Now is the winter of Nebbiolo contentment, again. Pristine bright sugar dusted raspberries and tangy red cherries. Rose perfume lift and almond paste. Really pretty and demanding of another sip, eggs you on with crackling acidity and for Nebbiolo just a drift of fine ripe tannin. Joyful drinking ensues.
14% alcohol. Cork. $49.
93 points.
Having never stared a partridge in the eye, we’ll have to believe les gens de Champagne about the colour. Perhaps they still go out and shoot their dinner? Developed blanc de noirs or pale rosé? Research suggests it’s an old rosé de presse method to give a little colour. Anyway, there’s some aristocratic grapes in this, 75% Pinot Noir from Aÿ and 25% Chardonnay from Avise. Grand crus amongst grand crus perhaps? Fine definition of red fruit spiced with a touch of barrel that recedes as the bubbles burst. Sugar dusted raspberries, candied citrus and almost cinnamon, poised and precise, all cut into shape by pinpoint chalky acidity. Beautifully tailored, subtle, no flashy bling.
About 12% alcohol probably? Cork. Extremely thoughtful apero, thanks!
95 points.
A new Barolo producer for me and one to follow further if this is representative. Clean and bright. Pure smells of dried rose, almond, red cherry and no surprise, tarry roads. Medium weight and just the right amount of those ripe firm Neb tannin. Very much in the red fruit and almond range of flavours which the Piemonte cognoscenti suggest is typical of La Morra. Almost the heft and fruit of Barolo proper. Good modernist version without the small barrel intrusion.
14% alcohol. Cork. A lucky $29 auction gamble.
93 points.
Sometimes a cork does what it should, horoscopes align, it’s a fruit day or it’s luck. Whatever the reason when a Wendouree is this good, it can take its place amongst the great. Not least as it’s a quintessential wine of place. Profound depth of menthol, wintergreen, damp Australian forest, rose oil and sun warmed blood plums. Great weight and stately Rolls Royce power but no heaviness. Length disappearing into the far distance. Perfect ripe melting tannin and a completely natural buoyancy make it hard to believe it’s already thirteen years since harvest. Great wine and big thanks for opening, decanting and generous pouring.
13.50% alcohol or thereabouts. Cork. Generosity beyond money.
Definitely 96 points. Possibly 97.
Cain and Able dabble in Norse mythology to produce one mythologically good Riesling. Opens a bit reduced with what a favourite reviewer over on Winefront justly describes as asafoetida, lovely word, powerful smell. As the air gets to it, things freshen up to reveal lime, waxy vanilla spice, just ripe KP mango and lemon skin oil. Structurally the acidity is natural and mouth-wateringly modulated. Really bounces with a tireless youth. Good 2012s like this are legendary. On the list in Valhalla?
12% alcohol. Screwcap. About $25 on release.
94 points.
Nothing noir or darkly foreboding about this bright, fresh and dashingly red fruited bottle of joy. 40% Grenache, 21% Mourvèdre, 14% Shiraz, 12% Cinsaut, 11% Carignan and 2% Counoise proudly listed on the back label with acknowledgement how well they combine in their Mistral swept valley home. Here they all meld to make a seamless mix of raspberries, plums, tar, dark bitter chocolate swept along by startling natural settled acidity and fine tannin. Would have been fascinating to be around as the blend was worked out, bit of this or that? What a delicious direction for local warm climate grape growing and wine making ideas. Sort of a quantum leap, organic too, excited.
14% alcohol. Screwcap. $28.
92 thoughtful and clever points.
Bright purple red, inviting fresh raspberry leaf, sprig of mint and cool rain soaked forest. A mouthful starts quietly as raspberry and plum build and then are swept up in a very crisp acid and pinpoint tannin end. Just flavour ripe but as crunchy as perhaps a Loire or cool year Bordeaux. Some more used to full whack Australian richness will recoil. If this puts on a bit of fat with age, like most of us, then it’ll cut across a cut of red meat with precision.
13.20% alcohol. Screwcap. $20.
90 points.
Pretty label for a pretty good value Grenache. A variety that seems to thrive in the Campo de Borja which looks dry, sun blasted and windswept. Going to travel that way soon, so hope it’s hospitable to this Grenache aficionado. This is medium bodied, clean, fragrant with sweetly floral fruit. Good focus of evenly ripened red fruits and a drag of fine tannin and acid. That’s the thing about Garnacha from this bit of Spain, fine flavour ripeness and the preservation of natural, mineral acidity. There’s no great complexity or concentration but there is character and place. Puts many $20 to $30 Rhônes to shame. Mucho delicious.
14% alcohol. Screw cap. Amazing under $10 worth of value from Dan Murphy’s direct imports.
90 delicious Grenache ponits.
Seems odd that a bit of Italy that produces grapes with tannins to make stewed English tea look wimpy can also value a variety with virtually none. Sweet blackberries, toffee and an earthy stone flavour. Blood orange both in flavour and acidity. Synesthesia suggests purple and blue. It’s a strange perception but there it is. After a lot of stern tannin recently, it’s a surprisingly pleasant change for simple fresh ripe acidity to sweep clean. Roll on summer and a bowl of fresh, sun warmed tomato pasta.
13.50% alcohol. Screwcap, bravo. $20, Murphy’s direct imports gets it right now and again.
91 points.
Big and burly Tannat civilised but still bluntly true to its roots from one of its best addresses. Warm vintage and such richness. Dark plums and mulberries with a kirsch sweetness firmly kept in order by the enormously soft but firm tannin. Good spice and sweet earth too. Somewhere beneath the velvet fog lurks just the right amount of integrated acidity to hold it together. So deep and well made, the fruit just kept emerging. By day two there was a bright fresh cherry finish to match the grunt. Pauillac out of reach? It’ll be a while or never before HK billionaires realise Madiran’s a label to covert.
14.50% of well carried alcohol. Cork. $35 at auction a few years ago.
94 points.
