Riposte By Tim Knappstein 2014 "The Dagger" Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir

"En garde!"

I can't fence, (either with a blade, or repairing that piece of timber between my house and my neighbours).  However I do like it when people refuse to be bound by expectations and respond with a sharp wit. No pun intended....(actually there is!)

Tim Knappstein created the label Riposte, (meaning among other things, a counterstroke in fencing), in response to selling his wine brand to the giant international beverage company Lion Nathan. No doubt there were some restrictions on him trading in the w

ine industry afterwards, especially when it came to how he used his name on a wine label. Such are the ways of big business, and Tim has replied with a sense of mirth and style.

The fruit for this wine is all Adelaide hills, which produces some lovely cool climate Pinot Noir characters, but usually for a lot more money than the Knappsteins are asking. The oak is restrained, which helps keep the wine fruit-driven, with minimal tannins, whilst also keeping the cost down. This is why its so affordable to those of us who can't fence. Clever stuff Mr Knappstein.

Without a fencing mask upon your face, it's easy to stick your nose in the glass and smell all those lovely mixture of dried fruits and spice notes. This is a soft Pinot Noir with juicy Raspberry, Bloodplum, and Cherry flavours. There are some herb and vegetal characters with a touch of nutmeg. It has some nice soft tannins due to time spent in older French oak, and it finishes with some gentle acidity. The fruit has not been whole-bunch pressed which has minimised the stalky characters present in some Pinot Noir. You either love or hate that character. I enjoyed them not being present in this wine.  Overall, this is a wine to truly saber, sorry, I meant savour.

For 2014 vintage, I recommend drink while young and vibrant, (till 2018), with some ripe Brie. I paid $20 and thought it was a bargain.

Time to go fix the fence!

Cave De Lugny 2012 Macon-Villages Chardonnay

"Bargain Basement Burgundy Blanc"

Burgundy offers some of the greatest examples of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the planet, and the prices often asked reflects that, and keeps many of their wines firmly out of the grasp of Monsieur and Madame Average.

This wine is a simple but honest example of a Chardonnay from Macon-Villages, a sub region of Burgundy, (Bourgogne), in France. The price tag is below the radar of the Bourgousie - thankfully.

A blend of Chardonnay from different vineyards throughout Macon, it smacks of typical French minerality.  The colour was pale yellow, indicating subtle use of French oak.  The nose was restrained with suggestions of delicate orange blossom and citrus notes.  There were nice crisp fruit flavours of mandarin, grapefruit, honeysuckle and orange peel that lingered on the palate. Due to the subtle use of French oak, I recommend keeping the dish simple to match the subtle flavours of the wine. We chose to pair it with steamed fish and asparagus, which worked well.

If you have any of this vintage, drink now or keep up to three years. If you don't, then you could probably be picking up a later vintage which, as far as I am aware, is only available from Vintage Cellars, across Australia. I paid $14 for my 2012 vintage.   

Leconfield 2009 Coonawarra Cabernet Merlot vs Richard Hamilton 2006 McLaren Vale Grenache Shiraz

"The Lamb Challenge"

Leconfield 2009 Coonawarra Cabernet Merlot vs Richard Hamilton 2006 McLaren Vale Grenache Shiraz

Cruising the local supermarket on a Saturday afternoon we saw that lamb cutlets were on special. Lamb is my weakness and the George Foreman should never come near a lamb cutlet, no matter what the notches on my belt may say.

Two wines were debated on, and in the end it was like Thunder dome. Two may enter, only one can leave. Oddly enough both wines were made by the same stable, Leconfield. One wine comes from their Coonawarra Vineyard, and the Other from their McLaren Vale vineyards. Both wines were decanted and awaited their face off in the Thunder dome.

The Richard Hamilton wine comes from dry grown vines planted in 1947. It is an 80/20 blend.

The colour was Brick Red. The nose was cherries, redcurrants, briar and cinnamon and made me think of Christmas pudding.

