July 2008 Archives
Craggy Range has by far the most glamorous tasting facility of all the wineries I visited in Hawkes Bay late last year. Its natural setting is glorious, but the spacious room itself is all glass and shiny surfaces -- very upscale indeed. Worth a visit, for sure. There's also a large range of wines available for tasting, including this, one of Craggy Range's premium cuvées. It is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and, on tasting at cellar door, was almost impenetrable. I took this as a personal challenge, of course, and purchased a bottle for later tasting.
Dark and dense, with flashes of purple. The nose is initially compact and savoury, with a good dose of iron filings and minerality and not much else. With time and some energetic swirling, a range of other notes emerge to add complexity. There's a sense of purple flowers, dark berry fruit, perhaps a slight saltiness too. The nature of the wine's oak gains some clarity too, and it's quite present, though totally integrated. A hint of volatility rounds things out. The pitch never rises above a bass register, and there's an ongoing sense of depth and power to this wine's aroma.
The palate is very much in line with the nose in that it's both dense and reserved. Flow over the tongue is very tightly controlled, and from entry to mid-palate a slither of iron, complex berry fruit and sappy oak slides confidently along. It's medium to full bodied and certainly substantial, yet measured and never clumsy. The after palate is marginally more relaxed and slightly sweeter in profile. Flavour is most complex at this point, and the wine's lift helps each strand of flavour to fully define itself as it lands on the rear of the tongue. Just as it reaches its peak, it starts to fall away to a very long, satisfying finish. Tannins are remarkably fine and approachable, though their abundance suggests the capacity to age well.
I feel vaguely guilty for drinking this wine so young. Although there's a lot to enjoy now, it does need some time to relax a little and develop the spaciousness it currently lacks. This wine is all about quality, power and balance. Fantastic.
Price: $NZ50
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
Style is, I think, of the essence when it comes to wine appreciation. Formal qualities such as complexity and structure are all well and good, but it all comes to nought if you don't like the wine's character and personality. I remember tasting Pinots in Central Otago a couple of years back, and being struck by how boring some (though certainly not all) the wines were, despite being quite correct and certainly well made. There was nothing extra, no idea or beauty beyond what was in the glass.
Dark, somewhat impenetrable colour with flashes of crystalline ruby. The nose is heady with cedary spice, brambles, clean fruit and higher toned powdery florals. There are also some light touches of sweet bottle age. In its delicacy, it's closer to fine fragrance than wine, but none the worse for it. The aroma profile became more integrated and assertive through the evening.
The palate disappointed me initially, and here I return to the question of style. For the first hour or so, I found the wine correct, full of quality, but somehow underwhelming and perhaps a little boring. A very clean entry, with cool fruit and savoury leaf winding their way towards a medium bodied mid-palate. Additional notes of vanilla, dust and a bit of eucalyptus add themselves to the mix with time. Excellent delineation of flavour components. Bottle age becomes more evident on the after palate, with a lovely, lingering sweetness sitting alongside loose-knit yet still quite dry tannins. A nice lift through the after palate shows higher toned leafiness plus hints of plush ripe fruit too. The finish is excellent, clean and long, and leads naturally to the next sip.
It all sounds quite good. What changed after an hour is critical to the wine's success but sits outside of a tasting note. The flavours clicked, merged and became utterly persuasive. It's as if I was able to step back and see the wine as a whole rather than as individual components of flavour and structure. Its style, in other words, transcended the mechanics of its delivery and became the wine's dominant face. And, happily, I think I got it.
Whilst Ngeringa's "J.E." range is excellent (see our reviews of the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz), this is in another league. It's been hanging around for a while waiting to be tasted, partly because the "Syrah" designation prompted irrational fears of an overly intellectual, angular wine. I needn't have worried.
Powerful aromas of black olive, black pepper and fresh herbs (rosemary-like). Add to this a secondary layer of cherry, dark berries and subtle vanilla oak, and you will hopefully get some idea of the complexity, distinctiveness and depth of this wine's aroma profile. The other half said it smells like black forest cake without the sugar, and I'd tend to agree. Quite seamless.
