Tag Archives: Shiraz/Syrah

Clayfield Massif Shiraz 2009

Posted on by
Reply

Regular readers will know that at Full Pour we can embrace a more subjective approach as, at times, the most vivid way of communicating a particular wine’s pleasures. Even so, the reaction prompted in me by this wine is sufficiently extreme that it has pushed me towards one of my ultimate, if perverse, ambitions: to write a tasting note without describing the wine at all. I hasten to add that I won’t seek to achieve that ambition with this piece; if nothing else, Simon Clayfield’s 2009 Massif deserves a full account in conventional terms, and I’m committed to giving it at least that. Yet even starting down that path with this wine is hopelessly, frustratingly inadequate, because what matters most here is its personality.

Like a good friend who remains appealing despite thorough familiarity, this wine enters the room, sits right down next to you, issues a warm hug and leans back to chat. Talk starts, an accelerating cascade of comment and counterpoint, creating a dialogue that makes time seem irrelevant. Needless to say, trying to explain this in terms of the wine’s highly spiced, peppery aroma, its liquefied plum fruit, its ingratiating flow over the tongue, will never do. Perhaps its truly Grampians character gets a bit closer, but something that’s simply recognisable doesn’t necessarily imbue it with the sort of magnetism I’m seeing in this wine. I think what gets me here is the way in which each element is expressed; it’s not the words being said, it’s the tone, the rhythm, the harmonics that flow in, around and under each expression. Things that don’t consciously register but which nonetheless are full of meaning.

So that this wine has a complex flavour profile, including marvelously rich soy sauce, intense spice, mellifluous plum, is fine but insufficient by way of explanation. Like a fabulous raconteur, it takes what it has, which may be conventional when viewed in conventional terms, and transforms the experience of it into something special, purely through a sense of style, attractive flair, well timed vulgarity. And just as it would be difficult to fall in love with a page of printed words, but easy with an idea, so this wine is tugging firmly at my emotions, not my intellect. I encourage you to spend some time in its company.

Clayfield Wines
Price: $A30
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Lock & Key Shiraz 2009

Posted on by
Reply

I really like Hilltops Shiraz; at its best, it has a flavour profile that I can only describe as “purple.” Vivid, slightly vulgar, yet soft at the same time. It strikes a nice halfway point between a pure cool climate attitude and the lushness of our warm climate styles, combining a dose of hedonism with the serious angularity of pepper and spice. Happily, this very affordable wine shows great typicité.

The nose has a notably deep aroma profile that shows layers of pepper, brown spice and squishy base of plush, dark fruit. Totally purple. This is the kind of aroma that dismisses complexity as an objective, because what’s there, though straightforward, is so attractive. I don’t mean to undersell this as some sort of dumb but pretty quaffing wine (though it could fill that role admirably, if only on the basis of its price).

The palate is quite breathtakingly structured, though whether its acid is fully integrated is a question mark for me. In any case, there’s a good rush of dense fruit flavour on entry, tickled around the edges by white pepper and crushed leaf. Things move into a more composed, almost elegant place through the after palate, where the wine thins out a little and delivers more complexity of flavour, including an intriguing medicinal note. A bit of hardness through the finish.

I reckon this is a great weeknight wine, much smarter and more identifiably regional than a lot of wines at this price point. Nice.

Moppity
Price: $A14.99
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Dowie Doole Shiraz 2009

Posted on by
Reply

I’m slowly recovering from the most unpleasant cold I’ve had in years, and tonight I thought I’d ease back into tasting with what is usually an easy wine to enjoy — Dowie Doole’s regular Shiraz. As impressive as this producer’s upper echelon of wines can often be, I enjoy the regular release for its extreme drinkability and unpretentious style.

I suspect the tricky 2009 vintage is showing through here in a slightly harder flavour profile than usual; there’s a woody, spicy, vegetal influence that competes with the wine’s lush, sweet fruit, though the latter is never overpowered by it, ensuring the style’s fundamentals still shine through in the end. The aroma starts with spice and transitions quickly to cherries and plums and rich, dark chocolate. It’s a guilty pleasure candy bar of an aroma profile, again with that slightly hard edge but also a soft, gooey core.

