Tarrawarra Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2010 $19–$22 Tarrawarra Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2010 $19–$22 Tarrawarra’s estate-grown and made chardonnay and pinot provide delicious, subtle drinking at a fair price. The pinot, made from four different clones and matured a variety of French oak, opens a little shyly on the nose. But the palate immediately delivers gentle, … Continue reading Wine review — Tarrawarra, Chapel Hill and Kilikanoon
Quietly, as the great wave of New Zealand sauvignon blanc swept across Australia, Australian winemakers perfected chardonnay. Despite sauvignon’s dominance on Australian dinner tables over the last decade, chardonnay remained our most widely planted, consumed and exported local white variety. Where sauvignon blanc unleashes it true character only under cool growing conditions, chardonnay makes tasty … Continue reading The finessing of Australian chardonnay
When is a wine natural? The concept of “natural” wine stuck its head into our letterbox twice last month. The first, a note from Clare Valley winemaker Jeffrey Grosset, accompanied a sample of the magnificent Grosset Gaia 2009 (five-star review 28 March). Grosset’s note sparked our curiosity. It read, “The Gaia vineyard is named after … Continue reading Natural wine is the buzzword — but what does it really mean?
Campbells Classic Muscat $44 500ml Rutherglen, Victoria Rutherglen’s unique, luscious muscats come in four categories – Rutherglen, Classic, Grand and Rare – each representing a step up in age, richness and complexity. Campbell’s basic version, luscious with raisened muscat grapes flavours, sells for less than $20. But it’s worth stepping up to “Classic”. It’s slightly … Continue reading Wine review — Campbells, Grosset, Kangarilla Road, Deakin Estate, Rymill and Howard Park
Mount Trio Great Southern Riesling 2010 $19 Gavin and Gill Graham own vineyards at Porongurup, a small, elevated sub-region of Western Australia’s large Great Southern area. The area excels with riesling and shiraz, but you’ll find all the usual Australian varieties as you drive around. Mount Trio offers a pretty good example of the local … Continue reading Wine review — Mount Trio, Smith & Hooper and Cumulus
Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2011 $23–$28 Brancott Valley and Wairau Plains, Marlborough, New Zealand Greywacke’s Kevin Judd and sauvignon blanc go back to 1983. As winemaker at Selaks, Auckland, Judd made some of the first New Zealand sauvignon blancs to be promoted in Australia, starting here in Canberra under the Selaks and 1984 Farmer Brothers labels. … Continue reading Wine review — Greywacke, Cumulus, Helm, Shaw Vineyard Estate, Kirrihill and Chapel Hill
These days Canberra and shiraz is a no-brainer for aspiring vignerons. It’s our most successful grape variety thanks, initially, to Clonakilla, but now thoroughly bedded down across the district. But when Greg and Libby Gallagher planted shiraz at Murrumbateman in 1995, Canberra’s reputation for fine wine was a fraction of what it is now – … Continue reading Gallagher marks ten years of Canberra shiraz
Four Winds Vineyard Riesling 2011 $17 Four Winds vineyard, Murrumbateman, Canberra District, New South Wales This gold medal winner from the 2011 regional wine show could easily pass as a Mosel. The low alcohol (10 per cent), delicate lime-like flavour and high acidity move it way beyond the spectrum of flavours we normally see in … Continue reading Wine review — Four Winds, Tintilla Estate, McWilliams Mount Pleasant, Mount Eyre, Hill-Smith Estate and Yering Station
Yalumba Y Series Vermentino 2011 $12–$15 Originally from Sardinia, the Liguria coast and Corsica, vermentino seems well suited to Australia’s hot, dry conditions. Not that heat was a problem in 2011 when cool weather pushed the harvest out six weeks later than in 2010 at the Reichstein-Trenwith vineyard, Renmark. It’s a comparatively low-alcohol wine at … Continue reading Wine review — Yalumba, Louee Wines and Punt Road
Capital Wines The Abstainer Canberra District Rose 2011 $19 As a show judge I’ve copped my fair share of rose classes – line-ups of wines ranging in colour from pale onion skin to lurid lipstick pink; from cloyingly sweet to achingly dry; and from flabby soft to searingly acid. The better ones, of whatever shade, … Continue reading Wine review — Capital Wines and O’Leary Walker