The palate maintains this excitement and starts slippery, widening to a mid-palate of medium body and plentiful flavour. There's more pepper and herb here, followed by berry fruit of a depth evident only once the more high toned elements have expressed themselves. In terms of structural progression, there's beautifully delineated movement through a slippery, spicy mid-palate to a more berry-driven, finely tannic after palate. All very controlled and shapely. And no, it's not the most voluptuous wine, but nor is it forbiddingly cerebral. The oak handling is a highlight, being subtle yet contributing vanillan aromatics throughout and a sour, sappy finish.
Viewed objectively, this wine is all quality, but for me it's also a lovely style. It is sure and confident in character, yet almost elusive in its tendency to emphasise one element or another with each sip. An evening's entertainment in a bottle. Excellent value for what it is.
Price: $A40
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
An older Shiraz from one of Australia's more renowned regions for this variety, Heathcote in Victoria. This wine is, interestingly, sealed under Stelvin, which is somewhat unusual for red wines of this age. Although Mount Ida is a famous vineyard in Heathcote, I'm not especially familiar with its output, so this tasting was quite exploratory for me.
A savoury nose, some volatility, with earthy minerals, some astringent eucalyptus, roasted meats, slightly edgy oak. Far from a fruit bomb, this one. I find the nose complex and a little challenging in its angularity.
The entry has good impact and delivers flavour early in the wine's line. There are lots of distinct flavours here and, unusually for me, I found myself identifying a fair few. At last count, we have: pepper, sappy vanilla oak, some sweet leathery bottle age, dusty dark fruit, some cedar and slight ecualyptus character, plus a dash of sweet granite-like minerality. Phew. It's medium bodied and presents its flavours assertively. It's also curiously flat and almost cartoonish in its "surface level view" of flavour. The wine lacks a sense of depth and stuffing that, even in a lighter red, assures continued interest beyond any initial impact. So, despite a lot of qualities usually regarded as positive (complexity, intensity, distinctiveness) I wasn't especially drawn to the wine's flavour profile or structure. Fine tannins help the wine's dry finish to linger well.
This wine (or perhaps this bottle) isn't really my style, although some elements of the flavour profile (the minerality in particular) are pleasing. The other half loved it.
Mount Ida (Fosters)
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
It pays to check on wines now and then. The slightly old Rieslings I've tasted lately are proof enough, and this wine continues the trend. I remember tasting this at cellar door and finding it a steelier, more austere style than the usual Clonakilla. I loved it and bought several, expecting it to age slowly.
Hence, I was quite surprised to smell this and find savoury toast the dominant aroma component. But it's not a static wine, and the initial aroma soon disappeared, only to emerge half an hour later as a more complex profile comprising more toast, aggressively sour lime and a hint of honeyed opulence too. It's beguiling, perhaps forceful, definitely characterful.
The palate is even more surprising. As an aside, people always say aged wines, and aged white wines in particular, are a matter of taste, and perhaps they are right. But there's no doubt older wine is an education, and for my money a good aged Riesling (or Hunter Semillon) is worth cellaring purely to see how much it changes. This Clonakilla, for example, still shows powdery acidity, but a whole spectrum of bottle aged complexity overlays this firm structure. It's not a very old wine, for sure, but hints of honey and savoury edge (the unkind might call it slightly kerosene-ish) push their way into the dominant blanket of lime marmalade and floral talc. Quite unexpected in terms of the austerity of the young wine. Intensity is dramatic and, although part of me is tempted to think of this wine as vulgar, I'll settle for "confident." Lovely and clean through the after palate, with a finish that lingers very well without undue weight or clumsiness.
Quite a masculine Riesling style, and oh-so distinctive. It's interesting to see various Australian regions offer alternatives to the mainstream Clare/Eden Riesling style. A wonderful thing from the drinker's perspective.
Price: $A22
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
Once you get past the ridiculously overwrought bottle - it's so big and heavy that no foil cutter I know of could possibly work - what you get is a wine that smells, well, expensive: generic New World Napa-esque fruit + some very expensive Bordeaux toast oak. Hm.
The surprise is entirely in the mouth: the weight is much more French than Napa, and it tastes mostly of very high quality oak. It seems just a little bit watery and then it's gone. There's a very small amount of tannin - frankly, it feels wimpy - and then it's gone. Again: Hm.
I'll come back to this later on and see if it improves, but as of right now, the bottle is the only thing that's impressive here, which is odd considering their $8 wines are pretty good (the Porcupine Ridge line).
Later: After an hour's aeration, this started to taste like mesquite or cedar incense, the kind you'd be in an American national park on summer vacation. Cedar, cedar, cedar, and more cedar. Yawn. Kind of tasty, but utterly lacking in personality. Avoid.
Boekenhoutskloof
The surprise is entirely in the mouth: the weight is much more French than Napa, and it tastes mostly of very high quality oak. It seems just a little bit watery and then it's gone. There's a very small amount of tannin - frankly, it feels wimpy - and then it's gone. Again: Hm.
I'll come back to this later on and see if it improves, but as of right now, the bottle is the only thing that's impressive here, which is odd considering their $8 wines are pretty good (the Porcupine Ridge line).
Later: After an hour's aeration, this started to taste like mesquite or cedar incense, the kind you'd be in an American national park on summer vacation. Cedar, cedar, cedar, and more cedar. Yawn. Kind of tasty, but utterly lacking in personality. Avoid.
Boekenhoutskloof
Price: US $47
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
It's a balmy Summer's Winter's evening here in Brisbane, and I'm in the mood for Chablis. Handily, I had this lying around the house. This particular wine sees no oak at all, so in theory should express pure Chardonnay fruit and, one hopes, its corresponding terroir.
Nice light golden colour with a hint of green. The nose is complex with powdery florals and a hint of sweetness, along with edgier notes that suggest minerals or crushed shells. There's also a slight smokiness or perhaps mushroom that I find interesting. It's attractive and bounces between austerity and generosity without landing firmly at either end of the spectrum. The palate, by contrast, sits more clearly at the generous end, albeit with a firm mineral backbone to keep things shapely. Mouthfeel here is quite round and smooth, creating a seductive impression on entry. Underlying this mouthfeel is fine acidity of the slightly relaxed type, but in balance and firm enough to hold the wine's line. Fruit is crisp and brisk whilst showing excellent intensity. Some pear, perhaps, and a sweeter edge that's not quite honey but more ripe stonefruit. I wonder if there is a bit of Botrytis here? Just when you think the mid-palate will collapse under its own weight, minerality kicks in and carries the wine home through the after palate. Finish is mostly savoury and quite long.
Admittedly, it's not the most elegant style, but I find a lot to enjoy in this wine. There's flavour in abundance, nice three-dimensionality and a very seductive texture in the mouth. Good value, I think. As an aside, the cork on this bottle was ridiculously tight. Worth the effort, though.
Price: $A38
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
I've tasted a few not-quite-new Rieslings of late, and the 2002 Grosset Watervale has certainly been a highlight of the range. 2005 was another top vintage in the Clare Valley, so I'm hoping this wine has something special about it too.
The nose took a while to open up. I served it a little cold at first, but warmth and some swirling have brought forth the wine's character. It's quite unusual. Notes of apple, lime and minerally flowers mix with a richer dimension reminiscent of toasted brown spice. It's quite savoury and a little prickly; certainly not an easygoing aroma profile, but pleasantly challenging nonetheless.
Entry confirms the wine's structural youth, with bright acid the first element to register. It flows nicely along the tongue and ushers in quite intense flavour towards the middle palate. Again, the palate is mostly savoury. That nutmeg-like spice from the nose comes across here as more like kerosene, suggesting the very beginnings of tertiary flavour. Mostly, though, the savouriness is due to a prominent mineral/slate note that provides a foundation over which sweet citrus fruit slowly trickles. Structurally, the wine relaxes as it moves along its line, and deliciously sweet fruit sneaks past the acid onto the edges of the tongue. A nice floral lift towards the back of the after palate, and a high toned finish that pushes right up to the top of the palate. Good length.
There's a lot to like here, in particular its fascinating interplay of contrasting flavour elements. However, I'm not sure this wine is entirely coherent right now and, not having tasted it on release, I don't know if it's going through an awkward patch or whether it has always been this way. I'm certainly not going to write off a wine of this pedigree, or one that shows such toothsome intensity, so I'll make a mental note to revisit it in perhaps three to four years' time. I have a feeling it will show more positively down the track.
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
Another wine from the cellar, this time a Coonawarra Cabernet from a vintage perhaps somewhat overshadowed by its immediate predecessor.
A lovely colour that still shows flashes of purple in amongst its ruby clarity. On the nose, one's first impression is that of sweet silage, backed by clean blackcurrant fruit. It's a lovely nose and shows a nice mix of tertiary notes alongside a substantial chunk of fruited youth. There's also a good dose of vanilla and spice oak, which accompanies the other flavours well and strikes me as assertive without being unbalanced.
