I have never been able to taste Penfolds' original Bin 60A from the 1962 vintage. The wine was never commercially released, but won many awards and by many wine critics is described as Australia's greatest wine. The Bin 60A label has only been used one more time, for a wine from the 2004 vintage, which showed similar characteristics to 1962. I tasted the 2004 Penfolds Bin 60A a few days ago. The wine is the same blend of Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon (56%) and Barossa Shiraz (44%).
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
My second ever Australian 100 pointer
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Bekkers Syrah
Bekkers is a boutique producer with a focus on the northern, hilly parts of McLaren Vale, and a meticulous focus on Shiraz and Grenache. Toby Bekkers operates at the premium end of the market.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
O'Leary Walker Polish Hill Riesling
I think of O'Leary Walker in a similar way in which Bin 389 is described as baby Grange. To me, O'Leary Walker is the baby Riesling to Grosset's Rieslings. Both produce Polish Hill and Watervale Rieslings. Grosset Rieslings show this purity of fruit and great drive. O'Leary Walker is similar, just not quite as much, and at a much lower price.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Bisci Verdicchio
Every now and then, I try a new Italian variety from the hundreds on offer. This 2022 Bisci Verdicchio from the Marche region turns out to be quite interesting. Bisci wines are organic, the grapes harvested from high altitude vineyards.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Petaluma Evans Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot
It has been a long while since I had a Petaluma bottle. This is strange, given it is such an iconic label. And I never had an Evans Vineyard wine. So I was looking forward to this 2016 Petaluma Evans Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot.
Monday, March 25, 2024
Deep Woods Hillside Chardonnay
If you have the Fogarty Wine Group as an owner, and Julian Langworthy as the talented wine maker, it is no surprise that Deep Woods made a lot of gains, and is now regarded as one of the top wineries in Western Australia. This can really be put to the test with their entry level Chardonnay, in this case the 2022 Deep Woods Hillside Chardonnay. The fruit comes from a number of vineyards, mostly at somewhat higher elevation. Despite being an entry wine, the wine sees some new oak and is made in a modern style, with indigenous yeast used for wild fermentation and minimal fining.
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.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Premium New Zealand Chardonnays
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, February 11, 2024
An Unknown Barolo
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Aged Sauvignon Blanc
Some questions come up over and over again, this one for example: can you age Sauvignon Blanc?
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.
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.
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.
Friday, January 26, 2024
Mauro Molino Barbera D'Alba
Sunday, January 21, 2024
J.D. Vajra Langhe Rosso
There are mainly two styles of entry level wines involving Nebbiolo in Piedmont. One is the Langhe Nebbiolo, a 100% Nebbiolo which for one reason or another does not go into Barolo or Barbaresco, the other is a Rosso, which is a blended wine, often involving a Bordeaux variety, mainly Merlot. The 2020 J.D. Vajra Langhe Rosso, however, focusses on Piedmont varieties; Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, and Albarossa. Some Pinot Noir is included as well.
Friday, January 12, 2024
Giant Steps Applejack Pinot Noir
Giant Steps is one of the success stories of the Yarra Valley. Like few others, Giant Steps have emphasised the characteristics of different vineyard sites. Still, we have perhaps not conclusively progressed past the differences between the Valley Floor and the Upper Yarra Valley.
The Applejack vineyard fulfills many conditions for great Pinot Noir; it is closely planted with seven clones; a sloped vineyard at higher altitude; east facing. The only drawback; clay soil, not ideal for energetic Pinot Noir.
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Tyrrell’s 4 Acres and 8 Acres Shiraz
Over the last couple of days I had some protein dinner and given relatively warm, but not hot summer temperatures, I was wondering what to pair this with. South Australian Shiraz would have been too heavy, a different grape variety did not seem right. Why not Hunter Valley Shiraz, a lighter, less alcoholic style, often with velvety tannins. It gave me an opportunity to drink two highly regarded Tyrrell’s wines side by side.
In Burgundy, it is easy to find maps of all vineyards; not in Australia. It is unfortunate in the case of Tyrrell’s, as it would be instructive to see the location and size of their so called Sacred Sites vineyards. The four Sacred Sites vineyards (an unfortunate name?) have been planted well over 100 years ago. The 4 Acres and 8 Acres vineyards sit right next to each other, both on the same red clay over limestone.
So will the 2019 Tyrrell’s 4Acres Shiraz and the 8 Acres Shiraz taste very similar? There seem to be one major difference: the 8 Acres vineyard is planted North to South, the 4 Acres East to West.
There is already a big colour difference: the 4 Acres has a crimson colour, whereas the 8 Acres is purple. On the palate, the 4 Acres is red fruited, with great energy, edgy even in the mouth. There is a fair amount of acidity and tannins in this wine, but the elements are in balance. The wine is long on the palate, and perhaps more of a challenge, in a good way, than the 8 Acres. This wine will clearly add complexity with age.
Score: 95/++
The 8 Acres is a much softer wine, with a velvety mouthfeel. It is medium bodied with soft tannins. The wine is great on the mid-palate, but loses towards the finish.
Score: 94/++
These two wines are quite different. I don't think the treatment in the winery would have been different. Is it all due to the different vineyard orientation. Could be. Or are picking dates different, for example. Unfortunately, such data is not available. In any case, it shows how decisions over a hundred years ago can still impact the flavour and taste of a wine.
Friday, January 5, 2024
Te Mata Gamay Noir
This 2022 Te Mata Gamay Noir is a great find.