Monthly Archives: December 2007

Ata Rangi Célèbre 2005

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Ata Ranga is well-known for its Pinot Noir, so I was curious to give this blend of Martinborough and Hawkes Bay Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot a go. I have no idea why it’s called Célèbre.
The nose is very expressive and shows a seductive blend of violets, raw meat, dark berry fruits, spice (clove-like) and a good whack of oak. There’s good intensity here, and the balance is impressive (though perhaps with the oak showing too much after some time in glass). The palate again shows good balance and a focused line. The entry is immediately flavoursome and leads to a medium/full bodied middle palate showing intense, deliciously savoury dark fruits and mouthwatering astringency. The finish is especially lovely, and showcases very fine, chocolate-like tannins, framed by caramel/vanilla oak and quite prominent sappiness.
This is an elegant wine, full of flavour and tightly structured. It lacks the complexity of the very best wines, but is seductive and balanced. I asked myself whether there was an element of underripeness, but if there is, for my taste it is question of style rather than fault. It went well with our dinner of beef and roasted vegetables, the fruit having no issues matching the intense beefy flavour of the lovely New Zealand meat.
Ata RangiPrice: $NZ32Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007

Villa Maria Private Bin Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

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I’m in New Zealand at the moment for a bit of a camping holiday, but roughing it doesn’t quite extend to doing without wine. In fact, I’m hoping to fit in some winery visits while I’m here, as well as taste lots of Kiwi wines of course. Tasting notes may be somewhat briefer than usual during my trip.
We got in yesterday and weren’t up for anything especially challenging, so chose this Hawkes Bay regional blend to have with dinner. A curious, unfamiliar aroma of dusty vanilla custard was initially dominant on the nose, fading to a supporting element with some time in glass. Alongside this (presumably) oak-derived note sits lovely, somewhat savoury red fruit, very easygoing without falling into a confected, industrial flavour spectrum. The wine’s entry is lively, ushering in a medium bodied palate that echoes the sweet/savoury fruit seen on the nose. On the palate, the fruit edges a little further towards facile sweetness, but there’s still a delicious savouriness to the flavour profile. There’s lively acidity all through the palate, which is well integrated and creates a feeling of sophistication in the mouth. The finish is practically tannin-free but of satisfactory length.
There’s no notable complexity of flavour, but for a quaffing wine, this is a really tasty drop that doesn’t confuse  “easy drinking” with simple fruit sweetness.
Villa MariaPrice: $NZ15Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007

Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache 2006

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Wines don’t have to be “super premium” to be worthwhile. If you’re like me, you’re always looking for wines to drink with dinner during the week, “everyday” wines in the best, most enjoyable sense of the word. I went hunting in the bottlo tonight for just such a wine to accompany gourmet pizza. I almost went for a Sangiovese, but this one pleaded with me to try it. I’m nothing if not attuned to the needs of others.


Fruit bomb, spice, a bit of oak. There you have it, that’s about as accurate a tasting note as one could write about this wine. Aromas are lovely and generous, with loads of raspberry jam type fruit, along with sweet spices (think cloves) and a hint of vanilla oak. It’s simple, but that’s ok because it’s a wine that knows what it is, and does it well.  The palate is a seamless continuation of the flavour profile discerned on the nose. Medium bodied, easygoing, well judged acidity to keep things peppy, but no significant tannins to speak of. The wine is really well constructed, texturally, and sits well in the mouth in this regard. With some time, the flavour developed a slightly medicinal, cough syrup note, that I rather liked. 

The pizza we had with this wine was strongly flavoured, plenty of pepperoni and so on. The wine stood up to this assault well due to the generosity of its fruit flavour, and counterbalanced the savoury pizza with sweet spicy fruit. Not a bad combination at all.

