This wine is quite dark plum in colour with obvious semi-filtering, nice depth of colour to the edge.  Very much still showing its youth.

A little restrictive on the nose, I feel that mostly new oak has been used to mature this wine.  Nice, lengthy acidic backbone and clear warmth of alcohol which as I read sat at 14%.

Moderate spice components but a great deal less than I expected.  I think the parcels of Merlot grapes that were chosen for this vintage might not have been the very best.  Moderate finish with a lifted plum character.  Well backed with chalky tannins but perhaps  a little over-riding for this fruit flavour mix.

Not a bad wine, just not a great wine.  87 points.

All wines tasted 25 August 2010.

2009 Tomich Hill  Sauvignon Blanc, 13%

Good colour, nice and clear, a little restrictive on the nose still but a good, typical Adelaide Hills SB palate.  Nice packaging.

2008 Russell Grenock Farm Sauvignon Blanc, 13%

Superb packaging.  Standout wine, highly aromatic, nice strong colour and a fantastic length supported by the expected stonefruit, custard apple and lemon flavours.  Fantastic wine.

2009 Skuttlebutt Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, 13%

Loads of green cut grass aroma and flavour, very minerally, nice acid, well supported citrus flavours.  A little bitter, but very pleasant nonetheless.  Great afternoon wine on the balcony.

09 Stella Bella Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, 13%

A fairly round wine with limited aromaticity, it’s a well made wine but nothing extraordinary in this bottle unfortunately.  It’s sister counterpart, the Suckfizzle far exceeds it in terms of style and interest.

2007 Stella Bella Viognier, 13.5%

Interesting wine indeed and clearly well made and sensibly approached by the winemakers.  It has a fairly long finish with excellent (but very delicate) fruit aromas.  It’s not overly oily or cloying and there is a strong mineral backbone.  Very pleasant and showing well now.

2008 Stella Bella Chardonnay, 13%

Powerful aromas, slightly toasty scent.  Fantastic appearance that will improve with time.  Palate is long, well rounded and highly flavoursome.  Will age well to 2020 and beyond.

2008 Allan Scott Wallops Chardonnay, 14%

I admit this wine didn’t do it for me personally, but it finds its merits among the cool climate chardonnays.  For me, it seems to be trying a little too hard to maintain its aroma which quickly dissipated from my glass.

Dan’s Pick of the Bunch

2006 Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, 13%

An absolutely cracking wine.  Had me in awe for at least ten minutes after the first sip.  Big, ballsy capsicum aromas and flavours dominate the mix with softer gooseberry, mineral, green herb and lemon flavours coming through on the final palate.  Well lifted aromas and acidity.  Great wine, perfect with light tagines on a hot day.

 There are many positives to bottling wine in PET (polyethylene tetra[tere]phthalate) –  

 The bottles are unbreakable which makes them safer and easier to transport –  ideal for festivals, picnics, sporting events and beach parties – one of the reasons Qld’s Sirromet winery brought out their PET bottled wine involved discussions with  Liquor Licencing regarding safety at their regular big music events.

 PET bottles are around 90% lighter than industry standard glass bottles – this coupled with their reduced diameter results in considerable savings in the transport chain and therefore a smaller carbon footprint – most experts are claiming a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from PET bottles.

 PET is fully recyclable and easily crushable.

 And so to the negatives –

 Although oxygen scavengers and barrier technologies are used to help preserve the quality of the wine, PET only has an average shelf life of 12 months and (even more strangely) a recommendation to drink within 48hrs of purchase.

 Some health concerns relate to acetaldehydes being released into the wine when the bottles are subjected to a rise in temperature and further implications of certain estrogenic compounds that have been found in PET.

 A report released in May this year by the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ISVV) in Bordeaux stated that the oxidation of wine in PET bottles starts within 6 months.

 Wine in PET bottles isn’t considered to be very classy and they have a low-rent image.

 Regardless of these arguments, the industry seems to be moving forward with PET. In 2009, despite previous disappointing 2006 experiments in Canada and Britain, Wolfblass released their Green Label wines in 750ml PET bottles. All the high-end UK supermarkets: Marks and Spencers, Waitrose and Sainsburys have their own PET bottled wines and just last month Backsberg winery have released their Tread Lightly range – the first certified South African wine sold in PET bottles. At this stage most proponents seem to be going with a ‘drink now’ style in these bottles and not expensive wines intended for cellaring – with 80% of wine consumed within 48 hours of purchase, this may not be an issue.

