Monthly Archives: September 2008

Château Pierre-Bise Chaume 1er Cru des Coteaux du Layon 2003

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Curiously, I believe this appellation no longer “exists,” having been redefined out of existence by the INAO. Of course on anything but a technical level that is a ridiculousness; wines from this area now go by the “Chaume” label, pure and simple. At least, I think so…

This is a sweet wine made from the Chenin Blanc grape. Yes, I’m still tasting Loire Chenins. I’m kind of addicted to them at this stage, and happily so, as there’s nothing remotely like them from a local perspective. This one shows a rich golden hue, suggesting some development or at least a degree of lusciousness. The nose is forthright and inviting, with notes of pineapple, passionfruit and enough edgy flint to keep things from becoming too easy. Some complexity, with honeyed notes contributing to the overall profile.

On the palate, an explosive continuation of tropical fruit is most noticeable, but the mouthfeel and associated structure is what gets me. There’s a nice interplay between fine acidity and considerable viscosity that helps the wine to appear both fresh and rich at the same time. The flavour profile turns to citrussy sourness on the after palate, before a long, herb-tinged finish.

Nice wine. Unlike some dry Chenin-based wines, this one tends towards opulence rather than intellectuality, without sacrificing character and a measure of complexity too.

Château Pierre-Bise
Price: $NA (500mL)
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Château le Crock 1996

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No doubt many have remarked that French wine labels often lose something in translation. This wine, a Cru Bourgeois from Saint-Estèphe, suffers more acutely than most from this phenomenon, especially in an Australian context. What’s in the bottle, thankfully, is anything but a crock.

Classic nose of varietal fruit (perhaps a little DMS-y, but not unpleasantly so), dusty leaf and cigar box. It’s clean and rings as clear as a bell in terms of its definition. Although still quite youthful, there’s just enough complexity and hints of tertiary development to draw you in and sniff more deeply each time.

The palate confirms this wine’s substance. I’m not sure what pleases me most on entry, the textured, fresh acidity or the fact that flavour fills out immediately the wine strikes the tongue. From this point, there’s no great crescendo or exaggerated dimension of line. No, this wine is about measured elegance and quietly spoken confidence. Medium bodied, the palate shows a firm yet gentle progression of flavours through the middle palate. More blackcurrant, cigar box, and hints of spicy cedar oak. Acidity injects some sourness, to me delicious, into this flavour profile. Flavours are very well integrated and the wine tastes more of a single, multi-dimensional note than separate strands. The after palate shows some lift, which helps the flavours to come into sharp focus just before things conclude in a long, slightly sweet finish. Tannins are soft and totally integrated — one isn’t prompted to consider them as a separate element.

Very moreish, this one. The only point of contention for me is the fruit character, which is perhaps slightly simple on the nose and teeters on the edge of being “too clean.” Taken as a whole, though, there’s plenty of complexity and interest on the palate, and it’s hard to argue with such a classically structured wine. Lovely.

Château le Crock
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Tyrrell's Vat 9 Hunter Shiraz 2007

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I didn’t buy any Vat 8 this year, so with this note I conclude my tastings of new release Tyrrell’s reds. Unlike the 4 Acres and Old Patch, this wine is still available from cellar door.

A riotously fragrant wine that, when first poured, smelled for all the world like a Central Otago Pinot. Sweet earthiness, though, gives the regional game away. I’m finding the aroma profile a little difficult to describe. It’s floral and shows confident, yet lightfooted, plum fruit, some spice and dustiness of the sort one usually associates more with neglected cupboards than wine. It’s quite high toned and complex, and (to me) delicious.

The palate continues the nose’s generosity. Tingly, fresh acidity hits the tongue and awakens it to a subsequent wave of bright red fruit and sweet spice. Body is light to medium, but intensity is considerable. Flavours of sour plum, spice and licorice allsorts coat the tongue, helped by a mouthfeel that moderates acidic prickles with a fine velvet caress. There’s some drop off on the after palate, as the wine’s acidity tends to overwhelm the fruit flavour somewhat. The finish, however, goes on and on.

