Monthly Archives: November 2007

Recoleta Malbec Bonarda 2007

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For a moment I found myself transfixed by the nose of this wine… it smelled familiar, and yet not. But what was it? Ah, there we are: scented permanent markets, just like the ones we used to huff in elementary school. Childhood memories… Seriously, it smells like children’s fruit candy: plums and raspberries and nothing too complicated or unusual. There’s also a slight hint of camphor there as well; on the whole, a promising start.

In the mouth, it’s just this side of off-dry (as I’m coming to expect from fresh&easy’s own label wines), with a fleeting sourness and not much else in the way of flavor, save for something that’s reminiscent of raspberry flavored wax lips candy. There’s a bit of tannin on the finish, probably more from pressing the grapes too hard than any kind of barrel fermentation, and then it’s gone. It all works reasonably well and would be a fantastic accompaniment to spicy barbecue or good old fashioned meat loaf. Amazing value and recommended for your next braai.

Recoleta [but really fresh&easy]
Price: US $2.99
Closure: Short, low quality cork amusingly labeled “estate bottled”
Tasted: November 2007

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I’d like to note that I won’t always be tasting bargain basement wines from Tesco’s new US chain stores; it’s just that they happened to open their doors here two weeks ago, which prompted me to buy a case of their least expensive wine just for the heck of it. So far, I’m impressed by the QPR [quality price ratio] but haven’t found anything I’d drink on a regular basis. Thankfully, I’m down to only a few bottles – the most expensive one almost breaking the ten dollar mark – and when they open one near my home in San Diego, I promise I’ll go back and try their high-end own-label wines [I think I remember seeing a $15.99 Napa merlot, for example].

Hoddles Creek Chardonnay 2006

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I had this with food; specifically, a creamy chicken pasta dish. With a few minutes in the glass, this wine gave off aromas of roasted nuts, vanilla, coffee and spice (presumably oak derived), light sulfur, along with cool climate chardonnay fruit (white stone fruit, etc). It’s an attractive nose, with good volume and flavour integration, quite complex really.

The wine’s entry is smooth and focused, leading to a mid-palate that is again focused and reasonably intense. Flavours show tight preserved lemon and a range of noticeable, though not overwhelming, oak notes. There’s a nice crescendo of flavour towards the after palate, and this ensures pleasing persistence through the tight, acid-driven finish. This is an elegant wine of reasonable complexity. To return to the starting point, this wine went extremely well with food, graced as it is with ample acidity. It doesn’t jump out at me as a ‘wow’ wine in any particular way, but it’s also rather hard to fault. Excellent value.

Update: on the second night, this wine had upped the intensity an extra notch, without losing its focus and structure. I’m feeling happy to have bought a few of these.


Hoddles Creek
Price: $A18
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

Peregrine Riesling 2005

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In addition to some lovely Pinot Noir, one of the delights of my trip to Central Otago earlier this year was tasting the range of delicious, aromatic whites. Although I noted a degree of inconsistency between producers, the region in general seems to produce full, generous Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer that are often notably different in style to those produced in Australia. In particular, producers in Central Otago seem more inclined to a range of styles that include varying degrees of residual sugar. Now to the Peregrine, from the 2005 vintage.

Signs of age are already appearing on the wine’s nose, with toast and perhaps even a slight kero edge infiltrating the wine’s otherwise heady honeysuckle-like nose. No shrinking violet, this wine. Despite the generosity, I thought it was initially all over the place and quite disjointed. After about half an hour with it, I wouldn’t say it’s entirely resolved, but it’s much more coherent than it was on opening.

The wine’s entry immediately introduces vivid, somewhat coarse acidity onto the palate, along with intense citrus and apple flavours. The middle palate is quite full and it’s here the wine’s residual sugar starts to influence the flavour profile. It thickens the fruit and introduces a tropical fruit element into the wine, not at all unpleasant. This may sound odd, but this wine has a sweet and sour line running through it that strongly reminds me of some New Zealand Pinot Noir. Flavours persist well through the after palate, winding up in a neat, surprisingly soft finish.

There’s no denying this is a tasty wine with plenty of flavour. I would have preferred a tad more elegance, though, and would happily trade some of this wine’s intensity of flavour for a greater sense of poise and balance. Despite the modest residual sweetness, the wine still comes in at 13.5% alcohol. I don’t have any food to go with this wine right now, but I bet some Asian canapes would be perfect.

Peregrine
Price: $A22
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

La Ferme Julien Rosé 2006

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Don’t laugh, but the first thought that came into my head upon smelling this wine was “Bananas Foster.” Yes, seriously! It’s also got the standard strawberry rosé smell there as well, but with an unusual creaminess and that hint of bananas, vanilla, and burnt sugar as well. There’s even a subtle whiff of attar of roses, as well as a nearly buttery note.

In the mouth, the wine shows a lovely medium weight, not overwhelmed by sweetness, finishing on a dry, tart note. The taste is surprisingly different than the smell, tending towards sweet violet coffee and freshly milled flour, again with that lovely undercurrent of roses. The finish isn’t especially long, but it offers a nice counterpoint to the rest of the wine, ending on a flat note of candied lemon peel. On the whole, though, it’s probably the best rosé you’ll find for under ten bucks.

La Ferme Julien [but really Trader Joe’s]
Price: US $7.99
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

Penrosa Tempranillo 2006

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The nose offers up a rich, creamy fruitiness that’s reminiscent of strawberry paletas, with a slight pepperiness and a hint of grapefruit peel; it took a few minutes for the wine to express any clear flavors, though, so it may be best not to serve this wine straight from the refrigerator – give it fifteen minutes or so to warm up a bit.

In the mouth, there’s a definite spritziness which seems somehow appropriate; it’s quite full in the mouth, with a good amount of sweetness nicely counterbalanced by the CO2 and moderate acidity. Although it’s overall too sweet to be a truly fine rosé, it works quite well for what it is and is a nice halfway point between, say, a pink Bandol wine and “my teeth are melting” white Zinfandel from California. Overall, the effect is basically liquid strawberry shortcake: easy to drink, and nicely refreshing on a warm summer’s day.

Serve with chiles en nogada, I reckon.

Bodegas Realeza [but really Acciona, owners of Hijos de Antonio Barceló, S.A., presumably under contract to fresh&easy]
Price: US $4.99
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

Saludas Rosé 2006

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Straight out of the fridge, the first whiff out of the bottle is of simple strawberries and pepper, pleasant enough; there’s also a hint of something unpleasantly funky, a dark note that seems out of place.

In the mouth, the first thing that hits you is a lot of undifferentiated fruit sweetness, which calms down into something like blood orange peel, but the wine is unbalanced and flabby, with not nearly enough acidity to counterbalance the sweetness. It’s all a bit thin as well, with a finish that isn’t particularly pleasant – it’s kind of like eating Triscuits that someone’s already licked all of the salt off of, combined with strawberry fruit leather stolen from a lunchbox someone found behind an abandoned schoolyard.

So what do to with this wine? I think the answer’s pretty clear: make sangría. The wine quality’s OK, but it really needs some additional flavor there to detract from its flaws.

Saludas [but really fresh&easy]
Price: US $2.99
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

Mike Press Wines Merlot 2005

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It’s late on Saturday night, I’ve raided the cellar looking for something to keep me company as I settle down to relax and watch a DVD. Hmm, Merlot, that sounds good. I’ve been meaning to try the Mike Press version, relatively hyped as it has been in online discussion fora and wine press. So: how good can $A10 Merlot be?

The answer is: pretty bloody good. Lifted nose of black fruits and leafiness, along with supporting caramel/mocha oak. Not explosive, but balanced and elegant. The wine slides smoothly into the mouth, whereupon flavours of black fruit and olive build and spread over the tongue. This isn’t a fruit bomb, although the fruit is delicious and ripe. Rather, there’s a nice dialogue between fruit, savoury flavours, somewhat resiny oak and a firm acid/tannin structure, all within a medium bodied palate. The wine’s line is quite focused. Finish is puckeringly tannic, but not unapproachable, and of decent length.

In absolute terms, this is a good to excellent wine that shows varietal character and a sense of style. The oak is sticking out a bit much for me at the moment, but that’s a matter of taste as much as anything else. For the price, I just don’t see what else one could ask for. I’m off to pour myself another glass.

Mike Press Wines
Price: $A120/dozen
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

JK Carriere Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2005

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The nose is classic Burgundy by way of Oregon: little red fruits, dark earth, forest floor under California redwoods, smoke, camphor, and soft sweet peat. Young still, the color is a beautiful deep ruby, darker than ‘proper’ Burgundy and yet lighter than most New World pinot. Smelling it alone is enough to get you salivating; it smells inviting, like an old family friend you don’t see but once a year.

In the mouth, it exhibits a rich, inky sweetness of summer fruits, followed by an unexpected sourness, which resolves again into a smooth, rich, deep flavor that trails off into a range of unexpectedly delightful flavors, with just enough alcohol to support it all without becoming intrusive. There’s a bit of firm, supporting tannin there as well, which suggests wonderful things just a few years down the road; it might be a good idea to lay this one down until the next presidency at the very least.

With a bit more air, the wine began to develop ever more interesting flavors, with a touch of barnyard or wet earth at times, and occasionally fresh straw, hay, or even something approaching newly laid asphalt.

JK Carriere
Price: US $42
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007

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This is easily one of the finest Oregon pinots I’ve had, easily the match of anything from the New World, and in the league of, say, Bass Phillip or Domaine Drouhin. Most importantly, it’s clear that they’ve opted to let the wine speak for itself; unlike many other Oregon pinots, it seems honest, pure, clean. Bravo.

Mesh Riesling 2006

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Second tasting for this wine. The first bottle was a bit disappointing — correct, but somehow generic and uninteresting. I’ve had positive experiences with this wine, the 2002 and 2005 vintages in particular, so I was hoping this bottle would show the wine to greater advantage.

And it did, sort of. The wine’s regionality isn’t in dispute: typically Eden aromas of slate and citrus flowers emerged enthusiastically from the glass soon after pouring. It’s a lovely, pretty nose, perfume-like in its profile and delicacy. The palate didn’t live up to the promise of the nose, at least initially. The entry is tightly focused, leading a mid-palate that at first presented intense but broad, simple fruit flavours that seemed to fight against, and almost overwhelm, the wine’s acid structure. It’s bone dry but the fruit presented as unattractively full, even overripe and slightly oxidised.

After sitting with the wine for an hour or so, though, it has warmed to almost room temperature, and a significant improvement is the result. The palate now presents more complex flavours, with prominent mineral and spice dimensions, that are a true reflection of the wine’s aromas, and that sit better alongside the wine’s quite focussed structure. Flavours persist well through the after palate and ride the bright finish for some time. The lesson being: don’t serve this one too cold.

Despite the improvement, there’s something missing with this wine. Perhaps the flavours are a bit broad for my taste, combined with a structure that is clear but somehow dull. It’s not a bad wine (far from it — were more wines of this quality) but it does lack the “x factor” that I’ve experienced with previous vintages.

Mesh
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2007

Cameron Hughes Lot 48 Meritage 2005

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Whoa. Clouds of rich, dark chocolate, bulldust, and black olive billow up in the glass, and there’s an almost perfumed character to the wine, with a slight sweetness – it’s not unlike vetiver or sage, albeit with a lovely, restrained edge. The color’s a lovely, dark purple with nearly visible particles towards the rim; it just looks expensive, somehow.

On the palate, the first thing that strikes me is the lovely texture: firm and round, followed shortly by flavor that I can honestly only describe as delicious. There are tastes of cassia, Kalamata olive, and cassis, and it all trails off into a clean finish with hints of tannin, acid, and a lovely sweetness, almost like violet pastilles mixed in with tahini. Best of all, the finish keeps going for a while, not resolving itself; it’s a fine drink.

Cameron Hughes
Price: US $9.99
Closure: Diam
Date tasted: November 2007

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For you Aussies out there, Meritage is American for “Bordeaux blend,” more or less. This also marks the first time I’ve seen an American wine closed with a Diam technical cork, which is awesome. Finally, it may interest you to know that we don’t have cleanskins – but Cameron Hughes is pioneering what y’all would call cleanskins in the US market. If you’re in the USA, you can probably find one or two of them at your local Costco, and they also do mail order (their Lot 39 Shiraz Viognier from the Barossa is probably the most incredibly fun $10 wine I’ve had this year).