Category Archives: Australia

Seppelt Jaluka Chardonnay 2005

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Another chapter in my ongoing mini-fascination with this wine, which on release seemed so full of potential yet reluctant to convey pleasure. Two years ago, it had begun to show signs of relaxation, and in August 2011 it continues to slowly unwind, release its secrets and allow me in.

Tertiary characters haven’t advanced markedly in the intervening time, a light caramel note remaining the key indicator of age. What has changed, though, is the grip this wine exerts on its sensual dimensions. From an uncoercible stranglehold to more expressive muscularity, this is finally starting to celebrate its gorgeous primary fruit: grapefruit, white peach and fresh herbs.

The palate simply explodes with intense fruit flavour, remarkably fresh in character and precise in expression. It amazes me that a mid-priced Australian Chardonnay could taste so new at five years of age; this has a vibrancy many wines would covet on release. It’s the crispness of iced drinks in summer, cool beads of condensation on a glass, the tingle of salt and lime taken together. Indeed, it feels odd to be drinking this wine on a Saturday evening. In its current state, this would ideally be enjoyed well chilled in the pursuit of staying cool on a hot day. Except that framing it as pure refreshment is hopelessly reductive; it has qualities that point clearly towards the high end. The palate is now quite full without losing focus, oak is well integrated (though still abundant), the finish long and pure.

This is just getting started.

Seppelt
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2002

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The lottery of old wine. Chris tasted this a couple of years ago and, it appears, was unlucky enough to encounter a Brett-affected bottle. I can see a very low level of the taint here too, but I’m not finding it in any way distracting, which leaves all the beautiful, interesting aspects of the wine noted by Chris firmly intact. This is a fascinating wine.

Despite being a $20 wine that’s coming up for ten years of age, and one that was pretty approachable on release as well, this doesn’t strike me as overly developed. It’s showing bottle age, for sure, but the nose remains thick with dark, savoury fruit in addition to rich spice and cedar oak. It’s such a dense aroma, luxurious and almost tactile in its detail and texture.

The palate’s most impressive dimension is definitely its mouthful and structure, which Chris describes well in his note and which strikes me as hitting an ideal balance between shape and flow. Some wines articulate cleanly but tend towards nerviness, others sacrifice precision for easy movement; this just gets it right. Flavours are dark and full, combining black berry fruits with tobacco, brown spice, quite glossy oak and a range of aged notes that bubble to the surface on the middle and after palates. The finish resonates with spice and oak, and goes on for a good long time.

Excellent drinking.

Clonakilla
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail

Hoddles Creek Chardonnay 2006

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On release, I gave what now strikes me as a rather lukewarm impression of this wine in my original writeup. Its firm acid structure prompted me, at the time, to put a few in my cellar for a rest, and I’m now tasting this again for the first time in three or so years. Of all the wines one might age, an $18 Australian Chardonnay wouldn’t be considered a sure bet. Indeed, the question of whether any Australian Chardonnay can productively age still pops up now and then. I’ll leave that debate to those more patient; for now, I have this wine in front of me and I do believe it’s better than it was as a fresher, younger wine.

As with most things vinous, the point at which one prefers to drink a particular wine is very much a matter of taste. So, to help you decide whether your stash of 2006 Hoddles Creek Chardonnay is ready for you, I’ll observe that this wine is in the initial stages of becoming more complex and, at the same time, more relaxed. The acidic nervousness I originally noted has mellowed to allow a looser, more expansive movement over the tongue. Flavours, which at first seemed so citrus and oak dominant, now express more cohesively, are perhaps harder to separate from one another, are certainly more numerous. There’s an especially delicious honey note that is just starting to emerge on the after palate. This will never be a fat, old fashioned style, but it’s starting to inch towards a fullness of palate weight and flavour profile that, to be honest, pleases me a lot more than a simpler, tighter style, especially given the inherent power of the Yarra Chardonnay flavour profile.

More of everything except edginess and simplicity; I like.

Hoddles Creek
Price: $A18
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Angullong Bull's Roar Tempranillo 2010

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Tempranillo is new enough to Australia that trying a new one is still a lottery; in terms of quality, in terms of style. I admit to never having tasted one from the Orange/Central Ranges areas, so was curious to see what Angullong, a maker of solid, cleanly commercial wines, might do with the variety.

At first, the nose presents a hit of the sort of confected, carbonic maceration derived fruit character that, I regret to say, is a big turnoff for me. While it calms with time, the essential character of this wine stays true to that first impression: this is Tempranillo made for mass appeal. For a varietal that can, at times, be quite meaty and challenging, the aroma profile here is remarkably accessible, a hint of cola the only suggestion of savouriness. There’s also some cuddly vanilla, signalling a friendly approach to oak treatment.

