Peay Ama Pinot Noir

 I quite enjoy US Pinot Noir from time to time. It needs to come from one of the better producers in Sonoma or Willamette Valley. Given the dramatic price increases of premium Australian Pinot Noir (e.g. Bindi, by Farr, Place of Changing Winds), the US wines are not too expensive now. What I enjoy about these wines in comparison to Burgundy is the somewhat dialed-up fruit flavours, as long as the structure is still good. 

I was looking forward to this 2019 Peay Ama Pinot Noir, given I liked the 'standard' blended Pinot Noir quite a lot. This wine comes from the West Sonoma Coast, the new hot bed of Pinot Noir in the US, as the ocean and frequent frog provide cooler temperatures and humidity as well. The owners are quite meticulous, splitting the vineyards in 25 blocks, and also growing a number of different clones.

However, what often happens, the best, i.e. ripest grapes are reserved for the single vineyard wine, whereas the rest goes into the blended wine. In this case, the wine is more concentrated, but also quite fruity and ripe. The red cherry and strawberry flavours are nice, but the overall mouthfeel is a bit flabby. The wine is not very acidic. The tannins are silky, but very light.

Score: 90/-

Bindi Darshan Pinoit Noir

 I have never done this before, that is to start with a description from the winery website, but it works in this case. The wine is new and relatively unknown, and the description quite simple and forward.

 Darshan vineyard is a tribute to Bindi founder Bill Darshan Singh Dhillon, who passed in early 2013. The vineyard preparations began a few months afterwards with planting taking place in 2014. Darshan faces west on quartz riddled soils similar to the Original Vineyard and is planted at 11,300 vines per hectare with 20% of the vines being a Crazy section at 22,600 vines per hectare featuring four clones. Over the first seven vintages, to 2023, we have seen this site produce ethereal wine showing exquisite perfume and spice with a lacey, sinewy, flowing long palate. Darshan , like Original Vineyard, is about perfume and finesse whereas Block 8 and Block 5 share fruit depth and structure in common.

Michael Dhillon, the current winemaker, has a strong sense of family tradition and history. Hence this naming. I drank the 2017 Bindi Darshan Pinot Noir. So, the vines are three (!) years old, but what unfolds in the mouth is astonishing. The wine is not too concentrated, but the strawberry flavours and silky tannins deliver a superbly elegant and ethereal mouthfeel. It is just so beautiful. Heaven in the mouth! I can't wait for this vineyard to mature.

Score: 96/+++

Henschke Mount Edelstone

 The Henschke Mount Edelstone has always been a very popular wine on my blog. I am continuing to explore the 2018 vintage with this wine.

Nice to see a traditional and well trusted label

Wow! The 2018 Henschke Mount Edelstone is not what I expected. Therefore, I had a look at some other reviews. They reported what you would expect of this wine. But I experienced something different. A different bottle or lazy reporting by others? Anyway, this is my take on what I drank.

This wine is different. It is predominantly red fruited, red cherry, pomegranate. It is lighter on its feet than the previously reviewed Yarra Yering. There are purple flower notes. It is clearly lighter than the typical Mount Edelstone profile, no mocca here, either. This wine is a delight to drink. The mineral laden acidity, and the very fine tannins deliver a great structure.

This wine is tightly wound right now, a racy wine waiting to burst out of the glass.

Score: 97/+++

Yarra Yering No1 Cabernet Blend

 I am digging into a number of wines from the 2018 vintage. It is regarded as a very good one with a hot summer early on, but then an Indian summer towards vintage. Today's tasting is of the 2018 Yarra Yering No1 Cabernet Blend. Cabernet Sauvignon, the leading variety in this wine, has always been the flagship of Yarra Yering. How is this vintage shaping up?

I am blown over by my first taste. This is a big wine. Redcurrant and ripe raspberry flavours deliver a big fruit profile. Different in flavour, but similar in fruit weight to the Cirillo I reviewed just before. Despite the fruit concentration, the wine has good energy, and is balanced with fine grained tannins. The savoury characters need to come through to deliver complexity. This is another example where the screw cap slows down development (as I see particularly in Felton Road and Tyrells wines).

This wine has the potential to be great, but if you have it, do not drink before 2028.

Score: 95/++

 

Cirillo 1850 Ancestor Grenache

 The Cirillo Ancestor Grenache is one of the few wines I buy on an annual basis. The latest release is the 2018 Cirillo 1850 Ancestor Grenache. One of the things I like about this wine is that it gets released at six years of age.

This wine is more fruited than in the previous two years. Blueberry and mulberry flavours are quite ripe. There is an unusual mint character as well, not unpleasant. The wine to me is borderline on confected, but it has the pleasant characteristics of concentration and strong aromatics, and it lifts towards the long finish.

Cirillo does not represent the sophisticated winemaking that Yangarra does, for example. But what Marco Cirillo creates is what the French call a vin d'emotion, a wine which evokes an emotional response. In this way, this wine is a wine of beauty.

Score: 94/+++ 

Pooley Pinot Noir

 Sorry for the long break, but there is not much wine to report from Muslim Indonesia. Now back in Australia, we are faced with what to drink during warm summer nights. I still have a preference for red wine in the evening. And I want it to be more than a quaffer, but not too heavy obviously, and not too complicated. Enters the 2021 Pooley Pinot Noir.

I have been critical about the single vineyard Pinot, and to some extent, the story is repeated here. This is a fruit dominated wine, red and black fruit, quite big in the mouth. The fruit weight does not allow much complexity. There is an underlying structure to the wine, but the lack of drive makes this wine a bit of a fruit bomb, not dissimilar to some Central Otago wines.

