Kosta Browne Russian River Pinot Noir

Kosta Browne appeared on the California Pinot Noir scene as the new star a few years ago. You have to be sceptical when a new winery without track record suddenly gets elevated to such an extent. However, the 2007 Kosta Browne Russian River Pinot Noir could easily justify such a position.

This blended wine tastes of red and black cherry, it is intense, but seductive at the same time with floral flavours sitting on top of the fruit. This wine is very smooth. Its silkiness follows the palate and ends with an expanding finish. This is really satisfying drinking, and at five years the wine hits the sweet spot.

Score: 96/+++  

Thomas Wines Braemore Semillon

One of the natural food and wine matches for me are seared tuna and aged Semillon.  Bruce Tyrell said not long ago that he owned four of the five best Semillon vineyards in the Hunter Valley, and one day he will own the 5th. It is relatively safe to speculate that the 5th vineyard he was referring to was the Braemore vineyard. The mature vines of this outstanding vineyard live on sandy alluvial flats near Hermitage Road.

Yesterday I had the 2005 Thomas Wines Braemore Semillon. Andrew Thomas has been the new bright star in the Hunter, so no wonder that the combination of outstanding fruit source and winemaker produces high quality wines. This now seven year old wine is still very fresh and even zesty. Complexity is not really what Semillon can deliver, but this wine has great purity and balance. Toasty characters are only just starting to come through. In terms of what I was looking for, I opened this wine 3 to 5 years too early. It showed in this slightly awkward window between fresh characteristics and mellowing. No doubt, it has the structure to live for a long time.

Score: 92/++

Pinot Noir Australia, part 2

I focussed on premium wines from Victoria. In no particular order:

Farr Rising, 2011: A pretty wine from a challenging vintage. The wine is light bodied, in the strawberry flavour spectrum. Maintains savoury characteristics (90 points)

By Farr 'Sangreal', 2010: A refined wine with raspberry flavours. This wine has depth and a long finish (93)

Ocean Eight, 2010: A wine with good weight, red cherry flavours, the finish is a bit abrupt (91)
Ocean Eight, Aylward, 2009: A more elegant wine with good length (92)

Yarraloch, Stephanies Dream, 2010: Strawberry and red cherry flavours. Structure a bit suspect with a drop of impact on the back palate (90)

Curly Flat, 2007: After the stellar 2006, I was quite critical of this wine on release, given the colour of this unfiltered wine was very cloudy. The clarity in the colour has improved somewhat, but it is still not transparent. A funky wine in the strawberry spectrum, quite long (91)

Savaterre, 2009: Strawberry flavours, but an unappealing texture in this wine. Some length (90)

Narkoojee Reserve, 2009: A stinky wine (86)

Willow Creek Benedictus, 2008: What you would have expected from earlier Mornington Peninsula wines. A little sweet (90)

Giaconda, 2010: Cherry and savoury flavours, silky tannins, but lacks mouthfeel (92)

William Downie, Gippsland, 2011: Light wine, silky aspects, a brave effort for the year (90)
William Downie, Yarra Valley, 2011: A light wine with savoury notes and some definition (90)

Kooyong Massale, 2011: A light wine, bright, strawberry flavours (88)
Kooyong Estate, 2008: More concentrated, of course. Good length in this wine and an expanding finish (93)

Coldstream Hill, Deer Farm, 2010: A smooth wine, a bit shallow and fruity (90)
Coldstream Hill Reserve, 2010: Cherry flavours, good solid structure, a bit fruity, but nice acidity (92)

Stonier Reserve, 2010: Disappointing: light strawberry flavours (91)

Port Phillip Estate, 2010: A smart wine with cherry flavours and savoury characteristics. Dry tannins on the finish (93)
Port Phillip Estate, Morillon, 2009: very minty (90)

Medhurst, 2011: light, quite minty also (88)

Paringa Estate, 2009: black cherry (not as big as in some previous years), good depth and length (93)
Paringa Estate 'The Paringa', 2008: this is the wine previously named Reserve. This cherry flavoured wine is elegant and silky with some length and good structure, but it is edging towards $100/bottle (94)
Overall impressed with the Paringa wines.

