Trophies you can’t Fathom and Wines you can’t Buy

The first thing you notice when you check the winners in this year’s comp is that they’re mostly from Saltram (Treasury Wine Estates) and a couple from Jacobs Creek (Pernod Ricard). Wine companies don’t come much bigger than these two.

The second thing you notice is that you can’t buy the trophy winning wines, with one exception. Why do they do this? What is the point of running a comp like this to find our best Cabernet Shiraz blends and coming up with wines that aren’t released? It’s only going to frustrate consumers and reviewers like me.

Wines Made to a Formula

I suspect the Saltram winemakers took a leaf out of Wolfie’s book, worked out the style the judges liked and shaped their wines accordingly. I liked the 2012 Shiraz, which you could buy for just $17 at the time. More recent vintages have been less elegant, some reaching 15% alcohol. They introduced the Shiraz Cabernet in 2013 from memory, and the price is a tick over $20. Then came a certified Pepperjack Shiraz Cabernet at a price a tick below $30.

I’m not sure what the wine is certified for, but these are rich and robust reds with plush fruit and creamy oak, obviously designed to please crowds of big red lovers. Wine show judges fall for these styles as well, that hasn’t changed since the days when Wolf Blass won 3 Jimmy Watson trophies in a row.

Jacob’s Creek took out the trophy for Best Wine over $60 and that for Best Cabernet-Dominant Blend, both for its Expedition Barossa Valley Cabernet Shiraz 2015. The wine is not released yet.

Trophies by the Truckload

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Subscribers have asked me how I taste wines.

The process is pretty straightforward:

1. I open half a dozen bottles of wine at a time
2. I pour some of each wine into a tasting glass
3. I taste the whites before they go in the fridge, and after
4. I leave the sample wines in the glass for 4 – 5 hours, tasting occasionally (and spitting)
5. I drink some of the better wines in the group with dinner
6. I repeat the exercise the next evening, and the one after that. I might keep a wine on the bench for another night or two if I’m not sure.

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How and Why do Varieties impact on the Price of Wine?

I’ve written about the unpopularity of Aussie Rieslings, and how that has kept the price of Rieslings so modest. Our top-rated Riesling is most likely Jeffrey Grosset’s Polish Hill, which sells for about $50.

By contrast, our top-rated reds sell for close to $1000 a bottle. A list of 2 dozen of our most expensive wines only shows red wines and ports. Why? Because the cheapest red on this list costs more than the most expensive white we make down under.

How Come?

Good question. Our most expensive whites are made from Chardonnay, which is no cheaper to produce than Cabernet or Shiraz. Same goes for making the wine with extended lees contact & stirring plus aging in quality new oak. Like our best reds, our best Chardonnays are held back for a few years at the winery. There’s little difference in the cost of production, so why do our best chardies top out at $100? It’s not like that in France where Montrachet is up there with La Tache.

Image Source: Decanter

How the Chardonnay Stars Line Up

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The Latest Wave: Monkeys Judging at Wine Shows   

Huon Hooke wrote a post a few weeks ago headed Wine show rivers of gold, in which he deplored the fact that mediocre wines wines win trophies and gold medals at wine shows. Huon is a wine judge of long standing and has chaired many wine shows across Australia.

He asks how wines like Jacob’s Creek Classic Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 won a gold medal and a trophy at the Langhorne Creek Wine Show, and says: ‘I don’t question the awards on the grounds that they are cheap wines, and cheap wines should know their place. I question the awards because of the way they taste. They’re no more than bronze-medal wines, in my opinion.’

My review of the same wine mentions the trophy and adds: ‘Any trophy is ridiculous for what is a cheap commercial wine of no great pretensions. It’s drinkable, it has no rough edges, it vaguely tastes like Cabernet. 86 points.’

Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au

It’s a numbers game

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As long as I can remember, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Pinot Noir. In the eighties, I spent a small fortune on Burgundies – which are made from Pinot Noir – that more often than not caused consternation rather than elation. I was learning, reading the rave reviews from mostly English wine writers, and buying their recommendations to train my palate. I went to tastings as well.

Burgundy was expensive even then, made more so by the discovery that 2 out of three Burgundies I bought were duds. To make sure of getting one good Burgundy, you have buy 3, and that’s still true today. As Aussie and NZ Pinots came of age, I switched to these wines but found that the same rules applied: two out of three Pinots were depressing. The upside was that they didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Are We There Yet? 

