U.S.A.

Organisers say the competition reflects the trend towards craft beers, with about half the entries now coming from small brewers. The trophy winners will be announced at the Crown Palladium Ballroom, Melbourne, on Thursday 20 May 2010, and the full results published at www.beerawards.com

The website features a useful link to the style guidelines followed by judges at the awards (click the “competition” button, then scroll to “style guidelines”). The link leads initially to a terrific American reference site, written in plain English and broken into easily-digested chunks – an overview; English, Irish and Scottish ales; American ales; Belgian and French ales; other ales and hybrids; classic lagers; and specialty beers.

For a more complete and technical style guide click through to the “brewers association” site and see “publications”.

Wine review — Plunket-Fowles, Meerea Park, Penfolds, Pooles Rock and Freeman

2 May 2010People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Plunkett-Fowles Stone Dwellers Strathbogie Ranges Riesling 2008 $18–$22
Meerea Park Hunter Valley XYZ Semillon 2009 $20–$22
Stone Dwellers, from Victoria’s Strathbogie Ranges, delivers huge dollops of juicy, fresh, citrus-like fruit flavours. At 13 per cent it’s at the high-alcohol end of the riesling spectrum. But that just adds to the richness – and, in any event, there’s heaps of acid keeping it fresh and crisp. In contrast, Meerea Park’s 11 per cent alcohol semillon, from the Howard family’s vineyard, is all tightness and restraint. Lemony, crisp, and plank dry, it makes a terrific aperitif now, and has the structure and flavour depth to flourish over time. A glorious follow-up bottle of Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon 1997 reminded us how good this style is with age.

Penfolds Bin 138 Shiraz Mourvedre Grenache 2008 $25–$30
Pooles Rock Hunter Valley Shiraz 2007 $39–$40
Warm climate Australian shiraz reveals more faces than a Tokyo subway. The plush and pure Pooles Rock bears the Hunter’s unique thumbprint: an earthy note hovering over ripe, sweet fruit aromas and, on the palate deep, sweet fruit layered with soft tannins. It’s an easy style to drink young, but becomes finer and more ethereal with age, sometimes over many decades. Barossa shiraz, too, can be juicy and soft. But in Bin 138, mourvedre adds a fine, savoury tannic grip and grenache inserts its aromatic high notes into a complex wine. This one needs a few years bottle age to be at its best.

Freeman Rondinella Corvina Secco 2005 $27–$30
This is a brilliant Aussie take on the classic reciotto della Valpolicella Amarone style of Verona, Italy, made from dried grapes. Brian Freeman established his vineyard at Young from just six cuttings each of the Veronese varieties, rondinella and corvina in 1999. Rather than go the whole hog like the Valpolicella Amarone makers, Brian uses mainly fresh grapes, adding a portion of dehydrated berries during fermentation. The 2005 vintage seems a little less full bodied than the 2004 reviewed here last year, but the underlying cherry-like fruit flavours are similar. Five years’ bottle age gives a lovely mellowness to match the grippy Italian savour.

Antinori comes to Canberra

28 April 2010People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

In 1385 Tuscany’s Antinori family commenced winemaking, Giovanni di Bicci de Medici, founder of the famous dynasty, turned 25 and Columbus hadn’t been born, let alone set sail. And given the squabbles on the peninsula, the notion of a unified Italy might’ve been less imaginable to a fourteenth century Florentine than a fabulous new world across the sea.

Indeed, the new world came and flourished long before Italy united. By the time Tuscany escaped Austrian rule and joined a united Italy in 1860, the American republic was 84 years old and Europe’s winemaking traditions, mainly French and German, had taken root on the planet’s oldest continent.

In 1849, as Antinori celebrated 464 years in the wine trade, an Englishman, Samuel Smith, founded Yalumba wines in the Barossa Valley. One hundred and thirty five years later, Robert Hill-Smith, Smith’s fifth generation descendent, established Negociants Australia – Yalumba’s import and wholesale arm. Hill-Smith included Antinori in his list of imports (now managed by 26th generation Piero Antinori).

Hill-Smith was Yalumba’s marketing manager at the time and driving the company’s modernisation. A year later he became managing director and five years later, with his brother Sam, bought out the other family shareholders.

It was a time of great turmoil in the industry. The end of retail price maintenance ten years earlier had unleashed a competitive wave that drove industry consolidation as producers struggled for market share and margin in a glutted market.

Producer consolidation in turn drove retail consolidation, a process that continues today, delivering Coles and Woolworths ever-greater market power. Retail consolidation then forced more producer consolidation. In conjunction with a currency-driven collapse in exports and overproduction, this consolidation continues to destroy value across the Australian wine industry.

Across these turbulent years, though, Hill-Smith focussed on his brands and along with other larger family owned companies, including Tyrrell’s, Brown Brothers, McWilliams and De Bortoli, gained market share as once-great brand names languished.

In this stable environment, with the long-term focus essential in the wine industry, Yalumba’s wine quality increased steadily. In every market segment they occupy, their quality is as good as it gets – and this includes traditional styles as well the alternative varieties now being pursued.

The Antinori story may be older, but its modern achievements share much with Yalumba’s – patience, innovation and a focus on quality, built from the vineyard up. As trading partners they’re a good match.

Antinori’s modern reputation intertwines with the creation of the so-called ‘super Tuscans’ in the early seventies. In 1971 Antinori thumbed its nose at Italy’s wine classification system. It voluntarily downgraded its flagship Tignanello from “Chianti Classico Riserva” to mere “table wine”.

By adding cabernet to the blend, they’d breached the Chianti Classico rules. However, Tignanello proved to be a great wine and word-of-mouth marketing quickly took it to the world, creating a new genre of Chianti spin-offs – blending classic Bordeaux varieties with the indigenous sangiovese grape. (In 1991 I enjoyed a bottle of the original 1971 Tignanello at a restaurant in the Tuscan town of Tavernelle. It was still drinking beautifully).

But the Antinoris didn’t drop “Chianti Classico” altogether. Indeed, they’ve polished the quality to extraordinary heights – and expanded their range into the nearby appellation of Brunello di Montalcino and to the coastal Bolgheri region.

Twenty-six years after Robert Hill-Smith established Negociants Australia, Piero Antinori’s godson, Jacopo Pandolini, arrived in Canberra, pulling the corks on the latest Antinori vintages for a trade tasting at Italian and Sons, Braddon.

They were jaw dropping, thrillingly good. Few single-maker lines ups in the world could match this range for drinking pleasure.

Peppoli Chianti Classico 2006 $32.90
This is the modern face of Chianti and a salute to the fruity wines of the new world. A little syrah (shiraz) and merlot in the blend, a touch of American oak, sweetens the aroma and fattens out the palate a little (sangiovese, the base wines, can be very austere). An enjoyable wine, but if you’re used to traditional Chianti, you might find Peppoli a little too “new world”.

Badia a Passignano Chianti Classico Riserva 2005 $62
This is a single-vineyard wine from the 325-hectare Badia a Passignano estate, purchased by the Antinoris in 1987. Rare for Chianti, it’s 100 per cent sangiovese. – a selection of the best berries, picked late in the season at full ripeness. It’s a beautiful Chianti Classico, austere, bone dry and elegant, with a delicious core of ripe, sweet fruit.

Pian delle Vigne Brunello di Montalcino 2001 $92
This is another 100 per cent sangiovese, sourced from Antinori’s Pian delle Vigne estate, six kilometres south of the town of Montalcino. In a word, it’s stunning – elegant, fine, ethereal. A great wine from a great vintage.

Tignanello 2006 $125
This blend of 85 per cent sangiovese, 10 per cent cabernet sauvignon and five per cent cabernet franc from the Tignanello estate seems soft and juicy in comparison to the straight sangioveses. The cabernets have a big impact on the aroma, flavour and structure – a wine that’s still firm in the scheme of things, but elegant and refined. A distinctive and utterly seductive wine.

Tenuta Guado al Tasso Bolgheri $115
This is a cabernet sauvignon, merlot syrah blend from Bolgheri, on the Tuscan coast. It’s fragrant and sweet fruited, driven by cabernet’s ripe-berry character, and elegantly structured. The sweet fruit flavour lingers on and on.

