Red's Top 5 - 2011

I can’t quite believe it’s that time of year again. The Silly Season is in full swing, so it’s time to have a crack at my top 5 wines for the year.

As with last year, my criteria remains the same: my Top 5 consists only of wines that I have sat down and tasted over at least a couple of hours and ideally over a couple of days, more often than not with food. The more I taste, drink, and assess wines, the more I am convinced that wine needs to be granted time in order to be fairly assessed and commented on. While a quick assessment may sometimes tell you all you need to know, often it does not, and some of the more interesting wines require contemplation to come around to their way of thinking.

My Top 5 are not necessarily my 5 highest rated wines (though they all have scored well), but more importantly they are wines that I found genuinely memorable and enjoyable. At a time when we increasingly embrace newer varieties, and newer styles of wine, the thing that has struck me is how “traditional” my Top 5 is (the Westend Aglianico excepted). Included are a Barossa Shiraz sourced from multiple growers, a rich style of Yarra Chardonnay, and finally perhaps the least fashionable of all, a Coonawarra Cabernet. As much as anyone, I’m a fan of all the exploration happening in Australian wine (I dream of a benchmark Australian Nebbiolo), but I think sometimes people need to be careful that in their rush to proclaim “cool-climate” this and “biodynamic” that, that the baby isn’t thrown out with the bathwater when it comes to traditional Australian wine styles that are done well. In alphabetical order, my top 5 wines are

2010 Head Brunette Syrah – Northern Rhone meets the Barossa Valley in the best possible manner with this superb single vineyard Moppa shiraz from Alex Head. Complexity plus, and will benefit from time in a cool cellar.

2002 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz – A wine I only tasted a week or so ago, but it was just so good that it bumped out some other worthy contenders. While different from the Head Brunette, it has many similar traits in that is a relatively restrained and elegant rendition of a Barossa Shiraz that is built to age. Many years in front of it.

2005 Tarrawarra Reserve Chardonnay – A chardonnay reaching its peak. Generosity matched with restraint, power match with elegance. If someone wanted me to the show them what great Chardonnay is (and I wasn’t prepared to fork out for Grand Cru Burgundy), then this is a wine I would put in front of them.

2008 Westend Calabria Private Bin Aglianico – the cheapie in the Top 5. For $15 you get character, flavour, rusticity and importantly some rippling tannin. A revelation for me as a Riverina table wine. Loved drinking this, and everything is there to suggest it should age nicely over the next 5 years as well.

2001 Wynns Black Label Cabernet – One of the first wines I cellared a number of years ago, and this was the 3rd bottle of 6 that I have consumed. I tasted it over 4 nights, and while it was beautiful from the get go, it got better and better during that time. Cork permitting, this will continue to age and improve over the next decade. Wynns Cabernet almost seems to defy vintage and winemaker at times in its ability to age gracefully, and this less than heralded wine is a wonderful case in point.


Some very notable mentions – 2009 De Iuliis Steven Shiraz, 2010 Head Old Vine Grenache, 2011 Henschke Julius Riesling, 2010 Hoddles Creek Chardonnay, 2002 Houghton Jack Mann, 2006 Pio Cesare Barolo, 2009 Sorrenberg Chardonnay




Red

Scarborough 2010 Blue Label Chardonnay

The Scarborough winery in the Hunter Valley devotes considerable attention to Chardonnay, arguably the global king of white grapes, though a second class citizen in a region (justifiably) dominated by Semillon. Still, they manage to produce very reliable, regionally expressive, modern interpretations of Chardonnay in a variery of styles.The Blue Label is the entry level, accessible wine in this range.
It smells and tastes of subtly spicy ripe peach and yellow nectarine fruit (the fruit flavours being what I like to call the Hunter 'fruit salad' flavour), though on the palate there is also a nicely balancing squeeze of lemon and a hint of lemon zest. Overall there is generous fruit flavour at the front and mid palate, a velvet like texture, finishing gently with some spicy old oak and subtle smokiness.

Good value for money and a nice example of a modern classic hunter Chardonnay: it has the flavour and the fruit, the oak is not overdone, though present, and there is enough zing to make it a refreshing wine to drink with several different dishes. Despite the arctic weather on the east coast of Australia at the moment, it's summertime, drink up.

Rating: 90pts+ (+ is for dinner party versatility and its ability to make a Sauvignon Blanc drinker understand they can get their ‘fix’ plus so much more without resorting to their white wine of choice).

ABV: 13.0%
Price: $20
Website: www.scarboroughwine.com.au/

EDIT: In light of this interesting article on Australian Chardonnay styles by Huon Hooke in a major Australian broadsheet newspaper (link: here), I would specifically note that this wine is on the leaner side of ripe. It may be a symptom of trying more and more of the modern Australian Chardonnays that are in the leaner, 'Chablis' style that I refer to the 'ripe fruits' in this wine. Compared to the derided 'Dolly Parton' 1980's era oaky tropical chardonnay, the Blue Label is more on the taut and trim side of things. However, it is not anorexic (a fate befalling more Australian Chardonnays as the lean trend mentioned in the article continues to gather pace). For the price, I maintain it would be a popular choice for many, especially who like the 'just right' category of fruit to acid/lean balance.
RB 13/12/11

RedtoBrown News EXCLUSIVE - Broken Hill International Wine Show launched: “Set to revolutionise the Australian wine industry"

Last night the Broken Hill Chamber of Wine and Food Commerce, in conjunction with the Far West Alternative Wine Growers Collective announced that a new annual wine show would be held in the historic mining town, starting next year. The event, officially titled ‘The Broken Hill International Wine Show’, is scheduled to be held at the same time as the Sydney Royal Wine Show in February of each year.