The palate echoes the nose quite precisely, wood and spice giving way to slightly stewed plum fruit that dominates the middle and after palates. This is a pricklier wine than usual, more angular and challenging. Still, it’s also a Dowie Doole Shiraz, so remains firmly in easy drinking territory, still showing as much freshness and drinkability as possible. The finish is a lovely surprise, long and spiced and red fruited.

Dowie Doole
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz 1998

Posted on by
1

One of the lessons of this wine is that old Hunter Shiraz is a great way to screw with a wine options game. Great wine, though, and the highlight of an evening that featured several big names failing to live up to their reputations.

On the nose, a Mataro-like meatiness along with dirty leather, some residual red fruit and what is best described as “the smell of old red wine.” It’s not overly developed for a wine of this age, though, and as we worked our way through the options game, most of the group thought it was a much younger wine (five to eight years old). There’s a bit of oak riding through the aroma profile, chocolate-vanilla in character and quite well balanced. Just a really interesting, not-quite-mellow nose.

The palate shows the full extent of this wine’s development, which is to say it remains a structurally youthful wine whose flavours are developing but not yet fully mature. Given the nose’s reticent fruit, what jumps out first here is a roundness and generosity of red berry fruit that screams this wine’s origins, if not its age. This fruit is quickly overwhelmed by savoury notes and the tertiary sweetness that I especially enjoy with older reds. This particular bottle has thrown quite a sediment, and the glass I’m tasting right now has more than its fair share of muck, so it’s possible the muscular tannins I see have a bit of grit mixed in. Structurally, though, this remains an impressively primary wine, with bright acid and well-formed tannins contributing real sophistication to the overall tasting experience. A long, gentle, vibrant finish.

Excellent wine, and one with many good years ahead of it.

Meerea Park
Price: $A110
Closure: Cork
Source: Gift

Angullong A Shiraz 2009

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been impressed with the Angullong wines I’ve tasted in the past. Though priced affordably, they have shown a level of character and drinkability that would be desirable at any price point. For a region that, in my view, is still struggling to find an identity, Angullong’s accessible and distinctive wines are just what Orange needs.

At a RRP of $17, one might reasonably expect a stylistically bland wine, yet this shows a good deal of cooler climate Shiraz character. My first impression of the aroma is intense spice, pepper, cloves and coriander seed. It’s classically cooler climate, but instead of the juicy plum fruit of, say, Grampians Shiraz, this shows a brighter, crunchier red fruit character. There’s not a lot of refinement here, just plenty of distinctive aroma.

The palate is a marginal disappointment, not through lack of flavour but because the fruit tips into slightly confected territory, which simplifies and drags down the overall flavour profile. On the plus side, there’s good intensity and thrust, acid playing a prominent role in the wine’s structure. Oak is present throughout, most notably through the after palate, and the finish tastes like a cross between boiled lollies and mixed berry compote, with a side of vanilla ice cream.

Despite its rough and ready demeanour, this is a very enjoyable wine and one that goes especially well with spicy food.

Angullong
Price: $A17
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Tyrrell's Johnno's Shiraz 2009

Posted on by
Reply

The obviousness of a showy wine makes it easy to write about, whether positively or negatively. Such styles get a reaction, they force you to take sides and, if you care about discussing wine in terms beyond “I like it,” to explain why.

This wine, on the other hand, has me scratching my head, not because I don’t like it (I do), but because no matter how hard I try, I find it difficult to write about in terms that adequately communicate its pleasures. I suspect this is in part because it’s an easy wine to enjoy; it dodges every attempt I make to see it as difficult. The nose gives up everything it’s got without much effort on the drinker’s part and, while there’s plenty of complexity to the aroma profile, the dominant notes provide easy regional comfort: leather and dirt, red cherries, sit-on-my-lap nougat oak, a surprising lilt of white pepper.

