Tasted blind with the Far Niente. Clearly a US style wine but this is a great year and this is a very good wine. All coffee-choc, blackcurrant and warm vanillan oak, and a touch of sherry character which I can’t really explain (not oxidative, perhaps an oak-derived aroma). Silky rounded flavours covering the spectrum from black to red-berried; meaty, balanced, nice.
Vibe
Stylish and generous. I enjoyed it a lot and rated it in the top 5 for the tasting of 20 shit-hot Cabernet wines. This is a seriously good wine with a Cali price-tag to go with it, although I can’t tell you what it is because their website won’t list prices.
Value: As part of a wider tasting so I don’t know what this retails for, but it’s not cheap. Not available in Australia anyway.
Tasted: November 2010
Closure: Cork
Tech-head
Producer: Araujo Estate Wines – www.araujoestate.com – claiming organic and biodynamic status.
Region: Napa Valley, California – from the ‘historic’ Eisele Vineyard on an alluvial fan at the north end of the Valley, just east of Calistoga. Cobbly soils.
Vintage: The winter leading into the 2007 vintage was a dry one. A mild spring followed providing ideal growing conditions. Summer was also mild, no heat spikes. A great Napa vintage.
Tasted this blind at a recent Cabernet tasting, along with the Araujo. This looked almost Euro. There was a certain sexiness to it that you don’t usually see in Californian wines. It opened a little weedy but shook this off pretty quickly in the glass. Evolved nicely. Blackcurrant dominating the nose. Palate had a bit of tannin action, although it had lovely texture and came alive with each sip. Plummy and raspberry, midweight and a little restrained – again, something not normally associated with this region.
Vibe
I liked this more and more in the glass. Nice evolution over a few hours, but I don’t usually want to sit on a glass for that long to find out. A very good wine from a very good vintage.
Tasted: November 2010
Value: US$115 – ridiculous really, but if you want it, you’ll pay for it.
Closure: Cork
Tech-head
Producer: Far Niente - www.farniente.com – founded in 1885
Region: Oakville, Napa Valley, California. The base for this wine is sourced from the winery’s Oakville Estate – a 100 acre planting known as the Martin Stelling Vineyard. Soils are gravelly loam.
Vintage: The winter leading into the 2007 vintage was a dry one. A mild spring followed providing ideal growing conditions. Summer was also mild, no heat spikes. A great Napa vintage.
Just what is Savagnin supposed to taste like if it doesn't taste like Albarino (which it doesn't)? I guess in hindsight it's easy to say "Gee, those Aussie Albarinos sure didn't taste like the Spanish stuff". But I remember thinking it, even if I didn't say it (trust me). Of course it turned out it's not Albarino at all, but the somewhat lesser-known and loved variety of Savagnin Blanc. Or Traminer. Or whatever you want to call it. But let's settle on Savagnin.
This guy was opened from the ice-tub on New Years Day and I nipped a taste before trying something else. It was limey and musky with a touch of phenolics (which could easily be confused with a bit of bottle-age character so don't hold me to it). I never got back to it and nobody else had a go at it either, so there it sat in the ice-tub - an almost full bottle - until the next day when I revisited it.
Musky scents filled the high notes on the nose, perhaps some lavender and sherbet too. The palate was limey and sinewy and textural with crunchy pears, some tinned peach and a pinch of muscaty flavour. It's also got the kiwifruit/lychee spectrum of fruit flavours and had good length, balanced crispness, and good weight.
Vibe
OK, this is a nice drop. But it's not much like Albarino as I know it, and I'm sure it's more comfortable with its Savagnin cloak. I revisited the wine again a week later and it looked as fresh as the first day or two (notwithstanding being 2009 already), so I'm guessing it might have some longevity in the cellar. I'd drink it again.
Tasted: January 2011
Value: $22 at CD - probably cheaper around the traps. OK value.
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Chapel Hill - www.chapelhillwine.com.au
Region: McLaren Vale, South Australia
Vintage: An early and hot start to 2009 in the Vale, however things cooled down a little after the whites came in. The white wines don't really show any stress from this heatwave, and indeed the Savagnin retains some typical McLaren Vale cool charm.
This bottle was another leftover from the random BBQs over the summer holidays. The colour is richly golden and invites, seduces even. I’m a sucker for a golden chardonnay. The nose is slightly volatile, but unworryingly so. Get past that and there’s classic Margaret River chardy scents of cashew and fig, grapefruit and melon, with a healthy dose of yeasty bread. It opens further to reveal citrussy lemon rind and pear and a generous whack of creamy oak. It smells warm, but the alcohol says only 13.5%.
A smooth ride on the palate, the acid has been backed off a little. Texture is king here and the flavours of lemon and orange zest meld effortlessly with white peach, nectarine and sweet honeydew melon. Figgy and nutty still, toasty and warm, although the alcohol not so obvious now.
Vibe
It surprised me. I liked this wine more than I expected. As I said, I’m a sucker for good Margies Chardy and this one is pretty smart in an unpretentious way. It aint trying too hard to be something special, but somehow manages to hit my good-vibe buttons. Enjoyed a glass on its own on the deck, but finished it with some duck and noodles.
Value: Retails for $28 at CD – a bit pricey perhaps for a simplish style. But with a JW in the cabinet you can add a few bucks to everything I suppose.
Tasted: Jan 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Flametree Wines - www.flametreewines.com.au
Region: Margaret River. No idea of fruit supply for this wine, so no soil type available.
Vintage: 2008 was an excellent year in the region, following on from the superb 2007. The 08’s tended to have a little more structure in both whites and reds – a little firmer and robust, without losing that general elegance of Margs. Probably the 08's will outlive the 07's.
This was hanging around the summer fridge for a while. It had found it's way into some ice-tubs at a few backyard barbies but never got cracked. So we banged it last night with pizza and a few mates.
I didn’t expect such a golden hue from an 06 but there it was – not in a developed kind-of way, but a gentle richness of colour – and a little sparkle. The matchstick bouquet hit me from the outset – leapt out of the glass – and this flinty minerality remained at the core throughout. It’s at the citrus end of the spectrum – lemons and limes, unripe white peach and nectarine characters and lovely floral notes floating in and out and, in and out. A touch of spice too.
The palate is fresh and zingy yet richer than expected – stone-fruits and minerally lime; medium-bodied, and a neat balance between acidity, fruit and oh-so-subtle oak. It has a steady line throughout. It fleshed out in the mouth yet still retained that citrus element, particularly lemon-zip, pulling out some melon and fig characters to round out.
Vibe
Yeah, I liked it. Enjoyable with home-made pizzas in the weber on a warm January night with a few buddies. Great with the pizza and would equally suit seafood and salads – general light Mediterranean fare really. I liked it without having my thongs blown off. I might even buy some.
Value: I think this retails around $30 in Australia. It was a sample so I couldn’t tell you!
Tasted: Jan 2011
Closure: Cork
Tech-head
Producer: Chanson Pere et Fils - www.vin-chanson.com
Region: From the villages of Vire and Clesse in the Macon region, south of Burgundy.
Site: Soils are limestone and clay, vineyards face south-east.
Vintage: 2006 started awkwardly in the region however the sun appeared and all was well for the remainder, and the people rejoiced. Excellent really.