The palate had cherries, smoked meat, redcurrants, raspberry, licorice, allspice and menthol. The length was good, with great development. Drink for another 5 years.

The Leconfield is all Coonawarra fruit, also an 80/20 blend from vines planted in 1974.

The Colour was blood red. The nose was loaded with mint, eucalyptus, camphor, capsicum, cedar, roses and Lantana. Dare I say, it smells like winter, the warmth of a crackling fire near dark stained furniture.

The Palate was oozing mint,eucalyptus, green pepper, capsicum, orange peel, Turkish delight, menthol Irish moss, and fennel. This is a medium bodied elegant wine with good length. Drink for another 3-5 years.

Interestingly, both wines had flavours of mint or menthol which just screams "give me Lamb".

The wife chose The Richard Hamilton. I chose The Leconfield. However, as I drank most of her Richard Hamilton, I guess any choice is kind of a moot point.

At any rate, points were awarded and tallied, and the  winner is.....let's just leave it as a draw, after all... happy wife, happy life.

How was the lamb, you asked?  Well, the cutlets were marinated in olive oil with paprika, oregano, basil, and parsley. They were pan fried and served with some mashed potato and julienned carrots.  It was great!  Made even greater by two delicious wines as its travelling companions.

The current vintages;

The Richard Hamilton 2013 McLaren Vale is now 100% Grenache and sells for $45 at Cellar Door

The Leconfield 2012 Coonawarra Cabernet Merlot is $25 from Cellar Door

2010 WayWood Years 98 Nebbiolo

"The only Way is up..."

This funky label commemorates a significant point in the life of winemaker Andrew Wood rather than the vintage, which is 2010. 

Andrew, once a sommelier now a trained winemaker, marks years of significance with the "WayWood Years range". '98 marks the year he completed his Sommelier studies before deciding to study winemaking and move from Britain to his adopted home in Australia.

Andrew and his lovely wife Lisa operate a boutique McLaren Vale winemaking outfit concentrating on Italian styled wines that have tonnes of flavour without massive tannins. These are definitely food-friendly wines that will go with everything from pasta to a massive Angus fillet.

This wine style has its traditional home in the Piedmont region of Italy, but the fruit Andrew uses is from Blewitt Springs within the greater McLaren Vale region.

The WayWood philosophy is all about nurturing individual parcels of fruit to produce wines that truly express site, vintage and variety.  In order to produce wines reflecting their passion, this often means throwing the rulebook out the window in order to follow flavour.  This approach definitely works.    

The fruit for this wine spends 18 months in fine-grained new French oak, with a medium toast providing a subtle charred cedar character with a fine tannin structure. It then slumbered in bottle for a further twelve months before its release in the Spring of 2013.

The colour is inky, suggesting a heavier wine than this lovely medium bodied drop, that is full of flavour without being overwhelming. Aromas of fruitcake, raspberry and nutmeg.

The flavours are layered with aniseed, fruitcake, bramble, acetate, tar, roses, and nutmeg. There is big acid and big length and at 14.3% its fairly big alcohol for a Nebbiolo, especially while retaining balance. Drink this wine way into the next decade.

Enjoy with a nice spicy dish such as Fettuccinne Putanesca!

They only produced 100 dozen of this wine so if you want one, best get yourself into their cellar door. Whilst there, enjoy some of the fantastic food that Lisa puts together. This is a little bit of Italy in McLaren Vale. Delizioso!

$50 per bottle from Cellar Door or $250 for a 6 Pack.

Jim Barry 1998 Watervale Clare Valley Riesling

Old is Gold!

OK so the label is sort of yellow and gold. The wine colour is yellow-gold. However, what I'm really talking about is how it drinks...To paraphrase Bania from Seinfeld; "That's gold Jerry, gold!"

The 1998 vintage produced some of the best Riesling of the 90's, especially in Clare where Riesling is King.

