We’re different from most wine reviewers. We actually buy some of the wines we recommend, and we like to check that our reviews are on the money. Last weekend, we opened a bottle of Cape Mentelle Trinders Cabernet Merlot 2011 and were bowled over.
We’d given this a rave review last June: ‘It’s hard to imagine a richer, more perfumed, more velvety red in a medium-bodied format (13.5%), with depth and length and lots of interesting touches. There’s a bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot thrown in to make it more interesting.’
Other reviewers at the time said the wine was introverted, shy and quietly insistent. Because we tasted wines over several days, this shy red a chance to reveal its full range of charms. We bought a half dozen right away at $20 a bottle, Kemenys’ price at the time.
9 months later, the wine has opened up some more and could easily be mistaken for a good Pomerol. We don’t give many wines 95 points but we reckon this one deserves that score (Only Tyson Stelzer agrees). I jumped on the web right away to see if I could track down some more of the 2011. The 2012 has been in the shops for some months now (a much hotter year), but I found some 2011 at Boccacio Cellars in Melbourne for $22. That was the last of it there, but Winestar and Kemenys have some left for $23 and $23.50 respectively. If you like the Margaret River Pomerol style, I doubt you’ll find a better example anywhere near this price. This is the lucky country.
Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2012. Another wine we gave a rave review to last year, and an interesting one to come back to. The ripe limes that were so dominant then have faded a little, and now the fine acid backbone is more obvious. If this is true of other 2012 Rieslings, the wines will last much longer than we anticipated – the Jim Barry will last 10 years easily. 94+ points. BUY. Winestar still has some of this wine left for $15.
West Cape Howe Old School 2013 Chardonnay – $15 at McGuires. Delivers exactly what the label promises: good, old-fashioned Chardonnay. OK, it’s not the buttery, blousy, oaky style but it delivers nutty Chardy flavours in a medium bodied wrapper that’s round and satisfying. 92 points. BUY
Frogmore Creek Chardonnay 2011 – $26 at Shorty’s Liquor or Dan M’s online. Delicate but full of flavour and energy. Stone fruit, minerals and classy oak all come together seamlessly. Stunning wine but hard to get now.
Wynns The Siding Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2012. This wine got a 93+ rating from the Winefront, so we tried it and found a rich, smooth, cassis-laden, oak-polished Cabernet that suggests class far beyond its price. We served it to some friends over dinner (blind) and asked how much they thought it was likely to have cost us, and the answer was $25 – $30. Yes, it tastes like that. 93 points from us as well. BUY lots at $13 from Winesellersdirect. That price won’t last much longer.
The Wellbush Handpicked Shiraz 2009 sports one of the worst labels I’ve seen in a long time but hides one of the best Shiraz reds I’ve tasted in a while. Choc-full of exotic aromas and flavours, with a sprinkling of Bendigo mint and herbs. It’s rich and full but finely balanced (14%). 94 points. BUY. $19 at at Winedirect.
Zonte’s Footstep Violet Beauregard Malbec Langhorne Creek 2012 follows the tradition of fanciful names Zar and Elena Brooks established with their Dandelion label. This is another of their ventures, with Ben Riggs as winemaker, and they tell us that Zonte’s Footstep is named after a 19th century Zante currant vineyard. This wine surprises with its elegance and purity of flavour. Malbec is often a bit rustic but this one is a refined city slicker. Polished, slick and smart if not the most complex red we’ve tasted. Nice bistro/lunch red (13%). 91 points. BUY. $16 at Winedirect.
Tim Smith Mataro Grenache Shiraz 2012. When is a GSM not a GSM? When it’s an MGS. Handmade from some of the Barossa’s oldest vines. Just plain gorgeous, sumptuous, hard to put down glass of rich, velvety red full of sweet berries and spices. Gary Walsh uses the term lip-smacking, and he’s spot on, we think. 94 points. BUY. $22 at MyCellars.
Mudhouse Sauvignon Blanc 2013 – Great expectations are rarely the best starting point, but this wine topped Cuisine Magazine’s (NZ) Top 10 Sauvignon Blanc Tasting, beating 217 other entries. The wine also scored a Gold Medal at the International Wine Challenge (IWC). What we found was a technically perfect savvy that lacked varietal definition and attitude. The tangy gooseberry, cut grass and lantana characters we expect in a serious savvy have been replaced by ripe passionfruit and citrus flavours. It’s clean and well-behaved like a school prefect, and it’s boring. Looks like the judges out there have shifted their tasting goalposts to better reflect the public’s preference for fruity savvies. Aren’t the judges meant to be the custodians of style? 89 points. NOT CONVINCED. $14 at Winesellersdirect.
In November last year, Mud House sold its wine brands to Accolade – Mud House, Waipara Hills, Dusky Sounds, Haymaker and Skyleaf. Accolade was once known as BRL Hardies – More in this article Constellation and Accolade – Fancy Names for Barbarians
Bellarmine Dry Riesling 2012. We’re great fans of this boutique winery in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. This is a different style from SA Rieslings, much less fruit-driven and more textural. It’s a big Riesling at 13%, but not very outgoing right now. Rieslings often go through a transition at 2-3 years of age, from fresh and fruity to more mature characters like toast and butter. During that phase they can resemble awkward adolescents. That said, this will be a great food wine in a few years’ time. 90++ points. BUY if you have patience. $17 at Kemenys.
Paxton Wild Yeast Chardonnay 2011 – This is just a footnote since Winedirect sent this wine to us but now offers the 2012. 2011 was a tough year in South Australia but you wouldn’t know from this wine. Sure it’s restrained but it also offers a lot of complexity and a mealy complexity that is very attractive. It’s a classy style that keeps offering more nuances as you explore its depth and length. The 2012 is $35 at Winedirect.
Yealands Estate Single Block Pinot Gris 2012. This is not Pinot Grigio in the high acid, dry and unripe Italian style, and it is not the sumptuous, ripe and slightly sweet Alsace Pinot Gris style. That made it tough to match with food – I suspect veal might’ve been OK as long as it wasn’t too rich. The wine opened up a bit and grew on me but never really spoke to me. It also turns out to be impossible to find in Oz ( a friend gave it to us).
JJ Hahn Reginald Shiraz Cabernet 2010. Reginald Hahn was an early pioneer of the Barossa Valley, and the Hahn family is the oldest of the landowners in the region. These days, James Hahn tends to the vines and Rolf Binder makes the wine. The wine has instant appeal with loads of sweet red and black berries wrapped in a velvet glove. A touch of oak adds more polish to a wine that has so much going for it. 92 points. BUY. $16.50 at Winestreet.
Franklin Tate Estates Alexanders’s Vineyard Shiraz 2012. McWilliams bought Evans & Tate back in 2007, and this is Franklin Tate’s new venture. The red is a great example of a smart, modern Shiraz. The nose promises sweet fruit and the palate delivers ripe dark red berries and subtle herbs with a touch of vanilla oak, balanced on a long backbone of fine acid. The wine is medium-bodied and shows the kind of finesse that’s missing from many 2012 Margaret River reds. It’s a joy to drink now and it’s hard to wipe the smile off your face while you do. 94 Points. BUY. (Sample – to be released soon).
Hoddles Creek Chardonnay 2013. The 2013 is another great Chardy from Franco d’Anna, but needs time to open up. These wines stand out for their fine balance, complexity and seamless oak integration. ‘To paraphrase John Lennon,’ Campbell Mattinson wrote of the 2012, ‘Nobody told me there’d be wines like these – at this kind of price.’ He adds: ‘it’s wines like this that made me want to get into the wine game in the first place.’ Can’t add much to that. 93 points. BUY. $19 at Winesellersdirect
Teusner The Gentleman Cabernet Sauvignon 2012. Made from fruit off a vineyard in the Eden Valley high country, this wine packs big flavours of ripe dark berries, vanilla and and mocha and combines them with surprising elegance and length (14.5%). The underlying tensile strength suggests that this red will improve for a number of years. 92+ points. BUY. $18 at MyCellars
Kilikanoon Killerman’s Run Shiraz 2012. The Bhagwan of Wine Robert Parker describes Kilikanoon as ‘one of the most brilliantly run wineries in Australia … thanks to the enviable talents of winemaker Kevin Mitchell.’ Big wine choc full of berries, plums and liquorice and vanilla oak. It’s rich, almost opulent, but there’s a clean line of acid running through the wine. I’m not fond of big Shiraz reds as they lose the finer points of the variety at 14.5%, such as the bright fruit, pepper and spices. 90 points. BUY if you like ‘em big. $16 at Kemenys.
I don’t really know what to say about the next group of wines. The best things about the Plantagenet Omrah range are the new labels. The wines behind them are pretty ordinary fare for wines that will set you back $15 – $16 on the discount street (RRP $20). I’d rate these two at 85 or thereabouts – just not in the frame. A Plantagenet Hazard Hill Shiraz 2011, a cheaper label again at RRP $15, proved pretty much undrinkable. A check on ownership revealed that Plantagenet Wines was acquired in 1999 by Lionel Samson & Son, a W.A. company with diverse interests. I think they need to have a long, hard look at the wines they’re making.
The Neve Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2013 from ALDI isn’t really a wine we can recommend either, even at the $7 asking price.
Kim
