Author Archives: Julian Coldrey

Giaconda Pinot Noir 2008

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As luck would have it, I’m enjoying my Easter long weekend in bed with a messy, feverish chest cold for company. Rather than attempt to taste wine in this condition, I thought I’d reflect on a bottle drunk a week or two ago. This was a gift from my ever-generous co-author Chris. I shall save the other bottle to taste with him, as I’d really like a second opinion here.

It’s clear this wine is all quality, with intensity, power and drive to spare. Stylistically, though, it raises an equally clear question: do these ostensibly desirable qualities contribute to drinkability? I’m not so sure. But first, my impressions of the wine itself. The nose is massively complex, even at a young age. The character of the fruit is alternately sweet/savoury, the Yarra component evident in what strikes me as a luscious, if somewhat blunt, slice of juicy fruit pie. There’s a good deal of oak here too, charry and bold. I was quite bowled over by this wine’s impact at first, and it took me a moment to realise I was being overpowered by the wine, pushed around and told what to do.

The palate is equally powerful and somewhat front-loaded in shape, with good acid and a lovely, drying chalky finish. Flavours echo the nose, with rhubarb and strawberries bursting through an underlay of savoury complexity and an overlay of glossy oak. Again, quite an overpoweringly awesome wine, but at the same time one that doesn’t encourage onward consumption. Indeed, one glass was quite enough, and though there’s no denying the skill and fruit at play, I ended up feeling slightly cornered.

Giaconda
Price: $NA
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Gift

Château Laffitte-Teston Madiran Vieilles Vignes 2007

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The generosity of wine lovers is endlessly fabulous. On Friday evening, I had the pleasure of Mark Gifford’s company, and not only did I retaste part of his Blue Poles portfolio (go the Allouran), but I was given the opportunity to taste this wine, which Mark had brought back from his last stint in France. Like Mark himself, this wine proved a deliciously easygoing dining companion, and one that demonstrates structure does not come at the expense of drinkability.

Tannat is renowned for its tannins, so I was looking forward to a mouthful of sweet sandpaper with this wine. But first, the nose, a balancing act of gorgeously voluptuous red fruits and strong savoury overtones strongly reminiscent of smoked herbs. Am I over-romanticising things to suggest that wines from warm climes smell like the summer days through which they evolved as fruit on vine? Perhaps, but this wine’s aroma strongly evokes lazy summer days, ripening berries, wild herb gardens and the thirsty laziness of balmy afternoons.

This wine’s contradictions come to the fore on the palate. It’s beautifully balanced for drinking, a gush of bright, medium bodied red fruit immediately presenting on entry. It comes across slightly sweeter on the palate, perhaps due to a relative absence of the distinctively herbal thread seen on the nose. Here, instead of savouriness, fruit is balanced by tannins that are both prominent and well distributed. This isn’t a monstrous wine, structurally, nor is it a wine that “demands food” like, say, Sangiovese. The tannins sprinkle, then shower, the tongue with loose-knit sweetness, while all that red fruit keeps driving down the line. So easy, delicious and unpretentious.

Château Laffitte-Teston
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Source: Gift

Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz 1998

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One of the lessons of this wine is that old Hunter Shiraz is a great way to screw with a wine options game. Great wine, though, and the highlight of an evening that featured several big names failing to live up to their reputations.

On the nose, a Mataro-like meatiness along with dirty leather, some residual red fruit and what is best described as “the smell of old red wine.” It’s not overly developed for a wine of this age, though, and as we worked our way through the options game, most of the group thought it was a much younger wine (five to eight years old). There’s a bit of oak riding through the aroma profile, chocolate-vanilla in character and quite well balanced. Just a really interesting, not-quite-mellow nose.

The palate shows the full extent of this wine’s development, which is to say it remains a structurally youthful wine whose flavours are developing but not yet fully mature. Given the nose’s reticent fruit, what jumps out first here is a roundness and generosity of red berry fruit that screams this wine’s origins, if not its age. This fruit is quickly overwhelmed by savoury notes and the tertiary sweetness that I especially enjoy with older reds. This particular bottle has thrown quite a sediment, and the glass I’m tasting right now has more than its fair share of muck, so it’s possible the muscular tannins I see have a bit of grit mixed in. Structurally, though, this remains an impressively primary wine, with bright acid and well-formed tannins contributing real sophistication to the overall tasting experience. A long, gentle, vibrant finish.

Excellent wine, and one with many good years ahead of it.

Meerea Park
Price: $A110
Closure: Cork
Source: Gift

Ocean Eight Aylward Pinot Noir 2010

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When attending a residential school for the course I’m doing, many wines are inevitably dragged out for tasting, some more interesting than others. Last night, they ranged from blandly commercial to full-throttle odd. This Pinot was the undoubted highlight of the evening’s selection, so I will write it up in full, noting that it’s not yet released and in fact has only been bottled for a month.