The palate is just lovely. A clean, mellow mouthfeel registers immediately on entry, and ushers in a range of flavours on the mid-palate. Here, more clean blackcurrant fruit sits alongside sweetly decaying foliage, some mint and another whack of oak. It's medium bodied, really quite intense, and complex enough to keep my brow wrinkled with each sip. As a youngster, I'd say this would have been on the fuller side, yet its structure is still firm enough to give the palate shape and flow. As the wine moves through the after palate, flavour flows quite linearly over the tongue. Grainy tannins also emerge, still quite drying and tea-like, and carry the wine to a persistent finish. It's one of those wines that seems to settle on the tongue like a blanket and sit there most happily. The sweet leather of bottle age is most evident towards the finish.
I'm really enjoying this one for its complexity and generosity. Lovers of aged flavours will want to leave it for a few more years to allow further flowering, but it's also a nice wine right now, with its mixture of young and old.
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
Several decades in to the ongoing, evolving project that is Bonny Doon Vineyard, it looks they may finally be arriving at the most interesting place yet - and ironically, it's an arrival that sort of predates the winery's founding. By that I mean that they're now trying to produce wine the way you would have done it a hundred years ago in France, except presumably with a few newfangled tricks such as refrigeration and proper hygiene.
This wine is one of the first Demeter-certified biodynamic wines they've grown, and the complexity of it suggests (to me, at least) that they might well be onto something. This is a far cry from the weirdly plush, microbubbled oddities they've been crapping out for a while now; instead, what you get here is a beautifully light-colored wine with a floral nose that's oddly like what I imagine Portuguese laundry detergent might smell like: rose petals and generic "clean" with an edge of cucumber.
In the mouth, this is fatter than you'd expect, with a finish that tapers off quickly to reveal a note of crushed seashells and faded lemon rind. Before it goes, it's a sort of dilute orange blossom honey note you've got along with, well, a sort of drying minerality. It's fairly distinctly itself, whatever that is, and as such it gets two big thumbs up from this drinker. I only wish I had a plate of fresh oysters to accompany it.
This wine is one of the first Demeter-certified biodynamic wines they've grown, and the complexity of it suggests (to me, at least) that they might well be onto something. This is a far cry from the weirdly plush, microbubbled oddities they've been crapping out for a while now; instead, what you get here is a beautifully light-colored wine with a floral nose that's oddly like what I imagine Portuguese laundry detergent might smell like: rose petals and generic "clean" with an edge of cucumber.
In the mouth, this is fatter than you'd expect, with a finish that tapers off quickly to reveal a note of crushed seashells and faded lemon rind. Before it goes, it's a sort of dilute orange blossom honey note you've got along with, well, a sort of drying minerality. It's fairly distinctly itself, whatever that is, and as such it gets two big thumbs up from this drinker. I only wish I had a plate of fresh oysters to accompany it.
Price: US $20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
A controversial wine. This benchmark Australian label in its 2002 incarnation was savaged by some prominent critics on release, then appeared at an enormous discount at retail. I picked up a couple out of curiosity and whacked them in the cellar. Here's a first taste.
There's a curious duality on the nose. First, hints of sweet dark fruit and sweeter oak. Second, an astringent, funky character that is hard to pin down but that exists somewhere between green bean and hot tar. For all that, it's quite aromatic.
The palate is revealing, as it more strongly contrasts sweet fruit against powerfully astringent, somewhat bitter flavours. Just full of contradictions, this wine. There's definitely some ripe, black fruit in there. It's emphemeral, though, and hence teases the palate without providing a sense of closure or completeness. Instead, the wine is somewhat dominated by apparently unripe notes and bitter coffee grounds. It's all slightly dirty and quite out of keeping with my understanding of style and balance. Some sweet vanilla oak sneaks into the after palate, and the finish is quite long.
I left a little in glass overnight and it calmed somewhat, but with this diminution of difficult flavours came an overall dullness that is no compensation. I should note, though, that we finished the bottle between us, and it's ironic that a wine about which I have so many questions can still be oddly drinkable. The other half certainly liked it more than I, so maybe it's just not my style.
Price: $A20
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
I didn't taste every Australian Riesling from the 2005 vintage (far from it) but, of those I did, this was my favourite on release. I remember a wine of beautifully austere aromatics, steely palate and extraordinary acidity. I also remember buying a fair few to cellar. I don't have much experience with this label over time, though, so the cellaring adventure is a bit of an unknown. One wouldn't expect such a highly structured Riesling to change substantially in three years, but I am still interested to know how it's travelling, and hence checked a bottle out of storage to see.
Bang; lime sherbet and talc, just as I remembered. In fact, this wine seems not to have budged at all, at least on first sniff. It's still a very high toned aroma profile, good complexity, with a feeling of weightlessness and intensity all at once. The palate, by contrast, is showing the first hints of development. There's no overt honey or toast as yet, but there is a fullness of fruit weight that I didn't observe in the young wine.
Entry is tingly with acid that starts bright but quickly moderates to a level allowing fuller lime sherbet notes to show through. Mind you, this is far from a relaxed wine, and acid still dances down either side of the tongue, keeping fruit flavour focused down the centre line. Steely mineral notes take over from the middle palate and tip the wine towards a fairly extreme austerity of flavour. Not to all tastes, perhaps, but I dig it. Flavour shows good intensity in the context of an assertive structure. Just after the mid-palate, the acidity kicks back in and fairly swamps the tongue, temporarily erasing fruit flavour but creating the most beguiling textural experience. Acidity fades on the finish, leaving in its wake echoes of lime and talc that linger on most satisfyingly.
This wine's structure is still the key, and dominant, feature of this wine, although the gradually accumulating fruit weight promises some interesting times ahead. Overall, I prefer the more extreme expression of structure shown by this wine on release, and consider the wine right now to be in a slightly awkward stage of development. Good bones, though. I'm expecting very good things.
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
Some time ago, a lovely visit to the Helm cellar door resulted in the purchase of this wine amongst other things. Interestingly, Helm's top Riesling isn't made from estate fruit, but rather from that of a nearby grower who is reputedly fastidious in his viticultural craft. On release, I remember this wine as a tight, floral/powdery/slate type of Riesling, and one that struck me at the time as designed for cellaring. Time to check on its progress.
Youthful colour that doesn't betray any significant change through bottle age. The nose is similar to what I remember, with aromas of flowers, talc and so on. There is, however, a fullness to the aroma that seems new and reminds me of spicy, lightly tropical fruit. Quite pretty. The palate shows greater intensity than anticipated and confirms the nascent development of this wine. Clean, lemon flavour registers soon after entry and becomes richer towards the mid-palate. Although acid provides adequate shape, it's relaxed enough to enable a generous flow of flavour over the tongue that widens along the line. A hint of honey and an interesting savoury edge become more prominent on the after palate and create an impression of rich, spicy preserved lemon. Excellent drive through to the finish, where a sweetly floral note, combined with delicious sourness, lingers on for quite some time.
To my taste, this wine's silhouette is a little lumpy and doesn't reach any pinnacles of sophistication. There's perhaps a slightly clunky relationship between each element of flavour that prevents the seamlessness I enjoy in a top wine. Still, a very drinkable, characterful wine that I look forward to revisiting in a few years.
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
Checking in with a favourite friend tonight, the 2000 Rosehill Shiraz. Most visitors to the Hunter Valley (and there are many every year) will pass by this vineyard, sited as it is on Broke Road, gateway to the wine region. I wonder how many of them get to taste the fruit of Maurice O'Shea's labour?
A little bricking perhaps, but mostly garnet in colour. The nose is very exciting. It's plush and complex in equal measure, with delicate fruit, aged leather, vanilla oak and overarching sweet Hunter earth. Seamless and attractive, it's also slightly volatile, but that just adds to the fun.
The round, medium bodied palate is all about velvety texture. It sneaks up on you and, before you realise it, the mouth is awash with beautifully ripe, fine tannins that shoot flavour into every corner of the mouth. A surprising amount of bright red fruit forms the core of this wine's flavour profile, around which notes of earth, licorice and bubble-gum-like oak revolve. A delicious, regional savouriness registers on the after palate and represents the key flavour dimension as the wine moves to its dry, lengthy finish. I think the oak is a bit obvious here, but it's the only questionable note to my mind. Otherwise, it's all a ripe, rich expression of Hunter Shiraz, old-fashioned in the best possible way.
A seductive, elegant wine. I reckon it has a few years to go yet, but if you're in the mood today, you won't regret opening a bottle.
Price: $A28
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
I retrieved a mini-vertical of Clonakilla Rieslings from storage recently, and have already tasted the 2002. Here, now, is the 2003, of which I have several bottles but no recollection of tasting on release. A poor memory of one's own wine collection is more advantageous than it sounds, as it allows for the wonderful experience of discovery multiple times per wine. Now that's value.
A toasty nose that immediately establishes aged cred. I've been tasting this through the evening, and warmer temperature has given the wine a friendlier, more approachable flavour profile. It's still quite austere though, with hints of honey and toast sitting alongside stonier, savoury notes. Overall, an interesting aroma profile that is markedly different from the more streamlined Clare style. Very clean.
The palate shows an opulence only hinted at on the nose. Firm, marginally coarse acidity ushers flavours of honey, toasted nuts and apple onto the mid-palate. There are also fleeting notes of stonefruit that have an almost grapey juiciness. When cold, the acidity registers as a tingly mouthfeel, but as the wine reaches room temperature, it gains a smoother, more round presence that is very attractive. The aged flavours are up front without being cloying, and for my taste are well balanced with respect to a still-youthful structure and residual powdery-floral flavour profile. A nice shot of honey and mineral through the after palate, and a really good finish to boot, although some bitterness detracts ever so slightly.
This is drinking well right now, perhaps better than the 2002. It lacks a sense of genuine, integrated complexity, despite the contribution of bottle age, that would elevate it to the top echelon of Rieslings. Not every wine, however, needs to be mind bendingly difficult. Drink now with a light chicken curry.
Price: $A22
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
Bottle variation has been an unfortunate hallmark of the lesser Mount Pleasant wines, something the use of Stelvin closures may ameliorate. This 1999 Semillon, though, is bottled under old-fashioned cork, and my experience of it has been up and down. The last bottle, opened perhaps two weeks ago, was dumb and lifeless. I thought I'd try my luck again tonight, and I think this bottle is more representative of the wine's quality and character.
Lovely golden colour. The nose was initially a bit muted, with a little prickly sulfur. Closer to room temperature, and the wine is showing a range of elegant aromas, such as beeswax and a lightly herbal astringency, perhaps some buttery softness too. Still quite fresh at nearly ten years of age.
The palate shows remnants of the spritzy acidity often observed in young Semillon, but this soon gives way to a waxy, slippery mouthfeel that lovers of aged Hunter Semillon will no doubt adore. This wine's line is akin to a wedge that starts tight and widens progressively through to an expansive finish. On the way, classic notes of sweet honey and lanolin caress the tongue, along with some citrus-like reminders of youth. There are also hints of caramel and butter, and in some respects one could be forgiven for thinking this is a Chardonnay. Palate weight also accumulates towards the after palate, to the point where it's really quite mouthfilling and almost chewy. Good length.
This wine is just starting to show at its best and, although not the most complex or most intense, shows brilliant typicité. Bloody good value.
Mount Pleasant
Price: $A12
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
Lovely golden colour. The nose was initially a bit muted, with a little prickly sulfur. Closer to room temperature, and the wine is showing a range of elegant aromas, such as beeswax and a lightly herbal astringency, perhaps some buttery softness too. Still quite fresh at nearly ten years of age.
The palate shows remnants of the spritzy acidity often observed in young Semillon, but this soon gives way to a waxy, slippery mouthfeel that lovers of aged Hunter Semillon will no doubt adore. This wine's line is akin to a wedge that starts tight and widens progressively through to an expansive finish. On the way, classic notes of sweet honey and lanolin caress the tongue, along with some citrus-like reminders of youth. There are also hints of caramel and butter, and in some respects one could be forgiven for thinking this is a Chardonnay. Palate weight also accumulates towards the after palate, to the point where it's really quite mouthfilling and almost chewy. Good length.
This wine is just starting to show at its best and, although not the most complex or most intense, shows brilliant typicité. Bloody good value.
Mount Pleasant
Price: $A12
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
On release, I liked this wine more than its siblings, the St George and Limestone Ridge. I can't remember why, exactly, so this tasting is a good opportunity to find out whether it's as special as I remember.
The colour is garnet with some bricking at the edges. The nose is a classic mixture of tobacco, vanilla oak, dark fruit and a bloom of aged influences expressed as sweet leather and mushroom. Assertive, seductive and lush, despite the abundance of savoury notes.
The palate shows some surprises. Youthful red and black fruits register first on entry, followed by a series of more savoury elements, such as leaf and leathery notes. These add complexity to the core of sweet fruit, though never quite dominate it. A remarkably persistent intensity of flavour kicks in towards the mid-palate and dominates one's sense of the wine from that point onwards. This is a very assertive wine; fruit and delicately sweet aged characters attach themselves to the tongue aided by a blanket of fine tannins. These flavours stay attached through the after palate, and it's only towards the finish that other influences, such as sappy oak, start to displace them. Length is very impressive.
Interesting wine, this one. Initially, I was super impressed with its intensity and impact, but realised after a while that these qualities mask a certain one-dimensionality to the flavour profile. It's still a good wine, just not the most elegant style, or perhaps it's not at an ideal stage of development. I wonder, too, whether the fruit character hints at DMS. If you have some, wait a little longer. I suspect if the fruit recedes a further notch or two, it will be more rewarding to drink.
Lindemans
Price: $A50
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
The colour is garnet with some bricking at the edges. The nose is a classic mixture of tobacco, vanilla oak, dark fruit and a bloom of aged influences expressed as sweet leather and mushroom. Assertive, seductive and lush, despite the abundance of savoury notes.
The palate shows some surprises. Youthful red and black fruits register first on entry, followed by a series of more savoury elements, such as leaf and leathery notes. These add complexity to the core of sweet fruit, though never quite dominate it. A remarkably persistent intensity of flavour kicks in towards the mid-palate and dominates one's sense of the wine from that point onwards. This is a very assertive wine; fruit and delicately sweet aged characters attach themselves to the tongue aided by a blanket of fine tannins. These flavours stay attached through the after palate, and it's only towards the finish that other influences, such as sappy oak, start to displace them. Length is very impressive.
Interesting wine, this one. Initially, I was super impressed with its intensity and impact, but realised after a while that these qualities mask a certain one-dimensionality to the flavour profile. It's still a good wine, just not the most elegant style, or perhaps it's not at an ideal stage of development. I wonder, too, whether the fruit character hints at DMS. If you have some, wait a little longer. I suspect if the fruit recedes a further notch or two, it will be more rewarding to drink.
Lindemans
Price: $A50
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
There's something about wines that are potentially great: when you get them in the glass, no matter of time spent sniffing and thinking seems to offer so much as a suggestion as to what exactly this wine is supposed to be. Most wines offer easy clues: raspberry motor oil? Congratulations, you've just bought a high octane Barossa shiraz? Your grandmother's toilet soap mixed in with Hawaiian Punch? Congratulation, you just bought a trendy Shiraz Viognier that someone hurried to market in the early 2000s.
And this wine? I'm stumped. Is that earth? Dried dates, perhaps? No. Something like nail varnish and vetiver? No, that's not it either. It's definitely old - as I poured it into the glass, its color was hesitant, shy, unwilling to assert itself. Cloves and camphor? That might be more correct... at any rate, there is still some kind of primary fruit hanging on for dear life here, combined with somewhat "off" (yet likeable!) notes of dirt and sharpness.
Surprisingly rich in the mouth, it still defies easy description; this isn't really like any wine I know. There's something here which reminds me of a discontinued chocolate sampler left over from last season's Valentine's Day shopping: the tiniest bit musty with a fruitiness of confectionarial trends long since past. There's almost a horehound medicinal aspect here too, but not really; menthol, perhaps, but more of a folk remedy than cheap chewing gum additives. There's absolutely lovely viscosity here as well; the feel is surprising and welcoming; there's also a curiously high-pitched tangential note that enter early on and remains for some time. Finally, there still seems to be some sweet, woody character here that still supports it all.
So: I'm not sure what the heck to say about this wine other than it is strange, strange in the best possible way. Everything they teach you in wine school turns out to be wrong in this one case: you can't grow grapes in such a terrible climate, you shouldn't age New World wines that long, you name it. But what we have here, ultimately, is (I think) terroir, plain and simple. Somehow, the local pioneers sussed that the Hunter Valley does in fact produce phenomenally good wines - wines that are in fact better than good as they're entirely sui generis. And that's no small achievement.
