March 2008 Archives
Skillogalee does a good line in approachable, generous red wines, so I thought this one would be a good way to unwind after a busy weekend. For some reason, I've lost the use of one nostril just in time for this tasting. Let's hope the wine gives up its secrets easily.
A big hit of blackberry jam on the nose, along with some nutty vanilla and what is either a vegetal note or somewhat raw oak. The fruit is ripe and clearly of good quality. Entry is bright with flavour and shows lots of dark berry fruit in the context of an attractive, powdery texture. The mid-palate presents more blackberry jam, quite intense and full in body, with oak increasing its influence as the wine moves to its climax. It's all very flavoursome for sure, but a little clumsy also, as if the elements are all "oversized" and paying insufficient attention to each other. The wine's line is consistent through the after palate, and sweet berry fruit sings through the finish.
I'm not sure about this one. The fruit is good, but the oak treatment strikes me as obvious and heavyhanded. The wine also lacks a clear sense of structure. Still, it's a lot of quality flavour for a reasonable price. Try this one with spicy Asian food (the fruit weight and lack of tannins work well in this context).
Skillogalee
Price: $25.50
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
A big hit of blackberry jam on the nose, along with some nutty vanilla and what is either a vegetal note or somewhat raw oak. The fruit is ripe and clearly of good quality. Entry is bright with flavour and shows lots of dark berry fruit in the context of an attractive, powdery texture. The mid-palate presents more blackberry jam, quite intense and full in body, with oak increasing its influence as the wine moves to its climax. It's all very flavoursome for sure, but a little clumsy also, as if the elements are all "oversized" and paying insufficient attention to each other. The wine's line is consistent through the after palate, and sweet berry fruit sings through the finish.
I'm not sure about this one. The fruit is good, but the oak treatment strikes me as obvious and heavyhanded. The wine also lacks a clear sense of structure. Still, it's a lot of quality flavour for a reasonable price. Try this one with spicy Asian food (the fruit weight and lack of tannins work well in this context).
Skillogalee
Price: $25.50
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
Immediately after pouring this in my glass, I thought that this wine smelled like just-fermented grape juice that someone had bunged in the bottle quickly and then shipped over to California. After a few minutes, though, it settled down into something a bit more recognizable as Barossa grenache: dusty, high alcohol dried cherries with a hint of spiciness. What's really appealing here, though, is a distinct sourness that you don't often find in wines at this price point or in this style; for every sickly sweet, tiring super-alocholized grenache out there, this wine makes a good counterpoint. Although it's still huge, alcoholically speaking (15%), the sourness makes it all work. The overall rawness of the wine - even after fifteen minutes, it still tastes freshly made, somehow - is actually kind of fun and would make this a great match for tacos al pastor.
Sure, there's really not much here in the way of tannins, or structure, or complex aromas... but c'mon, the label is kind of awesome, it's amazingly cheap, and it tastes pretty damn good.
R Winery
Price: US $7.99
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
Sure, there's really not much here in the way of tannins, or structure, or complex aromas... but c'mon, the label is kind of awesome, it's amazingly cheap, and it tastes pretty damn good.
R Winery
Price: US $7.99
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
Pinot Noir and Shiraz. A little odd, you might say, yet not without precedent. As the back label explains, some of wine legend Maurice O'Shea's most renowned wines were blends of these two varieties. So, Mount Henry is a tribute of sorts to these iconic wines. It's pure Hunter Valley, of course, wrapped in a heavy, somewhat monumental bottle of chunky proportions.
First impressions are marred somewhat by a big whiff of brett that never quites dissipates as the bottle empties. It's not, however, beyond tolerance, at least for my palate. Rather, it's a metallic sheen over deliciously earthy red fruits, quite sweet really, a bit of custardy oak and some funkiness. It smells of Hunter Shiraz but shows a marked divergence at the same time, with some bright complexity pushing it away from the straight Shiraz style. On entry, the wine smacks the lips and tongue with generous flavour almost immediately. It's got good presence, this wine. The mid-palate shows good fruit weight and a fine, powdery texture, and tastes of raspberry liqueur poured on a dusty dirt road. Characterful, if not hugely complex. The after palate and finish are quite textural, thanks to chewy tannins.
There's a slight lack of focus to this wine's progression through the palate, but why quibble over something so tasty? Parallels between Hunter "Burgundy" and Pinot Noir have a lot of history to draw on, if only at the level of nomenclature and general "style." But there are synergies there, as O'Shea and this wine show. It's a wonder more producers in the Hunter don't experiment with this blend. I'm led to believe some Hunter enthusiasts are taking matters into their own hands.
McWilliams Mount Pleasant
Price: $A30
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
First impressions are marred somewhat by a big whiff of brett that never quites dissipates as the bottle empties. It's not, however, beyond tolerance, at least for my palate. Rather, it's a metallic sheen over deliciously earthy red fruits, quite sweet really, a bit of custardy oak and some funkiness. It smells of Hunter Shiraz but shows a marked divergence at the same time, with some bright complexity pushing it away from the straight Shiraz style. On entry, the wine smacks the lips and tongue with generous flavour almost immediately. It's got good presence, this wine. The mid-palate shows good fruit weight and a fine, powdery texture, and tastes of raspberry liqueur poured on a dusty dirt road. Characterful, if not hugely complex. The after palate and finish are quite textural, thanks to chewy tannins.