Cloudy in appearance, this is immediately savoury and dark on the nose, with stalk, edges of oak, bubblegum and marzipan, pinosity leaking from every pore. It’s complex and moody, and what I like most is the way the aroma profile draws you in despite what are some challenging and offbeat aroma components.

The palate is all over the place, which is understandable, but shows the hallmarks of a wine that will sing with time: power, intensity, drive and, most of all, length. The flavours balance a swell of sweet red berry fruit with a range of more savoury fruit notes and vegetal influences. It’s a very textural wine, partly due to some short-term CO2 and more interestingly through a good deal of acid, a big whack of slightly green tannins on the middle palate (stalk?) and a decent layer of puckery sweet fruit tannins on the finish. There’s minerality here too, just one of the many flavour components this wine throws into the mix.

This is exactly what I look for in Mornington Pinot — a broody, structured wine whose fruit shows an inherent complexity of flavour, and whose winemaking isn’t afraid to push the boundaries. Look out for this one.

Update: check out Andrew’s review over at the Australian Wine Review.

Ocean Eight
Price: $NA
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Other

Angullong A Shiraz 2009

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I’ve been impressed with the Angullong wines I’ve tasted in the past. Though priced affordably, they have shown a level of character and drinkability that would be desirable at any price point. For a region that, in my view, is still struggling to find an identity, Angullong’s accessible and distinctive wines are just what Orange needs.

At a RRP of $17, one might reasonably expect a stylistically bland wine, yet this shows a good deal of cooler climate Shiraz character. My first impression of the aroma is intense spice, pepper, cloves and coriander seed. It’s classically cooler climate, but instead of the juicy plum fruit of, say, Grampians Shiraz, this shows a brighter, crunchier red fruit character. There’s not a lot of refinement here, just plenty of distinctive aroma.

The palate is a marginal disappointment, not through lack of flavour but because the fruit tips into slightly confected territory, which simplifies and drags down the overall flavour profile. On the plus side, there’s good intensity and thrust, acid playing a prominent role in the wine’s structure. Oak is present throughout, most notably through the after palate, and the finish tastes like a cross between boiled lollies and mixed berry compote, with a side of vanilla ice cream.

Despite its rough and ready demeanour, this is a very enjoyable wine and one that goes especially well with spicy food.

Angullong
Price: $A17
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Dowie Doole Garnacha & Tempranillo 2010

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This wine’s packaging, with which I was so taken when I tasted last year’s release, still made me grin when I unpacked the sample box this evening. It’s just so bold and fun, without resorting to the sort of immediately dated look that so many other producers seem to arrive at when trying to make their wines stand out on the liquor store shelf.

I was also impressed with the wine in the bottle last year; for my taste, though, the 2010 is a marked step up in sophistication and style. If I were to level a criticism at the 2009, it would be at its fruit character, which was quite sweet, perhaps too much so for some, and overpowering the positive, dirty influence that Tempranillo can bring. This is still a lusciously generous wine that wears its Grenache on its sleeve, but there’s a savoury dimension that seems more prominent this time around, taking the aroma profile to a darker place and helping the whole seem more complex.

The palate is perhaps a tad more gushy than the aroma suggests. Viscosity and intensely gorgeous red fruits on entry, this moves to the middle palate with a whoosh of acid and several licks of sweet/savoury character. I’m sure if I had a very savoury red wine alongside, this would seem hopelessly naive, but on its own terms it is positively delicious and, given the style sought, it seems quite perfectly judged.

Bloody good quaffing wine for the drinker with attitude.

Dowie Doole
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Tyrrell's Johnno's Shiraz 2009

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The obviousness of a showy wine makes it easy to write about, whether positively or negatively. Such styles get a reaction, they force you to take sides and, if you care about discussing wine in terms beyond “I like it,” to explain why.

This wine, on the other hand, has me scratching my head, not because I don’t like it (I do), but because no matter how hard I try, I find it difficult to write about in terms that adequately communicate its pleasures. I suspect this is in part because it’s an easy wine to enjoy; it dodges every attempt I make to see it as difficult. The nose gives up everything it’s got without much effort on the drinker’s part and, while there’s plenty of complexity to the aroma profile, the dominant notes provide easy regional comfort: leather and dirt, red cherries, sit-on-my-lap nougat oak, a surprising lilt of white pepper.

In the mouth, these flavours flow easily over the tongue; it’s quite spectacular how this manages to deliver the goods without any apparent effort. Part of it is architectural; light bodied and lightly structured, this isn’t formless so much as waifishly elegant. Acid makes the biggest textural impression through the after palate, giving life to the palate and drawing out the best in its transparent, squeaky red fruit. Yet the wine fights against analytical tasting and, as I sip it now, I have trouble getting past how gorgeously drinkable it is. It’s clean and sunny and not overdone in any way, a wine for drinking, not sipping, smiles of appreciation, not problematics.

I like it.

Update: two days on and it’s really singing. Still like it. Maybe even love it.

