2008 Prunotto Dolcetto D’alba (Piedmont, Italy - $25)

I’ve had this wine twice now and it’s been a great exercise in how external factors can affect your taste and enjoyment of a wine. The first time I tried it, the wine was drunk out of not particularly good wine glasses and at room temperature. While it was perfectly serviceable it didn’t really grab me at the time.

You will often read that red wine should be drunk at room temperature, though this is often said more from a European point of view, and really means that red wine should be served between 16-18 degrees. As room temperature in January in Australia is regularly at 25 degrees, even at dinner time, you are not really doing red wine a lot of favours if you simply serve it at room temperature.

Tonight, on a pretty warm evening, I put the wine in the fridge for 20 minutes just to cool it down a bit from room temperature, and then drunk it out of one of my lovely Riedel glasses. These two factors seemed to make a significant difference in turning it from a so-so wine into an enjoyable wine.

The wine has a deep purple-violet colour, as is typical with dolcetto. A nice nose of dark fruits, liquorice, and a bit of vanilla oak. To drink, dolcetto is normally juicy, plump and round before ending with a dry finish, and this wine fits the bill in this regard. Its medium bodied, continues with the same dark fruit flavours, has a hint of spice, and has a dry finish of reasonable length. Enjoyable, easy drinking and complemented the pizza perfectly.

Red

2008 Moorilla Muse Pinot Noir

(A word of warning - this wine displays a somewhat erotic image on the label, so it mightn't be the best wine to take on a date . . . . or maybe it is depending on your style!)

Tasmania is the one state in Australia that to my mind doesn’t properly identify/promote its distinct wine regions. Tasmanian wines are still often labelled just “Tasmania” as opposed to any specific region. I think to some extent this has prevented me exploring Tasmanian wine as much as I might have. The more I’ve got into wine, the more I’ve found myself interested in the characteristics of each wine region, the sub-regions within each region, and even particular single sites and vineyards. And plenty people who are not as into their wine can often still tell you that they like their Barossa Shiraz or their Yarra Valley Pinot Noir. I would love to see Tasmanian wine really start identifying and promoting wines as being from Tamar, Coal River, the Huon etc.

2008 Moorilla Muse Pinot Noir - $45 – Moorilla are north of Hobart on the Derwent and this wine definitely encourages me to drink more Tasmanian Pinot (despite my grumblings). It’s certainly varietal with a gentle nose of cherries, strawberries, and spice. On the palate the same flavours carry through in a mouth filling way along with a hint of chocolate. On the back palate it has a savoury, sour/sour cherry finish. It’s a tad short in terms of the length but it’s very enjoyable drinking and went really well with an old school dish of Tuna Mornay for dinner (yum!). Reckon the wine will be better again in a year’s time and there’s enough there to suggest that it’s also worth cellaring for a few years to allow it develop. Good stuff.

Red

Palliser Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2006

Note: Apologies - Red to Brown has accidently bumped this post to the top of the pile. Now that it is here, I will note that you can find this wine at some of the bigger shops for closer to $30 than $50. Ready to drink right now and a step up on some of the $25-$35 New Zealand Pinots in the lower price point. Brown.

I could get used to this wine. Pinot Noir is ascendant in Sydney, and Australia generally. The differences in demographics of the people attending (particularly average age) at Pinot-only tastings when compared to general or Shiraz/Cabernet tastings are stark. In short, a large percentage of the Sydney pretty young things dig Pinot. Though Red and I do not fit into the pretty young thing category (at all), we are both gaining an increasing appreciation of Pinot as it becomes more common and more affordable/value for money (look out for the next ‘Face Off’ which will involve a double blind tasting of several examples of this variety from Australia and New Zealand).

The Palliser has a nice deep crimson colour, even after a few years in the bottle. The nose is sweet with a slight vanilla scent. In the mouth the wine is rich and full flavoured, the fruit is more red cherry and plum than strawberry (with some mushroom on the finish). There are moderate tannins, French oak that supports, but does not overly dominate the flavour profile and nice length to the wine. Palliser have managed to balance this wine very nicely to avoid the fruit overtaking the show, yet have avoided any grassy, sour or bitter flavours in the process. I could easily sit down with a glass of this on its own, or match it with a range of foods (for some reason this wine makes me want to tuck into a hot bowl of the wild game ragu I once had in Cortona, Italy– not that I need a glass of wine to desire such a dish!).

The winemaker recommended drinking the Palliser on release or in 1-3 years. This appears to be a common suggestion with their Pinot. Thankfully, the wine (approaching 4 years on from bottling) is still in fine form, and the fruit flavour and tannin levels suggest that it is still drinking well now or for a few more years at least.
I am looking forward to comparing Martinborough Pinot with some of the best Australia has to offer (Mornington, Yarra, Tassie). With my parochial tendencies numbed by a blind tasting, I fear I may succumb to the charm of a wine such as this.

Red’s Xmas Lunch – NV Veuve Clicquot, 1996 Knappstein Enterprise Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005 Charles Melton Voice of Angels

If you think you’ve seen this post before well you have. Somehow it entered the Bermuda Triangle of blog pages and disappeared without a trace . . . so here it is again

Christmas lunch in my family is the traditional turkey meal. We have normally had very good turkey over the years (compliments of either my dad or grandmother), but this year’s was exceptionally good and possibly the best Christmas turkey I can remember having (thanks dad!). Once again the wines were the equal of the food.

NV Veuve Clicquot – Between the presents, lunch preparations, conversation, and laughter, I can’t say I really concentrated while drinking this but I certainly enjoyed it. It was a great champagne to kick off the festivities. It had some toasty, yeasty aromas on the nose, while on the palate it was creamy and sweet. While it finished nice and dry it was certainly sweeter than the Prosecco we had had the night before - http://redtobrownwinereview.blogspot.com/2009/12/reds-xmas-eve-bellussi-prosecco-2008.html . Somehow that slightly sweeter style of champagne seems more appropriate for a festive Christmas day. In some ways it wasn’t an especially remarkable or memorable champagne but I really enjoyed it nonetheless

1996 Knappstein Enterprise Cabernet Sauvignon – This was just a beautiful, aged cab sav. The colour, while still reasonably dark, had developed some of that red brick look. On the nose it was classic aged cabernet, and could not be mistaken for anything else. It had a lovely soft, yet insistent bouquet of blackcurrant and leaf. On the palate it was smooth and concentrated, of good length, with blackcurrant flavours dominating. It was such an enjoyable wine to drink and I reckon we consumed it at its peak. A few more years and it might start to fade . . .

2005 Charles Melton Voice of Angels – While being a family of pagans it was noted that the name of this wine seemed apt for Christmas day. This wine has enough dark fruit and power to suggest the Barossa, but has the structure, elegance and pepper to indicate it’s from the Eden Valley. It’s aromatic and has flavours of plum, chocolate, fruitcake, and pepper. It has a tight structure, good tannins, and plenty of years in front of it yet. A beautiful wine with plenty of yum factor!

2004 De Bortoli Noble One – This was not the best Noble One I have had but it certainly did the job in complimenting the plum pudding with brandy sauce. Orange and honey were the main flavours, and it was sweet and tasty. If I was being critical I would say it was just a touch too sweet for my tastes, but at 4pm on Christmas afternoon after copious amounts of food and wine who’s complaining . . . time for a snooze . . .

Red