De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate Chardonnay 2006
Brevity is the soul of wit…apparently.
Aromas of lemon, nectarine, a little honeycomb, dirt floor and light spicy oak. On the palate light to medium bodied with lemon, nectarine, mineral, earth and subtle clove spice oak. There are some savoury characters but they complement rather than overwhelm the crystalline purity of fruit. It feels light and airy and has a fresh dry slightly chalky texture with a firm spine of acid running the length of the palate. Finishes dry and very long. A fine boned beauty.
Other vintages : 2005
Tasted : Sep07Alcohol : 13%
Price : $30
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2007 - 2012
Source : Winery Sample
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Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 1982
By Campbell Mattinson
This was tasted as part of the Penfolds Rewards of Patience tastings - the Koonunga Hill vertical tasting was held at the Kalimna Homestead on September 25, 2007.
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Closure : Cork- past
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Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 1981
By Campbell Mattinson
This was tasted as part of the Penfolds Rewards of Patience tastings - the Koonunga Hill vertical tasting
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Closure : Cork- 2009
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Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 1978
By Campbell Mattinson
This was tasted as part of the Penfolds Rewards of Patience tastings - the Koonunga Hill vertical tasting was held at the Kalimna Homestead on September 25, 2007.
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Closure : Cork- 2008
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Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 1977
By Campbell Mattinson
This was tasted as part of the Penfolds Rewards of Patience tastings - the Koonunga Hill vertical tasting was held at the Kalimna Homestead on September 25, 2007.
This was made from vines planted in 1973.
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Closure : CorkDrink : 2008 - 2010
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Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 1976
By Campbell Mattinson
This was tasted as part of the Penfolds Rewards of Patience tastings - the Koonunga Hill vertical tasting was held at the Kalimna Homestead on September 25, 2007.
Interestingly, this was made from vines planted in 1973 - it was a young vine wine, and yet it has matured remarkably well.
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Closure : CorkDrink : 2008 - 2014
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The Story Wines (the orphan) Grampians Shiraz 2005
By Gary Walsh
There is a good story to this. Winemaker Rory Lane takes small batches of Grampians fruit and makes them into wine in a little factory apartment in Melbourne. The fruit for this vintage is sourced from the Westgate and Robinson Vineyards (of Mount Langi fame) and it includes a portion of whole bunch action in the ferment which really lift the aromatics.
Aromas of dark cherry, blackberry, pepper, spice, chocolate, meat and creamy French vanilla oak. Perfumed and exotic. On the palate medium bodied with dark cherry, spice, pepper, chocolate and some meaty flavours with quality oak adding a little creamy vanilla. The tannins are very smooth and fine grained and it feels lovely and supple in the mouth. A bit more weight on the back palate and I’d rate it through the roof (although it did fill out after being open for a day). This is an artisanal wine dripping with love and regionality and comes with a strong buy recommendation from me.
Tasted : Sep07Alcohol : 14.5%
Price : $18
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2007 - 2015
Source : Winery Sample
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De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate Pinot Noir Rosé 2007
I tasted this with two other Yarra Valley rosés (07 Shelmerdine, 06 The Wanderer) and liked this one best. The other tasters went for the Shelmerdine but Winorama is an autocracy, the best and most sensible form of wine government, so their voices will go unheard.
Super petrol colour. It has some funky smells, a bunch of redcurrant and strawberries stomped into a dirt floor, a touch of cream and some juicy licorice root. On the palate an interesting combination of waxy and chalky textures with low acidity but good balance. It has flavours of dirt, red fruit and some creamy characters. Dry and mouthfilling. Finishes dry and clean with excellent length of flavour. Very easy to knock back yet curiously engaging. I like this better than the 2006.
Other vintages : 2006
Tasted : Sep07Alcohol : 13.0%
Price : $23
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2007 - 2008
Source : Winery Sample
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Drew Noon: Midnight in the vineyard of good and evil
Except from the book: Why the French Hate Us
LYING BY THE side of the grenache vineyard on the Noon property in McLaren Vale is a tangled mound of dead vine arms. They are thick, beat-up, craggy old vine branches, sawn from vines harbouring a famous plant disease called Dead Arm – it kills one half of each vine, the end result resembling a bunch of fallen soldiers. The good arm though: it grows intense, small, highly valuable grapes. When Australian wine was going gangbusters and the Robert Parker frenzy was on a bolt, there was a sense that the Australian wine industry had a case of Dead Arm: it was great and rich and profitable, and alive, but there was a disease at play too.
One symptom of that disease was greed.
One man who took greed and mulched it in his compost, though, was Drew Noon. Here was a man who didn’t need a market correction or a wake-up call to know his priorities. He made big-flavoured wine with a big, honest heart, the value of anything and the price of everything forever clear. He was a humble man and a family man, and when the men with bagfuls of cash rocked up to his door, he stood firm in his doorway and steered them back down the road. Good men never take fortune for granted. Read more
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Taste Food & Wine 2008
A copy of this landed on my desk yesterday so I gave it a good working over last night. Authors Tyson-eye Stelzer (earnest, intellectual, fine taster, work ethic of a Clydesdale) and Matthew Jukes (stentorian, a little outré, fine taster, good taste in shoes) have sifted through a river of wine and pulled out 365 little nuggets of Australian and NZ gold. It’s an excellent list of wines too, offering a wide range of styles and price points, and while perhaps a little heavily weighted towards certain producers, I’d say this is more a function of quality rather than bias. I was most impressed by the fact that unlike many other guides, this is packed with wines that are yet to be released, so it will stay current for a long time. It has an extensive food and wine matching section, a new classification system for NZ Pinot Noir, results for The Great Australian Red competition, a directory of wine retailers, wine tasting terms, useful information on serving wine and a nice little guide to wine regions. It is cleverly laid out, packed with features and fun, and is bigger and better than last years edition. Top work chaps.
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Double Take
Next Double Take :
Howard Park Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2005