 So, would you buy wine in a plastic bottle?

• Cedar Creek Estate (interesting all round, still emerging as a winemaker though)
• Springdell Fruit Wines (interesting fruit wines)
• Golden Grove Estate (always love Sam and Grace’s wines)
• Summit Estate Wines (Wayne was very helpful)
• Riversands Wines (what a great Cab Merl!)
• Jim’s Jerky (amazing dried meats and salami)
• Perry’s Lemon Myrtle Rainforest Products
• Back Pocket Single Vineyard (gob-smackingly good Old Savina Shiraz 06 and sparkling shiraz ‘Fandango’).

Yes it can be a daunting matching process but these wines are ‘too’ deserving to be left out of a great meal or relegated to a few sips by the fire after all the guests have gone home!

We will be generous in our interpretation of ‘Dessert Wines’ and embrace a number of styles including late harvest and botrytised wines, sweet sparkling wines, ice wines and fortifieds. 

A couple of “guidelines” (we don’t like rules) for this matching adventure are:

The wine should be as sweet as or sweeter than the dessert.

AND

You should match the intensity and flavour of the dessert with that of the wine.

Sweet sparkling wines such as moscato d’asti (piedmont, Italy) with its floral scented fruity spritz would go wonderfully with a delicate Pavlova, a light fruit salad or meringue with fresh berries and passion fruit coulis.

Ice wine is produced from grapes frozen on the vines in extremely cold weather resulting in highly concentrated sugars and flavours – it is a perfect dessert wine with fresh/dried stone/tropical fruit and honey flavours – a match made in heaven for sponge cake, fruit based desserts, delicately flavoured ice-cream, tropical fruit crepes and even cheesecake!

Late harvest and botrytised wines most often semillon or riesling varieties, are also highly concentrated in their sugars and flavours and their luscious mouth-filling caramel, apricot, citrus, honey and dried fruit flavours can be matched with the sweetest of desserts. Try sticky date pudding, rich chocolate mousse with mandarin sauce or even tea cake with rose syrup.

The fortifieds are of course also very dessert worthy. As alcohol is added to stop the fermentation process, port wines are kept sweet and so are all suitable for dessert matching. Sherry is only fortified when it has finished fermenting and therefore is of a dry style unless sweetened post fermentation. So make sure if you are matching with a sherry that it is a sweet one.

A 20 yr old tawny port with its dried fruit, caramel and nutty flavours would go well with desserts containing a hint of spice like crème brulee or apple cobbler. The fiery fruity sweetness of ruby port however, would need desserts of more intense flavours like chocolate mousse or Black Forest gateau! 

We couldn’t talk about dessert without mentioning the wonderful pedro ximenez (Px) sherry; one of the sweetest wines in the world and when poured over ice-cream it can make its own dessert. It is also lovely with brandied figs with mascarpone and is one of few wines that match well with chocolates!

For you traditionalists out there who don’t believe in dessert – try a strong blue cheese with a fabulous Rutherglen muscat.

De Bortoli Noble Botrytis Semillon 2004

6:00 – wake, super-healthy breakfast of oats and fruit (yes, just like a horse), read the newspaper online, check for reviews of our winemakers

7:00 – invoices, emails, social media updates

8:00 – hit the road for a morning of meetings and wine tastings

9:00 – first retailer, big burly man with a heart of gold sitting behind the counter, wants all five wines on show today, good start to the day

10:00 – second retailer, enormous store but recently a sister company of theirs became insolvent, so no chance of stock purchase, decide during conversation to change direction of meeting to accommodate networking and future collaborations, rather than trying for a hard sell – far more beneficial

11:00 – major client meeting, new marketing client wants us to handle their complete PR strategy development and execution until 2012, fantastic news is that their products are actually well made and work!  A rare find in an industry that is overburdened by low quality, high volume production

12:00 – fast lunch and strong coffee to drown the morning’s meetings away

12:30 – strategic development meeting of our directors – exciting new developments in the southern states leaves opportunities for our firm to grow – big ‘to do’ list of research is noted and staff leaving in good spirit – could this mean the company grows interstate before 2011?

14:00 – wine tasting event at Mercure hotel, 150 guests, all professional women for a luncheon to support breast cancer.  Showed 7 wines, a big stretch for a two-hour event complete with speeches.  Left with 90 odd on a database sign-up form – perfect networking tool for later.