In the mouth, these flavours flow easily over the tongue; it’s quite spectacular how this manages to deliver the goods without any apparent effort. Part of it is architectural; light bodied and lightly structured, this isn’t formless so much as waifishly elegant. Acid makes the biggest textural impression through the after palate, giving life to the palate and drawing out the best in its transparent, squeaky red fruit. Yet the wine fights against analytical tasting and, as I sip it now, I have trouble getting past how gorgeously drinkable it is. It’s clean and sunny and not overdone in any way, a wine for drinking, not sipping, smiles of appreciation, not problematics.

I like it.

Update: two days on and it’s really singing. Still like it. Maybe even love it.

Tyrrell’s Wines
Price: $A45
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Moppity Shiraz 2009

Posted on by
2

I was a big fan of the 2008 Moppity Reserve Shiraz. This is the standard Shiraz and, at less than half the cost of the reserve wine, it would be wrong to impose the sort of lofty expectations one might reasonably hold of a $60 wine. Still, as I opened the bottle I was hoping for good things.

My initial impression of the nose was of overripe, prune-like fruit. Happily, this has largely faded into a much more pleasing aroma profile of fresh plum skins, hot blackberries, flowers, spice and dust. Complex, varietal and more than a bit angular, this isn’t a plush expression of Shiraz so much as one that emphasises the variety’s ability to be simultaneously sharp and juicy. It’s a disconcerting start, though, and the lesson here is to give this wine a bit of time to open up.

The palate is bright, having an acid-driven structure and only moderate weight. Good attack on entry, tingling with acid before red fruits creep across the tongue. The middle palate is highly textured and pretty aggressive, showcasing acid and uneven, chalky tannins more than lightly juicy fruit. Even more than the nose, the palate needs a good deal of time to calm and allow its flavour to work its way past all that structure. I don’t have any experience with this label and how it ages, so I’m not sure how the acid will contribute to the whole over the medium term. The after palate is savoury and more fruit forward, and the finish is light but long.

A very interesting wine, rather too young to fully enjoy right now. I wish the acid were less strident, but perhaps a little time in bottle will see to this.

Moppity Vineyards
Price: $A24.99
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Clayfield Massif Reserve Shiraz 2007

Posted on by
Reply

After suffering a significant loss of his estate crop due to frost in 2007, Simon Clayfield sourced grapes from a range of other vineyards in the Grampians region in order to produce this wine, a reserve-level version of his Massif label. This wine changed significantly over the course of two days, and my note (hopefully) reflects this progression.

Initially, lots of oak on the nose: mostly coffee grinds and vanilla milkshake. Swirl by swirl, the oak melts back into a fabric of dense berry fruit compote and plum flesh, iodine and brambles. The fruit doesn’t really begin to sing for a couple of days; it ends up gaining character and purity, becoming a thoroughly regional expression of Shiraz fruit aromas. The oak remains sexy, though, and the wine’s aroma is intensely sensual, almost gropable. This is an aroma profile with hidden, shaded places, suggestive of late night coffees and early morning walks home.

In the mouth, the wine swells quickly to fill the middle palate with soft, pliable volume. Intensity is only moderate, though it gains some weight over a day or two of air. One might wish for more, but by the same token this restraint allows the wine’s most interesting parts — flow, mouthfeel, sensuality — to shine. The after palate has a sweet, liquerous edge before the finish brings stubbly oak back to the foreground. Tannins are loose-knit and sweet, acid very well integrated. The alcohol level (15.1% abv) doesn’t translate to any objectionable heat, though it’s certainly present – I suspect its effect is more strongly felt via the wine’s slippery mouthfeel and its presence in the mouth.

A really earthy, sexy wine.

