Category Archives: Red

Suxx 2006

Posted on by
2

Don’t laugh, but I sniffed this the second I unscrewed the cap and thought whoa. What is this, Gucci for Men? It’s got a full on nose of sandalwood, with a curious scent of camphor and velvet as well. I’ve never smelled a wine like this before. How the hell did they make this stuff? It’s just so huge, so jammy… amazing, and somehow floral as well. Raspberries and roses?It’s so dark that it looks like it should be in a Mont Blanc bottle. Taste-wise, it’s again pretty damn big: brooding, dark, earthy, and with an almost medicinal, herbal, minty edge to it. Amazingly, it doesn’t feel particularly alcoholic, which is a huge surprise given that this is supposedly in the 16-17% range: the finish is not hot, but very well balanced and exceedingly smooth, tapering off into a woodsy, sweet trail of incense and spice. It all works surprisingly well.SuxxPrice: US $16.99Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007

Napa Family Vineyards Napa Valley Finest Selection Reserve Merlot 2004

Posted on by
Reply

Pencil shavings, olive, and strawberries dominate the nose of this wine; it’s not too shabby, but it never really seems to evolve much beyond fruitiness with an oak undertone. It’s kind of like Kool-Aid mixed with wood chips.

In the mouth, this wine seems frankly way too sweet for a Napa merlot – and it’s not sucrosité, but residual sugar I think I’m tasting here. Ewww, gross – there’s barely any acidity here at all, and the overall effect is thoroughly unpleasant. However, the tannins are fairly interesting: finely grained and almost Australian in style, they seem flown in from a much better wine. Sadly, though, the bulk of the wine just hangs there limply in the mouth, waiting for you to swallow so that you can move on to something else. In terms of flavor, there’s some indeterminate milk chocolate but that’s about it, and there’s not much in the way of length here either: once the wine’s gone, the flavor’s gone. It’s all very disappointing. I imagine this is precisely the wine Miles was talking about in Sideways – and I probably should have heeded his advice.

Napa Family Vineyards [but really fresh&easy]
Price: US $10.99
Closure: Diam
Date tasted: November 2007

Panarroz 2005

Posted on by
Reply

Pine-Sol, turpentine, and shoe leather came to mind when I first smelled this wine, but then I realized that no one wants to drink anything that smells like the toilets at summer camp. Therefore, let me revise that to pine needles, dirt, rich Corinthian leather, and dark red raspberries. There’s also a whiff of smoke, tar, and black cherry there as well – it’s a fairly complex nose for a wine this cheap. With some air, it started to tend towards cedar shavings (hamster cage?) and blueberry – very impressive, really.

In the mouth, it’s rich, meaty, and chunky, with a prominent streak of savory acidity at the back of it all. What does it taste like? Well, that’s hard to say: it’s a little bit like lavender and meatloaf, somehow. On the finish, you’re treated to firm, drying tannins and then a soft, gentle trail-off of sweet bacon and chocolate. It’s all very appetizing and thank God it’s Friday night because I’m probably just going to stay at home and polish off the bottle with the neighbors.

Panarroz
Price: US $6.99
Closure: Cheesy plastic cork
Date tasted: November 2007

Picardy Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc 2005

Posted on by
Reply

53% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc. Australian Merlots are a curious beast – perhaps a little like Shiraz, they can tend to be chameleon-like, morphing with region and idea of style. This one is from Pemberton in Western Australia.

The nose immediately establishes the wine’s savoury flavour profile. Genuine complexity draws one back to smell repeatedly, with savoury black fruits, leafiness and cigar box oak flavours intermingling and constantly shifting around. The linear entry opens out to a palate of medium to full body, with full yet not terribly sweet black fruit sitting alongside the same mix of leafy/green olive notes and relatively prominent oak as seen on the nose. Flavours are quite dense and of reasonable intensity. The wine’s structure at this stage is assertive, both from an acid and tannin perspective. The tannins are quite interesting in character, being relatively abundant, ripe, and moderately (but not overly) fine. They have a nice rustic edge, in fact. The wine shows a nice line with no dips through the palate, and finishes with good length.

