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Brevity is the soul of wit…apparently.

Aromas of lemon, nectarine, a little honeycomb, dirt floor and light spicy oak. On the palate light to medium bodied with lemon, nectarine, mineral, earth and subtle clove spice oak. There are some savoury characters but they complement rather than overwhelm the crystalline purity of fruit. It feels light and airy and has a fresh dry slightly chalky texture with a firm spine of acid running the length of the palate. Finishes dry and very long. A fine boned beauty.

Other vintages : 2005

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Well the Wine Emporium has been moving quite a bit of 05 Burgundy over the past few months. Not suprisingly really given the hype. This is one of the few still in stock. The wine was matured for 15 months in casks with no racking, and with a fairly low proportion of new wood (< 20%). Bottled using gravity, without fining or filtration. A lovely nose, red fruits, some pink meats, minerals and a bit of undergrowth. The palate is tight, with minerally black cherries, excellent structure, spice and a bit of sap. Elegant, with good length and a clean dry finish. Needs a year or two to fill out.

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Straight off the bat this smells enticing, with red fruits, choc-mint and muted combination of spices: pepper, cinnamon, five spice and nutmeg. The palate is silky smooth and sexy, black fruited more than red, with wood spices and dried herbs. There is good fruit depth, medium-bodied, finely textured and quite elegant with a dry finish. Clean and clinical; drink over the medium term.

Other vintages: 2005

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The nose of this wine is full of Maraschino cherry. The palate starts off with a mix of sweet red cherry and moves into some dark berries and finishes with a smoky, bacon like flavour. The texture is lovely and the length pretty good. I really like the way the flavour is held in check with acid but that it still has a nice silky texture. I also like the Leunig cartoon image on the label. I was concerned to see that it was sealed with a standard cork but it was in good condition and the wine I drank gave no indication of cork problems.

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There is a good story to this. Winemaker Rory Lane takes small batches of Grampians fruit and makes them into wine in a little factory apartment in Melbourne. The fruit for this vintage is sourced from the Westgate and Robinson Vineyards (of Mount Langi fame) and it includes a portion of whole bunch action in the ferment which really lift the aromatics.

Aromas of dark cherry, blackberry, pepper, spice, chocolate, meat and creamy French vanilla oak. Perfumed and exotic. On the palate medium bodied with dark cherry, spice, pepper, chocolate and some meaty flavours with quality oak adding a little creamy vanilla. The tannins are very smooth and fine grained and it feels lovely and supple in the mouth. A bit more weight on the back palate and I’d rate it through the roof (although it did fill out after being open for a day). This is an artisanal wine dripping with love and regionality and comes with a strong buy recommendation from me.

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I tasted this with two other Yarra Valley rosés (07 Shelmerdine, 06 The Wanderer) and liked this one best. The other tasters went for the Shelmerdine but Winorama is an autocracy, the best and most sensible form of wine government, so their voices will go unheard.

Super petrol colour. It has some funky smells, a bunch of redcurrant and strawberries stomped into a dirt floor, a touch of cream and some juicy licorice root. On the palate an interesting combination of waxy and chalky textures with low acidity but good balance. It has flavours of dirt, red fruit and some creamy characters. Dry and mouthfilling. Finishes dry and clean with excellent length of flavour. Very easy to knock back yet curiously engaging. I like this better than the 2006.

Other vintages : 2006

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The last of the trio. 1000 cases made. Plums and dusty spices, cinnamon quill, red cherries, milk chocolate and a bit of stonefruit. On the palate, red plums, a slightly viscous mouthfeel, some dried stonefruit, fleshy, with sour fruits and a dry finish. Less Viognier characteristics than the 2002, but they are still there. Medium bodied (again) and elegant (again) - a consistent set of wines.

Other vintages: Other vintages: 2002, 2003

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Saturday September 29 is a very divisive day. Do I have a look at a Victorian or South Australian winery? I have picked up a few skills from GW and decided on a win win, NSW winery but made with Victorian Pinot Noir. This is no pussy of a wine. I had not seen it before yet at a very competitive end of the market. It is a blend of three clones of Pinot Noir, 114, 115 and MV6. The colour was bright red and quite deep. The nose was ripe red fruits, morello cherry and a bit of blueberry. The palate was a pleasing set of cherry flavours that went well with food. It was a little short on palate length but had no bitterness or any other detracting characters. Not just any old Port in a storm for me.

Other vintages : 2005

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1500 cases made. Blood plums, ripe red cherries, a bit of a floral lift, blacker and bit meatier. Lovely florals. Red plums, sweet but not overly sweet through the palate, liquorice, red fruits and a bit of a sour edge and some spices; no obvious Viognier characters, a textured and silky palate. Again, quite an elegant wine, medium bodied though leaning to the sour end of the spectrum. A bit more fruit depth than the 2002. Good stuff.

Other vintages: 2002

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The first of a trio of Shiraz Viogniers from Ladbroke Grove. 600 cases made. Red plums and white pepper, red cherries and spice, a bit of liquorice and milk chocolate, with just a hint of stalk. The palate showed sour red cherries and some stonefruit, with apricot being the obvious choice but it wasn’t clearly apricoty. This character built through the palate and the wine finished sour and dry. medium bodied with fine tannins and some pretty good length; quite a pleasant and elegant wine.

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I’ve had some bad experiences with ‘02 Guillons and I originally had this slated for auction. But then I feared some bad karma so I decided to drink it myself. A soaked and spongy cork was a bad omen, but in the end it turned out very well. A clean nose, aromatic, red cherries, brown earth and some minerals. On the palate, clean red fruits and soft earth, a sappiness that increased with time, tight and minerally, with the minerals running through the length of the palate, and a bit of sap on the finish. A very good wine, thought not exotic or overly complex, but solid and true. Good length, good quality and good drinking.

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O.D. stands for Off Dry. This wine was made from 25 year old vines in the Harcourt Valley. This valley is uncharacteristically cool for a central Victorian wine region, principally because it is nestled between the Mount Alexander range and a large ridge, and is subject to cool mornings and then afternoon shade from the ridge. This combination results in a prolonged growing season which produces intensely flavoured fruit. Unripe tropical fruits, soft lemons, quite grapey really, with lemon curd and slice of ginger. A lovely rounded mouthfeel, a bit of citrus and lemon, soft and subdued fruits, tempered grapefruit and lemon, with a tangy and clean finish. Not overly sweet and quite elegant. Drink now in the afternoon from a chilled pint glass.

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Wendy and I tried this and the 2002 release fairly close together. Wendy liked one vintage and I the other. A blend of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer from Bergheim. This opens with lovely fruit flavours and a nose showing ripe honeyed fruit almost like that of a 4 year old Clare Riesling. The character is typical of quite a few whites from 2003 in Alsace that I have tried. The wine has nice length, good acidity and reasonable hit of residual sugar but in excellent balance. The flavours start off with the ripe grapefruit, then the rose petal, straw and honey.

Other vintages : 2002

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A copy of this landed on my desk yesterday so I gave it a good working over last night. Authors Tyson-eye Stelzer (earnest, intellectual, fine taster, work ethic of a Clydesdale) and Matthew Jukes (stentorian, a little outré, fine taster, good taste in shoes) have sifted through a river of wine and pulled out 365 little nuggets of Australian and NZ gold. It’s an excellent list of wines too, offering a wide range of styles and price points, and while perhaps a little heavily weighted towards certain producers, I’d say this is more a function of quality rather than bias. I was most impressed by the fact that unlike many other guides, this is packed with wines that are yet to be released, so it will stay current for a long time. It has an extensive food and wine matching section, a new classification system for NZ Pinot Noir, results for The Great Australian Red competition, a directory of wine retailers, wine tasting terms, useful information on serving wine and a nice little guide to wine regions. It is cleverly laid out, packed with features and fun, and is bigger and better than last years edition. Top work chaps.

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Howard Park were good enough to send this through to fill in the gap in my knowledge. Well at least the gap relating to HP cabernet anyway..

A mix of red and black berries, chocolate, tobacco and cedar oak with some aniseed wafting around in the background. It looked a bit dark and sullen on opening but freshened up considerably over the course of a day. On the palate medium to full bodied with a mix of dark slightly baked savoury tobacco tinged fruit and fresher summer berry flavours. Plenty of stylish cedar oak that is both tastefully applied and well settled into the wine. It has firm tannins showing a slight greenness and looks quite tightly coiled with some edgy acidity poking through. Finishes well with a little tannic grip on exit. Looks a little awkward and backwards at the moment but has plenty of potential.

Other vintages : 2004, 2001

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Huntington Estate was established by Sydney lawyer Bob Roberts in 1969. His daughter Susie joined the winemaking team in 1993. More recently, the winery was purchased by Tim Stevens, who now also makes the wine. I believe he doesn’t intend to change the course of the S.S.Huntington, and the style will remain unchanged.

A rich nose, with red and black fruits, red cherries and blackberries, but also some damp earth and wood spices. The palate is rich and solid, big generous fruits with savoury complexity, smoke, bacon and dried meats. Lovely tannin structure. Still a very young wine; can be consumed now but should go another 10 years.

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A bit cloudy. Sappy red cherries and some red plums, clean and light, a touch of fresh beetroot, undergrowth and stalk. But this does not do the nose justice, because it is more complex and elusive than that, with other aromas and characteristics there but staying just out of reach. The palate is relatively big, clean and sappy, red fruits with a touch of charry stems adding compelxity. The length is great and the finish sappy and gnawish. The best Ashton Hills Pinot I have had for quite a while.

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I have tried a couple of vintages from this domain and found this to be the best yet. Chuck and Paige from the Jugshop shared this with me, from a masked sock alongside some other Pinots from 2005. It opened with bright and clean red fruits, sweet red cherry with a bit of blueberry and raspberry. The palate continued along the path suggested by the nose but added a little extra complexity of the dried herb type. The fruit was the power that drives this to great length. A very good example from 2005.

Other vintages : 2004

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I don’t know where the name “Two Wives” comes from, and I must admit I am too shy to ask. I am sure Gary will find out because he loves a challenge and is a bit of a sleuth in his spare time.

A radioactive red in colour. On the nose, red cherries and plums, liquorice and spice, and a bit of buttery oak. The palate is broad and full, with red fruits and spice, liquorice, bright acid and a bit of savoury earth. There is also a bit of stalk and spice on the finish, which I quite like. The tannins are soft and silky, and it is dangerously easy to drink.

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Blue Metal Vineyard wines are made exclusively from the 26 acre vineyard on Hurdle Ridge. It is the highest vineyard in the Southern Highlands at 790 metres above sea level and this combined with rich, free draining soils, makes it an excellent vineyard site.The vineyard lies over a cap of basalt rock, known in Australia as blue metal – hence our name.

I would say for a new wine, from an (as yet) unheralded region, this may be a little ambitiously priced.

Very youthful with peppery juicy raspberry and plum fruit, sweet grass and subtle vanilla/cedar oak. Fresh and floral. On the palate medium bodied with sweet raspberry, cranberry, grass, pepper, bitter herbs and vanilla oak. It has fresh acid and lightly stalky astringent tannins but pleasing balance and line. Finishes with sweet red fruit and bitter herb flavours. A bit outside the mainstream for Australian merlot but I quite like it.

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