Ballandean Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

I feel a bit lame for not writing up more local wines, so consider this an assuagement of my sense of guilt as much as anything else. Still, my notes on Full Pour are in large part a reflection of what I choose to drink for pleasure, and the reality is I haven’t explored Queensland wines to any significant extent. Not to diminish this particular wine before I’ve even started, of course. Here we have a straight Cabernet from the Granite Belt region, produced by one of its oldest wineries. 

There are some distinctive things happening on the nose here; quite a strong smell of turned earth and dusty red fruits in addition to more typically Cabernet aromas of leafiness and dark berries. The fruit character strikes me as quite ripe, a bit stewed even, and the earth notes aren’t squeaky clean, but the whole is expressive, generous and quite fun.
Stewed fruit is more evident in the mouth, robbing the wine of a sense of freshness and varietal character. If you can get past this, though, there’s certainly some enjoyment to be had. Despite relatively assertive tannins, the structure of this wine is loose, flavour tending to collapse onto the tongue in a generous but messy wave. Perhaps it’s my mood, but the flavour profile as a whole seems tangled, and I’m having trouble resolving the individual elements in amongst a crowded, yet indistinct, mass of elements. The after palate thins somewhat, allowing a bit of heat to emerge on the finish.
I’m tasting this wine critically, so it’s probably fair to say the observations I’ve made will matter very little to someone looking for a flavoursome dry red to throw back on a weekday evening. In this functional role it performs admirably. 

Ballandean Estate
Price: $A14.25
Closure: Cork

Chain of Ponds Novello Nero 2005

A blend of Sangiovese, Barbera and Grenache from South Australia. 

The nose is relatively dumb at first, with sour cherries and raw meat seeming to sit in the glass even when violently encouraged to take flight (my wrist is sore – from swirling). There’s a coarse vegetal edge to the aroma that seems whole bunch-like. A bit of powdery vanilla oak rounds things off. It’s quite sniffable and mercifully free from industrial confectionary. It’s also blunt and rather unrefined.
On entry, a refreshingly rustic mouthfeel that immediately recalls the sort of cheap Chianti that I secretly adore for its rough authenticity. Also like cheap Chianti, there’s never any danger of this scaling the heights of fruit intensity. Rather, this provides “just enough” of a great many things: flavour, length, complexity, interest. But wine is about how the whole hangs together and, in this case, there’s a reasonable impression of coherence. More sour cherry pips, almonds, oak and a moderately unattractive caramel note wash over the tongue, straining to escape the impression of being watered down. Bright acid keeps things fresh and clean, washing away the last stains of flavour and encouraging food.
I wasn’t feeling all that positive about this wine when I sat down to compose this note, and I remain equivocal in some respects. On the other hand, it’s fresh and light in a manner that evades many local red styles, and for that at least should be noted.

Chain of Ponds
Price: $A14.25
Closure: Stelvin

Mount Langi Ghiran Cliff Edge Shiraz 2005

Bit of a Grampians-fest here at Full Pour lately, and why not? Long renowned for quality wine,  and apart from a couple of high flying labels, this historic region seems to sit under the radar and the total number of producers remains low. 

A forthright nose of ripe plums, cherries and not just a pinch but a whole market of exotic spices. The spiciness here is striking and, it seems to me, very regional. It’s quite a dark aroma profile overall, robust too, so words like “heady” spring to mind rather than “elegant.” There’s something to be said for impact, though, and this certainly has punch.
The entry is explosively satisfying, confirming the nose’s character with up-front flavour and substantial palate weight. This really is quite in-your-face, in a good way, with notes of incense, cedar oak, plum jam and other dark fruits intermingling on the mid-palate. Good drive through the mouth, with the after palate lightening a shade, showing less spice and more fresh fruit flavours. A tantalising, lingering finish, riding a velvet carpet of fine tannins.
This is an exceptionally flavoursome wine; not the last word in refinement, but generous and quite delicious. This is the sort of wine that I love, because it’s so true to its region and hence sacrifices none of its essential character, even though it is (nominally) a second tier label. 
As an aside, I do like Mount Langi Ghiran’s classy, strong branding. Nice work.

Mount Langi Ghiran
Price: $A21.85
Closure: Stelvin

Domaine du Prieuré Savigny-les-Beaune Les Gollardes 2005

I had to leave this wine overnight as, on opening, it seemed excessively sulphurous, to the point of being undrinkable. It’s better tonight, although there is a hardness that seems reluctant to depart. I’m not enough of a guru to know whether this is a technical fault or a function of fruit, so I’ll just call this wine as I find it.

On the nose, softly fruited with quite luscious plum and strawberry characters. There’s also an edge of minerality and an underlying hardness that speaks to me of woody stalks. It’s actually becoming less expressive as it sits in the glass, although what’s there is interesting in an elusive way. The entry shows similarly contradictory characters. There’s a thread of the same juicy fruit, but it’s almost completely overwhelmed with hard, savoury characters. Things remain thin through the middle palate, with a thrust of bitterness that obscures pretty much everything. There’s a bit of joy on the after palate, with some sweetly floral characters, before an astringent, hard finish.
I’m not really getting a lot from this wine in terms of enjoyment, though I will persist with it through the evening to see where it goes. 

Domaine du Prieuré
Price: $A36.30
Closure: Cork

Bass Phillip Village Pinot Noir 2005

I really do try to be a sympathetic partner, but I find myself involuntarily laughing when, on opening an unusual wine, my other half has a dramatically negative reaction, sometimes declaring a wine horrible and utterly undrinkable. “Oh really, what don’t you like about it?” I usually ask, knowing I’ll get back an amusingly colourful rant. Granted, he has an extremely low tolerance for things not to his taste (not a bad thing) which, when combined with my forgiveness of odd flavours and wine faults, means we have these conversations more frequently than one might expect. And so it was when we opened this wine a couple of nights ago.

Without wanting to suggest I’ve tasted an extensive range, ever since Chris and I shared a magical moment or two over a bottle of Tetsuya’s house red (a Bass Phillip Pinot made especially), I’ve had a soft spot for Phillip Jones’s wines. This one is testing my loyalty, though. Tasted from the same bottle two days apart, my experience is mixed. On the first night, a masculine wine full of robust, sour berry fruit and stalky, in fact almost twiggy, flavour. Although eliciting the aforementioned “yuk” from my partner, I really enjoyed the robust character and almost brutish force of the flavour profile. Granted, there seemed to be all sorts of weird flavours in there too, quite indescribable and frankly not quite “right.”

Two days on and those odd flavours have won the battle. On the nose, a really odd smell that reminds me of rancid deep fryer fat, mixed with crunchy red berries, freshly ground black pepper and horse hair. Not exactly your clean, New World Pinot Noir. The palate continues this oddness, with flavours of paté on Melba toast, potato chips and utterly delicious sour fruit. And that’s the thing with this wine. It’s not right in the head, yet I keep coming back to it, fascinated by its combination of strange and compelling flavours. Flavour profile aside, it is structured really well, with good movement through the mouth and a well balanced interplay of acid and tannin.

I wouldn’t recommend this wine to a stranger, but I would share it with a friend.

Bass Phillip
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork

Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay 2005

First, provenance. I ended up with this bottle of wine (amongst others) courtesy of the Sydney Royal Wine Show, as a “thank you” for stewarding. The thing is, I can’t find out anything about it other than the fact that it won a silver medal at the 2008 Show. Nothing on the Wolf Blass website. So if you’re after some of this wine — sorry, can’t help you. Unless some of our readers (or the producer) can enlighten us all, of course.

It’s quite a tasty wine, though difficult too. The nose seems mostly influenced by winemaking rather than fruit — savoury mealiness, sweet vanilla oak, a touch of caramel. All pretty delicious if you don’t mind fruit flavours that take a complementary role in the overall profile. The fruit itself is lovely — white peach mostly — but oh-so subservient. Interestingly, this isn’t a totally juggy wine, and there’s enough of a funky thread to the aroma to present as challenging too.

