Friday, April 9, 2010

Curly Flat - New Releases

Was I off or was the wine off on this night? Maybe a little bit of both.

The 2007 Curly Flat Chardonnay was the best wine of the new releases. It blended citrus and peach flavours, had the right amount of acidity for a fresh finish and delivered quite a rounded mouthfeel.

Score: 92/+

The 2008 Williams Crossing Pinot Noir, Curly Flat's second label, could not manage to match the stellar 2007 effort, reviewed here some time ago. The wine is quite acidic and lacks the depth of fruit to balance this. Also, the finish comes along rather quickly.

Score: 86/-

The 2007 Curly Flat Pinot Noir has the difficult task of following the outstanding 2006. It is not going to be a contest. In fact, this wine will be quite controversial, as its colour at present is cloudy and the wine not settled. This is because the wine is not filtered and hopefully will settle over time. However, unfiltered Pinot need not look like this. The flavour is subtler than with the 2006, mainly kirsch and mushroom, but it is also not as full and rounded. If you wanted to be positive, you would describe the wine as funky and interesting, but for me, the interest pales quickly, as the wine progresses on the palate to a rumbling finish.

Score: 88/--

Phillip Moraghan is a very dedicated winemaker and has moved Curly Flat to a more terroir and biodynamic orientated operation in the last few years. It appears that this has brought with it a riskier operation and - certainly on this occasion - more variable results.

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