Topper’s Mountain Red Earth Child 2011

As perhaps the only Nebbiolo, Shiraz, Tempranillo and Tannat blend made in Australia (the world?), this piques one’s curiosity simply because of what it is. Such a blend might scream “left overs” to some, but this is Topper’s Mountain’s flagship red blend, which in itself signals a seriousness of intent. The project here, as was discussed in my review of the 2009, is to create the best blend possible in any given year from the Topper’s Mountain vineyard. The approach is appropriately responsive – this blend bears little resemblance to the earlier wine in its varietal composition.

And, indeed, there are marked sensory differences too. This is a bright, fragranced wine, the aroma infusing one’s senses with tea leaf, red fruit, brown spice and the sort of intensely aromatic florals that suggest eucalypts rather than anything more exotic. There’s quite a lot going on in fact, the whole light and transparent. It’s a nice wine to smell.

In the mouth, the wine’s light weight and high toned flavours are immediately evident. This is such a delicate wine, with more red fruit and spice winding their way around fine acid and subtle tannin. Yes, despite Nebbiolo and Tannat in the mix, this doesn’t come across as especially tannic, though the tannins present are fine and ripe, more velvet than grain. For me, this wine’s pleasures centre on its gentle, savoury flavours — which are surprisingly intense — and a general sense of effortlessness.

Another interesting entry in the Red Earth Child project, then, if not one inclined to call attention to itself.

Topper’s Mountain
Price: $A38
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

S.C. Pannell Tempranillo Touriga 2012

I purchased this at Brisbane’s excellent Craft Wine Store on the recommendation of a learned friend, who said it would be delicious.

And indeed it is. It’s funny how that can sometimes get pushed to the background with wine. Not that I believe an instinctive, hedonistic response is the only way to appreciate wine, but it’s certainly one way, and wines that immediately communicate a sense of deliciousness don’t always do so by way of simplicity. Unpicking what makes such a wine so appealing is actually far from easy.

A case in point, this one. It’s not simple — the flavour profile is quite layered — but it’s unreservedly accessible, due mostly to a core of purple fruit that I find impossibly tasty. Certainly, the wine’s fruit-forwardness is a big part of the appeal here. But there are plenty of fruit driven wines that don’t approach the attractiveness of this blend, so I think its appeal is not so much a question of balance as of the particular qualities — vibrancy, freshness, expressiveness — of the fruit here, as well as its combination of sweet and savoury elements. One might be tempted to intellectualise the flavours if they didn’t communicate so directly and, in doing so, be so resistant to study.

Structurally, tannins are a particular point of interest. They’re plentiful as well as ripe and fine such that, rather than contribute astringency to the palate, they simply create volume and density, carrying fruit to all corners and contributing a velvety opulence to the wine’s mouthfeel. There’s simply no angularity that doesn’t also have an equal and opposing answer, not to cancel out difficulty but to accompany it, to make sense of it.

It’s easy to believe great wines have to be somehow challenging, or inaccessible, in need of age, unyieldingly savoury, overtly structural, fruit-backward, and so on. Great wines can indeed be some or all of those things. But they don’t have to be. This is none of them yet I’d argue that, in its deliciousness, it exemplifies the sort of wine many of us seek out more often than not, a wine for drinking with abandon, for generous pours over dinner, for exclamations of enjoyment, each less inhibited than the next.

S.C. Pannell
Price: $A27
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail

Topper’s Mountain Tempranillo 2010

They’re an interesting bunch at Topper’s Mountain. Working in a — to put it kindly — low profile region, this estate produces a vast array of wines that start at familiar and end at unique (I’m not aware of any other spontaneously and barrel fermented Petit Mansengs being made in Australia, though I’m sure my knowledgeable readership will correct me if I’m wrong). Indeed, there seems to be plenty of experimentation going on, and the quality can be high.

This shows a cuddlier side of Tempranillo. It’s not all savouriness and structure; instead, we get cherry fruit, cola and spice. There’s a lightfooted generosity to the aroma that I like and, although it’s not especially complex, its flavours are well delineated. Oak makes a slightly spiky contribution.

In the mouth it’s less coherent than it smells, with a few elements jutting out. Acid jangles a bit and collides with a rather voluminous, fruit-driven mid-palate. I wish for more evenly textured tannin to counterbalance the wine’s slippery fruit and complement its savoury flavours. But I’m nit-picking. Mostly, this shoots a nice dollop of flavour onto the tongue, with plenty of red fruit, spice and oak. It’s generous but only medium-bodied and generally easygoing, so shouldn’t overwhelm food.

Topper’s Mountain
Price: $A38
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample

Pontotoc Vineyard Estate Tempranillo 2012

A bit of a pre-release note for this wine; as at this tasting, it had been bottled about two weeks.

In speaking with the winemaker, Don Pullum, about this wine and the 2012 vintage generally, it seems the defining character that year was a forwardness of bright berry flavours. In response to this, Don kept a portion of the finished wine in tank, rather than barrel, to preserve some of that character through to bottling time.

An interesting approach and one that has certainly translated to incredibly bright primary fruit flavours in this wine. I left this a couple of days after I first tasted it; predictably, this led to a diminution of fruit and an increase in savoury flavours, whereupon this wine’s DNA becomes a lot clearer. There’s certainly a family resemblance to the initial estate release. Pleasing transparency into vintage, though.

Aromas begin with a plume of smoke wound around bright red fruit. At present, it opens almost entirely fruit-driven but gains a lot of complexity with air. The nose begins to show a range of dusty, floral, grassy aromas; the whole reminds me of walking through a lush field on a very hot day. It’s difficult for me not to think of the vineyard itself, which often bakes in forty degree heat and which smells not unlike this wine, in spirit if not in fact.

The palate is sweetly fruited and, in this quite, is different from the 2011. It’s a much more up front wine at this stage of its life, throwing red fruit in your face the moment you sip it. As a result, it’s a lot more accessible than the earlier wine, and I can see a lot of people preferring it for this reason. The fact that it has gained savouriness with air suggests it will head in this direction with bottle age, and I feel the wine will benefit from some short term cellaring at least, to build some of these flavours.

From what I tasted of the 2013 ferments and finished wine, the current vintage’s release will sit part way between the 2011 and 2012 wines, with both a good deal of savouriness and sweet fruit. I’m happy to have worked on that wine.

Note: For the 2013 vintage, I was an intern with Don Pullum, the maker of this wine.

Pontotoc Vineyard
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Source: Sample

Pontotoc Vineyard Smoothing Iron Mountain 2011

All three wines in the Pontotoc range are named after landmarks visible from the winery. One is the vineyard itself, another the San Fernando Academy, the ruins of which stand right at the winery’s front door. This one has a grander parent, a gentle beast of a mountain in the Hill Country that rises gently above Pontotoc and that looks vaguely like a smoothing iron. Driving around Llano and Mason Counties, one can’t avoid seeing this rounded landform on the horizon, putting us all into some kind of perspective.

This particular blend is what I jokingly call a Super Texan: a cross between Tempranillo, a variety that seems to do really well in the Hill Country, and Cabernet, the prestige import. Of all the wines in Pontotoc Vineyard’s 2011 portfolio, this will probably taste the most familiar to those without any exposure to Texan wines. Whether this is a good or a bad thing depends entirely on one’s point of view.

To my palate, the Cabernet component has tamed some of the estate vineyard’s natural exhuberance; the aroma here is dusty, with hints of Cabernet leaf, showing dark fruit and lightly coconutty oak. Compared to the straight 2011 Tempranillo, this tastes a smidge darker and less angular, with perhaps less fruit and more savoury elements.

In the mouth, lots of coffee and milk chocolate, dusty Cabernet fruit with some flashes of brighter berries. It’s vibrant and fresh-tasting, though again a more adult, streamlined wine than the straight Tempranillo. Palate structure is a highlight, with fine tannins and enough acid to carry the finish but not constrict the mid-palate. There’s also a lovely biscuit-like flavour that I especially like.

