Vinosphere 2019

There was an enormous number of wines on tasting at this very large event. I have a principle to report on good and poor wines when I attend such tastings, but I must make an exception this time. I tasted too many wines to report on them all. It would be very laborious. I will, on this occasion, mention the wines that stood out for me across the four brackets I tasted them in.

In white wines, I was impressed by two Tasmanian Chardonnays. One was the 2018 Pooley Butcher's Hill Chardonnay from the Coal River. The fruit used to go into Penfold's Yattarna. This is an elegant wine, quite big flavoured, with peach, cashew, and cream flavours coming to the fore. The wine has enough drive to keep interesting, despite the big mouthfeel. The 2016 Dawson James Chardonnay could not have been more different. From a cool vintage, this wine is Chablis-like, with citrus and apple flavours and a slightly green tinge. The acidity is nicely keeping the fruit in check.

The two best Pinot Noirs were of very high standard. You would not expect anything less from Bass Phillip. The 2017 Bass Phillip Premium Pinot Noir has great depth of cherry fruit, but is a little closed right now. When the fruit wakes up, it will blend with the very silky tannins to an elegant style with a long finish. Less known is Levantine Hill from the Yarra Valley. I was most impressed with the 2015 Levantine Hill Colleen's Paddock Pinot Noir. Mushroom flavours dominate the dark cherry flavours in this brooding and harmonious wine. The finish goes on and on. I was not familiar with this producer, but it is worth seeking out. As an aside, both wines are fastidiously made, and you will have to pay for it.

The third category were Italian varieties. Sangiovese was not well represented, and the Nebbiolos from Piedmont were from what I would call second tier producers. There was one Barolo I liked very much, the 2015 Mauro Molino Barolo Gallinotto. This is the family vineyard in Berri, not far from La Morra. Being in the Northern part of Piedmont, you expect a more fragrant wine, and this is what you get. The fruit intensity is good (2015 was a warm vintage), but the highlight is the generous and expanding mouthfeel, not unlike a very good Burgundy. And I need to put the 2017 Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock Nebbiolo in this category. This is the first time I rate an Australian Italian varietal wine on the same level as the outstanding Italian wines, but Ron Laughton has been at this for quite a long time. This is good Nebbiolo. Rose petals and lifted aromas on the nose, an elegant mouthfeel, and a smooth finish. Nothing is out of place here, the tannins not too strong.

In the icon category, I tasted wines from Clonakilla, Castagna and Jasper Hill. Lately, I have  not enjoyed the stylistic development of the Clonakilla flagship wine. The 2017 Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier is quite soft, with the Viognier coming through quite strongly. The wine has silky tannins and great length, but a bit feminine for me. The 2015 Castagna Genesis Syrah is also quite a soft wine, but it has dark fruit flavours at its core, and a smooth finish. The wine of the night, just edging out the Pinots, was the 2017 Jasper Hill Emily's Paddock Shiraz. The Georgia's Paddock is the more voluptuous wine, and often the favorite. But the Emily's had layers and layers of fruit, and a leathery character on top of it. This made for a mysterious flavour, very elegant and long.   

Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier

I am not sure what I can add to the glowing reviews for this wine except that this review is now for the nine year old 2009 Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier. The flavour profile is complex. Blackberry, bramble, blueberry and forest berries are now supported by the development of earthy flavours. The texture is excellent; intense, but not heavy. The lift from the Viognier is there, but not in a significant way and not in isolation. The wine is savoury in character. It is very silky along the palate. This Clonakilla is profound, but also elegant, and with a long finish.

This wine sits between the blockbusters of South Australia and the cool climate wines of Victoria. It is a classic.

Score: 97/+++

34 Pinot Noirs

This annual Pinot Noir tasting in Sydney tends to give a good overview of the state of the nation as far as Pinot Noir is concerned. Unfortunately, this year, a number of the big names were missing. Still, when you have the option to taste 150 wines in a couple of hours, I tend to drift to the better known wines, where I can expect good results. I should do it differently next time and seek out the unknowns who's bottles don't even get opened - sad.

