Bindi Composition Pinot Noir

The Composition Pinot Noir is Bindi's entry level Pinot. The 2006 Bindi Composition Pinot Noir was sheer pleasure to drink. The colour of the wine was moorish, and it displayed a wonderful bouquet of strawberry and cherry.

The fruit flavours were black cherry, but the key to this wine is its great balance and linear delivery. The wine goes down the palate without changing, becoming increasingly silky towards the back palate. It is one of the few truly ethereal Pinot Noirs we have in this country (next to Main Ridge). Soft tannins lead to a lengthy finish. This wine is well made and would have scored higher if the mouthfeel had been a bit more rounded.

Score: 93/+++

Recent Shiraz Poll

It was a close race between the options until the very end, but finally the 'elegant, perfumed' style won out. This is reflected in the scramble for Eden Valley fruit amongst Barossa Valley producers which I observed during my last visit there.

Huon Hooke, the respected Sydney Morning Herald wine writer, has expressed an interesting view on this: 'Why do we try everything with Shiraz? If you want that perfumed style, why not drink Pinot Noir and keep making Shiraz in that uniquely powerful Australian style?' [quoted from recollection].

What do you think?

Voyager Cabernet/Merlot

I just reviewed the 2003 Voyager Shiraz and was not convinced. How does its flagship, the Cabernet/Merlot stack up?

The 2003 Voyager Cabernet/Merlot (under screwcap) is still very fresh. It tastes of redcurrant and raspberry and has good depth of flavour. The mouthfeel is satisfying, as a result. The wine has a good structure, but you would not call it overly elegant. The acidic frame overshadows the moderately silky tannins. I am wondering if the screwcap is really helping. Some mellowing of this wine at this point in time would have added pleasure.

Score: 93/+

Current Poll

The results so far are neck to neck, but I was hoping for more votes. Which style of Shiraz is the most popular? Please vote, it is not hard. Only a few days left.

Voyager Shiraz

I must admit, I have always been a bit ambivalent towards Margaret River Shiraz: I do not know what it stands for. And drinking this 2003 Voyager Shiraz is not changing my position.

This is a wine from a good year and producer, it is a perfect eight years old. It tastes of black cherry and is quite spicy, but there is a confectionery flavour as well. This is a weird combination of flavours. The wine is starting to mellow a little, but still has a young feel and acidity on the back palate. The wine has good balance, but the mouthfeel is a little flat.

Overall, this is a wine well made, but unfortunately not that enjoyable to drink.

Score: 91/-

By Farr and Farr Rising

When Gary Farr left Bannockburn, he started his own label by Farr with fruit from a vineyard nearby (Geelong area). The vineyard is on limestone soil, which the Farrs regard as crucial for making Burgundian style wines. A bit later, his son Nick started Farr Rising. Today, Gary Farr is retired, but both labels are continued by Nick Farr. The fruit comes from different blocks of the same vineyard, and the winemaking techniques are somewhat different. The main focus is on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The wines are made in a European style.

In a tasting of newly released Chardonnay and Pinot Noir I could compare these wines. The result was anything but expected, namely slightly more forward fruit in the Farr Rising wines and very savoury and somewhat funky wines under the by Farr label.

The first wine was the 2009 Farr Rising Chardonnay. This wine comes from the difficult and very hot vintage in Victoria, and Farr picked only half the fruit. The western side of the bunches was not picked because of the shriveled nature of the grapes from the afternoon sun. This wine showed citrus, but also peach and gave quite a creamy mouthfeel despite the acidity which was clearly noticeable. I liked this wine a lot, as it is different from the current trend towards crispy Chardonnay, without being buttery at all. Having said this, the finish was a little plump.

Score: 94/+++

The 2008 By Farr Chardonnay was fresher and more linear, with a nice finish, but it lacked the unique character of the first wine.

Score: 92/+

The 2009 Farr Rising Geelong Pinot Noir was savoury as expected, with earthy and smoky (not from the fires) characteristics. There was tobacco, too. It tasted young, elegant and fresh, but fell off at the finish.

Score: 92/+

The outstanding feature of the 2008 By Farr Farrside Pinot Noir was the beautiful vibrancy of the fruit. Brilliant strawberry and raspberry flavours flow through the palate, with a bigger mouthfeel than the previous wine, and a good length, dry finish. This is quite exceptional.

Score: 95/++

Overall, these wines are highly individualistic. They are all attractive and I recommend you should try them. If 'length of finish' is important to you, you should go for the by Farr wines.

2nd Label Rhone Varieties

In a recent post, I commented on the benefit or otherwise of buying second labels of well respected winemakers. Following are three wines which offer really good value, in my view.

The 2009 Wynns Coonawarra Shiraz is, strictly speaking, not a second label, but it stands in the shadow of the Cabernet Sauvignon. Wynns has worked hard on improving its viticulture over the last few years, and this wine, from an excellent vintage, shows the continued Coonawarra revival. This wine has good depth of fruit, mainly in the plum and black cherry spectrum. The structure is good and the mouthfeel has an attractive velvety touch. You would not say this wine is overly elegant or complex, but for the price you get quite a lot. I am impressed with the quality of such a high volume wine.

