Are trophies and gold medals worthless bling?
I’m tired of pouring wine down the sink from bottles adorned with golden stickers. McWilliams Hanwood Shiraz 2010 won a Top Gold and two trophies the 2011 Riverina Wine Show. It’s a weird concoction with a whiff of Kurnell about it, big-bodied but not really pleasant once you give it time to reveal all its attractions. Just as disturbing is reading that the Chief Judge of the show was Ben Edwards, a co-contributor to James Halliday's Wine Companion and President of Sommeliers Australia. 14%. http://www.mcwilliams.com.au/news/articles/mcwilliam-s-wines-stars-at-top-regional-state-and-international-wine-shows/
The Taylors Promised Land Shiraz 2010 was another case of crash-and-burn, and another $9 wine. I wouldn’t have expected much from this label if the judges at the Visy Great Aussie Shiraz Challenge hadn’t given it the Trophy for Best Shiraz Under $25, and second place overall. They rated it way ahead of much more fancied labels like the 2008 Penfolds RWT ($175), 2009 Wolf Blass Platinum Label ($160), 2005 Jacobs Creek 35th Anniversary ($150), 2006 Yalumba The Octavius ($109), and the 2008 St Hallett Old Block Shiraz ($100).
This wine is big on flavour and body but not distinctly Shiraz. It’s a strange concoction with a rank taste on the palate and a collapse of the scrum long before we get to the finish. Structure, I mean. It’s similar to the Hanwood Shiraz in hitting slightly off ‘refinery’ notes. 14%. I have no idea what the judges were smoking here, and the judges were: Gary Baldwin, Sue Bell, Simon Osicka and Richard Angove. http://www.shirazchallenge.com.au/results/index.asp?action=browse&year=2011
Let’s talk about some more appealing bargains. Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz 2010. This wine is well-made and recognisable as a Shiraz, if not as a Coonawarra. The nose suggest a fruit-driven wine, and the taste is of cherries and berries with a hint of spicy oak. It’s a pleasant mouthful, medium-bodied with a softish finish. Nice soft Aussie red with good flavour and balance. JH sees a cellaring future here but I’d drink it over the next couple of years. JH gives it 93, I give it 90. 14%. $10.95 at VC. You'll see rave reviews of this wine - it's very appealing but check it out first.
Kemenys has a label called Devil’s Ridge, which is similar to the Hidden Label range but tells you where the wine comes from. The Devil’s Ridge Block 16 Polish Hill River Riesling 2010 comes from the long established Wilson vineyard. It’s clearly Riesling with plenty of citrus fruit on the palate – ripe and almost sweet. It’s a soft wine, not built for the long haul, but a nice, easy drink right now. Good value at $10. 12.5%. https://www.kemenys.com.au/go.jsp#!class=Product&spn=1086417
The Hidden Label Eden Valley Riesling 2009 from the same source is a dollar cheaper at $9. A bit more length, and a tad less mid-palate concentration, but a real bargain for sure. https://www.kemenys.com.au/go.jsp#!class=Product&spn=1085201
I’ll throw a superstar in here because it’s a wonderful bargain at $17 (Kemenys): Bellarmine Pemberton Dry Riesling 2010. Pemberton lies between Margaret River and Mount Barker, the vineyard is owned by a German couple and the wine is made by a Vet. It has enormous soft, sweet fruit concentration on the palate, verging on lemon meringue, all held together by a long, fine acid backbone and clean, dry finish. It's a richer style compared to the South Australian Rieslings. Halliday gives it 96 points and lists the wine in his top 100 for 2011. I’m not far behind for once. 12.5%
Why am I always talking about Riesling? Because I have trouble finding bargain whites made from other varieties. I thought the 2011 Y Series Viognier was a chance when Stelzer wrote: ‘This is not only the finest Y Series Viognier ever made, it is the greatest viognier with a street price under $10 that I have tasted from anywhere in the world. Ever... there’s no mistaking its cool spice of white pepper and fennel, its accurate apricot, apricot kernel and lemon zest flavour and its impeccably textured mouthfeel.’
Stelzer gives it 92, and he tends to be more conservative than JH so my expectations took a hit with a cricket bat when I bought a bottle and found an utterly one-dimensional wine inside, crippled almost. No length, no breadth, no texture, just a fleeting flavour on the mid-palate which is so short that you’d miss it if you blinked. I went back to this wine a number of times over a whole week to see if it would open up and reveal its secrets to me, but it refused. This wine has won a gold as well, perhaps for the best under $10 Viognier made by Yalumba.
http://www.yalumba.com/vintage.asp?p=154&l=454&v=6032
My final wine is a mixed bag. McWilliams Mount Pleasant Jack Cabernet Sauvigon 2010. The label informs us that ‘this Cabernet Sauvignon celebrates the life of one of Australia’s greatest characters (Jack McWilliams).’ Why you’d celebrate such a character with an $11 wine I can’t imagine, unless you have 4 foot arms and six foot pockets. And why you’d stick a Coonawarra Cabernet under a Mount Pleasant label is another simple question for the marketing geniuses at McWilliams.
The wine is fairly robust, from its purple colour to the generous flavour, not exactly cool climate Cabernet or refined though. The blurb from McW’s talks of ‘a brooding wine offering dark chocolate mint, cherries and blackberries, complemented by judicious oak and silky smooth tannins.’ That’s rubbish. Jack is not a silky smooth city slicker, more of a lad from the country, big head and shoulders on skinny legs. He’s a touch earthy and rustic like Grenache can be, and shows hints of ageing already (has young Jack led a hard life?). 14%. $11 at Dan M’s. Trophy and two Top Golds at major shows. You be the judge.
I reckon that the Montes Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile is a smoother, more coherent drop for $9.
Happy Drinking
Kim
Comments