Clayfield Wines
Price: $A35
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Flaxman Eden Valley Shiraz 2008

Posted on by
2

To the many ways one might measure value for money in wine, I vote for the addition of a “cred” scale. If such a measure existed, this wine would score very highly indeed. For a mere $A25 $A45 (see below), the buyer can enjoy an Eden Valley Shiraz (ding!), made by an utterly boutique producer (ding!) from Estate fruit (ding!) grown on old vines… well, you get the idea. My pocket authenticiometre really does register off the scale here.

None of which guarantees any measure of enjoyment. But it’s a conceptual start, and if one believes wine is, ideally, more than simply what’s in the glass, such things can matter. For instance, it may raise certain expectations of style and even quality: one might look to wines like this for fashionably traditional winemaking, or a clearer view into vintage conditions, and so on.

First impressions are solid; the aroma expresses a thick, ripe plum note that seems half way between the Barossa Valley and the Grampians, in that it combines the lusciousness of the Valley’s styles with a hint of the angularity one sees in cooler climate wines. I do such a classic style a disservice by comparing it to other wines, though; this is Eden Shiraz, if a ripe, relatively forward expression of the style. There are other aroma nuances too – a hint of pepper, some twig and dust.

This fullness of expression carries through to the palate, and here the wine is likely to polarise drinkers. This is a full-throttle wine whose density of flavour alone is impressive. Right from the entry, there’s chewy plum fruit, ripe brambles (the fruit and the wood) and nervous oak. The trade-off for all this flavour is a certain brutality to the flavour profile and in the way it registers on the tongue. It slams rather than floats down, creating a vivid sense of impact but lacking some finesse. Tannins are thick and chewy, contributing to a notably dry after palate and finish.

You could never mistake this wine for the product of large-scale winemaking; it wears its imperfections too flagrantly for that. Something to be thankful for.

Update: price on the sample bottle was wrong. This wine in fact retails for $45.

Flaxman Wines
Price: $A45
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Clayfield Black Label Shiraz 2008

Posted on by
4

I’m in the UK enjoying a rather overdue holiday. My current locale is the North East — County Durham — where each day is marked by lashings of rain, wind and the occasional burst of lovely sunshine. Certainly a dramatic change from the floods, cyclones and general sub-tropicalness I left behind in Queensland, but no less invigorating for it.

One thing I didn’t leave behind, though, was this bottle of wine. I brought it along to share with my host here as (what I hoped would be) an example of one of our great Shiraz styles. Three nights ago, we sat down to to a richly aromatic lamb pot roast and I thought it the right occasion to crack this open.

What a disappointment (bear with me, though). On opening, it was disjointed, overly chocolatey and lacking in the particular Grampians fruit character that makes this style so enduring and exciting. Surely this couldn’t be a representative bottle. Simon Clayfield is a painfully talented winemaker, so I had difficultly interpreting this wine’s ungainliness, as did my host, who felt it smelled overwhelmingly of dusty Christmas ornaments in musty packaging (and he’s not even a wino… impressive). We left it aside after a glass each and it’s only now that I’m returning to it, on the chance that something interesting has happened in bottle.

And boy, has it ever. The lesson here is to give this wine plenty of time and air. Three days after opening, it’s just beginning to sing with the most charming and typical plum fruit character, brown spice, flashes of red berry, brambles, dust and cocoa powder. Such complexity and luxe, it’s a wonderful wine to keep smelling. I should note, though, this is definitely a product of its vintage, being a richer wine with less classically cool climate character than is sometimes found in wines of this region.

The palate is most dramatically changed from a few days ago, showing an elegance of line that simply wasn’t present at first. It’s also pleasingly fresh, the bright fruit character and juicy orange acid contributing most to this impression. Overall, it’s medium bodied in weight and brisk in movement, scattering fruit, freshly ground spice and subtle oak across the tongue. It all culminates in a long, rustic finish whose tannins rasp the tongue coquettishly, both sweet and rough. There’s some heat on the palate, unsurprising given its 15.7% abv; whether this is an issue may vary from drinker to drinker.

So glad I waited.

Clayfield Wines
Price: $A65
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample