On the Bench #9

Frankland Estate 'Isolation Ridge' Shiraz 2007 $35

If there is any justice in the world (there isn't, I know) then brands from off the beaten track who have stuck to their style guns through the last 15 years and produced regionally specific, authentic, personality driven wines will find their moment in the sun in the near future.

That may be wishful thinking, but labels like Frankland Estate fit that bill to a tee. Cool climate operators struggled for attention when size was king, but there was never any question about the quality of the wines that this Great Southern producer turned out.

And if anything, they're just getting better. You could smell the nose on this all day- pepper, florals, spice rack, rocks and black cherries. Relaxed but powerful in the mouth, lots of deep black flavours but without any heaviness and spicy persistence. Grainy, imperfect tannins in keeping with the rustic personality of the wine. And you just keep reaching for another glass. Winery Sample, 94+ points, drink 2011+

On the Bench #8

Cape Mentelle 'Wallcliffe' Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2007 $40

I lost count of the number of times I heard Len Evans lament the 'cult of dimension' that had crept into the appreciation and assessment of Australian wine through the 90's and early noughties. Almost from the first time I heard him speak on wine, any wine, this was an abiding concern of his.

To be honest, I had no idea what he meant at the time. Well, an idea, but no real tasting experience to use as a barometer from which to base my own assessment. Wine was wine, and to be honest, the more juicy and concentrated the better as far as I was concerned.

Tastes change; in fashion, music, food, and wine. The wines I liked then are different to what I drink now. And I have no doubt that ten years ago, I would have thought that this wine was a waste of glass.

Fortunately, wine redemption is available to all. This is as good a 'Graves/White Bordeaux' style as you will find in Australia, and won't be shamed by anything varietally similar with a French label on it. The use of oak, and the integration of it, is basically perfect. It's there, but not intrusive, and the textural component that comes with the 'oaked white' territory adds interest and complexity. Best of all, there is a seamlessness and purity about this wine that sets it apart- it's dry, lean, savoury yet quenching, and the silken flow of it is magnificent.

This is a poster boy for what is possible in Australian wine- different, ambitious, imaginative, outside the box, elegant, packed to the gills with interest and excellence. Not wanting to put words in the old bloke's mouth, but I reckon Len would have loved it. Winery Sample, 95+ points, drink 2011+

Wachau, Austr(al)ia

Salomon is one of the great names of Austrian wine, producing some of that countries best Rieslings and Gruner Veltliner's. They've also set up shop in Finniss River (35 kms south of Adelaide) ,South Australia, producing a range of interesting reds that contrast with their white dominated Austrian portfolio.

Salomon Estate Fleurieu Peninsula Shiraz Viognier 2007 $30

The viognier component is handled really well- just a dusty, floral lift in evidence rather than anything sticky or stonefruit orientated. A little volatility, some dark toasty oak and dense black fruits as well on the nose. Dark plum and pepper flavours, good impact, tight acidity and drying tannin finish. Winery Sample, 88 points, 2011+

Becasse

After a big month and a half, I took the opportunity to take the better half out for a relaxing night at one of Sydney's best restaurants, Becasse.

It was a first time visit for me, and I wasn't disappointed. Excellent service, a creative and diverse degustation menu ( the banana creme brulee' was my personal highlight) and some lovely wines which included the Thomas Braemore Semillon 2008 and a bottle of Mac Forbes Coldstream Pinot Noir 2007.

And, I was delighted, and more than a little proud to find that the Dombeya Chardonnay 2007 was also on the list.

Many thanks to the team at Becasse for a lovely evening.

Australian Open Preview

Well, it's a golf preview with a wine out the front. They are kind of related. I flew to the Hunter Valley to do a couple of interviews for The Pro Shop and stopped in at Shakey Tables for dinner, saw this on the list for a remarkably low price given the vintage and status of the wine and just had to try it.

It was a super wine. Still young and quite rich, but undeniably world class and drinking half a bottle really made the evening. Sadly, I wasted the other half on some old pro golf colleagues of mine the next night and was horrified by their indifference to its charms!

Anyway, there are couple of big weeks in the pipeline, starting with the Australian Open next week at NSWGC in Sydney. Then we fly up to Coolum for the PGA Championship to finish out the year. Shooting The Pro Shop in and around both events as well so we should be able to put together some good content over the next fortnight.

I'll update when I can during the events and will take a few pics around the place as well.

On the Bench #7

Domaine Chandon Shiraz (Barrel Selection) 2006 $49

Bringing the funk back. Found this in the bottom of a pile and glad to have done so. Stemmy, cool climate nose-aniseed, ash, green peppercorns, cherries and plums. Spicy, pepper/cherry flavours, mid weight (for Shiraz) still juvenile and punchy fresh. Wild, interesting and attention grabbing. Winery Sample, 93 points, 2011+

On the Bench #5

The tragic death of Trevor Drayton in the Drayton winery explosion of 2008 is one of the worst stories in Australian wine of recent times. From all reports Trevor was a terrific bloke and a passionate winemaker. He left a lot of friends behind.

The other story that came out of this disaster was that of assistant winemaker William Rikard-Bell, horribly burned and in a critical condition, running into a nearby dam and being found there by rescuers before being rushed to hospital.

Rikard-Bell is now the winemaker for Draytons, having recovered from his injuries. It's a great story and he's obviously a talented winemaker, because this is a seriously good wine.

Draytons 'Vineyard Selection' Chardonnay 2009 $20

Some pear, a touch of pineapple, some citrus-like flavours as well. Textured palate but decidedly fresh, with a touch of spice adding interest. Excellent carry and length. Best of all, it makes for great drinking and keeps you coming back for more. Winery Sample, 93 points, drink 2009+

On the Bench #4

Stanton and Killeen Vintage Port 2004 $29

Can't believe how little fortified wine I drink these days, and every time I take the opportunity I'm reminded what I've been missing out on. This is a speccy wine, released with five years bottle age and up for grabs for less than $30. We don't know how good we've got it down under when it comes to world class fortified's.

Silky, refined and delicious. The alcohol is beautifully integrated, and the weightlessness of the wine belies the fortification, which I imagine is exactly the goal in the first place. Despite the bottle age this is still extremely youthful, with a rawness of sweet prune and black plum flavour that still needs some restful years to find its equilibrium. It's a long term, classically structured Vintage Port, and worthy of a place in anyone's cellar. Winery Sample, 94+ points, 2015+

On the Bench #3

Brokenwood 'Forest Edge Vineyard' Sauvignon Blanc 2009 $25

Much gnashing of teeth lately about the foothold that NZ Sauvignon has in the Australian market. Of the top ten Sauvignon Blanc's sold by volume, how many would you think are from NZ? Try ten.

So as a nation we're remarkably switched on to the East Island when it comes to savvy. We also allow the Kiwi's to claim back the WET tax (29%) on all sales here, so it is a win/win, or maybe win/win/win/win which goes some way to explaining their impressive marketing spend and subsequent market dominance.

Nonetheless, we do a pretty good version of the style in various cooler climate areas, like Orange in Central NSW, where Brokenwood source the fruit for this wine from. In fact this is better than pretty good, with fresh and lively passionfruit, citrus and nettle flavours and aroma's. It's not too 'green' in nature and whilst the front palate explosiveness of Sauvignon is there it doesn't wither away to nothingness in a hurry like some of its brethren. Winery Sample, 92 points, drink 2009+

On the Bench #2

Fox Gordon 'Princess' Fiano 2009 $20

The alternative variety movement in Australia is well and truly on the march, with all sorts of rare and obscure varietals poking their heads above the parapet. Fox Gordon are just one of the many who are staking a claim for a piece of turf on the new frontier, and they're making a good fist of it, too.

It has a great combination of fruit flavour and savouriness. Pears and almonds come straight to mind as flavour cues, but it's the slightly pithy, nutty, almost chewy/dried pear nature of the finish that grabs the attention. Made for food, with a fresh sweep of acidity cleaning up the tail. Seriously well made wine here - the rating, whilst more or less capturing the merits of the wine, doesn't quite do justice to the enjoyability factor. 91 points, 2009+

Vasse Felix 'Heytesbury' Chardonnay 2007- $40

I tasted this wine over a three hour period, wondering if any holes would appear in its story. It simply appeared too good to be true at first, almost too proper and perfectly behaved. The only thing that happened though was that it improved, and if anything became even more seamless. I guess if you had to describe it you would say that it smells and tastes of grapefruit, matchstick, white peaches, youthful creamy oak and toasted nuts. But it's more than that- it screams 'fine wine', the texture of it at once silken and caressing but with a kick of persistent, intense length in the tail. There's a fair amount of winemaking influence here but it is all wound into the wine beautifully. 96 points- drink 2011+

Haskell Vineyards scoops the pool at Tri-Nations

Well, this was bloody exciting. Made it to the Tri-Nations Wine Challenge presentations last night in Sydney at the Four Seasons Hotel. We had a horse in the race, the as yet unreleased Haskell Pillars Syrah 2007, which had struck a couple of judges in South Africa as a pretty good wine and had been chosen for the South African team.

To cut a long story short, the Pillars 07 won Best Shiraz, Best Red Wine, and Wine of Show. It was the first time that South Africa had won best red wine in the history of the competition, and also the Champion Wine.

Rianie Strydom (winemaker) was pumped, I'll admit to letting out a few hollers and hoots and celebrating in a renowned fashion into the early hours. A great achievement for us, we couldn't be more pumped.

Coche Dury, Chevalier Montrachet and more

More firsts from a couple of weeks back. My first taste of Coche Dury, one of the most vaunted and revered white burgundy producers. Coche Dury wines sell for astonishing sums of money and getting your hands on them is quite a challenge. The wine tasted here was the Meursault Perrieres 1er 2002, and it was brilliant. Sleek, shiny and crammed full of power. The Bouchard Chevalier Montrachet 2005 was also impressive, but needs many years of cellaring to show its full potential, especially in a large format bottle. Can't recall if I tasted the Clos de Mouches...it was all getting a bit silly at this point.

Three Years Hence

It has been a couple of weeks since the third anniversary of the death of Len Evans. How quickly that time has passed. I was reflecting on that today as I cleaned up my computer desktop and found this article.

It reminded me of a few things, but mostly of how much I miss the excitement and sense of anticipation that he bought to my life. Wine became somehow magical when Len was around. Every visit to the Hunter Valley to see him was potentially a journey of discovery, and some of my most cherished memories are of times spent dining and enjoying wine at Loggerheads, his Pokolbin home.

Anyway, we shouldn't forget the great, and I won't. You're still missed, Chairman.

Lanson NV

Lanson NV $70

I noted that Campbell Mattinson at Winefront gave this a good wrap recently. I reckon he's spot on the money too. It's a really fresh, complex NV Champagne. Plenty of biscuity/citrus flavour, a healthy dose of sugar to fatten it up a little as well, it must be said, but that just makes it all the more attractive and approachable. Head and shoulders above the current Moet & Chandon NV, and at pretty much the same price.

La Chapelle

The Jaboulet table at the Ficofi/Kaesler tasting. The late 1990's vintages of La Chappelle ( at least the ones that I have tried, 98 in particular) have been fairly forgettable. I quite liked the 1991, drinking well, not an acclaimed vintage but sometimes drinkability is an under-rated quality. No notes on this table, the speed tasting had started to slip into overdrive.

Leroy Gevrey Chambertin 1967

It was a village wine, but a 42 year old one at that which was drinking pretty nicely. Tasted like an old, gentle, leathery Burgundy, and anytime someone serves you Leroy it is a good day. Also a bottle of 92 Leroy Musigny opened which was impressive.

Montrachet

Well, I've never even seen a bottle of Marquis de Laguiche Montrachet before, let alone a 3 litre bottle of one, but here it was, at the Ficofi tasting.

Without going into a fit of hyperbolic ranting, the one thing that drinking a glass of this wine tells you is that great wine is about balance. It was one of the most 'seamless' wines I have tasted, and only when you have tasted a wine like this do you understand how overused and abused the 'seamless' descriptor is. Long, svelte and delightful. That just about covers it.

A Swill Fest for Oligarch's

This tasting will go down in the memory as one of the most remarkable I have ever been to. In this day and age, when the great wines of the world are so prohibitably expensive, to see such a line up is something that I doubt I will ever experience again.

The event was put on by Ficofi, a wine investment/prestige corporate tasting company based in France, presumably sponsored by Ed Peter, the owner of Kaesler Wines in the Barossa who is also a big player in the world of finance. The rumour was that it was put on for some heavy hitting Asian investors who flew down especially for the occasion, and who would blame them.

The scary thing was that it was almost impossible to get around to all the wines. Absurdly, you found yourself spitting out mouthfuls of wine from $5000, large format bottles. All the great names of wine were there...Montrachet, La Tache, Leroy, Petrus, Guigal, Margaux, Musigny, and the list goes on. It was a wonderful experience, but something of a guilty pleasure. I doubt that I'll ever get to do something like this again.

Unfortunately I had to run for the airport, and didn't get to try everything. I also didn't really do a lot of the wines justice, rushing through many and unable to really take in everything that I would have liked to. Still, I'll remember it for a long time to come. It was a great privilege to be invited and I thank Kaesler very much for the opportunity.

More notes and pics to follow.

(Disclaimer- I'm a director of D&H Fine Wine which has a commercial relationship with Kaesler)

Barossa Wine Traveller Launch

Well, it's finally done. Barossa Wine Traveller is published, and coming to a bookstore near you. There are a ton of great stories in here, offering an insight into the Barossa that the locals know and enjoy. Charlie Melton's stuff in particular is a hoot, and Pete Scholz from The Willows and Rob Gibson also gave up some wonderful anecdotes.

If you want to read a little more, check out www.barossawinetraveller.com.au for stockists or if you just want to buy a copy.