Category Archives: Red

Domaine Jean-Claude Bachelet et Fils Bourgogne Rouge 2005

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
5

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

Bunchgrass Winery Founder's Blend 2003

Posted on by
3

This is a friendly wine. Immediately appealing, the somewhat confected nose offers up straightforward red licorice characters as well as an intensely Walla Walla character: bright, forward fruit with just a twinge of brambly dust. Over time, some other flavors arise; these remind me somewhat of baked blackberry jam and old leather-bound books.Tannins sneak up immediately upon tasting the wine, however, and come to dominate the finish entirely, setting up an odd dynamic between the fruity plushness and the somewhat inert tannins. Then, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, nervy acidity rears up to finish it all off, leaving you with a still-puckery mouthful of tannin, harsh acid at the back of the mouth, and yet that same delicious fruitiness sailing on at the front of it all. It’s disjointed as hell, but I have to admit that I like it quite a bit for what it is.After a long weekend in Walla Walla a couple of years back tasting any number of perfectly decent, flawless, boring, expensive wines, this one really stood out for having a sense of character. Is it a great wine? No. But is it itself? Yes, and I’m grateful for that.Sadly, it looks like the winery is no more these days. Roger & Cheryl – thank you for a wonderfully idiosyncratic bottle of wine, and I hope you’re doing well.Bunchgrass Winery
Price: $30
Closure: Cork

d'Arenberg The Stump Jump Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre 2007

Posted on by
2

Bright ruby colour, very clean and not very dense. Bang, we’re in commercial red territory with the nose, and I mean that as only half an insult. Let’s face it, there’s something comforting about the easygoing aroma profile of a well made, mainstream red wine. This one has pretty aromas of sweet red berry fruit, grilled meat, an interesting medicinal note and subdued brambles, along with a hint of gentle oak. Everything in its place.

Ridge Zinfandel Stone Ranch 2004

Posted on by
3

Rich and dusty, there’s also the suggestion of medicine here, medicine that’s hiding something darker underneath an allegedly friendly façade. To me, it’s suggestive of dusty, decaying leather and no longer fashionable roses, a perfume that’s not friendly enough to sell well at Target. But that’s fine by me; a famous Frenchman once said that a perfume should smell of a woman who neglects herself, and this wine is heading in that same direction. It’s the smell of a wine that doesn’t particularly care what you think – kind of punk rock, I suppose.Deeply purple, youthful, and unapologetically alcoholic (if the jambes are to go by), it begins to give it up for fruitiness after a few minutes’ worth of exposure to air. Still, the fruity jam is nicely framed by that savory, dusty edge of dirt and restraint.Brighter than you’d expect in the mouth, what you get is a very floral, bright wine with hints of an aged character. In fact, it almost seems like there’s a skosh of volatile acidity lurking here; it just seems to… well, perky. It’s all moderately good… and yet it seems like there’s something every so slightly out of balance here. Even so, the character of the wine sneaks to the foreground from time to time, with a dusty, frankly kind of generically Zin-ny characteristic that’s good enough… almost. I’d be lying if I said I weren’t disappointed by this; all of the elements of a good Ridge zinfandel appear to be here; the problem is that they aren’t coherent, interrupted as they are by that acidic brightness and the odd sharpness of the wine. If I have anything particularly nice to say about this wine, it’s probably simply that it’s relatively inexpensive for a Ridge.Tannins, by the way, seemed missing in action for me, but my friend Mark says “wow, it’s all chunky tannins!” It could be simply that my taste buds have gone walkabout for the evening!Update: Ten minutes on, it’s warmed up a bit from the cellar, and now it’s going a sort of cassia bark path, devolving into a sort of vanillin spice box character. Interesting.Ridge
Price: $24
Closure: Cork

Altus de Gualallary Grand Vin 2000

Posted on by
Reply

With this wine you start with a quick huff of New World grapey goodness, but it quickly settles down into something with a bit more gravitas. The fairly richly scented, ripe Malbec fruit seems to have some good oak behind it, but not too much; this wine (surprisingly to me, given the name) seems to have avoided over-oaking in favor of something, well, more Spanish in style.Acidity is fine and frankly delightful, stealing center stage from the fruit, which is decidedly in the summer red berries stage here, strongly reminiscent of a fresh raspberry tart. Not decidedly complex at all, it seems much younger than it actually is, with barely a hint of aged character. It’s only towards the finish that – again – it seems briefly Serious Wine, but again not very much. Then again, thinking about it a bit more, the tannins are substantial but unobstrusive; they seem to have aged to the point where they’re just playing a supporting role here; this is why this wine seems a bit of a lightweight. But is it? I don’t know. Is it delicious? Yes, but shouldn’t I be expecting some heavy barrel toast and puckery tannins? Is it OK to like a good wine just because it’s summery and delicate?I can’t make my mind up about this wine at all. One moment it seems a trifle, the next an elegant, restrained wine in the Bordelais style that is way too sophisticated to be drunk with the food that’s on my table. This one’s an odd duck: probably not Serious enough to please folks who are expecting a massive bruiser of an Argentine malbec in the style of Clos de Los Siete and Michel Rolland, and way, way too sophisticated to be mistaken for your average supermarket quaffer labeled Los Gauchos del Sur (or whatever they call cheap Argentine Malbec where you live).I’ve decided it’s pretty damn good.Note: We bought this at the winery on vacation a couple of years ago; if you’re in the neighborhood (the Tupungato valley), the restaurant is absolutely worth a visit – that lunch in the vineyard was perhaps the best meal we had outside of Buenos Aires.Oh, and lest I forget: the encépagement is not listed on their Web site or on the bottle, so my guess of Malbec is just that: a guess. Apologies if I guessed wrong!Altus
Price: Can’t remember, probably around $25
Closure: Cork

O'Leary Walker Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Posted on by
2

In a nice nod to sub-regionality, the back label identifies this wine’s fruit as having been sourced from Armagh and Polish Hill River. Work was a slog today, so much so that I just had to swing by the local Dan’s Choice and pick up a bottle of something I haven’t tried before. Usually, my wine purchases are a lot more deliberate. The obsessive side of my personality, if I can be so euphemistic as to call my defining characteristic a “side,” usually demands my choice of beverage be the result of some consideration. But I just grabbed this at the shop without much thought. And here we are.

I guess I should rely on chance more often. This is a really honest wine, well-made and flavoursome. Swirly, rather high toned aromas of spice and mint encircle dust and moderately well-defined Cabernet fruit. We’re a long way from Coonawarra or Bordeaux with this wine, but that’s alright because it’s a comfortable, even slightly plush place. The aroma profile seems warmer, somehow, cuddlier than more restrained Cabernet styles, even as it challenges with a bit of savoury tar, cooked meat and slightly sharp oak.