And so we come to the end of our bargain dozen. I’ve enjoyed the tasting and, for the most part, have been pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety available at around the $10 mark. I came across remarkably few corporate lolly-water type wines, and it’s nice to know one can buy a dozen wines at this price point whose flavours are willfully different from one another. To finish, I’m tasting a well-known quaffer, The Stump Jump, d’Arenberg’s entry-level blend of McLaren Vale fruit.
Nose is slightly hot, with some green funkiness alongside savoury red fruit and sweet spice. It’s got personality. On entry, it’s surprisingly acidic, with a fresh and quite textured mouthfeel establishing early and carrying right through the line. Riding this acid wave is bright red fruit, some round spice and an astringent, sappy edge. Light to medium bodied, this wine has an almost Pinot-like flavour profile in some respects, initially savoury but gathering fruit sweetness as it moves through the after palate. There’s nothing outrageously complex here, and the acid is, to my taste, somewhat too aggressive, but it’s good drinking. The finish is perfectly acceptable, with subtle, plush tannins blanketing the tongue.
A good wine to finish with, then. Rustic, unsophisticated, real.
Price: $A10.45
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: August 2008
Hi Julian
Stump Jump red one of my favourites if in a thrifty mode, and enjoyed tour TNs. Also loved what you brought to the Biodynamics debate on Wine Front. And thanks for even listenig to me re: QLD wines (I live in this stae too!) As I said, I am interested on your opinions on the wines I mentioned, but perhaps they won’t suit your taste? Who knows?
But I do enjoy them even thought they both (apart from Ravenscroft 2002) need some cellar time due to tannins. Just about any Boireann is worhtwhile if given time or drunk with an eye to the future.
Finally, Mark Ravenscroft makes wine for the Robert Channon label, and the Chardonnay and Pinot Gris (I can see GW wince from here) are worth tasting if you have any interest in those varietals.
The verdelho wins all the awards though. I don’t drink it because I consider wine and food together, and my stomach cannot handle the chilli necassary to compliment the verdelho. Verdehlo is probably considered the wine the granite belt does best, shiraz being the other. Still mostly young vines though, and I see some future for chardonnay (ravenscroft again) and viognier (leaner in style, less glycerole) amongst other less known varietals ( your petit verdots, nebbiolos and tempranillo to name just three). Cheers jeremy.
ps- One last time, am enjoying this site and will have good look around when I return from a Vic wine oddysey early in September. More power to ya 😉
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for your encouragement and kind comments. I’m glad you’re enjoying the site; Chris and I set it up as a way to share notes with like-minded people, so it’s great to know we are, in some way, contributing to a collective sense of pleasure and enjoyment.
The nice thing about wine is that it’s as much a personal dialogue around one’s taste and preference as it is an objective assessment of what’s in the bottle. Hence my interest in always tasting more widely, including some Queensland wine.
Thanks again for the tips, I’ll see what I can chase down. Have an excellent time in Victoria.
Julian.