Grape Observer

Bonneau du Matray Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2001

2012-02-25T09:08:00.005+11:00

This wine lived up to its considerable reputation, though you will not get much change from $120. In terms of appearance, although regrettably not my photograph, the wine is bright with a between pale and medium intensity expression of lemon in colour. Its aroma is complex, with a quite pronounced aroma of peaches, nectarines, spices and minerals, which I would describe as developing

Pannier Champagne 2000

2012-02-22T14:16:00.001+11:00

This is a very good vintage Champagne from Pannier, though its stockists in Australia would appear to be few if Google is to be believed. Golden in colour, it has an attractive yeasty aroma of lemons, hazelnuts, stones and minerals. The fine bubbles on the palate are supported by firm acidity, good length and a minerality. Excellent drinking, and worth seeking out. 88 points+ (very good)

Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume 2008

2012-02-22T13:31:00.002+11:00

When I started writing "Grape Observer", I struggled to see how I would taste enough wines to review. In a suspected case of "careful what you wish for", I now find myself writing up wines, good wines too, that I tasted five months ago. This wine for example. Jean-Marc Brocard's Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaum from 2008 performed very well. It is bright, towards golden in colour. Minerals,

Château Mont-Redon Chateauneuf du Pape 2007

2012-02-20T19:46:00.002+11:00

375ml wine bottles fill that sometimes sensible space between a glass of wine and a bottle, often with the added bonus that they mature a little earlier too. If only there were more on restaurant wine lists. This particular wine from Chateauneuf du Pape in the southern Rhône Valley in France is a cracker. It has a savoury, attractive aroma of delicatessen meats, thyme and cinnamon spiced

Rogers & Rufus Rosé 2010

2012-02-17T17:43:00.000+11:00

I tasted this rosé in the final stages of an unseasonably warm winter month, overlooking the sea. Yet it is still summer which it suits. I've been drinking a lot of grenache in the last 6 months - dry, its underrated vin doux naturel guise where it makes the compelling wines of Banyuls, Rasteau, Maury and Rivesaltes, and this wine, a rosé. It is to me perhaps one of the noble rosé grapes.

Charles Gardet Cuvée Champagne 1996

2012-02-13T22:13:00.004+11:00

Charles Gardet have fashioned a monumental Champagne here. It will appeal to those who, like me, prefer a fuller and yeastier expression of Champagne. It is highly recommended. The menu is from Noir Restaurant in Richmond, which is highly recommended Aromatically, the wine opens to a pronounced intensity of yeast supplemented ably with brioche characters. The palate is more interesting

Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label 2006

2012-02-10T20:37:00.001+11:00

This is quite a sound release from Wynns Coonawarra Estate, part of the Treasury Wine Estates' stable. I have the impression that many like the wines of Wynns Coonawarra Estate, yet mostly I find them agreeable yet unexceptional. The 2006 vintage of Wynns' "black label" cabernet sauvignon sits closer to the agreeable side of the equation. A deep ruby in colour, the wine opens to a

Lustau Dry Amontillado Los Arcos Sherry

2012-02-08T22:10:00.001+11:00

Another fortified wine. And a good one. This amontillado sherry is bright in the glass and a pale amber in colour. By way of aroma, it is a light-medium expression of straw, mixed nuts, salt and dried spices. On the palate, the wine hovers between dry and off-dry, with length approaching long, balanced acidity, and represents a moderate intensity excursion through hazelnuts, a touch of

Some new wine packaging

2012-02-04T21:40:00.002+11:00

Putting to one side the inexplicable awkwardness of taking a photograph in a supermarket, here's a photograph of some new wine packaging that I stumbled across: It looks very similar to the packaging used for fruit purée. I suppose we've had cask (bag-in-a-box) wine for years, so it should not be a complete surprise then to find wine packaged in a sachet on sale for a few bucks. Except,

Les Tourelles de Longueville 2007

2012-02-01T22:26:00.000+11:00

Les Tourelles de Longueville is a long-standing favourite of mine, being more keenly priced than its illustrious sibling, the routinely outstanding Chateau Baron-Pichon-Longueville. This second label can also be frustratingly hard to find in Australia. Nonetheless, it is still not cheap at $78 (its pedigree seeing to that), and is also from a lesser Bordeaux year in 2007, a vintage that I have

Domaine de la Croix Rosé 2010

2012-02-01T22:17:00.001+11:00

I have tasted my share of Cotes de Provence rosé while in France, and I have seen a few now starting to creep onto the shelves in Australia. The continuing increase in the variety of wines available in Australia can only be applauded by the consumer. In many ways, this is a very typical Cotes de Provence rosé. It is designed to be drunk, without any particular pontification. Its characters

Peter Lehmann Margaret Semillon 2005

2012-02-01T21:06:00.001+11:00

Peter Lehman fashion a good semillon here from the Barossa Valley. An interesting nose, with notes of talc, minerals, citrus and lemon pith, held together with a slight reductive edge. On the palate, high acid, medium length, lemon pith and a biscuit like character that was distinctive. Weighing in at only 11.5abv, here is evidence that Barossa Valley does not always produce high alcohol

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