Sunday, March 17, 2024

Joshua Cooper Doug's Vineyard Pinot Noir

 Doug's vineyard is at the outskirts of the little town Ramsey, in Macedon. I previously reviewed Cooper's other Macedon Pinot Noir from the Ray-Monde vineyard, and waxed lyrically about it. I will not do it quite so much about this wine, the 2019 Joshua Cooper Doug's Vineyard Pinot Noir. The wine spent one year in oak, before transferred to stainless steel for four months, still on lees. No fining nor filtration, and low alcohol at 12%, similar to its brother. 


Red and black cherry fruit with good intensity feature on the palate. Savoury and herbal notes are there as well and deliver a pleasant and elegant mouthfeel. This wine is quite soft and lacks some bite. I found it a little plump against the backdrop of light tannins. The medium finish does not reveal anything new. 

This style might suit some, but the wine could have been more.

Score: 91/+ 


Friday, March 15, 2024

Premium New Zealand Chardonnays

New Zealand Chardonnay is nothing like Australian Chardonnay. A closer comparison could be made with Napa Valley, although this is hard as well, as there are so many different styles in both regions. In general,  premium New Zealand Chardonnay is often quite rich (get away from the Sauvignon Blanc image?), and flavours are often stone fruit based as opposed to the citrus profile of the majority of Australian Chardonnay. The other day, I tasted four interesting examples. 
  
The first wine was the 2021 Tony Bish Skeetfield Chardonnay from Hawkes Bay. Tony Bish is a leading figure of the area, known for modern experimentation. He is biodynamic, likes ceramic eggs, you get the picture. 60% new French oak is applied as well. This Chardonnay is opulent and rich, with yellow peach and buttery flavours, and a creamy mouthfeel. No doubt he uses 100% malolactic fermentation. Despite this richness, this wine achieves some elegance on top of its mild acidity (94 points).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The second Chardonnay is the 2021 Church Road Tom Chardonnay, also from Hawkes Bay. Wow! This wine makes an entry. It is incredibly smoky on the nose - a huge salvo of gun powder. On the palate, it is not different. This is another very opulent wine. It was not clear if the gun powder flavours are the result of the oak treatment or sulphur. It did not change in the glass. Would the smoke reduce with age? Hard to say. I have never tasted a wine as flinty as this. Below the flint, there is some banana and cream, but it is not what this wine is about (90 points).
The third wine is the 2020 Pyramid Valley Chardonnay from North Canterbury. The original international owners settled on this special location after a 15 year search in 2000. The vineyard they planted is at high altitude, very rocky, with vines planted in groups on the site. 


However, this wine comes from three vineyards going back to 1982 (the oldest Chardonnay vineyard in the country). The wine has been on lees for a full year and is matured in 25% new oak.

This is a very balanced wine, with floral aromatics and honeysuckle flavours building an attractive mouthfeel. The wine is quite ripe, yet retains freshness. The creamy aspects are due to the winemaking and lead to a rounded texture. Saline acidity delivers a lifting finish (94 points).

The final wine in this line-up is the 2013 Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay from Nelson. This is a tropical and rich wine, quite oily and buttery. The wine is complex, with stone fruits, such as mango and peach complimented by hazelnut and biscuit flavours. The wine still feels quite young after 11 years. I found there was a bit too much going on in this compote of flavours (92 points).                                                                                                                                                                                             Overall, these wines provided a fascinating mix of flavours and techniques.
 


     











 

Monday, March 11, 2024

A. Rodda Beechworth Chardonnay

 Adrian Rodda has access to some very high quality vineyards in Victoria. The Smith vineyard in Beechworth is perhaps the best. At 550 meters of elevation, it allows for cooler climate wines, where significant diurnal variation is a major feature.


The 2022 A. Rodda Beechworth Chardonnay is quite pronounced on the nose. Pineapple and peach flavours jump out of the glass.

On the palate, a complex flavour profile emerges. Melon, ripe peach and hazelnut are the major components. The acidity is mild, but enough to drive the flavours down the palate, before saline flavours lead to a satisfying finish.

Given the location, you would expect a citrus focussed wine with firm acidity. However, this wine is more sophisticated and full in the mouth. I really enjoyed this.

Score: 95/+++


Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Pheasant's Tears Goruli Mtsvane

 It is refreshing (no pun) to sometimes step out of your comfort zone, the field of the known, and try something new. It sharpens the senses. I visited Georgia last year, the cradle of winemaking, and was particularly impressed by this small avant-garde winery; organic, white wine on lees, nothing added, no fining no filtration, maturing in underground terracotta, of course; avant-garde for us, but traditional for them. A wine I found from them in Australia was this 2021 Pheasant's Tears Goruli Mtsvane.


Comments about the grape variety are very contradictory, so I won't dwell on it here, other than to say the wine should be drunk relatively young to preserve its liveliness. This is truly an orange or amber wine, as you can see in the image below.


The wine is medium-bodied with an interesting flavour profile of lemon, orange peel, apple and mint. The wine is rich, but not ripe in the mouth. It keeps going on the palate, balanced by some firm acidity.
Orange wines can be out of kilter. This is certainly not. I find this an attractive wine, building on decades of experience, and instead of choosing a white wine for starters and a red for mains, this wine would go well for the whole meal.

Score: 93/++ 
 




 

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Vasse Felix Filius Cabernet Sauvignon

 Virginia Willcock, the long standing winemaker of Vasse Felix, has been in the top echelon of Australian winemaking for quite some time. She has raised the quality of every wine in the portfolio year after year. This has recently been recognized by Wine Spectator, when the 2021 Vasse Felix Filius Cabernet Sauvignon has been named the second best value wine in the world of last year. This Cabernet, which has some Malbec blended into it to fill out the mid palate, gets the royal treatment, and this for $25-30 per bottle; wild yeast fermentation and 11 months maturation in French oak barrels.


This is a really enjoyable wine. The red currant juicy fruit shows great purity and depth. Some tobacco and herbal flavours lurk in the background. This is a bright and elegant wine saying 'Look at me'. The wine fills the mouth nicely, and the firm tannins suggest good ageability. The finish is medium, not detracting from the vibrant fruit of the wine.

Score: 93/+++

  

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Cirillo 1850 Ancestor Grenache

 I was a bit slow to post, as I was in Asia in hot weather. It was beer time. Now back to drink some great Australian wine. Cirillo claims to own the oldest Grenache vineyard in the world, and it may well be. The vines grow on deep sands on the flats of Light Pass. As other Cirillo wines are released earlier and provide cash-flow, it is great to see that the flagship Grenache is only released at 7 years of age. So the newly released wine is the 2017 Cirillo 1850 Ancestor Grenache.


The harvesting of Grenache fruit is quite tricky, as the grapes take a while to ripen, but then ripen very quickly with baumé levels shooting up fast and risking an overripe wine. Marco Cirillo has been at this game for some time, so he knows how to manage it.

So how does the 2017 shape up? This is a full-bodied wine with raspberry flavours hitting the palate, but immediately put in check by some savoury and herbal notes. These flavours will integrate more over the next 2-3 years. This brand is always dark in colour. At 14% alcohol, it is a very drinkable wine.

This is one of Australia's leading Grenaches. It is interesting to contrast it with Yangarra's approach. The Yangarra wines are meticulously and I would say scientifically crafted. Cirillo's approach seems more intuitive. As I drink this wine, I taste Italian love and family in the glass. I really enjoy this wine. 

Score: 95/+++


Monday, February 19, 2024

E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône

 The Guigal Côtes du Rhône may well be the world's greatest quality value wine. It is also the greatest equalizer: not too big, not too skinny; not too sweet, not too savoury; structured, but not too tannic.


I once observed aspects of the production of this huge volume wine at the Guigal facility. The secret may be that the family manages to pay as much attention to each production step, and in particular the blending, as they do to their premium wines. 

So what is special about the 2019 Guigal Côtes du Rhône? The wine is full-bodied. The Grenache element stands out with its red berry flavours, bu down the palate the wine gets darker and delivers almost a mushroom character. There is considerable complexity in this wine. The finish is dry, savoury  
and with a tannic backbone.

Everybody should have this wine in his/her cellar for enjoyable drinking and as a benchmark for Grenache/Shiraz blends 

Score: 93/+++

Sunday, February 11, 2024

An Unknown Barolo

I do not know if this has happened to you, those who have a wine cellar. Yesterday I came across a Barolo which was totally unknown to me. I do not know the maker nor how I acquired the wine. I have a basic cellar management system, but I decided not to look anything up. This is the wine.


2013 is good, Rocche di Castiglione is a great vineyard. The colour of this 2013 Arnaldo Rivera Barolo looks very advanced, but with Barolo it is hard to tell, as orange is common in young wines, too. This is a bit brown, though.

The fruit is strawberry and raspberry, but tar and roses are the more prominent notes. However far more dominant are the dry tannins. This wine is past its best. That should not be the case. The structure is holding up with a long, but extra dry finish. This was not very pleasant. 

Score: 86/-




Saturday, February 10, 2024

Aged Sauvignon Blanc

 Some questions come up over and over again, this one for example: can you age Sauvignon Blanc?


I had overlooked this 2017 La Gemière Sancerre in my cellar. Clearly time to open it. The colour had changed from the typical grassy green to a light golden colour. The nose was not pronounced, a bit waxy perhaps.

I was pleasantly surprised on the palate. The wine tasted a bit like an aged Riesling: beeswax, lanolin,  some honey, and some remaining pear fruit. The wine shows still some freshness due to the healthy acidity of the wine. 

So yes, this wine is absolutely drinkable at seven years of age, but one should not expect it to taste like a fresh Sauvignon Blanc. Wood aged Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand also lasts many years.

The question then is, yes some ageing is possible, but why would you want to?

Score: 91/+


Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Penfolds RWT Shiraz

 I am opening this 2006 Penfolds RWT Shiraz with some trepidation. It is after all the French oaked baby brother of Grange, and I have mainly enjoyed lighter wines during these hot summer months. Also, we are still in the dusk of the Robert Parker period.


The colour of this wine is deep purple, no orange tint yet. Blackberry and liquorice notes dominate the intense experience on the nose.

On the palate, a very complex flavour profile develops. The fruits are predominantly ripe blood plum, mulberry and blackberry. But then there are savoury flavours of tar, charred meat, liquorice and mocca. I taste the vanilla from the 70% new French oak hogsheads. This is a very concentrated wine, built like a house from bricks. The wine is fat and sweet in the core. I find the tannins from this Northern Barossa fruit quite coarse and matching the fruit weight. The finish is long and holding up the wine's complexity.

This is a good wine, but a bit much for me at this time of year.

Score: 95/0  


Saturday, February 3, 2024

Bass Phillip Bin 17k Pinot Noir

 It is interesting that leading wineries find it difficult to replicate the quality of their icon wines in newer brands. Henschke is a prime example. The quality of Hill of Grace, Cyril Henschke, and Mt. Edelstone has never been reached by any of its proliferation of newer wines. Bass Phillip is another example. There have been some attempts to replicate the success of the Estate Vineyard in other Gippsland vineyards near by. One such example is the Bin 17k from a vineyard only 350 meters away from the home vineyard.

Phillip Jones has always been clear he wanted to make Burgundy wines and the wines from the Estate Vineyard could be regarded as such. Very low yields and high rainfall, in Phillip Jones' view, are key. He then developed a vineyard with extreme dense planting, 17000 vines per ha (8 to 10k per ha is regarded as dense planting) - hence the name of the Bin 17k.


The 2019 Bass Phillip Bin 17k Pinot Noir comes from a warm vintage. Strawberry and red cherry flavours deliver a pleasant mouthfeel, quite straight forward. Acidity enlivens this medium intensity wine. The finish is medium as well, without the interest the Estate wines normally deliver. This is a wine of balanced fruit weight reflecting the warmer vintage, but nothing special overall.

Score: 91/+

Cooler vintages in later years meant the vines had to struggle too much. The dense planting was simply too demanding for this Gippsland vineyard. The experiment, and therefore this wine, was discontinued.

    

Monday, January 29, 2024

Chatto Isle Pinot Noir

 Chatto's Huon Valley vineyard, a warm site facing north in a cool region, was first planted in 2007. A small part of the vineyard was first bottled separately in 2014 as the Isle Pinot Noir. While the whole vineyard is planted with nine Pinot Noir clones, only three go into the Isle Pinot Noir, with clone 777 dominant. Limestone, calcareous mudstone and a lot of fossils form the soil. The wine is made with a significant proportion of whole bunches.


Vintages vary a lot in Tasmania's marginal climate leading to great variability in wine quality. It is clear that the 2018 Chatto Isle Pinot Noir is very special. 

The wine is complex and layered with dark cherry, cranberry and soft spices on the palate. Earthy and underbrush flavours add to the intense mouthfeel. Fine tannins drive these flavours across the palate to a harmonious finish. This is how Australian Pinot Noir should taste.

The volumes of the Isle Pinot Noir are small. I came across this wine for the first time now. I encourage you to seek it out.

Score: 96/+++