It’s quite approachable now, but I suspect this wine will fill out in the most delicious manner with some bottle age. For my taste, and for all its complexity and sophistication, it needs some depth in the lower registers to be truly complete. That should come with patience on my part. The only real disappointment here is a label design that has abandoned its retro origins at time when a baroque aesthetic couldn’t be hotter. Shame.

Tyrrell’s
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Domaine des Baumard Vert de L'Or Sec 2000

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Hard drive failures, like acts of God, can offer a useful perspective on what’s important. But mostly, they serve to highlight how badly prepared you are. In any case, my data are now residing on a redundant store whose blue LEDs periodically, reassuringly, blink at me. Time to open another bottle of wine.

Here’s a curiosity, then. The Baumard web site, combined with my spotty French lead me to believe this wine from the Loire Valley is made from the Verdelho grape. I gather, also, Verdelho is rather a novelty in France, or has increasingly been so since the 1950s. In any case, it appears some of it was found within the estate’s plantings, from which this wine (and a sweeter variant) is produced.

This wine bears some resemblance to Australian Verdelho-based wines but, perhaps unsurprisingly, tastes more of the Loire Valley than anything else. An aged aroma profile of some residual freshness but mostly of a waxy minerality that reminds me of the Loire Chenin-based wines lately consumed. This wine currently lacks the complexity and detail of, say, the 1995 Baumard Savennières, although it’s certainly interesting enough. There are edges of softer tropical fruit that, to my palate, are this wine’s nod to its varietal origins.

The palate is more varietally-identifiable, showing a high toned, vaguely tropical fruit character. Not hugely flavoursome on entry, it shows good palate weight and some more intensity of fruit flavour towards the middle palate. Again there’s no great complexity here, but the flavour profile is undeniably distinctive and, to my taste, quite attractive. Intensity drops off quickly through the after palate, and there isn’t an especially remarkable finish. Some lift at the back of the mouth carries things through to a soft conclusion.

A tasty, characterful wine that pairs well with fresh, strongly-flavoured food.

Domaine des Baumard
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Domaine des Baumard Savennières 1995

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Onwards with the aged Loire Chenin tastings. This wine should make an interesting companion piece to the 1995 Domaine aux Moines sampled a few days ago.

On the basis of the present wine, I’d say the Domaine aux Moines was excessively oxidised (though still interesting to taste). By contrast, here we have an altogether fresher aroma profile. A truly inviting mix of beeswax and cooked apple, with mineral complexity woven throughout. There’s abundant detail on the nose and the elements are well integrated. Quite singular and fabulous to boot.

The entry is fresh with tingly acid that creates a cool, almost jazzy impression. Body crescendos and delivers flavour on the mid-palate that is round without being heavy. More cooked apple, pineapple and slate intersects a mouthfeel that, contradictorily, balances lively acid with luxurious viscosity. It’s as much a tactile wine as anything else. A wonderfully sophisticated savouriness swells through the after palate and soars up to the back of the mouth. I’m not sure what descriptor is best (it strikes me as slightly sulfurous but that’s an approximation more than an accurate description); it’s distinctive and is a foil to the more obviously fruit-driven aspects of the flavour profile. Long, lingering, delicate finish.

This wine is a pleasure. I’d say good bottles could go a while longer, too.

Domaine des Baumard
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Domaine aux Moines Savennières-Roche aux Moines 1995

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A mature, deep golden colour.

On the nose, a powerful, almost off-putting, aroma of overripe fruit. Initially, oxidised characters were dominant, but the longer it sits in glass, the fresher it seems to get. The most flagrantly aged notes have receded to expose some youthfulness, although there’s no mistaking this as an older wine. Sharp tropical fruit, honey, a more savoury note (perhaps related to oxidation), but with a whole range of complexities too, floral and sherbet-like in character

In the mouth, excellent, resolved acid forms a great backbone. Although the acid is quite prominent, it is wholly in balance, and adds freshness to the flavour profile. Notes of sharp tinned pineapple vye with floral honeysuckle and a sort of waxy dimension. As with the nose, it’s complex beyond easy description. Impressive intensity of flavour, and satisfying length of palate. Mouthfeel is a highlight, being relatively full and waxy.