There's a slight lack of focus to this wine's progression through the palate, but why quibble over something so tasty? Parallels between Hunter "Burgundy" and Pinot Noir have a lot of history to draw on, if only at the level of nomenclature and general "style." But there are synergies there, as O'Shea and this wine show. It's a wonder more producers in the Hunter don't experiment with this blend. I'm led to believe some Hunter enthusiasts are taking matters into their own hands.
McWilliams Mount Pleasant
Price: $A30
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
I bought some of this wine on a whim after reading that it had won some awards. That's me, a sucker for a few medals stuck on a bottle. Actually, I'm a fan of Canberra District Shiraz for its often elegant, medium weight style, so usually jump at the chance to acquire a new example.
A bright, expressive nose that presents dried flowers, peppery spice and clean red fruit in equal measure. A bit of funk in there too. It's got good complexity (more so as it sits in glass) and, to me, is extremely attractive. To digress for a moment, wines like this make me acutely feel the inadequacy of using flavour comparisons when describing wine. I suppose, at a molecular level, there's some validity to describing wine through flavour analogues, but good wines, such as this one, defy such descriptions because they are seamless, they taste of themselves, and all I can hope to do in saying "spice and red fruit" is roughly approximate the impression of this, or any other, wine.
With that over and done with (much to everyone's relief, I'm sure), I will continue with the wine's entry, which is lightfooted and slippery, maybe more textural than flavoursome at first, but quickly building brightly fruited flavour as it moves towards the mid-palate. It's medium bodied and characterful by way of red, sappy fruit and edges of spice. Mouthfeel is supple and soft, but there's also some subtle acidity contributing flow and structure to the wine. Balance is very "drink now," though. The after palate gets spicier and trails to a finish that shows some attractive, lingering sweetness.
Overall, it could do with a notch more intensity, but it's a lovely Shiraz style (in my view) that places elegance before power. It reminds me of a more subtle version of Gimblett Gravels Syrah. Good value.
Collector Wines
Price: $A26
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
A bright, expressive nose that presents dried flowers, peppery spice and clean red fruit in equal measure. A bit of funk in there too. It's got good complexity (more so as it sits in glass) and, to me, is extremely attractive. To digress for a moment, wines like this make me acutely feel the inadequacy of using flavour comparisons when describing wine. I suppose, at a molecular level, there's some validity to describing wine through flavour analogues, but good wines, such as this one, defy such descriptions because they are seamless, they taste of themselves, and all I can hope to do in saying "spice and red fruit" is roughly approximate the impression of this, or any other, wine.
With that over and done with (much to everyone's relief, I'm sure), I will continue with the wine's entry, which is lightfooted and slippery, maybe more textural than flavoursome at first, but quickly building brightly fruited flavour as it moves towards the mid-palate. It's medium bodied and characterful by way of red, sappy fruit and edges of spice. Mouthfeel is supple and soft, but there's also some subtle acidity contributing flow and structure to the wine. Balance is very "drink now," though. The after palate gets spicier and trails to a finish that shows some attractive, lingering sweetness.
Overall, it could do with a notch more intensity, but it's a lovely Shiraz style (in my view) that places elegance before power. It reminds me of a more subtle version of Gimblett Gravels Syrah. Good value.
Collector Wines
Price: $A26
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
With a name this long, it had better be good. I don't know about you but, in my experience, a wine's label can bear little resemblance to the liquid in bottle. Mercifully, here's one that shows a bit of truth in advertising. The label says: "soft and full with sweet, leafy fruit flavours, rich vanillin oak and fine tannins..." Basically, yeah.
An acceptably expressive nose that shows rich, full fruit of the red and black type, with an edge of "dried fruit" character. There's a good dose of dusty leaf that is pleasingly varietal. The palate is where this wine truly shines, though. Bright, rich fruit flavour strikes the tongue quite early and builds as it moves to the mid-palate. The fruit is not monumental in scale, but it is tasty and really quite ripe. Mulberry leaf and well balanced oak also contribute. This is a wine of generosity and soft, full fruit flavour, counterbalanced by a firm acid framework. It is not a simple or industrial wine, and remains characterful despite its easygoing style. Good consistency through to the after palate, with sweet, ripe tannins that sing through the decent finish.
Sometimes, you just want a nice, giving red wine that gushes with personality and flavour. Give this one a go if you're in such a mood. It's not overly structured, but is full of good fruit and will be killer with juicy rump steak.
Skillogalee
Price: $A25.50
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
An acceptably expressive nose that shows rich, full fruit of the red and black type, with an edge of "dried fruit" character. There's a good dose of dusty leaf that is pleasingly varietal. The palate is where this wine truly shines, though. Bright, rich fruit flavour strikes the tongue quite early and builds as it moves to the mid-palate. The fruit is not monumental in scale, but it is tasty and really quite ripe. Mulberry leaf and well balanced oak also contribute. This is a wine of generosity and soft, full fruit flavour, counterbalanced by a firm acid framework. It is not a simple or industrial wine, and remains characterful despite its easygoing style. Good consistency through to the after palate, with sweet, ripe tannins that sing through the decent finish.