Tyrrell's Vat6, 2009: A positive surprise. Focus on structure, not fruit. Silky, burgundian style with good length (94)

Mount Mary, 2010: Most expensive wine of the tasting. Red cherry flavours. An elegant wine, beautiful in the mouth, finishes a bit short (93)

Wantirna, 2010: Disappointing. Pretty, but light (90)

Toolangi, Estate, 2008: Cherry flavours, quite fruity and somewhat broad. Good complexity with savoury elements and some length (91)

Bannockburn, 2009: A real departure from the past. Used to be quite burgundian, whereas this wine tastes of black cherries and is quite intense. It is elegant at the same time with good length (93)
Bannockburn, Stuart, 2010: A reserve wine. More in the strawberry/savoury spectrum. It lacks acidity (92)




 

 

Pinot Noir Australia, part 1

In my town, in Sydney, you could go to wine tastings three or four times a week However, you could count really good comparative tastings on one hand in a year. One of those is Pinot Noir Australia by The Woollahra Hotel. Current releases from almost all the major Pinot Noir producers are available for tasting. Notable absentees this year were Bindi and Bass Phillip.

In this post, I will give some general impressions, part 2 will have individual reviews.

1) The 2011 vintage is really not good. The wines from it are light and watery (this is Pinot Noir, and probably all reds). Sure, you may find the odd well structured wine, but wouldn't a producer who is capable of doing this, produce a much better wine in 2010 or 2012?

2) The Mornington Peninsula wines, which I have always regarded as Shiraz drinkers' Pinot Noirs because of their deep colour and cherry/plum flavours, are generally lighter and more structured now and more varied, depending on producer and location.

3) There is no particular trend. We seem to be still in an experimentation phase. Tasting profiles of brands change. Australian Pinot Noir has overcome its 'fruity' phase, but I would like to see more expanding finishes of the wines - which is the whole reason for the wide Pinot Noir glasses.

4) The more expensive reserve style or single block wines are often not better. They tend to be more elegant, but often less expressive. Character or personality in the wine is shaved off. Price is a function of volume in this case.

So there you have it. Reviews to follow.

German Pinot Noir

The second surprise I had on my travels was to discover the emergence of excellent German Pinot Noir at a fraction of the cost of its French counterparts. This is largely due to the warm summers in Germany in recent years, which have allowed full flavour development. Many of the vines are quite old and can deliver excellent flavour profiles and structure.

Pinot Noir in German is called Spaetburgunder or Blauburgunder. A variant of this is Fruehburgunder, which is a mutation of Pinot Noir, called Pinot Noir Precoce in France. This is an interesting grape, as it ripens earlier ('frueh'), yet has arguably fuller flavour development than regular Pinot Noir.

An excellent example of this is Weingut Beck Hedesheimer Hof from the Rheinhessen region. I drank the 2007 Fruehburgunder. This is an excellent wine. It is quite full-flavoured, and  tastes of black cherry, blackberry and cranberry. The wine is vibrant, clean and elegant, and it expands along the palate.This early ripening wine comes in at 14% alcohol, but it is not obvious. Give this type of wine a try when in Germany. It is not exported, as far as I know.

Score: 94/+++

South African Pinotage

Pinotage is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, not a blend, but an actual crossing of these two French varieties which somehow happened in South Africa some decades ago. As a result, it has become South Africa's signature grape. While South African Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz have come to the fore in the ever increasing trend of wine internationalisation, it is actually Pinotage which is much more interesting.

When I visited South Africa some ten years ago, its red wines were rustic and earthy most of the time, and not very refined. On this visit, I was pleasantly surprised about the general quality improvement. I did not taste expensive wines there, mainly bottles in the $15 to $25 per bottle range. There is no point to individually review them for this audience, but my impression of the Pinotages was generally this: The wines were well structured and elegant. They showed generous fruit flavours and often had floral and lifted characteristics. The Cinsault makes this wine weightier than a  Pinot Noir, delivering a very satisfying mouthfeel. Lighter than Cabernet or Shiraz, they accompanied food really well. The better ones had satisfying lasting finishes.

When you have a chance, try a Pinotage. I found it intriguing and worth while.  

Kristall Kellerei, Namibia

Posting has been a bit quiet lately, as I am travelling in Africa. A couple of days ago I visited one of three wineries in Namibia. It is in an unlikely spot, translated to Australia, north of Rockhampton. There is no winemaking or -drinking culture in Namibia, and the operation is incredibly primitive and naive: "Last year I needed to harvest very early, as I was going on holidays." Overall production is less than 1000 cases, all sold locally. They bottle in 500g bottles, which is neat. I will upload pictures later, I have difficulty doing it from the ipad. The vineyards do not look well, nor do the wines. They make a Colombard, which actually underwent a further fermentation in the bottle. It therefore was a little fizzy. The wine was unbalanced and would not be allowed to be exported if it was made in Australia. A clear wine fault - not rated. The red wine was a curious blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Cabernet and Tinta Barocca. It was pleasant, but had no real structure and a short finish - more like alcoholic grape juice (80 points). You have to be a real enthusiast to run such a venture. The lucky thing for the owner is there is very little competition. Locals who want to drink home grown wine will try his, and probably do not know better. He is able to sell his annual production at about $10 per bottle, I think.

Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2001 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon is widely regarded as the best for the last ten years (what is it with the 1s? The 91 is brilliant). It is a very powerful wine, concentrated, yet still very lively. The colour is deep purple, the flavours blackberry and mulberry. The wine is ripe, but not sweet. All the pieces fit harmoniously together. The firm tannins, screw cap and  underlying acidity will deliver a very long lived wine, at least another ten years. This is as full bodied as a Californian cult wine, but with a lot more life in it.

Is this an example why Cabernet Sauvignon is the king of grapes? A Shiraz with this power and ripeness might be falling apart now. Using the descriptors in the last post, I would tick distinctiveness, balance, deliciousness, complexity, persistence and paradox, not so much grace, clarity and modesty.

Score: 97/+++

Describing Wine

During the last week, I came across a couple of interesting articles about ways in which to describe wine. Tim White, the wine writer for the Australian Financial Review, uses very detailed descriptors for the wines he reviews. He was upset in his article that a journalist called  wine reviewers which are specific about aromas poncy people. He goes on to defend that he can distinguish all these flavours. My problem with Mr. White's reviews is a different one. Not that he might not be able to differentiate aromas, but that he uses food items as analogy which 99% of the population have never tasted. What is the point of such a description?

The other is an article by Terry Theise from three years ago, where he introduces a different set of principles by which wine experiences can be described and communicated. They are
-Clarity
-Distinctiveness
-Grace
-Balance
-Deliciousness
-Complexity
-Modesty
-Persistence
-Paradox

He believes that in contrast power, sweetness, ripeness and concentration are overrated. Fruit or food comparisons do not even rate a mention.

Some of the above dimensions are frequently used, some are quite appealing to me, such as distinctiveness (uniqueness) and paradox (personality?), in particular as I was reflecting on the tasting described in my last post. But I cannot help myself but think that Mr. Theise is a Burgundy and not a Bordeaux fan. Grange would not score well on grace or modesty, yet it is a remarkable and highly valued wine.

The now regarded  as old fashioned spectrum between femininity and masculinity in wine is hardly enough to get an understanding of a wine from reading a review, but Tim White's detailed approach is often not more helpful.

I have stuck to fairly simple flavour and structure distinctions, which often relate to fruits, ripeness and concentration. The listing above cannot sensibly replace this, in my view, but it made me think to give some of these dimensions more prominence in the future.

What do you think? What is most valuable to you?  

Superstar Shiraz Tasting

The most reputable wines are generally not entered into wine shows. It is therefore not often that one finds an opportunity to compare the best wines of a kind in a tasting. This post reports from such a tasting. It compared leading current release Shiraz wines from the different Australian regions plus the Rhone. The wines were

- Auguste Clape Cornas 2008
- Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2010
-Giaconda Estate Shiraz 2010
-Bests Thompson Family Shiraz 2010
-Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2009
-Wolf Blass Platinum Shiraz 2008
-Gaelic Cemetery Vineyard Shiraz 2008
-Henschke Hill of Grace 2006
-Penfolds Grange 2007

Generally speaking, in such a line-up, the point is not to identify good and not so good wines, but to identify how the styles differ. In fact, two wines did not quite deliver, but more interesting was the wide spectrum which Shiraz can express. The order of the wines was supposed to reflect the increasing weight of the wine.

The Auguste Clape Cornas is from the most southern area of the Northern Rhone, i.e. the warmest area which delivers pure or near pure Shiraz in the Rhone region. Auguste Clape is one of the most highly regarded producers. As is nearly always the case, French wines do not come out too well in comparative tastings with Australian wines, as their fruit concentration simply does not match the Australian wines. However, this wine shows complex raspberry and cherry flavours and spice. It has a dry finish - an excellent food wine (94 points).

The Viognier component is very noticeable in the 2010 Clonakilla. The wine has a similar fruit profile to the French wine, but is more fragrant, with a lifted finish (94 points).

The Giaconda Shiraz is not from the Warner vineyard, but the Estate vineyard next to the winery. Kitzbrunner believes that this vineyard will ultimately deliver the better wine. I do not think this is happening yet. I found this wine disappointing and lacking in mouthfeel. It is a darker wine, tasting of blackberry and spice, but not much intensity. The finish is dry and not very long (92 points).

The Bests wine has a similar blackberry flavour, but more depth of fruit and length. It shows some mint on the palate and some traditional oak treatment, but it is a clear and vibrant wine (93 points).

The Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz is a step up in power. The wine is quite oaky, and the tannins are coarse on the palate. I find that the blackberry, plum and mint flavours do not quite stand up to this (93 points).

More  sweet vanilla oak flavours come through on the Wolf Blass wine, as expected. However, there is good fruit underneath and some silkiness in the tannins coming through (92 points).

The second wine which disappointed was the Gaelic Cemetery from the Clare Valley. I am not familiar with this small production wine, but found it quite sweet and sugary, and not based on a great structure (90 points).

The Henschke Hill of Grace was as expected. A gentle wine, not dissimilar to the Cornas, actually. Raspberry fruit and spices (not pepper) lead to a complex flavour mix. There is good upfront fruit, and soft tannins lead to a sustained finish (95 points).

What makes the Penfolds Grange stand out from the wines before is the intensity and length of flavour. This is a big wine, less refined than some of the others, but a unique expression of Shiraz (96 points).

Given the price of these wines, there was a considerable tasting fee for this tasting - fair enough. In parallel, another tasting of less expensive Shirazes was held for free. There were two wines there which I could have seen in this group from a quality point of view.

The Seppelt St. Peters Shiraz 2008 is a lighter wine, quite spicy, and not with the same mouthfeel as the others, but fine tannins to finish off with (90 points).

The John Duval Entity Shiraz 2010 was a highlight. It has a complex fruit set, in the raspberry, blackberry, mulberry spectrum. The wine is very harmonious and has a firm finish. His best effort yet (93 points).

Within one hour, I tasted wine worth more than $2000. Yet overall, I did not feel elated, but rather flat and disappointed. Why? Did my high expectations make it hard to be excited? I do not think so. I was there to have a good time. Did the wines all taste the same? They certainly did not. So what was it? I think in the end it was the predictability of what I found. There were no surprises. And while the quality was good and the wines were not overblown, they strangely lacked personality, as if a robot went through the motions of producing the expected product, bottle by bottle.

Any thoughts?    

Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock

Onto another wine from 2002. This time it is the 2002 Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock. This wine is from a mature, organically grown and low yielding vineyard. It is dominated by redcurrant flavours, supported by white pepper and earthy notes. The wine is complex and lively, with firm tannins and good length.

This is how I expect a first class Shiraz to taste after ten years. It  still shows vibrant fruit, but mellow characters have increased the complexity. The wine has good weight, but is not heavy. As you finish your first glass, you are looking forward to the second.

Score: 94/++

Two Hands Ares Shiraz

The Ares is the 'best of best grapes' Shiraz of this Shiraz specialist. The 2002 Two Hands Ares Shiraz demonstrates why this is a problematic approach. 'Best of best' means automatically the ripest and most concentrated grapes. As a result, this is a very dark wine, tasting of plum and blackberry, and overwhelmingly thickness and sweetness. It is one of those wines where you cannot drink more than one glass. Having said this, the wine is not poorly made. It is still relatively lively at 10 years, the berries do not taste burnt, but there is no differentiation in the wine, rather a big, black mouthfull. The wine is rated at 14.5% alcohol, which is not uncommon for Barossa Shiraz, but it feels more like 15.5%. The wine is not hot, though, because of the impressive fruit concentration.

At the end of the day, this is a misguided effort. The wine is expensive because it is rare. It is rare, because it only uses the ripest and most concentrated grapes. These grapes make the wine hard to swallow. And who would want to survive an evening on one glass of wine?

Score: 91/--