Tyrrell’s Wines
Price: $A45
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Scarborough White Label Semillon 2010

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It’s a truism that fresh Hunter Semillon is tough. All that acidity, a relative simplicity of flavour, etc. Indeed, we generally focus on what the wines become with bottle age — a honeyed, nutty wonder that embodies one of the most dramatic transformations in all of wine. I wonder, though, whether our collective tendency to lump young Semillon together works to obscure the very real differences these wines can show from one another when first released. Perhaps changing the critical dialogue around Semillon; elevating the value of the young form while retaining the aged’s deservedly prized place; might help us to appreciate and even enjoy the style at all stages of its evolution.

This wine is a case in point. For a young Semillon (oops, there we go again), it shows considerable complexity and character, much more than the cliché of “lemon juice and battery acid” might suggest. It’s actually as much about funky minerality as it is citrus. I’m not sure where those flavours come from (sulfur? carbon dioxide?) but I like the vibe and don’t mind that they fatten the aroma profile somewhat, creating a broader wine, more suitable for earlier enjoyment and faster maturation than one might expect from a premium label.

The palate is a slightly noisy mix of zingy texture — showing a little spritz and more than a little acid — savoury base notes and high toned florals. The texture in particular modulates between chalky, bubbly and surprisingly viscous. It’s worth drinking for this alone. The flavour here is again relatively broad, though I hesitate to suggest it shows much, or any, development. It’s just a fuller, softer style of Semillon, easier to approach than many while retaining enough of the angularity of this style to fit within the mainstream.

I’ve no idea how this will look in ten years’ time. What I do know is that it’s a fascinating, left-of-centre wine right now.

Scarborough
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Mitchell Harris Sauvignon Blanc Fumé 2010

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It seems fashionable to play with Sauvignon Blanc, and the results have often divided critics. Manipulating a grape like Chardonnay is a no-brainer; straightforwardly made wines of this variety can be boring (with notable exceptions, of course). Sauvignon Blanc, on the other hand, is a variety with intense character right from the starting line, some might say too much. So the choice of winemaking inputs may be less obvious here.

Mitchell Harris has chosen two techniques — wild yeast fermentation and barrel maturation — in the making of this wine. Of these, the oak is most immediately apparent on the nose, with a distinct smokey note sitting alongside gentle fruit aromas that remind me of red papaya. The smoky note brings in hints of bacon fat, but I’m not sure if that’s just me dragging in inappropriate associations; no matter, it’s a distinctive aroma profile, though I’d prefer the oak influence to be more tightly woven into the whole. The fact that it’s not speaks of fruit character that tends towards reticence.

The palate is marked by the same sharp smokey note that floats over the entire line. Underneath, a slippery, cool wine that slides along the tongue with a rather beguiling texture. I’ve learned to expect a degree of acidic bite from Sauvignon Blanc wines, and this has a decent spine of acid to be sure, but it’s the wine’s satiny voluptuousness that stands out for me most. As with the nose, fruit flavour could be more forward; as it is, there’s a slightly hollow impression to the profile, as if it needs to step forward a bit. Yet it manages decent impact and drive down the line, and the more time I spend with the wine the more I am appreciating its subtle complexities. The caramel finish is especially enjoyable.

An odd wine in some ways, and one I suspect will challenge peoples’ idea of the varietal. Nonetheless, I am enjoying its distinctiveness and hand-made vibe. Great value for the style.

Mitchell Harris
Price: $A19.95
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Karra Yerta Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

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One of the benefits of writing a not-for-profit wine blog is that I can skew my tasting towards wines and producers in which I have a particular interest. So, when this wine arrived today, it shot straight to the top of the sample pile and indeed was quickly opened when I sat down to taste. I’ve enjoyed all the Karra Yerta wines I’ve tasted, to varying degrees of course, and I believe this is the first straight Cabernet I’ve tried from this producer. Grapes are sourced from High Eden, thirty two cases produced.

I was half expecting the down-home, earthy style I’ve enjoyed so much in Karra Yerta’s Shiraz and Shiraz Cabernet wines, but this is a different beast, stylistically. The nose is positively squeaky with bright fruit and high toned aromas. I don’t look to Barossa Cabernet for (what I consider) varietal character, and I’m not getting a lot of the cooler climate leaf and cassis typical of, say, Coonawarra Cabernet. In its place, a simpler and more accessible aroma profile, with edges of well-judged nougat oak.

The palate was initially both disjointed and confected, and for a moment I thought this might be the first Karra Yerta wine that disagreed with me. But just a few minutes of air has seen this really come together with dramatically increased complexity and a satisfying, acid-driven structure. It’s a fundamentally bright, crowd-pleasing wine in style, though, and may not be everyone’s idea of Cabernet. No matter – entry shows a gentle attack that builds quickly to a red fruited middle palate, all riding nicely textural acidity. Oak is a discernible yet subtle influence throughout, contributing vanilla and nougat in turn. The after palate gently darkens in profile before a soft, lightly tannic finish rounds things off.

Karra Yerta Wines
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample