A really interesting bunch, with many of the samples coming from Kemenys.

Barwang Chardonnay 2012

I’ve never understood Barwang Chardonnays, and this one didn’t help. It’s a flat kind of wine, the fruit dull and lifeless, lean and charmless. Structure is fine and long but structure and acid ain’t enough to make a decent Chardonnay. JH gives it 91. Trophy and 2 golds. Bad bottle? We can only go on what’s in the glass in front of us. 84 points. Avoid. $14 at Kemenys

Ninth Island Pinot Grigio 2012

A real surprise, this wine. Why? Because it’s from Tasmania but is choc full of exotic tropical fruit. Big and rich, one for drinking sooner rather than later – with pork dishes. 92 points. BUY. $15 at Wineonline.

The Hoddles Creek Chardy 2010 is no longer on the shelves, but proves the quality of the label. Lovely soft style, ready to drink any time in the next year or two. More >>

Mixing it up a bit – $10 – $35 wines, tasted blind

Reg and I thought we’d throw a few wines together and ask the guys to guess what they were, where they came from and how much they cost – $10, 15 or $25+. The consensus at the end of the evening was that Kemenys’ Devil’s Ridge range offers great value on the whole, along with some of the Hidden Labels.

What I hadn’t realised is how many of these wines hailed from Margaret River, which suggests one of two things: one, there’s a surplus of grapes in the arera; two, the guys over there are smart enough to sell their declassified wine under a cleanskin label rather than try to flog it through the big retailers.

Hidden Label Central Ranges Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2011 – $8

This was a cheerful cheapie with an abrupt finish, not especially varietal but easy drinking for the money. The guys guessed about $10. I suspect it’s made by the guys at Rolling. More >>

These are mostly reviews of sample sent to us by Kemenys, which coincide with a new release of its Wine Dominion Catalog. As we flagged a couple of weeks ago, the cost of buying our own samples has become an issue since Clive Palmer is not one of our sponsors. However, we tasted these wines the same way as we always do: over several days, with and without food.

The Tim Adams Riesling 2012 has much less fruit than most Clare Rieslings from that vintage (it’s less ripe at 11.5%), finer and more elegant than most. Pristine flavours of lime juice and apples on a fine acid backbone. One for Riesling lovers. 94 points. BUY. $18.50

We looked forward to trying the Roaring Meg Sauvignon Blanc 2012 from Mount Difficulty in Central Otago, but it was underwhelming. Very simple wine with mostly tropical fruit flavours, nowhere near enough on offer here for the $20 price tag. 89 points. NOT CONVINCED. More >>

A few interesting wines tasted. The Greywacke SB 2012 is one of the finest examples, made by Kevin Judd of Cloudy Bay fame. Truly fine wine with great yet subtle varietal definition. Benchmark style.  94 points. $22 at Winestar.

The Best Great Western Chardonnay  2011 – another very well-made varietal, this one polished with classy French oak. Bit short on the finish but lovely drinking. 92 points. $22 at Winestar 

The Chockstone Chardonnay 2012 is another polished performer from the Grampians, made by the Richardson family. I found it very elegant but lacking in complexity. 90 points. $25 at winery. More >>

I wrote a piece a while ago arguing that a 10-point system was more than adequate to score wines 99% of the time. It went something like this: Check Halliday’s scores, or those of the Winefront or Huon Hooke or Tyson Stelzer, and you’ll rarely see wines that score less than 87 points or more than 96 points. Any wines outside that range are either pretty ordinary or bloody brilliant.

However, since the whole idea of this wine website is about keeping things simple, we’re going to follow suit and use roughly the same system. A quick refresher on what the scores mean:

·         95 – 100                Gold – Outstanding

·         91 – 94                   Silver – Good to very good

·         87 – 90                   Bronze – Decent

·         86 and under  – unexciting

In practice, scores much lower than 90 will not excite most consumers or wine writers. Huon Hooke is the exception, at times listing bargains of the week with points scores as low as 85.

How we select wines for tasting

Our normal process is to search the Winefront’s reviews, along with James Halliday’s, Huon Hooke’s and Tyson Stelzer’s, for wines that rate over 90 points and cost less than $25. That’s our sweet spot, so to speak. When we find a sub $25 wine rated at 96 points, we’ll jump on it. A recent example was Evans & Tate Metricup Road Cabernet Merlot 2011, which Winestar offered for $16. Too good to be true? Yes, Halliday gave it 96, but we rated it 4-5 points lower – still makes it worth considering but less of a bargain.

We rate the E & T Chardonnay 2011 under the same label at 93 so we have ourselves a bargain there at $16. Hoddles Creek Pinot Noir 2012 gets 92+ from the guys at Winefront, and sells for $19, which makes it another good deal. We rate it at 93. Mattinson, Walsh and Bennie are typically 2-3 points tougher than Halliday, and usually pretty close to our scores. They rate the 2011 Trinders at 93, we gave it 94. Good buy at $20 from Kemenys for a time. Same with the Fraser Gallop 2011 Chardy in the photo: 92 from Winefront, 93 from us, $18 at Wineonline.We look for more than perfect scores, of course. We look for wines that also express the character of their origins and varieties – we don’t want much for $20, do we? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, that’s the beauty of the wine business: you can find all these things when you look hard enough.

More reading on point scoring:

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/whos-counting-20120409-1wksb.html

http://www.nicks.com.au/index.aspx?link_id=76.1474

Some unusual wines this week, from all over this big country

BUY

Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2012 – $17 at Dan M’s

Peaches and apricot kernels and hints of ginger, all kept in good restraint. Touch of hardness on the finish, which is common in this variety. About the best Viognier made in Oz under $25.

Yalumba Organic Viognier 2012

Even more impressive, given its Riverland origins. Very similar to big brother above, Yalumba clearly has this variety sorted out. No idea where you can buy it but worth it if you come across it – should be about $12 – 14

Watershed Shades Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2012 – $14 at Dan’s

Fairly classic Margaret River SSB style with gooseberries, cut grass and some citrus, the Semillon holding everything on the straight and narrow nicely. Good value. Trophy and 2 golds.

Bird in Hand Two in the Bush Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2012 – $18 at Nicks

This is a well-made SSB from a top winery in the Adelaide Hills. Semillon is dominant (75/25), green apples and citrus flavours are tempered by some passionfruit from the SB. Good example of the style but a touch pricey.

More >>

This post is a mix of wines tasted in different settings, with many of the wines chosen by others. It’s good to mix things up a bit, in tastings and on the website. Let’s start with a line-up of Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillons at Andrew’s fine book club, 2002 – 2006.

Andrew wins these wines at golf tournaments, and generously shares them with his friends. For me, the take-away here was how unique this style is, and how consistent these wines are. Problem is that they take a long time to deliver the buttered toast and honey we love. The 2002 was showing the first signs, but even it needs another 5-8 years. Second problem is the price – about $60 these days. Most of us agreed we wouldn’t pay that much for these wines.

For something completely different, we checked out a range of Tempranillos, all served blind. I have to say that I’m not a big fan of this variety on its own, Spanish or Aussie. It’s best blended with some Shiraz, Garnacha and Mataro I suspect.

Taylors

A set of samples donated by a friend in the trade provided a chance to reassess prejudices: I’d given up on these well-priced wines from the Clare Valley some years ago, because the basic reds were fruit bombs, and the more expensive labels (Jaraman and St Andrews) had been worked too hard with extracted fruit and coconut American oak. More >>

First, an update on how we choose wines for review

As a rule, we choose the wines we review and buy the samples. We do this for several reasons:

1.       It avoids the vast quantities of wine samples other wine sites receive from all over Australia, and feel compelled to review.

2.       It lets us make sure that the wines we review are readily available at a street price of under $25

3.       It lets us choose the wines we feel are worth reviewing

We do a great deal of homework behind the scenes before we choose wines for review. We know from experience that many labels don’t produce wines worth reviewing, or wines that are good value, or wines that give genuine pleasure to the drinker. Of course we scan the major review sites to make sure we haven’t missed a significant change, such as a change of owner or winemaker. The review sites we pay the most attention to are:

James Halliday’s Wine Companion (print and online versions)

The Winefront – Messrs Mattinson, Bennie and Walsh

The Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine crew – Peter Bourne et al

We also check the reviews of Huon Hooke, Chris Shanahan, Nick Stock and Tony Jordan from time to time.

The bottom line is that the wines we review here have been carefully selected because they offer well above average quality at attractive prices. This week, a wine merchant friend has given us a big bunch of spare samples, so over the next few weeks we’ll be reviewing wines much the way others do: go through the samples we’ve been given and share our impressions.

This week, just for a change, we’re going to look at the best deals we saw in the last six months – the ones that are still out there somewhere.

Best of 2013 so far (with our point scores)

Devil’s Ridge Block 16 Polish Riesling 2012 – $10 at Kemenys. 93+ points. Made by the Wilsons at Polish Hill River. Absolute bargain

Pewsey Vale Riesling 2012 – $16 at Winestar. 95 points. The good news is that the 2013 looks just as good

Heggies Eden Valley Riesling 2012 – $15 at Dan M’s. Another great from the same stable (Yalumba)

Essenze Sauvignon Blanc 2012 – $12.50 at Kemenys. Better than the bulk Kiwis by a mile. Trophy and 2 golds.

Fraser Gallop Estate Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2012 – $18 at WineOnline. 94+ points. Gets 96 from JH, and it is a great example of this style the West does so well.

Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2012 – $17 at Dan M’s. Yalumba has been making Viognier longer than anyone in Australia and it shows.

Evans and Tate Metricup Road Chardonnay 2011 – $17 at Dan M’s. 94 points. The 2010 got the medals, but we prefer this wine. It goes to show that 2011 wasn’t just a great vintage for reds in Margaret River.

Fraser Gallop Chardonnay 2011 – $18 at WineOnline. Real finesses and deceptive elegance here. Hints of white peaches and a touch of citrus, creamy mouthfeel from well-judged oak, minerals on the long finish. So much class for less than $20 is hard to believe.

Hoddles Creek Chardonnay 2012 – $19 at MyCellars. 94+ points. More forward than the 2011 but shows all the same hallmarks of white stone fruit, cashews and seamless oak integration.

Hoddles Creek Chardonnay 2011 – $19 at Winestar. 95 points. Stunning Chardonnay, can’t believe that this is still around.

Frogmore Creek Chardonnay 2011 – $23 at MyCellars. 95 points from us, 96 from JH, 94 from Mattinson. Classy, elegant, polished.

Brookland Valley Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2011 – $11.50 at 1^st Choice. 92+ points. Enjoyable wine, outstanding value

Hidden Label McLaren Vale Merlot 2011 – $12 at Kemenys. This is Richard Hamilton’s Merlot under a plain wrapper. Serious Merlot at a bargain price.

MadFish Gold Turtle Cabernet Merlot 2011 – $14 at Dan M’s. 94 points. Classic Margaret River Cabernet Merlot from a top year. Has all the velvety richness and that slatey, dusty Margaret River Cabernet character in abundance. Ridiculous price.

Cape Mentelle Trinders Cabernet Merlot 2011 – $20 at Kemenys. 94+ points. Another example of the great 2011 vintage in Margaret River. Rich, ripe and velvety.

Brookland Valley Margaret River Shiraz 2011 – $11.50 at 1^st Choice. 92 points. What a cool change from the heavy Barossa and McLaren Vale Shiraz fare.

Crabtree Watervale Shiraz 2010 – $20 at MyCellars. 95 points. Terrific Shiraz with elegance, real class, layers of flavour and seamless oak integration. Handmade by Kerry Thompson (Wines by KT)

Langdorf Barossa Valley Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2010 – $10 at GLUG. 93 points. Has all the sweet fruit we look for in this style, without the heavy hand.

The Harem ‘Layla’ Barossa Valley Grenache Mataro Shiraz 2010 – $11 at GLUG. 94 points. Moves the goalposts. Can’t beat this for twice the money.

Hewitson Miss Harry GSM 2010 – $20 at Winestreet . 95 points. There is a lot going on here, and the wine is just a pup. Old vines and careful winemaking, punches way above it weight – just about gone though

Lake Breeze Shiraz Cabernet Bernoota 2009- $21 at 1st Choice. ‘An absolutely beautiful, full flavoured,mouth lingering, yearning for more type of wine,’ writes one of our subscribers. The wine won a trophy at the Great Aussie Red comp in 2011. 

Lake Breeze Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 – $20 at Winelistaustralia. Stunning Cabernet with layers of flavour wrapped in a tight package that will improve for years.

Lake Breeze Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 – $20 at Kemenys. 95 points. Very similar to the 2009, perhaps a touch more finesse. 95 from Huon Hooke, and we agree.

O’Leary Walker Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 – $20 at 1^st Choice Big but built well. Wonderful depth of dark berry fruit wrapped in a tight envelope of fine acid and tannins.

Bowen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 – $25 at WinesellersDirect . 96 points. Great Coonawarra Cabernet, on the big side but shows exemplary balance. Will get better too. Cork!

Lake Breeze Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 – $20 at WinesellersDirect . 95+ points. A Langhorne Creek red with layers of flavour and terrific energy, big but not heavy, built for the long haul. 

Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 – $28 at Winemakers Choice. Wonderful wine, came top of the GTW tasting against a lot of fancied opposition. We liked the 2010 even better, also less than $30 when you shop around.

A lot of diverse wines this week, some real bargains among them

BUY

Sadly, the Waipara Pinot Gris 2011 is pretty well all gone. This a Sophia Loren style of PG, with a serious body and lots of curves – 14.5%. Great with rich pork or duck dishes. If you have any left, drink it soon.

The TarraWarra Pinot Noir 2010 can still be found in some 1^St Choice stores for $21, although the website shows the 2011. Haven’t tried that one yet, and I’ve said enough about the 2010 – good to know that all of it was right (best Pinot under $25 etc)

Lake Breeze Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 – $20 at WinelistAustralia

The Follett family at Langhorne Creek are quiet achievers. This is a stunning Cabernet with layers of complex dark fruit flavours, well integrated oak and all the length and depth needed for the long haul. Real tannin here, fine-grained and balanced. Serious Cabernet, serious bargain. 14%

Fraser Gallop Cabernet Merlot 2012 – $16 at WineOnline

Rich, ripe, velvety – an absolute delight to drink now but will get better for a year or 2. This is a boutique winery, how do they do it for the price?

Brookland Valley Verse 1 Shiraz 2011 – $11.50 at 1^st Choice

For those of looking for style and elegance in our Shiraz. Fruit-driven, zippy, well balanced red you can enjoy anytime – especially with pasta, pizza and BBQs.

Fraser Gallop Chardonnay 2011 – $18 at WineOnline

Yes, the Chardonnay is a year older than the Cabernet Merlot, and it will more time to show its best. Modern style, restrained but promising more down the track. Some citrus notes but pears as well, and minerals. Plenty of length and depth.  Elegant.

The Lawson Dry Hills is no longer in the shops but this wine proves you can make a Sauvignon Blanc that lasts. Still plenty of fresh acid in the tank here, lovely balance too.

Frogmore Creek Chardonnay 2011 – $23 at MyCellars

This is usually out of price range but MyCellars has squeezed the price down. This is a very classy Chardonnay in the modern style (but not the grapefruit juice and lemon curd style we loathe). The white peaches and cashes are there, just very restrained as is the classy oak. Terrific Chardy.

Arrogant Frog Lilly Pad Viognier 2012 – $8.50 at Dan M’s

This is what we call a good everyday drinking wine, and a cheeky little frog it is from the Languedoc.  Round and soft and fruity, slips down the hatch with no effort.

Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2013 – $12.50 at WineOnline

Another great JB Riesling, from another great year, at yet another silly price.

NOT CONVINCED

Dan M’s offered some of their cellar release wines at discounts, and I thought the Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling 2007 would be a bargain at about $16 (back at $21 by now) but I was wrong. This is rich and forward and developed, with lots of flavour and ripe fruit – 13.5% – but really lacking the acid backbone to keep it all together.

Nugan Estate King Valley Chardonnay 2010 – $17 at Dan M’s

We like the 2009 better, it was richer and more generous. This year’s is more on the lean grapefruit side of the spectrum.

Mount Langi Ghiran Cliff Edge Shiraz 2010- $21 at Dan M’s

This is not a style I’m taken with, even though I appreciate the lighter styles of Aussie reds. This one is light and elegant to the point of being fluffy. What I mean by that is that it lacks backbone, a coherent structure to hold it together. This wine has won medals and rave reviews, but you have been warned. 14%.

Teusner The Riebke Shiraz 2012 – $17 at Winestar

This is a big-hearted Barossa Shiraz that is almost universally loved. It’s big and rich and generous alright, but it’s too much of a Dolly Parton wine for my taste. Looks like 2012 was a ripe year in the Barossa. Gary Walsh at the Winefront gives it 91 points, and I agree.

Paracombe the Reuben 2010 – $19 at MyCellars

The 2009 won a swag of medals but I missed the last of it. This one is from the superb 2010 vintage; it’s a Bordeaux blend from a boutique in the Adelaide Hills. I wanted to like it but I wouldn’t have picked it as a Bordeaux blend. It’s a bit loose and fluffy like the Mount Langi, plenty of sweet fruit but  lacks restraint and structure. Didn’t work for me.

Mount Langi Ghiran Cliff Edge Shiraz 2009 – $23 at Winestar

By sheer coincidence, the 2009 was one of the wines Clive produced at Andrew’s book club night a week ago, wrapped in brown paper bags. Clive said one of the wines had received a 96 point score from Halliday, which narrowed the filed a bit since our range at these evenings tends to be $15 – $25. I glimpsed a tiny bit of the blue foil sticking out of the brown paper bag, and that led me to Mount Langhi.

Clive wanted us to guess the varieties of the masked wines, which was hard enough since they included Zinfandels that tasted nothing like Zinfandels used to, and Petits Verdot from McLaren Vale that defied all educated guesses. Clive was impressed that I guessed the Shiraz variety and the Mount Langi, but then added a twist by asking me if it was the 2009 or 2010.

OK, so he had mentioned 96 Halliday points, and I happened to remember JH giving those points to the 2009, so I said 2009 and I got lucky. The other guys were terribly impressed, but I didn’t think the wine was anywhere near 96 points. It was the same style as the 2010: soft and fluffy and lacking depth and structural rigidity. Given that the best wines in Australia can be bought for less than $30, I don’t think we’re being too harsh on a $23 number.

AVOID

Liebich Gewuerztraminer Riesling 2012 – $20 at Mosman Cellars

Big on lush fruit, light on structure to hold it all together. The result is a ripe, flabby wine that is quite unbalanced.

Kirrihill Regional Range Shiraz 2011 – $12.50 at Dan M’s

This was an obvious fruit bomb when first opened, just like the more expensive Tullymore Cabernet 2010 from the same stable. The winery seems to specialise in alcoholic Ribena. After a day in the open bottle, the fruit bomb started to show cracks in the façade. Like a house built in too much of a hurry.

La Senda Elefante Tempranillo 2010 – about $14 at Annandale-Cremorne-Northbridge Cellars

I expected more from this, much more. Even the cheaper Elefante gets good reviews. There’s just not much here by way of aroma or flavour. OK I’m not a fan of Tempranillo, but this is pretty ordinary stuff. Use it for cooking.

Tried the Alkoomi Sauvignon Blanc 2012 to see if it offered any relief from the one-dimensional Kiwis but it does not. Not a lot to recommend here, or to enjoy. It’s about $13 at Dan M’s but don’t waste your money. Alkoomi used to make better wine than this.