The palate is rather acid-driven in structure, bringing additional sunlight to what is an already bright fruit profile. Red boiled lollies and tart berry skins are first to appear, followed by a welcome dose of twiggy, vegetal sappiness and a smattering of prickly tannins. It’s not an especially distinctive or complex flavour profile, but it’s different enough from a typical Shiraz or Cabernet to provide some interest. It’s an open question for me whether Tempranillo is best served by this style; I’d like to see less bright fruit, less oak, and a bit more difference. However, someone looking for an easygoing yet “different” wine may find a lot to like here.

Angullong
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz 2009

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This is serious Hunter Shiraz. Compared to the De Iuliis Steven Vineyard Shiraz tasted recently, this single vineyard wine has an altogether more intense vibe, and one might suggest this is appropriate given its price point.

Neatly, this is both ultra-premium and totally drinkable, a balancing act that surprisingly few wines manage. The key here is that, despite a decent dose of very classy oak, this remains quite fruit driven, a strikingly intense burst of red fruit at the core of its personality. The nose first, though, which at first was too bound up to be truly pleasurable, but which relaxes with about an hour in the glass. When it does, the most fabulous, liqueurous plum and cherry fruit emerges, along with a spice profile that’s part oak and, surprisingly, a peppery part that recalls cooler climate Shiraz. There’s also a distinctly meaty dimension. It’s cohesive and generous and really luxurious, just a delight.

The palate goes through a similar transformation, initially fruitless but quickly evolving into a model of intense shapeliness. If one thing stands out above all else with this wine, it’s the precision with which it articulates its flavours, never losing composure, always maintaining form and poise. Clean black and red fruits, cedar, spice, vanilla, not very much earth. The acid takes a primary structural role, sweet tannins backing up through the after palate and finish. It’s not so structured as to be forbidding, but certainly seems set for medium term ageing (three to five year) at least.

Such a different wine from the equally excellent De Iuliis and indeed many other 2009 Hunter Shirazes, this strikes me as an essential expression of the style.

Meerea Park
Price: $A75
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Mount Avoca Merlot 2009

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And so I return from university sans a few layers of tooth enamel after tasting my way through a week’s worth of wines with solidly pedagogical intent; not entirely a pleasure, but I do feel in the zone. I may write up some of those tastings later on but, for now, I’m eager to try this new Mount Avoca release and see how it fits into the confusing, incoherent, yet lovable landscape that is Australian Merlot.

Thankfully, it doesn’t occupy the little stagnant pond where overripe Merlot goes to ferment and die. No, this is satisfyingly savoury on first sniff, with nary a hint of crassly pumped up fruit, an impression reinforced by tasting. Quite dark in character, the aroma presents black fruits and sour cherries, twigs and brown spice. It’s quite a generous nose and, at the same time, one that communicates restraint, as if the fullness of the fruit is somehow kept in check. Oak handling is especially good here, adding complexity and framing the fruit sympathetically.

The palate is quite friendly, and it’s here the wine becomes more like what some drinkers may expect from New World Merlot. There’s a softness to the black berry fruit that registers early on the palate and expands through the middle, at which point vanilla and spice oak pick up the line. Acid is certainly present but not firm enough to bring things out of relaxed territory. Tannins do a bit more in this regard as they settle on the tongue through the after palate and lightly dry the finish. What really makes this wine for me is the decided savouriness of the fruit; it turns what might have been a caricatured style into something adult and interesting.

Mount Avoca
Price: $A27
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Hoddles Creek Pinot Noir 2008

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Even if it’s unintentional, I pride myself on my reliability. The last time I tasted this wine, I gave it fairly short shrift and suggested I might taste it again in a year or two. Here I am, two years after that first tasting, sampling this little number again after quite randomly having selected it from my stash tonight.

The years have been kind. Where on release this was closed and quite gruff, it’s now able to express itself with more relaxation, even as it remains a highly textural, almost rustic experience. The nose thankfully avoids the sort of glossy fruit character that dodges criticism for lack of varietal definition but which is otherwise completely without value – in its place, there’s plush Pinot fruit, bundles of damp twigs and a rough whiff of vanilla. Also bacon fat, rotting white flowers and bubblegum. Not your typical $20 wine, then, and I can’t quite believe I’m getting so much out of a wine at this price point.

The palate is bold, intense and a bit rough. There’s no doubt, in an absolute sense, that a bit of extra refinement would be welcome, but I really can’t fault this wine on many levels: its impact, its concentration of flavour, its complex and savoury flavour profile. It registers with a nice slam of fruit flavour and progresses briskly through a middle palate full of expansive savoury berries and edgy, slightly hard vegetal notes. There’s still a way to go here before the wine sheds its aggressiveness; for now, you’ll need to put up with traces of overly firm structure on the after palate in particular. But why quibble when each mouthful offers up so much distinctive flavour?

Drink this with pungently flavoured food – Peking Duck, for example – to get the most from it right now. I’ll come back to this in about two to three years’ time. Promise.