As with other aged wines, and aged whites in particular, this will be matter of taste. The other half took an immediate and unswayable dislike to it. I rather like it, though. It seems to be getting younger as the evening wears on. Whilst I’ve not quite come to terms with the more oxidative aspects of this wine’s flavour profile, there’s a lot to like in its complexity and structure. I’d be interested to taste another bottle and understand if this one is suffering from excessive oxidation.

Domaine aux Moines
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Bannockburn Shiraz 1998

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This wine’s legend precedes it. For those not aware, the back label summarises its story: after hail destroyed Bannockburn’s 1998 estate Shiraz crop, a whole range of other wineries sent in their Shiraz grapes for inclusion in this wine. Hence the South Eastern Australia appelation. A real one-off cuvée and the sort of vinous curiosity that’s arguably more interesting to think about than taste.

The nose shows a flamboyant aroma profile of equal parts soil and aged leather, with some stale spice thrown in. To be honest, it comes across as a little funky and not especially clean, but to my taste these aren’t issues per se. Whatever your tolerance for wilder aromas, there’s no arguing this wine makes an immediate statement.

Good weight on entry, with slightly DMS-like blackcurrant fruit and good presence overall. Some stalky overtones establish the character and style of the wine. It seems full bodied at this stage. The mid-palate feels lush and resolved, but just as one relaxes into things, the after palate introduces quite drying tannins. These attenuate the wine’s nascent expansiveness and pinch its sense of scale. So its line is akin to a wedge, narrowing as it approaches the finish, and hollowing out somewhat in terms of fruit weight too. The finish feels a little “inside out,” as it’s dry with a notable absence of fruit weight.

Not an especially elegant wine, and perhaps past its best. I’m glad I tasted it, though. Wines like these add a welcome note of quirkiness to the local wine scene.

Bannockburn
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Mumm Napa Sparkling Pinot Noir NV

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Either I’m getting arthritic before my time or else Mumm Napa are using some amazingly tight corks, but as per usual I had a hell of a time getting the cork out of this bad boy.

I was surprised to see that this wine is a fairly dark red; it looks an awful lot like Honest Ade pomegranate blueberry drink (for you Aussies, this is an organic soft drink that’s something like a premixed cordial). Heck, it could just be pomegranate juice if we’re going by loks here. On top of the wine, there are some bubbles – lots of them – which somehow don’t look particularly elegant. They’re kind of like tiny color inverted cod roe, but I digress.

It smells of strawberries and unaired broom closets. It tastes like medium quality Moldovan pinot noir, which is to say fairly good in a musty direction. It comes across as fairly dry with a short finish that hits a fruit leather, somewhat tannic note and holds there; I like it, but it seems abrupt, inelegant.Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of this. It pales by comparison to good Aussie sparkling shiraz, and Moldovan sparkling reds (eg Cricova) are far more entertaining. On the other hand, it doesn’t taste like any other Californian sparkler I’ve had, which is I suppose a good thing, and yes, I would be happy to drink this at any time (I love sparkling red wine). But is it good value?

Mumm Napa
Price: $30 (wine club members: $21)
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Château Moulin Riche 1996

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This is the second wine of Chateau Léoville Poyferré and, without wanting to spoil the fun, is bloody good. I’m on to my second glass now, and the aroma profile keeps refining its silhouette, shifting from one version of itself to the next.

It opened a bit stinky, perhaps seaweedy, with wisps of cedar and other complexities coiling around each other. After a while, the stink has blown off, leaving pencil shavings and berry fruit elegance behind. It’s all highly sniffable, and remarkably complete purely in terms of its aroma. The palate doesn’t disappoint, as it carries forward many threads from the nose while adding significant textural interest. Smooth and subtle on entry, the wine builds flavour towards the mid-palate, which is medium bodied at most. There’s more blackcurrant and cedar here, perhaps a hint of leathery bottle age too but no more than a hint. If it never quite realises the degree of intensity one might have expected (or desired), there’s delightful compensation in the integrated, luxurious tannins that creep up from behind and delicately claw their way on to the tongue. Decent, fruit-driven finish with a suggestion of tertiary sweetness (which I’m a sucker for).

An excellent, balanced wine that’s all about style.

Château Moulin Riche
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008