100% Malbec or Côt as they say in the Loire Valley. Pungently clean perfume of Turkish delight, woody spices veering into star anise, startlingly so. Below are some bright cherries and berries. Terrific flow of spiced fruit with silky tannin and acidity. Floats in the mouth, leaving a gentle waft to linger. Fine and whistle clean. Those lovely obsessives at the City Wine Store certainly know how to tickle my fancy.
12.50% alcohol. Cork. $41.
93 points.
Having really enjoyed Clonakilla’s great Shiraz during the nineties, it was nice to find a cheaper version with such a close connection. Almost ten years on this is developing just deliciously. Dark red fruit, tarry, earthen and leathery but still a freshness and lightness of being as good acid and tannin sweep up. The once noticeable oak has melded and there’s a sweet wealth of fruit right through the mouth. This wasn’t fashionably labelled a few years ago and Dan’s couldn’t sell it. Very happy to have scored a six pack for under $20 a bottle when they cleared it. Dare say it’s on allocation now?
14% alcohol. Screwcap. $20 then, mid thirties now.
93 points.
A year on and it’s even more of a whole. Quintessentially warm and spicy but still calmly firm Aussie Shiraz. Initially too many bottles stashed, now probably not enough left!
94 points now.
Smells of rich exotic honey, cut apple and old Catholic Church candles. Chenin can be unbearably large and hefty but this just stays on the side of polite and charming due to some ripe acidity that cuts against the richness. Almost so much that the whole may seem a bit attenuated. Not so, that fruit keeps nagging its presence and builds so well as it slides through. It says sec but there’s a cushion. A terrific tension that seems so typical of the Loire’s douceur…the luxury Stelvin screwcap may help…
12.50%. Screwcap! Was about $30.
92 points but more for sense of place and clean poise.
Lovely fresh red colour and smells. There’s some genuine tart berry perfume of good flavour ripeness without heaviness or green shrubbery. Only the acidity seems a bit too firm at the finish. Rather that than the higher PH and duller colour of warmer sites. The mid mouth flavour of ripe strawberries and raspberries with real freshness is just so delicious and bright. Cool for sure. Ripe fruit, just, at low alcohol, woohoo…
12% alcohol! Screwcap. $30.
92 points
Happily the contents of the bottle are a lot better than the label artwork. There’s a weird phenomenon with these traditionally made oxidative sorts inasmuch as this opened with a bit of a developed colour and a whiff of sherry but as it sucked in the air things just got fresher and paler. Real Chablis scents of sweet lemon yoghurt, flowery honey and the seaside. Beautifully weighted palate of pithy fruit and firm, caressing acidity. Second day it got even fresher, crisper and deeper fruited. Is this supposed to happen with white wine!? Beautiful texture and the last mouthful the best. Great vintage.
12.50% alcohol. Cork. $70.
94 points.
Deep colour and smells. Alive with dark cherries, squishy ripe strawberries, sweet compost and granite dust. The fruit’s so pure it almost seems simple but there’s an earthy paradoxical intrigue too. The perfectly ripe flavours almost cover a seamless softness of tannin and acid. It’s like biting into perfect summer fruit that’s at its peak. A head full of perfume and sensual pleasure. Hedonistic, cool drinking, warm weather delight. So good not to tax the brain but to sink back and Cheshire Cat smile.
13% alcohol. Cork. $45.
94 points.
A year since the last bottle and the time patiently lurking in the cupboard has enticed the latent fruit depth into focus. Impeccably clean, icing sugar coated citrus, quince, red apple and fine spice jumbled with ozone freshness and a small seasoning of brioche. Mineral acid tension. Great quality of fruit sweetness without any cloying dosage. A bottle between four vanished as quickly as appetites were sharpened. A magnum might not be too extravagant after all. Fantastic value from Champagne de Vigneron’s faultless direct import selections.
12% alcohol. Cork. About $55 pre arrival if memory serves, rarely.
93 points but extra bits for sheer yum.
Three Langhe Nebbioli in a row. Obsessional probably as it’s not quite the appropriate drink for a languid Melbourne January. Strangely though when it’s cool from the fridge the bright red fruit and mouth whacking tannin and acidity seem to fit a light veg pasta or pizza. Well, that’s the excuse and witness the olive oily fingerprints on the label! This certainly is a good smack in the chops with a Benevelli lift of rose oil, almost sandalwood, bright red cherries and a youthfully unrestrained belt of tannin and acid. Can’t accuse it of being rounded or smooth going, just delicioso. Be good to have a look in a couple of years. Sophisticated famiglia contadina.
14% alcohol. Screwcap, well done Mondo. $30.
91 points.
From a hotter vintage than the last post’s reportedly close to perfect 2016, this is a bit less vibrantly red in colour, richer and more tarry. Perhaps a rounding caramel barrel taste, just a hint. The focus is clean, fat cherry and earth Nebbiolo with firm ripe melting tannin and a merged fresh acid tug. Unarguably Langhe and could pass for basic Barolo or Barbaresco. A direct import under one of Woolie’s cryptic business names. Hopefully it’ll appear with further discounts.
13.50% alcohol. Diam. $35.
93 points.
Currently at Dan’s for about $25 and as good an intro to the savoury delight of Piemontese Nebbiolo as you can get for the money. Spotlessly clean bright red cherry, that almond paste again and a touch of tarry earth. Only just medium weight but carries well and finishes with a satisfying chomp. A simple pasta took it up a notch, no surprise there!
13.50% alcohol. Screwcap! $25.
91 points.
Cognitive Bottle Therapy 