A Margaret River name unfamiliar to most, although John Streicker has been turning out small volumes of wine from his Bridgeland, Ironstone and Yallingup vineyards for several years now.
Lively, purpling, blood red colour. The nose opens to bright redcurrants, violets, dried herbs and flowers; savoury meats and some smoky char. On the spicy side there’s cinnamon and white pepper – the bestest of peppers to be found in shiraz in my view. The oak starts to kick in more as the wine opens – it’s on the varnishy, yet toasty side. There’s also some intense coffee and crushed ant aromas (better than it probably sounds), and after a glass or two the nose pours out more complex, sweet and lovely perfumed aromas. Sexy.
The tannins are evident on the palate – a little powdery, but turning silky with time in glass. It’s a nice mid-weight style with beautifully balanced structure - acid/oak/fruit all in harmony. On the flavour side there’s a good balance of sweet/savoury, and a creamy brew of blueberry and redcurrant, some vanillan, pencilly oak, and a gorgeous smattering of white pepper. The finish is long and smooth.
Vibe
Yep, this is very nice booze. It’s an easy drink for a 2009 at this point, but there’s an element of seriousness to it. Then when it kicks into higher gear it really starts to assert itself and become more expressive. The structure should see it cellar mid-term but she’s looking the goods right now too.
Value: $38.50 by mail order – sure is a big price. Maybe too high for some, but at least you know you are getting something quite smart, if not quite in the brilliant category.
Tasted: September 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Source: Sample
Tech-head
Producer: Streicker Wines – www.streickerwines.com.au. The label was established in 2002 around the time John Streicker purchased his vineyards – Ironstone (Wilyabrup), Yallingup Protea Farm (Yallingup), and subsequently the Bridgeland vineyard (Rosa Glen).
Region: Margaret River, Western Australia.
Site: Bridgeland Vineyard, south-east of the township Margaret River – a cooler subregion with longer growing season.
Winemaking: Open ferment. Matured for 18 months in French oak.
Vintage: A mild and gentle growing season with no rain, hail, or bird issues, however a Looper bug infestation did knock some vineyards about and yields were low. Generally however, this is an excellent year.
This wine appeared in a sample pack I received a few months ago and I’ve only just got to it. Yes, I know it says 2009 and I bet you’re all groaning right now. But I have to tell you, I didn’t check the vintage before opening and tasting this wine and assumed from the outset it was current vintage, being 2010, until I looked at the label. It actually looked pretty fresh for it's age.
Willow Bridge Estate are a sleeper out here in WA – we’ve all heard of them, but not many wine nerds probably get around to giving them a crack (this nerd included). They’re roughly 10 years old, and based in the Ferguson Valley (where?). They’ll hate me for saying this, but to set the scene for you, the Ferguson Valley is located approx 100km north of Margaret River in the hills immediately to the east of the regional city of Bunbury. It’s quite a little tourist hub now, can be very pretty, and is worth a visit on your WA trip.
The winemaker is Simon Burnell, formerly of Cape Mentelle in Margaret River, so he knows his stuff. Fruit for this particular wine is sourced from the Pemberton wine region, located south-west of the Ferguson Valley. I love Pemby Savvy. Alright, I know, I’ve probably confused you all now. It doesn't really matter. Read on..
Colour is pale to golden straw. All pineapple and marshmallow, flinty minerality and nettles. Some herbals/florals – nice – and some attractive spice characters in the form of anise and vanilla. Lively pungency still, soft in the acid department, and finishing with sweetish banana passionfruit aromas.
The first thing that I note on the palate is the creamy texture, which I’m guessing is aided by the partial natural fermentation. Flavours are in the greener tropicals – kiwifruit, rockmelon – and some citrussy lemon. On the fringes there’s herbal flavours of lemon myrtle, and lemongrass. Too much lemon you say? Oh, and a bit of lime and a touch of lovely wheatgrass.
Vibe
This does look pretty fresh for 2009 and is drinking well right now. Pemby is quite a bit cooler than Margaret River and therefore the wines exude a bit more lean, yet punchy, minerality, and a bit less of the tropical stuff. When they get the balance right, it’s very nice indeed. I enjoyed this and will probably seek out the 2011 version when it’s ready later this year. I think this wine forms part of the ‘Winemakers’ range, which, thankfully, has undergone a label change in recent times.
Value: The current release is $25 – I’m assuming this wine was in line with that. Up there, but a decent drop.
Tasted: June 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Willow Bridge Estate – www.willowbridge.com.au – Established in 1996 by the Dewar family.
Region: Ferguson Valley, Western Australia, although this wine is from the Pemberton region, south-west of Ferguson.
Site: Well-drained Marri soils, ironstone gravelly loam over clay.
Vintage: A top vintage in Pemberton – good winter rains preceded a mild and warm growing season without weather extremes or disease.
A leftover party wine (they always find their way to the blog, don’t they?) and I know it’s only Monday night but it’s been a pretty mixed and chaotic day and I’m feeling somewhat tetchy, so hey, what are you, my mother?
I expected to crack this for one glass only with our lamb roast in tomato reduction, but I made it to two with relative ease. Here’s why:
Youthfully vibrant purpling colour. A dusty nose of violets and rose petal, satsuma plum and prune juice, finishes with a savoury, meaty aroma. There’s a subtle dose of VA which I like to think is deliberate to lift the nose and add some zip and zap. The oak is simple and pencilly, leading to varnishy – not especially stylish, but well-handled for this style of wine and it’s price-point. In fact it’s very appropriate.
