Tag Archives: South Australia

Glaetzer Wallace Shiraz Grenache 2006

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Barossa Valley reds aren’t terribly well represented in my cellar (or, by extension, in my posts to this blog), about which I feel vaguely irresponsible. It’s one of our classic red wine regions, after all, and the fact that I don’t often feel like drinking its wines probably says more about my lack of discernment than anything else. No matter — tonight I’m cooking a spicy pasta dish, and a fruit-driven red wine will be (I hope) just the ticket. Hence this Shiraz/Grenache blend.

Before I describe the wine, I must say a word in favour of the packaging, which is distinctive and classy. A nice alternative to retro/euro labels without descending into tackiness. An intense, pungent nose of baked clay/earth and spice. It smells like a hot Summer’s day, and I’d like to think the fruit experienced a fair few along its journey towards this bottle. There’s also a slightly volatile vanilla note and, of course, a whack of jammy red fruit. Somewhat complex, commendably regional and expressive of real personality.

Good line from nose to mouth, with a clean, immediate continuation of the aroma’s baked earth and fruit notes. The wine is lighter in body than I expected, and more acidic, all of which subverts an abortive expectation of this as a lazy fruit bomb. Not at all. Flavour is certainly generous, but there’s too much spice, earth and structure to allow complete relaxation in the mouth. It’s lively and bright, with acid and loose-knit tannins creating an almost crunchy mouthfeel. There is more red fruit and vanilla here, along with nut/bark-like spice notes. I wish there were a notch more intensity at the mid-palate. Good drive through the lifted after palate, with nary a dip or dodge along the way to a decent finish.

Good balance, complexity and distinctiveness, but little of the depth and three dimensionality of better wines. I admire such a strong sense of style in a wine at this price point, even if this means the wine will be necessarily (and happily) divisive. Lovers of Barossa reds needn’t hesitate.

Glaetzer
Price: $A22
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: October 2008

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

Mitchell Sevenhill Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

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How things change. I tasted this a couple of years ago and found it lean, mean and a little green. It’s still the same wine, of course, but time has been kind.
A heady nose of powdery, dusty cabernet fruit, tobacco, eucalyptus leaves on a hot day, perhaps a hint of oak. There’s some bottle aged complexity in an edge of leather, but the wine is surprisingly youthful in its aroma profile. Quite complex, but certainly not one for those with an aversion to eucalyptus/vegetal aromas.
Good presence on entry, with an attractively clean run over the tongue. Cool cabernet fruit and dusty eucalyptus beat a path to the mid-palate. Texture begins to roughen up at this point, and some additional flavour elements introduce themselves. There’s some varnishy oak, a bit of dusty library, some bramble. In short, it gets a whole lot more interesting. Medium bodied at most, and with still-prominent acid, there’s a rough and ready character to the mouthfeel and structure of this wine that suggests additional bottle age will be of benefit. Overall, the flavour profile is quite savoury, with cabernet fruit distinctly sweet but largely subservient to the other elements. Fine, powdery yet slightly raw tannins are a dominant element on the after palate, and the wine does hollow out a bit at this point. The reasonably long finish is consequently quite dry, with little fruit weight to counterbalance the tannins. A lovely counterpoint of bottle aged sweetness emerges at the back of the mouth.
An angular style, then, and not the most elegant. But not at all bad and worth a try if your tastes lead to the more intellectual face of Cabernet. I have one more bottle and will let it sit for year or two before retasting.
MitchellPrice: $A30Closure: CorkDate tasted: August 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

Peter Lehmann Barossa Riesling 2008

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Riesling has provided me and many other wine lovers with a fabulous hunting ground for labels that vastly outperform their price points. Consider: the pinnacles of Australian Riesling; singular styles recognised internationally; routinely sell for $20-40. Even Hunter Semillon costs more at the top end. Here, though, is a $9.50 Riesling from the Barossa Valley, a region not renowned for the variety. On the plus side, Peter Lehmann is a winery that has a history of solid, well-priced wines.

A forward nose of candied pineapple and other tropical fruits, plus a bit of spice. I’m not getting the “crisp citrus and floral” notes referred to on the back label. Instead, this seems a broader Riesling style. In the mouth, some initially welcome acidity fades as lemon and candied fruit notes take over. These flavours are assertive but lack intensity at the same time. I suspect a level of residual sugar contributes to this flavour profile, though there’s nothing overtly sugary about the wine. A dip in intensity through the after palate precedes some bitterness on the rather chalky finish.

Tatachilla Growers Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2006

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Anecdotally, Sauvignon Blanc, alone and in blends, seems to be the quaffer of choice for casual work lunches and similar occasions. It’s not hard to see why; flavours are for the most part easily discerned and unchallenging. There are some quite lovely versions of the “classic dry white” blend. The Grosset springs immediately to mind, and the Margaret River style seems especially prized by the lunchtime crowd. Most examples, though, seem to express more modest vinous aspirations. This one, from McLaren Vale based winery Tatachilla, is made from fruit sourced across South Australia.

