Friday 29 June 2007

Tyrrell's Moon Mountain Chardonnay 2006

Cheap chardonnay -- those two words strike fear into the hearts of many. But I'm open minded, especially where a bargain is to be had. Plus, I've really enjoyed the Vat 47 so obviously Tyrrell's knows how to make a good chardonnay.

This one, however, suffers from oak that, whilst not overbearing, is for my taste completely lacking in interest. The rest of the wine is actually quite nice. It's on the fresher side, with lemon and cashew flavours, and refreshing acidity. It is also quite creamy in the mouth, presumably from lees stirring. No malo flavours that I could detect. So in terms of weight, it strikes a nice balance between a new-fashioned lean chardonnay and a butterscotch monster.

But that oak. It's just so boring. It tastes like, well, wood. And, despite the rest of the wine being quite nice, I sort of honed in on the boring wood flavour while drinking, which ruined the wine a bit for me. Still, pretty good value.

Thursday 28 June 2007

Bailey's of Glenrowan Shiraz 2000

If given the choice, I'll usually gravitate towards a more elegant, medium bodied red wine over the more monstrous examples. But sometimes, the food you're eating (in this case a hearty beef stew) calls for something more. So, out came a Baileys of Glenrowan Shiraz.

I opened this wine expecting not to like it, as I've reacted negatively to the flavour profile of North-Eastern Victorian reds in the past. So it was with a good deal of surprise that I found myself latching onto this wine in a most positive fashion.

Perhaps the bottle age helps things along, but I found the wine to be big, but in balance, and surprisingly complex for its price point. It has that distinctive "stewed red fruit" flavour that I often get with warm climate shiraz, and the wine's flavour shows a good deal of spicy oak influence. This translates, especially on the palate, to a lovely mix of hot fruit and spice that, whilst not overly structured, is very generous and quite delicious. I wouldn't call the mouthfeel refined, but nothing poked out unduly, with acid and tannin, as well as alcohol, sitting alongside each other nicely.

This wine has me reassessing my aversion to red wines from this region. I like that about wine. It's constantly surprising and forcing me to question my prejudices.

Wednesday 27 June 2007

Paringa Estate Peninsula Pinot Noir 2005

Another cheap pinot, this time from the Mornington Peninsula.

The style of this wine is pretty oak-driven, which is no doubt a conscious decision, but that does challenge my notion of the sort of young pinot I'd like to drink. A relatively expressive nose of overripe strawberries and spices is followed by more of the same on the palate. But, for my taste, the fruit recedes too far, structurally, with the oak dominating rather than framing the pinot fruit's (attractive) character. Intensity of flavour was only moderate, an impression perhaps created due to the wine's structure (I kept wanting the fruit to creep forward just a bit more than it did). Over the evening, the wine did balance out a little, and developed some extra complexity, but was still pretty oakey.

I liked this a lot more than the Tamar Ridge from the other night, because its flavour profile struck me as more delicious, but I shall continue to search for an inexpensive pinot that suits my tastes.

Monday 25 June 2007

Two cheap Hunter reds

I put together a fairly inexpensive dozen the other day, and in amongst it were two Hunter shirazes from the 2003 vintage. We had them back to back so they were easy to compare.

Tyrrell's Stevens Shiraz 2003

Fuller bodied than a lot of Hunter shiraz but certainly a wine of its region. The flavour profile on this wine is a notch darker than a lot of shiraz from this area, perhaps owing to the drought affected vintage. I found the nose quite dumb, with a whiff of dark fruits and barnyard. It's on the palate that this wine hits you, with concentrated dark fruit flavours of the most attractive purity (sort of blueberryish), along with regional flavours of dirt and stink. Nice acidity and tannins, nothing out of balance. A chunky yet sophisticated wine in the mouth, substantial and slippery at the same time. Really enjoyed this one, it has a lot of personality.

Mount Pleasant Philip 2003

This wine is in what I understand to be a more traditional Hunter shiraz style, in that it is medium bodied, with bright red berry flavours placed within a predominantly savoury flavour profile of dust/dirt and barnyard. Really very aromatic and expressive, this wine is totally consistent from nose to palate. I think this wine showed more complexity than the Stevens (pretty awesome considering it's half the price), without perhaps the same concentration of flavour. I loved it. Usually the Philip is a bit lame but this one is great.

Tamar Ridge Pinot Noir 2004

I've been having pinot noir cravings of late, and have realised that my cellar has barely a drop. So I went to Dan's a bought a couple of budget offerings, hoping to get a bit of pinot love at little cost. Unfortunately, the De Bortoli Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, which I know and enjoy, has come off its super discounted price point, making it no longer an impulse buy for me.

So instead, we have the Tamar Ridge Pinot. If ever one wanted to illustrate the concepts of line, structure and coherence, this would be a good wine to taste -- so that you know what a lack of all these things means. Initially, I was happy to enjoy a whiff of varietally correct pinot fruit (that curious sweet/sour berry/cherry taste that's hard to describe but easy to recognise). But I quickly realised that there's nothing holding this wine together - it's a mix of flavours with no theme. The wine doesn't tell any sort of story from nose to palate, it just presents as a series of discrete sensations, none of which are grossly unpleasant (good fruit, oak in balance, slightly harsh but not awful acidity, somewhat rustic tannins), all lacking a sense of context.

A blah experience and, as I mentioned before, a good lesson in how those "intangibles" can make or break a wine.

Thursday 21 June 2007

Tintara Shiraz 1998

I keep expecting these wines I'm dragging from the cellar to be corked or faulty, but I seem to be having a good run so far.

I bought this wine years ago in Canberra as I wandered through a large wine shop in one of my periodic buying frenzies.

A very dense purple red colour. Initially on the nose, a clean burst of concentrated blueberry fruit was pretty dominant. I've been swirling a bit, though, and a real complexity of flavour is developing, mostly oak-related. The fruit is still lovely and clean, but there are well integrated spice and mocha flavours too. Some alcoholic sweetness at the edges.

The palate is similarly concentrated and lip-smacking, and the wine has a clearly defined structure. Tannins are present but not overwhelming by any means (they will probably melt away as I tuck into my steak in a few moments). This wine is generous and attractive in its flavour profile, and not unsophisticated in its own way. This is the sort of big red wine that I enjoy.

Tuesday 19 June 2007

Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

I had a fresh one of these (2004) the other day and it was quite nice, albeit somewhat boring, with good varietal definition and a pleasant structure.

I'm not sure about this one, though. On opening, the wine reeked of VA and tasted of camphor. I left the glass for a while and came back to it, whereupon it had changed to show dusty cabernet fruit flavours and chocolate/vanilla oak. In the mouth, the wine has (to my taste) an unpleasantly thick feel, mouthfilling but in a coarse way. Structurally, the wine strikes me as pretty one-dimensional. It's not a bad wine, just stylistically far from the sort of cabernet I'd like to drink.

Monday 18 June 2007

Chateau Labergorge 1994

Margaux, Cru Bourgeois from what I can figure out. This wine was a gift from friend Larissa and, as she was in Brisbane last night for work, I decided to bring it along when we caught up with her for dinner.

First glass felt a little fruit-light, with aromas and tastes of stalk and caramelly oak predominating. Finish was a little drying too, although tannins were very refined. As we progressed through the meal (and the bottle), the wine opened up and the middle palate filled in with lovely soft red berry fruits. Medium bodied, with an overall impression of well structured softness. Nice wine.

Friday 15 June 2007

Glen Fiona Syrah 'Puncheon-Aged' 1999

My first Walla Walla syrah, courtesy of Chris and Dan.

Really funky yeast characters on the nose, sweet flowers and a bit of VA, the combined effect being sort of like sewage. Nice sewage, though, and quite restrained overall. The palate is more assertive, helped along by velvety tannins that caress and flow over the tongue. Very much fruit driven at this stage, and the fruit itself is attractive in character, if slightly bubblegumish. Medium bodied, balanced acidity, extremely moreish, the mouthfeel a highlight.

Two aged reds

I'm trying to drink my cellar down at the moment, as the wine storage fees are a little excessive, and there's wine lying all over the boat. So, last night, in the name of good housekeeping, we had:

Ridge Geyserville 1994

This is the last bottle from the amazing Chinatown buyout Chris, Dan and myself effected a few years ago. I can't remember how many bottles we ended up buying, but I do know the last two bottles opened were very much over the hill, showing overwhelmingly unpleasant oxidised characters. So I didn't have very high hopes for this bottle.

What a wonderful surprise, then, to see a bright, not-overly-dense ruby red colour pour into my glass. Good start. The nose showed complexity and balance, flavours tending towards dusty, leathery sourness (the other half chimed in with "radishes!", which pretty much nails it). The palate delivered more of the same, plus the last vestiges of distinctive zinfandel fruit flavours, and, susprisingly, a light dusting of fine tannins. Very much in balance, lots of flavours swirling around in there, like some sort of beautiful yet sad last gasp.

Brands Coonawarra Shiraz 1998

Quite a different beast, this one. It's ageing quite well, but is a considerably younger wine, the balance of flavours still tipped more heavily towards fruit compared to the Ridge. I remember this wine being really enticing as a youngster, with that lovely clear, elegant fruit flavour profile that Coonawarra shiraz tends to have. So there's definite aged complexity developing, and the mix of flavours is relatively well balanced, but compared to the Ridge there's a clumsiness to this wine, a coarseness, that relates in particular to its structure, and perhaps to its mouthfeel also. Still, for less than $20 when purchased, not a bad performance. I have one of these left and will probably drink it soon.

Thursday 7 June 2007

Two young reds

Had two very different wines last night with a chicken and haloumi salad.

Ravensworth Sangiovese 2005

A fun wine with a good whack of moderately varietal fruit flavour. I do enjoy the distinctive savouriness of sangiovese and it seems that Australian versions never quite have enough of it. They are usually so "shirazified" they end up being quite different from Italian wines. Maybe that's the point. Anyway, this one had enough of a savoury edge to bring a smile to my face. Medium bodied overall, relatively fragrant, not terribly structured but who cares?

Voyager Estate Shiraz 2003

Completely different wine. This one was very tightly wound; it's one of those wines that tastes like you're sensing everything from behind a thick veil. It's all there, but not expressing itself much. Quite nice coffeed oak frames dark fruits and a solid line from nose to back palate. Tannins and acid seem in balance, and the wine's mouthfeel is smooth, considering how tight the wine is. I still have about 1/3 of a bottle left and will try it again tonight to see how it's evolved.