The palate is purpley – if you could taste colours then a youthful, vibrant, fresh and zingy red wine would be purple. There’s a floral flavour, some meatiness again, and the flavour spectrum runs from red to blackcurrants. It’s supple and soft – although tannins are certainly noticeable. There’s no lean-ness or green-ness – it’s basically a mid-weight wine that is pleasantly supple and textural and flavoursome without the ballsiness, intensity and drive you would get at another level up.
Vibe
Yeah, it’s not a bad drop for a Monday night home-cooked dinner. It’s difficult to discern individual varieties here and given the wine is labelled Western Australia I wouldn’t expect to pick the cabernet from the shiraz from the merlot. It’s a simple dry red style with characteristics of each variety, but melded sufficiently to make identification tough. But of course it don’t matter none for this style and price. Drink now or short term.
Value: I reckon I've seen this label from $20 down to $12 or 13 on promo. Good value in the middle of that range, great value on promo.
Tasted: April 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Fosters Group, out of the Devils Lair stable – www.fifthleg.com.au – a big company wine really.
Region: Western Australia – the previous vintage Fifth Leg Red came from both Margaret River and Geographe, but the website is not up to date so I can’t tell you where this one is from.
Vintage: Generally a good one in West Australia – mild and consistent growing season, a warm vintage without extreme heat spikes or undesirable rainstorms.
The colour is a light garnet, dull-ish - you know from the outset this wine isn’t gonna be big. A touch of VA greets on opening, un-worryingly. A pencilly nose gives way to fruit in the redcurrant and blueberry spectrum, with typical strawberries and cream. It’s a clean (VA aside), fresh, ruby-red style – cedary, floral/spicy, but with little in the way gamey/earth notes of fuller styles.
As expected, the palate is light-ish, soft and simple with red-fruits dominating; sweetish mid-palate with spicy notes, rosewater, bay leaf, and tapers away on the finish. All the usual measures are in good shape: acid balanced to fruit-weight balanced to oak treatment. I have to remember this is only $20 so I need to loosen the pinot-wanker-strings a bit. And so I do.
OK, add a little rare beef fillet soaked in soy/ginger/garlic/chili and the wine gives a little more. The nose looks sweeter and the palate texture broadens and gives the impression of more weight. The floral aromatics kick up a gear and there’s even a few foresty notes poking around. The base flavours also lift and give a new richness to the whole shebang, even if moderately. Texture is pretty slick. A food wine.
Vibe
Jeni Port of The Age rated this wine in her best for 2010 – albeit for Best Red Under #20. Weeeell... these ratings are always difficult and the trail marked ‘best wines of the year’ lays strewn with the carcasses of wines that simply don’t stack up. Soooo... with a pinch of salt and a shake of pepper. Honestly? I think it’s a pretty tidy wine. It’s probably more than tidy for $20. Pinot at $20 is a tough category and this one nails all the hard bits and comes through smiling. Not grinning, smiling. I’m OK with it. I’m sure they are too. (Note: 2nd night in and I think it delivers a little more. Perhaps worth a decanter, if you’re so inclined).
Value: Cellar door price is $20. As above, it’s hard to do this style well for that price. Easy with Cab and Shiraz, but Pinot is an unforgiving bugger. So, I call it good value.
Tasted: January 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Josef Chromy – www.josefchromy.com.au
Region: Tamar Valley, Tasmania – 10 mins south of Launceston at Relbia. A beautiful spot. Go visit.
Vintage: An average year in the Tamar – temperature swings and a cool flowering season didn’t help the cause, although they managed to avoid the frosts experienced in the south. A bit of disease pressure in parts but all up an OK year and some of the better producers got it right.
I don’t know how I ended up with this in the fridge for so long without knocking the top off it. I remember I had a few bottles of this around release time, around the same time it one 7 billion awards. At the time it was punchy, pungent, grassy, lemony and rich and I could’ve sat all day just sipping and smelling. Hey, I probably did.
OK, fast forward to last night. I’m not much chop for writing about wines that are (supposedly) past their ‘best by’ date. I don’t actually subscribe to that theory mind you – I’ve enjoyed many white wines that have been way past best drinking only to find them exquisitely satisfying.
Thus.... on opening I got a little limey sherbet through the nasals, aka grapefruit tang I suspect; with a thread of damp straw and grass. The typical pineapple/passionfruit has ceased to be considered ‘fresh’ yet still linger in a tinned peach and pineapple kind-of theme. I needed a bit of a brain-shift to get behind the aged pea-green savvy character, so I racked up some pork sausages with a fig salad to get me in the mood.
With food most wines take on a new life, especially older white wines, and with a few fatty mouthfuls of pork snags this wine springs up and pops you in the nose with some punchy lift and drive.
What followed was a combo of grapefruit, pineapple and mango juice, lychee and mangosteen characters – and hey, it’s gone all troppo. And yep, there’s still abundant richness and punch. Did I say there was punch? Lemon tart lip-smacking zippy crunchy munchy punch is what I’m sayin’.
Vibe
1. Big punch on the nose. 2. That aged savvy-ness kicked in and I wavered... slightly. 3. Out with the pork. Brought this baby alive. Got betterer and betterer. Delightful food wine. The moral? Don’t forsake the out-of-date drink now whites – mix them up with some good nosh, sit back and enjoy.
Value: Cellar door price is $17. Bargain. Member price is $14.45. Crazy bargain. Go buy some now. Currently selling 2010 (which I haven’t tasted but would happily buy on the strength of the 2009 providing the vintage was tidy, which it was).
Tasted: January 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Printhie Wines – www.printhiewines.com.au
Region: Orange, NSW – the NSW central tablelands east of Sydney – a wine region of high-ish elevation.
Vintage: A super vintage in Orange. Good rains in winter/spring. Mild summer conditions without the heat that affected most of the eastern Australian regions.
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.
