A little while ago I had the chance to go to San Francisco for the Australian Premium Wine Collection's portfolio tasting. It was a great tasting, plus I got to take a trip to San Francisco for my birthday.
Australian wines are still a relatively new to me, and up until recently I would have divided them into two categories: Yellowtail and Amon-Ra. In the 'Yellowtail' category, you've got the value brands that are often advertised on billboards or on the side of buses. While they are a pretty good wine value, I would generally rather pay the extra money to get something I'd really enjoy. In the 'Amon-Ra' category, you've got the big, highly extracted, high-alcohol wines that are so beloved by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. The 2006 Amon-Ra recieved a 97-100 point rating from Parker, it's big, full of rich blackberry and mocha, vanilla, coconut and spice. I can see what some people like about wines of this type, but as somebody who prizes elegance, subtlety, and food-friendliness, there are a lot of wines out there that I'd reach for first.
Now, all that being said, I've been drinking a lot more Australian wines lately, and I've found a lot of wines that don't fall into either of these categories. This tasting introduced me to several wines that have helped me re-evaluate my image of Australian wines.
I started with whites. Unoaked chardonnays from Wishing Tree and Elderton represented good values, both relatively inexpensive, refreshish, light without being uninteresting, and both with good acidity. When it comes to white wines, Australia's particularly well known for Riesling, and now I see why. The Clare Valley has the warm days and cool nights that allow the grapes to develop great natural acidity. The wines are vinified dry and generally come out very Alsatian in style with a lot of petrol and floral character on the nose, great acidity, and often a very distinct minerality which comes from the high content of shale in the soils of the Clare Valley. My favorite Rieslings were from Rocky Gully, Frankland Estate and Mount Horrocks. The Mount Horrocks was particularly interesting. They have a dry riesling which is good, although a little spendy, they also have a dessert riesling called Gordon Cut, which is made in a unique style. 20% of the fruit is picked at normal ripeness and vinified into dry wine. The remaining fruit is left on the vine, but the clusters are cut most of the way from the vine so that they stop recieving nutrients and therefore don't ripen any further, they just become raisins on the vine, at which point they are vinified into sweet wine, and then blended with the dry wine. The result is a dessert wine with remarkable acidity, and a sugar level that's sweet and delicious, and not all syrupy or cloying. At nearly $30 retail for a 375ml bottle, it's not exactly cheap, but it is well worth it.
Moving on to reds, I started with the couple of Pinot Noirs that were available. I've never been impressed with Pinot Noir from Australia particularly considering how well the grape does in New Zealand. I've often felt that the Aussies should just stick to the several other varietals which do work well in their climate. The first two Pinots that I tried did nothing to change my opinion, however the last I tried, from Grosset winery, was excellent. It was elegant and floral, with fruit that was juicy but not over-extracted, and a little clove and cola character on the palate. I can definitely say that this is the best Australian Pinot Noir I've ever had. However at a retail price over $40, there are a lot of less expensive Pinots from other regions that are of at least comparable in quality.
I tried a number of Grenaches and found them to be very hit-or-miss, a lot of them either too light and generally unremarkable, or too extracted and high in alcohol, but I did find a few that managed to find the balance, and showed very well. The 2006 Tir na N'og Old Vine Grenache demonstrated that it's possible to have balance and extraction at the same time. The nose is full of sweet fruit preserves, baking spice, and grilled bread. The palate starts with big fruit and a bit of spice, and finishes with blackberry, espresso, and mocha. The 2005 Old Failthful Northern Exposure Grenache has a similar sweetness in the nose, although less of dark fruit. It actually reminded me vividly of easter candy, the palate was very nicely integrated, with black currant and blueberry fruit, and charmingly fine tannins.
One of my favorite reds was from Hewitson winery, their Old Garden Mourvedre was one of the most unique and interesting things I tried all day. The nose was a combination of ripe red cherry, crystallized ginger, and baking spice. The palate was fantastically complex with sweet fruit, ripe tannins, and hints of savory spice.
Shiraz is, of course, the main event at any Australian tasting. I re-tasted the 2004 Command Shiraz from Elderton and I still think it's fantastic. I was also quite fond of a few I hadn't tried before, including the Hewitson Ned and Henry's Shiraz, the 2004 Coates Shiraz, with a distinctive tart cherry character, and some black tea and potpourri aromatics. One of the most unique of the Shiraz (Shirazes? What's the plural of Shiraz? Anyway...) was from Craiglee. I tried three vintages, the 2001 showed white pepper on the nose, with licorice, and was almost Barolo-ish. The 2003 was similar, showing more fruit extraction, and the 2005 showed the most fruit, and more of the mocha and vanilla that's common to so many of these wines, but still with the distinctive white pepper character.
Unfortunately by this point I'd been tasting wine for over 2 hours, and my palate was pretty much shot. We departed the tasting for a seafood restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf. I had some fresh oysters and a tuna melt with a beer.
Beer is the best thing in the world after a long wine tasting.
Fresh oysters are awesome.