Angove's Long Row Shiraz 2006

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I’ve got a head cold, am slightly cranky and, quite frankly, couldn’t take another cheap wine last night. So instead I opened a bottle of Collector Marked Tree Red. Thus sated, I can once again turn my attention to our value priced offerings. Here is a South Australian Shiraz from Angove’s, a Renmark-based winery with a broad portfolio of products. At $A6.60, it’s one of the least expensive wines in the dozen.

An attractive deep ruby colour, not overly dense. The nose speaks of black pepper and spice as much as fruit. Not the high toned floral spice of a cooler climate wine, but deep, rich spice that tends towards the brown, nutty type. Fruit character is subservient, dark and straightforward. The palate has good impact and its upfront acid brings more spice to the fore, at least on entry. Fruit emerges on the mid-palate as dark and slightly jubey in character, simple but certainly clean.

Peter Lehmann Chenin Blanc 2007

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Barossa Chenin Blanc. I’m guessing it won’t bump Pinot Gris from fashionably derivative restaurant wine lists any time soon. However, Chenin Blanc interests me as a variety because, as lovely as it can be in the Loire Valley, it seems to leave its personality at home when it travels. And yet, the loveliness of a nice Vouvray keeps me hoping for greater things in our local wines. At under $10, at least this wine makes it inexpensive to test the waters.

Served cold, this wine smells of prickly lemon, green apple, a hint of honey and a slightly waxy note that adds some softness to the aroma profile. Closer to room temperature, the aroma stays remarkably static, gaining in richness but not losing its fundamentally bright, aromatic character. There’s nothing especially wrong with the way this wine smells, but it’s also a bit bland, the way an IKEA bookshelf is bland. You know it will do the job, but you can’t really love it.
The palate seems more strongly influenced by temperature. Initially, this wine displays a tight, almost overwhelmingly lemon-like palate, bright and refreshing in its sharpness and acidity. Mouthfeel is nicely textured, with a blanket of well-judged acidity providing a nice sense of freshness, if not a terribly sophisticated structure. At first, I thought I detected a hint of oxidative flavours, but this seemed to fade through the evening. As it warms, the wine shows notes of honey and round, slightly sweet fruit, all of which provides enjoyment on the mid-palate. Perhaps a hint of minerality too. There’s certainly a good deal of flavour. Acidity carries the wine cleanly through the after palate, where the flavour profile reverts to citrus-driven astringency, clean and satisfactorily long.
A fuller, yet still refreshing Summer white to serve with lunch. I’m not seeing the depth and complexity of a top Chenin Blanc, but on its own terms I think this wine succeeds well, and manages to present a degree of character one might not expect at this price point. It is interesting to note the label encourages bottle age. Excellent value.
Price: $A9.40
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: August 2008

Grosset Gaia 2002

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Style is, I think, of the essence when it comes to wine appreciation. Formal qualities such as complexity and structure are all well and good, but it all comes to nought if you don’t like the wine’s character and personality. I remember tasting Pinots in Central Otago a couple of years back, and being struck by how boring some (though certainly not all) the wines were, despite being quite correct and certainly well made.  There was nothing extra, no idea or beauty beyond what was in the glass.
 
Dark, somewhat impenetrable colour with flashes of crystalline ruby.  The nose is heady with cedary spice, brambles, clean fruit and higher toned powdery florals. There are also some light touches of sweet bottle age. In its delicacy, it’s closer to fine fragrance than wine, but none the worse for it. The aroma profile became more integrated and assertive through the evening.
 
The palate disappointed me initially, and here I return to the question of style. For the first hour or so, I found the wine correct, full of quality, but somehow underwhelming and perhaps a little boring. A very clean entry, with cool fruit and savoury leaf winding their way towards a medium bodied mid-palate. Additional notes of vanilla, dust and a bit of eucalyptus add themselves to the mix with time. Excellent delineation of flavour components. Bottle age becomes more evident on the after palate, with a lovely, lingering sweetness sitting alongside loose-knit yet still quite dry tannins. A nice lift through the after palate shows higher toned leafiness plus hints of plush ripe fruit too. The finish is excellent, clean and long, and leads naturally to the next sip.
 
It all sounds quite good. What changed after an hour is critical to the wine’s success but sits outside of a tasting note. The flavours clicked, merged and became utterly persuasive. It’s as if I was able to step back and see the wine as a whole rather than as individual components of flavour and structure. Its style, in other words, transcended the mechanics of its delivery and became the wine’s dominant face. And, happily, I think I got it.
 
GrossetPrice: $A50Closure: StelvinDate tasted: July 2008