16:00 – restaurant visit, informal verbal questionnaire to determine whether our distribution service is up to scratch compared to the giants like Fosters.  Turns out we’re far nicer and deliver more efficiently (time-wise).  Nice one team!

17:00 – deliver a speech over dinner at the Institute of Management, fantastic group of accountants and lawyers, absolutely nothing in common with the wine industry barring a passion for money and policy – well.. at least that’s something!

20:00 – home office, tidying some filing, generate to do list for the next day considering there is only one meeting booked in.  Sent out to do lists to on-road sales consultants with their organised meetings for the next week and a half.

23:00 – best part of the day.  Glass of old tawny or perhaps a tokay from Rutherglen, followed by a hot shower and a long snooze.

It struck me today that people who create things (art, music, food, wine or anything really) tend to champion their creations so strongly that they are easily blinded by criticism, even the constructive kind.

Call me a zealot, but I’m a sucker for criticism and feedback.  I believe that open communication and constructive commentary on products and services is how we can best improve them.  For this single reason, I love open internet forums where we can talk about wine… this blog, for example.

I might be nuts, but I’ve noticed lately that some winemakers defend their wines to the point of chastising reviewers for publishing their honest thoughts.  Sure, I understand that if a wine receives a few ‘bad reviews’ from various Mr Joe-Nobodies then some punters will come across those reviews and disembark from the purchasing bandwagon.  To be honest, if amateur reviewers agree en masse that a wine isn’t great, then chances are you shouldn’t buy it either.  Despite the negative effect criticism may have on wine sales, wine (like art) is subjective and people are absolutely entitled to voice their opinions (even the negative ones).

Flicking through an online wine forum last week, I was confronted by a winemaker’s comments to an ‘amateur reviewer’.  The winemaker came from an obscure part of South Africa.  He chastised Mr Amateur Reviewer for negatively reviewing his most expensive wine and publishing the notes online.  He said “Why did you say my wine had an unnecessarily strong acidic backbone?  Why do you think the wine doesn’t taste ready to drink yet?  Great, now nobody will buy it in Australia”.  (Well, not quite true sir.  If I may butt in, Aussies would still buy your wine here to cellar it…if it weren’t so overpriced).

Anyway, Mr Amateur Reviewer correctly asserted that a strong acidic backbone is necessary in nearly all good wines.  Without sufficient acidity most wines (especially whites) fall flat on the palate and are ‘boring’.  He also highlighted that he still gave the wine 92 points (of 100) – a fairly high score.  For Mr Amateur Reviewer, the wine was far too acidic for the varietal.  He felt that the acidity and high alcohol content overpowered the fruit flavours and aromas, so that’s what he wrote.  I reckon that’s pretty fair – if that’s what he truly tasted in the glass.

It’s a bit disappointing Mr Winemaker didn’t think to ask how or why Mr Amateur Reviewer thought those things.

Personally, I dislike winemakers who arc up over negative reviews.  Firstly, your wine should be good and reliable – no excuses.  If it’s not, then throw the blasted stuff out during production.  Bad wine should never reach the bottling process.  Secondly, if you do receive a few negative reviews why not find out why, and then work on correcting the issues next vintage.  Never, ever chastise your punters, especially those who are active enough to write about your wines.  What do you think they’re going to write about next?  Yes, that’s right… your bad behaviour!  Even if the wine issues are purely a seasonal concern, it would be pragmatic to understand the basis for any negative opinions.  From the next vintage, work to correctly segment your market and you can receive valuable returns by way of positive reviews by happy punters.  Please them, don’t chastise them.

So, my dear readers, I want to put it out there that when you’re reading a review, try to remember that it’s only the opinion of (usually) one person.  As such, don’t decide whether to purchase based only on that single review.  Read around, shop around.. whatever you want to call it – get educated by your peers online.

13.8% ABV.  Screwcap.  Vibrant ruby colour, clear and healthy looking.  Delicate rose, cherry blossom, cinnamon, clove, lifted orange oil aromas, gentle earthiness but mostly expressive of floral and fruit characters.  Good soft entry, refined tannin structure, supportive spice components, good acid/alcohol balance, delicate plum, cherry, currant and raspberry flavours, warming, hints of herbaceousness, savoury and unobtrusive oak assistance, refined along the entire palate with a delicate palate weight and lasting persistence.  95 pts.

