What makes Cabernet noble is the fact that it produces distinctive Cabernet wine wherever it is grown. Isn’t that what a grape variety should do, I hear you ask. It should but few do. Riesling is another, and it’s also called noble. Pinot Noir certainly does not, nor does Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay. Some of the most expensive wines in the world are made from Cabernet, but down under is still the lucky country.
The high price of the Penfolds Icons poses the question: what else could you do with the money?
You won’t get your money back on Grange, not the current 93 point-rated release, or any other going back to 1971 – they’re all cheaper at auction than the current shelf price. There two better ways to invest $700.
Has Penfolds Grange priced itself out of the Market? That’s the heading of an email Tyson Stelzer sent out, on the occasion of Penfolds 2015 Collection Annual Release (October 15). It’s not the fault of Grange, of course, since no wine can determine its own price – Penfold’s owner TWE does that. Tyson’s next issue is this: ‘When Penfolds suddenly and brazenly jacked the price of Grange from $685 to $785 in 2013 in the wake of strong reviews for the 2008 vintage, the question on everyone’s lips was whether it would drop the price again in a weak vintage.’
‘At the end of the day, we’re selling poetry.’ Geoff Kruth, Master Sommelier
‘When the wine critic James Suckling described a [1989] Château Haut-Brion in the pages of Wine Spectator in 1992,’ Bianca Bosker writes in the New Yorker, ‘he needed just a single phrase to sum up the taste: “Big and meaty, with lots of fruit and full tannins, but featuring a sweetness and silkiness on the finish.”
When Suckling reviewed the same Haut-Brion again in 2009, he needed 7 sentences to describe the ‘perfumed aromas of subtle milk chocolate, cedar, and sweet tobacco.’ Bosker adds that ‘extravagant tasting notes have become de rigeur in the marketing world,’ and that they’ve lost their value as practical guides for consumers.
The Baroque Painter
I’ve seen the same trend over the years, and I’ve seen tasting notes evolve from useful descriptions of wines to baroque works of art that can resemble a Rubens Masterpiece.
Some reviewers clearly consult Dr Anne Noble’s aroma wheel to come up with all the aromas and flavours they do: Orange Blossom, Kaffir Lime leaf, cloves and sandalwood. And lots of oil paint.
The madness of the long distance wine reviewer
I’m sitting here at 9 in the morning, tasting Pinot Noir and vaguely recalling a wine writer long ago suggesting that this style goes well with eggs. I’m surprised to learn that he is right, but what am I doing drinking red wine with my breakfast eggs? Have I lost it? Have the rivers of wine I’ve tasted in recent years done in my head?
Look elsewhere for quality, consistency and value
No, I’m still agonising over the Pinot Noirs that deserve inclusion in our Top 10 segment for a mailer that is due out later today. Here are three that get 95 points and rave reviews from the GOM of Aussie wine (you’ll find his notes at the links), and I’m sitting asking WTF happened?
These Gourmet Traveller Tastings always throw up (no pun intended) interesting results, and ‘the expert judging panel’ is a bunch of serious wine dudes: Peter Bourne, Mike Bennie, Nick Bullied, Andrew Caillard MW, Huon Hooke, Peter Forrestal, and Toni Patterson MW. In other words, we can expect the scores to be more meaningful than usual.
Sadly, the 95 points scored by the Brands Laira 171 Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 immediately questions that assumption. I’ve no idea why judges and reviewers keep falling for these overworked, over-extracted, over-oaked concoctions. Like a General in a South American country, this wine has far more medals on its chest than genuine fortitude inside it. $70 at McWilliams.
‘Australia is the world’s second most prolific grower of Riesling grapes after Germany,’ Jancis Robinson tells us and adds: The climate is quite warm enough to ripen every Riesling grape to the max and the challenge is to retain acidity, so virtually all Australian Riesling is bone dry. There is no need for any softening sweetness.’
Most German Rieslings don’t get enough sun to reach full ripeness, so they tend to soften the harsh acid with a touch of sweetness. Germany’s most sunny corner is the Pfalz in the south-west corner of the country just across the border from Alsace where all the names are German but the people speak French. Alsace gets enough sunshine to ripen its Rieslings, and most of them are dry.
The famous Mosel
HALLIDAY is the new name for the old Wine Companion magazine
Halliday Wine Companion 2016 (HWC) signalled the change in branding a few weeks ago. The 2015 edition was called James Halliday Australian Wine Companion. The magazine comes with the subtitle ‘Australia’s bestselling wine magazine,’ which surprised me until I recalled that the mag is part of various subscription options and special offers on the HWC website. I can’t imagine a lot of people paying $10 for a LITE wine magazine such as this. It’s a slim 80 pages and carries a lot of ads and sponsored content.
This October / November edition also contains an 8-page lift-out for the HWC 2016 awards, plus 6 pages of award winners and a separate booklet under the title ‘RED HOT & RATED – over 80 wines reviewed and rated by James Halliday.’ They’re all red wines and all of them scored ‘a whopping 96 points or more.’
Red Hot and Paid For?
With Winestate’s World’s Greatest Shiraz Challenge 2015 all done and dusted, this week’s topic suggested itself
The results of the challenge are a dog’s breakfast. The winner was the Bird in Hand M.A.C Shiraz 2010 – $350 at Dan M’s. This is the third time this wine has won this challenge, which Publisher of Winestate Peter Simic says is ‘against all odds’ and adds ‘a nice tick to the unbiased consistency of the Winestate judging criteria.’ The third best wine is another $350 touch: Gralyn Estate Margaret River Shiraz Cabernet 2001. More Here.
More interesting for those of us looking for great but affordable wines is that the M.A.C’s more modest sibling came second overall: Bird in Hand Shiraz 2013 – $33 at Dan M’s. The bad news is that it gets just 90 points from Gary Walsh at the Winefront, who has proven himself as the most reliable wine reviewer in Oz.
We sifted through an ocean of results looking for Best Buys, and summed up our notes in Winestate’s World’s Best Shiraz Challenge 2015.
The top wines are either hundreds of dollars, or not for sale
The results are a dog’s breakfast once again. The winner is the Bird in Hand M.A.C Shiraz 2010 – $350 at Dan M’s. This is the third time this wine has won this challenge, which Publisher of Winestate Peter Simic says is ‘against all odds’ and adds ‘a nice tick to the unbiased consistency of the Winestate judging criteria.’ The third best wine is another $350 touch: Gralyn Estate Margaret River Shiraz Cabernet 2001. More Here.
More interesting for those of us looking for great but affordable wines is that the M.A.C.’s more modestly priced sibling came second overall: Bird in Hand Shiraz 2013 – $33 at Dan M’s. The bad news is that it gets just 90 points from Gary Walsh at the Winefront, who has proven himself as the most reliable Oz wine reviewer for some time.
Gary says: ‘This is an attention grabbing wine, for sure. Sweet black fruit, pepper, Tia Maria, dill and spices. Full bodied, fleshy and ripe with loose knit grainy tannin, ample fruit of red and black colour, coffee oak and balanced acidity. Tannin chomps on the finish. Pretty bold, and maybe a little foursquare, but it does deliver a big hit of spicy rich Shiraz flavour. 14.5%. 90 points.
That the wine gets 95 points from James Halliday just proves a point I’ve made often enough. That the wine wowed the judges is no surprise either: A rich and spicy tour de force across the flavour spectrum still does the trick.
Where are the bargains this year?
We sifted through the results looking for Best Buys, but knew we were in trouble when we saw Koonunga Hill 2014 score 4 out of 5 stars. The Mr Riggs Truant 2013, the Shingleback Haycutters 2013 and the Reilly’s Shiraz 2013 we listed as a BB recently offer some relief in the dull under $20 section, but the Mr Riggs isn’t even listed on the website. This turns out to be a recurring challenge in this Winestate Challenge.
The Bellevue Estate 2013, perpetual winner of the Edinburgh Hotel challenge, the Shingleback Davey Estate Reserve 2013 and the Bremerton Selkirk Langhorne Creek 2013 are the highlights in the under $25 section. On the whole, it’s pretty ordinary fare here and entries from overseas are absent with the exception of the direct VC import Cassilero del Diablo Shiraz from Chile.
It gets only marginally more interesting as we go up the price ladder above $25 and $30: a highlight is the Xabregas Estate Mount Barker Shiraz 2012 which gets 5 stars and looks good at $22 by the dozen ex-winery. Handcrafted by Geoff Hardy McLaren Vale Shiraz 2013 also gets 5 stars but isn’t even listed on Geoff’s own website. The Fox Creek Short Row Shiraz 2013 also scores 5 points, and you can actually buy it for $27 at Nicks.
Doug Bowen’s Shiraz 2013 also scores 5 stars but the alcohol has got away from him again – it’s 15.5%. The wine gets 90 points from the Winefront. Hahn’s Catharina Barossa Shiraz 2013 is another wine you can’t buy even from the vineyard. You can buy the trophy-winning Oakdene William Geelong Shiraz 2013, on the other hand, for $35 from the vineyard. The $35 – $40 bracket winner 3 Oceans the Explorers Shiraz 2013 is also available ex-vineyard for $36.
The listing is the usual mess – heaven only knows why Peter Simic hasn’t improved the layout after all these years. A few Kiwi reds show up as we go up the price scale, but this time there’s no representation from France except for a lone $400 Hermitage La Chapelle 2007, which scores a pitiful 3 stars. The whole Challenge of 2015 is a pretty dull affair that begins with Koonunga Hill and ends with Grange. We can only hope that the Visy Great Aussie Shiraz Challenge coming up in October is a bit more exciting.
Kim