Clonakilla Ceoltóirí 2013

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Julian Coldrey

Clonakilla’s small batch range seems to have exploded in recent years, with little rhyme or reason to its composition – not that I mind at all having the opportunity to taste a broader range of styles coming out of this wonderful producer. Some of the wines look outside the Canberra region for fruit, but this Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro and Cinsault blend is sourced from Murrumbateman, Clonakilla’s home turf.

The aroma is all about a cool climate vibe – this is an uncompromisingly spiced wine, with a range of floral and cracked pepper-like notes blanketing a layer of red fruits. There are also fragranced orange peel dimensions and a baseline of oak that, together, frame the assertive aroma, not softening it so much as completing its range.

The palate, at this stage of the wine’s life, is driven by a firm acid line and some fairly prominent tannins, and over three days it has softened only a little. To be sure, there’s no lack of flavour; as with the aroma, this is quite driven, with an aggression to its articulation that is impressive as well as a little tiring. It’s wiry and detailed and all those good things, but the adjectives I am instinctively reaching for are less unequivocally positive – lean, young and unresolved. A key difficulty for me is the way its structure sits apart from its fruit, creating a sweet-sour impression and granting the wine a fairly hard finish. The fact this is a light, transparent wine only exposes these components more.

So, to write about this as a wine of potential, or one of inaccessible pleasures in the present? It may well be both those things. Certainly, its unwillingness to tire over an extended period bodes well for its future, and there’s no denying the elegance of its flavours.

Clonakilla
Price: $A36
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Clonakilla O’Riada Shiraz 2011

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Julian Coldrey

The gulf between quality and pleasure can be vast.

One of the mistakes of wine appreciation is to assume one is equivalent to the other – that, somehow, a wine with length and complexity, one that ticks all the boxes of canonical wine quality, will taste good and provide pleasure. Or, equally, that a wine one likes must be framed as a wine of quality. Sometimes the two meet, and it’s glorious. But this intersection isn’t necessary for intense pleasure, and a wine which delivers an amount of sensual enjoyment even as it lacks some key ingredients deserves to be as vigorously defended, if not more so, than a wine of perfect form.

I’d never put this forward as a wine of comprehensive quality. In fact, it’s quite flawed on a formal level, lacking the length and definition one might reasonably demand at this price point. It’s also light on, almost exposed, and hence treads the line of being disappointingly insubstantial. All of this no doubt a function of difficult vintage conditions — if that matters.

The fact this has given me more pleasure over the past few days than any number of better wines is a matter for some introspection, and no mean challenge when it comes time to write. If there’s a shared element to those things I love despite their flaws — genre cinema, Proust, Four’N Twenty pies — it’s that their distinctive pleasures are so outsize, so overwhelming, as to obliterate (or at least make tolerable) their evident shortcomings. So this, a wine with inadequate body and length, and one which fades far too quickly with air, is also the most explosively spiced, fragrant Shiraz of any I’ve tasted in recent months. Its song on attack is so charming it carries the wine’s slight blur right through its moderate line and textured finish.

Is it wrong to enjoy a wine so much for being so little? No — indeed, what’s wrong is to contain enjoyment within the narrow confines of Platonic form. Wine is many things, people are varied, and the intersections between a wine and its audience are bound to be complex. I know this isn’t the greatest wine, yet I’m happy to have opened a bottle that made me smile, as much for what it lacks as what it gives.

Clonakilla
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Clonakilla Riesling 2013

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Julian Coldrey

I’m partial to a good Canberra Riesling, and the Clonakilla version tends to be pretty reliable. No wonder I’ve ended up with a bit too much in my cellar. Nice problem to have, I guess. Still, it remains a mystery to me how I can like a variety so much and drink it so little. Perhaps Riesling is the cauliflower of the wine world. To me, at least.

This isn’t the subtlest of wines right now. As it currently presents, there are powerful citrus rind and floral aromas that overlay some slatey subtleties. It’s a forthright, savoury aroma that shows this variety’s manlier side, as if the aroma has been carved from a solid block Riesling Flavour. Still, a valid style and one that has a lot of impact.

