Monthly Archives: March 2009

Penfolds Bin 389 2002

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Exuberantly purple, this wine reeks of huge, fruity raspberries at first; this is the classic “raspberry motor oil” Randall Grahm joked about back in 2002. Look again, though, and you see a hint of age creeping in at the rim; you can also smell sweet camphor and bottle age in there as well.Relatively full body, bright acidity nicely frames a wine that isn’t lacking for flavor at all. At this point, what you get is more of a Cabernet style wine but with brash fruit that isn’t typically Cabernet. Ultimately, it’s a vibrant, boundless sort of wine that’s a hell of a lot of fun. Again, however, like the St Henri from last week, what’s lacking is a sense of place or style. However, at least this wine has firmer tannins to support all of that over-the-top fruitiness; that’s why I think this wine is in fact a better effort. (Costing half as much doesn’t hurt either.)Penfolds
Price: $18
Closure: Cork

Domaine Anne et Hervé Sigaut Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Noirots 2006

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Immediately, powerfully fragrant and spicy. There’s so much going on in the upper registers it takes a while for a thread of rich, red berry fruit to begin asserting itself. I’d say there’s a reasonable amount of oak here, very much of the savoury, spicy variety. This isn’t a wine that sneaks up. Rather, it is a bold challenge, throwing complexity and savouriness in your face by way of a rather frenetic aroma profile. Yet it remains nimble.

I was almost reluctant to taste this wine, as I wasn’t sure how its relative cacophany of aromas might translate to the palate. Certainly, oak-driven spice continues as a key thread in the mouth. There’s so much more here, though. The attack is alive with fine, firm acidity that seems to jolt the tongue, only to be replaced in an instant by a more plush, fruit-driven impression. Indeed, detailed red fruit flavours begin to the caress the mouth most seductively, taking in the oak’s savouriness plus a general sense of detail and creating, from it all, a lushly feminine coherence. Fragrant vanilla overlays an after palate of clean red fruit and brambles, possibly some tobacco leaf, and ultra fine tannins that dry the edges of the tongue. Quite a long finish that suggests cherry liqueur in its concentration and smoothness.
This is quite a wine. Complex, shapely, fragrant. I can’t decide if the oak is too prominent; I do know that its character complements the fruit exceptionally well, even if balance is arguably compromised. It is drinking very well now.
Update: drinking well on evening two, oak stepping back into the overall shape of the wine. One criticism I might make is that the whole remains hazy and never quite resolves to the level of clarity I would ultimately like. Still, a delicious wine.

Domaine Anne et Hervé Sigaut
Price: $A69
Closure: Cork

Christophe Vaudoisey Bourgogne Rouge 2006

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Vintage variation’s a bugger if what you want is a reliable quaff, but picking apart this variation can be highly educational if you’re an obsessive wine geek. A magnum of Bin 65 for those who guess into which camp I fall.

Case in point: this wine versus its 2005 sibling. Admittedly, these are Borgogne-level wines where vintage variation may not be instructive in terms of individual sites but, nonetheless, between these wines there are points of similarity and difference that make both worth tasting.

Domaine Jean-Claude Bachelet et Fils Bourgogne Rouge 2005

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A flashback to 2005; Bourgogne Rouge from a producer based in Saint-Aubin.

This wine looks more like a robust rosé than full blooded Pinot Noir, which is really not such a bad thing when you consider many rosés are spectacular to look at. Vivid red, little density of colour, and a bit hazy to boot. Personally, I think it’s very pretty and inviting. The nose is straightforward, with sweet red fruits that verge on confectionary, plus a tidy thread of savoury funk that enhances overall pinosity. No complexity to speak of, but what’s there smells good.

In the mouth, very clean and slippery, coming across (to the Australian palate familiar with our large volume, low price wines) as rather industrial. Actually, there’s a decent amount of fresh acid, but no tannins of significance, signalling firm suitability for immediate consumption. The flavour profile is as simple, and as pleasing, as the aroma, with sweet and sour red fruits dominating a background of caramel and a bit of funky spice. At first, I thought it was a bit dilute, but there’s actually plenty of flavour, and a perceived tendency towards angularity derives more from profile than volume. Most of this wine is packed into the entry and middle palate, with a falloff as it moves through the back of the mouth and on to the finish.

Very quaffable and varietally recognisable without much distinctiveness. Burgundy’s answer to De Bortoli’s Windy Peak Pinot, perhaps?

Domaine Jean-Claude Bachelet et Fils
Price: $A25
Closure: Cork

Penfolds St Henri 2002

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I wish I knew why, but lately I seem to be over-sensitive to the difference between immaculately filtered wines and wines that are still soupy with debris left over from the winemaking process. Last week, I enjoyed a couple of bottles of Chinon with friends, and both of those bottles left you with a mouthful of residue. I wonder – is that the vinuous equivalent of bongwater? But I digress.Brilliant, sparkling, deep red, this wine is beautifully perfumed. It smells remarkably of damson jam or even German Zwetschgenkuchen, but it’s not the usual South Australian raspberry fruit bomb. Instead, there’s a strong note of freshly shined shoes and saddle leather backing it up, which gives it a much fresher, brighter dimension. There’s even a twinge of eucalypts and violets there somehow; it’s wonderfully complex and a real delight to smell this wine.Medium-full bodied in the mouth, the texture has been buffed to a glossy sheen; tannins, if any, appear to be fully resolved or so satiny that they’re not perceptibly there until the finish, which leaves just enough of a tannic impact to read as “serious.” Taste-wise there’s something like a Christmas cake effect, but again: it’s mostly dark red berries with a hint of blackstrap molasses and just the faintest hit on the onset of bottle age. My only complaint is that the’res incongrous acidity that peeks its head out on the finish, interrupting what’s otherwise a very smooth, elegant line with a rush of “ow, I hope I remembered to restock the antacids.” Even so, this thing is a wonderfully streamlined wine that seems to me a lot like a Chris Ringland Barossa monster Shiraz minus the pruney notes and overachieving alcohol. I like.That being said, my partner just chimed and said “uh, this sure seems corporate and bland.” He does have a point; there is something awfully same-y about this wine. Where is it from? Australia? California? There really isn’t anything especially distinctive about it, and that too is a drawback. Plus, what I’m reading as high acidity could just be high alcohol; it’s still just under 15%, and that does seem to throw the finish out of whack.Penfolds
Price: $40
Closure: Cork