There was one wine which stood head and shoulders above the others. This was the 2014 By Farr Farrside Pinot Noir. This is a very complete wine, with dark fruit, very silky, with soft notes, but a firm finish. This is now the best By Farr wine (96 points).

In the bracket of outstanding wines (93/94 points) were
- 2014 By Farr Sangreal ( quite powerful, with overt cherry flavours, silky tannins)
- 2014 Lerida 'Josephine' (relatively light, strawberry and earth, long finish)
- 2012 Glaetzer-Dixon 'Reveur' (good intensity, mushroom notes, lively)
- 2012 Bannockburn 'Serre' (black cherry, silky, good length)
- 2015 Soumah 'Equilibrio' (strawberry flavours, quite ripe and silky)

In the next bracket (90-92 points) were a number of well known wines. They were good wines, but either had no feature that stood out (like the Curly Flat), or some detracting aspect (like the Paringa Estate). I put in this group the 2013 Curly Flat, 2014 Lerida Estate 'Cullerin', 2013 Stonier Reserve, 2014 Oakridge 864, 2015 Marchand & Burch 'Mt Barrow', 2012 Paringa Estate, 2013 Bannockburn Estate, 2015 Garagiste 'Balnarring',  2012 Savaterre (could have gone in the group above), 2015 Farr Rising, 2013 Brokenwood 'Indigo Vineyard', 2015 Holm Oak (outstanding fresh fruit), 2014 Shaw & Smith.

I rated the following wines a bit below this group (89 points): 2011 Curly Flat, 2013 Yering Station Estate, 2014 Scorpo, 2013 Picardy, 2013 Gembrook Hill, 2013 Moorooduc Estate 'Garden Vineyard', 2013 Yeringberg (disappointing!).

The disappointing wines (85-88 points), given their reputation, were
- 2014 Ashton Hills Reserve (lacking structure)
- 2015 William Downie Gippsland (juice, fault in winemaking or bottle?)
- 2014 Freycinet Estate (fruity)
- 2013 Kooyong Estate 'Haven' (drowning in sulphur)
- 2014 Holyman (unbalanced and thin)
- 2013 Moss Wood (why do they stick with it in Margaret River?)
- 2014 Pooley 'Butchers Hill' (too sweet)

A caveat to these rankings: the tasting was in a crowded room, the glasses were small and there was not much time.

With a couple of exceptions, there were no lolly water Pinot Noirs. These times are thankfully over. Given the line-up, I had expected a few more examples of truly outstanding wines with great personality. Usually, in large tastings like this, I do a taste-off with my three or four favorites. I was not inspired to do that this time. Power in the Pinots has been scaled back, which is a good thing, but now that many winemakers have mastered the art, they seem to go for 'safety first'.    
      

Eden Road Long Road Shiraz

Eden Road made a splash on the market some years ago with well made and well priced wines. How are they holding up?

I opened a bottle of the 2008 Eden Road Long Road Shiraz. It delivers intense plum fruit on the palate and a big mouthfeel. The fruit is not very fresh, however. It comes from a hot year. The initial impression is, this is not a typical Canberra wine. Then the spice hits you. This wine is loaded with white pepper, stronger than I have ever tasted. This goes along the palate, and on the finish is joined by some heat from the alcohol - an acquired taste, this one. I don't find this wine properly balanced.

Score: 87/-

Lerida Estate Shiraz/Viognier

There are a handful of wineries in the Canberra district who are getting closer in quality to the stellar Clonakilla. One such winery is Lerida Estate. The 2013 Lerida Estate Shiraz/Viognier just won the Chairman's trophy at the Canberra wine show. I had an opportunity to taste it a couple of days ago.

This wine has very profound aromas, very fragrant and feminine. On the palate, a surprise. The blackberry and plum fruit is quite concentrated. There is black pepper as well, but this is not your typical cool climate Shiraz. It has the elegance, but it also has the intensity of a full-bodied wine. If we talk feminine, it is more Dolly Parton than Cameron Diaz. Only Viognier skins have been co-fermented. This means there are no apricot flavours in this wine (good), but tannins have been added. The finish is quite long and the tannins fine and velvety. This is an excellent drop.

Score: 95/+++

Vino Paradiso

The Australian Technology Park seems to carve out a niche for "alternative" wine festivals. After the hugely successful Rootstock festival for organic and biodynamic wines, comes Vino Paradiso, a new festival of food and wine, targeting a younger audience with many unknown wineries presenting and DJ music to boot. The other feature seems to be high temperatures. I visited on Saturday, and after the scorcher at the Rootstock festival, hey presto, it was 39 degrees celsius again. The air-conditioning could not cope, and the tasting of red wines in particular was difficult. They should have been cooled, but were not.

I stayed with some of the better known wineries. Eden Road presented its single region Shirazes. The 2013 Eden Road Hilltops Shiraz was quite perfumed and pretty - a feminine wine with excellent texture (92 points). The 2012 Gundagai Shiraz is darker in colour and more peppery, but the finish is a bit uninspiring (90 points). The popular 2012 Long Road Shiraz is a blend between the two regions (mainly Gundagai) and more of a quaffer, but with attractive aromas (88 points).

The 2010 Kaesler Bogan Shiraz and the Pizzini Barbera and the Nebbiolo did not impress me, but suffered from being way too warm.

The major surprise, however, was the 2012 Soul Growers 106 Vines Mourvedre. This is  the best single variety Mourvedre I have tasted from  Australia (or anywhere). There are only 106 vines left from this 130 year old vineyard north of Nuriootpa in the Barossa. The flavours are very complex and varietal. Blackberry and mulberry flavours are mixed with spice and mild red meat. The texture is framed by smooth and silky tannins.

Score: 96/+++

Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier

The 2012 Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier is quite a special wine, like many before. The vineyard is at high altitude and the grapes grow on deep granite soil. But it is not just the terroir that makes this wine special. It has a lot to do with Tim Kirk's skill, who very deservedly was crowned Winemaker of the year this year by Gourmet Traveler Wine magazine. 2012 produced a low yield and thick skinned grapes, which produced quite intense flavours.

In a blog-post in the past, I discussed some of the less often cited criteria which make wines great. One was 'paradox'. And this is what I find in this wine. The wine is savoury, with a lot of depth, but there is also some sweeter fruit on the back palate and floral aspects throughout. The wine appears quite linear, but also has a satisfying mouthfeel. - This complexity delivers the wine's unique personality.

Score: 96/+++

Tempranillo

Honestly, have you ever had your socks blown off by a Tempranillo? - Me neither. Below is an assessment of a few Spanish ones currently available in Australia, with an Australian one thrown in.

The 2010 Artadi Rioja Alvesa is not unattractive. This medium bodied wine is fresh and vibrant. It tastes of black cherry and has balanced acidity on the finish (90 points).

The 2011 Mt. Majura Tempranillo from the Canberra area has a flatter mouthfeel and is quite simple. There are earthy flavours and the acidity is quite noticable (87 points).

The 2009 Pesquera Tinto from Ribera del Duero is quite different. This wine is based on old vines, and it exhibits a rich and rustic feel. There are earthy characters and fine tannins leading to a long finish (90 points).

The 2009 Cillar de Silos Estate Tempranillo, also from Ribera del Duero, is more modern. The wine is elegant and fairly light, but has good length on the palate (89 points).

Clonakilla New Releases

Listening to Tim Kirk, Clonakilla's winemaker, is always very interesting. Not only is he a very intelligent person, but also a very good marketer. Yet in contrast to the spin employed by many of his colleagues, he prefers to 'under-promise and over-deliver'. So you listen to all the challenges that Clonakilla had to face in 2011 and 2012 and then get to a set of very good wines. Sure, he has done better, but these are very worth while wines.

The 2012 Clonakilla Canberra District Riesling comes from a wet year. The wine is citrussy and floral, quite zingy with acid covering the small amount of residual sugar. It is not is the class of a top Clare Riesling, but a refreshing wine with a clean finish (90 points).

The 2011 Clonakilla Canberra District Viognier is a welcome departure from other 'fatty' Viogniers. It shows the expected apricot flavours, but the wine is quite linear and not big. There are traces of oak in this wine and it finishes with a good round mouthfeel. I am not sure that it is Australia's best Viognier, as it is sometimes claimed, but it is certainly a good one (92 points).

The 2011 Clonakilla O'Riada Shiraz is made in the same way as the famous Shiraz/Viognier, but the fruit comes from other growers around Canberra. This wine is incredibly peppery and savoury and quite strong. Underneath sits beautiful red berry fruit. 2011 delivers a lighter style, but not a watery wine and the tannins deliver good length (93 points).

The 2011 Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier is still peppery, but the flavours are rounder than in the O'Riada. The wine is very elegant and harmonious, dominated by red berry flavours. This wine will live a long, long time. This wine rates very high on clarity, grace, balance, deliciousness, modesty and paradox. The paradox is the lighter style, yet intensity of the wine. It would rate a bit lower on distinctiveness, persistence and complexity  (95 points).

In this tasting, I 'got' the Clonakilla wine style. The wines are about beauty. The French would call them feminine wines, but they are more than that (see above).

Superstar Shiraz Tasting

The most reputable wines are generally not entered into wine shows. It is therefore not often that one finds an opportunity to compare the best wines of a kind in a tasting. This post reports from such a tasting. It compared leading current release Shiraz wines from the different Australian regions plus the Rhone. The wines were

- Auguste Clape Cornas 2008
- Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2010
-Giaconda Estate Shiraz 2010
-Bests Thompson Family Shiraz 2010
-Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2009
-Wolf Blass Platinum Shiraz 2008
-Gaelic Cemetery Vineyard Shiraz 2008
-Henschke Hill of Grace 2006
-Penfolds Grange 2007

Generally speaking, in such a line-up, the point is not to identify good and not so good wines, but to identify how the styles differ. In fact, two wines did not quite deliver, but more interesting was the wide spectrum which Shiraz can express. The order of the wines was supposed to reflect the increasing weight of the wine.

The Auguste Clape Cornas is from the most southern area of the Northern Rhone, i.e. the warmest area which delivers pure or near pure Shiraz in the Rhone region. Auguste Clape is one of the most highly regarded producers. As is nearly always the case, French wines do not come out too well in comparative tastings with Australian wines, as their fruit concentration simply does not match the Australian wines. However, this wine shows complex raspberry and cherry flavours and spice. It has a dry finish - an excellent food wine (94 points).

The Viognier component is very noticeable in the 2010 Clonakilla. The wine has a similar fruit profile to the French wine, but is more fragrant, with a lifted finish (94 points).

The Giaconda Shiraz is not from the Warner vineyard, but the Estate vineyard next to the winery. Kitzbrunner believes that this vineyard will ultimately deliver the better wine. I do not think this is happening yet. I found this wine disappointing and lacking in mouthfeel. It is a darker wine, tasting of blackberry and spice, but not much intensity. The finish is dry and not very long (92 points).

The Bests wine has a similar blackberry flavour, but more depth of fruit and length. It shows some mint on the palate and some traditional oak treatment, but it is a clear and vibrant wine (93 points).

The Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz is a step up in power. The wine is quite oaky, and the tannins are coarse on the palate. I find that the blackberry, plum and mint flavours do not quite stand up to this (93 points).

More  sweet vanilla oak flavours come through on the Wolf Blass wine, as expected. However, there is good fruit underneath and some silkiness in the tannins coming through (92 points).

The second wine which disappointed was the Gaelic Cemetery from the Clare Valley. I am not familiar with this small production wine, but found it quite sweet and sugary, and not based on a great structure (90 points).

The Henschke Hill of Grace was as expected. A gentle wine, not dissimilar to the Cornas, actually. Raspberry fruit and spices (not pepper) lead to a complex flavour mix. There is good upfront fruit, and soft tannins lead to a sustained finish (95 points).

What makes the Penfolds Grange stand out from the wines before is the intensity and length of flavour. This is a big wine, less refined than some of the others, but a unique expression of Shiraz (96 points).

Given the price of these wines, there was a considerable tasting fee for this tasting - fair enough. In parallel, another tasting of less expensive Shirazes was held for free. There were two wines there which I could have seen in this group from a quality point of view.

The Seppelt St. Peters Shiraz 2008 is a lighter wine, quite spicy, and not with the same mouthfeel as the others, but fine tannins to finish off with (90 points).

The John Duval Entity Shiraz 2010 was a highlight. It has a complex fruit set, in the raspberry, blackberry, mulberry spectrum. The wine is very harmonious and has a firm finish. His best effort yet (93 points).

Within one hour, I tasted wine worth more than $2000. Yet overall, I did not feel elated, but rather flat and disappointed. Why? Did my high expectations make it hard to be excited? I do not think so. I was there to have a good time. Did the wines all taste the same? They certainly did not. So what was it? I think in the end it was the predictability of what I found. There were no surprises. And while the quality was good and the wines were not overblown, they strangely lacked personality, as if a robot went through the motions of producing the expected product, bottle by bottle.

Any thoughts?    

NSW Award Winners

There is a buzz about NSW wines at present. A few years ago, such an event would basically be about the Hunter, and only a few serious wineries. Now, there are a number of interesting new Hunter Valley wineries emerging, Orange and the Canberra District are firing up, and we may even find the odd great wine from another emerging district. And while Semillon and Shiraz still rule, Chardonnay and new varieties create interest as well. I was therefore not surprised to find a generally high standard at the Citibank NSW Wine Awards.

I did not get around to taste everything, but these were my impressions:

The wine of the event for me was the 2006 Thomas Cellar Reserve Braemore Semillon. It showed beautiful lime fruit, elegant and smooth, with a long and precise finish. There is still good acidity left in this wine. If you are a Semillon sceptic, try this wine (94/+++ points).

The other winery from the Hunter which impressed was First Creek. The 2010 First Creek Winemakers Reserve Shiraz, from a difficult year for reds in the Hunter, is very soft and velvety, typical Hunter Shiraz, with a smooth finish. This wine has personality (93/++). The 2010 First Creek Winemakers Reserve Chardonnay was also excellent, with a complex blend of citrus and peach flavours (92/++).

The 2009 Mistletoe Reserve Chardonnay won the overall trophy. It is an elegant wine, but does not have the same depth of flavour as the First Creek, and the finish is a bit short, in my view (89/0).

The value wine is the 2011 Two Rivers Stones Throw Semillon at $16 from the winery (89/+).

Of the Orange Chardonnays, I preferred the 2010 Philip Shaw No11 Chardonnay (89) over the 2010 Printhie Mt. Canobolas Collection (86).  

The 2008 Tyrell's Vat 47 Chardonnay lived up to its lofty reputation. It is in the citrus/lime fruit spectrum, smooth, but crisp with good length. The mouthfeel was slightly thin, though (92/0).

Of the Shirazes, the 2010 Eden Road Gundagai Shiraz was very spicy and fresh, but the mouthfeel left wanting (89/0). The 2010 Nick O'Leary Shiraz from Canberra ticked the boxes, but had little character (88/-). I am a bit tired of general purpose Shiraz, I must say. It needs to be outstanding or different.

The 2009 Lowe Zinfandel is from Mudgee. He claims to be a Zinfandel specialist. The wine is quite alcoholic and the high price more driven by scarcity than quality (88/-).

Much more interesting and a real find was the 2010 Mount Majura Tempranillo from the Canberra district. It had a nice cherry core and a soft mouthfeel (91/++).

A NSW tasting has to finish with Noble One. The 2008 De Bortoli Noble One showed the rich 'honey in a glass' to perfection. This is a big wine, but smooth and round as only the botrytis affected grapes from De Bortoli seem to be able to deliver (94/+).

Overall, this was an interesting and satisfying tasting. It is pretty safe to assume that the next few years will deliver a further improvement in standard and an even wider net of interesting wineries.

Clonakilla New Releases

The three wines I am going to review here are being released on 17 October as far as I know. As usual, you will have to be quick to get them.

The 2010 Clonakilla Canberra District Viognier is an interestingly made wine. Half the fruit is whole bunch pressed. This is a gentle process and delivers soft, pure fruit. The other half is crushed and left on skin for some time to extract the flavours close to the skin where they are most intense. The final wine is seamless and elegant. It tastes predominantly of apricot with a bit of ginger in the background. This amounts to a very stylish Viognier (it is just that I don't like the Viognier flavour profile).

Score: 93/0

The 2010 Clonakilla O'Riada Shiraz is made from vines in the Murrambatemen area. Like its famous cousin, the Shiraz Viognier, it includes 5% co-fermented Viognier, and it is made in the same way. The wine is medium bodied, tasting of redcurrant and red cherries. There are earthy and savoury flavours as well. This wine is very fresh and vibrant and has a strong tannic and acidic backbone. The wine is feminine, yet strong with great length. This wine has great character and in a few years, with tannins mellowing a bit, will be a well balanced, expressive red wine. Outstanding value for money it is, too.

Score: 95/+++

The 2010 Clonokilla Shiraz Viognier, from the Estate, has a similar flavour profile, slightly darker fruit, and  a softer and silkier texture. This is a classy wine no doubt, but I felt the O'Riada was more expressive, had more personality. An unexpected outcome, but I score them on par.

Score 95/++

Eden Road The Seedling

Eden Road is quite a new Canberra district winery which arrived on the scene with well made and inexpensive Shiraz and by winning a Jimmy Watson last year for one of them.

The 2010 Eden Road The Seedling Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is the first white wine I tried from them and I reckon it is equally good. The freshness of the Sauvignon Blanc and the weight of the Semillon are both quite present in this wine. Lime fruit dominates, but it is not an overly fruity wine. This wine has great texture and length for such a young wine. A trifle more acidity would balance it perfectly. Highly recommended!

Score: 92/++

Eden Road Long Road Shiraz

This wine creates quite a bit of interest, because the 2008 version won the Jimmy Watson Trophy last year - in the first vintage of Eden Road, and it is their second Shiraz label. A number of firsts here, for sure.

The winery proclaims the 2009 Eden Road Long Road Shiraz is an even better wine, as they would. It is actually quite a likable wine. This is quite a feminine Shiraz from the Canberra district, a little bit fruity, and with melting soft tannins and reasonable length. You would not call this wine profound, but one can detect good fruit and winemaking skills in this wine. It is easy on the tongue and will develop some complexity in the next 2-3 years.

Another plus: the winery has chosen not to increase prices as a result of the Jimmy Watson trophy in the previous year. Another first? It is excellent value at $20/bottle.

I tasted a number of their other wines, and they were all quite appealing - a winery to watch.

Score: 91/++

NSW Wine Festival, part 2

Another winery in the Canberra district which has impressed me over the years is Lerida Estate. The 2008 'Josephine' Pinot Noir is their best barrel selection. The wine has strawberry fruit and gamey and earthy flavours. The wine is quite powerful, but not fruit driven (92 points). Their flagship 2008 Shiraz/Viognier is fashioned in a more powerful style than a number of others in the district. The wine has concentrated plum and mulberry flavours with some eucalypt as well. It is well structured with a firm finish (93 points).

Back to Orange, where Logan has made a bit of noise. The 2009 Pinot Noir is a bit disappointing. It starts with some plummy flavours, and then turns quite savoury backed by pleasant dry tannins. The downfall is the flat mouthfeel of the wine (which is what Pinot should be all about)(89 points). Their current success is the 2008 Cabernet/Merlot. This is a medium bodied wine, tasting of plum and blackberry. It is very smooth with a firm (and slightly hot - alc. 14.5%) finish - an appealing wine (91 points).

Now over to Mudgee, where Thistle Hill is creating interest with preservative free wines. However, I tasted the more traditional wines. The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon is medium bodied, very middle of the road. Not sure why I would be interested to drink it (88 points). The 2009 Shiraz/Cabernet Erudgere is much more interesting. This is my wine of the day. Its flavours are blackberry and mulberry. The fruit is concentrated, but soft and elegant. I believe it comes from the old Rosemount Mountain Blue vineyard (remember this?), which Fosters let go (93 points).

My next stop was Robert Stein. The reds were disappointing. The 2008 Shiraz showed insufficient tannin structure (87 points), and the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon had insufficient mouthfeel and, again, backbone (87 points).

I finished up with Huntington, one of the few wineries which consistently delivers good value for money with full bodied reds. My pick was the 2006 Block 3 Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine tastes of ripe blackberry. It is very soft, with velvety tannins, almost like a traditional Hunter Valley Shiraz. I liked the flavour profile, but the wine finished too soft for me (92 points).

Overall, I was encouraged by my tastings. There is a lot of variety, established NSW wineries are finding form again, and some new ones are worth watching closely.

NSW Wine Festival, part 1

I am not a big fan when it comes to public wine festivals where you taste wine from different wine company booths. The glasses are bad and the pricing is a rip-off, but it has the advantage of not having to travel across a pretty large area, in this case NSW.

The tasting this weekend was quite interesting, actually. On the plus side, there is an enormous range of wines in NSW, and there is new energy to produce good wine. On the minus side, the tasting experiences are still hit and miss and while some wineries produce good individual wines, they have not yet managed to carry this across the range.

Following are my notes from quite selective tastings. First up was First Creek from the Hunter Valley. This new winery is one to watch. The 2009 First Creek Reserve Semillon is very good. It has an excellent lemon fruit and acidity balance and a very linear finish (91 points). On the other hand, I found the 09 Chardonnay too broad (88 points).

Then came Brangayne from Orange. The 2009 Brangayne Reserve Chardonnay was to my liking. The flavour is an attractive mix of stone fruit, mainly apple and peach. The wine is well balanced with a satisfying finish (91 points). The Pinot Noir was not as good. Its red and black cherry fruit was a little thin and the finish not too smooth (87 points).

Eden Road from the Canberra District has had plenty of attention since it won the Jimmy Watson Trophy last year. The 2009 Long Road Chardonnay from Tumbarumba, a well established Chardonnay area, is a cracker. There is concentrated lemon fruit in this wine, balanced by moderate acidity and a fresh finish (92 points). The 2009 Long Road Shiraz is disappointing. This wine is light to medium bodied with broad raspberry flavours, not a typical Australian Shiraz, and probably tasted too warm (86 points).

to be continued...

Cool Climate Shiraz

A few weeks ago, I participated in a tasting of a number of Shirazes, which I think is worth reporting on. Two Canberra Shirazes were pitted against two from Victoria.

Shiraz from Canberra seems to be the flavour of the month, stemming from the high quality and success of the Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier. However, in this tasting, the Victorian wines proved superior. This was not only my view.

The Canberra wines were the 2008 Tyrrell's Canberra Shiraz and the 2009 Collector Marked Tree Red. My notes on the Tyrell's are not detailed, but it was the weakest wine of the four which were compared (90 points). The Collector wine is highly acclaimed and rewarded. It tastes of blood plum and spice and has nice balance and acidity. However, I found it lacked some backbone on the finish (92 points). This is a wine which delivers good value for money, but it would struggle against wines twice the price, in my view.

The 2009 Giaconda McClay Road Shiraz was most intriguing. Giaconda declassified the single-vineyard Shirazes of this year and put all the fruit into this second tier label. The wine tastes of plum, but very fresh, silky throughout, and with very fine spices. It has good balance and a dry finish. I was impressed by the complexity of flavours and the texture of this wine (94 points).

The other Victorian wine was the 2007 Mt. Langi Ghiran Shiraz. This wine has gone from strength to strength lately, and the 2007 is no exception. It has cool climate freshness, and the sweet fruit is accompanied by white pepper and some eucalypt flavours. A very smooth wine (94 points).

All these wines are obviously very young, but they are modern wines which could be enjoyed already. I think the Giaconda will improve with time and be the most interesting in a few years.

Lerida Pinot Noir

Lerida, one of the newer wineries in the Canberra district, has a successful Shiraz/Viognier, but it is with the burgundian varieties of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that it achieves the best results, in my view. These wines are quite European in style.

In this way, the 2007 Lerida Pinot Noir is a more serious wine than its predecessor. The emphesis is on texture, not fruit. As a result, this is a very good food wine. The cherry and savoury flavours are well integrated. The wine has quite a velvety feel, but is not plush. It has good length and a dry finish and this reasonably priced at about $30/bottle.

Score: 93/++

The Long Road/Eden Road Wines

I was interested in these wines, as they have been written up so much since the 2008 Shiraz won the Jimmy Watson Trophy last year. The wines are cool climate wines from Tumbarumba, Hilltops and Canberra. They won other awards as well. I tasted six of their current wines.

The 2009 Long Road Riesling and Long Road Sauvignon Blanc come from Canberra. The Riesling is quite light, with lime and floral flavours and a slightly earthy finish. The Sauvignon Blanc is a bit fruity, tasting of citrus and not very pungent. In fact, it tasted quite like a Semillon. Both wines have good structure, but simply not enough expression.

Score: 86/0

The 2008 Eden Road Chardonnay from Tumbarumba was probably the disappointment of this line-up. It was very lean, a bit floral as well, and green on the finish. There simply is not enough fruit to work with. Cool climate is fine, as long as the fruit gets ripe.

Score: 85/--

In contrast, the 2008 Eden Road Pinot Noir was excellent. This is a serious wine, from 16 year old vines, with quite expressive, savoury flavours. There is smoked meat on the palate as well (no, it is not bushfire). The wine has a clean, yet complex finish with well blended in tannins.

Score: 92/+

The 2008 Long Road Barbera/Nebbiolo from Hilltops is a strange wine. It is quite a forward wine, with Barbera sweetness, yet this does not work with the tannins of Nebbiolo. This wine style will need to evolve into something more serious or a lower percentage of Nebbiolo.

Score: 89/-

The 2008 Long Road Shiraz, the Jimmy Watson winner, has very appealing red and black cherry flavours. It is an opulent wine, with a fair bit of spice, as you would expect, and a good tannin structure. The wine is elegant and will benefit from 3 to 5 years cellaring. This is a good example of Hilltops Shiraz, not dissimilar to the Collector from the Canberra district, which also won a lot of accolades.

Score: 94/+

Overall, the reds impressed more than the whites. The winemaking is very good, although the winemaker is only 32 years old. The issue is fruit quality. The white wines did not quite measure up in this area, but the reds were very interesting.

Clonakilla 2008 Range

Tim Kirk, owner and wine-maker of Clonakilla, presented his wines with a lot of passion,which is good to see. He spoke of capturing the beauty of his place in liquid form and his objective of celebrating the savoury, as they do in the Northern Rhone.

First up was the 2008 Viognier. This is a serious wine. It has predominantly apricot flavours, but also a fair bit of tannin and acidity. The taste falls off a bit at the end, but nonetheless I liked the mouthfeel of the wine.

Score: 90/+

The 2008 Hilltops Shiraz is quite fruity and forward, but has savoury aspects as well, which will better develop in a couple of years. It does not have much of a finish, but is very good value for a $25/bottle wine.

Score: 88/+

2008 is the second year of the O'Riada Shiraz. The wine includes about 6% Viognier and really is the baby brother of the flagship wine. The wine has predominantly red fruit character and is a bit fleshy, as a result of better ripening conditions than 2007 and larger berry sizes. There is spice and a silky feel to the wine. The mouthfeel is nice, although this is not a big wine. I liked it a lot.

Score: 93/++

In many ways, the 2008 Shiraz Viognier is similar, but a bit finer, more elegant, excellent structure and length on the palate. The flavour stays for a long time. The wine is very approachable now, but will improve in complexity over time. If I had a criticism, I would have liked a bit more fruit concentration, but it is a minor point.

Score 95/+

Overall, the line-up demonstrated excellent wine-making skills and an expression of medium bodied wines which has not many peers in Australia.