Grape Observer

Australian wine blogs: surveying the scene in 2012

2012-01-25T22:00:00.000+11:00

With Australia day shortly upon us, it seemed an appropriate moment to pen a few thoughts on the wine blogging scene in Australia in 2012. Let me start though with a couple of more general thoughts that are not limited to Australia. I was thumbing through the latest edition of Decanter magazine, a magazine that I have always felt has provided the most consistently first rate depth and breadth

Amiral de Beychevelle 2008

2012-01-22T19:53:00.000+11:00

Amiral de Beychevelle is the second wine of the distinctively labelled and well known Saint-Julien estate, Chateau Beychevelle. In 2008, in the Amiral de Beychevelle, this estate has fashioned a very good and classic Bordeaux left-bank wine, a blend of 62% cabernet sauvignon, 31% merlot, 5% cabernet franc and 2% petit verdot. My long held view has been that the second wines of the great

Fraser Gallop Chardonnay 2010

2012-01-22T07:56:00.000+11:00

I have observed Fraser Gallop's chardonnay over a couple of years now, see reviews of the 2005 and 2009 (in an omnibus lineup at "Chardonnay day" in 2011). I have generally identified it as a very good chardonnay that performs above, sometimes well above, its price point. The 2010 vintage appears to be a change a style, appearing much tighter and with higher acidity on the palate. The

Quealy Pinot Grigio 2010

2012-01-19T22:07:00.002+11:00

It never ceases to amaze me how many winery names I pass en route that I do not recognise, even in quite well trodden wine regions. Hopefully someone is drinking and talking about those wines. Quealy is such a label. I tried it at the rather cool Merricks General Store, the sort of place that personifies summer. The wine? On the nose, an attractive medium intensity aroma of pears and

Campbells Rutherglen Classic Muscat

2012-01-16T20:12:00.001+11:00

This wine really is a must buy, and an excellent example of the exemplary fortified muscats of Rutherglen in north eastern Victoria. The wine is tawny in colour with a reddish tinge. Its aroma is a pronounced intensity expression of a riot of raisins and nuts. Its palate stands out even more with medium to long length of flavour, raisins, caramel and nuts, its luscious sweetness

Henriques & Henriques 15 year old Malmsey

2012-01-14T12:16:00.001+11:00

I have been tasting a few Madeiras recently, and Jesse Lewis over on Good Drop wrote one up recently as well, suggesting my pursuit is not entirely obscure. Madeira is of course an island that is part of Portugal, but sits due west of Morocco in the subtropics in the Atlantic Ocean. Hardly then the cool extremes of viticulture so prized in wine. The island's fortified and heated wines were

Chateau Potensac 2008

2012-01-13T10:52:00.001+11:00

Chateau Potensac's 2008 vintage sees a welcome return to form for this producer following the difficult 2007 vintage, reviewed here. To my mind, they remain a "go to" label for both quality and price. The 2008 vintage opened to an aroma of fresh jube like fruit and oily popcorn, but settled quickly to reveal classic blackcurrant aromatics. It was the palate though that stood out. Medium to

Tyrrell's Stevens Vineyard Semillon 2007

2012-01-11T20:34:00.001+11:00

And so it is, just like you said it would be ... A semillon from the Hunter Valley that is very good indeed. Tyrrell's Stevens Vineyard is a single vineyard wine, and serves to remind that I drink too little Hunter Valley semillon, a unique and underrated low alcohol style of wine that happens to age too. Too few wines of the Hunter Valley seem to make it much further south than Sydney.

Luke Lambert Nebbiolo 2010

2012-01-09T20:52:00.002+11:00

Luke Lambert continues to produce very good quality wines from the Heathcote region, in small quantities - this wine sees only 168 dozen bottles produced. The 2010 vintage of the nebbiolo was fermented using wild yeast and held on skins for 62 days before pressing. Maturation was in old oak barrels, and the wine was bottled without fining or filtration. At a time when alcohol levels are high,

Chateau Lagarde Saint-Emilion 2009

2012-01-09T18:41:00.000+11:00

The 2009 vintage of Chateau Lagarde is a lovely Saint-Emilion wine that is particularly good value. It is a blend of 73% merlot, 25% cabernet franc, and 2% malbec, the classic right-bank Bordeaux blend that few Australian producers have managed as yet to do well. The grapes are harvested by hand. Ruby in colour, the wine has a medium intensity aroma of bright red plums, spices, tobacco and

Chateau Haut-Vigneau Pessac-Leognan 2009

2012-01-08T20:39:00.001+11:00

Much has been written on the 2009 Bordeaux vintage, it being largely universally regarded as among the great Bordeaux vintages. This too from a decade in Bordeaux that has already seen a number of already outstanding vintages (2000, 2001, 2003 (for some producers) and 2005). I am therefore somewhat excited to see some 2009s starting to find their way to Australian shores. This wine did not

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2010

2012-01-07T07:28:00.002+11:00

Cloudy Bay has the distinction of being a "region defining" wine. It helped put the Marlborough wine region, and its unique sauvignon blanc, on the world vinous map. I was therefore interested to try a "Cloudy Bay", as I don't recall having done so previously. Cloudy Bay is now owned by French multinational, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. What then of the 2010 vintage of this wine? It was

Felton Road Pinot Noir 2005

2012-01-03T20:51:00.000+11:00

Beautiful but flawed. I am referring though to Felton Road's website, rather than their wine. The wine, as might be expected of such an esteemed producer, is very good. The 2005 vintage is described by Felton Road as:"... a trying and frustrating season with a very cool Spring and what can only be described as the December from hell ... The end result was a crop averaging just 20hl/ha (3

Grosset Springvale Watervale Riesling 2011

2012-01-02T19:02:00.001+11:00

Grosset's wines make for an easy restaurant choice: an excellent producer, yet often not too expensive. I found the 2011 vintage of Grosset's Springvale riesling an interesting, if hard to love, wine. Why hard to love? Despite me practically willing it on, it remained a very closed and firm wine, an exercise in stern lemon flavours. On the nose, a medium to pronounced aroma of steel, citrus,

Chateau Lalande-Borie Saint-Julien 2008

2012-01-01T18:57:00.001+11:00

The 2008 vintage of Chateau Lalande-Borie from Saint-Julien situated in the left bank of Bordeaux is a very good wine for its price point. The wine embraces its attractive medium intensity aroma of cigar box (which persisted for several days), black fruit, metal filings and cedar. The palate initially was an exercise in easy drinking claret, but then firmed with medium-high tannins which proved

Katnook Founder's Block Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

2011-12-31T18:41:00.001+11:00

Conservatively, I estimate that I need to write up about 200 wines to catch up. So, regular updates here we come. Katnook's Founder's Block is Katnook Estate's entry level cabernet sauvignon offering. Somewhere between purple and black in colour, the wine opens to an aroma of spices, currants and black olives. On the palate, medium acid, currants and I noticed the alcohol, although it is not

An afternoon reflecting on the Rhone Valley

2011-12-29T13:39:00.000+11:00

One of the things I miss from my time living in London is travelling to the continent for a weekend and casually enjoying trips that previously would have taken a year's planning from Australia, with jetlag in play on both sides. The equivalent journey in Australia sees one getting somewhere perhaps different climatically, aesthetically or even possibly culturally, but the similarities generally

Rusty Mutt Shiraz 2006

2011-12-27T20:50:00.001+11:00

I don't think I will ever tire of trying new wines or labels, though the former have proven tastier than the latter. This wine, a new wine from winemaker Scott Heidrich, is the "Rusty Mutt" thus joining a rich roll call of unusually named (dare I say South?) Australian wines. Basket pressed and matured in old oak barrels with fruit sourced from McLaren Vale (i.e. it has not been clobbered by

Christmas wishes

2011-12-24T12:02:00.001+11:00

Well, it's that time of year again: for we antipodeans, increasingly warm weather heralds the arrival of Christmas, as surely as fresh cherries appear in the markets, and queues at the seafood stalls lengthen. I would like to take this moment to wish you a happy and enjoyable Christmas and new year, and to thank my readers, family and friends and the wineries, importers and retailers who have

Penley Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2000

2011-12-23T14:19:00.001+11:00

Having just posted a piece which questioned whether Coonawarra needed to do a little more to engage a new generation of wine lovers, I tasted a glorious wine from the region that eloquently challenges those doubts. The wine is Penley Estate's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2000 vintage. It has an attractive and brooding medium to pronounced intensity aroma of spice, cigar box, oak,

Some popular (and less popular) wine posts

2011-12-18T09:36:00.001+11:00

As Grape Observer passes its second year, and approaches 700 posts, I thought I'd ask some questions. Specifically, I wondered, looking back over the last couple of months, which posts were of most and least interest? Are there any observable trends of note? And there were some interesting finds. Not as controversial perhaps as the law suits brewing in the northern hemisphere over certain

Campbells Moscato 2011

2011-12-15T19:58:00.004+11:00

Moscato, though not for everyone, has its place and I quite enjoy its forthright charms from time to time. This moscato from Campbells in Rutherglen in the warm north east of Victoria (and fortified wine stronghold) is made from perhaps the most noble of the muscat grapes, the muscat à petits grains. Light pink in colour, the 2011 vintage has a grape juice like aroma, opening to a

Dalwhinnie Moonambel Shiraz 1995

2011-12-13T20:17:00.000+11:00

I always look forward to drinking Dalwhinnie's shiraz, particularly those with a bit of age on them. Dalwhinnie is situated in the quixotically named gently rolling hills of the Victorian Pyrenees and is situated 595m above sea level at around 36.5c latitude. For those wondering where to visit next, it really is beautiful and unexpectedly remote country out there. Dalwhinnie's shiraz remains

Delgado Zuleta La Goya Manzanilla

2011-12-13T19:57:00.001+11:00

I have not reviewed many fortified wines on Grape Observer, and this would be the first sherry. However, for my sins, I am shortly to be examined in blind and long answer format on the fortified wines of the world, and it makes some sense, I thought then, to drink some. As a starting point, it is somewhat thought provoking to find that this fortified Manzanilla from Sanlucar de Barrameda

Paul Ginglinger Grand Cru Eichberg Gewurtztraminer 2008

2011-12-09T19:36:00.001+11:00

For reasons that I don't wish to disturb as a consumer, Alsace gewurtztraminer can be remarkably well priced. Here we have a "Grand Cru" at not much more than $50. Perhaps it is because gewurtztraminer has few longer term admirers. A book waiting to be written? Or perhaps the labels of Alsace are too easy to decipher with their rather non-French identification of the grape variety, front and