Hoddles Creek
Price: $A20
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Mount Avoca Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

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Though its Shiraz wines can be of the highest quality, and tend to hog the limelight, my view is that Cabernet Sauvignon from the Pyrenees is seriously undervalued. It often combines a muscular structure with the sort of clear, supple fruit character that draws you right in. This wine from Mount Avoca exemplifies these qualities, and is well-priced to boot. What’s not to like?

The nose rings with clear, clean cassis fruit character, flanked by a bit of minty goodness and brown, textural oak. The more I swirl and sniff this wine, the greater the influence of that brown, earthy character, which creeps over the fruit and warms it through. It’s a remarkably coherent aroma profile for such a young wine, though it’s equally clear this is a raw beast, leaking undigested primary aromas in all directions. Still, there’s the beginnings of some focus and elegance here, and I suspect once the wine rests it will present even more impressively. As it is, full of potential and certainly not unenjoyable.

The palate is just all about structure at the moment, and whether you enjoy it as a young wine may depend mostly on your tolerance for acid and tannin. That’s not to suggest there’s no flavour or that it’s completely overpowered; indeed, there’s a strong, firm core of dark fruit that runs in a rather compressed line right the way along. But structure keeps it all in check, perhaps too firmly for now, suggesting some time in bottle is required. There’s a lovely gravel-like texture and flavour here, like licking berry-covered asphalt on a hot day. It’s the highlight of a flavour profile that is very correct and ultra-clean. Also notable is this wine’s length, which seems to springboard off all those tannins and carries a ribbon of crisp berry flavour right through the back palate.

This wine would be impressive at $35; at its recommended retail price, it’s a no brainer.

Mount Avoca
Price: $A27
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

De Iuliis Steven Vineyard Shiraz 2009

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This has to be one of the best 2009 Hunter Valley Shirazes I’ve tasted so far.

It’s a charming vintage, incidentally, bringing to a close ten dramatic years in the Hunter. There have been several memorable vintages for reds – 2003 for its drought-driven concentration, 2005 and 2007 for their balanced power, and now 2009, which seems to exemplify the sort of medium bodied, supple elegance that I associate with the region’s Shiraz style in its most classical form.

The nose is complex and clean, hitting notes as varied as cranberries, grilled meat, sweet earth, and soft oak. While it’s absolutely typical of the region, what separates it from a merely correct wine is a sense of depth and detail, combined with a distinctiveness to the fruit character. It’s a nose to dive into and explore, providing new perspectives the longer one stays with it.

The palate really takes things up a notch, again absolutely striking and crystal clear. What’s quite sensational here is the articulation of flavours on the palate; each component lands cleanly on the tongue and transitions to the next without any jarring breaks or unseemly peaks and troughs. Dense red fruit with a crisp edge, a sort of green juiciness that’s hard to place but remarkably fresh, black pepper, subtle oak. Structure is firm, as one would expect of a young wine like this, sparkling acid adding freshness and abundant tannins providing plenty of textural interest.

Of all the fine qualities of this wine, what has stayed with me most since tasting it is the character of the fruit. It has the sort of subtle distinctiveness that some producers might be tempted to obscure in a blend but which, here, stands out for its beautiful imperfection. It’s clearly the product of a single site, for better or worse, and we should thank De Iuliis for letting it shine alone.

De Iuliis
Price: $A40
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Irvine Grand Merlot 1996

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This smells nothing like a fifteen year old Eden Valley Merlot. The absurdity of that statement will, of course, be evident to those with a knowledge of this wine’s place in the Australian wine canon – it’s probably the only Eden Valley Merlot you’d think about cellaring for anywhere near this long, so it in fact tastes exactly like what it is – an exceptionally good fifteen year old Eden Valley Merlot. And, on the basis of this tasting, it’s a shame there are so few such wines.

When there’s a level of quality present, as there is with this wine, one’s experience of drinking it is as much a matter of timing as anything else. So the question becomes: are the elements ideally balanced right now? There’s a gorgeous smack of sweet primary fruit of a red berry character, a firm overlay of tertiary aromas and a dark framework of firm, coffee-tinged oak. So far, so good.

The palate makes my own answer to the question clear; this is surely drinking at its peak. As fascinating and beautiful as fully resolved old red wines can be, I usually prefer them in a state of maximum complexity, displaying a mixture of old and young wine characters. This retains an abundance of primary fruit, sweet and luscious, alongside the old leather and mushroom notes that accumulate only through an extended afternoon nap in bottle. Though, structurally, this has enough grunt to go even further, I like that its tannins remain slightly aggressive and primary, because they provide a link to its origins, allowing me to experience several moments in time all at once. The wine is simultaneously young, middle aged and old, jumping between all of its dimensions with elegance and poise, accumulating pleasures with each leap.

Ultimately, what is most astonishing about this wine is its freshness, and how that freshness is utterly transportive. I see in this wine its formative moments — vigorous green vines collecting energy to fill the beautiful berries that in turn filled this bottle — and through it my own life and the sense of discovery that characterises adolescence but which fades into rarity as one grows older. Thank goodness for those things that help me to remember.

Irvine
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail