So that guys like me have something to add to the debate?
Still, the wine show system is broken and in urgent need of fixing - see here:
http://briard.typepad.com/get_the_picture/2012/09/australian-wine-shows-have-a-bright-future.html
This week, a handful of big labels didn't deliver the goods. Killakanoon, Tyrrells, de IILIUS, Thorn-Clarke, Hardys and Craggy Range. The
good news is that I’ve found another great red for less than $20, and a 3-year-old Chardonnay
for less than $10. Plus a few more delights.
BUY
Devils Lair Hidden Cave Cabernet Shiraz 2010
Devils Lair is part of the Treasury Wine Estate empire (formerly known as Fosters) that holds most of the picture cards of Australia’s iconic wine brands. Devils Lair makes the affordable but ordinary 5th leg line, and a serious line of Margaret River wines that sells for around $50 a bottle. The Hidden Cave line sits in between at around $20.
Cabernet Shiraz is a classic Aussie blend that seems to haven fallen from favour a bit. That’s a shame because it works so well, the Shiraz filling out the middle of the typically longer, leaner Cabernet. This 60/40 blend is a great example of the style, blending cassis fruit with a touch of Margaret River gravel and subtle oak notes from 12 months in used French and American barriques. It’s medium bodied but rich and packed with flavour. Polished tannins, real class act. 14%. Poor man’s Bin 389.
Interesting that it merely scored a bronze
in the 2011 Great Australian Red competition. The trophy-winning Annie's Lane Quelltaler Watervale Shiraz
Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 isn’t in the same class, neither are the silver-medal
winners Penfolds Koonunga Hill Seventy Six Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 and the Majella Musician
2010. So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut used to say. $19 at 1st Choice. Be quick, the 2011 is already coming into the grog shops.
McWilliam’s Hanwood Estate Chardonnay 2009
After saying I’d never found a McWilliam’s wine I really liked, this is the second McWilliam’s wine I’m recommending. The first one was the Hanwood Cabernet Sauvignon from the same year. Tyson Stelzer says that these wines are made from 2/3 Riverina fruit, with the remaining 1/3 coming from cooler regions that include Tumbarumba and the Yarra Valley.
This is a clean, well-made wine. Round and full-bodied, mouth-filling and generous. More oak than Chardonnay flavour here, but there’s enough life in the wine to carry it. It’s a perfectly pleasant drinking wine with the advantage of some age. Don’t know how they do it for 8 bucks – I’ve had Chardonnays twice this price that were less enjoyable. 13.5%. $8 at Jim’s Cellars and the usual suspects.
Hoddles Creek Estate Chardonnay 2011
From the Upper Yarra Valley vineyards of the d’Anna family, made by Franco and 'the boys' with a lot of personal attention. The flavour is leaning toward the stone fruit side of the spectrum, and the oak is refined (some French oak there); the two just need a bit more time to get used to each other. The creamy mouth feel bridges the gap for the moment, and an acid and mineral backbone holds it all together. The wine tastes like a more expensive Chardy than the $19 asking price at MyCellars.
Paringa Estate Peninsula Chardonnay 2009
This is the basic Chardonnay from a Mornington Peninsula maker with a big reputation. It's a pretty big wine but it has the acid backbone to carry the weight. The rich fruit carries the French oak and marries the barrel ferment and creamy malolactic characters. Serious stuff, and will improve for a couple more years. If you like your Chardys big but balanced, you’ll like this one. 14.5%. $25 at Winestar
NOT CONVINCED
Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Vineyard
Te Kahu 2009 Merlot ...
NZ winery with a huge reputation. This wine
briefly dropped under our $25 ceiling, so I thought I’d check it out. It’s 80%
Merlot, with the rest made up of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, and Malbec. It’s
a tantalising mix, but the tantalising stops when you taste the wine. It’s
smooth, it’s elegant, it’s well-made but it lacks depth, intensity and complexity.
For a wine that costs close to $30, it doesn’t deliver enough satisfaction.$28 at Dan M's.
Killikanoon Mort’s Block Watervale Riesling 2012
Killikanoon is James Halliday’s current winery of the year, and 2012 is a great year for Riesling in Clare, and Tyson Stelzer gives this a rave review and 95 points so the expectations are high. The wine is very pale and the nose is shy, giving us faint hints of flowers, limes and bath powder. It’s tight and delicate on the palate, yet with great fruit intensity and focus.
I’d have picked it as a Polish Hill Riesling, that’s how delicate it is. Sadly, it lacks a bit of mid palate depth/weight, and length. Yes, it finishes quite short, it's unbalanced. I think the Jim Barry and the O’Leary Walker 2012 Rieslings have more to offer, especially in terms of depth, length and balance. It's just a pup but I expected more from this champion breeder. 12.5%. $17, Dan M’s.
De Iiuliis Hunter Valley Semillon 2011
Another disappointment. It starts with typical pale brass colour and restrained lemon zest nose. The fruit is surprising in its softness for a young Hunter. It’s ripe, almost sweet and lacks the bite you expect from young Semillon. It also lacks the line and length you'd expect, and it does a vanishing act once you get past the mid palate. I cannot explain how JH, TS and Winefront come up with their positive reviews and 93 points, other than the vegemite syndrome. (if you grew up with Hunter Semillon, all Hunter Semillon is just terrific). $15 at Dan Murphys.
AVOID
Thorn Clarke Sandpiper Barossa Shiraz 2010
I like these guys, most of all their Quartage Bordeaux blends. Bought stacks of the 2008 and 2009. 2010 Quartage is a bit forward for my liking. Sandpiper is their entry level range, priced at about $15. Dan M had this on special for $13. This one has grabbed a couple medals and a trophy, and here I am scratching my head again: this is a big wine (14.5%) and it’s a clumsy wine because you can smell the alcohol on the nose. The palate serves up plenty of very ripe fruit, but there’s an earthy coarseness to the taste that spoils it for me. I’ve seen this often in McLaren Vale reds, and I would’ve picked this wine as one of those.
Tyrrells HVD Semillon 2006
This wine gets huge ratings form JH, HH et al. 96-97 points. It’s won 9 trophies and Golds, and I’m sitting here stumped. OK, Hunter Semillons aren’t my favourite wines but I used to buy plenty of them from Murray Tyrrell in the old days, so I know what to look for. This wine lacks flavour, focus and length. It’s a wishy-washy, bland number that lacks depth and backbone. It’s like a bloke who’s barely into his twenties and has lost his youthful shape already.
I can hear Murray stirring in his grave. No one could accuse his Semillons of lacking bite and depth and backbone. Or class. Times have changed. Tyrrells is probably ten times the size it was in the halcyon days when Murray held sway. Different people are looking after the enormous vineyards and the winemaking. $24 at Kemenys
Jacobs Creek Riesling 2011
I admit that I bought this wine because the medals it won grabbed my attention, given the modest price tag of $7.50 at Dan M’s. What was it about a wine like this that fooled the judges? It almost fooled me as well when I first tasted it, because the nose promised limes, the palate delivered crisp citrus fruit and the whole thing seemed quite refined. The back label, said nothing about the stuff inside. Trophies won at Riverina Show suggest its origins.
A closer look or two over an evening or two revealed the artifice of this wine. The fruit was picked early/unripe to keep the acid high and the whole thing fresh. 11.4%. The citrus flavour is most likely from added lemon acid (legal in Oz), and the fruit has an artificial sweetener aftertaste to it.
It’s a clever concoction, and I can see how it would’ve fooled judges going down a long line of glasses once or twice - that’s why I don’t taste wines that way. Wines are like women – you have to spend time with them to get to know them. This one wears too much perfume and make-up. The McWilliams Chardonnay 2009 is a much more real and satisfying wine but it just scored a couple of bronze medals. So it goes.
Hardys OOMOO Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2010
One more wine you should make sure to avoid, although I doubt that you'll run into it. It's the roughest red I've had in a long time, and I think Hardys knows it and has pulled it off the market - there's none in any of the shops I go to. It surfaced six months ago as a special at Graysonline for $7 including free delivery. That should've raised my suspicions except that Hardys is pretty reliable and OOMOO has been a decent value label. I like the GSM style, and this one is medium strength at 14%, and from the top year of 2010, so I bought a six-pack.
I can't even describe it, it's so bad. Undrinkable.
Kim
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