Author Archives: Julian Coldrey

Flaxman Shhh Cabernet 2008

Posted on by
Reply

I was home late this evening, a consequence of having too much to do and not enough time in which to do it. Being generally indecisive when faced with too much choice, I was amused to observe an instinctive lunge towards a box of Flaxman samples as I was pondering what to drink. My experience of this producer’s red wines is one of generous deliciousness, perhaps going the extra mile in ripeness and oak to achieve more giving wines. Just the ticket.

Interestingly, although this shows no shortage of flavour, there’s an essential elegance to this wine that remains true to its variety. The nose is a nice blend of Eden earthiness and Cabernet purity, the former adding edge and texture to red fruit character that would otherwise tend towards confectionary. Hints of twig, crushed leaf and tart skins add complexity. There’s some oak in there for sure, and it tends to sit in the background, contributing some subtle spice and nougat aromas.

The palate is medium bodied and acid driven, surprisingly so in a way, and what I am enjoying most about this wine is the clean way it moves through the mouth, leaving trails of intense fruit flavour behind, but never cloying or appearing heavy. Entry is lively and immediate, building quickly to a middle palate that is both textural (mostly acid) and powerfully flavoured. If you can accept the fruit flavour profile on its own terms (and it’s very different from cooler climate Cabernets), this will be a pleasure. If not, you may wish for a less exuberant, more subtle wine. It’s all a matter of taste and occasion, I suppose; this is a wine that gives plenty without asking for much in return. And, as attractive as a bit of mystery can be, there’s a place for easy charms, even when it comes to Cabernet. A bit dippy through the after palate and finish, with a light dusting of charmingly coarse tannins.

Flaxman Wines
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Scarborough Green Label Semillon 2010

Posted on by
Reply

Hunter Semillon’s renown is due largely to its ability to age in the most astonishing fashion. From young liquid neutral in flavour develops a complex, funky, rich wine that wears its bottle age with pride. It’s a style revered both in Australia (though arguably not as much as it should be) and abroad.

All of which is potentially problematic for Hunter Semillon made in a style designed for early drinking. The attraction of fresh young white wines is self-evident, but the most popular tend to be highly perfumed and of obvious charms. How to handle a variety, then, that wants to hold itself back until it has rested for more than a few years? The obvious answer is to mitigate the most challenging aspects of young Semillon (acid, neutrality) and bring forward those dimensions mostly likely to charm (fruit flavour, fullness of body). A winemaker risks vulgarising the varietal in the process, though, so it’s a fine line to tread.

This Scarborough wine makes a reasonable case for the value of drink-now Semillon. What I like most about it is that it doesn’t try too hard to please. There a few things more distressing than Hunter Semillon pushed in the direction of Sauvignon Blanc (even though, in other contexts, the two varieties are classic bedmates), and this wine certainly avoids an impression of unnatural styling. The nose shows relatively forward but still austere aromas of pebbles, herbs and tart citrus juice. No great complexity but, happily, good typicité. This reminds me of lawns mowed in Summer, the sound of cricket on the television, curtains drawn to keep the heat out.

The palate capitalises on the strengths of this varietal, with good presence and lively acid. It’s not forbidding, structurally, just fresh and zingy, which suits the style. Again, complexity of flavour isn’t a strong point, but I like the slightly mineral edge to what is a mostly citrus-driven flavour profile. Overall, it’s softer and blurrier than Semillons designed to age, and the lack of definition that results seems a well struck compromise, given the intent behind this wine.

Clean, clever and as tasty as one might reasonably expect.

Scarborough
Price: $A22
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Domaine Dublère Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Peuillets 2007

Posted on by
Reply

Interesting wine, this one. Compared to the Alain Chavy and Giaconda Chardonnays I had the other day, this is a much funkier, more discordant wine. So that’s three out of three; three Chardonnays with strikingly different fruit flavour profiles, leading to three completely different wines. This is as it should be; what becomes interesting now is how (or indeed whether) one pegs the wines at different levels of quality.

Certainly, this lacks a little in the conventional quality stakes; it’s moderately intense, there’s probably a bit too much sulfur to consider its presence a stylistic conceit, its flavours tumble over each other and collide inelegantly. And yet it’s quite magnetic in its chaotic fashion, and with each sip I become more interested in what it will tell me, in how it will disintegrate and recombine, and whether or not I’ll love it or feel repelled.

The aroma combines lean oak spice with sulfur, vanilla, clumsy bubblegum notes and an amalgam of citrus and bruised yellow peach. It’s hot and mealy and heady in turn, and although I can’t honestly describe it as pretty or luxurious — it’s not that sort of wine — its effect on me is consistent: I just keep wanting to smell it over and over again.

The palate shows a more straightforward character with juicy peach fruit taking centre stage. It’s a bit hot, perhaps, and the level of spicy oak may challenge some drinkers’ feel for ideal balance. As with the nose, however, there’s a magnetism to its character that cuts through what is a relatively dissonant flavour profile and, on some level, brings an odd coherence to the style. The middle palate comes closest to the sense of luxe that many Chardonnay drinkers will value, but it’s fleeting and almost ironic in its transition to a much more sculpted, slightly bitter after palate and finish. A lovely mealy texture is surely a highlight.

Facinating.

Domaine Dublère
Price: $A40
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Domaine Alain Chavy Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles 2007

Posted on by
Reply

It’s new year’s eve and I’m cracking open the good stuff.

A striking mix of lean minerality, powerful citrus fruit and well-controlled winemaker input. The nose is reticent for now, allowing mere wisps of prickly slate, freshly cut pear, grapefruit rind and green nuts to escape its grasp. If drinking now, best not to serve it too cold; allow it to warm and release as much aroma as it is willing. I sense a slow strip tease, one that may unfold over several years and whose narrative will only resolve at some uncertain point in the future, if ever.

The palate confirms what the nose only hints at: this is a wine of confident power and effortless complexity. What’s immediately obvious is the sustained thrust of the fruit; it really explodes on entry and carries right through the finish. This is, however, a wine made in a restrained mould, so one doesn’t get slutty gobs of peachy fruit. Instead, there’s a crisp steel mineral line that underlines the whole, challenged and softened by citrus and white peach fruit that seems to float above the more angular flavour components, not exactly integrated but rather acting as counterpoint. This wine isn’t about harmony, but nor is it about noisy contrasts. It sits somewhere in between, each side of its character pulling and pushing the other, creating tensions right along the line and never letting go their grip of the drinker. In objective quality terms this wine has the stuff: intensity, structure, line. But it’s the aesthetics on show that fascinate me and that elevate this wine above others of a similar level of technical accomplishment.

A beautiful, challenging wine.

Domaine Alain Chavy
Price: $A78.50
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail

Stanton & Killeen Vintage Port 2001

Posted on by
Reply

A tasting earlier this year at the Stanton & Killeen cellar door was notable for a lineup of quite spectacular vintage ports (and for the relative lack of excitement generated by its muscats and tokays, usually the highlight of any Rutherglen cellar door). These wines are interesting in part through their mixing of Portuguese grape varieties with Shiraz, traditionally used in Australian VP styles, and Durif, a variety strongly associated with the Rutherglen. What’s pleasing is how achieved the resultant wines can be.

A light yet piercing, complex aroma showing grilled nuts, dried fruits, old wood, and a streak of banana-skin freshness that I’m probably describing badly but which strikes me as distinctive and attractive. In short, there’s plenty going on, yet there’s a mellow, relaxed vibe to the whole that suggests settled confidence and encourages contemplative consumption.

The palate is again both light and powerful. The wine’s essentially savoury character established by the aroma carries through here, with few stylistic concessions to the Shiraz component. Indeed, this is very far from a typical Shiraz VP, a style I happen to love but which typically shows much richer, fuller fruit flavours than are present here. So, the key to enjoying this is to observe more delicate flavour components and savour the transparency that comes with lighter wines. Deliciously savoury fruits, peel, nuts, nougat. A well-balanced line that maintains strength right through the rather long finish.

