australia

Art Wine Tempranillo 2010

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I am a junky for the weird and wonderful (when it comes to grapes, in many other aspects of my life I’m decidedly pedestrian) and I’m pretty sure the first time I came across Art Wine was the Graciano. If I recall correctly, I used that wine for a spot of corporate training where it was very well received.

Graciano is a grape that hails from Rioja, where it plays second fiddle, and then some, in the quantity stakes to Tempranillo.

I am quite a fan of Spain (go out and buy the latest edition of James Halliday’s Wine Companion Magazine to read about my adventures in Rioja) and I think there’s plenty of good wine being made in South Australia from grapes of Spanish origin. The wines produced here are quite different in character to those which originate on the Iberian peninsula, but they are delicious (and often very approachable) wines.

The Art Wine Tempranillo definitely falls into this category. You won’t be mistaking it for a Rioja (well, I wasn’t) but it is a lovely, moreish wine. This wine lasted three days in our household and my tasting notes were written on day 2. I thoroughly enjoyed it on all three days … and of course by day three I was disappointed that there was little more than a glass left in the bottle.

In the glass, the wine is very dense and purple in colour, just tending to ruby.

The nose is reasonably pronounced and red fruit dominated: think red cherry and raspberry jam, but there is something savoury lingering in the background.

The palate reflects this with some added complexity. There’s good acidity and soft tannins, and while there is a ton of fresh black and red fruit, it is balanced by earthy notes and a decided savoury finish. One the second day the alcohol was slightly more apparent but the wine was still well balanced.

A really lovely wine and one which I would buy again without hesitation.

$26 from Cellarbrations, Flagstaff Hill.
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14.0% abv.

Evans and Tate Metricup Road Cabernet Merlot 2012

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As the new year ticked over I promised myself that this year I would pay more attention to my wine blog. As I write, we’re on the cusp of 1 June – not technically at the half year mark, but so close that the lack of posts appals me.

While there’s no excuse, the irony is that this year, while blogging has been relatively neglected, I feel like I’ve done a lot of writing. Not much of it has been about food and wine, and none in print (the Rioja article in the current James Halliday’s Wine Companion Magazine was written last year – but do go out and buy, read, enjoy). So while writing is not difficult, or even necessarily time consuming, finding some sacrosanct moments when I can think (so not after a full day writing microcontroller code, I can tell you!) has been tricky.

One of my wine drinking aims is to find those wines which punch above their weight. A bottle which costs $50+ and has been cellared carefully for the optimum amount of time blah blah blah should bloody well taste good. But the fun in wine drinking is finding those bottles that are sub $20 that you’d be more than happy to have three of (not in one hit – responsible drinking please!) to every $50 bottle. Yes, you do have to kiss a few frogs but I’d rather burn $20 on a frog than $50.

If you’re interested in wine, you end up reading lots of lists and, in my case, promptly forgetting them, meaning that visits to wine shops are pretty haphazard, but not truly random, affairs. Because I tend towards the esoteric, I’ve created my own list of “wines to try” that (hopefully) will mean I try wines that are more commercially approachable, as well the offbeat. Don’t worry – only this evening I picked up a Kangaroo Island Saperavi, so there will be quirky too.

Anyway, the other night, Andy was heading home from work via Dan’s and I was able to make immediate use of my newly created list and put in my order for the Evans & Tate Metricup Road Cabernet Merlot 2012 (my first pick was the Shiraz which was out of stock). Dan’s will sell it to you for $18 a bottle ($17 if you’re buying six or more).

Evans & Tate, now part of the McWilliams group, is based in Western Australia’s Margaret River. Margaret River has a climate similar to Bordeaux, and both are home to some of the world’s great Cabernet Sauvignon based wines. Cab Sav is often blended with Merlot: Merlot can soften Cab Sav’s tannins, balance the palate (the palate of CS is often described as a doughnut, with Merlot being the filling of the hole) and make the wine much more approachable at a younger age.

At $18 a bottle, I’d hope you wouldn’t be planning on cellaring a bottle of the Evans & Tate Metricup Road. Which is fine, because straight of the shelf and into the glass it is a wine that over delivers.

It is dense purple in the glass (yep, it’s young!) and on the second day (when I wrote the tasting note) the really over cassis notes of the first day had dropped away slightly. There was still cassis (blackcurrant) with black plum, a hint of licorice, some smoke and undergrowth.

The palate matches this: a lot of fresh black fruit – including blackcurrant, with good acidity and reasonably firm tannins. While you notice the tannins they’re not grippy or mouth puckering. There’s also a hint of licorice and chocolate.

The length of the wine is not bad at all and what does impress is the fact that the 14.5% alcohol doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.

This is a textbook wine. You probably wouldn’t get excited if you spent over $30 but at the sub $20 mark it over delivers. It’s well balanced and typical Cabernet Merlot but lacks the complexity you might expect of a pricier wine. But it’s not a pricier wine – it’s one I found approachable, pleasantly surprising and definitely delivering on bang for buck.

Drink with a protein rich mid-week dinner. A steak, lamb chop or even a pizza won’t be amiss.

$18 from Dan Murphy’s, Pasadena.
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14.5% abv.

 

Tempus Two 2011 Pinot Gris

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Pinot Gris is one of those grapes that tends to excite some discussion regarding style. In Italy you find some generally lightweight and inoffensive wines, labelled (in Italian, funnily enough) as Pinot Grigio. And in France (in the Alsace, one of my favourite regions and sadly one I’m yet to visit) it’s labelled as Pinot Gris and tends to be made in a slightly weightier, more complex style.

This latter is definitely my preference and there does seem to be some consistency with Australian producers using the French or Italian grape name in order to mark out the style of the wine in the bottle. Of course, this is tending towards a convention, rather than mandate, so it’s still very much a case of caveat emptor.

I picked up this Tempus Two 2011 Pinot Gris from the local bottle shop where it was marked down to $17 a bottle. Usual pricing is around $10 more and according to the internet, a retail price of around the $25-27 mark seems about right.

Tempus Two wines have the funky little pewter ‘labels’ that make them stand out on the shelf so this wine should be easy to spot.

In the glass, the wine was pale straw with just a hint of green to it. The nose was a little tight, not giving up too much, but there was a slightly spicy characteristic along with crisp pear and apple and a touch of lemon. Things looked promising.

In the mouth, the same pear and apple came through and the acidity was pretty good. Unfortunately, the wine came across as a touch unbalanced with the alcohol really dominating the finish along with some unripe pear.

The wine had good mouth feel and weight to it: it had the extra oomph that I’d expect from a Pinot Gris but overall I felt the palate just didn’t live up to the nose.

I won’t be rushing back to buy up the shop’s remaining discounted stock: the back label is quite explicit that this is a wine for drinking young and a tiny part of me also wonders if this bottle had been subjected to some slightly less than ideal storage at some point … Having said that, I will be keeping an eye out for the 2012 (current release) and giving that a go. There was enough of interest in this bottle to merit a look.

$17 from Cellarbrations, Flagstaff Hill.
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12.5% abv.

Serafino 2007 Nebbiolo

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We have some friends who married in early June and somehow we’ve managed to spend a good many of their anniversaries with them. Even though we all met in England, they married in the US and have since lived in the UK, Bermuda and now Sydney. One such anniversary was 2010 when they spent a few days in Adelaide. Our Entertainment Book paid for itself in one fell swoop that year!

One day that weekend we headed down to McLaren Vale, visited a few wineries, bought a few wines and found it next to impossible to buy lunch at 3pm. One wine we picked up was the Serafino 2007 Nebbiolo.

I could tell you all about Nebbiolo but I won’t because that kind of clinical wine geekery belongs in a review when there’s no back story bar “I bought a bottle of wine”. I’m sure it is an established scientific fact* that visiting a cellar door slightly bends our perception of the wines, but hopefully, after three and a bit years, I can bring some objectivity to the glass.

In the glass, the wine is garnet and brick in colour, but this illusion of age is not backed up by a nose surprisingly dominant in fresh red berry fruit, which also shows tar, licorice, spiciness, wet bitumen and some perfumed, floral characters like lavender.

The fresh fruit also shows up on the palate with plenty of pronounced fresh red cherries, even cherry jam. There is a slight savoury kick and some licorice, but the wine is still very bright. There’s good acidity and grippy tannins but they don’t dry out your mouth.

A wine we both very much enjoyed. It’s a shame that Serafino no longer appears to make this wine because I would certainly be tempted to seek out current releases. I can’t remember how much we paid for it, though I know it didn’t fall into the bargain basement category. I should also confess that it’s been stored in what might be described as less than ideal conditions.

And if you need more emotive context – the Serafino cellar door is both impressive and pretty. It sits in large grounds, with a lake, and boasts both a restaurant, function centre and accommodation.

* This may be not be available as peer reviewed research but it’s certainly a well discussed phenomenon.

Tim Smith Wines 2010 Barossa Mataro Grenache Shiraz

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My notes now reveal I am just two months behind in my typing. At this rate, I’ll never be able to share with you any gems beyond the tasting notes themselves.

On several trips to the bottle shop I’ve noticed the small selection of Tim Smith Wines on the shelves and thought I should try one. If I recall correctly, at least one is outside my mid-week spend limit, but seeing a write up of the wines in general in a local paper, motivated me to actually get around to
buying one.