Sometimes, you just want a nice, giving red wine that gushes with personality and flavour. Give this one a go if you're in such a mood. It's not overly structured, but is full of good fruit and will be killer with juicy rump steak.
Skillogalee
Price: $A25.50
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
An oddity. Wendouree, known for its distinctive reds, also makes this fortified wine from the Muscat of Alexandria grape (better known for its contribution to Nanna's Cream Sherry).
A golden honey colour. The nose is fresh and somewhat grapey, with a lovely rich honeysuckle note, as much floral as sweet. There's a striking, viscous texture on entry, very fresh, soft yet supportive acidity, more sweet florals and fruit. The mid-palate is again rich and full, with good intensity of flavour. The acid structure is very slightly rough, which I like as it adds some complexity and interest to what is a sweet and slightly spirity wine. In style, it's far from your regular botrytis-affected "dessert sticky" wine, both lighter and fresher, and more obviously alcoholic. The fruit's flavour profile is also quite different. The wine's finish is satisfyingly long.
What I like most about this wine is the way it unfolds in the mouth, at once precise and voluptuous. I suspect this style will be "love it or hate it," and from an objective point of view, it's a simple wine with an oddball balance between its elements. But I like it. Perhaps I am a lush. Potential food matches are tantalising. I'm thinking something sweet yet not too heavy -- just like the wine itself. Passionfruit sponge, oh my.
Wendouree
Price: $A25 (375ml)
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
McLaren Vale Shiraz that clocks in at 13.5% alcohol? Yes, it does exist, as this wine from Ngeringa proves. I've been meaning to try more Ngeringa wines ever since I had a very pleasurable encounter with its Adelaide Hills Chardonnay. This wine shows an equally clear sense of style.
Quite an intense, balanced nose that mixes savoury and sweet fruit, stalky brambles, plus some vanilla and spice. Altogether attractive and relatively complex. Entry confirms this wine's true character as a rather Italianate, savoury wine of medium body and firm acidity. There's good intensity to the fruit, which has a lovely "candied peel" edge. The wine is quite lightfooted, with flavours that dance on the tongue rather than smother or overwhelm. It's really quite complex without being overly intellectual. Some green, undergrowth-like notes emerge on the after palate, reinforcing the savoury fruit notes. The finish trails off in intensity but retains good length.
This style really appeals to me. Although it's a quality wine that you could drink analytically, it's the kind of wine to throw back with friends, marvelling at how delicious it is while you get stuck into dinner. An example of what the McLaren Vale is capable of when it is not pushed too hard. Brilliant value for money.
Ngeringa
Price: $A20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
Quite an intense, balanced nose that mixes savoury and sweet fruit, stalky brambles, plus some vanilla and spice. Altogether attractive and relatively complex. Entry confirms this wine's true character as a rather Italianate, savoury wine of medium body and firm acidity. There's good intensity to the fruit, which has a lovely "candied peel" edge. The wine is quite lightfooted, with flavours that dance on the tongue rather than smother or overwhelm. It's really quite complex without being overly intellectual. Some green, undergrowth-like notes emerge on the after palate, reinforcing the savoury fruit notes. The finish trails off in intensity but retains good length.
This style really appeals to me. Although it's a quality wine that you could drink analytically, it's the kind of wine to throw back with friends, marvelling at how delicious it is while you get stuck into dinner. An example of what the McLaren Vale is capable of when it is not pushed too hard. Brilliant value for money.
Ngeringa
Price: $A20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
I really don't know what they are. Chris poured them into little South African wine tasting glasses. [Ed: These notes are in random order; the tasting glasses came from South African wineries, hence the names below.]
"Fairview": creamy coffee, good mouth feel. There's a nice low subtle bass note and a hint of vanilla. It feels sophisticated; I can see drinking this straight up when I want to feel mellow and curl up and read a fluffy travel book. My favorite.
"Bouchard Finlayson": hot alcohol, some coffee flavor, lingering finish of burnt coffee beans. Not all that attractive, it tastes like the bourbon I drank in 9th grade out of a styrofoam cup with John Zebala and Mike Matsuda one night and it compelled us to write bad haiku on my brother's underwear. The one I liked the least.
"Neil Ellis": Toffee more than coffee, but not in a bad way. Tastes like a high quality Chinese Kahlua knockoff that's served in a low rent Macau gambling den.
"Groot Constantia": more cream; moderate coffee flavor--and that coffee flavor is almost minty. Call this "Nestle International Coffee Liqueur" , it'd go great in some hot chocolate drinkypoo at some Canadian ski lodge with whipped cream and cinnamon on top and one of those tubular cookies that looks like a taquito.
[After Dan wrote up his notes, I let him know which glasses had which coffee liqueurs: Fairview was Kahlúa ($15), Bouchard Finlayson was Kahlúa Especial ($18), Neil Ellis was Starbucks coffee liqueur ($17), and Groot Constantia was Trader Vic's Kona Coffee Liqueur ($12).]
"Fairview": creamy coffee, good mouth feel. There's a nice low subtle bass note and a hint of vanilla. It feels sophisticated; I can see drinking this straight up when I want to feel mellow and curl up and read a fluffy travel book. My favorite.
"Bouchard Finlayson": hot alcohol, some coffee flavor, lingering finish of burnt coffee beans. Not all that attractive, it tastes like the bourbon I drank in 9th grade out of a styrofoam cup with John Zebala and Mike Matsuda one night and it compelled us to write bad haiku on my brother's underwear. The one I liked the least.
"Neil Ellis": Toffee more than coffee, but not in a bad way. Tastes like a high quality Chinese Kahlua knockoff that's served in a low rent Macau gambling den.
"Groot Constantia": more cream; moderate coffee flavor--and that coffee flavor is almost minty. Call this "Nestle International Coffee Liqueur" , it'd go great in some hot chocolate drinkypoo at some Canadian ski lodge with whipped cream and cinnamon on top and one of those tubular cookies that looks like a taquito.
[After Dan wrote up his notes, I let him know which glasses had which coffee liqueurs: Fairview was Kahlúa ($15), Bouchard Finlayson was Kahlúa Especial ($18), Neil Ellis was Starbucks coffee liqueur ($17), and Groot Constantia was Trader Vic's Kona Coffee Liqueur ($12).]
First of all, it's a mistake to even think about drinking this wine straight from the fridge. I mean, seriously? Cold, this wine tastes no different than that bottle of Inglenook Chablis that your Mom had in her fridge back in the 1970s: no smell, no taste, no nothing.
Given enough time to warm back up again, this wine smells of beeswax, honey, Marconi almonds, Bosc pears, jasmine, ginger, and maybe even tonka bean. Wild. To be perfectly honest, this wine really seems to be heading in the direction of a Tahbilk marsanne: eminently strange, not as floral as you feared, and altogether delightful. [As it turns out, the wine is actually more of a fake Châteauneuf-du-Pape blanc - it's only 80% Viognier, with a bunch of other stuff in there as well - marsanne, roussanne, and grenache blanc.]
In the mouth, virtually none of the stereotypical viognier oiliness is there on the attack, but the wine fans out in the mouth to end on a rich, full note. There's definite spice and not a whit of sweetness; this wine is SERIOUS BUSINESS. With some air, it began to remind me of salt water taffy: sea air mixed with the promise of sweetness and honeycomb, with a salty tang, some spice, and almost a hint of violet leaves. On the whole, this is one of those rare Bonny Doon wines that is an unqualified success on its own terms: this tastes like something that could only have been made in California, and it's all the better for it.
Bonny Doon Vineyard
Price: US $20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
Given enough time to warm back up again, this wine smells of beeswax, honey, Marconi almonds, Bosc pears, jasmine, ginger, and maybe even tonka bean. Wild. To be perfectly honest, this wine really seems to be heading in the direction of a Tahbilk marsanne: eminently strange, not as floral as you feared, and altogether delightful. [As it turns out, the wine is actually more of a fake Châteauneuf-du-Pape blanc - it's only 80% Viognier, with a bunch of other stuff in there as well - marsanne, roussanne, and grenache blanc.]
In the mouth, virtually none of the stereotypical viognier oiliness is there on the attack, but the wine fans out in the mouth to end on a rich, full note. There's definite spice and not a whit of sweetness; this wine is SERIOUS BUSINESS. With some air, it began to remind me of salt water taffy: sea air mixed with the promise of sweetness and honeycomb, with a salty tang, some spice, and almost a hint of violet leaves. On the whole, this is one of those rare Bonny Doon wines that is an unqualified success on its own terms: this tastes like something that could only have been made in California, and it's all the better for it.
Bonny Doon Vineyard
Price: US $20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
Yesterday, after a trip to the recyclers' to rid ourselves of the accumulated shippers and empty cases that built up over the winter, my partner and I headed to downtown San Diego to pick up a dozen or so cases of wine. Having just moved here last July, I've been without access to most of my wines until just this month; we finally cleared out enough space in the garage to install a modest refrigerated cabinet, and now it's time to begin hauling the thirty or so cases in storage back home.
There are only twenty cases left in storage at this point: all of the Riesling and most of the Rhône type stuff are now safely home. To celebrate progress, I picked the ugliest bottle I could from the cellar: a generic Châteauneuf-du-Pape that I don't remember buying (perhaps it was a gift?) with a washed out yellowish label and absolutely nothing interesting on the front of it.
I poured a couple of glasses, noticed that the wine looked as washed out as the label, and steeled myself for watery disappointment. Instead, I found myself enjoying one of the best bottles I've had in weeks. The nose of the wine eventually reminded me of French sunflower honey, all summer sunlight with notes of hay and dried herbs. Distinctly acidic, the wine offered up smokey gravel, dried Montmorency cherries, dust, dirt, and something like ocean breezes washing across cool ocean meadows and onto hot sand. The smokey note reasserted itself on the finish, with a decidedly sweet (and I mean in the sense of sucrosité, not California super-ripe sweetness) finish trailing off into lazy trails of autumn hay.
What an incredible wine, and what a wonderful reminder that restraint often pays incredible dividends. We finished the bottle over a course of several hours, unwilling to put a stop to the experience; at first, the acidity was unsettling, but it settled down with some air. All in all, this was as wonderful as a walk through the redwoods here in California: cool, majestic, quiet.
Vignobles Brunier
Price: likely around US $25
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
There are only twenty cases left in storage at this point: all of the Riesling and most of the Rhône type stuff are now safely home. To celebrate progress, I picked the ugliest bottle I could from the cellar: a generic Châteauneuf-du-Pape that I don't remember buying (perhaps it was a gift?) with a washed out yellowish label and absolutely nothing interesting on the front of it.
I poured a couple of glasses, noticed that the wine looked as washed out as the label, and steeled myself for watery disappointment. Instead, I found myself enjoying one of the best bottles I've had in weeks. The nose of the wine eventually reminded me of French sunflower honey, all summer sunlight with notes of hay and dried herbs. Distinctly acidic, the wine offered up smokey gravel, dried Montmorency cherries, dust, dirt, and something like ocean breezes washing across cool ocean meadows and onto hot sand. The smokey note reasserted itself on the finish, with a decidedly sweet (and I mean in the sense of sucrosité, not California super-ripe sweetness) finish trailing off into lazy trails of autumn hay.
What an incredible wine, and what a wonderful reminder that restraint often pays incredible dividends. We finished the bottle over a course of several hours, unwilling to put a stop to the experience; at first, the acidity was unsettling, but it settled down with some air. All in all, this was as wonderful as a walk through the redwoods here in California: cool, majestic, quiet.
Vignobles Brunier
Price: likely around US $25
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
I'm still on my "anything but Champagne" quest and last night saw me consume the most inexpensive sparkling wine I've had in years. Nowadays, $A8 buys you about half a bottle of Seppelt Fleur de Lys or a whole 750ml of this number from De Bortoli. Now, the Windy Peak range has a reputation for reliable quality at an excellent price, and even the Pinot Noir has been known to be quite drinkable -- no mean feat for around $A10. Sparkling wine, though, accelerates the challenge somewhat, as it's rare, in my experience anyway, to find true quality and interest at the lowest levels of price.
A lively, coarse mousse that gives way to not much bead at all, but a pretty, rose-tinted wine of good clarity. The nose hints at a broad flavor profile, and shows slightly chunky strawberry and citrus notes, alongside some yeasty complexity. It's kind of obvious and lacking in freshness. The palate offers a mouth full of fruit flavour, again mostly strawberry and citrus, quite full for the style, slightly effervescent, and easy to drink. There's a slight mustiness that leads me to suspect a mild to moderate level of cork taint, so it's hard for me to say this bottle is representative. The wine went well with light food.
Keeping in mind possible cork taint, this wine is easy and full flavoured, but a little uninteresting too. I'd like to taste a fresher bottle, to see if the overall profile of the wine gains freshness and edge, as this would contribute greatly to enjoyment.
De Bortoli
Price: $A8
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
A lively, coarse mousse that gives way to not much bead at all, but a pretty, rose-tinted wine of good clarity. The nose hints at a broad flavor profile, and shows slightly chunky strawberry and citrus notes, alongside some yeasty complexity. It's kind of obvious and lacking in freshness. The palate offers a mouth full of fruit flavour, again mostly strawberry and citrus, quite full for the style, slightly effervescent, and easy to drink. There's a slight mustiness that leads me to suspect a mild to moderate level of cork taint, so it's hard for me to say this bottle is representative. The wine went well with light food.
Keeping in mind possible cork taint, this wine is easy and full flavoured, but a little uninteresting too. I'd like to taste a fresher bottle, to see if the overall profile of the wine gains freshness and edge, as this would contribute greatly to enjoyment.
De Bortoli
Price: $A8
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
The 2005 Philip took me by (not entirely pleasant) surprise, its scale and style seeming bigger than the regular Philip and feeling a bit borderline to me in terms of balance. I thought I'd revisit the 2003 version, which I remember enjoying a lot on release, now that I've tried the newer wine a few times. I recall the 2003 being a rich wine, full of flavour, but identifiably regional too.
The nose is quite dirty/dusty in the regional sense, with savoury red fruits weaving through the earthiness. It is ripe, yet balanced and with no hint of portiness. There's a fair whack of vanilla too. On the palate, a rich entry that shows soft, concentrated fruit character and medium body. Flavour unfolds onto the middle palate with softness and grace, but things start to go awry a little, with rough, sappy, vanillan oak threatening to unbalance the wine's flavour profile. The fruit, however, is excellent and full of character, with definite signs of aged complexity. A soft after palate and reasonable length round the wine off.
I don't remember so much oak on this wine; perhaps some bottle variation is happening here. In any case, I like this wine a great deal and might even prefer it to the 2005. Having said that, they are both excellent wines and amazingly good value for money, and the 2005 may be a more appropriate choice to accompany robust food flavours (it went well with some pizza we had the other night). The 2005 has the added advantage of being bottled under screwcap.
