Krondorf Growers Barossa Shiraz

The Krondorf brand has been around for over 35 years. The 'Growers' wine acknowledges fruit from selected growers. The 2012 Krondorf Growers Barossa Shiraz is made from fruit by Marcus Schulz and Anita Bowen. The Schulz vineyard is in the Northern Barossa and is highly acclaimed. I am not familiar with Anita Bowen. In any case, the wine does not come from the Valley Flats, as the Krondorf name might suggest.

The wine opens up with strong red plum and kirsch aromas, which intensify on the palate. The wine is plush and quite yummy, not jammy. There is spice and some vanilla oak on the palate as well. The dominant fruit embraces all the taste buds, but the wine has quite an acidic finish. The acid feels added. It takes away from the smoothness of the wine on the front palate. Still, it is a good drink now, and will improve and mellow over the years.

Score: 92/++

Tour de France

I finalized all details for my biggest winery trip ever, taking in Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone. The visits are set up for May, and I will hopefully have some amazing  tastings to report.

Wynns Messenger Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2010 Wynns Messenger Cabernet Sauvignon is the first separate bottling from this vineyard since 1985. It achieved a lot of acclaim on release, and I was impressed by the fruit intensity as well. Drinking it now, I am less enthusiastic. The terra rossa influence still shines through on the firm redcurrant flavours, and they carry through to the back palate. The wine is quite vibrant, but the mouthfeel is less than satisfying. The fruit is quite tough, and the wine not as rounded as I would have liked. The tannins on the finish are firm, and the structure will hold for 10 years plus, but what is the point if the wine itself is not as smooth as a top Cabernet should be.

Score 91/0

Dalwhinnie Shiraz

Some highly acclaimed wineries fall from grace. It is hard to understand exactly why and why it is not reversible. For example, in the 1980s, Virgin Hills was highly regarded for its Bordeaux blend. It went downhill from there. The wine became thin and green and could not stand up to the new wave of Australian Shirazes.

I have the feeling Dalwhinnie is joining this unfortunate group of wineries, although for entirely different reasons. The other day, I opened a bottle of the 2004 Dalwhinnie Shiraz, supposedly one of their great years in the last 10 years. This is a full bodied wine, more so than you would expect from Victoria. Flavours are of blackberry and mulberry, but most noticeable is the ripeness of the fruit, which was on the wrong side of being satisfying. This unpleasant mouthfeel was not helped by a fairly harsh finish. The Dalwhinnie Shiraz was famous for its silky tannins, but this wine had no subtleness to it whatsoever.

I previously reported on some younger wines, which were equally disappointing. I am afraid this winery has lost its way. Trying to be a big Barossa?

Score: 86/--

Riversdale 'Crater' Chardonnay

If you are getting tired of drinking the same old Chardonnay, why not try a new one from Tasmania. New wineries are popping up there all the time and the quality continues to improve. Riversdale Estate, in the mild and dry Coal River Valley, has been around for over 20 years. Today I am tasting the 2011 Riversdale 'Crater' Chardonnay.

Citrus flavours dominate the palate. This is a clean wine, quite balanced with some serious acidity. The flavour profile reminds me very much of Tumbarumba Chardonnay. Having said this, the wine is a little fuller and fruitier, but still done in the 'modern' Australian style. The citrus flavours are still strong on the back palate, leading to a refreshing finish.

This is a very good all-rounder, but would go particularly well with summer salads.

Score: 92/++

Domaine de la Romanee-Conti St -Vivant Mini Vertical

Yesterday, this blog went through 100,000 page views. Yeah! To celebrate, I have chosen this special review. The wines were tasted late last year and came from James Halliday's personal cellar.

There is not enough room here to detail the extra-ordinariness of this producer, but the basics are that DRC owns or part owns 6 Pinot Noir vineyards near the village of Vosne-Romanee. In order of their reputation, they are Romanee-Conti (the house block, if you like), La Tache, Richebourg, St-Vivant, Grands Echezeaux, Echezeaux. Some people now argue that St-Vivant, after many improvements, is now equal to Richebourg or has even surpassed it. In any event, the styles are said to be quite different, with Richebourg being powerful and rich, whereas St-Vivant is more elegant and delicate.

The St.-Vivants to taste were from the 2010, 2009 and 2006 vintages, with 2009 being regarded as amongst the best in recent history.

We started with the 2010 DRC St-Vivant. The colour of this wine is bright, but not light red. The fruit flavours are a complex blend of strawberry and red cherry. They do not impact consistently down the palate, as they would with the next two wines. The finish is very silky, very long.

Score: 95/++

The 2009 DRC St-Vivant shows a darker colour, with hints of purple. This might be due to bottle age, but is mainly the result of more concentrated fruit. Cherry flavours dominate on the fruit spectrum, but there is a lot going on here, with forest floor flavours and a hint of smokiness thrown in the mix. This is a very complex wine, elegant and velvety, with a long finish.

Score: 98/+++

The 2006 DRC St-Vivant was the surprise. From a somewhat lesser vintage, this wine showed great intensity, with a silky mouthfeel and an expanding finish (Burgundian fan).

Score: 98/+++

This was my first taste of DRC other than a Richebourg over a decade ago. Was it a life-changing experience as somebody suggested to me beforehand? Clearly no. But there was something special about these wines. They are clearly made with meticulous attention to detail. What marked them for me was a density in the fruit weight, without being heavy, but rather elegant. A slight disappointment was that while the finishes were long, I had expected more of a flavour expansion. Only the 2006 did offer it. But overall, it was a great experience to try these rare wines from perhaps the most profound producer in the world.

Krug or Dom?

I am sorry this blog has been quiet for so long. First, I was in a non wine-drinking environment, then I got struck down by a viral infection. But in-between I had the opportunity to sip on a 2004 vintage Dom Perignon on my flight home. This brought up in my mind the question of Dom vs. Krug. This is very similar to what happened in music if you grew up in the 60s. You were either a Beatles fan or a Stones fan, never both. And so it is in Champagne land.

I freely admit that I do not get overly excited by Champagne, the most overworked wine drink on earth, but you can't fault their marketing. Nobody seems to think twice to fork out at a minimum $50 for a bottle of Champus, whereas this person would never spend this much on a white or red wine. Having said this, and to answer the question, I am a Krug person. I go for the weight and the yeast, as opposed to Dom's freshness and vibrancy.

The other thing that happened a couple of days before I boarded the flight, I had a mild form of food poisoning. I was despite all this looking forward to the Dom Perignon from a great year, but bad luck, I could not stomach the acidity. Half of a small glass, that was it.

Now for those who have been reading all this waiting for a review. The palate opens up with citrus and almond flavours, then there is cream and a smoky flavour. This Champagne has good intensity and balance. The bubbles are small and persistent, and the vibrancy of this drink is caused by its well integrated acidity.

Murray Street Vineyards Gomersal Shiraz

Gomersal is one of the warmest subregions of the Barossa. Soils are varied and some not ideally suited for growing Shiraz. The Murray Street Gomersal vineyard is in one of the better locations with sandy and lime soils, to my knowledge.

The 2008 MSV Gomersal Estate Shiraz shows a very strong vanilla bouquet. It dominates the palate as well, covering the underlying concentrated blackberry fruit and the ripe tannins. This wine has been aged in new and used American oak for 18 months. Unfortunately, the oak is so dominant that it makes the wine quite one-dimensional.

Score: 86/--

Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir

I drink most vintages and several types of  Felton Road Pinot Noir. The two most esteemed are Block 3 and Block 5, in particular Block 5. I often prefer Block 3 for its rare ethereal qualities, whereas Block 5 is the more powerful version, living a long life.

Drinking the 2006 Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir tonight is sheer pleasure. The flavour profile is as expected: black cherry, infused with complex savoury forest floor. The fruit is quite concentrated and intense and shows little sign of abating after 8-9 years. Oak is skillfully integrated.

What is stunning about this wine are the tannins. They are present early on the palate, caressing the mouth. They are firm and hold the structure of the wine well, while being silky at the same time.

All this leads to a harmonious long finish in the style of a top flight Burgundy, but sun-kissed.

I am really enjoying this wine. Will surpass another 5 years easily.

Score: 97/+++

Chateau Lynch-Bages

The millennium vintage was anything but memorable in Australia, but produced great wines in Europe, in particular in Bordeaux. The 2000 Chateau Lynch-Bages shows a surprisingly developed colour, but on the palate, the wine shows off its fruit in perfect ripeness. Blackcurrant and black cherry flavours are added to by strong  dark chocolate and tobacco notes. Secondary flavours have developed and add earthy undertones to the complex palate. The main aspect of this wine is its elegance and smoothness. The tannins have softened leading to a harmonious finish. The wine is good drinking now, but it is quite developed. Will the structure hold another 10 years?

Score: 94/++

Brokenwood Semillon

The 2007 Brokenwood Semillon still has a lime green colour. This translates to lime and citrus on the palate. The wine is very clean and frankly delicious. It has great balance between fruit and acidity and after seven years, does not show much development (under screwcap, stored 12 to 14 degrees).

We all wonder why Semillon is not more popular. One reason could be that there is no obvious best food match. However, this one went extremely well with an acidic green salad a la Ottolenghi, involving quite a bit of lemon curd. Perfect and straight forward.

Score: 92/++

Bass Phillip Crown Prince Pinot Noir

The Crown Prince Pinot Noir is only number four in the Bass Phillip hierarchy (although from the number two or three vineyard), and then I am looking at the 2011 vintage, which was a very wet year, the worst in 10 years. How good can this be?

The 2011 Bass Phillip Crown Prince Pinot Noir shows a light pink colour. It is fairly light on the palate, too, with strawberry flavours and appealing aromatics.This wine is fairly straight forward, but has a caressing mouthfeel and the silkiness typical for Bass Phillip wines. It is an astonishing wine, given the vintage.

It speaks to Phillip Jones' point that great Pinot Noir needs rainfall, not stressed vines. This theory will get played out in Tasmania, where many are planting in the dry parts (the coal river, I think), yet some vineyards, e.g. in the Tamar River are in wet regions. Otherwise the climate is similar. We shall see.

Score: 91/+++