Month: August 2013

Henry’s Drive 2010 Dead Letter Office Shiraz

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One of the perks of my gig at (the sadly now defunct) Sumptuous was the lovely selection of wines I got to taste. While I did have input in the theme of the wines, and I did get to make suggestions as to wines to taste, there was always at least one wine I didn’t pick. Which I thought was great, because it was a surprise. And I’m also inherently pretty lazy. When it comes to dining out, the shorter the menu, the better. If it comes as a set menu – result. Set menu with matching wines – double result. I don’t have to make any decisions!

So I was pretty happy to visit my GPO box and find two bottles from Henry’s Drive. Henry’s Drive is based in Padthaway (Limestone Coast), in the south eastern corner of South Australia. It’s not a brand I’d come across before so I came to both bottles with no preconceptions.

Henry’s Drive has the bulk of its vineyards in Padthaway, with just 30 acres in McLaren Vale. The fruit for this Shiraz is sourced from both regions: an almost even split in this release, the scales just tipping slightly in favour of McLaren Vale (55:45).

In the glass the wine was intense. Ruby red in colour, with a pronounced nose showing black plum, spice, licorice and tar. There was also a hint of vegetal character.

This black fruit dominance carried through onto the palate but there was also vanilla, spice and a touch of black pepper on the back palate. The wine had a lovely savoury finish with an aniseed/licorice kick to it. The wine had a good level of acidity and soft tannins that provided weight and structure but weren’t drying. The tannins, alcohol and fruit were all very well integrated, making this a well balanced and easy to drink wine. It might be 14.5% alcohol but you wouldn’t know it.  While this is lovely to drink now, you don’t need to be in a hurry to drink it either.

Although this was a sample, the RRP is $25. If I’d paid $25 for it I’d have been pretty happy. The internet suggests that you may be lucky and able to find it under $20, in which case you’d be even happier.

This wine was a sample.
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14.5% abv.

Greywacke 2011 Sauvignon Blanc

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greywacke

At home I have a fruit bowl and in that fruit bowl goes not only fruit but all the scraps of paper on which I’ve written tasting notes.

I do also have a tasting notebook but today the fruit bowl is closer and so, in what is best described as a lucky dip, I pulled out a pile of tasting notes that I’d written on wines I’d used in a WSET course. The notes are dated 19 August. That’s not 10 days ago – that’s 375 days ago. I’m sure that gives you some kind of insight into me … not entirely sure what it says though!

As a rule, I am not a fan of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Not because I have an issue with them, per se, but they’ve become such a lazy choice for a certain type of drinker. I’ve actually been out with people who look somewhat crestfallen when there isn’t a NZ Sav Blanc on a wine list. Similarly, I hate that so often wine lists overlook good, local examples and yet feature a raft of second string NZ wines.

Little rant over. I am a massive fan of Greywacke. My first introduction to the brand was the Riesling (one seriously exciting wine there) and, as one of the required wines to teach at Level 2 is a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, this has become very much my go to wine.

Greywacke is run by Kevin Judd, a nice bloke, who also happens to be ex Cloudy Bay. He should know what he’s doing with Sauvignon Blanc. And he does.

While these notes aren’t on the current release, the few vintages I’ve tried have been pretty consistent of wines, so the following will give you an idea of what you will get, even if not an exact match. The wine is usually well received (and well liked) in class too.

In the glass the wine is very pale yellow. So pale that it’s almost water white.

As you’d expect with a Sauvignon Blanc, the nose is pronounced with pungent green pea and passionfruit, with hints of green capsicum, gooseberry and even a touch of the obligatory cat’s pee.

In the mouth, good acidity backs up a palate which shows a lot more tropical fruit. The passionfruit is definitely there, much more pronounced than on the nose and there’s just a whisper of green capsicum. Good length.

The current available release in Adelaide appears to be the 2012 which you will be able to pick up for around $25-$30 from good bottle shops such as The Ed Cellars and East End Cellars.

Greywacke also produces a Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc which is slightly more expensive.

Freeman 2007 Secco

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I’m sure I’ve said this before but … While my local bottle shop caters for a middle of the road audience, if you have a bit of a dig around its various nooks and crannies you can often a gem. It might be a back vintage, it might be something a bit weird or from a small producer, or it might be at a bargain price.

In the 2007 Freeman Secco pretty much all of these boxes were ticked. It so happened that only a couple of days earlier I’d read Andrew Graham’s review of the 2009 (current release) on Oz Wine Review but even if I hadn’t recognised it from that, the fact that it’s a Rondinella Corvina blend made in Australia would have been enough to see me buy it.

Rondinella and Corvina are grapes that you’d normally find in wines from the Veneto in north eastern Italy. Heard of Valpolicella? You might have come across it in an Italian restaurant. It’s a lighter weight, food friendly Italian red from the Veneto and Corvina and Rondinella are two thirds of its makeup (the other third being Molinara).

Hanging around in Italy, the flavours of Valpolicella might be intensified by drying out some of the grapes prior to fermentation. This boosts the intensity of the flavours and also rounds off the wine with a distinctive bitterness. These are wines you’ll find sold as Amarone.

The Secco is cut from this cloth, with a portion of the grapes dried out in a prune dehydrator. The wine spends two years in oak before bottle and a further two years before release.

One final fun wine fact: Freeman is the only one or two wineries in Australia with Rondinella and Corvina grapes, so if you see this wine, grab it and give it a go.

How does it taste? Thanks to twitter, I was advised to decant the wine for about 6 hours before tasting, and it definitely held up and improved over a couple of days.

In the glass, medium-minus intensity, ruby in colour, perhaps with a tinge of garnet.

The nose was quite pronounced and showed fresh raspberries and vanilla (how good does that sound?), with a hint of undergrowth and spiciness.

That raspberry carried through to the palate, with a hit of fruit sweetness at the front of the palate. It was a really structured wine with good, quite drying tannins and very good acidity. There were herbal notes, with licorice and anise characters and a bitter almond yet savoury finish, and good length.

This was an impressive wine: I found it approachable, complex and with a good balance of fruit and savoury on the palate.

Absolutely something to satisfy your inner wine geek, but will work just as well with dinner!

This wine was purchased from Cellarbrations Flagstaff Hill for $30. Don’t bother making enquiries – I bought the last two bottles!
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15% abv.

BoomBoom! 2011 Syrah

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Something I need to do is not walk into a bottle shop until I’ve actually made a decision about what I’m going to buy. Almost without fail, I will stand slack jawed, looking at the wines, unable to choose. Mostly, this is because I want to choose something interesting and different and new and exciting and with those kinds of criteria it’s too easy to dismiss almost everything on the shelves as not quite up to standard.

I was having one of those days on Wednesday, when I wandered into East End Cellars. Normally I am quite on the ball but other than knowing that I wanted a red, I was dismissing a lot of wines out of hand and getting grumpier by the minute.

Then my eyes alighted on the Boom Boom!. Had this wine been from the Barossa or McLaren Vale I’d probably still be sitting here, thirsty and grumpy. But this is a Syrah from Washington (state, in the north west corner of the US). I’m pretty sure I haven’t had a WA Shiraz/Syrah before (I’m actually pretty sure I haven’t had a WA anything before) but I do know I have two pretty special bottles from that region in the cellar awaiting a ‘special occasion’. This wine would be a figurative dipping of the toes in the water.

The wine is made by Charles Smith Wines, a producer about whom I know nothing. So do I tell you about shiraz, the producer, the region? That’s a good question. I think the region is worth a mention because many people seem unaware that places in the US outside California produce wine. I guess if you mention Washington to an Australian they’ll think of either Starbucks or Microsoft or both. And maybe Frasier, if they’re old enough.

I’m not going to claim to be familiar with wines of the Pacific North-West but I have had a couple of Pinot Noirs from Oregon – both pretty classy wines at their respective price points. Washington is further north again than Oregon and borders Canada, so this is not hot climate wine making. The state’s first vines were planted in 1825 and the first winery appeared at Walla Walla in the 1860s, although vitis vinifera grapes (the ones we typically associate with winemaking) weren’t planted until 1871. Today there are over 700 wineries, with red wines dominating production.

In the glass, this wine looks young. It’s quite deep and intense and very purple/ruby in colour.

The nose is quite pronounced, with forest fruits, undergrowth and a pleasing earthiness to it. There’s a layer of vanilla over the top and some licorice and aniseed notes.

On the palate, there was some really tart, almost crunchy, red and black fruits at the start which are rounded out by some bitter chocolate. The tannins are soft but there’s good acidity and quite a good mouthfeel. The wine does finish slightly hot (it’s only 13.5% abv) but I think that’s a case of there not being quite enough fresh fruit going on. While the length was not bad the fresh fruit really dropped away quickly and I’d describe this as quite a lean wine.

If you’re after a big bold Australian style fruit bomb, then this wine is not for you, but I actually quite enjoyed it.

What I didn’t enjoy was that I paid $32 for it. At that price, it’s underperforming. However, if you’re lucky enough to live in America, the current release (the ’12) retails for $US15 (which translates as $AU16 and frankly, if I’d paid that for it, I’d be a LOT more enthusiastic).

This wine was purchased from East End Cellars for $32.
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13.5% abv.

WBW80: Dry Rose

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I was pretty pleased to spot a discussion about the return of Wine Blogging Wednesday on facebook. Wine Blogging Wednesday, after running for ages, has had something of a hiatus but in its earlier incarnation I was a reasonably regular participant and I often found it a good excuse to try something very left of field.

Of course, a bit more regular writing* and engaging with the wine blogging community is no bad thing – especially as I’ll be heading off to the Digital Wine Communications Conference in a couple of months.

I won’t lie – I was pretty disappointed that the theme for the return of WBW was dry rosé. Here in the southern hemisphere it’s the middle of winter and rosé is the last thing on my mind (especially this week – our twenty year old hot water service has just given up the ghost!).

But if nothing else I figured it would be good practice for summer. My initial thoughts had been to head out and find some new, quirky, different, small batch … and then I ran out of time to hit the shops where I’d be able to find such gems. I ended up with a bottle of 2013 Turkey Flat Rosé, from South Australia’s Barossa Valley.

Turkey Flat is a well known, established and well regarded winery with some seriously old vines. Last time I was up there (yes, I’m privileged enough to about an hour and a half’s drive away) we came away with a few reds so I was expecting good things.

Still, enough waffle – and on to the wine, a blend of Grenache, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Dolcetto. Make of that what you will.

In the glass, the wine is a very pretty pale salmon pink.

The nose is pretty pronounced but I didn’t get a lot of fresh fruit. Think confected: pink lollies, sherbert and musk.

On the palate the wine is dry (residual sugar is actually 4.8g/L so some may detect the merest hint of sweetness) with good, refreshing acidity. Although the palate starts off reflecting the confected nose, there is some tannic structure and (hoorah!) some fresh strawberries and raspberries.

If you can’t tell, I was a bit disappointed in this wine. Not because it’s a bad wine but because it’s a style of wine that just doesn’t appeal to me. I know there are tons of people for whom this style works and they will love this wine but I look for something a bit more steely, serious and stern in a rosé.

If you’re looking for something fun, pink and relatively uncomplicated to drink this summer (wherever you are!) this could definitely be for you.

This wine was purchased from Dan Murphy’s for about $17.
Closure: screw cap.
Alcohol: 13% abv.

* If you’re worried about my blogging commitment, I do write a food blog, Eating Adelaide, and I know the DWCC organisers are keen to get more involvement from food bloggers … talk about hedging your bets!

Tim Adams 2001 Aberfeldy

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Tim Adams 2001 Aberfeldy

Another wine from the cellar and I didn’t date the tasting note but it was a while ago. This is a Clare Valley Shiraz from the very well known (in South Australia, at least) Tim Adams stable.

The grapes come from the eponymous vineyard, first planted by the Birks (of Wendouree) in 1904. And some of this old stock remains – now well over 100 years old, but in 2001 the vineyard was just approaching its centenary.

This is not their cheap, every day quaffer and the winemaking notes (thankfully still available on the website) reflect that. Basket press, plenty of time on skins, and a year on both new and one year old American oak.

I can’t remember how much I paid for this bottle, but I know that I bought it at the winery in very early 2004. It is still available but you can expect to look for it and pay between $55 and $65 a bottle. When it was released it received plenty of praise and even today, at twelve years of age, it is looking very good. The current release (2009) sells through the website for $50.

Unlike many big family sounding names in the Australian wine industry Tim Adams Wines is still owned by Tim Adams and his wife and he is still chief winemaker.

In the glass the wine looked remarkably young: very intense, and more ruby in colour than garnet. I was very surprised because prior to opening I’d been concerned that I’d be drinking a lovely wine that, yet again, was past its prime.

The nose was quite pronounced, with fresh blackberries, pepper, with chocolate and leather. The palate was showing the age more than either the appearance or nose. The tannins were quite drying and, while there was a burst of fresh blackberry, the tertiary characters were much more apparent. There was a lot of chocolate and the wine was very savoury and leathery, with a meaty finish. Although the length was good the complexity of flavours did drop off quite quickly.

This is one wine that I feel I got to in the nick of time and I was very pleased that I did. If you have a stash of the ’01 I’d be taking a look at it now, at least, if not drinking it up.

This wine was purchased from the winery in 2004.
Closure: cork.
Alcohol: 13.7% abv.