Author Archives: Julian Coldrey

Grosset Springvale Watervale Riesling 2008

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There’s a good vibe around 2008 Clare Rieslings. Indeed, the Grosset newsletter suggests this is the best Watervale since 2002, which is music to my ears.

An aroma that initially reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc not so much for its profile as its impact and immediacy. A punch of lime and leafiness hits you each time you sniff this wine, and it’s a great antidote to an army of insipid “classic dry whites” and Pinot Grigios invading our bistros. I can’t imagine anyone not having a strong reaction to this based purely on the nose. More importantly, this is a really positive wine, one that wears its flamboyance on its sleeve. It’s the Versace of Australian wine — flashy, but immaculately tailored.

The palate’s greatest feature is its intensity of flavour, which is frankly remarkable. It strikes early and builds almost instantly to a climax of lime juice and sherbet-like notes that wash through the mid-palate. There’s so much impact that it takes a moment to realise the wine’s structure is really quite restrained in the context of the style. There’s acid, no doubt, but it’s fine and supports the wine rather than overwhelming it. The flavour profile becomes more complex on the after palate, with some herbal notes introducing themselves. A gently tapered finish with just the slightest hint of fruit sweetness closes the wine well.

I’m a huge fan of our dry Riesling styles and this wine both justifies my taste and provides great sensual pleasure. It’s a win-win. Brilliant value.

Grosset
Price: $A31
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2008

Domaine du Meix-Foulot Mercurey Blanc 2006

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I seem to be specialising in cheap Burgundy here at Full Pour, but it’s simply a reflection of what I can afford to drink on a regular basis. I suppose the key question at this end of the market is: am I better off purchasing local wines? And my answer is: it depends. I crave a variety of flavour profiles so, for me, questions of absolute quality aren’t so pressing. On the other hand, if value for money were my sole objective, I’d probably bet my hard earned $30-50 on a local wine, as there are some beautiful wines in this price range.

A tasty aroma profile here, with slightly funky notes overlaying solid citrus and stone fruit. Perhaps some sulfur to, though it may simply be the wine’s natural savouriness expressing itself as a sort of prickly smokiness. It’s an easy wine to like, soothing and soft without falling into the trap of being bland. There’s enough character to draw me back repeatedly, but it’s so inviting that I come away feeling happy rather than challenged.

The palate is a contradiction of sorts, as it presents a very attractive flavour profile and clean structure yet shows a degree of dilution that leaves me slightly frustrated. The flavours here are a repeat of the nose with perhaps the addition of some caramel. So, typical Chardonnay fruit flavours and flashes of savouriness, here coming across as minerality. Mouthfeel is so very approachable and, to its credit, the whole thing is balanced admirably for immediate, pleasurable consumption. The wine’s approachable structure and clingy flavours make me wonder what it could become if there were a notch more intensity, but it’s futile to judge a wine by what it’s not, especially one that is so easy to drink. Falls away a little on the finish, but by that point you’re already smiling.

Not a worldbeater, then, and no doubt better value is obtainable locally, but this wine’s flavour profile is most delicious, and its balance encourages maximum enjoyment over the short term. A fun, easy drinking white Burgundy.

Domaine du Meix-Foulot
Price: $A36
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2008

Offcuts

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Dinner at a friend’s house, some notable wines.

The Nicolas Feuillatte Palmes d’Or Grand Cuvee 1998 introduced the evening well. Very mushroomy nose, and a palate that shows perhaps slightly excessive dosage for my taste, but brilliant intensity and drive. Citrus notes and acid clean up the entry’s sweetness and whisk everything away to a dry finish. A wine with real presence and decent complexity.

A bottle of Clonakilla Viognier 2006 was good for a few “oohs and ahhs,” as it’s a very assertive style. Showed in line with my previous note. Nice wine, I struggle with food matching though.

The highlight was almost certainly a good bottle of the 1972 Penfolds Bin 128. There’s still some blackberry fruit in there, but it’s mostly the flavours of bottle age, deliciously complex and funky, that dominate the wine’s profile. Powerful tobacco, walnuts, minerals and sweet leather. Tannins still provide noticeable structure and dryness, so it’s not going to fall over tomorrow, but I can’t see why one would wait longer to drink this. Just excellent.

To accompany trifle, we had a 1955 Rivesaltes fortified. A very interesting wine whose best feature is an astonishingly long palate to rival our better local fortifieds (although notably different in style from them). Surprisingly delicate fruit flavours that are complex but revolve around bright candied citrus peel. A fresh and well balanced sweet wine that we all found extremely easy to drink.

Domaine du Clos Salomon Montagny le Clou 2006

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Montagny, a village on the Côte Chalonnaise of Burgundy, is a white-only appellation. Before I get to a description of this wine, it’s interesting to contemplate the role that winemaking decisions play in the character and appeal of a wine. I love the notion of terroir and cling to it as much for its philosophic appeal as anything else. It’s obvious, though, that winemaking can radically change a wine’s presentation and, ultimately, its integrity.

Tight, minerally and somewhat sulfurous aroma. Quite funky, actually, within the confines of its tightly coiled dimensions. With time, more fruit-driven aromas emerge, but are mere whisps at best. Good line from nose to palate, with the same minerally tightness as the nose, but more weight and fruit flavour than anticipated. Reasonable intensity that establishes its level early in the line and only starts to taper off in the after palate. Good freshness thanks to bright acidity, but also a pleasingly smooth mouthfeel. I can’t detect many winemaking tricks or oak here, so I presume these elements have been conservatively applied. A nice surge on the finish that brings things to a happy ending.

Not bad at all, this one, especially if you like your Chardonnay on the funkier, leaner side. There’s a question mark for me over whether such minimal treatment brings out the full character of the fruit, which is (to my taste) of considerable interest. Still, it’s good to have the opportunity to taste what appear to be raw materials in the glass.

Interestingly, it tasted even tighter the next morning, more minerally and less stinky. I might let my remaining bottles rest for a while.

Clos Salomon
Price: $A31
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2008

Clonakilla O'Riada Shiraz 2007

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Many enthusiasts will be familiar with the reason for this wine’s existence. Clonakilla’s estate crop was devastated by the elements in 2007, prompting the release of this wine, made from non-Estate (though still Canberra region) fruit. A small amount of Viognier was cofermented here too.

Typical Canberra Shiraz on the nose, with a big hit of spicy red fruit that projects edgy sweetness alongside more elegant, savoury notes. This really is very spicy, with black peppercorns and more exotic notes that tend almost towards potpourri. Expressive, characterful and, to me, seductive.

The palate emphasises savouriness, relegating the sweet red fruit to an intriguing supporting role. Masses of flavour immediately on entry, there’s a good deal of acidity to tingle and refresh the tongue. The fact that it’s light to medium bodied, and quite angular in structure, only serves to intensify the fruit flavours, though it also suggests some time in bottle will be beneficial. There are crunchy red fruits, spice galore and a delicious barbecued meat dimension. Tannins are very fine and evenly distributed, such that there’s considerable dryness on the finish without any obviousness of tannin. Good extension through the after palate and finish.

I really like Canberra Shiraz so I suppose I’m biased towards this wine’s flavour profile and weight. Having said that, it’s an especially good example of the breed, perhaps lighter and more acid driven than some, but with ample flavour and good typicité. Really well priced.

Clonakilla
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2008

Domaine du Prieuré Savigny-les-Beaune Blanc 2006

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Village-level white Burgundy. I’ve not tried any whites from Savigny-les-Beaune and I understand it to be an appellation that produces mostly red wines, with a mere thirty eight hectares of white plantings. So I was particularly interested to get my hands on this one.

I must admit, I’ve struggled to get a lot from the nose here. There’s maybe a little bit of nuttiness crossed with minerality. It light, delicate and powdery in character. On the palate, a lot more substantial. This wine has a very attractive flavour profile comprising light peach notes and more nutty characters. It just feels right and tastes good, even though it’s far from the last word in complexity or sophistication. Quite mouthfilling although not overly intense, this wine moves cleanly along its line and modulates continually between different flavour components. There’s a slight lack of coherence between elements, but this is not overly distracting. On the after palate, more vanilla and almond type flavours, certainly not overpowering but still noticeable. The finish is quite textural, with an almond essence twist and some astringency taking advantage of good length.

This isn’t a worldbeater but I must admit I am enjoying its flavour and easygoing structure very much. Good value for what’s on offer, I think.

Update: I left half the bottle overnight and restated at length. On the second day, an altogether superior wine, with a more integrated set of flavours and basically more of everything. I do enjoy the flavour profile very much, which is abundantly mealy without masking clean, juicy peach fruit. My kind of wine.

Domaine du Prieuré
Price: $A28
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2008

Domaine Rapet Père et Fils Bourgogne Aligoté 2006

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The other white Burgundy.

A clean, pretty aroma of apple skins and pears. Very fruity and a bit shy, but fresh and pleasant. In the mouth it’s more generous. Abundant and slightly hard acidity underlines full flavours of apple and baked nutty things. It struck me as a little dilute initially, and it’s certainly not an overly intense wine, but the flavour has gained some weight as the wine has warmed. The flavour profile is straightforward, simple, and tasty. There’s a nicely bitter twist on the finish, which reminds me of freshly picked herbs. I especially like the mouthfeel here, crisp and acidic, yet weighty too, with a nice sense of slippery viscosity.

There’s really not much to say about this wine other than it tastes good and is cleanly made. I’d be more than happy to down a few glasses over lunch.

Domaine Rapet Père et Fils
Price: $A23
Closure: Nomacork
Date tasted: November 2008

Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon 2005

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Just checking in with a not-so-old friend tonight. They say Hunter Semillon goes through a dumb phase before emerging, butterfly-like, from its cocoon. There’s nothing reticent about this wine, not now, and I suspect not ever. It’s too juicy and generous a style.

A distinctive, waxy aroma that is already showing signs of bottle age. There’s a sheen of toast that overlays citrus-like Semillon fruit. True to style and very clean, yet weighty and exhuberant too, which is typical of these 2005 Semillons. In the mouth, an explosion of acidity and flavour. I love the acid here, it’s three dimensional and mouthfilling all on its own, if not overly sculpted. It’s also well balanced with respect to fruit flavour, which has sufficient intensity to stand alongside all that structure. More waxy citrus dominates emergent but definite aged notes of honey and toast. There’s so much going on here, it’s actually a little cluttered on the palate, but this doesn’t detract too much from one’s enjoyment.

Bloody nice. It’s still pretty young, but drinking very well now, and showing promising signs of bottle age that should realise over the medium term. I can’t wait.

Tyrrell’s
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2008

Château de Tracy Pouilly-Fumé 2001

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It’s Sunday afternoon and the storms keep threatening to hit, but never quite do. Still, the air is thick with humidity and the smell of imminent rain, and it’s moments like this where I tend to reach for something in white. If it’s pungently aromatic, then so much the better.

Golden colour, pretty and showing signs of bottle age. A really striking nose, intoxicatingly rich with aromas of honey, tropical fruit and a little flint. There’s also a sour floral dimension that reminds me of the smell you get when you shake a flowering weed. Sharp, astringent, yet oddly pretty. Taken as a whole, it reads as a dessert wine with considerable edginess.

In fact, it’s a dry wine that tightens considerably on the palate. Immediate, intense flavour on the tongue as the wine enters the mouth. Acidity provides immediate textural interest and accentuates the wine’s fruit flavours early. In fact, this wine’s acidity is worth a few more words. Sauvignon Blanc-based wines often have quite aggressive acidity, which can be fun, but here it’s on an altogether more sophisticated plane. If one were to consider a wine’s acid visually, this wine would show a straight line from left to right, fine and firm and absolutely mouthwatering. Fruit weight gathers steam and, by the mid palate, there’s a gorgeous richness washing through the mouth. More honey and sharp tropical fruits, with a sideline of minerality that blends well into the acid structure. The sweetness of fruit and bottle age resonates through the after palate and continues well into the finish. A slight bitterness here is the only element that disrupts an otherwise harmoniously balanced flavour profile.

This is surely drinking at its peak, with a range of youthful and bottle aged characters existing in complementary fashion. I love this expression of Sauvignon Blanc and would happily drink this as an aperitif or with smoked salmon canapes.

Château de Tracy
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2008

Josef Chromy Pepik Chardonnay 2005

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Sister wine to the Pepik Pinot Noir, this wine is also reasonably priced and from Tasmania. Enough with the introductions, then.

A nose that’s equal parts oatmeal and unripe stonefruit. There’s a bit of vanilla thrown in for good measure. Not an especially exuberant nose, it is nevertheless clean and fruity. The palate brings forward a degree of fruit sweetness that comes as somewhat of a surprise after the nose. Quite ripe peach mixes with flavours right at the other end of the Chardonnay spectrum, such as tart citrus notes. There’s some winemaking here too, including a light butterscotch note that marries well with the peachiness, and aforementioned mealiness. This moderately hedonistic touch is counterbalanced, perhaps somewhat coarsely, with a more tart, acid-driven sourness that builds through the line and begins to dominate the after palate. A herbal flourish ushers in the average finish.

Not a bad food style and, I think, a better wine than the Pinot Noir. My main issue with this wine is that lacks coherence, seemingly neither here nor there in stylistic emphasis.

Josef Chromy
Price: $A15.20
Closure: Stevin
Date tasted: October 2008