Author: Alex Prichard

Gerard Boulay Chavignol Sancerre 2010

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I’m sure we’re all aware of how immensely popular Sauvignon Blanc is in Australia. It’s a shame that we drink so much New Zealand SB when we could drink perfectly decent local stuff, but that’s marketing for you.

Like so many people with an association with the wine trade I’m not a big Sauvignon Blanc drinker – mainly because I often find them all fitting a particular stylistic mould – and that can be a bit dull.

However, French Sauvignon Blanc tends not to fit that mould – it’s a little calmer, more understated, not quite as out there.

And Sauvignon Blanc is exactly what Sancerre is. Sancerre is a village in the Loire in northern France and it was, until the twentieth century, known for red wine production. Not so the case today, where is produces what is possibly one of the two most famous Sauvignon Blancs France has to offer (the other being Pouilly Fumé, which is across the river).

This tasting note for the Gérard Boulay Chavignol Sancerre 2010 was written after the day after the wine was opened.

In the glass, it is a pale yellow. The nose is smokey, with green pea the dominant note, backed up with lemon and lime.

On the palate, the acidity is racy and persistent. There is a ton of citrus (much more so than on the nose), with green pea and capsicum, backed up by good length.

This is a good wine and very much my cup of tea. If you want to get into French Sauvignon Blanc, this is a lovely place to start. Of course, being imported, it’s not cheap – but if you can see your way clear to spending the money, grab a good friend, some soft goat’s cheese (another specialty of the area in which this wine is produced) and you’re good to go.

This wine was purchased from the Edinburgh Cellars, $42.
Closure: cork.

Brown Brothers Patricia Pinot Noir Chardonnay Brut 2006

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As it’s getting close to the weekend it’s time to think about celebratory, weekend wine and for me that means bubbles! I’ve had my tasting note for the Brown Bros Patricia hanging around for a while so I figured it was time to commit it to the internet.

Patricia Brown was the matriarch of the Brown family and the wines that bear her name are the winery’s flagship wines. The sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay comes from the winery’s Whitlands vineyard in Victoria’s King Valley. The 2006 is 79% Pinot and 21% Chardonnay and was made the same way that Champagne is made (you’ll see this on bottles as méthode traditionelle or méthode champenoise). Amongst other things, this means that the wine has spent its entire life in the bottle you pick off the shelf – including the five years it has spent on lees.

This time on lees, where the sparkling wine lies in the bottle with the dead and dying yeast (oh, right – that sounds so attractive) is what gives good sparkling wines from around the world their complexity. As the yeast runs out of sugar in the wine it starts to eat itself and this process, known as autolysis, gives vintage sparkling wines their characteristic yeasty, bready notes.

With vintage sparkling wine it’s important to remember a few things. Firstly, it will usually cost more than a non vintage because it’s taken more time to put together, and often uses better fruit and production techniques. The wine is much more likely to be savoury than its non vintage counterpart. If you’re not a fan of yeasty, bready, nutty and perhaps even Vegemite like characters in your sparkling wine then proceed with caution. But because of this savouriness, vintage bubbles often work brilliantly with food.

In the glass, this wine is pale gold in colour and I note comparatively few bubbles (although this depends so much on the glass that I’m almost reluctant to write that down!). The nose is all about toasted brioche and bread and butter pudding with a touch of vanilla.

On the palate, the Patricia is very savoury. There’s very good acidity which is softly persistent. There’s a little bit of lemon that comes through, and a slight nuttiness, but this wine is really all about those savoury characters – it’s yeasty, brioche like and has a slightly meaty flavour which is perhaps best described as umami or Vegemite (think just a hint of Vegemite smeared on buttered white toast, rather than slathered on!).

I enjoyed this wine – this style of bubbles is definitely my thing. If you’re interested in exploring vintage sparkling wine this also represents a reasonable, and reasonably priced, introduction before you start delving into the considerably more expensive Champagne.

Jeremy, over at Wine Will Eat Itself, also enjoyed this wine, back in May.

This wine was purchased from Dan Murphy’s (Marion), $40.
Closure: cork.

Charles Melton 2009 Grains of Paradise Shiraz

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I certainly don’t want readers of cellared to think that I spend my life knocking back expensive and exotic wines while I sit in front of the tv eating a cheese toastie. I most certainly don’t and as far as I’m concerned the best wines are those that retail at a price most people can afford but that punch well above their weight.

However, it’s also true that every now and then people want (or need) to buy celebration wines. You know – the wines for significant birthdays, engagements … I’m very privileged in that a few times a year I teach WSET courses where I get to try wines that I enjoy but generally don’t have the opportunity to  buy myself.

The Charles Melton 2009 Grains of Paradise Shiraz, from the Barossa Valley, is one such wine. The Charles Melton website lists it as $58.90 but sold out, my bottle was purchased from the Edinburgh Cellars where it retails for $68 but other internet prices look a little higher. If you’re not in Australia it may actually be cheaper than that to pick up (hint to any readers in the UK!).

In the glass the wine is super dense and ruby in colour. It smells of plums, black cherries, Black Forest cake, but there’s also something smoky and meaty there – think salami and cured meats.

On the palate, there is tons of black fruit, laced with vanilla and toasted coconut. There’s some acidity and plenty of tannins, but they’re beautifully soft. The really lovely juicy fruit is persistent and the wine has good length.

With so much fruit and tannin I would not be scared of cellaring this wine for a while but it is also drinking perfectly well now. It really depends on what you look for in a wine. Many people (particularly South Australians who are brought up on big, bold, fruit forward Shiraz) will quite possibly prefer it younger but if you are patient, and have good cellaring facilities, I imagine it will reward you well.

You can see how an older vintage is maturing with this review of the 2006 Grains of Paradise.

The wine was purchased from the Edinburgh Cellars, $68.
Closure: screw cap.

O’Leary Walker 2010 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay

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I have no problem defending Chardonnay. The ABC* brigade is a bit tiresome – 10 or 20 years ago maybe there was a point but these days Australian Chardonnay is being made in such a range of styles that saying you don’t like it is, to me at least, kind of like saying you don’t like white wine, or you don’t like lamb. Have you had every white wine? Have you had every cut of lamb cooked every possible way?

So I urge everyone reading this point to give Chardonnay a rethink. If you don’t like big, oaky, ripe Chardies take a look at a few unwooded examples such as the extremely affordable Mike Press Adelaide Hills Chardonnay.

If you like oaky – let me introduce you to the O’Leary Walker 2010 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay. I was a huge fan of this wine over Summer but I don’t remember it being so oaky (which makes me wonder if it was the 09 I was drinking …).

The wine is pale gold in the glass and the nose is dominated by the oak, with citrus and nectarine (stone fruit). On the palate there’s good acidity, and again the wine is oak dominant. The fruit is all lemon and lemon curd, with buttery and creamy notes. I found the finish a trifle hot. I did write the tasting note a day after opening the bottle and I do find that this can exacerbate hotness.

I still think this is a good wine, although I’d prefer a touch less in your face oak. Andy bought this for me and thought he paid about $27 for it – this is a notoriously unreliable measure of price though! The O’Leary Walker website lists it for $22 and a quick search of the internet suggests you should be able to pick it up around the $20. This is much closer the money.

If you like this style of Chardonnay this is a lovely example.

The wine was purchased from Cellarbrations (price uncertain).
Closure: screw cap.

* Anything But Chardonnay

Burlotto Verduno Pelaverga 2011

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On my About page I’ve noted I am very into (the rather trendy) “alternative varieties”.  I am like a cross between a magpie and a small child in a wine shop, so something shiny and new holds instant appeal.

In this instance, the shiny and new had a price tag of “only” $35 attached to it.  “What’s that then?”  I demanded.  “Why, it’s Pelaverga” answered the friendly chappy.  Given that the wine is Italian, the next question is not entirely stupid:  “What grape is that then?”.  “It’s Pelaverga, there are only two vineyards in the world”.

Cool.

Information on Pelaverga is thin and far between, so I haven’t been able to verify the “two vineyards” statement.  The online Oxford Companion to Wine has but a few sentences (the wine would be pale, it might have a slight spritzig, it comes from Piedmont in north-western Italy – always a good start).  That’s about the most in one hit anyone wants to offer.  Burlotto is listed as a ‘recommended’ producer in the Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopædia, which also notes that locally the grape is known as Pelaverga Piccolo and it is a different variety to the Pelaverga used in Colline Saluzzesi. It appears to be a relatively new DOC (one site suggests it was awarded in 1995).

According to the Burlotto website (and my dodgy Italian) they make just 10,000 bottles a year of this wine, and the vines are relatively young – between 4 and 20 years old.

So all this chat … and do you think I could find the scrap of paper on which my tasting note was written? For a while, no, of course not but the wine was so distinctive and unusual I figured I’d be able to tell you about it from memory. But the note is found!

On the first night – the wine is incredibly pale in the glass (I was prepared for pale – but not this pale and I don’t think my photo does it justice) and almost garnet in colour. It looks a lot older than it is.

The nose is restrained but showing earthy characteristics and strawberry leaf. The palate is strawberry, strawberry leaf with some spice – pepper and licorice. There’s good acidity and some very very soft silky tannins.

On day two the nose is all about black pepper and smoke – the fruit has receded. On the palate, the pepperiness comes through, balanced by juicy red fruit. There’s a slight stalkiness to it (which I like) and just a hint of menthol.

I can’t think of anything I’ve tried like this. It’s not a big wine in terms of weight but especially once the spiciness started to come through, it’s big in terms of flavour. Would I drink it again? Yes – to try and get my head around it. Would I recommend it to others? If you’re a fan of bold, fruit forward reds – no. If you like restraint, spice and savoury – well yes, give it a go.

This wine is also a fab reminder of how we sometimes get a bit too far into our comfort zones.

The wine was purchased from East End Cellars (RRP $35).
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