McWilliams Mount Pleasant
Price: $A15
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
The nose is quite dirty/dusty in the regional sense, with savoury red fruits weaving through the earthiness. It is ripe, yet balanced and with no hint of portiness. There's a fair whack of vanilla too. On the palate, a rich entry that shows soft, concentrated fruit character and medium body. Flavour unfolds onto the middle palate with softness and grace, but things start to go awry a little, with rough, sappy, vanillan oak threatening to unbalance the wine's flavour profile. The fruit, however, is excellent and full of character, with definite signs of aged complexity. A soft after palate and reasonable length round the wine off.
I don't remember so much oak on this wine; perhaps some bottle variation is happening here. In any case, I like this wine a great deal and might even prefer it to the 2005. Having said that, they are both excellent wines and amazingly good value for money, and the 2005 may be a more appropriate choice to accompany robust food flavours (it went well with some pizza we had the other night). The 2005 has the added advantage of being bottled under screwcap.
McWilliams Mount Pleasant
Price: $A15
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
You'll have to excuse me, but last night was the last night my parents were in town - they live in London and were visiting San Diego, so I had to whip out some of the awesome 'cuz my Dad likes a good bottle of wine every bit as much as Julian and I do. Given that I was concentrating more on the company than the wine, I decided not to write about these two wines right away: as a result, what you're getting isn't a proper tasting note, but rather further musing on the difference between these two wines.
We began the evening by opening the Monte Bello. This is arguably one of the finest wines produced in California; every once in a while, usually when I'm feeling flush with cash and slightly inebriated, I'll cave to Ridge's offer of Monte Bello futures (sadly, they aren't really doing that any longer; instead, you have to sign up for a subscription program). $400 or so gets you a six pack, or 12 half bottles; then, you have to wait a couple of years until they deliver the bottles to your door. At this point, I've got some of the 2000 and 2001... and the 2005 was delivered to my office last week.
Within a few minutes of opening the Monte Bello, I flew off onto one of my usual spiels about how truly excellent wines can almost be diagrammed on staff paper - there should be different things going on in different registers. Perhaps there's some floral perfume in the treble, and some deep, heavy bass in the sense of wood or roasted coffee; at the very least, there should be a common thread in the midrange that holds the entire wine together.
The 2005 Monte Bello was... very difficult to accurately describe. There was definitely a vanilla perfume above the entire construction, with some classic cabernet sauvignon fruit, with an underpinning of dirty violet perfume (presumably the petit verdot). No matter how many times we smelled that wine, all of its components drifted in and out of focus, perfectly balanced, perfectly harmonious. You had the rich, mulberry (and very, very young!) notes some times; other times, you mostly smelled vanilla, sandalwood, and eventually camphor. It was incredible.
My Dad and I decided it would be interesting to set our glasses aside for a while - we wanted to see what would happen with an hour or two of air - so we did, and went for the other bottle I'd grabbed from the cellar: a Quixote petite sirah. Both of these wines are roughly in the same price range: $33 for a tenth of the Monte Bello, and $60 for the Quixote. Both of these wines are hugely enjoyable. Both of these wines will probably send shivers down your spine with sheer physical delight. And yet, only one of these wines is a great wine.
The Quixote was huge. Heck, my Dad's teeth went dark purple in a few minutes. It's a massive, hulking wine: very rich, obviously very expensive, and with an overwhelming sense of espresso towards the finish. It screams California: this isn't a Rutherglen durif, not even close. It's ripe - not hyperripe in the Barossa sense - and it's obviously been raised in the best French barrels money can buy. The tannins are fine, sweet, and delicious.
What's missing is of course a sense of place. Just as a wine like the Mollydooker Carnival of Points (er, Love) can be huge, intense, delicious, and all of those good things, the Quixote petite sirah is huge, intense, delicious, and a visceral thrill. I kept thinking of Robert Musil, though: this is a wine without qualities. That is, it doesn't appear to come from anywhere: this is what happens when you take a plant, apply the most awesome growing technology (canopy management, microirrigation, whatever) imaginable, stick it in the most expensive barrels you can find, and then bottle it in bottles with exquisite labels. By the time we finished the bottle, we had gotten over the initial thrill of it, and began to wonder... is that all there is?
We then went back to the Monte Bello. Two hours' time had caused the wine to soften appreciably; my Dad described it as "sensuous," and I wouldn't disagree. Unusually for so-called New World wines, the Ridge seemed carefully designed and constructed to express beauty, not power: more importantly, it tastes like itself and not like any other wine out there. The 2000 and 2001 both had the same, impossible to describe feeling to them... a feeling that what you're drinking couldn't possibly be duplicated anywhere else on Earth. Just as with a Hunter semillon or a good Burgundy, you just knew that you were drinking an incredible wine from a place like no other on Earth.
This is the different between the excellent and the great: complexity, harmony, balance, and fidelity to place.
Ridge + Quixote
Price: US $33 (375 mL; futures price) + US $60
Closure: Cork + Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
We began the evening by opening the Monte Bello. This is arguably one of the finest wines produced in California; every once in a while, usually when I'm feeling flush with cash and slightly inebriated, I'll cave to Ridge's offer of Monte Bello futures (sadly, they aren't really doing that any longer; instead, you have to sign up for a subscription program). $400 or so gets you a six pack, or 12 half bottles; then, you have to wait a couple of years until they deliver the bottles to your door. At this point, I've got some of the 2000 and 2001... and the 2005 was delivered to my office last week.