Wines from this region aren’t naturally built up or full bodied; rather, their value lies in elegance, transparency and freshness. However, I imagine there’s a demand for more robust styles that can stand up to the equally robust foods of the region. This wine should meet that need well, as it’s a touch more structured and darker in flavour profile, despite its inevitably moderate body.

Note: For the 2013 vintage, I was an intern with Don Pullum, the maker of this wine.

Pontotoc Vineyard
Price: $US30
Closure: Cork
Source: Sample

Pontotoc Vineyard Estate Tempranillo 2011

Although the Pontotoc Vineyard had been producing for many years, its fruit going to other wineries, this bottling is the first under the Pontotoc label, and the first of a planned line of estate Tempranillos. It’s the current release and there are a few cases left.

An impressive first release by any measure. This smells and tastes strikingly savoury, with aroma notes of hessian, dusty roads, sweet hay, underpinned by red fruits and sweet tobacco. It’s quite expressive and high toned, with a floral vibe that sets it apart from meatier expressions of Tempranillo.

The palate is again very savoury and only medium bodied. There’s an interesting mouthfeel at work, sort of slippery and rounded, though not without textural dimensions. More tobacco, savoury red fruits, hints of creamy oak (though not too much of an influence here), along with a delicious coffeed finish. A dusty, dirty impression on the palate strikes me as very Old World, and indeed this is quite restrained in terms of sweet fruit character. It all seems to me highly varietal. Tannins are chunky and sweet when they arrive.

This is a quiet, adult wine; anything but a showstopper, yet full of gentle charms nonetheless.

Note: I am currently an intern with Don Pullum, the maker of this wine.

Pontotoc Vineyard
Price: $US30
Closure: Cork
Source: Sample

Sandstone Cellars IX 2009

75% Tempranillo and 25% Touriga Nacional.

This wine is particularly interesting to me because it’s a blend of the two red varieties that seem to be emerging in this part of Texas as the most promising viticulturally and when vinified. In fact, more than one winemaker here has called Tempranillo the red grape of Texas. All this on the basis of a very few years’ experience; I guess the results have been pretty striking.

This isn’t without challenges; for starters, neither grape is typically as cuddly as Syrah, nor as immediately understandable as Cabernet Sauvignon. Both can be savoury, angular and meaty, with fairly demonstrative structures. Things become interesting, though, when you place these characters up against Texas terroir, which tends to produce lighter, more elegant wines.

I reckon the Sandstone Cellars IX is a pretty good demonstration of what happens. This is indeed a medium bodied wine, its colour wanting a bit for density. So far so typical. Then you smell it and are struck by how demanding this wine is. There are few concessions to inexperience here; this is a stridently angular, adult wine, full of umami-type aromas like soy and roast meat, along with sweet tobacco and snapped twig. There are occasionally hints of bright red fruit that tease one by shining clearly then quickly disappearing into the wine’s mesh of savouriness.

In the mouth, a repeat of the aroma profile’s predominantly savoury notes, with lovely fruit (dark this time) and sweet, sweet tannins. Indeed, this is a very structured wine, and despite its vintage shows no obvious evidence of bottle age. The aroma’s tensions resolve nicely in the mouth, and I particularly like the way flavours bounce from slightly sweet to firmly savoury and back again.

There are certainly more approachable wines in the Sandstone library, as there are in tasting rooms throughout this region, but for distinctiveness of character this is second only to the Sandstone Cellars III.

Note: I am currently an intern with Don Pullum, the maker of this wine.

Sandstone Cellars
Price: $US35
Closure: Cork
Source: Sample

Sandstone Cellars III 2006

A blend of 52% Mourvèdre, 21% Primitivo, 16% Grenache, 10% Touriga and 1% Tempranillo. Chris has previously written about this wine, and his note strikes me as both an accurate representation of the wine and a prescient expression of the excitement that I’m feeling as I work my way through Texas Hill Country. Of all the Sandstone Cellars wines I’ve so far tasted (and there have been a few), this presents perhaps the most distinctive flavour profile, a fact for which its most important constituents (Mourvèdre and Primitivo) must be responsible.