2008 Derwent Estate Pinot Noir – Granton, TAS

13.5% ABV.  Screwcap.  Rich, deep purple hue with relatively dense rim for a Pinot.  Earthy, mouldy, grainy aromas are balanced by a deep and dark range of bright purple fruits (plums, cherries, blackberries).  Delicate oak to the nose, pleasant and lifted scents.  Fruit driven entry into the front palate, rich, creamy (malolactic influences), soft white pepper, silky tannin structure, moderate palate weight, pleasant toasty character on the finish which highlights the creamy – fruity flavours of the wine.  Full fruit and well developed oak resting.  Pleasantly warming with a long finish (the toasty flavours are the last to leave).  Refreshing and mysterious.  Very much a new world Pinot Noir, perfect for the contemporary Australian market.  I particularly enjoy this wine’s palate weight (not heavily fined) and I believe it will age incredibly well for the next 12 years +.  96 pts.

2007 Paradigm Hill Wines Col’s Block Shiraz – Mornington Peninsula, VIC

13.6% ABV.  Screwcap.  Clear and deep red hue to the rim.  Tarry, tobacco box, raspberry, black pepper, eucalypt aromas.  Clean nose – very straightforward but not offensive.  Gorgeous black spice on the sides, toasty and caramel-like (though not the sweet kind) there’s a lovely raspberry flavour backed by a small vanilla component, some herbaceousness (spinach?), rustic and masculine.  This is a great cool climate shiraz, a bit ‘old world’ which is welcome.  Moderately long finish, fantastic palate weight and a good acidity to balance the heavy fruit flavours.  Will definitely age until at 2025.  92 pts.

2007 Blue Poles Vineyard Allouran – Margaret River, WA

14.0% ABV.  Screwcap.  This wine is 66% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Franc.  Traditional Right Bank Bordeaux blend.  Very deep red hue, verging on black in density.  Attractive to look at.  Beautiful herbaceousness, hints towards green leaves, mentha, black pepper fragrances.  Deeply earthy and brooding.  Relatively heavy oak on the nose but opens up with a tiny bit of airing to strong plum aromas.  Some chickory – which I found unique.  Some chocolate scents.  Pleasant, bitter-sweet entry on the front palate (excellent fruit coverage).  Good palate weight, alcohol is well balanced by the acid, fruit and spice characters.  Chalky to silky tannin structure.  Typical fruit-cake melange of spices associated with Merlot, but it goes deeper – closer to stewed plums in cloves.  Aromatic and sensual.  Decent oak indicates that this wine will age well past 2020.  Excellent finish but this will improve with further aging too.  Delicious.  94 pts.

2008 Blue Poles Reserve Merlot - Margaret River, WA

14.0% ABV.  Screwcap.  Extremely deep red hue to the rim.  Tobacco, plum, cardamom, cinnamon and clove on the nose.  Some raspberry influence on aroma.  Strong nose but pleasant.  Definite hint of cocoa.  Lifted mixed berry aromas are nice.  Soft entry onto palate, very fine acidity, superb palate weight, lengthly, broad but not angular, chocolate, cherry, plum, minor raspberry and clove flavours.  Gorgeous tannin (chalky but leaning towards silky).  Exceptionally well made wine, fantastic length and very foward on the fruit.  Drink now but see fantastic results 10+ years.  96 pts.

It was clear the Verdelho was the real hit of the evening and this is where most of the event post-sales were made.

Here are some images from the night (excuse the quality – the camera wasn’t the best!)

Become a member of the Club here:  http://www.indooroopillygolf.com.au/welcome/index.mhtml

This wine has a fairly deep golden hue to its body and rim, is rather viscous but very clear and bright.

The nose deeply resembles the characteristics of young Riesling grapes, particularly the alluding to delicate lime and mineral aromas.  It’s clear that the botrytis has added another layer of aromatics, particularly those of orange blossom, orange oil and jasmine.  A slight hint of rancio character, which is strange but interesting (in a good way).  Deep of nose aromas are backed by slight vanillin scents.

The palate immediately states the sweetness (from the high residual sugar levels left after fermentation).  With adequate, but slightly lower than expected acidity, there seems to be a mild mandarin flavour and a creaminess I usually associate with MLF.  Good balance along the palate, there is a small and delicious amount of delicate white grape tannin here, binding itself to the orange blossom flavours of the botrytis effect.  Some tartness to the wine, but the sweetness really overides this to a great extent.  Very gentle flavours on the finish of white chocolate, stewed citrus fruits, burnt toffee and hazelnuts.  Interesting palate – but don’t serve it too cold or you’ll miss out on the smaller flavours.

89 points.