Cider and beer review — The Kingston Cider Company and Moa Brewing Company

25 May 2011Beer review, CiderChris Shanahan

The Kingston Cider Company Hawkes Bay Perry 500ml $9.50
As a cider novice, I’ve sort of come to the belief that pear ciders aren’t as “peary” as apple ciders are “appley”, unless they’re from Normandy. Like the Norman versions, This New Zealand perry, starts delicate and clean with terrific, brisk acidity. The palate, though “pairy” thrills more for that vibrant acidity.

Moa Brewing Company Harvest Beer 2009 375ml $5.90
The subtitle reads, “A very rare beer from Aotearoa”. And what a wonderful beer it is, made from malted wheat, Nelson hops and cherries. The pale lemon colour and luxurious head are typical wheat ale, as is the heady, fruity aroma and zesty, fresh palate. The cherries add an exotic touch in the background.

Brewer adds “terroir” to the beer dictionary

25 May 2011Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

At www.beerandbrewer.com winemaker-turned-brewer, Brad Rogers, introduces the French wine concept of “terroir” into the beer dictionary.

Rogers, a partner at Stone and Wood Brewery, Byron Bay, writes of the pale ale style and “how we’re making it our own”.

He describes how pale ales, across a wide range of styles, can’t be beaten at revealing the complex world of hops. He mentions uber hoppy American pale ale, the highly aromatic Little Creatures from Australia and English and Indian versions.

He introduces wine’s “terroir” concept, writing, “with hops different conditions do translate to different flavours. The Cascade hops grown in the Pacific Northwest and the Cascade hops grown in Tasmania’s Bushy Park… display different attributes”.

The growing numbers of hop-season beers released are a practical revelation of hop varieties and hop “terroirs”.

Wine review — Peter Lehmann and Rosemount

22 May 2011Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Peter Lehmann Eden Valley

Classic Riesling 2010 $9–$12
Eden Valley Riesling 2010 $13.49–$18

We’re not sure what “classic” means any more, certainly it gives no clue about what lies inside the Lehmann “classic” bottle. Pour it in the glass, though, and we have delicious, soft, delicate low-alcohol riesling with a pleasing, moderate sweetness, balanced by crisp acidity – a pleasant, easy-drinking wine, whatever it’s called. But Lehmann’s dry riesling represents what I would call the “classic” Eden Valley style – a beautifully aromatic riesling with intense citrusy varietal flavour and a tight and tangy line of acid creating a mouth watering desire for another glass. It’s a wine to enjoy any time over the next four or five years.

Rosemount District Release Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $18–$20
Rosemount enjoys a long connection with Coonawarra, having owned a substantial vineyard towards the southern end of the famous “terra rossa” strip. It’s now part of Treasury Wine Estates, spun out of Foster’s. Treasury owns large tracts of Coonawarra, but whether the wine comes from the original Rosemount vineyard is not stated. Not that it matters, because the wine’s utterly delicious – a fine-boned, pure expression of elegant Coonawarra cabernet made specifically for early drinking. That means lots of vibrant, ripe, varietal fruit upfront and soft tannins – although there’s still a cabernet feel to them. An outstanding regional varietal at this price.

Rosemount District Release Robe Chardonnay 2010 $17–$20
Back in the 1990s Southcorp Wines established a vineyard on the Woakwine Range, a low ridge running parallel to the coast near Robe, South Australia. It’s slightly north and to the west of Coonawarra on the Limestone Coast. The vineyard produced graceful, elegant chardonnays under various labels, but now finds a home, it seems, in the Rosemount cellar. This is beautiful chardonnay, built on intense nectarine-like varietal flavour and delicate, bracing acidity. Fermentation and maturation in new and older oak barrels adds subtle, background leesy characters and a pleasing textural richness. This is drop-dead gorgeous for the price.

Tasting John’s Blend 1990 to 2006

18 May 2011People, Vineyard, Wine, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

In 1967 Wolf Blass winemaker, John Glaetzer, received a load of “beautiful, concentrated” cabernet sauvignon from Bill Potts’ vineyard, Langhorne Creek. Glaetzer turned those grapes into the first Wolf Blass Grey Label Cabernet Sauvignon.

Seven years later, inspired by those beautiful grapes, Glaetzer (still working for Blass) made John’s Blend No. 1 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, using fruit from Bill Potts’ vineyard.

Glaetzer’s small-production wine developed a loyal following, its reputation spread mainly by word-of-mouth. And in Canberra, the word spread mainly through wine merchant Jim Murphy, a long-term supporter of Wolf Blass and John Glaetzer.

A couple of weeks back, a disparate group of 11 Canberra followers – led by Charlotte Galloway, an ANU lecturer in Art History and Curatorship – raided their cellars to hold a John’s Blend vertical tasting: all the vintages, bar 1992, from 1990 to 2006.

No, not a sniff and spit tasting, but a leisurely stroll through the sequence over lunch on a crisp, sunny autumn day – hosted by Warwick McKibbin and fiancée, Renee Fry, and attended by Galloway, Jac and Kathy Cousin, Jenny and Peter Gibson, James Horne, Heather Smith, Martin Parkinson and yours truly.

A confession here: Chateau Shanahan contributed the 2002 and 2003 vintages, but John Glaetzer had given these to us some years back – we’d seldom tasted John’s Blend, so entered the tasting with few preconceptions.

We tasted the wines in pairs from oldest to youngest, therefore starting with the 1990 and 1991 and finishing at 2006. It’s an effective tasting method as there’s no rush, no palate overload and a natural pairing of wine with food.

We found wonderful consistency of style across the vintages – the thread linking all of the wines being a distinctive mint-eucalypt note associated with cabernet sauvignon from Langhorne Creek.

The wines go through an interesting transition from oakiness to fruitiness as they age. In the fully mature wines, oak seems barely detectable; and in the young vintages it’s an oak-fruit arm wrestle – a style that’s not in vogue today.

In this regard, the wines reminded me of a tasting, with Wolf Blass and John Glaetzer, of all the Wolf Blass Black Label wines a few years back. The veteran tasters, remembering the dark, oaky young Black Labels of the mid seventies, wondered where the oak had gone. All we could taste now were supple, mellow old wines with fruit to the fore.

Similarly, John’s Blend reminds us that it’s all a matter of balance – powerful fruit’s capable of gobbling up lots of oak over time, and the symbiotic combination produces complex long-lived wines.

John Glaetzer says there’s been no significant change to his winemaking technique or oak-maturation regime over the years. He ferments the wine a little cooler than industry standard, to preserve vibrant fruit flavours. He believes warm temperatures “boil off the fruit”.

And in a technique picked up from Wolf Blass (in turn learned by Blass from Grange creator, Max Schubert) Glaetzer finishes the ferments off in oak barrels.

Glaetzer continues to source fruit from Bill Potts’ Langhorne Creek Vineyard. However, in 1992 and 1993 he and Potts established the 32-hectare Pasquin vineyard nearby. In recent years, says Glaetzer, John’s Blend comes about 50:50 from the two vineyards. He makes only 1,000 cases of John’s Blend each year – but made none in 2011 for lack of suitable fruit.

Langhorne Creek, near Lake Alexandrina (south east of McLaren Vale), is one of Australia’s largest premium wine grape regions. A massive expansion there in the late nineties saw most of its fruit blended anonymously into multi-region blends. Blass reputedly called the region, “Australia’s middle palate”.

The Potts family pioneered the area from 1850 and remain in control today of Bleasdale Winery and vineyards. Bill Potts, one of the family, supplies Glaetzer from his own vineyard.

One of the most enduring reds from the area is Stonyfell Metala Shiraz Cabernet. It was made from 1932 by Jack Kilgour, and marketed originally as Stonyfell Private Bin Claret. Kilgour’s successor, Bryan Dolan, put the vineyard name, Metala, on the label. Dolan won the inaugural Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1962 with the 1961 Metala, the first vintage to bear the new label.

Langhorne Creek triumphed again in 1974, 1975 and 1976 with Wolf Blass’s historic Jimmy Watson trophy hat trick. But Blass’s powerful branding of his Black Label overshadowed the regional credentials.

In John’s Blend, Langhorne Creek cabernet sauvignon reveals its idiosyncratic charm consistently across the decades, with little peaks and troughs driven by vintage variations. With so much focus now on regional specialties, Glaetzer’s 37-year-old brand (like Kilgour’s 1932 Stonyfell Private Bin Claret) reminds us that this is not a new idea at all, but the perennial wine theme.

