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/+++

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/-

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/+

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  

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.