The Home of Renowned Tasting

Rochford, not to be confused with Rockford, although there’s only a K in it. Actually, driving by car and using tolls it’s 777.5K from Macedon to Krondorf Road, Tanunda - about 8hr 50min travel time.

Lively and intense with lime, nectarine, a hint of pineapple, a light funky/savoury/yeasty/almond meal creaminess (or something like that) and gentle spicy oak. On the palate juicy and tight with explosive citrus, pear and complementary oatmeal and yeast flavours. It’s mouthwateringly fresh and crisp but also has a light creaminess offsetting the bright acidity. Long passionfruity finish. It’s a highly enjoyable and very tasty wine.

5 Responses »

Macedon region provides some great wine and this is a fine example. It has a lovely dark red colour and a nose that starts off a little disconcerting but after 20 minutes or so settles down. Initially it has dried herb aromas with licorice and quite a bit of Maraschino cherry. The licorice breathed out leaving pure cherry with a hint of raisin. The palate experienced the same level of change as the nose. It ends up being long with a lovely intense, pure red cherry. It is a complex wine that deserves time and maybe some revisits over a 24 hour period. I had it alongside a range of great Pinots, all were served blind and it provided a great deal of interest as it revealed its self compared to some of the others that were immediately drinkable and showy.

Other vintages : 2005, 2004, 2003

4 Responses »

Righto then, time for a bit of content. I tasted this on the old Enomatic at North Sydney Cellars and liked it enough to purchase a bottle for further investigation. It is a dangerous machine that one….

At this juvenille stage of its life it smells much like a banana split topped with whipped cream and custard but peeking underneath you can see more adult flavours of peach, lemon, oatmeal and a little spice from oak. On the medium bodied palate plenty of flavour with green banana, whipped cream, peach, mineral and more savoury yeasty flavours. It has beautiful refreshing bell clear acidity threaded through a rich creamy texture and drinks well from start to finish. Excellent wine with a bright future.

2 Responses »

I had this the other night. I had originally planned to have a bottle of Laurent Roumier Chambolle-Musigny, but it was oxidised, horribly so. So this wine, as under-study, got the gig.

A beautifully perfumed nose, red cherries, glacé cherries, crushed rocks, a bit of cream, and a bit of salt too. The wine is surprisingly viscous in the mouth, sticky red fruits and lots of of sap, finishing with dry red minerals, almost as if it were going rusty. Still a very young wine, and perhaps a bit unidimensional and lacking some oomph through the mid-palate at the moment, so leave it a couple of years before trying again. This aside, it is a quality Pinot.

Comments Off

A nice red, clear and clean. A swimming pool full of this wine would look irresistable. Quite a fruity nose, red cherries and raspberries, a touch of rhubarb and some minerality, almost tinny. The palate is not overly fruity but it still displays a richness of fruit: red cherries and raspberries again, a little jubey and a bit stalky, tight and precise, all culminating in a dry and slightly sappy finish. I had this six months ago and didn’t particularly like it, but it is certainly showing nicely now, and I reckon another six or twelve wouldn’t do it any harm. One of the Australia’s top Pinot producers. I would buy it if it weren’t packaged in a ridiculously large bottle.

Other vintages: 2004, 2004

5 Responses »

Wendy and I took a week off to visit friends near Echuca and Mildura. We decided to cut across the Granite Hills areas in the Macedon Ranges on the way. I had never heard of this vineyard prior to seeing a sign on the road that lead to a rather cute tasting room. They had good wines at reasonable prices. Wendy chose this and I chose the Riesling. The owners make this wine on site. It was a cool climate medium weight shiraz. The nose had a little pepper, a little rose and a bit of strawberry/cherry style fruit. The palate has a lovely texture and the red berry fruit is well matched with a soft cinamon dose of oak. A soft style that builds on the palate. I see it as a shorter term wine but one of great value.

Comments Off

The 2005 of this wine is widely reported to be even better than the 2004 so I popped down to the shops and bought one. Apparently these wines are highly temperamental and you can get all sorts of variation from bottle to bottle depending on the phase of the moon passing uranus or something. I am but a simple cabernet man at heart so these things are often beyond my comprehension.

Aromas of red fruit, sap, white pepper and mulchy forest floor (with a few pine needles). On the palate medium bodied with red fruit, mulchy forest floor, sap, spice and a little mineral. The fruit flavours look a little stewed. Rhubarby perhaps. A bit blurry anyway. Fine fresh acid and lovely fine ripe tannins. Good length of flavour. A very nice wine but not one to my tastes. Not a flicker of a thought of buying any for the cellar - at least based on this bottle anyway.

25 Responses »

I am a bit slow to get on the Epis bandwagon. I can’t remember tasting an Epis wine so I popped down to North Sydney Cellars working on the high probabilty that they would have one in stock. It’s only a short walk and it was a nice day anyway. Just for the record JP was a bigger fan of this wine than me. I will grab a bottle of the 2005 to review shortly as it’s apparently even better.

Aromas of raspberry, fresh strawberry, red cherry (very red fruited), tomato, forest and some cinnamon and vanilla oak. On the palate light to medium bodied with clear red fruit, spice, tomato and foresty flavours. It is lively and very bright - the acidity a little citrussy and prominent though. A delicate wine but does have fruit power. Fine tannins. Very impressive length of flavour. A classy wine, and one I admire greatly, although it’s not entirely to my personal taste.

10 Responses »

A tiny label from a doctor/university academic based in a very warm part of the Macedon ranges. He has a drop dead scrumptious Tempranillo in barrel that I will keep an eye out for. He has a huge collection of old Hunter wines and loves Cabernet. Amazing that we could understand each other. This is actually 90% Malbec and 10% Cab but the cab is not obvious. It has aromas of cassis and red berries plus a little green pepper. The palate has good weight and the flavours are dry reddish showing mid palate malbec raspberry with a hint of green pepper. Well made and better with red meat I reckon. A variety not seen on its own all that often but it’s more interesting than many Merlots I have tried.

Comments Off

In a bracket of 2002 Pinots from all over the world this wine stood out. It caused quite a deal of discussion, some seeing too much sweet and sour ie herbal/ripe characters and some liking the weight of fruit. It is indeed an honest reflection of the vintage of 2002 in Southern Victoria. My notes describe it as having jammy fruit with cherry bomb flavours accompanying a bit of sour blueberry flavours and a grippy acid finish. A great wine to start an argument.

Comments Off

A rounded and sweet nose: cranberries and candied cherries, five spice and cinnamon, a touch of brown sugar and stalk. The palate is full and ripe, with red cherries and almost red plums, succulent and delicious fruits, and lovely tannins. There is good depth of fruit, with glacé cherries on the finish. An excellent wine and offers great value. Now apparently the 05 Bindis are even better again, so keep your eyes peeled.

4 Responses »

We had the standard release of this wine a few weeks back so it was time to give this a run. Darker colour and bigger/richer nose. It seemed to have dark fruits with a big dose of spicey oak. Caused quite a degree of disagreement amonst us. There is no doubt that it is a big wine with lovely fruit. It does have time to go, develop and maybe even soften. In a taste off I prefer the elegance and lightness of the standard release. Don’t get me wrong, I am not bagging the wine, merely making a point re style. This leads to the problem of points. The description is more useful than a number.

Comments Off

A lovely example of a Pinot Noir that has aged well. Good but not great. The vintage was warm and generally the Pinots from 2001 looked lighter. This opened with restraint, showing spices like cinamon and dark cherry flavours. The palate has nice texture and a little raspberry as well as the black cherry. A spicey edge on the finish that I suspect is from the oak. It may last beyond my forecast if cellared well.

8 Responses »

This wine was the surprise packet in a brace of Rieslings that we had. The list include great cool climate wines from Victoria, plus Clare Valley and Alsace.
Cool climate is a tricky thing to define. But the wines were set up to come from a heat summation (ie warmth in daylight hours over ripening period) of 1231 from Henty to 1251 in the Clare. A key factor that we looked at was continental Vs Moderate cool climate eg Clare vs Mornington. The Riddells Creek is definitely cool. The fruit was intense apple blossom with an apricot edge. Very long and a great style. I prefer this to the Clare style Riesling.

3 Responses »

Lincoln reviewed this wine not so long ago and reading between the lines of his excellent tasting note I knew that this was a wine I would dig so I went out and bought one.

Slightly murky crimson red colour. Perfumed aromas of red fruit, rose, decaying leaves and lemon/vanilla oak. On the palate spicy sappy red fruit with those delightful composty flavours that I love in a good Pinot. A touch of oak that reminds me (for some reason) of lemon meringue pie. Round and ripe though with excellent texture. Clean savoury finish. Puts me in mind of some of the better 2000 Burgundies. Perhaps it is that combination of ripeness and texture that does it. What a great drink this is. A Pinot drinkers Pinot.

No Responses »

Red cherries and red currants and a certain rosy sweetness; quite an engaging nose. The palate follows true with some musky red fruits. There’s some sappiness there too, and though it is lighter bodied the balance is very good and there’s no bad extracted characters. All in all quite an impressive and elegant wine. The Composition Pinot was similarly promising, and I look forward to trying the Block 5 as soon as possible.

5 Responses »