Within a few minutes of opening the Monte Bello, I flew off onto one of my usual spiels about how truly excellent wines can almost be diagrammed on staff paper - there should be different things going on in different registers. Perhaps there's some floral perfume in the treble, and some deep, heavy bass in the sense of wood or roasted coffee; at the very least, there should be a common thread in the midrange that holds the entire wine together.
The 2005 Monte Bello was... very difficult to accurately describe. There was definitely a vanilla perfume above the entire construction, with some classic cabernet sauvignon fruit, with an underpinning of dirty violet perfume (presumably the petit verdot). No matter how many times we smelled that wine, all of its components drifted in and out of focus, perfectly balanced, perfectly harmonious. You had the rich, mulberry (and very, very young!) notes some times; other times, you mostly smelled vanilla, sandalwood, and eventually camphor. It was incredible.
My Dad and I decided it would be interesting to set our glasses aside for a while - we wanted to see what would happen with an hour or two of air - so we did, and went for the other bottle I'd grabbed from the cellar: a Quixote petite sirah. Both of these wines are roughly in the same price range: $33 for a tenth of the Monte Bello, and $60 for the Quixote. Both of these wines are hugely enjoyable. Both of these wines will probably send shivers down your spine with sheer physical delight. And yet, only one of these wines is a great wine.
The Quixote was huge. Heck, my Dad's teeth went dark purple in a few minutes. It's a massive, hulking wine: very rich, obviously very expensive, and with an overwhelming sense of espresso towards the finish. It screams California: this isn't a Rutherglen durif, not even close. It's ripe - not hyperripe in the Barossa sense - and it's obviously been raised in the best French barrels money can buy. The tannins are fine, sweet, and delicious.
What's missing is of course a sense of place. Just as a wine like the Mollydooker Carnival of Points (er, Love) can be huge, intense, delicious, and all of those good things, the Quixote petite sirah is huge, intense, delicious, and a visceral thrill. I kept thinking of Robert Musil, though: this is a wine without qualities. That is, it doesn't appear to come from anywhere: this is what happens when you take a plant, apply the most awesome growing technology (canopy management, microirrigation, whatever) imaginable, stick it in the most expensive barrels you can find, and then bottle it in bottles with exquisite labels. By the time we finished the bottle, we had gotten over the initial thrill of it, and began to wonder... is that all there is?
We then went back to the Monte Bello. Two hours' time had caused the wine to soften appreciably; my Dad described it as "sensuous," and I wouldn't disagree. Unusually for so-called New World wines, the Ridge seemed carefully designed and constructed to express beauty, not power: more importantly, it tastes like itself and not like any other wine out there. The 2000 and 2001 both had the same, impossible to describe feeling to them... a feeling that what you're drinking couldn't possibly be duplicated anywhere else on Earth. Just as with a Hunter semillon or a good Burgundy, you just knew that you were drinking an incredible wine from a place like no other on Earth.
This is the different between the excellent and the great: complexity, harmony, balance, and fidelity to place.
Ridge + Quixote
Price: US $33 (375 mL; futures price) + US $60
Closure: Cork + Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
I don't recall having tasted a sparkling wine made from Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc grapes before, so it was with particular interest that I sampled this number.
A fresh, lively nose that strikes me as pretty but perhaps less explosive than many still wines made from the same grape. What's interesting about the palate is that it shows very evident Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc character in the context of a highly atypical wine style. There's the trademark grassy, passionfruity, capsicummy flavour profile, surrounded at entry and after palate by lively fizz. It's an odd, unexpected combination that nevertheless shows great freshness and is certainly fun.
Whether it's a style I prefer over the still version remains questionable. The winemaking does blunt the typical flavour profile a bit, which may please some people but, for me, may not satisfy the craving for utter vulgarity that usually strikes before I reach for a Marlborough Savvy. I think this would be a great wine to serve as an aperitif if you're looking for a variation on the usual sparkling theme.
Mount Riley
Price: $A25
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
First off, there's petrol here in spades: yes, this wine is six years old and counting. After waiting a few minutes, the wine warmed up enough to give off a hint of lime rind, field honey, wet stone, mineral, and something almost like peaches. There's a real austerity here: this is not German (or even Washington) Riesling - it's stony faced and unforgiving.
In the mouth, this is a surprisingly full bodied Riesling - it's rich, not fat, but definitely a surprise after the nose. The acidity is generous, and the length is as well; the finish is long, smooth, and delicious, with lime rind and honey notes counterbalanced by a sense of rain on warm stones (really, I know this isn't a Moselle, but I couldn't help myself). As it warms up, it's beginning to veer over towards grapefruit; at any rate, this is an incredible value and an exceptional bottle of wine. In fact, there's a savory note on the finish as well - I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's almost like venison somehow - almost gamy, rich and strange, with orange blossoms hovering around the edges. There aren't many wines like this one: if you've never had a Grosset riesling, they're well worth hunting down.