The Broken Hill International Wine Show
 is set to boost tourism in 'The Silver City'

The concept is the brainchild of former wine marketer and freelance wine judge, Johan Trambly-Churchill. At the official launch, Trambly-Churchill was excited by the possibilities the wine show offered the town and Australian wine drinkers.  “This is a real win for Broken Hill. I commend the winemaking pioneers in this town for supporting me in pursuing my vision”. Trambly-Churchill outlined his plans for the event in an introductory 15 minute sound and light presentation. Included were a history of wine making in Broken Hill and interviews with the owner of the one wine bar in the town.  Trambly-Churchill also revealed that the Broken Hill International Wine Show would have 35 different classes of wine that receive a trophy. As an added extra, 25 special awards would be distributed amongst the trophy winners, for unique classes such as "best young semillon, not from the Hunter, paired with sautéed scallops" and "best single site, 100% whole bunch, cool-climate syrah".

Trambly-Churchill claimed the Broken Hill International Wine Show would also revolutionise the way wine shows are judged in Australia with a unique judging panel concept. “Organisers of this wine show realised that there are issues with wine shows when age-worthy wines of pedigree from a great vintage don't even win a bronze medal, while wines from the riper, cheaper, or "quaffer" category wines are awarded a trophy. To combat this tendency, we developed the ‘Galena Tasting Panel Method™’. It will really shake up the wine judging world”.

Such was the excitement following last night's presentation, several wine
 corporations had already submitted samples to be entered into next year's Wine Show (inset)

Trambly-Churchill elaborated slightly on the ‘Galena Tasting Panel Method’ in his presentation, noting that when assessing the entrants, each tasting panel would taste 140-150 wines a day, with a Chairman of Judges and an international judge brought in to adjudicate when there was a disagreement. In response to a question from the audience querying how this new method differed from the traditional show panel system, or how anyone could possibly taste that many wines in a day and be confident in their assessments and scores, Trambly-Churchill was quite vague, mumbling something inaudible that referred to ‘The Galena Stone’ making the final decision on all Trophies, before ending his response by stating that further details on the judging method would be released closer to   the date of the wine show.

The mysterious Galena Stone had yet to be identified when this article went to print,
though some wine exporters believe they may have found it (inset).

As the finale to the presentation, Trambly-Churchill announced an Australian Wine Show first – the introduction of a ‘Rhodium medal™’ for best wine in show. Following the presentation, Trambly-Churchill noted that the organising committee had toyed with the idea of a platinum medal for the best wine in show, but "platinum medals have already been awarded in the past”. Trambly-Churchill also highlighted the impact of the new medal. “The focus groups we surveyed liked the idea of a ‘Rhodium Medal™’ and we think it will make our wine show really stand out”.

When asked why the Broken Hill International Wine Show was occurring at the same time as the Royal Sydney Wine Show, and whether this would have an impact on the popularity of the event, Trambly-Churchill was bullish. “I am confident that this wine show will stand up to any held in Australia. February is a relatively quiet month for wine shows, but on every weekend in February we still had one or more clashes with a notable wine event. We had to make a call on which one to go up against in February, and the Royal Sydney Wine Show was our choice. We did not want to clash with the Cootamundra, Condobolin, Katherine or Mt Isa wine shows, and holding it one week later in March would then bring us into conflict with the Karratha and Derby wine shows – all of these events are highly influential, so we settled on the clash with Sydney”.

Those in the know believe the upcoming Karratha
Asia-Pacific Wine Show will unearth some real gems

Though the representatives from major wine corporations refused to comment at the launch, it is expected that the Broken Hill International Wine Show will receive thousands of entries from wineries eager to possibly have the new Rhodium medal placed on their bottles. One wine executive who asked not to be named was quoted as saying that the wine show would improve sales of wine in the troubled $5-15 bracket, and could also be used to shift some aged material. “We love these wine shows, despite them being a bit of a lottery. If the public keep buying wines based on the ‘bling’, we will keep submitting them to be tasted amidst 1000’s of other bottles – it is a lottery with nice dividends, money for jam. Literally”.

2002 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz (Barossa Valley)

This wine represents Barossa Shiraz at its best. It is a refined and elegant rendition of the style of wine that nevertheless lacks nothing in terms of generosity.

The Stonewell Shiraz is Peter Lehmann’s top wine and 2002 was a fantastic, yet cooler vintage in the Barossa. The fruit was sourced from a range of smaller growers.

This is a wine that is now fully integrated, with hints of secondary flavours apparent, and years in front of it. It has a beautiful bouquet of exotic spice, dark fruits, chocolate, and hints of leather. This bouquet creates high expectations, and the palate delivers. Beautiful fruit, mid palate drive, fine tannins, and fantastic length. It has a lovely emerging earthiness, that adds a wonderful sense of texture as well.

The 2002 Stonewell Shiraz will do the next decade in a canter (cork permitting), and where it peaks is likely to depend on your preference for primary fruit vs secondary, savoury characters. A wonderful wine.


Rated:


RRP: $90
ABV: 14.5%
Website: http://www.peterlehmannwines.com/


Red