This, my second review featuring a wine from Chapel Hill’s ‘il Vescovo’ range – the first can be found here – and I don’t mind saying up front (spoiler warning!), I liked it muchly.
Sangiovese around the world can look decidedly different whilst managing to maintain the basic characteristics of the variety. But does anyone do it as well as Chianti? It’s a style thing. So yes, and no, but don't expect an essay on it here. This beauty from McLaren Vale does a pretty fine job of it. Here’s what it looked like:
Lively blood red, bright colour. A note of charry oak greets the nose, a little varnishy; some vanilla-scented spice, musk. Lovely floral aromas of lavender and violets, a touch of liquorice and tar – attacking the nose – some herbal stalky elements, and a yummo whiff of Thai red curry. There’s some coastal heath and native shrubbery notes, and that’s a good thing as I’m a guy who likes a bit of coastal heath and native shrubbery. I also get a sweetish ribena-like character which is a whole lot better than it probably sounds. Ribena for grown-ups.
The palate is round, supple, yet dense and lively. Mouth-watering is the right word, featuring redcurrants and blueberry pie, dark cherry, dried prunes and figs, raisins; and a lovely tomatoey savoury/sweet flavour. Structurally precise, balancing flavour-weight, oak, tannin and acid. The raisiny flavours were so seductive, like a coffee hit.
Vibe
Seductive, addictive, and a high drinkability factor. Seems to have nailed the savoury/sweet combo and although the wine looked even better with pizza (naturally), it handled itself with aplomb sans food.
Value: A very, very reasonable $22 a bottle – a bargain I say.
Tasted: July 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Source: Purchased
Tech-head
Producer: Chapel Hill – www.chapelhillwine.com.au – owned by the Swiss-based Schmidheiny family since 2000.
Region: McLaren Vale, South Australia.
Site: The Kangarilla Vineyard in the foothills of the Mt Lofty Ranges at the eastern edge of McLaren Vale.
Winemaking: Open fermenters, hand-plunged, eight days on skins before basket-pressing. Matured in 2, 3 and 4 year-old French oak for 16 months.
Vintage: Good winter rains followed by a dry spring. Although January was a hottie, the remainder of summer provided ideal ripening conditions. Generally a good year.
I walked into this one with only one expectation. That the love I once held for very ripe, rich, alcohol-laden, heavily-oaked shiraz from McLaren Vale had probably faded, or at best been superseded by far more fashionable drinking trends.
Two things happened. I realised I was right. And I realised I was wrong.
The colour is just shy of inky black and a swirl of the glass showed she was pretty viscous. Chocolate filled the air on opening, or to be precise – oaky chocolate. Sweet new oak. Caramel fudgy chocolatey oaky chocolateness. And pencilly oak too. You get the picture, but this wine smelled like new clothes, new furniture and new car all rolled into one. The fruit spectrum ranges from the dark spicy plum pudding to intensely aromatic bay leaf, cardamom, star anise, cassis and blackberry. It’s tarry and charry. There’s marzipan and cherry ripe too, and some gorgeous vanilla pod. So much primary fruitiness going on here for a wine of its age. And the peppery character often associated with this variety . It wasn’t completely clean or flawless – I detected a little VA plus a slight burnt toast character, which may have been a sulphide issue, but nothing to get too excited about. Finally, I have to say the alcohol was evident, yet it seemed perfectly at ease in the balance of things and I don’t think it looked in any way excessive.
The palate was like an extension of the nose – an ethereal seamlessness ran from one to the other. By the time the wine reached my open gob I was still heady from the aromas of the bouquet and it all melded into one, filling my senses with bold, rich, juicy shiraz. Flavours? Plum and raisins, and oak(!), sweet blackberry and mocha; black cherry chocolate. Texture? Velvety fine tannins, supple, smooth, long. Despite all of the above, I couldn’t call this wine ‘heavy’ – there was some (dare I say it) elegance to all the richness, and even (No!) some restraint. It finished warm, unsurprisingly, yet I still didn’t think the wine looked overly alcoholic. And then finally I checked the back label and saw ‘Alc: 16%’. What the...?
Vibe
A classic style, beautifully made in yesterday’s mould. I am right to say I have moved beyond these styles of wine, rarely drink them, and am no longer titillated by them. But I am wrong to say my love for them has faded. I am nostalgic for them and appreciate the style, commitment and artistry. And on the odd occasion I get to spill one into a glass I’m reminded of a time of great learning and development on my way to becoming a fully-fledged boorish wine berk.
As I drank this wine I saw all the elements in balance, all the buttons pushed, all the boxes ticked – and the world stood, for a moment, in harmony.
(I probably cracked this wine a little earlier than I should have, but I do prefer wines on the upward drinking escalator as opposed to the downward. I reckon this is drinking smashingly well and if you enjoy your bigger reds a little fresher with primary characters still to the fore, then get into one now).
Value: Purchased via mail order at $50/bottle. The Block 6 wines were extremely good value in the ‘90’s yet have increased rapidly with demand. I still think this is a pretty good value wine in the scheme if things. I can think of many other equally priced wines that may not be so worthy.
Tasted: March 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Kay Brothers Wines – www.kaybrothersamerywines.com – established 1890, family-owned. This wine is the flagship of the company and the fruit from estate-grown 100+ year vines.
Region: McLaren Vale, South Australia.
Vintage: A good year in the Vale. Plenty of winter rains, an even ripening season, a short/hot vintage and high sugars (therefore alcohols).
I’ve been on the Kay Brothers mailing list for some time. The Block 6 Shiraz was the main reason – I tasted it first at a wine club dinner when I was a mere baby, and was impressed by its over-ripe richness and power – a style I was unaccustomed to at the time. As the mailing list has grown and the allocations of this wine have shrunk (and the price has crept up accordingly, although still reasonable) I have in more recent years been buying some of the Kay’s whites and cheaper reds to offset.
In a recent cleanout of the cellar I found three bottles of 2007 Riesling so I chucked one in the icebox to give it a burl. McLaren Vale is not exactly the epicentre of fine Riesling, thus the fruit for this wine is sourced from 60 year-old vines in Eden Valley. I approached this casually and with less-than-the-usual vigour. I’m happy to say I was pleasantly rewarded.
Slightly yellowing straw colour. The nose offered a whole bunch of interesting aromas – from oily kero to damp straw to plummy nashi pear to potpourri and lavender. Probably the wildest descriptor I pencilled down was ‘sweaty vinyl upholstery, crushed ants, balsa-wood, and a handful of pine needles’. I’m smelling it again and I can wholly vouch for that one. There’s a smoky hint, and some citrussy lemon and a little green peach too.
I love an oily palate. This one has it in spades. The acid has been backed off, or diminished with time in bottle, and there’s an enjoyable creaminess going on. Flavour-wise I’m initially hit with salty green peas, giving way to some lovely, sweet grapefruit and lemon juice, and a fine line of minerality. There’s good weight, there’s depth and great length, and with a piece of grilled Snapper and some home-made chippies it went down a treat.
Vibe
An unexpected pleasure from a producer not renowned for its cooler white varietals. Riesling and fish is usually a good mix, especially if you use ingredients that complement the flavours/aromas of the wine. Like lemon juice, thyme, pepper. I reckon I’ll grab some more Kay’s Riesling next order.
Value: Cellar door price was $20 if I remember. Just about right I reckon.
Tasted: February 2011
Closure: Screwcap
Tech-head
Producer: Kay Brothers – www.kaybrothersamerywines.com – established 1890, famous for their Block 6 Shiraz produced in small quantities from 100+ year vines.
Region: The fruit came from Eden Valley, South Australia, although the winery and main vineyards are in McLaren Vale (the sometimes poorer cousin of Barossa but a personal favourite of mine)
Vintage: A short, sharp vintage in 2007 due to the warm and dry winter/spring. Some bodgy weather at flowering and a lack of water approaching vintage reduced yields. An average year.
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.