Grosset
Price: US $25 [my best guess]
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
In the mouth, this is a surprisingly full bodied Riesling - it's rich, not fat, but definitely a surprise after the nose. The acidity is generous, and the length is as well; the finish is long, smooth, and delicious, with lime rind and honey notes counterbalanced by a sense of rain on warm stones (really, I know this isn't a Moselle, but I couldn't help myself). As it warms up, it's beginning to veer over towards grapefruit; at any rate, this is an incredible value and an exceptional bottle of wine. In fact, there's a savory note on the finish as well - I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's almost like venison somehow - almost gamy, rich and strange, with orange blossoms hovering around the edges. There aren't many wines like this one: if you've never had a Grosset riesling, they're well worth hunting down.
Grosset
Price: US $25 [my best guess]
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
People drink sparkling wine for all sorts of reasons, and it seems even those who don't like wine will go for a glass of bubbly on occasion. Personally, I often enjoy sparkling wine as an aperitif; perhaps its most common use. Dinner the other evening saw a bottle of Croser opened as we awaited our entrées.
A fairly aggressive mousse and persistent, fine bead. On the nose, sprightly aromas of cut apple and citrus, with a hint of baked good complexity. So far so good. In the mouth, it becomes evident how fruit-driven this wine is, and I guess whether you like it will depend on how you like your sparking wine. Round, full fruit flavours of apple and citrus occupy the wine's entry and mid-palate, before structure starts to take over and slim the wine down towards the after palate. OK finish. I haven't had Croser for a while, but remember it being a leaner wine in its youth. It's certainly lively in the mouth, and very approachable, but without much complexity at the moment.
For my taste, it's a simple wine, lacking the sort of savoury excitement I enjoy in other sparklers. I'm not sure it worked terribly well as an aperitif either, given the fullness of its fruit profile. Drink this one with your food, not before it.
Petaluma
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
A fairly aggressive mousse and persistent, fine bead. On the nose, sprightly aromas of cut apple and citrus, with a hint of baked good complexity. So far so good. In the mouth, it becomes evident how fruit-driven this wine is, and I guess whether you like it will depend on how you like your sparking wine. Round, full fruit flavours of apple and citrus occupy the wine's entry and mid-palate, before structure starts to take over and slim the wine down towards the after palate. OK finish. I haven't had Croser for a while, but remember it being a leaner wine in its youth. It's certainly lively in the mouth, and very approachable, but without much complexity at the moment.
For my taste, it's a simple wine, lacking the sort of savoury excitement I enjoy in other sparklers. I'm not sure it worked terribly well as an aperitif either, given the fullness of its fruit profile. Drink this one with your food, not before it.
Petaluma
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
On the nose, this wine presents a solid, medium bodied nose of red fruit gel with a hint of cinnamon or other sweet spice - cloves perhaps? There's also a hint of cedar of possibly even cigar box; it isn't feral, really, but more along the line of sweet wood, almost sandalwood.
In the mouth, it's immediately apparent that this is a French wine: there's quite a bit of drying tannin there, and it's only after a minute or so that the fruit starts to show itself; after the first swallow, it wasn't especially pleasant. With time and air, a beautiful cherry note appeared; the wine starts off on almost a sour red candy note, then smooths out into a lovely, supple finish of rich, velvety red fruit and again some tannin.
It's entirely possible that this bottle needs a bit more air to further integrate the tannins; even so, this is a fine drink and good value for money.
Sebastien Roux [Domaine Roux Pére et Fils]
Price: US $19.99
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
In the mouth, it's immediately apparent that this is a French wine: there's quite a bit of drying tannin there, and it's only after a minute or so that the fruit starts to show itself; after the first swallow, it wasn't especially pleasant. With time and air, a beautiful cherry note appeared; the wine starts off on almost a sour red candy note, then smooths out into a lovely, supple finish of rich, velvety red fruit and again some tannin.
It's entirely possible that this bottle needs a bit more air to further integrate the tannins; even so, this is a fine drink and good value for money.
Sebastien Roux [Domaine Roux Pére et Fils]
Price: US $19.99
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008
You see this everywhere. It's easy to find in pretty much any bottle shop fridge and turns up with alarming regularity at BBQs, Summer lunches, etc. Of course, that doesn't mean it's good or bad -- it does, though, mean you're probably going to have a glass or two of it sometime soon...
More than those from some other regions, Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc blends from the Margaret River can tread a fine line between fresh astringency and overbearing grassiness. They don't usually suffer, though, from a personality deficit. So smelling and tasting this wine came as somewhat of a surprise. It's pretty on the nose -- ultra clean, a bit tropical, a bit herbal. But lacking in intensity and character.
The palate is all quite correct, with relatively soft acidity (for the style) that enters freshly and pushes lightly tropical fruit along with zip. There's not much grass or herb here; it's definitely an easygoing, unchallenging flavour profile. The biggest surprise for me is the lack of intensity of flavour. It tastes almost watery on the mid-palate, and this, combined with its flavour profile, turns the wine into a bit of a non-event. It's just not especially interesting. For the price, I would expect more.
Vasse Felix
Price: A$18
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
The first of an irregular series of online wine tastings. Participants are Julian (Brisbane), Chris and Dan (San Diego), and Hiro (San Diego house guest).
Continue reading Torbreck Juveniles 2006.