Mount Pleasant
Price: No idea (this was a present from Julian); Wine Searcher says about A$42 for the current release
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
And this wine? I'm stumped. Is that earth? Dried dates, perhaps? No. Something like nail varnish and vetiver? No, that's not it either. It's definitely old - as I poured it into the glass, its color was hesitant, shy, unwilling to assert itself. Cloves and camphor? That might be more correct... at any rate, there is still some kind of primary fruit hanging on for dear life here, combined with somewhat "off" (yet likeable!) notes of dirt and sharpness.
Surprisingly rich in the mouth, it still defies easy description; this isn't really like any wine I know. There's something here which reminds me of a discontinued chocolate sampler left over from last season's Valentine's Day shopping: the tiniest bit musty with a fruitiness of confectionarial trends long since past. There's almost a horehound medicinal aspect here too, but not really; menthol, perhaps, but more of a folk remedy than cheap chewing gum additives. There's absolutely lovely viscosity here as well; the feel is surprising and welcoming; there's also a curiously high-pitched tangential note that enter early on and remains for some time. Finally, there still seems to be some sweet, woody character here that still supports it all.
So: I'm not sure what the heck to say about this wine other than it is strange, strange in the best possible way. Everything they teach you in wine school turns out to be wrong in this one case: you can't grow grapes in such a terrible climate, you shouldn't age New World wines that long, you name it. But what we have here, ultimately, is (I think) terroir, plain and simple. Somehow, the local pioneers sussed that the Hunter Valley does in fact produce phenomenally good wines - wines that are in fact better than good as they're entirely sui generis. And that's no small achievement.
Mount Pleasant
Price: No idea (this was a present from Julian); Wine Searcher says about A$42 for the current release
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
A fascinating counterpoint to its Watervale sibling, this wine would be a great education for those drinkers who think of Australian wine as a terroir-free zone. I'm not sure it would turn any drinkers on to Riesling, though. That sounds like a put-down, but it's reflective merely of style, not quality. For those converts among us, it's pure pleasure.
A delicate, wispy nose that presents a riot of high toned aromas. There are florals, minerality, slate, etc. The tiniest hint of toast also registers and it's the only element that indicates the six years that have passed between vintage and this tasting. Compared to the Watervale, this is a much more restrained wine, no less complex, but different nonetheless. With some time in glass, rounder fruit notes also emerge, yet the overall profile remains lithe and chiselled.
On entry, bright, ultra-fine acidity freshens the palate and ushers beautifully delineated flavours onto the mid-palate. There's more slate and mineral, hints of powdery lime blossom, and some edges of honey too, all showing excellent intensity despite the ultra-light palate weight. It's elusive in a way, both structured and ephemeral, like a puff of smoke that shows unexpected geometry before spiralling into the sky. Fruit gains weight on the after palate, and the finish sings with mineral and honey in equal measure. So, so elegant.
It's a wine that screams quality, but is considerably more intellectual an experience than the Watervale. Reading Chris's earlier note, I concur with his description minus the petrol, which I'm not getting from this bottle. This is just starting to age, and I'm going to leave my next tasting for another two to three years.
Grosset
Price: $A40
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
A delicate, wispy nose that presents a riot of high toned aromas. There are florals, minerality, slate, etc. The tiniest hint of toast also registers and it's the only element that indicates the six years that have passed between vintage and this tasting. Compared to the Watervale, this is a much more restrained wine, no less complex, but different nonetheless. With some time in glass, rounder fruit notes also emerge, yet the overall profile remains lithe and chiselled.
On entry, bright, ultra-fine acidity freshens the palate and ushers beautifully delineated flavours onto the mid-palate. There's more slate and mineral, hints of powdery lime blossom, and some edges of honey too, all showing excellent intensity despite the ultra-light palate weight. It's elusive in a way, both structured and ephemeral, like a puff of smoke that shows unexpected geometry before spiralling into the sky. Fruit gains weight on the after palate, and the finish sings with mineral and honey in equal measure. So, so elegant.
It's a wine that screams quality, but is considerably more intellectual an experience than the Watervale. Reading Chris's earlier note, I concur with his description minus the petrol, which I'm not getting from this bottle. This is just starting to age, and I'm going to leave my next tasting for another two to three years.
Grosset
Price: $A40
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: July 2008
