Month: May 2021

2017 The Story Wines Grampians Syrah

It’s always a joy when time and patience prove me wrong for the better, again. First bottle of this a couple of years ago seemed too green with stems and lacking fruit power. To such an extent, I passed on writing anything and buying another. When a mixed six pack email offer popped up and Rory the Story maker said it was a favourite cool and graceful vintage, perhaps time for another go? Goodness, he’s right. In two years the fruit has gained sweet weight. The scribble reads, rich but contained, generous spicy plums, dark cherry, tar and pepper, all wrapped up in sinews of mouth puckering tannin, stem, skin and oak riding on natural feeling acidity. Top notes of raspberry and a haze of sappy stems. If a dodgy memory serves, there’s echoes of those beautifully medium weight Shiraz from the eighties before Australia knew what Syrah meant.

13.5% alcohol. Screw cap. $30 RRP, less proportionally as part of the bargain mixed six pack which looks to be still live on The Story website thestory.com.au

94 points and great value.

2012 Giant Steps Gladysdale Vineyard Pinot Noir

From a vineyard up in the hills of the beautiful Yarra valley. Living in a big city, you often forget the country on your own doorstep. Lovely name too, the dale of Gladys. Expect scones and a nice cup of tea perhaps. Rather than a play for power and impact, this is light bodied, still fresh and perfumed. Bright red fruits in the manner of strawberries, raspberries and the occasional cherry swell through the nose and mouth. Some spice, sort of sarsaparilla and nice savour from hardly noticeable oak and a twist of sappy stems keep the mouthwatered and then gently dried by their tannin and some ripe acidity. Held up really well over two days. Graceful in a swish of silk.

13% alcohol. Screw cap. Was about $45 if memory serves?

93 points.

2018 Davide Carlone Colline Novaresi Nebbiolo

Great place to stop for a well priced bottle of Nebbiolo, those hills around Novara up toward Maggiore and the Alps. There’s a beautiful perfume of Pink Lady apples, wild strawberries, sour cherry and all that Alpine meadow in spring floral and herbal stuff. Builds with clean red fruit across the tongue, floats on a feather of saliva inducing acidity and the finest grains of tannin. Right at the end, a glorious twist of what them Italians call amaro, like the bitter herbs used in those odd digestive drinks. Mountain fresh and barely middle weight. Becomes sweeter fruited after twenty four hours of air but still cuts a pleasantly bitter sense of place. Fairly obvious there’s such well grown grapes carefully and simply turned to wine. If you’re a fancier of Valtellina mountain Nebbiolo, you’ll be very happy with this, all at a bargain price. So different to the grunt and depth of Barolo but no less interesting.

13.5% alcohol. Diam, hooray. $30 as a direct import from Boccaccio Cellars, great value.

93 points.

2020 Eastern Laneway Vintners Grampians Shiraz

Maybe Aldi’s astute wine buyers have a soft spot for Grampians Shiraz too? Not exactly the most prolific region to plunder for the volumes needed to fill supermarket shelves. This is the second one spotted on those dangerously slippery shelves in the last year. You try taking a bottle out to read the label and then attempt to put it back on those rollers. My first 2020 from a vintage that’s going to be remembered in so many ways. At least the Grampians avoided the smoke from the awful east coast bushfires. This bottle opened with regional mint and damp Australian forest smells. Good build of whole berry red fruit, pepper and a little Grampians tar, earth and pepper emerged with air. Unobtrusive tannins and gentle acidity do enough to even thing up. The burst of youthful fruit is a good distraction from perhaps not the most concentrated of mouthfuls. Nonetheless a $12 wine that drinks like a $25 bottle and nudges you toward a sense of place. The..er..Story behind this Aldi own label may interest the curious reader as the maker’s address is also the home of R. Lane Vintners who make one of the best interpretations of Grampians Shiraz, ever. Coincidence.

14% alcohol. Screw cap. $12.

88 became 89 points over two days.

2019 Scala Dei Garnatxa Priorat DOQ

Stairway to Grenache heaven from up in the hills of God’s Priorat staircase. Electric, pristine and without blemish. Such a different expression than the rich and full versions from lower down the beautiful, wild slopes of Priorat. Crackles with just medium bodied energy. Perfumed with red fruits, roses and other flowery things, wet slate and sweet exotic mountain herbs and shrubs. Drives through on mouthwatering acidity and a rasp of cool skin tannin. No idea how it will go with time in the bottle but how could you wait when it’s so delicious now? God’s stair looks a great place to grow Grenache. Maybe the price could be more humble?

14% alcohol. Diam. $48.50 RRP.

94 points for immediate pleasure.

2002 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits Saint Georges Les Pruliers 1er cru

Watching the metaphorical sand run out of my personal hour glass, time to drink what’s left in the cellar. Old Leslie Pruliers is on form for the Nuits premier cru league team tonight, Pinot fans. In the opening minutes, there’s great width of sweetly developed kirsch, dark chocolate and earth. Old Les really lifts his game towards the end with a great energetic burst of red fruits and minerals before running headlong into a wall of velvet skin tannin. The second half brings autumnal damp forests, dried blackberry and an enormous pile of sweet earth. The crowd’s roar at the final whistle reverberates with a profound clang of iron and stone. Well deserved home victory for NSG, take that PSG.

13% alcohol. Cork. About 40€ from Lavinia’s Paris treasure trove before Burgundy transfer fees got really out hand.

95 points for a win.

Enough bad football metaphors for quite a while.