The blend of grapes is one which is comfortably familiar: Mataró, also known as Mourvèdre or Monastrell, Grenache and Shiraz are very often seen as a GSM blend and if you ever find yourself trying a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, or other Southern Rhône appellations, then you will most likely be drinking a similar blend. To see the M as the dominant grape variety is a little quirkier, but referring to it as the more pronounceable and spellable Mataró. While you’ll often see the grave accent on the French Mourvèdre, you’ll less frequently see the acute accent on the Catalan Mataró. Monastrell is Spanish and, really helpfully, between the two Iberian variants, they are also synonyms for other grapes. You have to keep your wits about you.

Now you’re confused … what about the wine? My notebook indicates that these notes were written on the second day the wine was open.

In the glass, appearance is medium intensity and a youthful ruby with just a touch of purple about it.

The nose shows berries, berry leaves and complexity in the form of licorice, tar and aniseed. On the palate, these aromas are rather reversed with the savoury characteristics, especially the spice and a cedar finish, outshining the fresh red and black berry fruit. I did note that the fruit was, unsurprisingly, a little diminished on the second day.

The wine has a good structure: acidity, tannins and alcohol are all in balance and the wine has a good length, with that lovely savoury finish.

As I typically prefer wines with something other than a bowlful of fresh fruit on the palate, this was right up my street. And, of course, immensely food friendly.

As is often the case with our local, this wine is a back vintage, but the current release (2012) is available from Tim Smith Wines for $28.

$25-$30 from Cellarbrations, Flagstaff Hill.
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14.5% abv.

Pertaringa 2010 Undercover Shiraz

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I feel like I should put a disclaimer on this – I’ve met socially a couple of people involved in Pertaringa and they’re really lovely. Of course that is going to colour how I feel about the wine. In addition, I don’t think I’ve had a wine from the Pertaringa/K1/Geoff Hardy stable that I haven’t enjoyed – and I have tried a few. If you’re a fan of alternative varieties, then these labels are a good place to start looking.

We don’t normally drink a lot of big South Australian Shiraz – we’re both much more likely to plump for a different variety (why, hello, Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo) and when we do drink the typical South Australian Shiraz it is usually something at a slightly higher price point with a bit of age on it.

All well and good but I was clearly in the mood for a big red when I bought this waaaay back in July. I have to say that at $19.99 (which is what I paid) this is definitely in the value for money bracket. You can easily pay more for a Shiraz that delivers less interest. This wine is very food friendly and approachable and that will make it a clever option for any time you need to take a wine somewhere. I figure that at this price point, a wine has to not make enemies. You should drink it, enjoy it and be sufficiently impressed that you would take it round to your mate’s house on the weekend for a BBQ or round to your mum’s house for Sunday roast. And by those criteria, the wine scores a big tick.

In the glass, the wine is intense purple-ruby in colour – it is young after all!

The nose is reasonably pronounced and shows vanilla, warm spice, blackberry and both black and red plum, with the black dominating.

In the mouth, I found this wine a trifle hot and this heat did rather dominate the wine’s finish. But it did have a ton of juicy black fruit, an almost over generous whack of vanilla and an ever so slightly savoury edge to it, adding a bit of interest. While the tannins were actually pretty grippy they do drop away so don’t be buying this wine for extended cellaring.

$20 from Cellarbrations, Flagstaff Hill.
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14.5% abv.

Henry’s Drive 2009 The Trial of John Montford Cabernet Sauvignon

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As I received this as a pigeon pair with the Dead Letter Office Shiraz, I thought it reasonable to taste (and post) them close together.

This wine is named for a local bushranger, John Montford, who was convicted for robbing a mail coach near Naracoorte. He had covered his face with a brown hanky, holes cut out for his eyes and this was recovered from his swag, thus providing the evidence for the conviction. CSI south eastern Australia style!

Anyway, that provides the wine with a colourful back story which is only well and good if the wine can deliver.

In the glass, a quite intense ruby red.

The nose was similarly intense, with blackcurrant and vanilla the most dominant notes, but also some minty and stalky characters along with a touch of soil and licorice.

In the mouth, there was a ton of juicy fresh blackcurrant, with some licorice and a touch of warm spice. The acidity and persistent tannins were well balanced and, despite its 14% abv, there was no heat.

I really liked this wine: I found it approachable, enjoyable and really lovely. I preferred this over the Shiraz by just a whisker (although my other half disagreed).

It looks like the only place you can purchase this wine is through Henry’s Drive.

And just so you know how subjective this wine tasting mullarkey is, this wine received 89 points in the James Halliday Wine Companion (2013), where it is described as “soft, simple and accessible” and yet Lisa Perotti-Brown MW (Wine Advocate) gave it 92 and wrote “this wine offers complex flavours”.

Proof that you need to make up your own mind (no hanky needed).

This wine was a sample.  RRP is $32.
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14% abv.

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.

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.

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!