I had this with some plum pudding on the big day, and it was somewhat overwhelmed. It’s much better tonight on its own, a light yet utterly indulgent dessert.

Stanton & Killeen
Price: $A28
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail

Yelland & Papps Divine Shiraz 2008

Posted on by
2

At $65, this wine sits firmly in “icon” territory on price alone. What’s interesting to me is that its producer, Yelland & Papps, typically produces joyously, perhaps even excessively, easy-drinking expressions of the classic Barossa Valley varieties (Grenache, Shiraz). How will this approach translate to a price point at which drinkers will undoubtedly expect so much more?

Once I recovered from pouring a glass from what is surely the heaviest bottle I’ve ever encountered, the nose screamed immediately “more.” More fruit, greater density, a surplus of oak; this wine is quite packed with elements, and they struggle at first to make their way coherently from the glass. It’s like the Boxing Day sales of yore, shoppers trampling over each other to get to the single, ridiculously discounted fridge freezer on Level 3. There’s plum essence, fruit cake spice and rather glossy cedar oak in the main. Perhaps slightly lifted, which helps the red fruit notes sing. I don’t think there’s an excess of complexity; rather, the focus is on impact and sheer quantity.

If anything, the palate is even more forceful. There’s a thickness of mouthfeel and generosity of flavour that’s immediately evident on entry, and it fairly forces the mouth open in order to accommodate all that it has to offer (including a fairly visible alcohol level of 15% abv). Super concentrated plum juice, all manner of red and black berries, more spice, more oak. There’s so much here I’m not sure where to look, but I can remark with some certainty that few will be left wanting more flavour than is here.

All of which causes me to return to my starting point, which is to question the stylistic implications of a reserve-level wine. Yelland & Papps has taken a relatively conventional approach of “more is more,” and within the style this is a really good wine, full of quality fruit and showing well-handled oak in particular. And, although it’s not what I’d class as an easy drinking wine, this somehow feels right within the context of the producer’s house style. Yet I can’t help wondering what the alternate options might be. A finer wine, perhaps, more detailed and characterful? Something challenging, with more adventurous winemaking or angular flavours? A style that mines less well travelled implications of Barossa terroir?

It’s no doubt wrong to criticise something for what it isn’t, and I hope my note makes clear that this wine has several outstanding features. Perhaps my own craving for novelty is the issue in this instance; drinkers are advised to crack open a bottle of this and enjoy what the Barossa does best.

Yelland & Papps
Price: $A65
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Flaxman Riesling 2010

Posted on by
1

There’s a collection of quality-focused producers, rather micro in scale, in and around the Flaxman Valley who are together creating a real stir amongst the cognoscenti. Flaxman is one such producer, and I’m pleased tonight to be tasting the latest estate Riesling, sourced from vines considerably older than myself.

The Flaxman Riesling style is typically a fuller, richer interpretation of the grape, and this is no exception. Where the Karra Yerta wines from the same area, for example, play with delicacy and pastel hues, this is a full throttle streak of sunlight, yet still identifiably Eden Valley, preferring floral and talc notes to the Clare’s juicy flavours. The nose first, which is full of bath salts, powder, puffs of citrus oil and spongey pith. It isn’t out-and-out powerful so much as firm and persistent, carving a clear line into one’s senses and never letting up until it’s time to sniff again.

The palate is an icepick of a thing, so cleanly articulated are the flavours and sharp the impact. But it’s not clumsy; indeed, there’s masses of detail as the wine unfolds from entry, notes of slate, talc and citrus rind each dovetailing neatly, culminating in a cool, crystalline climax on the middle palate. From here the wine softens marginally, some tropical flavours like pineapple adding a rich opulence to the flavour profile. Nice dry texture kicks in as the finish takes over, ending things on a flinty flourish of Riesling goodness.

You won’t go wrong with this.

Flaxman Wines
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Domaine du Clos Salomon Montagny le Clou 2007

Posted on by
Reply

I tasted the 2006 edition of this wine, and on balance feel the 2007 vintage is more achieved. It retains the essentially funky character of the fruit while rounding out the style to a more generous level. Still an off-centre aroma profile, with prickles of sulfur introducing fleshy yellow peach, roasted cashews and Thai basil. It has really blossomed after a couple of hours in the glass, so don’t serve this too cold, and be prepared to give it time. It ends up in a gentle place; this is never going to knock your socks off with power, but it glows with nuance and character.

Some oxidative character not evident on the nose asserts itself in the mouth, quite pleasantly so. There’s an essential discordance to the flavour profile that I am enjoying, though I suspect it may turn some drinkers off. If, however, you can get past the idea that wines ought to be neat and tidy aesthetic experiences, you may value the clash of peach, grapefruit, bitter herbs and creamy nuts that tumble over each other as this wine rushes past the middle palate. The after palate and finish are more focused, concentrating on yellow grapefruit flavours and very fine, firm acid. Intensity does not rise above a moderate level, and there’s a nice irony, I think, to the quiet way in which this wine seeks to argue with itself.

A really interesting, smart wine for lovers of the offbeat.

Clos Salomon
Price: $A30
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail

De Bortoli Rococco Rosé NV

Posted on by
Reply

This is an attention-grabbing wine. Despite the classically Champenoise varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier), this is about as far from Champagne as you can get. The nose is fruit-driven and almost tropical in profile, with red fruits, citrus, florals and sharper, sourer aromas akin to kiwifruit. There are some sweetly bready complexities but they are reticent and ultimately don’t hold a candle to all that fruit. If I have a criticism of the aroma, it relates to a slightly messy, confectionary edge that may be a result of the level of dosage as much as the inherent fruit character.

In the mouth, a very smooth and easy experience. I really got the point of this wine once I tasted it; this is the silicone breast implant of Australian rosé sparklings. Niche, I know, but there’s a time and place for most things, and in the case of this wine, I feel it should be served at the start of a very messy evening. Quite full-flavoured, the palate is all about quite luscious red fruits with edges of passionfruit and tropicals. For the most part, mouthfeel is soft (within the constraints of the style) with just a hint of texture through the after palate. Again, it’s a bit sweet for my taste but there’s certainly enough acid to keep it lively. A bit more bready complexity rounds the flavour profile out.

Labelling notwithstanding, this is a thoroughly modern wine style.

De Bortoli
Price: $A22
Closure: Diam
Source: Sample

Domaine Alain Chavy Bourgogne 2007

Posted on by
1

I’ve had some delicious encounters with the wines of this Puligny-Montrachet based producer over the past few years, but until now have never had occasion to taste his basic white Burgundy. In my experience, Chavy’s wines are very cleanly made and tend towards austerity in style; this wine is no exception.

Immediately, it lacks the intensity and crystalline crispness of the 1er cru wines in Chavy’s portfolio, yet this in no way offers a disappointing aroma. In fact, it’s much finer and more complex than one might reasonably expect from a wine at this level, with subtle nutty aromas sitting atop crisp honeydew, lemon and even a touch of prickly minerality. It seems just right for a straight Bourgogne; moderate in volume, accessible in profile, quite easygoing.

These qualities carry through to the palate, which is softly generous without losing its essentially crisp character. What I like most about this wine is the way it swells in the mouth without pretentiousness, pitching its intensity at a moderate level and its flavour profile at a reasonable, not overwhelming, degree of complexity. Indeed, this is a lesson in entry level Chardonnay, and embodies quite a different approach from the often sledgehammer-like flavour profiles of local Chardonnays at this price point. There’s nothing wrong with intensity, to be sure, but I believe a “more is more” approach to winemaking often loses sight of a wine’s function and purpose for drinkers. This is a great food wine, caressing the tongue with gentle flavour and lightly mineral texture, begging for the sort of comforting meal one might look forward to on a special weeknight.

Lovely and delicious. Great to see a Diam seal, too.

Domaine Alain Chavy
Price: $A30
Closure: Diam
Source: Retail