Australian Wine Extravaganza: The Highlights

Now, that is a way to celebrate Australia Day - even if we were a bit late.  We decided to go big for our first tasting of 2011 and last night opened every single bottle of Australian wine that we stock.  A bit of a marathon taste you might think, but there's certainly no better way to get a handle on a country's wines!  We ran the full gamut from sparkling to sweet, but for me it was the reds that stood out, both in terms of quality and variety.  I've picked out one which I especially liked below, but frankly could have chosen one from a number of contenders including D'Arneberg's Dead Arm, Clonakilla's Hilltops Shiraz and Penny's Hill Grenache


Dean Hewitson, Ned and Henry Shiraz 2006
Dean is one of the nicest men in Australian wine, and also one of the country's most talenteed young winemakers.  After studying in California and making wine under great names like Brian Croser, Hewitson set up on his own in 1998, originally renting vines in the Barossa Valley and borrowing winery space, though he now has his own winery and is buying up parcels of old vines outright. 

Ned and Henry is on expressive form tonight, with an energetic bouquet full of blueberry fruit and well integrated, spicy French oak notes.  The palate is clean and crystal clear with more red than dark fruits, a suggestion of menthol and a hit of classic Barossa alcohol.  It's deliciously smooth and certainly ticks the 'drinkable' box but posseses a long finish which denotes real class.  Seems a shame to throw the leftovers away really... so I'll leave them here for you to taste over the weekend!


Tecchie Stuff:  Shiraz with a drop of Mourvedre are dry farmed in old Barossa vineyards and see around 15 months in French oak barriques

Friday Tasting Preview #2: My Burn's Night Dram

Not one to miss out on the blindingly obvious, I reckon that the perfect theme for this Friday's Mini Tasting is Single Malt Whisky, just in time for Burn's Night on Tuesday.  We'll be sampling the whisky of four distilleries from across Scotland, but my preview is a beautifully balanced Islay malt.

Connoisseur's Choice, Caol Ila 1998  £35.50
Now, whilst I appreciate malt whisky wherever it comes from, I'm a bit single minded in my personal consumption - I just love Islay malts.   Anyone who's visited the island and smelt it's salty, peat smoke aroma and then tasted the whiskies will attest to their expression of terroir, a concept more familiar in the hands of Burgundian winemakers.
Though perhaps less exalted than its neighbours, Caol Ila is the largest distillery on Islay and much of its production goes into Johnny Walker.  The best expressions carry a sweet maltiness under the peat smoke which make it more approachable than monsters like Laphroaig.

Tasted neat, the nose is full of peat ash and marmite with just a hint of salinity.  Whilst the palate is drying the peat doesn't dominate, and though it's difficult to find the richness that sherry casks should impart, there's a really evocative seaweed character here.  A drop of water (distillers often taste at around 20% ABV where the full spectrum of flavours is most evident) softens the smoke revealing delicate tea and apple peel flavours. I'm surprised by the lightness of touch here as I was expecting more power - but this is truly impressive for a 12 year old malt.

Tecchie Stuff:  Malt from the Port Ellen distillery with phenolics (peat influence) of 35ppm.  Spirit distilled in 1998 was aged in refill sherry casks by independent bottlers Gordon and Macphail and bottled in 2010 at 43%ABV.

Make your mind up this Friday Evening (21st Jan) from 5pm by tasting this alongside three other exciting single malts.

New Arrival: Bruno Sorg

I've been a big admirer of Bruno Sorg's wines since I first tasted them a few years ago. They have a delicacy and purity of fruit that runs through his entire range regardless of grape and Muscat, and their consistently high quality year on year is astounding. Production from his vineyards, which include vines in three Grand Cru sites, is tiny - just 5,000 cases - so we're lucky to have got hold of a few cases which have just arrived in-store.

Though many of us know Alsace for its Gewurztraminer, it's Riesling that the locals aspire to make great run from so Sorg's perfumed, grapey Muscat 2009 (£17) is joined by two brilliant Rieslings - the young, fresh, limey Riesling 2009(£14.50) and the majestic Riesling Grand Cru Florimont 2005 (£21).  Sorg's Grand Cru wines need at least four years in the bottle, so it's wonderful to be able to offer you something just coming into it's own!  A full tasting note will follow, as soon as I've got my teeth into a bottle!

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Friday Tasting Preview #1: New Portugese Red

Right, my first New Year's resolution to go booze free in January lasted about 6 days, so here goes Resolution number 2 - to actually use this blog. I thought a great way to get started was to begin bringing you tasting notes on the wines I've been drinking and especially previews of the wines on show at our Friday Evening Mini Tastings. Here goes!

Terra d'Alter, Tinto 2008 £8.50
The wines of Terra d'Alter landed in the shop just before Christmas so I haven't had a chance to get to know them properly until today. The winery was founded in 2004 and is the latest project of Australian winemaker Peter Bright (of Bright Brothers fame), with a focus on applying new world winemaking to traditional portugese varieties to produce top quality, premium wines from the hot, dry Alentejo region in southern Portugal

Ripe and juicy, this is an easy-going (and not exactly premium at £8.50) red with the emphasis on the fruit. There's just a hint of cigar box spice on the finish but otherwise this is all about plum aromatics and bright raspberry/strawberry fruits. With its medium body, soft tannins and well integrated alcohol this is a charming introduction into the wonderful world of Portugese wine.

Tecchie stuff: Aragones (Tempranillo to you and me), Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional and Trincadeira, 6 months maturation in French oak.

Make your own mind up and try two more Terra d'Alter wines at tonight's Friday Mini Tasting (Friday 14th Jan from 5pm).





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New Year, New Wines

It's been a quiet start to January on the new wines front, though we've got an awful lot of exciting juice on the water heading this way.  While we're waiting for these to arrive, there are still one or two choice morsels to get your teeth into:

We've long been fans of Seresin Estate's biodynamic wines so it's a joy to welcome their Chardonnay to the Red&White fold with its classic barrel fermented Kiwi stylings. 
Our Portugese section has been long overdue a re-vamp, so the arrival (admitedly just before Christmas) of a quartet of delicious wines from Terra d'Alter in southerly Alentejo is a relief - two whites and two reds including the estate's flagship 'Outeiro' (now there's a wine with Robert Parker's name on it!)
Greece has been in similar need of attention but we now boast a Robola (crisp, refreshing white from Cephalonia) and Red Nemea from Gentilini and a Mavrodaphne of Patras (sweet red) alongside old faves Hatzidakis Santorini and Melikos Muscat.
Last but not least, a couple of exciting wines from iconic producer:  Gaston Huet's Demi-Sec Vouvray 'Le Mont' joins the dry wine from the same vineyard, and, just in time for Chris' birthday, a couple of bottles of Krug Grand Cuvee have turned up from somewhere!

We'll be opening some of these wines (though sadly not the Krug) at Friday Mini Tastings over the next few weeks, and watch out for more exciting new arrivals, coming soon!