I spend the first day of a brief tour to South Australia’s wine regions in the Clare Valley. I am mainly interested tasting red wines as opposed to the more flagship Riesling. My first stop is at Taylors. I abandoned Taylors some ten years ago because of their in my view excessive use of new oak. Since then, a number of new labels have been introduced. So it was time for a new assessment.
The first couple of wines were Rieslings, though; the 2022 St Andrews Riesling and the 2012 St. Andrews Riesling. St Andrews means the fruit is from the Estate. Both wines are quite similar in character, with the 10 year old wine more developed and the acid less prominent. There is white flower and lime, both on nose and palate. The wines are quite fruity and a little broad (88 points).
The Chardonnays see 100% new oak. The 2018 St Andrews Chardonnay tastes of stone fruit, and the oak is pretty well integrated (92 points). The 2015 version already has quite a golden colour, and some butterscotch coming through (90 points).
The 2018 St Andrews Shiraz sees 65% new oak, and is matured in this 60% American and 40% French oak. The wine is still quite fresh, red fruited, with some confectionery flavours, no doubt from the American oak (91 points). The 2015 Pioneer Shiraz (best of grapes) has spent 3-4 years in oak (not sure if 100% new). This is a wine on steroids. The fruit weight is big, the tannins firm and coarse, and the vanilla oak prominent. Not my cup of tea (92 points).
Finally, the Cabernets. The 2017 St Andrews Cabernet (current release), shows good typicity. Redcurrant, bay leaf, herbs, and capsicum. The firm acidity delivers a good structure. The fruit is a little underdone given the good vintage (92 points). The 2015 Visionary Cabernet was the best wine of the line-up, but not by much. Again, it is made from the best grapes and spends a lot of time in oak. The flavours were similar to the last wine, but the finish was much longer. This wine will last a long time (93 points).
Overall, oak was still a dominant feature, although perhaps better managed than what I remember. Unfortunately, the fruit was not quite big and concentrated enough to be a dominant match.
2 comments:
Both the pioneer and visionary need major decants or bottle age... At present the oak is just too overpowering imo and the influence needs to temper a bit with bottle age. with both wines under screwcap, it will be interesting to see when that happens.
My experience of both wines dates to one from the 09, 10 and 12 vintages
Good to see there is some interest in Clare Valley wines. They seem to swim under the radar a bit.
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