There's more: Schild Estate Shiraz 2009, Hereford Shiraz 2010, Sister’s Run Cabernet 2009, Le Chat Noir 2010 Pinot Noir
BUY
Seresin SB 2010
In my recent piece on the Marlborough Men, I pointed to Seresin as a benchmark for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc - http://tiny.cc/y90mcw . Then I realised I hadn’t tasted a Seresin for a year or two and wondered if I’d stuck my neck out too far (not uncommon judging by the scars on it). The weekend brought a dinner with friends. The entrée was a variant of a Nicoise salad with Salmon, sundried tomatoes and goats cheese, without potatoes, eggs and beans. A perfect chance to open a bottle of Seresin.
This is serious Savvy, you can tell that from the nose – hints of grapefruit and gooseberry with a faint suggestion of oak. The wine delivers on that promise with a depth of authentic flavour and complexity we rarely see from Marlborough. The ripe fruit (14%) is firmly in the gooseberry spectrum, herbaceous and intense, a real mouthful that makes you want to come back for more. The wine is held tight by a strong backbone of fine mineral acidity, and has great length. Sadly, the bottle didn’t last long between four of us.
The approach taken by Seresin is interesting, starting with certified organic fruit that is hand-picked and fermented with wild yeast. The 6% Semillon in the final blend is fermented in aged French oak, along with 10% of the Sauvignon. The finished wine has a pH of 3.25, 6.4g/L titratable acid and 2.0g/L residual sugar - no wonder the wine is bone dry. This is a real food wine, and will improve for a year or two.
The bad news is that a bottle will set you back $25 (1st Choice and Dan M’s). The good news is that Sauvignon Blanc doesn’t get much better than this, and that makes the Seresin a bargain. Those Marlborough men who lost the plot so badly should get some of this to re-calibrate their palates and their winemakers. Seresin’s philosophy makes good reading too: http://www.seresin.co.nz/about/seresin.php .
Printhie Pinot Gris 2010
If anything, it’s even harder to find a good Pinot Gris than a good Savvy. This is not a bad one, with restrained fruit in the apple/pear spectrum. More herbaceous than sweet, and backed by fine acid with good length. Great with pork chops and red pepper relish. $15 at Kemenys.
Hereford Shiraz 2010
This wine is most likely a Dan Murphy’s Buyer’s Own Brand. The label says ‘full-bodied’, and the 2009 is a lovely big plush armchair of a red that slips down the hatch with no effort at all, the kind of wine that’ll go down well with your mates at a backyard barbie. The 2010 is less big and less plush, perhaps because of the cooler year. Half the fruit comes from Heathcote, and the other half from the Goulburn Valley where the wine is made (by Tisdall at Echuca). This vintage is medium-bodied and the pristine fruit suggests cool climate. There’s lovely sweet spice here from the Heathcote portion, and great balance and a long, soft finish. It’s a very well-made red, and I don’t mind that it’s not huge. 13.8%. Drink over the next 3 years. $14.
Sister’s Run Cabernet 2009
The interesting label drew me in, and the story on the back. This wine is made by the same young Turks who've put Dandelion on the map as a new brand to be reckoned with. If you wonder what to make of Dandelion as a name for a modern winery, wine names like Lionheart and Red Queen of the Eden Valley will make you wonder more.
Sister's Run is a better name by far, and the wine is an elegant Barossa red that comes across as a cool climate Cabernet. The fruit is pristine, the acid fine, the oak perfectly judged – in short this wine is so well-crafted that there’s barely a hint of the Barossa’s warmth and generosity left. I’d like a bit more character, or an off-note somewhere, but I'm hard to please. This is as perfect as a Gregorian Chant from Hildegard von Bingen. Nothing wrong with Gregorian Chant, and nothing wrong with this wine. About $16 at 1st Choice and Vintage Cellars.
Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Another surprise, as it’s pretty well ready to drink at a mere 6 years of age. Coonawarra cassis on the nose, sumptuous berry fruit on the palate. This is a seductive, succulent softy with a medium body but enough fine acid and tannin to avoid jamminess. I can’t see it improve from here, but it’s a lovely red right now. Dan M’s cellar release, $27.
OVER TO YOU
Cape Howe Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2011
This is a pleasant enough white with hints of cut grass and citrus fruit, but it doesn’t have enough to offer to raise it above the ordinary. The fruit is bit shy and lacks concentration, and we’re left with a wine that doesn’t offer a convincing alternative to the oceans of cheap savvies out there. It’s fair value at $13 (Kemenys), and it may improve, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.
Taylor’s Riesling 2010
I’ve had little contact with Taylor’s whites, and the frist impression is one of a tight Watervale Riesling with restrained citrus fruit set against a firm mineral backbone, with good depth and length and aging potential. However, the fruit is unyielding and the acid is blunt rather than fresh, and the wine didn't open up over a couple of days in the open bottle. At two years of age, that might suggest it may remain a closed book forever.
AVOID
Schild Estate Shiraz 2009
This winery received big raves for its 2008 Shiraz, including a 7th place in Wine Spectator’s top 100 Wines of 2010. Then it ran into a storm of bad PR when it ran out of the wine and made some more. ‘Faced with strong demand for a highly-rated wine,’ Wine Spectator reported, ‘an Australian winery has simply created more of it.’
An interesting way to solve the supply problem. Schild Estate later issued a press release that said the winery had decided to ship all the original blend to the USA and create a ‘second blend’ (labelled thus) to fill the resulting void in the Oz market.
Always hard-selling Bert Werden of Winestar takes up the story in his newsletter: ‘The fact remains that the award winning wine was a super value Barossa Shiraz, and the irony in Wine Spectator blowing the whistle on this whole story is that they have now come out and wrapped up the new release Schild Estate Barossa Shiraz 2009! "An expressive Shiraz, bursting with dark plum and bright blueberry notes, joined by hints of roasted meat and spice. The finish rolls along with an airy, open texture that lets the flavors sail. Has depth and pinpoint balance. Drink now through 2019".'
Bert makes an interesting point here: ‘The 92 Point rating is, in context, a huge score for a $14.99 wine from the world’s most influential wine mag. For some perspective, 31 of the 50 vintages of Penfolds Grange reviewed and rated by Spectator have failed to surpass this rating. How ironic would it be if this wine made the Top 100?’
I could hardly wait, as the lady on SBS used to say. And what we have here is, you guessed it, another fleshy, messy, overripe Barossa Shiraz that fairly leaps out of the glass and assaults your senses with a mix of stewed plums, toast and charred steak. There’s more burnt meat on the palate, along with an unpleasant hard edge and tarry tobacco notes fighting with stewed fruit and plum pudding. The finish is as ‘airy and open’ as a punctured tyre and leaves you feeling just as flat. This is the BBQ red to serve when you've forgotten to buy the snags and the steaks, and you want to make sure your mates don't come back for more.
How on earth can a wine with such glaring faults get a thumbs-up from 'the world's most influential wine mag'? Unless it was a very different blend from the wine in the glass in front of me? There's no answer, only an interesting footnote: the ever-generous JH, who gives just about all serious wineries 5 stars and 90+ points for their wines, gives Schild Estate 3.5 stars and rates the 2008 Shiraz at 87. I don't think there's a lower score from James in the entire Wine Companion.
Le Chat Noir 2010 Pinot Noir
More of the same, sadly. The label is the best thing here. The wine itself is a joke, from the rusty water colour and a nose that speaks of nothing much to a gushy, mushy mid-palate of ill-defined flavour. There’s no discernable Pinot character and no structure or length to speak of. If it ever showed potential, it must have been a while ago. Whatever its best was, it’s well past it. I used some of it in a chicken paprika, and it didn’t turn out as well as usual. It’s a rip-off at $15.
What made me waste 15 bucks on this? A guy called Campbell Mattinson who runs a wine review site called Winefront with his mate Gary Walsh. This is what he wrote:
‘I have a feeling Le Chat Noir might put the Aude Valley on the map. It's been a tough time for bargain pinot noir drinkers of late. There are a couple of exceptions but in general, the heat of 2009 and the wet of 2011 have hardly made it easy for volume producers - and it usually takes volume to keep the price down, and the quality up. This pinot noir from Le Chat Noir steps beautifully into the breach. It has a flash of cedary oak - not something I've seen in previous vintages - good density of fruit flavour, a rub of tannin and better-than-decent length. Better still, it smells perfumed and buoyant and tastes fresh and vigorous. It doesn't just scratch the pinot itch, it gets the heart racing. If you see this wine around, and your a pinot fan - BUY. Rated: 92 points. Alcohol: 12.5%. Price: $19. Drink: 2011-2015+.’
It gets my heart racing too, Campbell, wasting my time and money on this – you should be sentenced to drinking this rubbish for the next 6 weeks, a bottle every night. And write one hundred times the message on the Sister's Run label: 'The truth is in the vineyard but the proof is in the glass.'
Am I pissed off? You bet! I think of all the punters who trust Wine Spectator, Winestar and Winefront. People rely on your advice, please make sure it's on the level.
Kim
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