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I don’t much like Viognier, but if I do drink it then I want it to taste like Viognier….and not some washed out, high acid, flavourless variant. So here we have a wine that is fully varietal, modestly priced and gasp…it’s from the Hunter Valley.

Brash and obvious with juicy stonefruit, tropical fruits, quince, vanilla and roasted nuts. On the palate medium to full bodied with good rich flavours of slightly candied stone and tropical fruit, spice and supporting vanilla oak. It has a lightly slippery glycerol mouthfeel with balanced acidity and a dry spicy finish of good length. Good wine. Smart price.

Other vintages : 2006

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This wine is sold through the Boutique Wine Centre in Broke Road. A pleasant perfume, with fresh apricots, orange sherbet and preserved lemons; there is nothing sticky or cloying, and the apricot characteristics are restrained and not overwhelming as can often be the case. The palate shows a joyful balance of lovely fruits, sweet and juicy, apricots, lemons and oranges, with a hint of musk and sour fruits on a dry finish. Good stuff!

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Fairly shortly I will be doing a vertical of Tahbilk Marsanne from 1999 through 2006 but in the interim here is another Rhone white.

Aromas of pineapple, apricot, lemon, musk and spice with some slightly gluey oak influence. Very nice to smell and a bit funky too but nothing over the top. On the palate full bodied with apricot, lemon and fresh pineapple, musk sticks, spice and some more savoury earthy flavours. Lightly oily but really quite fresh with a light phenolic grip and good acid balance. The alcohol intrudes with a bit of a mouthwashy sting and the finish is dry with lemon and spice to close. Love the flavours but the alcohol takes the edge off an otherwise good wine.

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Quite lifted and floral, white lily blossoms, apricots, honey and ginger spices. The palate showed lemon, apricots and a bit of spice, and finished dryly, but where the wine excelled for me was the mouthfeel; it was just a little oily and a little acidic, ripe, flavoursome and fresh without being sticky or cloying. A classy and balanced wine that displayed no heat despite the 14.5% abv.

Other vintages: 2006

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I am not sure what OMK stands for: suggestions are welcome. I couldn’t find it out on the web, though I do now know heaps about Operation Military Kids and the Outtrim Moyarra Kongwak (OMK) Cricket Club.

A pale yellow in colour. Intense aromas of apricots and tropical fruits, oranges and spices and musk stick. The palate is textured, sweet oranges and apples, big fruited no doubts, lime and mandarins and orange sherbet. It is also a bit oxidative, with old orange rind and sour fruits on the finish. An interesting wine, though not particularly a style I would drink often.

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It says on the back label that “A very dry summer preceded hand packing on the 23rd of March”. Hand packed and hand picked. Meticulous. The fruit comes from the B&V and Shining Rock Vineyards in the Adelaide Hills. You may also have noticed that this (and the shiraz) now carries the Petaluma yellow label as opposed to the old white label. I think this means that they have both now made the ‘official’ Petaluma standard.

Aromas of apricot, lychee, candied ginger, white flowers and a little spicy oak. On the palate medium to full bodied with apricot, sweet red apple, tangerine, crystalised ginger and spice flavours. It has a slightly oily texture and lightly bitter grippy phenolics but retains a good level of freshness. Alcohol adds weight but no real heat. Finishes long with very spicy ginger, tangerine and lychee flavours. I don’t much like Viognier but I do like this one.

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There are only 37 cases of this made which is a shame because Australia could do with more good quality Viognier like this.

Aromas of honeydew melon, peach, white flowers, spice and a little creamed honey. Subtle and restrained rather than flamboyant. On the palate light to medium bodied with a mix of peach, citrus, pear and fresh pineapple. Like having a fresh crisp breakfast juice in a garden full of white flowers. Nice and dry with clean acidity and a slightly flinty texture. Fine balance throughout. Finishes long and clean. A lovely stylish wine.

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Viognier is usually a fairly expensive wine in which to partake but here again De Bortoli are rising to the challenge and knocking one out for under $15..

Aromas of green pear, mandarin, green herbs, flowers and struck match. On the palate crisp and fresh with bright crunchy green pear, apple, apricot and green herb flavours. A little spicy with slightly edgy acidity and a spicy hard green pear flavoured aftertaste. A good value food friendly wine.

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Barrel fermented and matured. A pale yellow. Quite perfumed and lifted, dried apricots, lemon, honeysuckle, a touch of musk, all without being sloying or sickly as some Viognier can appear. The palate is on the leaner side, apricots and lemons again, unripe pears, nuts, oranges and a certain chalkiness. There is some sweetness on the finish, but not too much; this wine still goes to the gym. And it maintains some freshness and brightness. Excellent with some spicy Thai food.

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This comes off five year old vines and sees 40% new French oak.

Aromas of peach, fresh pineapple, lychee, honeysuckle, fine spicy oak and some earthy overtones. It smells lively rather than sickly. On the palate full bodied with stonefruit, mandarin, florals and light spicy vanilla oak. A big wine but very clean and direct with some warmth and a light glycerol texture. Very long but slightly warm finish. Really good wine with heaps of personality.

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I like viogner much better as a single varietal than blended in with shiraz and today I opened up a few because some days can hardly get any worse than they already are…just joking!

Aromas of apricot, candied ginger, flowers, dried herbs, flint and wild funky smells. On the palate mid weight with stone fruit, herbs, spice and ginger flavours. There are some dirty earthy flavours too that add complexity. Quite sprightly acidity with good texture and no oilyness. Finishes spicy and herbal with good length. A fine example of a leaner more racy style of viognier.

Other vintages reviewed : 2005

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Renaissance is the new top end big pants range (they call it Iconic in the press release but I prefer my own definition) from Rutherglen Estates. It includes a Petit Sirah (Durif), Zinfandel and this white Rhone blend of Viognier (45%), Roussane (35%) and Marsanne (20%). It’s pretty tricky to get this sort of blend right as they tend to be too heavy or too edgy or whatnot. Hard to get the balance right anyway.

Aromas of apple, lemon, apricot kernel, candle wax, creamed honey and spicy oak. It’s a bit smoky and floral too. Layered and complex. On the palate full bodied with apple, lemon, white peach, spice, some light honey flavours and savoury smoky barrel ferment characters. Good weight and texture, crunchy acidity and fine balance through the length of the palate. Finishes with spicy lemon flavours. It’s different and interesting and as Borat would say “Is very nice!”

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This is 70% King Valley viognier and 30% Central Victorian marsanne. I like this a great deal more than the companion red.

Aromas of peach, apple, apricot kernel, white flowers, spice and flint. Fragrant and fresh. On the palate full bodied with apple, peach, flowers, spice and some attractive earthy flavours. Good mouthfeel. Dry with lightly grippy texture and a little warmth. Long dry spiced apple finish. A really good and very interesting wine.

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I perhaps don’t drink enough straight viognier and probably far too much mixed in with shiraz…

Aromas of green banana, stonefruit, spice and vanilla cream. On the palate medium to full bodied with green banana, stonefruit and grapefruit flavours nicely supported by spicy French oak. It is quite fresh, slightly viscous, but not at all claggy like so many of this variety. A slight hardness eases back when the wine warms to cellar temperature and the finish is good and long with a spicy aftertaste. It’s a classy job with good fruit and attractive oak treatment.

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This is the first straight Viognier from 3 year old vines in the Martin Block at Ravensworth. A seductive nose, with orange sherbet, citrus blossoms, apricots, mandarins and a hint of pineapple juice. The palate is full of lovely fruits, textured, lemons and apricots, musky and a bit edgey, finely structured, and though the opulent nose gives the impression of sweetness, it is a dry wine. The finish shows some taut green fruits and a hint of dried herbs. Great length and full of interest - a promising debut.

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A juicy nose, with apricots at the fore, ably supported by grapey aromas, sweet lemon sherbet, honeysuckle and a squeeze of oranges. The palate is full of luving, with sweet melony fruit, lychees, candied lemons and tropical fruits. I think I can see myself lounging by a resort pool under an umbrella slurping a glass of this. Perhaps 2 or 3 in fact. The wine also possesses a certain softness, full and rounded and really quite endearing. Drink now.

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The fruit for this wine was sourced from the Merindoc Vineyard at Tooborac, in the south of the Heathcote region. The Merindoc Vineyard is planted on gravelly, low fertility ironstone soils. The 2006 vintage in Heathcote was one of the warmest on record, dry and low yielding resulting in small harvests of intensely flavoured grapes.

Strongly aromatic, with apricots and pineapple juice, matched by some citrus fruits like mandarins and lemons. The palate was fleshy and crunchy, reminiscent of pineapple flesh, viscous and drying and also a little bit savoury. There is some sourness through the mid-palate, and with my critical cap on also a bit of hardness on the finish. Another very good food wine.

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Strangely sealed under cork; it is amazing how quickly I have become accustomed to finding white wines under screwcap. This wine is made by Peter Wilson, ex-winemaker at Yarra Yering and more recently an expert chocolate maker with Kennedy & Wilson. Served straight from the fridge it was quite mute and unresponsive, but on warming it showed half-ripe apricots and pineapple, with traces of herbs, lime, oranges, almond meal, butter and cream. It really was quite elusive and intriguing. The palate was punchy and textured, viscous, almost chewy, with restrained tropical fruits, stonefruits and lemon and excellent fruit concentration. A wine with a lot of finesse. By the way, I reckon cellar temperature would be a good temperature to serve this one at.

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My brother-in-law was feeling jaded with the whites he’d been having recently, so wanted to try something different, and he certainly got it with this wine. A change is as good as a holiday. It is a blend of 70% Viognier and 30% Marsanne, with one third of the blend being aged in new and used American oak. The nose was odd, and I struggled a bit trying to identify the aromas but as I edged sideways I did see pineapple and minerals, lemon pulp and some herbs – an odd combination. The palate showed savoury tropical fruits, a full and viscous mouthfeel, but not fat at all, and then a mineral finish. An interesting wine.

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Labelled as “Victoria”. Interestingly, the website says that “only grapes growing on selected, north facing, sheltered slopes have been used in LuLu-V”. My question is north-facing slopes where? In the age of terroir, I need to know. The wine itself has a big attention-grabbing nose: sweet florals, apricots, acacia blooms, intense tropicals, rockmelon, orange sherbet and lemons. The palate is flavoursome, with leaner tropical fruits, tangerines and some pith. It is not too sweet and pleasantly balanced, and this makes it very easy to drink. Drink over the short term.

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