Score: 88/0

What Did We Drink Over Christmas?

 It is common in many families to pull out nice wines and champagne over Christmas. I was on a plane this year, really over two days. So there was only some average French Champagne.

I am in a remote area of Indonesia. Therefore this post is also a bit late.

So what did you drink over Christmas? In the past we had some nice reports.

The Five Most Read Blog Posts This Year

 Looking at the five most red blog posts of the year, there were certainly surprises. A mix of known high quality wine reviews and the eclectic. This tells me I have a sophisticated (as far as wine is concerned) readership. At number

5): Penfolds 60A from 2004

4): Bisci Verdicchio

3): Tyrells 4 acre and 8 acre

2): Chatto Isle Pinot Noir from Tasmania

1): Underestimate or overestimate

The winner is certainly curious. I am not sure if it was the mysterious title or the unusual comparison of a Chilean Pinot Noir to one from the Southern Highlands.

Good drinking everyone this Christmas, but be careful with the heat in Australia.

TOP NSW Wines

 Wines from New South Wales do not have a great reputation. I do not know if it is the arrogance of Sydneysiders, or what is causing it, but a recent tasting of premium NSW wines demonstrated they can mix it with the best. I will comment briefly on five wines in this tasting.

The first two wines are from Orange, a cool climate region, which produces increasingly exciting wines. The 2022 Canobolas Chardonnay is citrus and floral flavoured. It is a very elegant wine. It does not undergo malolactic fermentation, and is matured in oak. The vineyard slopes down the mountain of Mt. Canobolas, and this translates into an energetic wine with a mineral finish. This wine is absolutely first class (94 points).

The 2023 ChaLou 'Quixotic' Reserve Pinot Noir is equally impressive. This is the first Reserve Pinot Noir from this producer. The wine is obviously very young at this point and quite restraint. The grapes are grown on volcanic soil. They deliver an appealing blend of black cherry and mulberry fruit and some savoury characteristics. The finish is caressing and long (94 points).

Then came the known big guns. The 2019 Tyrrells Old Patch Shiraz was most impressive. It comes from the oldest vineyard in NSW, planted in 1867. This is a medium bodied wine with great purity of  red fruits. The wine has a velvety texture and a piercing drive. The wine is elegant and powerful at the same time. The excellent balance between fruit, acidity, and tannins points to a long future (97 points).

Tasting the 2009 Clonakilla Shiraz/Viognier straight after, was a tough assignment. This is quite a different wine - softer and fruitier, with a bigger mouthfeel, and some five spice. It was quite harmonious at 15 years of age (95 points).

The 2000 Lake's Folly Cabernet Blend from Magnum was equally fresh, after 24 years. What an achievement! The vineyard is on a unique plot in the Hunter Valley, red clay over limestone. The wine is red fruited with a characteristic earthy flavour. The beautifully structured palate delivers great concentration of fruit and a long finish (97 points).     

 

What Happens When You Buy Cheap Bordeaux?

 What is the experience of buying a cheap bottle of Bordeaux? When I say cheap, I do not mean real cheap, but, say, under $100 per bottle. Yesterday, I tried the 2016 Château Clos de Boüard. Depending where you live, this wine can be found for under $50 per bottle. The owners also own Château L'Angélus, one of the top right bank producers.

This is a right bank wine, so unsurprisingly, the dominant grape is Merlot with 85%, then 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.

This is quite a dark wine, and the fruit is quite concentrated. Mainly blackcurrant, but also licorice and tobacco. The mouthfeel is quite complex and attractive. Unfortunately, the tannins are somewhat coarse, and the finish is a bit harsh. Overall, a good wine, in particular with protein food.

If you go for this kind of strategy, looking at the right bank makes sense. In contrast to the Cabernet Sauvignon dominated left bank, Merlot at the lower price point would be less astringent, generally speaking. The Clos de Boüard comes from Montagne, a satellite of St. Emilion. This explains the lower price point.

I found this quite an acceptable value for money proposition. Is it better than a similarly priced local wine. I think this depends; sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Score: 90/++

Peay Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

 Buying American wine in Australia, or anywhere else for that matter, is always a difficult value for money equation. Peay Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is somewhat of an exception. The wine is priced like a blended wine from purchased fruit, but in this case, it is all Estate fruit at relatively low yields. The vineyards are only 4km from the coast. The grapes benefit from frequent fog and overnight cooler temperatures, and avoid the heat spikes further inland.

A couple of nights ago, I poured the 2019 Peay Sonoma Cost Pinot Noir. The wine has an appealing aromatic nose of rose petals and hibiscus. Red and black cherry fruit is blended on the palate with mild savoury notes of forest floor. This delivers an appealing, slightly soft mouthfeel. The wine is framed by solid acidity and dry tannins.

This wine has all the ingredients of a great wine, but it ultimately lacks some depth and drive for it to be outstanding.

Score: 94/++

  

Château Pontet-Canet

 In the last post, I talked about a surprising Barolo. Today, it is about a surprising Bordeaux wine. I experienced the 2004 Château Pontet-Canet.

So the wine is 20 years old, comes from a cooler vintage and is from Pauillac, where the soil is stony and the tannins strong. This should translate into a somewhat austere wine with piercing tannins.

Instead, I experience quite a rounded wine, dark fruited, with a very pleasant and complex mouthfeel. The tannins do not overwhelm, but are getting more prominent and dry with more tasting. Overall, this wine is a pleasant surprise.

Score: 95/+++

The conclusion is that overall descriptors of vintage or soil deliver little accurate prediction of a particular wine. Despite the popular notion 'we let nature do their thing', winemakers have a significant influence on the end product. Why otherwise would some be so revered?