Solaia 2004 $420
Solaia combines cabernet sauvignon (75 per cent) and cabernet franc (five per cent) and sangiovese (20 per cent) sourced from the top blocks of the Tignanello vineyard. It reverses the Tignanello blend, putting cabernet to the fore, although it doesn’t dominate. This is a powerful, taut wine. But the solid tannins work harmoniously with the intense, fine fruit flavours. It’s another great wine ¬and built for long-term cellaring.

Wine review — Brindabella Hills

25 April 2010People, Vineyard, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Brindabella Hills Canberra District Brio $20
Sometimes food, company, setting and wine combine in a magical way – as they did at Brindabella Hills late afternoon on Canberra’s mild, sunny Easter Monday. Nibbling Faye Harris’s tapas, taking in the green Murrumbidgee Valley hills and blue Brindabellas from the new cellar door patio, Brio and Argentius couldn’t have tasted better. Brio, meaning verve and vigour, is a pure, unforced expression of sangiovese – medium bodied but with a sweet, ripe kernel of cherry-like varietal flavour and firm, savoury tannins. Roger Harris says this is the noble Brunello clone of the variety, sourced from a neighbouring vineyard at Hall.

Brindabella Hills Canberra District Argentius 2008 $20
Gewürztraminer, riesling and pinot gris? Strange bed partners perhaps, but they work in Argentius – especially washing down fresh, savoury tapas at the winery (and no doubt with the ripe, soft cheese or light, spicy Asian dishes suggested by winemaker Roger Harris). High-toned, musky gewürztraminer dominates the aroma, suggesting perhaps a touch of sweetness and viscosity to come. Yes, to an extent, but the palate’s more complex – citrusy and tangy, velvety and slick. It’s off dry, with a savoury grip of tannin from the gewürztraminer and pinot gris. And thumbs up after a subsequent road test with Thai food. See www.brindabellahills.com.au

Brindabella Hills Canberra District

Sauvignon Blanc 2009 $18
Riesling 2009 $25
Shiraz 2007 $25

These are big value wines, looking very good indeed six months after release. The riesling is intensely aromatic, with lime and lemon-like varietal character; an intense, lime-like palate backs up the first impressions, finishing long and bone dry – a classy riesling, with good cellaring potential. The sauvy’s light and tangy, tending to herbal, and ready to drink. The shiraz, always one of Canberra’s best, comes in this vintage from Wayne and Jennie Fischer’s Nanima Vineyard, backed by a little viognier from Brindabella. It’s a dark, aromatic, more savoury than usual wine, with the characteristic firm tannins of the season. Atypical but outstanding red.

Foam surfing — Longboard rides wave of popularity

21 April 2010Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Heard of Longboard? It’s a new brew, created by Illawarra coast surfing mates, Brendan Bate, Nathan McEwan and Jonathon Crowe.

It’s currently available on tap along the Illawarra Coast, at the Friendly Inn, Kangaroo Valley, and at a couple of Sydney outlets. But Brendan Bate says, “Although we’ve stuck to the area we know so far, we have aspirations for a national brand”.

The three partners developed Longboard with Andrew Gow – chief brewer at Five Islands Brewery, North Wollongong. Bates said they borrowed features from their two favourite ales, Cooper’s and Little Creatures, aiming for a brisk, full-bodied ale with citrus-like hops high notes and clean, lingering bitterness. – something with character plus easy drinkability.

We test drove it over lunch at the Scarborough Hotel (383 Lawrence Hargrave Drive) – distracted by sweeping coastal views, south towards Wollongong and north to the Royal National Park, with the steep escarpment looming to the west.

Our mixed group of men, women, Germans and Australians gave Longboard the thumbs up. We liked its dazzling freshness, aromatic hops, clean bitterness and even the slight sweetness that came with the mid-palate malt richness. It’s a long way in style from our standard lagers, but easy to love. See www.longboardbeer.com for stockists.

Longboard Pale Ale 425ml schooner $5.00
Thank the Scarborough Hotel’s stunning ocean views for one star of our rating for Longboard – a full-flavoured, naturally conditioned beer made in the Australian pale ale style. The late addition of Cascade hops gives the beer its distinctive, citrusy flavour and tangy fresh finish. It’s available at various outlets on the Illawarra Coast.