In the mouth, all that the nose promises. This is piercingly acidic, a fact underlined by strands of mineral-slate flavour that drag the wine into some pretty serious territory. Over the top, more lemon rind and powdery flowers. If I’ve a criticism of the wine as it stands now, it’s that the flavour presents as rather too emphatic and a bit shouty, which makes for some pretty tough drinking. I doubt this is at its best, though, and I think as an aged wine it will be considerably more pleasurable.

Clonakilla
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Collector Reserve Shiraz 2007

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Julian Coldrey

Considerable hesitation before deciding what to drink tonight. For some reason, my wine rack (the high-throughput, on-site portion of my cellar) is full of white wines at the moment, none of which I felt like drinking. This, therefore, stood out, and when I looked up my previous note I saw a reminder to try it again about now.

On the basis of this and the recently tasted 2006, I’d say the later vintage is drinking better right now. While the 2006 is still quite youthful, this is developing some really attractive tertiary aromas and flavours that complement its full plum fruit and spiced edges well. The nose has an appealingly ripe richness, with dark plum flesh and brown spice now accompanied by truffled notes and leather. These are the flavours of good old red wine, polite enough to make themselves felt without taking centre stage. The effect is harmonious; I like where this aroma is at.

The palate is similarly balanced, though the primary fruit here is perhaps more assertive. In particular, there’s a lift of plum juice through the after palate that remains fresh. Black pepper falls over the wine’s entry and mid-palate, along with an increasingly dense thread of fruit and underlying coat of leather and earth. There’s a lot going on here, all quite discernible even if the wine lacks an ounce of precision and definition. Tannins are mostly plush, with a slight bite of astringency through the finish, while acid feels reasonably relaxed.

One would lose nothing by drinking this wine now.

Collector
Price: $A46
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Collector Reserve Shiraz 2006

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Julian Coldrey

Looking back over my notes, I first tasted this in 2008, and again in 2009 with Chris. What’s striking about the glass in front of me now is how little it has changed from, in particular, my initial encounter.

This is still massively primary on the nose, the density of fruit I noted back in 2008 remaining a feature of the aroma profile, as is its just-out-of-the-gate freshness. Rich red and black fruits, pepper and other spices, firm oak; this certainly has the spice of a cooler climate wine along with the assertiveness and rich depth of a warmer climate one. Part of me feels this is Australia’s sweet spot in contemporary Shiraz – wines that show the ripeness and generosity of fruit achieved in our classic styles combined with the sort of spice and meatiness colder weather can bring. Best of both worlds, in a way.

In the mouth, still spicy and dominated by dense, muscular berry fruit. As I originally noted, this isn’t a wine of subtlety, but it never feels caricatured to me, always retaining a sappy, spicy edge to counterbalance its rich fruit. Here on the palate I’m getting a greater contribution from bottle age, with some lightly leathery flavours edging in and adding a sheen to the wine’s primary flavours. I previously suggested this wine was soft in acid, but on this tasting I’m getting good structure, both acid and tannin, which is keeping the wine brisk and firm. The after palate is perhaps starting to lose some fruit weight now, signalling the wine’s future as an altogether mellower experience.

If anything, this wine plays it a bit safe. It’s perfectly formed in its way, yet I wish it showed a wilder streak, something to lift it above being the excellent wine it already is and turn it into something truly memorable.

Collector
Price: $A46
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Clonakilla Ballinderry 2004

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Julian Coldrey

There are some nice bottles of wine scattered about my house. Not nice in the sense of outrageously expensive, but nice in the sense that I hesitate, for whatever reason, to drink them. On the whole, I enjoy living by myself, but choosing wine to drink is a definite downside. There are no excuses, no-one else to share the burden of having opened the last bottle of this, or an old bottle of that. I was bemoaning my reluctance to drink a lot of the wine I have at home to a good friend the other day, and he said “Just open them.” So tonight, I have.

