Google and gurgle your way to drinking pleasure

Wine

As wine drinkers we’ve never had such choice as we do today – the offerings of more than 2,300 Australian and 500-odd New Zealand vignerons, as well as a widening range of imports. Paradoxically, as the number of wine brands expands, liquor retailing continues to consolidate as Coles and Woolworths carve up the trade – and now account for probably more than half of Australia’s take-away liquor sales.

The two giants club each other in capital city press ads each Thursday, fomenting local competition. Together with our local independent retailers they offer a good range of wines – remembering that different outlets offer a different focus.

But what we find at even the best intentioned retail outlet barely touches what’s out there in the wineries. Discovering these gems is rewarding. But like most forms of mining the search involves lots of sifting to uncover pay dirt. These top tips may help you find drinking pleasure in our great regional specialties.

Recognise the keys to quality
Marketing, advertising and packaging send a thousand cues quite often relating to everything but what’s in the bottle. And what’s in the bottle?  Wine made from grapes. The most important information to find (and it’s not always on the label) is the grape variety or varieties used in making the wine, the origin of those grapes, who made the wine and the vintage.

With an appreciation of the types of wines made by the main grape varieties and a feel for regional differences comes understanding. Regional specialisation is now well advanced in Australia and yields some of the greatest drinking pleasure.

As winemaking influences how wine tastes, it helps to acquire some understanding of cellar styles. And, of course, vintages make a difference, especially in marginal grape-growing regions. The further up the price and quality ladder you go, the more you need to know, and the more benchmarks you need in your head to make good value judgements. Take the time to learn as you move up the ladder. Be prepared to expand your frame of reference.

Check regional show results
While our capital city shows attract the most publicity, the results are largely irrelevant to wine drinkers as the same wines seem to win the major gongs. The real action these days is in regional shows open only to local wines. Many of these (Canberra, Limestone Coast and Barossa, for example) post their results on the web. The results give an overview of what varieties do well in a region. And if you’re buying on the strength of the results, you can safely drill down past the trophy and gold medal winners to silver and bronze medallists, too – these will be above average regional wines. The main caveat is that some of the better producers don’t show their wines. So, take the show results as a good, but not definitive, opinion.

Check, as well, results of the Winewise Small Vignerons Awards, held each year in July, at www.winewise.net.au

Read the reviews
Most newspapers and magazines offer wine reviews. You’ll find some reviewers more in tune your palate than others, so follow them if you have time. But as this slow-drip approach gives regional glimpses rather than overviews, James Halliday’s comprehensive annual Wine Companion can be a useful resource ¬– especially the overall rating of wineries. Caveats: I find some of the ratings for very small makers to err on the side of generosity. For wine reviews in general, scores out of 100 give a false sense of precision and tend to cluster misleadingly in a small range.

Visit the winemaker’s website
Websites vary, but many convey a great sense of place and provide wonderful detail on the complex pieces that make up that delicious glass in your hand. It’s a story of passion, people, place and often decades and generations of endeavour.

Visit regional websites
Wine region websites vary in quality and the detail they give. But it’s always worth a Google.

Google and gurgle
With location at the heart of a wine identity it’s not surprising that the world’s biggest selling wine books are wine atlases, including Hugh Johnson’s superb Wine Atlas of the World, first published in 1971, revised and updated several times, and still going strong. A good map tells so much at a glance – especially detailed contour maps of the calibre offered by Johnson. I’ve navigated by them in France.

These days we have an immediate resource at hand in Google Earth. Try, for example, searching ‘Mount Crawford South Australia’ and in a flash you’ll be hovering above the hills on the south-eastern edge of the Barossa, with Domain Day in the cross hairs immediately below. Zoom in for a detailed view of the vineyard, complete with bird netting. Zoom back out and in a few seconds you can take in the whole Barossa zone – the valley floor stretching from Williamstown and Lyndoch in the south and up through Tanunda to Nuriootpa in the north, flanked by the Eden Valley hills to the east, and back to Mount Crawford at the southern end of the hills.

The Google and gurgle method won’t help you buy wine. But it’ll increase your understanding and boost your drinking pleasure. With a glass in hand you can tour Coonawarra, Margaret River, Marlborough – anywhere. And if you have a specific road address for a winery Google can take you right to the spot. Caveat: Google doesn’t have high-resolution shots of every region, but it’s getting better all the time.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Beer review — Dalgety Brewing Co.

Beer

Dalgety Brewing Co. Golden Ale 24X330ml $75
My favourite of the Dalgety beers has a deep golden colour, a lively, spontaneous head and a hazy appearance. It’s very aromatic, led by fresh, citrusy hops – a character that drives through the rich, smooth, soft, lively malty palate as well, giving a lingering hops flavour and bitterness to the finish.

Dalgety Pale Ale 300ml 24X330ml $75
This one has mid-amber colour, a medium head and a light yeast haze. The brewer’s note describes an ‘in your face’ hit of hops – but it’s subdued, lacking the ultra freshness for the hops to drive the beer as it should. What’s left is a pleasant, bitter, slightly hard beer.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Dalgety — a snowy brew

Beer, People

The Dalgety Brewing Company bills itself as the true snowy brewer. Located about half way between Berridale and Dalgety, the microbrewer also claims to be the first commercial producer in the snow mountains region. But I suspect they’d be in a photo finish with Lion Nathan’s Jindabyne-based Kosciusko Brewing for that honour.

I’ve not visited the cellar door (it’s part of the Snowy Vineyard Estate) but the bottled version, distributed in Canberra by Z4, is already available at the Ginger Room at old parliament house and Canberra Cellars, Braddon.

The beers are made on site in 100 litre batches by David Lowe. And if they don’t have the classy polish of Lion’s Kosciuszko Pale Ale, there’s an appealing, idiosyncratic, homespun, wholemeal goodness about them (a natural cloudy yeast haze and a slight resinous edge to the hops that builds as you sip).

There’s the foundation for real quality and character across the range, best evidenced in the very fresh, zesty Golden Ale. It’s not inherently a better style than Dalgety’s Blonde Ale, Pale Ale or Red Ale – just fresher, livelier and showing finer, clearer hops aroma, flavour and bitterness. This could be related to the difficulties of small batch bottling – a tricky feat for the even the cleverest brewer.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Wine review — Domain Day

Wine review

Domain Day Mount Crawford One Serious Riesling 2008 $20
Search ‘Mount Crawford South Australia’ on Google Earth and you’ll see that it’s in the hilly country (450 metres altitude) to the east and slightly south of the southern Barossa town of Lyndoch. It just scrapes into the Barossa boundary, but has a significantly cooler climate than the Barossa, or even the elevated Eden Valley, immediately to Mount Crawford’s north and forming the Barossa’s eastern flank. The cool location shapes Robin Day’s wines, including his deliciously fine, intense riesling – a style consistent with the taut, lowish-alcohol, bone-dry end of the Eden Valley spectrum. If serious rieslings put a grin on your face, then this one’s serious.

Domain Day One Serious Sangiovese 2005, One Serious Pinot Noir 2005, $28
Now flip from Google Earth to domainday.com.au and check what grape varieties Robin Day grows – riesling, garganega, viognier, pinot noir, lagrein, sangiovese, saperavi, merlot, nebbiolo and sagrantino. A few old friends make the list, but it’s made up largely of Robin’s own eclectic mix, selected across almost forty years of travel and winemaking.  The sangiovese’s notably bolder than most we see in Australia, but it’s still medium bodied, featuring rich, savoury flavours with a touch of oak plumping up the mid palate. The pinot belies its pale colour with a full, ripe, savoury, red-wine palate and a kiss of sweet oak. These are complex, interesting wines.

Domain Day One Serious ‘L’ Lagrein 2005, One Serious ‘S ‘Saparavi 2005 $28
Robin describes lagrein as a ‘great surprise hiding away in the north of Italy among all those savoury, meaty Italian reds’. It’s deeply coloured, still crimson rimmed at four years with bright, juicy berry flavours and layers of soft tannins. It’s easy to love, teasingly familiar, but not quite like any of our known wine flavours and textures. Saparavi, says Day, is the main red variety of the 500 natives grown in Georgia, the probable cradle of grape cultivation. It’s a big, deep, purple-rimmed, sweet-fruited (but dry) drop – definitely serious – but bright, fresh and lively, finishing with a lovely wave of very, very serious tannins.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Big makers must deliver the regional message

People, Vineyard, Wine

‘Terroir’, or a sense of place, is the vocabulary of the fine-wine world. It’s the language of regions, their climates and soils and the grapes that work best in particular circumstances. The wine drinker’s fascination with origin progresses to the peculiarities of individual vineyards sites and the subtle differences of wines from various locations within a region.

Australia’s has ‘terroirs’ galore, manifested by the tremendous spread of our more than two thousand small vignerons and legion of independent grape growers. But in our conquest of world markets we’ve limited our vocabulary largely to a generic sunshine-in-a-bottle, multi-region-blend message.

This promises a base for our next round of expansion as we take our regional stories to the world. To achieve this, however, our big winemakers – those leading the current, but faltering, export success – must embrace the ‘terroir’ concept – not just mouth it, but comprehend it and take it to the world.

They don’t need to use the French term ‘terroir’ – and perhaps may better off without it even though we don’t have a comparable English word. But what it sums up for Australia is our tremendously varied regional and intra-regional wine stories, some just a few decades in the making, others stretching back to the mid nineteenth century.

The concept underpins all of our successful small makers and many of our locally successful big company upmarket brands – for example, the Foster’s-owned Wynns of Coonawarra. Indeed, for Australian wine drinkers the name Wynns, Coonawarra and cabernet sauvignon are indistinguishable – making Wynns a model of a wine brand, intimately linked to its region and the region’s varietal specialty.

The link exists not through slick marketing but through the Wynns wines enjoyed by Australians for almost sixty years ¬– what’s in the glass tells the Coonawarra story.

But after Australia’s decade of export success, the story of this fifty-eight-year-old brand remains little known outside Australia, even in our biggest export markets, the UK and USA. In the latter, said winemaker Sue Hodder in Canberra last week, the trade accepts Wynns shiraz because shiraz is seen as Australia’s special variety, but rejects Wynns cabernet, partly because it upstages American cabernets in Foster’s portfolio.

Meanwhile back in Australia the Wynns regional story moved on to individual vineyards earlier this decade – reflecting the fact that even in a flat, apparently homogenous region like Coonawarra, quality and shades of flavour vary widely, even over short distances.

The focus began in earnest after the disastrous 2002 vintage says Hodder.  A vineyard rejuvenation project, already being led by Allen Jenkins, gathered pace across Wynns vast holdings, spread across Coonawarra.

Allen worked closely with Sue, monitoring grape quality, and ultimately wine style and quality, across scores of blocks and even rows of vines within blocks.

The first individual vineyard wine that I recall from the project was Wynns ‘Harold’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2001, sourced from a nine-hectare block purchased by Wynns from Harold Childs in 1966 and replanted to cabernet in 1971. The block sits about half way between Coonawarra village and Penola on the northwestern corner of the Riddoch Highway (dissecting Coonawarra north to south) and Stony Road. You can see the vineyard by searching ‘Stony Road Coonawarra’ on Google Earth.

Eight years on Harold 2001 looks young, with a beautiful floral lift to the varietal aroma and a fresh, supple, elegant ripe-berry palate. It’s a delight to drink and quite distinctive in the Wynns line-up, albeit in the Coonawarra family mould.

What a contrast Harold presents to Wynns ‘Messenger’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. This is a fuller, riper, earthier style (still very much Coonawarra cabernet) from a 3.3-hectare vineyard planted in 1975 on what would’ve then been Coonawarra’s southwestern fringe. Apparently the block performs well in warm years like 2005.

In another different vein Wynns ‘Johnson’s’ Shiraz Cabernet 2003 presents a round, soft palate (thanks to the shiraz) with bright, fresh, red-berry flavours. Sue says the block always delivers these distinctive flavours in both cabernet and shiraz. The block’s cultivated history stretches back to the 1890s. Wynns acquired it in 1951 as part of their original purchase. Today it has 32 hectares of shiraz, planted in 1925, and 19 hectares of cabernet sauvignon, planted in 1954.

And from the ‘Alex’ block, located one kilometre north of the Wynns winery, comes a new cabernet from the 2006 vintage. It’s very deep and ripe with rich, supple, clearly varietal palate – an open, appealing style and a pleasure to drink now. It’s from a block acquired by James Alexander in 1892, bought by Wynns in 1982 and planted to grapes in 1988.

These single vineyard wines present some of the colour and shade of Coonawarra, variations based partly on quantifiable climate differences (Coonawarra’s flat but grapes ripen almost two weeks later in southern Coonawarra than they do just 15–20 kilometres north) and partly to less quantifiable factors like variation in soil types. And that’s overimplifying what’s behind the fascinating flavour difference.

The single site wines add spice to the core range which has also benefited from a decade of vineyard rejuvenation. The just released shiraz 2008 presents a beautifully fragrant, vibrant, elegant face of Coonawarra shiraz – medium bodied, spicy, supple and with cellaring potential, despite its drink-now appeal.

Good old black label cabernet 2007, made in tiny volumes thanks to frost and drought, is elegant, refined and pure in its varietal character. Its bigger brother, John Riddoch 2006, is all power and grace – a beautifully aromatic cabernet of great intensity and harmony.

These are all wines that tell their own regional story. They’re graceful, delicious and varied but have a regional stamp. There’s no marketing artifice, just an honest story of the land, the vines and the people tending the vines and making the wines. The evolving story is best told directly by winemaker Sue Hodder and viticulturist Allen Jenkinson. The role of the marketers is to understand this story and help Sue and Allen pass it on to wine drinkers. It isn’t like marketing fast moving consumer goods or even like marketing big beer brands. They’re different worlds and we live in hope that Foster’s might grasp it and take some of our greatest wine names to the world.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Canberra’s truffled beer

Beer, People

The black perigord truffle (tuber melanosporum) boosts the aromas and flavours of other foods, at least partly through absorption of its penetrating, seductive aroma in fat – dramatically so in the case of eggs and cheese. But would it work its magic, I wondered, in the truffle beer about to flow at the Wig & Pen?

A week later, after a couple of small-scale trials, brewer Richard Watkins pulled the first pints just hours after adding truffle slices to the Wig’s Modus Hoperandus – a metal reinforced glass percolator, built originally for fresh hops flowers, and now perched permanently on the bar.

After the hops season Richard created Spies’d Olde Ale, a 5.8 per cent alcohol, mild, malty brew to seep through a changing feast of fresh spices – including vanilla beans, cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg and juniper – on the way to the taps.

As the spice influence waned, Richard added thick slices of fresh local truffle and detected its influence almost immediately – as a strong boost to the ale’s molasses and brown sugar flavours.

I hadn’t tried the ale beforehand, but the post-truffle brew impressed for its wine-like richness. And as it warmed in the glass there was a definite truffle note mingled with the hops aftertaste – perhaps extracted by the hop oils or alcohol, or both. Richard hopes to serve the beer for the duration of the local truffle season.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Beer review — Wig & Pen Spies’d Old Ale with fresh truffle

Beer review

Wig & Pen Spies’d Old Ale half-pint $4.50
Before seeping through the Modus Hoperandus (see above) the ale is malty and alcoholic but mild. Post seeping, the aroma, flavour and texture volume rise dramatically but harmoniously. It’s plush, silky textured and wine like in its complexity, with notes of molasses, then finishing fresh and clean with a delicious aftertaste of hops and truffle.

Wine review — McLean’s Farmgate, Mount Majura and Cullen

Wine review

McLean’s Farmgate Eden Valley Riesling 2008 $25
Bob McLean’s Farmgate topped my list of 14 South Australian 2008 rieslings judged at the recent Winewise Small Vignerons Awards here in Canberra. It’s a fresh, taut, finely structured, dry and lively style based on delicious lime-like varietal flavours. It should drink well for years, as these fine, intensely flavoured Eden Valley rieslings tend to do. It’s made by Colin Forbes. A couple of McLean’s reds looked good, too – the savoury Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2006 and sturdier Mourvedre Shiraz Grenache 2007, both from the Eden Valley (the hills on the Barossa’s eastern flank). The wines are available from Bob’s website at www.mcleansfarm.com

Mount Majura Canberra District TSB 2008 $21, Tempranillo 2008 $35
As the Canberra District matures we’re seeing increasing numbers of beautifully made wines of real depth and character – and not always from the same old varieties. Majura’s Tempranillo, for example, could hold its own with Australia’s best from this Spanish variety. There’s an intensity and purity to the fruit flavour in its own special savoury, peppery, firm-but-fine way. There’s pepper, too, in the fragrant, supple, gold-medal-winning TSG (tempranillo, shiraz, graciano) blend. These are more than just curios. They’re niche reds (for Australia) delivering mainstream drinking pleasure. Great winemaking here from Frank van der Loo. www.mountmajura.com.au

Cullen Margaret River

  • Kevin John Chardonnay 2007 $70
  • Diana Madeline [cabernet blend] 2007 $105

Big prices, sure, but Vanya Cullen’s two flagships, named for her late parents, offer jaw-dropping quality.  The subtle chardonnay (entirely barrel fermented and matured) grows in interest as you sip, slowly revealing layers of complexity. It’s a harmonious wine capable of developing in bottle for many years. The cabernet blend (cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot) is an old favourite – but none of the earlier vintages can equal the 2007.  It’s ripe, pure, elegant and unbelievably soft and gentle for a cabernet possessing such flavour concentration – it’s all about the harmony between the fruit flavour and the mellow tannins. See www.cullenwines.com.au

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Winewise awards — a view from the judge’s bench

People, Wine, Wine review

A recent database published by Winetitles, Adelaide, lists 2320 Australian vignerons, mostly small and sprinkled across southern Australia. As a judge at the recent Winewise Small Vignerons Awards, I was struck by the diversity of styles and high quality now offered by these small makers.

Indeed we judged at such a leisurely pace (for a wine show) that I had time to make detailed notes of the 236 wines assessed by my panel over the two and a half days of the event. It’s therefore only a snapshot as four other panels assessed another 1,200 wines. You can read the honour roll of medal and trophy winners at www.winewise.net.au, so what I offer here is my own list of wines that’ll put a smile on your face. There’s a general correlation with the aggregate results. But a great joy of wine is that even judges disagree about what tastes best.

Riesling
We found plenty to love in rieslings from across the continent. McLean’s Farmgate 2008 Eden Valley (owner Bob McLean, winemaker Colin Forbes) pleased for its fresh limey flavours and taut delicate structure ¬– a contrast to the fatter and softer but still delicious Neagles Rock Clare Valley 2008.

A run of lovely 2008s from much cooler areas showed the finer, more delicate and sometimes steely acidic face of the variety. Favourites were: Allinda Yarra Valley, Wild Dog Gippsland, Goaty Hill Tamar Tasmania, Greystone Waipara New Zealand and Bream Creek South Eastern Tasmania.

From the Canberra district Nick O’Leary 2008, Helm Classic 2008 and especially Helm Premium 2008 showed real finesse, alongside the understated Zarapeth Porongorup 2008 and delicate, musky Granite Hills Macedon Ranges 2008.

And in a line-up from various vintages and regions these wines appealed: Morningside Tasmania 2007, Koonara Sofiel’s Gift Adelaide Hills 2007, Setanta Speckled Hen Adelaide Hills 2007, Patrick T Wrattonbully 2006, Delatite Mansfield 2006, Tertini Southern Highlands 2005 and Pokolbin Estate Hunter 2004.

Chardonnay
After tasting such fresh, bright, complex chardonnays I wonder why the popular fascination with sauvignon blanc, a vastly inferior variety to my taste. Geoff Weaver Lenswood 2008 and Protero Gumeracha 2007, from the Adelaide Hills, and Bream Creek from Tasmania showed various shades of cool-grown chardonnay – the Bream Creek, in particular real flavour intensity with delicacy.

Balgownie’s Yarra Valley 2006 was the sole but rich and complex star of a run of so-so central Victorian chardonnays – how a Yarra got in there I don’t know, but it saved the day!

Chardonnay showed its adaptability in several really delicious wines from a mixed-region class covering warm and cool climates. Canberra’s Mount Majura 2008 topped my list with its fine, balanced understated style. But Spring Ridge Cowra 2006 appealed too for its deep fruit and complex, leesy flavours. Three wines from Mulyan Vineyards Cowra showed great textural and flavour qualities – Mulyan Bushranger Bounty 2007, Cowra 2006 and Block 7 2006. Lerida Estate Canberra 2007 showed well, too, offering grapefruit-like varietal flavour fleshed out by very good oak treatment.

Viognier
The variety’s distinctive apricot-like flavour and sometimes-oily texture can be too much. But in a field of 27 wines our unanimous favourite was Heafod Glen Swan Valley 2008, an incredibly zesty, complex, fine example of the variety. Not far behind was Canberra’s Ravensworth 2008, offering pure ginger and spice varietal flavour and the rich texture of barrel fermentation and maturation. I also liked the silky smooth, slightly fatter Barossa Valley version of Ishtar 2008.

Semillon sauvignon blanc blends
We trawled through 30 wines and finally found a little excitement in Otway Estate Western Victoria 2008, Bellbrae Estate Geelong 2008 and Wine by Brad Margaret River 2008. This blend has been swept along in the sauvignon blanc craze and can be complex and satisfying – but alas, mediocrity dominates.

Hunter shiraz
This 2007 vintage class proved to be the highlight of the judging for me. It was a good vintage. Combine that with mature vines, mature winemaking skills and a regional tendency towards gentle, restrained styles and you get glass after glass of pure pleasure.

My favourites in more-or-less order of preference were: Di Iuliis Limited Release, Capercaille Ghillie Shiraz, Thomas Wines DJV Shiraz, Wandin Valley Estate Bridie’s Reserve Shiraz, Pokolbin Estate Shiraz Viognier, Ernest Hill William Henry, David Hook Old Vines.

A bracket of older Hunter shiraz also yielded several gentle, lovable gems: Capercaille Ghillie 2005, Saddlers Creek Single Vineyard 2005, Pokolbin Estate Reserve 2003, Ridgeview Wines 2006, Mistletoe Reserve 2006 and Ridgeview Wines Generations Reserve 2006.

Other shiraz
A mixed class threw up one delightful surprise – the peppery, spicy and supple, fine boned Golden Grove Estate 2008 from Queensland’s Granite belt.

The central Victoria shiraz class suggested that shiraz isn’t a universal champ in the region. There were several lean, unripe wines and several very faulty ones. However, three Bendigo wines – Sheer Drop 2004 (magnificent), Balgownie Estate 2006 and Balgownie Black Label Bendigo-Grampians2008  – and one Grampians wine, Hyde Park The Pinnacle 2007, saved the area’s reputation.

Cabernet sauvignon
Our panel tasted only 15 of the many cabernets exhibited but there was only one that really took my fancy – the supple, elegant Lost Lake Barrel Selection Single Vineyard 2007 from Pemberton, Western Australia.

Rhone blends – grenache, shiraz, mourvedre (aka Mataro)
This was another delicious line-up of a style that our warm areas do very, very well. We have the winemaking tradition, mature vines and a small army of enthusiastic young winemakers focusing on every detail – especially on fruit selection from great old vineyards.

Two contrasting wines that won my palate were the deep, dense, firm, beautifully grippy Murray Street Vineyards The Barossa Shiraz Mataro Grenache 2007 and the fragrant, supple spicy B3 Barossa Valley Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2007. The style differences were easy to detect and attribute to a dominance of mataro in the firmer wine and grenache in the lighter style. Bloody delicious.

I also loved the spicy, elegant, peppery Ishtar Barossa Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2006, Halifax Ad Lib McLaren Vale Grenache Shiraz Cabernet 2006 and Hentley Farm Dirty Bliss Grenache Shiraz.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Wine review — Jacob’s Creek, Stanton and Killeen, Wimbirra

Wine review

Jacob’s Creek $7–$11.40

  • Sauvignon Blanc 2008
  • Pinot Grigio 2008, Pinot Noir 2008
  • Tempranillo 200

Sauvignon blanc is to wine what lager is to beer – light, crisp, refreshing and best enjoyed ice cold. The Jacob’s version captures the variety’s herbal flavours and zesty, dry palate very well at the price. Pinot grigio is even more impressive as it’s so difficult to capture its pear-like flavour. This modestly priced shot at the variety succeeds in a subtle, dry, easy-to-drink way. The medium bodied pinot noir and tempranillo both provide easy drinking and good varietal flavour, the pinot with a little savoury edge and the tempranillo in a more pure, fruity way.

Stanton and Killeen ‘The Prince’ Reserva 2008 $45
If you tasted this13 per cent alcohol, fragrant, fruity, silk-smooth, elegant wine masked, you’d never pick it as a Rutherglen red. It’s inspired by some of the modern wines coming out of Portugal. And given Stanton and Killeen’s long connection with Portuguese varieties, albeit used in fortified wines, the Prince’s arrival is not surprising, but still a flash of genius. It’s a blend of four Portuguese varieties – souzao, tinta roriz, touriga nacional and tinto cao usually ripened more fully and sent to the port barrels. The Prince sets and inspired new direction for Rutherglen, well removed from the region’s traditional ponderous, alcoholic monsters.

Winbirra ‘The Brigadier’ Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2007 $35
To my taste Mornington’s pinots fall into two broad style categories – those featuring high-toned aromas and flavours reminiscent of red berries like raspberry and strawberry; and those leaning  more to flavours like dark berries. Winbirra falls into the latter style. And if the aroma seems deep and brooding rather than bright and musky, its flavour and structure more than make up. It’s full of dark berry and savoury flavours, backed by a solid but fine tannin structure.  The aroma and flavour build in complexity over time, making Winbirra a particularly satisfying pinot, with little echoes of Burgundy in its savoury flavours and grippy structure.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009