The current-release 2007 vintage John’s Blend (not in the tasting) is available at Jim Murphy’s for $29.95 and Kemeny’s of Sydney offer the 2006 at $29.99. Few wines at this price offers such a pedigree and proven long-term cellaring potential.

John’s Blend No 17 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1990
A perfect start to the tasting with this mature but still lively, sweet-fruited vintage with distinctive Langhorne Creek minty-eucalypt cabernet sauvignon to the fore. Has years ahead of it.

John’s Blend No 18 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1991
Looked, smelled and tasted older than the vibrant 1990 to its left, but nevertheless an appealing, if fading, old wine.

John’s Blend No 20 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1993
Tasted at the end of the lunch when our host, Warwick McKibbin, generously retrieved a magnum from the cellar. 1993 was a wet, disease-ridden vintage, comparable to 2011. But the wine defied the vintage stereotype, with its complex aroma and lean, taut palate still revealing mint-eucalyptus varietal flavour. Drying out a bit but still thoroughly enjoyable.

John’s Blend No 21 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1994
One of the standout vintages, seventeen years old but still red rather than brown with vibrant mint-eucalypt cabernet aroma and a juicy, elegant palate, finely-sculpted palate. Many years left.

John’s Blend No 22 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1995
One of the most talked about wines, championed by Charlotte Galloway and notable for its strident, chunky style, flanked on either side by the elegant 1994 and 1996 vintages. The mint-eucalypt character seemed particularly strong in this wine, matched by a firmer tannin structure.

John’s Blend No 23 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1996
My favourite drinking wine on the day, a particularly elegant, ethereal expression of its style – all sweet fruit, grace and suppleness. Long and delicious finish, many years of life ahead, but right now showing both youth and maturity.

John’s Blend No 24 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1997
A lesser vintage but in terrific condition, its lively palate notably leaner than the 1996 before it, but still sweet and supple.

John’s Blend No 25 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
Generally considered a great vintage but our first bottle seriously cork tainted and the second bottle showing a strange vegetal character and hollow palate. John Glaetzer reckons we struck two dud corks. He regards it as one of the greats. Down with cork.

John’s Blend No 26 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1999
A beautiful wine with a limpid, youthful colour, seductive ripe blackcurrant aroma pushing through the by now familiar mint-eucalypt. Despite the generous nose, the fruit on the palate comes teasingly wrapped in firm tannins – a delicious and elegant combination, suggesting heaps more drinking pleasure in the years to come.

John’s Blend No 27 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
Looks, smells and tastes older than the exceptional 1999. Aged, autumn-leaf aromas join the mint-eucalypt notes and the palate seems old and tiring – a lesser vintage, remarkable that it’s still going after 11 years.

John’s Blend No 28 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2001
A bit of a closed shop this one, some chocolate joining the mint-eucalypt theme on a full but tight, tannic palate – though there’s fruit peeking through and probably a long life ahead of it. Seems to be neither young nor mature, so best left for a few more years.

John’s Blend No 29 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
First bottle cork tainted. Second bottle in good condition and just a baby – the first wine to show obvious oak aroma and flavour (the older wines had simply gobbled up all the oak, leaving fruit to star). A lovely aroma combining mint-eucalypt with cedary oak – these characters come through, too, on the tightly-bound palate. One of the greats but best left to mature for a few more years.

John’s Blend No 30 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2003
We’re now squarely among the young, oaky wines. Ripe mint-eucalypt-chocolate-blackcurrant fruit joins the oak but there’s not the length of flavour. It needs more time but probably won’t rate among the best.

John’s Blend No 31 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Well, yum yum, this one’s saturated with fruit – and oak, too, after three years in new French and American barrels. But as the old wines demonstrate, the oak will fade over time as the wine becomes finer and the fruit steps to the front. A very good vintage.

John’s Blend No 32 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
A big, ripe, crimson-rimmed wine: juicy, vibrant summer-berry flavours mingle with the regional mint-eucalypt. Big and chocolate-rich on the palate in an oak-fruit arm wrestle – but we know the winner in the long run, don’t we.