At first taste, this is more Zinfandel than anything else: it has a liqueurous spiciness I associate with the variety, as well as characteristic power and density. It throws such a wide range of aromas, though, so many of which are dustier, darker and more sinister, that Mourvèdre’s influence becomes more and more clear. Notes of camphor, aniseed, dark fruit and spice all intermingle, as well as a leathery note that is surely part bottle age. No shortage of complexity, then, in this highly distinctive aroma profile.

The palate is amazingly dense and impactful, yet never rises above being medium bodied. This both strikes me as very Texan and very new; indeed, I can’t think of too many wines I’ve tasted that house this particular set of muscular, dark flavours within such an elegant frame. The flavour, in fact, suggests port at times, perhaps due to the Touriga. Tannins are chunky and thick when they appear, which they do quite far back in the wine’s line.

This is elegant, delicious, distinctive and ageing gracefully. More than all that, though, it’s a milestone in the invention of Texas, Texas Hill Country and Mason County wine.

Note: I am currently an intern with Don Pullum, the maker of this wine.

Sandstone Cellars
Price: $40
Closure: Cork
Source: Sample

Marqués de Murrieta Reserva 2006

I attended a satisfying dinner on Friday evening where the wines were wide ranging and the table’s reactions diverse. I was interested to note the styles that appealed in such a setting. They were invariably forward and aromatic, with fruit flavours that were clearer and more readily identifiable. No surprise there, but I was left wondering about quieter wines that don’t offer such immediate gratification but which can, when contemplated solo, provide tremendous pleasure.

This is one such wine. Not an exalted label by any means, but it’s a whole lot of good things — expressively aromatic, well fruited, evenly structured. Yet it lacks a hook, something immediate and excitable, which would make me fear for its fate in a large line-up of wines. No matter; tonight, it’s the only wine on my table and I’m pleased to consider it at length.

The aroma shows definite tertiary characters which gives a mellow gloss to underlying fruit aromas. Dark berries and some snapped twig swirl at its base, while a range of other smells build on each other. It shares a gene with the sort of exotically spiced blend that might be encountered in a tea house. Here, spice is a link between fruit, oak and bottle age.

In the mouth, a sensuous wine; its structure caresses the tongue as dense fruit coasts above. The weight of its flavours edges on ponderous but detail and definition are sufficient to keep the wine from cloying. I especially like the integration of flavours, from dark berry to aromatic orange peel to leather; this ultimately tastes like a single, complex note. Structure is present, with acid in particular carrying the wine’s movement. The after palate is relaxed and the finish decent.

$30 is a bit extravagant for regular drinking, but if I had the means, my quaffing wines would be like this: humble, quiet and perfectly formed.

Marqués de Murrieta
Price: $A30
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail

Chapel Hill il Vescovo Tempranillo 2011

From where I sit, Tempranillo is neatly slotting into the role of “alternative red varietal of choice at $25 and under.” Catchy, no?

And as I contemplate an alternate career in marketing, I will note some impressions of this Chapel Hill Tempranillo. It hails from the McLaren Vale, which has churned out a few good examples of this varietal lately. There’s something about the seemingly inevitable generosity of this region’s reds that gives Tempranillo some flesh to hang on its muscle and angles. Is this Tempranillo-lite, in the manner of a lot of early Australian Sangiovese? Perhaps, but this tastes right to me in a way a plump version of Chianti never did.

The aroma is dark and dusty, with the sort of spice profile and sense of snapped twig that I strongly associate with the grape. It’s varietal, then, if cuddly as well. What’s especially nice about the way this smells is that it’s challenging enough to separate it from a vast number of zero friction red wines at this price point. Given the difficulties of the vintage, I’m pretty impressed with how resolved this smells.

The palate also shows an interplay of flesh and fundamentally angular flavour. It’s dark and earthy, with savoury fruit taking a back seat to roasted spice and what I can only describe as tanbark. It’s a very difficult flavour profile to put into words, but what’s more significant to me is how it is such a great food wine. Indeed, I’m tucking into a lamb shank as I type, and the wine’s self-effacing structure and underplayed complexity help it fill the accompanist’s role with aplomb.

How nice to find a wine that isn’t intent on taking centre stage.

Chapel Hill
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Sample