It’s not an unaffordable wine, this one. I think it was about $35. The reason why it’s an important wine to me is that I bought it with Chris and his partner Dan at Clonakilla’s cellar door after what I presume (because I don’t think we’ve ever visited Clonakilla without this happening) was a wonderful conversation and barrel sampling session with Tim Kirk. Such occasions happen so infrequently when friends live at opposite ends of the earth, and this wine, sitting on my cheap IKEA wine rack, has served as a reminder of Summer weather, a drive from Sydney to Canberra, precious conversation and the feeling of being amongst your own kind. No wonder I’ve not found a worthy enough occasion to open it.

Looking back over my notes, I’m reminded of a slight hesitation over this wine because, at the time, its aroma was almost entirely locked down and its structure formidable. Perhaps it’s an overrated pastime, allowing a wine time to reveal itself. There’s something masochistic about being made to wait for an anticipated pleasure that may never, in fact, happen. And yet this wine’s gradual maturation into complete, liquid elegance communicates intense reward and a sense of happy shock, the same shock one gets when an old acquaintance turns up after many years’ absence, suddenly handsome and magnetic in a way that only makes sense in retrospect. This wine’s features are just beginning to work their magic now. The nose remains quiet, now more sotto voce than mute, too dignified to lunge for the dark berry notes and pencil shavings that seep out from nowhere and fill in the bottom layer of the aroma profile. A whisper of aged leather sits in the middle, gradually building what should be, with even more time, a complete profile of notes.

The palate is getting ready for this completion; it has paved the way by paring back its structure, adding the most striking thickness of mouthfeel and transforming from a somewhat raw beast into something altogether more civilised. The range of notes is textbook: red and black berries, cigar box, tobacco, a hint of gravel. This is seriously good Cabernet in medium bodied, elegant mode. Why aren’t there more Cabernets from Canberra? This seems ideal to me, effortless and flavoursome.

Tell me again, why did I ever hesitate to open this?

Clonakilla
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail

Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Julian Coldrey

Canberra isn’t a region known for its Cabernet, although I admit I’ve always felt warmly about the few that I’ve tasted, most notably Clonakilla’s Ballinderry. This one from Shaw Estate Vineyard is an expressive, varietal Cabernet that has a lot going for it, I think.

The nose is typically dark fruited and leafy, with some surprising and welcome gravel notes too. There’s an elegance without being excessively lean or green that marks this as, for me, a stylish wine, even if angular too. No, this is what Cabernet should smell like: masculine, a bit challenging, putting aside plushness for well defined form.

The palate is more of the same, except the fruit is much more prominent here than on the nose. There’s a mellifluous streak of bright fruit that runs right down the line, perhaps simple and DMS-like but still attractive. Around this gather more leaf and gravel notes, as well as tannins that will delight texture freaks, though which may prove forbidding to less adventurous drinkers. I like their chewy confidence. Oak is present but feels subservient to the fruit’s contribution. A nice, linear finish ends the wine well. I thought this wine was a little hard at the back palate when I first tasted it but this is softening with each sip, so just be sure to give it a good swirl in the glass.

Good Cabernet and good value at $25.

Shaw Vineyard Estate
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Capital Wines The Backbencher Merlot 2010

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Julian Coldrey

Capital Wines’ premium Kyeema Merlot piqued my interest in this second label wine. I find it endlessly interesting to see how producers differentiate their lower level releases from their premium labels. Some seem to chase vastly different styles (for example, heavily oaked reserves wines versus fruit-driven entry level wines), while others attach a more nuanced appeal to more expensive wines through exotic vineyards, small quantities, and other canonical markers of vinous authenticity, singly or in combination. In this case, the back label suggests fruit for this wine is sourced from the Kyeema vineyard, the very same vineyard whose grapes power the reserve wine. I presume, therefore, the difference lies in part in fruit selection.

Immediately on smelling it, the oak treatment here is less prominent, pushing fruit forward in the aroma profile. The fruit’s character is particularly interesting. It has the same savouriness as the Kyeema, with perhaps a simpler touch and more rounded expression. It remains light years away from many other Australian Merlots in character. The fruit seems at times to lack vibrancy and freshness, though this does not detract from its generosity and distinctiveness.

The palate is, in some ways, more approachable than the Kyeema, being less bright with acid and hence more mellifluous in flow. Tannins are also less astringent here, allowing the wine to relax through the back palate. Despite all this, it’s still a well-structured wine, showing good flow and focus. Flavours sit in a red berry and herb spectrum, fruit three quarters savoury and one quarter strikingly sweet. It’s an interesting tension, not entirely resolved, overridingly fun. I like this very much, despite its more modest aspirations compared to the Kyeema wine. Both wines are valuable expressions of this varietal in an Australian context.

Capital Wines
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Capital Wines Kyeema Vineyard Merlot 2009

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Julian Coldrey

It’s just under a month ago that my computer’s hard drive failed in a not-catastrophic (I back up, of course) but certainly inconvenient fashion. It’s taken me this long to get the thing fixed, and in the meantime there’s been no blogging, and very little drinking, to speak of. This is not a bad thing; for starters, I’ve been able to amply prove to myself that drinking isn’t entirely responsible for my state of overweightedness. Anyway, such a long absence begs the question what to drink upon my return. I’ve decided to try this sample, sent in by Capital Wines in response, I think, to my ongoing quest for decent Australian Merlot. At $A46, this is certainly priced in a premium bracket for a local example of the varietal.

Interestingly, it’s not styled aggressively in the manner of (too) many reserve-level wines. The nose is savoury and well-fruited, staying well away from the sort of facile plushness that can plague this varietal. It’s actually a very interesting aroma profile, lean and almost edgy, with good complexity along roast meat and herb lines. I’m not a fan of the notes deriving from what I presume is the oak treatment; too obviously nougat-caramel for the sophistication of the fruit. The palate is equally fine-boned, throwing in a decent amount of fresh acid that, for me, brings the fruit to life, if somewhat aggressively. Entry is direct, flowing to a bright middle palate full of red fruit and brown herbs. Medium bodied at most, this wine’s styling is fundamentally unforced, communicating an attractive earthiness and ease. The after palate lifts with some astringency and slightly raw tannins, which add rusticity even as they detract slightly from the sophistication of the flavour profile. The finish is light and long.

This isn’t a perfect wine by any means, but it’s one of the most compelling expressions of Merlot I’ve tried from a local producer. It offers a strikingly alternative view of the grape, daring to head down a stylistic path that will confound some drinkers just as it charms others.

Capital Wines
Price: $A46
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Clonakilla O'Riada Shiraz 2010

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Julian Coldrey

You’ve got to love a Shiraz that looks like a Pinot.

And that’s the first impression of this wine; shockingly light in colour, lacking the density that regular drinkers of Australian Shiraz might easily take for granted. The fact that I could see light pass right through it in my glass had a profound effect on me. That a well-known producer might release a wine so flagrantly at odds with conventional expectations of this varietal made me feel all of a sudden that Australian Shiraz has come of age, that there’s legitimacy to the wide range of classic styles we produce, that we are, indeed, the true home of this chameleon-like grape. That’s a lot to pile on a single wine, let alone one that is effectively a second label. But as the shining, ruby-like liquid poured into my glass, I felt lucky to be able to enjoy such confidently different expressions of our great grape.

There’s no disappointment here. A cursory sniff immediately establishes this wine’s cool climate credentials. Red fruits abound, but what strikes first is a cascade of pepper and spice, dried flowers and etched detail. I can understand why cool climate Shiraz challenges some drinkers, but there’s such pleasure in these perfumed aromatics, which seem closer to fine fragrance than to anything agricultural. Especially beguiling is a shake of dried herbs that darts in and out of what is a complex, constantly shifting aroma profile.

The palate is light to medium bodied, as the wine’s appearance and aroma suggest. A spiced attack leads to more expansive flavours on the middle palate, always focused but with greater range and more fully fruited. There’s a nice meatiness to the flavour profile too, and I would love to try this wine with some top quality snags or a juicy rack of lamb. Smoked herbs dominate the after palate before a detailed, savoury finish lingers on. Acid is bright and fine, tannins sandpaperish.

An utterly satisfying wine and one that banishes all thought of cool climate Shiraz sitting anywhere near the stylistic sidelines in Australia.