John’s Blend No 33 Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
A magnificent, deeply coloured, crimson-rimmed wine to finish. Enough oak to build a weekender, but in a complex matrix with deep, ripe varietal fruit (yes, tinted with mint-eucalypt). There’s great depth to the supple fruit and despite the wine’s youth and power, the structure’s poised and elegant. One of the greats.

Wine review — Shingleback, Geoff Merrill, Peppertree, Tyrrell’s and Pio Cesare

18 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

The Gate by Shingleback Shiraz 2006 $30–$35
McLaren Vale, South Australia
The bling-laden label raises expectations – four gold and five silver medals from wine shows around the world. Pull the cork, thankfully no cork taint, pour the wine and instant joy. This is beautiful McLaren Vale shiraz, grown on the Davey family’s Shingleback vineyard, made in small, open fermenters and matured in a mix of new and one-year-old American and French oak hogsheads. It’s full bodied and at five years combines layers of vibrant varietal berry flavours with fine tannin, the unique “winey” character of bottle age and a deep, satisfying savouriness. Was the first bottle emptied at a recent tasting – the ultimate review.

Geoff Merrill Cilento Sangiovese 2005 $27
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Generally it’s only the big-ticket wines released with bottle age. But here we have a modestly priced, very attractive six-year-old from veteran McLaren Vale winemaker, Geoff Merrill. Geoff writes that the wine spent three years in three and four year old American oak puncheons – it’s therefore had another three years mellowing in bottle. It’s Australian in style – meaning there’s more upfront sweet fruit than you see in its Italian sangiovese counterparts. But there’s a deep savouriness, tart acidity and tight tannic structure setting it apart from other varieties. It’s named after Merrill’s Italian great grandfather, Joseph Cilento.

Peppertree Venus Block Reserve Chardonnay 2010 $30
Orange, New South Wales
Canberra-raised winemaker Jim Chatto rates 2010 “the best yet” from Peppertree’s Venus block vineyard at Orange. This is what good modern chardonnay is all about – grown in a climate cool enough to produce intense nectarine- and fig-like varietal flavour and high acidity. The intense, fine fruit and acidity drive the wine, easily carrying the flavours and textures woven in during oak fermentation and maturation on spent yeast cells. That combination of bright fruit flavours and barrel complexity, held together by a tingly spine of acidity, gives Peppertree 2010 tremendous appeal. Chardonnay doubters should try this for real drinking excitement.

Tyrrell’s Wine Single Vineyard Shiraz 2008 $27–$38.50
Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales
During the Hunter’s disastrous 2008 vintage, Tyrrell’s bought eight tonnes of shiraz from Barton Estate, Murrumbateman. They trucked the grapes to the Hunter, made the wine and matured it in new 2,800-litre French oak casks. The wine turned out beautifully, winning a gold medal and trophy at last year’s National Wine Show, Canberra. In a recent masked tasting the Tyrrell’s wine and two other Canberra shirazes, Collector Reserve 2009 and Clonakilla O’Riada 2009, showed their class. The 2009s topped my scoresheet, but the Tyrrell’s rated highly, too, with its vibrant fruit, and tight, spicy elegant palate.

Pio Cesare Il Nebbio 2009 $33–$44
Langhe, Piedmont, Italy
Pio Cesare, based in Alba, Piedmont, owns about 50 hectares of vines in key appellations, including Barolo and Barbaresco, source of perhaps Italy’s greatest red wines, made from the nebbiolo variety. But the Pio Cesare family also offers a fresh, fruity (and less expensive) face of nebbiolo in Il Nebbio. Early picking, carbonic maceration, low-temperature fermentation in stainless steel and bottling after only few months in the steel tanks, captures the variety’s vitality. The alluring, fruity aromatics are matched by a juicy, jube-like fruity palate – for a brief and lovely second before nebbiolo’s legendary firm tannins move in. These rule out Il Nebbio as a drink-alone wine. But with food the tannins vanish and the delicious fruit rules.

Kendell’s estate-grown cider from Orange

18 May 2011Cider, PeopleChris Shanahan

The rapidly growing cider market includes a proliferation of niche brands and an increased demand for products made from fresh apples and pears – not juice and sugar.

At nearby Orange, Gail and James Kendell, adopted a winery-like approach, growing and making all of their product on site.

James Kendell says they’ve planted a wide range of English heritage cider apple varieties, including Kingston Blacks. The special varieties, he says, produce better cider than eating varieties partly because of their distinctive flavours but also because they contain skin tannins and high natural acidity – important components in cider’s flavour and structure.

The diversity, he says, allows him to produce a range of ciders (see www.smallacrescyder.com.au) based on traditional English styles. The still Somerset style reviewed today, for example, combines 13 apple varieties in the full and delicious west-country style.

Beer and cider review — Small Acres, Daleside and Westons,

18 May 2011Beer review, CiderChris Shanahan

Small Acres Somerset Still Cyder (Orange, New South Wales) 750ml $16
This delicious cider comes from Gail and James Kendall’s property at Orange. James says they grow traditional English heritage cider varieties on the property and make the cider on site from fresh-picked apples. Somerset Still, says James, approximates England’s west country style. It’s made from 13 different varieties, pulped, pressed through cloth into stainless steel vats and fermented dry using an aromatic white wine yeast. The result is just lovely – a still, earthy, slightly grippy cider, unquestionably made from apples, and finishing with fresh, natural acidity.

Daleside Old Leg Over Yorkshire Beer 500ml $8.20
Gentle sweet fruity, malt aroma leads the away into Daleside – flavours that continue on the lively, rich, balanced palate. A touch of malted wheat injects its own briskness, independent of the hops bitterness and bite that that subtly finish off this delicious, one-more-glass Yorkshire ale.

Westons Premium Organic Pear Cider 500ml $7.60
The cliché-riddled website reveals little about cider growing or making. The cider, however, is wet and refreshing – not as crystal clear in its peariness, nor as delicate, as the best Norman versions across the Channel, but solid, rich, refreshingly low on gas and finishing with keen, tart acidity.

Wine review – John Duval and Yellowtail

15 May 2011People, Wine reviewChris Shanahan

John Duval Plexus
Barossa Valley Marsanne Roussanne Viognier 2010 $30
Barossa vignerons face a challenge making whites to compete with popular varieties, like sauvignon blanc and chardonnay from much cooler regions. The Barossa succeeds on a limited scale with semillon, and the slightly cooler Eden Valley, to the east, makes wonderful riesling. Rather than trying to emulate cool area wines, John Duval sets out “to build structure and texture, rather than just acid crispness”. His new blend, partly matured and aged in mainly old oak, achieves that deliciously. Its pleasant, citrusy aroma leads to a soft, tasty, savoury, medium-bodied palate with a gentle texture and fresh but not acidic finish.

John Duval Plexus
Barossa Valley Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre 2009 $37–$39
Former Penfolds Grange maker, John Duval, shows his great mastery of fruit selection, winemaking and blending in this beautiful red. It’s a blend of old-vine shiraz (48 per cent) from Krondorf and Marananga, grenache (31 per cent) from old bush vines in Stockwell and Krondorf and mourvedre (21 per cent), some vines more than 100 years old, in Light Pass and Krondorf. It’s appealingly aromatic – led by the grenache – and vibrantly fruity, savoury and spicy on the palate, finishing with delicious ripe berry flavours and soft, fine tannins. It’s a wonderful, harmonious, satisfying drink – with the structure and depth to age well.

Yellow Tail 2010 vintage reds $8.55–$10

Pinot Noir
Merlot
Shiraz 2010
Cabernet Sauvignon

The Casella family’s legendary Yellow Tail took America by storm some time back, selling millions of cases there every year. It started as an adventure, using an off-the-shelf label from Barbara Harkness design, Adelaide, then succeeded beyond anyone’s maddest guess. Amazingly, the Casella’s funded the massive expansion and retained control of a business that focuses squarely on the business end of wine. The winemaking aims at capturing flawless, ripe, friendly, fruity wines on a very large scale, and succeeds – particularly with the full, soft shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. They’re decent wines at a fair price.

Lark Hill triumphs in difficult vintage

11 May 2011People, Vineyard, WineChris Shanahan

In a vintage plagued by mildew and botrytis outbreaks, biodynamic Lark Hill, like several traditionally managed Canberra vineyards, overcame the vine diseases and ultimately harvested good quantities of healthy grapes.

During our post-vintage visit to Lark Hill, David and Sue Carpenter and son Chris seem relaxed, perhaps relieved to have all the good stuff bubbling away in the winery. There’s a fair bit of it, too, says David Carpenter, estimating a yield of about six tonnes a hectare – double 2009’s crop and significantly up on 2010. It’s a wonderful outcome for a vineyard at 860 metres in a cool, wet season.

The fight against disease began early, says David. In winter 2010 Australian grape growers had been warned to expect a cool, wet spring and summer – ideal conditions for mildew – “so we could see it coming”, says David, “and commenced a protective regime”.

That meant spraying before outbreaks of mildew, beginning very early in the season with cupric oxide (permitted in biodynamic farming). “By doing it early we used only a little bit of spray on a small target”, says David. Later in the season sprays included a canola base with tee tree and, after fruiting, copper based spray followed by a biodynamic preparation aimed at building up natural predators.

While spraying can kill mildew spoors, a long-term regime aims at building healthy soils and strong, resistant plants – based on “spraying the vineyard with various preparations and endless involvement with deep composting”.

Even in traditional viticulture “spraying makes up only about 20 per cent of the arsenal against mildew – the rest’s vineyard management”, says David. He’s referring to practices like shoot and leaf thinning and hedging vines to maximise air circulation and allow penetration of sunlight.

The Carpenters say their commitment to biodynamics began at a conference in 2003 at Beechworth. Sue recalls “lots of arms folded tightly across chests”, theirs included, at the beginning, but a rush to sign up towards the end – sparked largely by a visit to Julian Castagna’s magnificent vineyard.

In their current newsletter, the Carpenters write, “from inception, we avoided insecticides and steered a careful path utilising biological controls wherever possible, but it is in the last eight years that we have fully entered the totally biodynamic regime”.

Biodynamics is sort of like organics with the added principles espoused by Rudolph Steiner. This includes the use of seemingly mysterious biodynamic preparations, numbered from 500 to 508, and adherence to the lunar calendar – practices, write the Carpenters, that some “regard with the deepest suspicion”. They add, “we assure you our attire has not progressed to sandals and loin cloths”.

However, a big part of biodynamics, certainly as practised by the Carpenters, appears to be giving tremendous attention to care of the land and vines. Who can argue against composting, deep mulching and keeping potentially hazardous chemicals out of the environment.

The more astrological components of biodynamics, such as planting, harvesting and racking wine by phases of the moon draws derision and satire from some quarters. And there’s much scepticism regarding the 500-series preparations – particularly regarding the legendary the cow horn full of dung – sometimes scoffed at as a belief in channelling cosmic forces.

But even scientists like the Carpenters have to stick with the Steiner precepts to be accredited as biodynamic producers – which they have been from vintage 2008.

They explain, for example, that the cow horn of dung isn’t about channelling cosmic or any other forces. It’s the beginning of breeding program for useful bacteria and fungal spores. It’s the base for the “500” preparation. Each autumn they fill the horns with cow dung, seal them with clay and bury them in shallow pits on beds of compost.

In spring they dig up the horns and use the dung as a starter culture in warm rainwater – adding 50 grams to every 200 litres and aerating it. The theory is that at around body temperature the bacteria and spores breed rapidly. The Carpenters then spray the mix around the vineyard where the microbes fix nitrogen in the soil and spores stimulate growth of fungi that enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the vines.

Whatever we make of the more arcane elements of biodynamics, the Lark Hill vineyard looks a treat and is delivering probably the best wines since the Carpenters began planting it in 1978.

Across the years they’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. As a result, they’ve pared the vineyard back to the proven varieties, riesling, chardonnay and pinot noir. And following a suggestion from Jancis Robinson, a visit to Austria tasting gruner veltliner – and the fortuitous discovery of two vines of the variety in Tasmania – propagated a thousand vines and planted them in 2006.

Gruner veltliner, say the Carpenters gives them a high-quality white that sits in style somewhere between the delicacy of riesling and opulence of chardonnay.

Like all of their table wines, bar riesling, it’s fermented by indigenous yeasts. Unfortunately the sensational 2010 sold out recently. But, says Chris Carpenter, the 2011 (still a lovely, sweet, acidic juice when I visited) will be released around October.

Wine review — Lark Hill, Red Knot by Shingleback, John Duval and Pewsey Vale

11 May 2011Wine reviewChris Shanahan

Lark Hill Chardonnay 2008 $35
Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, New South Wales
If Lark Hill makes chardonnay this good in a warm year, then we’ve much to look forward to in the 2011, now bubbling away in barrels at the winery. At three years the 2008 seems barely to have begun life, it’s so vibrant, youthful and alive with juicy, ripe varietal flavour. The palate has breadth, depth and rich texture – attributable, says winemaker Chris Carpenter, to glycerol from an indigenous yeast fermentation and extended contact with yeast lees after fermentation. High natural acidity, however, tightens the structure and, in combination with the pure, intense fruit flavour, suggests a long, graceful evolution with bottle age.

Lark Hill Pinot Noir 2008 $35
Lake George Escarpment, Canberra District, New South Wales
It’s been a long time between drinks, but Lark Hill seems to be nailing pinot noir again. On the Chateau Shanahan tasting bench recently the 2008 (for release in June) and 2010 (for release in June 2012 as there’s no 2009), drank well for days. The delicate, refined 2010, with its distinctive tight tannin structure, appealed most. But the darker, chunkier 2008 also rated well. It’s far removed from Australia’s generally more aromatic pinots, featuring instead earthy, savoury notes and quite firm (but fine) tannins. The more we drank it, the more we liked it. It’s pushing up to four-star pinot quality – and the 2010s already there.

Red Knot by Shingleback Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $10.45–$14.99
McLaren Vale, South Australia
Red Knot Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Davey family’s Shingleback vineyard, McLaren Vale, evokes words like ripe, juicy, fruity, varietal and soft – a bright, fresh, flavoursome, lovable, red made to enjoy now. But it’s a bit more than that too – a great example of the sophistication of modern Australian winemaking. Why? Despite the low price it’s not propped up by over-extraction, over oaking or over-ripeness as we used to see. It’s a graceful, lovely, modestly priced wine, based on fruit quality not winemaking tricks.

John Duval Entity Shiraz 2009 $46–$48
Krondorf, Ebenezer, Tanunda and Eden Valley, Barossa Zone, South Australia
What comes after making Grange? John Duval faced that question a few years back after stepping down from the top winemaking job at Penfolds. Thankfully he stayed put in the Barossa making wonderful wines like “Entity”. It’s at the elegant end of the Barossa shiraz spectrum – partly due to inclusion of material from the higher, cooler Eden Valley (part of the Barossa zone) and partly due to a season noted for fragrant, “pretty” reds. Matured in a mix of old and new fine-grained French hogsheads, Entity presents a fragrant, medium bodied, smooth, spicy and savoury face of Barossa shiraz.

John Duval Eligo Shiraz 2008 $105
Barossa and Eden Valleys, South Australia
John Duval doesn’t reveal precise vineyard locations for Eligo, just that it’s sourced from “some excellent vineyards in the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley regions”. But the wine speaks for itself. It’s a more powerful expression of Barossa shiraz than Entity, darker in colour, matured longer in barrel and with more new oak (80 per cent versus 39 per cent). It’s a beautiful, big but graceful wine, deeply coloured but not opaque. It’s saturated with ripe, blueberry-like varietal shiraz, cut through with savoury, spicy oak – the flavours rapidly merging together. The deep, sweet fruit flavours linger on, layered with fruit and oak tannins. Be in no rush to drink this.

Pewsey Vale Riesling 2010 $14.99–$22.99
Pewsey Vale Vineyard, Eden Valley, South Australia
It won’t be long before the 2011 rieslings trickle into the market. But if you’re after absolutely outstanding drinking right now, mop up the rest of Pewsey Vale’s extraordinarily delicious 2010. It’s widely discounted, as low as $14.99, but more commonly to around $15–$16 (though you can pay more if you want). It’s from the Hill-Smith family’s 50-hectare Pewsey Vale vineyard, located on the edge of the Eden Valley. Louisa Rose makes the wine just a few kilometres down the hill at the Yalumba Winery, Angaston, centre of the Hill-Smith wine operations.