This week, I joined a Gourmet Traveller Wine tasting of Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noirs from the great vintage 2015, set up by my old friend Peter Bourne at Mojo in Waterloo. I stopped scoring the wines halfway through the tasting because my scores pretty much agreed with those of the GTW panel. That’s a pretty rare event, but I wasn’t here to pick great deals for BWU$20 since the top wines were between $60 and $100 (The $35 Baillieu and the $40 Myrtaceae are unprocurable).

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Subscriber John S. sends me reviews from time to time, mostly of imported wines or wines made from exotic varieties. I appreciate his contributions and like his plain, succinct way with words, so I thought I’d share some of his observations with you.

First Foot Forward PN 2015 – $20 at Cloudwine. Bought a six pack. Good value for $20. Odd stalky texture. Mattinson’s implication that it would pass for a $50 job is nonsense. Probably he means $50 jobs are just overpriced $20 jobs. Or maybe he has caught Halliday’s virus: lie, divide by two, add the square root of 625 and lie again.

Others:

Wairarapa Pinot Noir 2015 ex Kemenys. Astonishing value [$14]. Enjoying it. (Kemenys still have some of this bargain Pinot).

Devil’s Ridge Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend 2016 – $9 at Kemenys. Best value white I’ve had for years. Better than smelly jobs at twice the price. Very pristine.

Corker’s Crossing Shiraz 2014. (I think we mean Chalkers). Bought a six pack. Every time I open a fresh bottle I don’t like it. Better on the third day. Jesus wine (on the cross, he refused the first cup but drank the second?).

Yeah, ok. Also tried your Woodlands Chardonnay, your wedding wine. Hard to come by, like weddings these days. Everyone shacks up instead. Good wine of course but I had a French Chardonnay from Cloudwine a few years back that was better for the price. By that criterion I would have married a French woman from Languedoc. As it is I married a Suisse-Romande from Auvernier which does a nice PN Rose.

Dalla Mia Finestra 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Yarra Valley – Muted nose, no obvious expression of the variety. Palate was acidic, lean, mean and steely. I’ve had cheap Cabernet from Entre-Deux-Mer, Languedoc and Chile that was superior to this. Gary Welch walshed on his duty to be objective and announced that this folly reminds him of Cabernet Franc. Well, he should be dunked head First in a vat of Airlie Bank Cabernet Franc fruit bomb to teach him what that variety tastes like. We hoisted the bottle after two glasses. That’s $23.00 wasted.

Finished off the Boccaluppo Sangiovese 2015 – $22 at Cloudwine. Leather notes coming to the fore. Palate more complex than I thought. This is good wine. You should try a bottle. I liked the 2014 a lot and still have some. The 2015 is medium red with cherry, hints of maraschino flavours. The nose was mute on opening but could open up later. It’s a lovely medium to light very clean wine that’s a pleasure to drink. You can drink it now as a slightly simple fruit bomb or let it age. Only $22.00 from Cloudwine, a fair price to pay.

Moppity Reserve Tempranillo 2014 $20 at Cloudwine.

Dense red colour, muted nose, soft, plummy, rounded palate with neatly judged tannins and acidity. Rather moreish. Better on the second day when fruit qualities start to emerge. Quite good wine but not as interesting as the Spanish jobs. Won a couple of trophies. I don’t own judges’ stilts so I say a silver medal to the winemaker for being a very good boy.

La Prova Rosso 2014 from A Different Drop. A delectable blend of Lagrein, Sangiovese and Nero D’Avola. Ridiculous value at only $20. They’re selling the 2015 now, still for $20.

Hot weather is bad for shipping wine. Different Drop thoughtfully had my carton shipped overnight by Fastway to beat the coming heat wave. That’s good customer relations. The carrier to avoid is Australia Post. They take a week and think nothing of putting the carton over the engine under the floor of the van. I received wine from them at 35 degrees, hotter than the ambient temperature on the patio. Delicate PN Rose in the carton suffered.

via Kim

3 Easy Ways to Strengthen Your Heart and Add Years to Your Life

Let’s start with the first Good News: Alcohol is Good for the Heart

Dr Malcolm Kendrick is a Scottish physician who has written extensively about heart disease and its causes. In a recent post, he summed up the results of a recent British Medical Journal study this way:

Increased risk of fatal CVD vs. moderate drinking

• Non-drinker = 1.32 (32% increased risk)
• Former drinker = 1.44 (44% increased risk)

Increased risk of all-cause mortality vs. moderate drinking

• Non-drinker = 1.24 (24% increased risk)
• Former drinker = 1.38 (38% increased risk)

Kendrick’s conclusion? ‘I recommended that, from a cardiovascular health point of view, those who do not drink alcohol should start.’

More Good News: Walking Beats Drugs by a Mile

Just put this question into your browser: ‘regular exercise adds 3-5 years to your life’, and you’ll find lots of good news stories in the media. This one is from the National Cancer Institute in the USA: ‘NIH study finds leisure-time physical activity extends life expectancy as much as 4.5 years.’

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They’re Common in Fancy Restaurants, usually on special occasions

‘The canapé we are instructed to eat first is a transparent ball on a spoon,’ Jay Rayner writes in a Guardian restaurant review. ’It looks like a Barbie-sized silicone breast implant, and is a “spherification”, a gel globe using a technique perfected by Ferran Adriàat El Bulli about 20 years ago. This one pops in our mouth to release stale air with a tinge of ginger. My companion winces. “It’s like eating a condom that’s been left lying about in a dusty greengrocer’s,” she says.’

The restaurant? Le Cinq, Paris. The bill? About $1000 for two.

The scene of the crime: Le Cinq at George V Hotel. Photograph: Grégoire Gardette

You’ve done it: booked a big name restaurant for a special occasion, a wedding anniversary or a special birthday or a night out with old friends from overseas. Your expectations are high, you’re in great spirits, you want this to be special and you’re willing to pay for the privilege.

You get there and find that your table is near the front door and catches the cold autumn draft every time someone enters or leaves. Your waiter hands out menus the size of phone books, and you’ve never heard of a single wine on the long list the sommelier hands you. Your first choice of wine raises a resigned eyebrow. You’re the host, and the others expect you to navigate these dangerous waters with competence. You’re terrified.

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I’ve written about this subject before, several times

• Super-Premiums, Wine Wankers and the joy of $20 wines
• Wine Poetry, Aroma Wheels & Perfect Scores
• Aroma Wheels and Wine Poetry – Part 2

Today I received a mailer from a friend who is on the Burge Family mailing list, and it’s from Rick Burge, and it’s funny and sad, and really engaging, so I thought I’d share it with you. Btw, the wine in question is just $10 a bottle  . Here’s from Rick:

Dear Wine-lover,

Every so often a wine comes along that can be best described as a ‘conversation-stopper’ – a wine to stop even the most ardent wine-wanker in his/her tracks. We believe this to be one of those wines!

It all started late last century – 1998 to be precise – when we released the first of two wines labelled simply ‘A Nice Red.’

It was a quality red to take the mickey out of pretentious wine commentary of the period. We released another ‘Nice Red’ from the 2000 vintage, which even rated a favourable mention from James Halliday.

Fast forward to 2010, when we decided to reprise the label to counteract the increased wine-wankery that had become ubiquitous on wine labels and in media releases in those years. We decided to pull out all stops, on both front and back labels, to highlight the hyperbole and specious wine terminology that was creeping into everyday use. So we decided to create a super-ultra-mega-uber red vintaged from equal quantities of Shiraz, Syrah and Shyrazz (a Rutherglen synonym for this variety!)  I felt we had to make a statement on the front label initially so we used every cliched brand-name and coupled with them an imaginary sub-district – Mangalanga – from the West Warpoo region in the Southern Barossa. (Warpoo, by the way, is a legitimate site, albeit a railway siding about 3kms west of Lyndoch!) The wine itself was a 2010 Shiraz, bottled (after maturation in French oak barriques) and labelled in late 2012, and to be launched soon after. We were on a roll ….. what could go wrong?

Then, in mid 2013, I was diagnosed with cancer.

You don’t lose your sense of humour with a cancer diagnosis, however it does take a hammering and changes somewhat … tending towards dark, even black humour, but you need someone in the same boat to share it with!

Previously, this project seemed so funny, hilarious even. Now I had other things to focus on.

My main priority was to see the 2012 wines safely bottled. Very good wines from a fabulous year, right across the range. During this time surgery occurred, to be followed by 40 days straight of radiation therapy. Some were bottled before, some after, but I got them bottled;  all have received most favourable reviews.

Nearly four years on, I’m still here … and so is this wine!

I want to sell it, all of it, and I promise I won’t take the mickey out of wine-wankers ever again!

It’s now five years in bottle and shows complexity and varietal development, all three clones of it, and guaranteed to be a conversation stopper at any barbecue, dinner party or other vinous social functions where there’s a risk of gratuitous wine-wankery.

For a limited time we’re offering reduced freight rates (see order form attached) and as usual, reduced prices on multiple dozen purchases.

And whereas we donated $4000 to the Southern Barossa Men’s Shed, I’ve made a promise to myself to put aside some funds from this sale to take my special mate Bronnie (over 40 years of putting up with me), to her favourite seaside spot after vintage, because partners certainly put up with a lot with this insidious medical challenge.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Cheers,
Rick B.