The wine responded extremely well to a strongly flavoured pasta dish, the structure calming a little and the power of the fruit shining through. This is a very good wine with, I think, good potential for improvement through bottle age. Blindingly good value.

Picardy
Price: $A20
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007

Cape Barren Native Goose McLaren Vale Shiraz 2005

Posted on by
Reply

A slightly dicey restaurant wine list last night led to the selection of this wine, its merit being primarily that we hadn’t tasted it before. McLaren Vale, Shiraz, 2005: so far so good.

Fruit-forward, slightly thin aromas greet the nose with enthusiasm, but there’s something a bit icky and confected about the red fruit. I would describe it as an easy, commercial style. Not much oak influence. The palate is medium bodied and quite linear, introducing more confected, bright red fruits to the middle palate and, less successfully, some rather harsh, disjointed acid. This continues on through the after palate to a finish that is marked by a few, slightly coarse and uneven tannins.

We had this wine with pizza and it went quite well, although the acidity remained a bit rough and ready despite the food. It’s just not a very interesting wine, frankly, although there’s nothing especially wrong with it either. I can’t detect much regionality in its flavour profile, which for me is a particular shame as I’m fond of the dark chocolate and earth overtones often found in McLaren Vale Shiraz. Drink if you don’t want to be challenged.

Cape Barren
Price: $A20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2007

Tyrrell's Vat 9 Shiraz 2006

Posted on by
3

I loved the previous vintage of this wine, so it was with some anticipation that I opened this bottle, the current vintage.

Tyrrell’s has really been hitting its straps on the red wine front of late, with some sensational ’03s, ’05s and even some good ones from the problematic 2004 vintage (I really enjoyed the 2004 Vat 5 NVC Shiraz). This wine struck me as rather different to the 2005. Whilst my last bottle of ’05 was extravagantly fragrant, this one was a little more reserved.

Actually, on opening, it was a bit stinky (sulfur?), and it took a few minutes of swirling to help this blow off and reveal clean, slightly stewy red, plum-like fruit with savoury spices. The wine’s entry promises greater things, with its smooth and elegant delivery of the wine’s middle palate. It is here that the wine finally starts to sing, the same slightly odd plummy fruit gaining in intensity and sweetness. The palate is medium bodied and quite dense in flavour, mouthfilling without being heavy at all. The wine’s acidity also contributes some freshness in the mouth and a nice sourness to the flavour. For my taste, the acidity is a bit too relaxed in character, even though it’s quite “present” in quantity. Tannins are fine and not especially dominant, so it is primarily acid that is left to carry the wine through an after palate and finish of satisfying length.

This is a lovely wine of elegant structure and generous flavour, but for me there’s a slight question mark over the stewed character of the fruit. I prefer the 2005 on the basis of this bottle. I will, however, follow the evolution of this wine with interest. I note it continued to gain in intensity and complexity as we worked our way through the bottle, and went very well with our dinner of steak and vegetables.

Tyrrell’s
Price: $A32 (early release, cellar door)
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007

Clonakilla Ballinderry 2004

Posted on by
1

One sniff of this wine takes me back to the Clonakilla cellar door, where I first tasted and subsequently purchased the 2004 Ballinderry. At the time, I wasn’t sure about the wine. It seemed to be almost completely dumb on the nose, much more so than previous vintages, but I have enjoyed this Clonakilla Bordeaux blend on so many occasions that I bought a few purely on past performance.

A couple of years on, and as I say, one sniff takes me back, because it’s still quite a tight wine in terms of its nose. It is, however, starting to unwind, the way a stripper starts by peeling back the outermost layers of clothing. So I’m told. Aromas of dark, perfumed fruit emerge from the glass, with edges of leafy cabernet character and spicy, cedary oak. Very tight, coiled, but by now leaking a little.

The wine’s entry is a bit misleading, in that it is quite easygoing and quickly moves on to an elegant, medium bodied palate of pure, fleshy red berry fruit. Good intensity and complexity of flavour. But just as you begin to suspect the wine is a bit of a sheep in wolf’s clothing, the fine, ripe but rather abundant tannins make themselves felt. They don’t exactly swamp the fruit, but they are very assertive at the moment, and create a lengthy, puckeringly dry finish.

It’s pretty clear to me that this wine’s best years are ahead of it, and I may well wait 2-3 years before trying it again. Really good potential on the basis of this bottle. I’m about to tuck in to a big rump steak now and it will be interesting to see how the wine responds.

Update: food didn’t do much to tame this wine’s structure. Perhaps only time can do that.

Clonakilla
Price: $35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007

Plantagenet Shiraz 2000

Posted on by
2

Heady, rich cedary blackberries and dusty book leather hit you the moment you pull the cork from the bottle. It’s obvious that this is not a young wine: there’s a bit of wateriness at the rim, and the color is a bit faded there as well, although the drink itself still looks fairly youthful.

In the mouth, this wine doesn’t really taste at all like it did five years ago: it’s calmed down into something entirely different. There’s a little bit of spiciness, and (thankfully) the fruit is still holding in there, but secondary flavors of peat and wood are beginning to dominate. It all still works fairly well, but it’s clear that the wine is probably on its way out – if you have any of this, you’d do well to drink up now while it’s still fairly good. I imagine that another year or two is all that’s left in this, and to be frank I’m sad that I didn’t drink it while it was young (I tasted this wine at the tasting room in the winter of 2002 and it was at that point one of the most stunning wines I’ve ever tasted). Still, it’s a beautiful example of an aged Australian shiraz at this point, and if you prefer your wines aged, this is as a good ‘un.

Plantagenet
Price: US $20
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007

—

If you’re ever in Mount Barker, Western Australia, you owe it to yourselves to see these guys. As an added bonus, the Valley Views Motel is the best motel I’ve ever stayed at in Australia: well priced, comfortable beds, friendly proprietors, and a lovely, quiet location in a beautiful WA country town.

South Island Pinot Noir 2006

Posted on by
Reply

First off, I was surprised to smell this wine because whoa – it actually smells like Pinot Noir, which is practically unheard of in wines at this price point. It smells like a woody cherry Coke, spicy with a strong scent of vanillin. It’s noticeably light for a New World pinot, which isn’t a problem for me at all but I suspect it could be problematic for many American wine buyers who expected red wine to be opaque (this isn’t by a long shot).

It’s rather light in the mouth but not as light as low end Burgundy; there’s some varietal fruit sweetness but not much more than that, and the finish is short and uninteresting. Ultimately, it might be better just to smell this wine (and not drink it).

That being said, though, it’s not too shabby given the price point – but there are better options for just a few dollars more (or even the same price – Montes Pinot Noir from Chile can be much more interesting than this wine is). I’d suggest you serve it with Thanksgiving dinner (oops, too late) and hope that no one pays too much attention to it.

South Island (but really fresh&easy)
Price: US $9.99
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2007

Prunotto Barbera D'Alba 2005

Posted on by
Reply

A New World style from the Old World.

A truly inviting nose of dark berry fruits, bramble/undergrowth, some sweet spices and noticeable vanillin oak. Smooth, quite seamless, not overly complex. The entry and middle palate are again smooth, showing the same mix of flavours within a body of medium weight. There’s no angularity here; no prominent acidity, no premature raspy tannins. Nothing, in fact, to dominate the round, pleasant fruit and oak flavours. Flavours are perhaps a little light on in the intensity stakes, which in a sense is appropriate for the wine’s easy going structure. Finish is soft and of reasonable length. Despite being a bit light on, the wine does have a nice sense of balance.

I had this with pasta and goat ragu and, whilst the wine was generally a good match (the fruit sweetness in particular enhanced the sweet sauce), I would have preferred something with more structure.

Prunotto
Price: $A25
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007