In the mouth, some surprises. It’s not flabby at all, nicely propped up by acid in fact, and I am finding the fruit more prominent here than on the nose, at least initially. The attack is alive and crisp thanks to the acid, creating an impression of vibrant, fresh fruit, but this momentum isn’t maintained because the intensity of the fruit dips quickly as the wine moves towards the middle palate. It’s like a little explosion that disappears from view before you’ve finished taking in the effect. Is the fruit receding, or is the wine perhaps going through a stage? Who knows. Just as disappointment threatens to settle in, things pick up again on the after palate, though flavours here are more oak-driven. Classy oak, to be sure, but a bit blunt too. The finish slides into caramel and oat meal, and feels a bit hot to me.

Overall it seems a bit awkward and gangly, and it may be that I’m drinking it at a disadvantageous point in its trajectory.

Wolf Blass
Price: $A40
Closure: Cork

Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier 2005

What a few days it has been — a busy schedule combined with the sort of low-level cold that is mind altering in an irritatingly subtle manner. It’s one thing to be demonstrably ill, each messy blow of the nose fully justifying the most outrageous self-pity and prompting those wonderful moments of over-the-top affection from one’s partner. The curse of the slight cold, however, is to want to complain knowing no-one will take you seriously. It’s also to taste wine (as I did last night) and realise that you have a totally screwed palate. Hence no tasting notes.

Tonight’s a completely different story, though. I’m as fit as a fiddle (well, I could lose a few kilos but let’s not get hung up on details after surviving a vicious sniffle) and things are again tasting of themselves. I remember this wine created quite a stir on release. It was as Bin 389 is to Grange — a way to get a good hit of Canberra Shiraz Viognier goodness without shelling out for Clonakilla’s top drop. I enjoyed it a good deal on release, but this is the first time I’ve tried it in a while.

Domaine Jean-Claude Bachelet et Fils Bourgogne Rouge 2005

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

Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir 2005

There’s not much to do in Te Anau, New Zealand, on the night of your very quiet wedding except hunt down a nice restaurant and order the flashest-looking bottle on the list. So it was that I ended up drinking this very wine a couple of years ago. I’ve since tried it a couple of times (most recently in New Zealand with Chris) and it continues to provide enjoyment. Wine’s funny like that; it can be as much about the circumstance as anything else, and often I give in to this subjectivity.

What pleasure in familiarity! It’s like Central Otago in a glass, sweet/sour plum, vanilla oak and ripe tomato leaf enthusiastically leaping from the glass. There’s a bit of peat-like funk that I don’t remember in this wine, and I put it down to the very beginnings of bottle age. The palate is where things are developing more noticeably. Firstly, texture. Mount Difficulty Pinot tends to be quite roughly acidic in youth, and although there’s still abundant acid, it has transformed from sandpaper to plush velvet. Hence, the wine feels full and weighty in the mouth, fruit flavour gorgeously unlocked. Not one for lovers of delicate Pinot, this wine is a full throttle expression of Central Otago fruit, generous and savoury, with ripe vegetal complexities and a cough syrup-like note. After a swell on the middle palate, there’s only marginally less presence on the after palate, and the finish is of good length. Is the finish a bit hot? Or is the oak a tad raw? Perhaps, but I’m not fussed, it’s just so tasty.
It’s a shame I don’t have more of this, as I think it has a good few years’ life left. I’d like to taste it again in perhaps two or three years’ time, as I suspect it will be truly luxurious at that point.

Mount Difficulty
Price: $A50
Closure: Stelvin

Domaine des Baumard Vert de L'Or Doux 1999

A big mushroom cloud of oxidised stink at first, settling to a less big mushroom cloud of oxidised stink after a few minutes. There’s no doubt this bottle could be in better condition, but it is keeping it together long enough for me to have a good taste.

An interesting companion piece to the dry 2000 version, this wine is less identifiably varietal yet weightier in fruit at the same time. Gentle acidity provides a backdrop for gentle, sweet flavour and some bitterness that both freshens the palate and overwhelms the fruit somewhat. It’s all very easygoing in flavour profile and, thanks to that acidity, brisk on the tongue. A simple, slightly confected after palate leads to a decent finish that is quite textural and slightly bitter.

A little hard to judge this bottle, but what’s here is tasty enough, though fading a little disgracefully into old age.

Domaine des Baumard
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork