Tag Archives: 2005

Pascal Delaunay Rosé d'Anjou 2005

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I bought this wine because it is under screwcap. When it comes to bargain basement French wines, sometimes one needs to look for reasons to purchase. Perhaps I’m being a bit mean — this wine is super cheap, from a good year in the Loire, and its main grape is one you don’t get to taste in local wines: Grolleau (40%, with Gamay and Cabernet Franc both contributing a further 30%). I cracked this little number open to accompany Thai food.

The colour is quite watery, though not unattractive in its way. It’s sort of a faded peach colour. Excellent clarity. Moving on to the nose, there are faint aromas of floral fruitiness, with some spicy edges. That’s about the best way I can characterise it. No intensity here, but it’s clean and at least it smells good. The palate is again clean, but the lack of any real intensity of flavour becomes quite apparent. The wine just slips into your mouth, registers a few simple fruit flavours, and then it’s gone again. Sort of like a depressed singing telegram. Technically a demi-sec style, there’s a smidge of residual sugar to add body but, mercifully, no excess sweetness.

On the plus side, it’s a clean wine, well made, pretty. But terribly dilute. Food overwhelmed it a little. Serve this chilled at a casual summer lunch in lieu of Chateau Cardboard.

Pascal Delaunay
Price: $A8
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: December 2007

De Bortoli Windy Peak Cabernet Merlot 2005

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Part of a six pack of cheapies I bought the other day at Dan’s. The Windy Peak range has often surprised me with wines that substantially overdeliver at their price points. How about this Cabernet Merlot blend, then?Varietally correct aromas of dark fruits, leafiness and a rather yummy fried bacon note (plus a hint of tinned corn, or DMS). The fruit has a slightly bright, “forced smile” character that starts to suggest industrial winemaking to me, but it stops short of being truly offensive, and is well and truly balanced by more interesting tomato vine-like aromas. The entry ushers flavours to the middle palate quickly. The palate is medium bodied and neatly balanced between those just-shy-of-confected fruit flavours and more savoury elements. Tannins are quite lovely and fine, kicking in towards the rear of the palate and carrying the wine through a finish that is satisfyingly long. Not hugely complex, but balanced and well made. No doubt this wine is excellent for the price. If one might criticize it for lacking individuality, it’s hardly a serious fault at this end of the market. Having said that, it’s also just good enough to make me pine for a better wine, if that makes sense. De BortoliPrice: $A13Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007

Yalumba Wild Ferment Eden Valley Chardonnay 2005

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I’ve had this wine before but, interestingly, this wine showed a lot tighter than the previous bottle.  It’s labelled “Wild Ferment” and there are certainly some super funky aromas hanging around, along with some matchsticky sulfur, citrus and white stonefruit. Most definitely super complex for a Chardonnay at this price point. The entry is quite linear and surprisingly, considering the nose, primarily structural, leading to a middle palate that is flavoursome but also very focused and acid-driven. Here we get moderately intense grapefruit and white peach notes, more funky flavours and light sulfur, along with astringent acidity and some oak-derived flavours. The acid structure takes the wine over a little and drives it through to a finish that is quite drying, perhaps with some phenolics coming into play. I paid $A14 for this wine, and I would expect a technically correct but quite uninteresting Chardonnay at this price point. This wine totally overdelivers and presents not only good winemaking but some personality too. We had this with a snack of Italian bread and macadamia salsa, and the wine responded well to food, although it didn’t soften as much as I thought it might in the face of oily food. YalumbaPrice: $A14Closure: StelvinDate tasted: December 2007

Marc Brédif Vouvray 2005

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The nose is best described as elusive, but tantalisingly so. Flavours of powder, flint, light tropical fruit, herbs and musk seem to emerge from the glass with unexpected intensity and then disappear again just as suddenly; the overall effect is quite beguiling.

The entry is not flavourful so much as textural. It’s slippery and surprisingly viscous and leads to a medium bodied palate that is again surprisingly intense. There are herbal edges to the same light tropical fruits that showed on the nose, plus a whack of acidity that introduces a mineral aspect to the flavour profile. It also counterbalances the residual sugar that emerges on the middle palate. Really nicely judged in this respect. Flavour density builds towards the after palate, and the wine’s finish shows very clean, lingeringly sweet fruit and minerality in equal measure.

I’m actually having this wine as an aperitif, and regret that I don’t have something like a nice liver pate to go with it. This is a lovely wine for those who enjoy a more subtle white wine experience – perhaps those who can appreciate a younger Hunter Semillon might enjoy this wine. To me, there’s a sophistication in this wine’s reticence and elusiveness. Balance and complexity in spades. Very nice indeed.

Marc Brédif
Price: $A30
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: November 2007

Picardy Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc 2005

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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

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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

Prunotto Barbera D'Alba 2005

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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

Peregrine Riesling 2005

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In addition to some lovely Pinot Noir, one of the delights of my trip to Central Otago earlier this year was tasting the range of delicious, aromatic whites. Although I noted a degree of inconsistency between producers, the region in general seems to produce full, generous Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer that are often notably different in style to those produced in Australia. In particular, producers in Central Otago seem more inclined to a range of styles that include varying degrees of residual sugar. Now to the Peregrine, from the 2005 vintage.

Signs of age are already appearing on the wine’s nose, with toast and perhaps even a slight kero edge infiltrating the wine’s otherwise heady honeysuckle-like nose. No shrinking violet, this wine. Despite the generosity, I thought it was initially all over the place and quite disjointed. After about half an hour with it, I wouldn’t say it’s entirely resolved, but it’s much more coherent than it was on opening.

The wine’s entry immediately introduces vivid, somewhat coarse acidity onto the palate, along with intense citrus and apple flavours. The middle palate is quite full and it’s here the wine’s residual sugar starts to influence the flavour profile. It thickens the fruit and introduces a tropical fruit element into the wine, not at all unpleasant. This may sound odd, but this wine has a sweet and sour line running through it that strongly reminds me of some New Zealand Pinot Noir. Flavours persist well through the after palate, winding up in a neat, surprisingly soft finish.

There’s no denying this is a tasty wine with plenty of flavour. I would have preferred a tad more elegance, though, and would happily trade some of this wine’s intensity of flavour for a greater sense of poise and balance. Despite the modest residual sweetness, the wine still comes in at 13.5% alcohol. I don’t have any food to go with this wine right now, but I bet some Asian canapes would be perfect.

Peregrine
Price: $A22
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

Mike Press Wines Merlot 2005

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It’s late on Saturday night, I’ve raided the cellar looking for something to keep me company as I settle down to relax and watch a DVD. Hmm, Merlot, that sounds good. I’ve been meaning to try the Mike Press version, relatively hyped as it has been in online discussion fora and wine press. So: how good can $A10 Merlot be?

The answer is: pretty bloody good. Lifted nose of black fruits and leafiness, along with supporting caramel/mocha oak. Not explosive, but balanced and elegant. The wine slides smoothly into the mouth, whereupon flavours of black fruit and olive build and spread over the tongue. This isn’t a fruit bomb, although the fruit is delicious and ripe. Rather, there’s a nice dialogue between fruit, savoury flavours, somewhat resiny oak and a firm acid/tannin structure, all within a medium bodied palate. The wine’s line is quite focused. Finish is puckeringly tannic, but not unapproachable, and of decent length.

In absolute terms, this is a good to excellent wine that shows varietal character and a sense of style. The oak is sticking out a bit much for me at the moment, but that’s a matter of taste as much as anything else. For the price, I just don’t see what else one could ask for. I’m off to pour myself another glass.

Mike Press Wines
Price: $A120/dozen
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007

Leasingham Bin 56 Cabernet Malbec 2005

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I’ve had many enjoyable bottles of Bin 56 over the years, and I especially love how it develops with some bottle age.

Expressive, bright nose of jammy red fruit and oak. On entry, it’s apparent how intense and generous this wine’s fruit is. The mouth fills with sweet, jammy red fruit that tapers off just as assertive yet fine tannins emerge to dominate the finish. Despite the generosity of fruit flavour, the wine is of medium body and is, structurally, quite focused. At the moment, though, it’s all youthful arms and legs. With some time, I hope this wine will obtain balance between its elements and improve substantially.

Leasingham
Price: $A20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: November 2007