Price: $A17
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: December 2007

Napa Family Vineyards Napa Valley Finest Selection Reserve Chardonnay 2005

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You know, the label on this wine practically gives me carpal tunnel just typing it in… Anyhow, on to another of Tesco Finest, er Napa Family Vineyards’ blah blah blah wines…Curiously enough, this wine smells like the nursing home my Aunt Emma lived in towards the end of her life. There’s a very old-ladies-in-wheelchairs floweriness here – kind of like a Laura Ashley boutique just opened shop at the bottom of my glass. It’s surprising mostly because this isn’t something I smell a lot of in my life, especially not in wines I buy. Anyhow: it’s basically a mix of nasturtium, lavender, rosemary honey, and some French oak (?) in the background.In the mouth, the wine is big, rich, round, and fat, ending in a very spicy note. It’s unusual for a mass market California chardonnay in that the movie theater butter note doesn’t spring itself on you until the very finish: it’s overall far spicier than buttery, which is, I suppose, a refreshing change from the usual. Even so, it’s not terribly complex, with nothing (that I can tell) coming from wild yeasts, lees stirring, or other techniques that might increase the interest.To sum up, it’s a decent enough wine. It thankfully doesn’t show the banana-pineapple flavors you often find in wines at this price, and the flowery spiciness could be highly attractive to some folks. Most importantly, it delivers enough at its price point and the bottle looks quite nice (once you peel off the SPECIALLY SELECTED BY fresh&easy label).Napa Family Vineyards [but really fresh&easy]

Price: US $9.99
Closure: Diam
Date tasted: December 2007

McGuigan Family Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa Valley 2005

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On the nose, there’s maple syrup and brown sugar, with an autumn woodsy spice. There’s also a bit of barnyard or poo, or perhaps sulfur, but it’s barely noticeable. The overall effect is of dusty roses and woodspice. It’s a pert, medium red in the glass and slightly watery at the rim; it looks perfectly matched to steak and potatoes.In the mouth, the wine is weightier than you might expect, with rich, smooth tannins contributing to a smoky, chocolate, mulberry palate. The finish is graceful and finishes the line beautifully. Delicious and incredibly good value to boot.McGuigan Family [presumably exclusively at fresh&easy in the USA]

Price: US $6.99
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: December 2007

Pascal Delaunay Rosé d'Anjou 2005

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I bought this wine because it is under screwcap. When it comes to bargain basement French wines, sometimes one needs to look for reasons to purchase. Perhaps I’m being a bit mean — this wine is super cheap, from a good year in the Loire, and its main grape is one you don’t get to taste in local wines: Grolleau (40%, with Gamay and Cabernet Franc both contributing a further 30%). I cracked this little number open to accompany Thai food.

The colour is quite watery, though not unattractive in its way. It’s sort of a faded peach colour. Excellent clarity. Moving on to the nose, there are faint aromas of floral fruitiness, with some spicy edges. That’s about the best way I can characterise it. No intensity here, but it’s clean and at least it smells good. The palate is again clean, but the lack of any real intensity of flavour becomes quite apparent. The wine just slips into your mouth, registers a few simple fruit flavours, and then it’s gone again. Sort of like a depressed singing telegram. Technically a demi-sec style, there’s a smidge of residual sugar to add body but, mercifully, no excess sweetness.

On the plus side, it’s a clean wine, well made, pretty. But terribly dilute. Food overwhelmed it a little. Serve this chilled at a casual summer lunch in lieu of Chateau Cardboard.

Pascal Delaunay
Price: $A8
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: December 2007