Score: 90/++

The 2008 d'Arenberg Footbolt Shiraz is a true second label. This wine has good fruit as well, with earthy and minty characters. There are firm dry tannins, but the finish is a little harsh.

Score: 88/+

The 2007 Guigal Cotes du Rhone is quite an amazing achievement. This high volume wine is made from grapes bought from dozens of growers and quality control must be hard. Yet it displays great depth of fruit, with the Grenache and Shiraz components blending well together. The mouthfeel is very smooth, and while this wine is not very complex, it has quite silky tannins, unusual for a wine in the $20-25 per bottle bracket. The winemaking skills shine through in this wine. It will keep well for 3-5 years at least. If you have never drunk this wine or scoffed at the commercial nature of it, this is the vintage to try.

Score: 91/++

New Poll

It is winter in Australia and high season for Shiraz. Shiraz can have many different expressions. Which one do you prefer? Please vote.

Overseas visitors are encouraged to vote as well, applying the general description.

Cullen Cabernet/Merlot

One of the popular theories of getting a good wine at a reasonable price is to go for a second or third tier wine of an icon winery/winemaker. This works only sometimes, as in many cases grapes are so young and yields so high that the best winemaking cannot overcome the watery nature of the wine. These wines are made because they need to pay for the more extravagant pursuits.

No such issues with the 2008 Cullen Cabernet/Merlot. This wine is full bodied and tastes of dark berries and olive. The mouthfeel of this seemless wine is terrific. It falls off a bit on the back palate, before it finishes dry and elegantly.

Score: 93/+++

Craggy Range 2009 Releases

Luckily there is some correlation between investment dollars and quality of wine, otherwise people would not do it. Voyager Estate is a good example in Australia and Craggy Range is the prime New Zealand example. When I visited there a few years ago, I was impressed with the immaculate viticulture and the attention to detail in the winemaking.

The 2009 releases are impressive, although not across the board, in my view. The 2009 Craggy Range Les Beaux Cailloux Chardonnay is a wine from the Gimblett Gravels, as are their reds. The wine shows citrus flavours over a nutty base and has quite an acidic finish. I found the oak quite strong and I am not sure the fruit can take it as the wine settles down and matures (91 points).

The 2009 Craggy Range Te Muna Pinot Noir tastes of red cherry, but is overall quite savoury. It fans out nicely with the finish, which is more gripping than elegant (93 points).

The 2009 Te Kahu Merlot Blend is made from younger fruit and it shows. The wine is lacking depth (89 points).

The 2009 Craggy Range Sophia can be thought of like a right bank Bordeaux. It is predominantly Merlot, with some Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a medium bodied wine with beautiful blackcurrant fruit. The wine is well rounded, with fruit and oak seamlessly integrated, and a lengthy finish - a cracker, and cheaper than 2nd growth Bordeaux (95 points).

The 2009 Craggy Range The Quarry is a Cabernet Sauvignon. It is also well rounded and quite elegant for a young Cabernet, but not as complex and beautiful as the Sophia (94 points).

The Sol Shiraz is the self declared challenger to Grange as the number 1 Shiraz of the southern hemisphere. The 2009 Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah has a deep purple colour. It tastes of blackberry and is quite peppery like a cool climate Australian Shiraz, but with a lot of intensity and a silken texture. The wine is quite acidic with dry tannins and good length on the finish . The 2009 is an excellent example of this style (95 points).

Overall, a strong portfolio, but the wines are not cheap.

Eden Road The Seedling

Eden Road is quite a new Canberra district winery which arrived on the scene with well made and inexpensive Shiraz and by winning a Jimmy Watson last year for one of them.

The 2010 Eden Road The Seedling Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is the first white wine I tried from them and I reckon it is equally good. The freshness of the Sauvignon Blanc and the weight of the Semillon are both quite present in this wine. Lime fruit dominates, but it is not an overly fruity wine. This wine has great texture and length for such a young wine. A trifle more acidity would balance it perfectly. Highly recommended!

Score: 92/++

Chateau Pontet-Canet

I am not a huge Bordeaux fan across the board, but I like a good one. Currently, the 2010 futures are offered from apparently a good vintage, and the prices are high despite the improvement of the Australian dollar. I am lukewarm towards it, but tried a 2005 Chateau Pontet-Canet tonight to see if I can increase my enthusiasm.

Pontet-Canet has been a success story for the last ten years and I was lucky enough to buy some 05's at reasonable prices. Many say that if the Bordeaux classification was redone today, Pontet-Canet would be a first growth. So this should be a good benchmark from a great year.

I decanted the wine only an hour before consumption, so this opens up slowly. The colour is deep red, and the flavour a thick blackcurrant. This is also the impression on the front palate. The wine really comes to its own on the back palate with a very long finish and firm, but elegant tannins.

This wine is still way too early to drink. It is a well structured, full bodied wine. I would have liked the tannins to be silkier and more caressing, and the flavour a bit more differentiated.

The verdict: I am very happy to drink this wine, but it is not a must have or one that bowls me over. This confirms my general assessment of Bordeaux wine. Therefore, at current prices, I will stay on the sidelines for 2010 despite the raving reviews some of the wines have collected.

Score: 95/+