Tag Archives: McLaren Vale

Dowie Doole Merlot 2008

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A less-than-ideal tasting at the recent Brisbane Fine Wine Festival nonetheless left me intrigued by this wine, and I’ve been keen to try it again in more relaxed circumstances. At the time, in a lineup of McLaren Vale reds, this stood for the clarity and freshness of its flavours. Picked “before the heatwave,” the fruit going into this wine is mostly Merlot, with 7% each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

Pretty lean and tight initially, a good deal of swirling yields dividends in the form of dark berry fruit aromas, some spice and the sort of herbal notes that remind me of raindrops on young foliage. It’s a straightforward aroma profile in some respects, perhaps deceptively so, as its coherence tends to mask (in a positive sense) reasonable complexity. A bit of vanilla ice cream oak rounds things off nicely.
The palate is full of clean fruit which, happily, confirms my initial experience of this wine. Like the Teusner Riebke, this is all about fresh, delicious fruit flavour, and this it delivers in the context of a style that manages to be distinctive and approachable at the same time. Quite bound up on entry, it takes a few seconds for flavours to burst onto the tongue. Mostly savoury dark fruit, spice and a bit of dark chocolate flow well through the middle palate, becoming slightly lighter as the wine moves to the back of the mouth. It’s is only just medium bodied, so the decadent vitality of its flavour profile is especially pleasing. Powdery tannins provide a nice foil to the directness of the fruit, leading to firm, dry finish with a cheeky kick of sweet fruit at the last minute.
It could do with a few months’ rest to unlock the full potential of the fruit, but I am enjoying this wine tremendously for its balance, freshness and easy charm. A great example of the triumph of drinkability over contrived style.

Dowie Doole
Price: $A21
Closure: Stelvin

Tintara Reserve Shiraz 2003

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I’m a sucker for McLaren Vale Shiraz, and tend to prefer its flavour profile to some other nearby regions. There often seems a thread of bitter chocolate running through the most typical wines that meshes well with a what is frequently a dark fruit flavour profile. Yes, I declare a decided preference for this style, and it’s gratifying to have an especially good example in front of me now.

Really complex aromas of cocoa, fresh plums and freshly harvested root vegetables (pulled out by the stalks). There’s also smoky oak of the high quality kind. The smells are great, but what impresses me most is the nose’s density and coherence. It’s akin to the highest quality drapery; luxurious, textured and totally seamless. A bit of bottle age too, as much a mellow glow as any particular aroma.

Shottesbrooke Eliza Shiraz 2006

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This is Shottesbrooke’s premium Shiraz label.

Dusty Dutch cocoa and vanilla essence before all else, but with a deep vein of dark, savoury fruit running underneath. There’s real sophistication and complexity here, with bursts of licorice and spice adding detail to the aroma profile. It seems quite woody; happily, the oak is well matched to the fruit character.

In the mouth, a slow attack gives way to a rush of dense fruit flavour towards the middle palate. Quite a lot happening amidst the medium to full bodied palate, and it’s cleaner in flavour profile than the dusty nose suggests. A nice burst of dark, glossy and straightforward berry fruit defies the oak treatment and proves the latter isn’t, in fact, overdone. On the after palate, a seriously attractive lift carries berry fruit flavour right up into the back of the mouth, along with some vanilla that resonates through the lengthy, warm, cocoa finish.

d'Arenberg The Stump Jump Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre 2007

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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.

Tir na N'og "Old Vines" Grenache 2006

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Is it possible to be entirely prejudiced against a wine merely from smelling it quickly, walking up the stairs to the computer?

Simply put, this smelled like some kind of fruity New World red, with some kind of yeast with a flashy brand name – FermentXtreme™ or what have you. It smelled like UC Davis checked into the Motel Quickie in Roseworthy, SA and snogged its way to a Parker 90+. It smelled like something the wine waiter sells to folks who don’t like wine but who want to look sophisticated when they’re dining at the Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Toorak. I dunno. It just smelled kind of lame.

That was twenty minutes ago, and it’s finally shaping up a bit with some air. Now it smells of lovely oak, Rainier cherry and allspice. Kind of a cocoa, bay leaf, eucalyptus mint, white pepper sort of thing. It’s lovely but it still seems to be missing some sense of place.