d'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz 2002

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Recently, a good friend of mine remarked that they’d never had a d’Arenberg wine that hadn’t disappointed them. Thinking about it for a second, I almost agreed, but then thought back to a fortified Shiraz that wasn’t at all bad, and of course their cheap white wine usually isn’t bad either. Which brings me to the three bottles of The Dead Arm that have been languishing in my cellar for years. I wouldn’t have ordinarily bought them, but a wine shop in southern California somehow managed to score a few cases at a closeout price of roughly half what they usually cost. Of course, the reviews at the time were universally middling, but I figured what the heck: surely this is just idiosyncratically good and therefore confusing, right?On the nose, there’s lots of sweet cherry fruit along with a dirty eucalyptus mint that’s hinting at the bottle age this wine’s racked up over the last few years. Rich, candied meat also shows itself eventually, as well as a distinct medicinal tang not unlike St. Joseph’s children’s aspirin (think oranges spiked with embalming fluid). There’s also a subtle supporting note of quality wood, which sets it all off rather well, I think. At this point in the wine’s evolution, it schizophrenically struts between thick, rich, young Aussie red and older, mature, claret. It’s entertaining.The entry on the palate is at first remarkably shut down, and then the acids hit you: huge, grabby, shocking acids. It’s all surprisingly rustic and more suited to a cheap vin du pays d’Oc than an often-hyped, fairly expensive Aussie shiraz. Then, it all dies off with a whimper. What was that? Another mouthful reveals a midweight palate, along with generic, unidentifiable fruitiness, the same surprising acidity, a bit of bottle age, and then… bupkus. Eventually, some gum-assaulting, drying tannins show up as well as a bit of funkiness, but even that’s curiously half-assed. With some time and air, it started to resolve itself a bit more in terms of its flavor profile, but honestly? This wine probably wasn’t a good deal even at half price, and it seems to be drying out and dying at the moment.d’Arenberg

Price: US $24.99 (distributor closeout; current release is US $54.99)
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: December 2007—On second thought, about ninety minutes later, I realized that this wine actually is displaying a low level of cork taint, which is a bummer. A lot of the muted flatness is more likely the result of TCA; it’s clear to me now that it’s difficult to distinguish between “bottle age” and TCA, at least for me. I’m glad to see that d’Arenberg have moved to screwcaps for some of their production, but it’s too late for me – no way to return this wine given its age, and it’s on its way to the recycle bin, alas.

Kiona Chenin Blanc 2006

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This wine shows a simple nose of something like Libby’s fruit cocktail, which strikes me as fairly clumsy. There’s also a smell there that doesn’t seem right – is it sulfur? dirt? something more sinister? Finally, there’s also a noticeable amount of CO2 in the glass – not enough to be really spritzy, but enough to form bubbles in the bowl.With a bit more time, the bad smell blew off, and the fruit resolved itself into something more like low quality airline soap. Yeah, soapy – and almost like unripe avocado. It’s not particularly appealing but at least it’s original.In the mouth, the CO2 is much more noticeable, and the overall effect is of a heavy, simply fruity wine that dies on the palate. There’s no perceptible acidity to back up the heavy fruit, and for all of the dunderheaded fruit, the overall mouthfeel is thin and unappetizing. It’s just not pretty. I’d suggest you lace it with fresh strawberries and serve it with a Sunday brunch buffet at the nearest Waffle House.Kiona

Price: US $6.99
Closure: Plastic cork
Date tasted: December 2007

—For the record, I do believe that Washington has fantastic potential for great Chenin Blanc – the L’Ecole No. 41 can be incredibly good. This one, however, misses the mark.

Marc Brédif Vouvray 2005

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On the nose, soft, powdery, floral notes along with orange blossom honey and crisp white peaches. There’s almost a hint of pineapple there as well, and a suggestion of peat smoke, almost like Scotch. Finally, there’s something else going on here just behind the scene – almost bread-y, like fresh baked brioche.In the mouth, the wine is soft and rich, mouth-filling, but it’s on the finish where the big surprises are: a very much savory note of fresh apple pie along with a calming, supporting streak of acidity. The flavor hangs around for quite a long time after you swallow; it’s kind of like biscuits with whipped honey butter, with a hint of peach. There’s also a curiously bass note there, which is what I suppose one calls minerality: it’s like a subtle underpinning of all of the higher positioned flavors and returns again and again unexpectedly, drifting in and out of focus.This is a wine of great subtlety and grace; I imagine it would pair well with venison stew, somehow.Marc BrédifPrice: US $12.99Closure: CorkDate tasted: December 2007—Julian is absolutely correct when he describes the attack of this wine as largely textural; the slippery, fat, acidic, oily, ever-changing feel of the wine is one of its great pleasures. Funny thing, though – I can’t remember the last time I read a tasting note that really paid attention to the way a wine feels!