The way it actually tastes, though, is the surprise here. It smells overlarge, Partonesque, but surprises you; it’s lithe, sleek. It doesn’t taste at all like it smells; it’s more of a blackcurrant flavor I’m getting here, and the tannins seem to be out for lunch. Coming back to it again, it is decidedly New World, but there’s this twinge of cassia there that’s unusual and attractive; it finishes quietly, wandering off to the back of the spice rack where the things your Czech grandmother brought to Christmas dinner back in the late nineties still moulder behind labels you can’t understand. Basically, the trick here is that you’ve got a wine that meets the high-octane, Parker fruit bomb mold – judging by the way it looks and smells – but it tastes far more interesting than most of those. I’m pleasantly surprised by this and would gladly drink it again.

Tir na N’ogP
rice: US $25
Closure: Diam
Date tasted: September 2008

d'Arenberg The Stump Jump Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre 2006

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And so we come to the end of our bargain dozen. I’ve enjoyed the tasting and, for the most part, have been pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety available at around the $10 mark. I came across remarkably few corporate lolly-water type wines, and it’s nice to know one can buy a dozen wines at this price point whose flavours are willfully different from one another. To finish, I’m tasting a well-known quaffer, The Stump Jump, d’Arenberg’s entry-level blend of McLaren Vale fruit. 

Nose is slightly hot, with some green funkiness alongside savoury red fruit and sweet spice. It’s got personality. On entry, it’s surprisingly acidic, with a fresh and quite textured mouthfeel establishing early and carrying right through the line. Riding this acid wave is bright red fruit, some round spice and an astringent, sappy edge. Light to medium bodied, this wine has an almost Pinot-like flavour profile in some respects, initially savoury but gathering fruit sweetness as it moves through the after palate. There’s nothing outrageously complex here, and the acid is, to my taste, somewhat too aggressive, but it’s good drinking. The finish is perfectly acceptable, with subtle, plush tannins blanketing the tongue. 
A good wine to finish with, then. Rustic, unsophisticated, real. 
Price: $A10.45
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: August 2008

Rosemount Balmoral Syrah 2002

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A controversial wine. This benchmark Australian label in its 2002 incarnation was savaged by some prominent critics on release, then appeared at an enormous discount at retail. I picked up a couple out of curiosity and whacked them in the cellar. Here’s a first taste.

There’s a curious duality on the nose. First, hints of sweet dark fruit and sweeter oak. Second, an astringent, funky character that is hard to pin down but that exists somewhere between green bean and hot tar. For all that, it’s quite aromatic.
The palate is revealing, as it more strongly contrasts sweet fruit against powerfully astringent, somewhat bitter flavours. Just full of contradictions, this wine. There’s definitely some ripe, black fruit in there. It’s emphemeral, though, and hence teases the palate without providing a sense of closure or completeness. Instead, the wine is somewhat dominated by apparently unripe notes and bitter coffee grounds. It’s all slightly dirty and quite out of keeping with my understanding of style and balance. Some sweet vanilla oak sneaks into the after palate, and the finish is quite long.
I left a little in glass overnight and it calmed somewhat, but with this diminution of difficult flavours came an overall dullness that is no compensation. I should note, though, that we finished the bottle between us, and it’s ironic that a wine about which I have so many questions can still be oddly drinkable. The other half certainly liked it more than I, so maybe it’s just not my style. 
 
Price: $A20
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008

Ngeringa J.E. Shiraz 2004

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McLaren Vale Shiraz that clocks in at 13.5% alcohol? Yes, it does exist, as this wine from Ngeringa proves. I’ve been meaning to try more Ngeringa wines ever since I had a very pleasurable encounter with its Adelaide Hills Chardonnay. This wine shows an equally clear sense of style.Quite an intense, balanced nose that mixes savoury and sweet fruit, stalky brambles, plus some vanilla and spice. Altogether attractive and relatively complex. Entry confirms this wine’s true character as a rather Italianate, savoury wine of medium body and firm acidity. There’s good intensity to the fruit, which has a lovely “candied peel” edge. The wine is quite lightfooted, with flavours that dance on the tongue rather than smother or overwhelm. It’s really quite complex without being overly intellectual. Some green, undergrowth-like notes emerge on the after palate, reinforcing the savoury fruit notes. The finish trails off in intensity but retains good length. This style really appeals to me. Although it’s a quality wine that you could drink analytically, it’s the kind of wine to throw back with friends, marvelling at how delicious it is while you get stuck into dinner. An example of what the McLaren Vale is capable of when it is not pushed too hard. Brilliant value for money.NgeringaPrice: $A20Closure: StelvinDate tasted: March 2008

Wirra Wirra Church Block 2005

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This wine’s full subtitle is “Cabernet Sauvignon – Shiraz – Merlot;” 47%, 35% and 18% respectively. 


Red-purple in colour, moderately dense. Nose bursts forth with sweet, ripe fruit of the blue and black variety. It’s very ripe, perhaps overripe for some tastes (there’s something almost spirity about it), but there’s no doubting how generous and up front is its flavour. There are also elements of spice and chocolate that squeeze in alongside all that fruit and add some savoury interest. The palate is dominated by more ripe fruit, quite sweet, and again perhaps too big for some tastes. Wines in this style succeed or fail almost entirely on the quality and interest of the fruit’s flavour profile and, in this wine’s favour, there’s at least some complexity of fruit character. But it’s unchallenging and, I suspect, designed for consumption without too much analysis. Acidity is soft and fine. Tannins prickle the finish but aren’t especially prominent or drying. Rather, still more fruit gushes through the after palate and sticks around for a little time on the finish. 

You have to admire a wine style that is so sure of what it is, even if it’s not entirely to your taste. We had this with dinner and it’s not a very food friendly style, lacking the structure to truly complement a meal. Instead, I would drink this on its own, perhaps even after dinner, to warm your insides and satisfy that craving for a McLaren Vale fruit bomb we all feel from time to time…
 
Price: $A21
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: January 2008


d'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz 2002

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Recently, a good friend of mine remarked that they’d never had a d’Arenberg wine that hadn’t disappointed them. Thinking about it for a second, I almost agreed, but then thought back to a fortified Shiraz that wasn’t at all bad, and of course their cheap white wine usually isn’t bad either. Which brings me to the three bottles of The Dead Arm that have been languishing in my cellar for years. I wouldn’t have ordinarily bought them, but a wine shop in southern California somehow managed to score a few cases at a closeout price of roughly half what they usually cost. Of course, the reviews at the time were universally middling, but I figured what the heck: surely this is just idiosyncratically good and therefore confusing, right?On the nose, there’s lots of sweet cherry fruit along with a dirty eucalyptus mint that’s hinting at the bottle age this wine’s racked up over the last few years. Rich, candied meat also shows itself eventually, as well as a distinct medicinal tang not unlike St. Joseph’s children’s aspirin (think oranges spiked with embalming fluid). There’s also a subtle supporting note of quality wood, which sets it all off rather well, I think. At this point in the wine’s evolution, it schizophrenically struts between thick, rich, young Aussie red and older, mature, claret. It’s entertaining.The entry on the palate is at first remarkably shut down, and then the acids hit you: huge, grabby, shocking acids. It’s all surprisingly rustic and more suited to a cheap vin du pays d’Oc than an often-hyped, fairly expensive Aussie shiraz. Then, it all dies off with a whimper. What was that? Another mouthful reveals a midweight palate, along with generic, unidentifiable fruitiness, the same surprising acidity, a bit of bottle age, and then… bupkus. Eventually, some gum-assaulting, drying tannins show up as well as a bit of funkiness, but even that’s curiously half-assed. With some time and air, it started to resolve itself a bit more in terms of its flavor profile, but honestly? This wine probably wasn’t a good deal even at half price, and it seems to be drying out and dying at the moment.d’Arenberg

Price: US $24.99 (distributor closeout; current release is US $54.99)
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: December 2007—On second thought, about ninety minutes later, I realized that this wine actually is displaying a low level of cork taint, which is a bummer. A lot of the muted flatness is more likely the result of TCA; it’s clear to me now that it’s difficult to distinguish between “bottle age” and TCA, at least for me. I’m glad to see that d’Arenberg have moved to screwcaps for some of their production, but it’s too late for me – no way to return this wine given its age, and it’s on its way to the recycle bin, alas.