Still under cork, and aged superbly. I'd like to take some credit for my patient and skillful maturing of this wine. After all, I bought it, I stored it, which means I basically did nothing. To quote Seinfeld again; "Its a show about nothing Jerry!" So obviously the Barry family did a lot more work on this than I did.

To start with, the fruit comes from the famous limestone soils of Watervale's Florita vineyard, which John Vickery used to make the famous award winning Leo Buring Rieslings of the 1970's. The Barry's set a record when they purchased this vineyard. It was the most expensive block in Clare to date, but the Barry's had to have it.

Hand picked fruit, cold soaked before crushing, in order to produce a delicate Riesling of great flavour, good acid and low alcohol at only 12.5%

Aromas: honey, kumquat, and quince.

Flavours: kumquat, persimmon, and apricot. Massively developed characters of preserved lemon, baked apple, and kerosene. There were obviously madierized characters from oxidation which added to the complexity of this ethereal wine. The length of this wine could be measure in light years, and it would easily age for another five years as well.

Had it with chicken and mushroom risotto and was in heaven.

Getting back to the price paid for the Florita Vineyard, you have to commend the good people at Jim Barry for their very generous pricing for this particular wine. They're in the Riesling game for the long haul, and are quite passionate about making this the iconic white wine variety it should be. James (Jim) Brazill Barry was the first qualified winemaker to work in the Clare valley. Unfortunately Jim has since passed away, leaving son Peter to run things, and his Brother Mark made the wine until he left to set up his own venture at Mad Bastard Wines, also in Clare Valley.

There is also a new generation of Barry boys making wine now, and I look forward to enjoying their wines long into the future. They also have their own label, Clos Clare, where they make small batches of very nice wines as well.

I paid $16 for it in 1999 when it was called the "Watervale Riesling from the Florita Vineyard". The Watervale Riesling has long since outgrown this single vineyard, and now comes from several of the Barry family vineyards across the district and is damn fine drinking at only $19.00.

"The Florita Vineyard" now is dedicated to the best Riesling the Barry's make, and the current 2013 vintage sells for a bargain at only $45.00. You can also purchase the 2007 directly from the Winery for only $50.00

"That's gold Jerry, Gold!"

Henschke 1992 Eden and Barossa Valley Keyneton Estate Shiraz Cabernet Malbec

"From The Garden of Eden"

It was Sunday afternoon and we decided to crank up some retro vinyl we had just purchased while the wife made her signature T-Bone steak with balsamic vegetables.  As everything was going retro, I decided we needed a wine to suit and went rummaging through the rack back to 1992.  Right there next to the DeLorean time machine, I found this little gem.    

This wine was made long before the good folks at Henschke bothered with putting much emphasis into the marketing aspects of bottle shape, design and weight.   However, as the saying goes, you should never judge a book by its cover.  The bottle may not be heavyweight premium glass, but what’s inside is hot stuff!

This is a premium blend consisting of 70% Shiraz, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Malbec, all from low-yielding, ungrafted dry grown vines in The Eden and Barossa Valleys.

At first glance, this wine was really showing its age. The colour was edging towards brown due to some twenty three years since vintage. 

And then.... Welcome to the Nose! This is incredibly developed, with layer upon layer, as Sara Lee used to say. It has loads of fruit; starting with raisins and currants, fruit compote, leading into forest floor, rhubarb, crushed leaves, and ginger snaps.

The palate is deep. There is a whole bowl-full of dried fruit, raisins, currants, licorice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, white pepper, cardamom, and fennel.

It has a very developed soft palate, with soft tannins, but with persistent length, and it had thrown a very fine, but obvious crust.

Ultimately it is fleshy like a Central Otago Pinot Noir. In other words, it still tastes young and vibrant yet with massive flavours.

Henschke had already won three gold medals with this wine when purchased in 1994, showing some strength at a young age and ready for a long journey ahead.

The wine was at its peak and only just starting decline. If I had more of them, I would drink one every month until they were all gone, and be a very happy man. 

Price when purchased - $22. Current release sells for $50. These days it’s called the “Keyneton Euphonium”, (in tribute to a large brass wind instrument, which featured in the family band founded in 1888).

Current vintage has replaced the Malbec with Merlot and Cabernet Franc and the Henschkes say drink for 20 plus years. I have to say that the price of this wine has only increased by less than $1.50 per year to the current vintage price. There are many big name wines that have increased by more than twice this amount for wines of a similar class.

This is a great example of pricing restraint from one of Australia’s oldest winemaking families.

Mt Jagged Southern Fleurieu Reserve Chardonnay 2007

"Looking for Mick"

I may have misread the name of this winery, as when I fired up the wine mobile and headed south in search of it I had a rolling stones tune running through my head and was thinking of Mick Jagger.

 

Since moving to McLaren Vale we haven’t done much of the tourist trails so one weekend we decided to head down to Victor harbour to do some whale watching. Half way there we came round a bend and saw the sign for Mt Jagged winery. Ohhhh, Mt Jagged, not Mick Jagger....right, back to the story. Heading up a hill, (yes it's more of a hill than a mountain), and round a bend at a hundred clicks meant we had to turn around and come back but it was worth it. We discovered a beautiful little cellar door that looks out across paddocks and a pond with distant views of the hills meandering down the Fleurieu peninsula towards Victor Harbour. This is a small scale family wine business and everything is small batch.

One of the wines we walked away with was this single vineyard Chardonnay. Only 200 dozen are made of this wine, with fruit coming from their highest block where vines grow on free draining dolomite soil. The slightly higher elevation of these vineyards gives the wines a cool climate feel and they have used new and old French oak and left the wine on lees for 10 months.

The result is a very crisp European style of wine with yeast sourdough aromas and flavours, with characters of cashew, grapefruit, cumquat and mandarin. The oak is evident but not over powering and the crisp acidity makes this a versatile wine which goes well with both winter and summer style dishes.

Mt Jagged have used a really heavy premium burgundy bottle for this wine that has such weight that more than once I tried to refill my glass only to find it was empty

Have this wine with mushroom risotto or Crab. I was hungry so I had both. Two thumbs, (crab claws), up.

Current vintage is 2007. Price is $36.00 from Cellar Door

Drink now or cellar for up to five years.

Moving to McLaren Vale - ”First things first” with Primo Joseph Moda Amarone 1995

After a hiatus from the Liquid Dining blog, we have packed up house, car and dogs and moved south to McLaren Vale in mid 2010. We brought with us a bit of wine, some of it with some age on it, and much of it from Mclaren vale. So it seems we took wine away from its birth place, aged it, and then brought it back home again. How’s that for a carbon footprint?

It is now 2013.  We have been here for three years and a bit!  How time flies!  The Liquid Dining business is finally taking its first step, and I dug out my notes on the wines we’ve consumed over the last three years.

So, let the journey start again.

Rewind to 2011, a Saturday night dinner in July.  After a year, we started to settle down and found ourselves some good friends (yes, it is that hard when you are over 40, working hard in your new job and trying to make friends without the help of having kids!  The dogs didn’t make friends either!).  To celebrate our first year, we decided to open one of the older McLaren Vale wines, as we would be consuming it while being a couple of minutes from the vineyard it came from.

We dug and rummaged through our collection of vino that had boomeranged between McLaren Vale and Sydney, and then back again. All of a sudden I felt like Indiana Jones gazing at the Ark of the Covenant. Behold a magnum of Joseph Moda Amarone Cabernet Merlot from the 1995 vintage. I dusted it off with a stroke of my hand and then wondered whether the dust was McLaren Vale’s or Sydney’s. Was it worth calling a CSI team to investigate? I also wondered whether I had reduced its dining table allure by removing the said dust. Then I wondered how long I had been wondering, and how long before our dinner guests would arrive. After all you can’t open a magnum without dinner guests…unless you’re really thirsty.

I stood it upright, and checked the clock. Three hours before the guests arrived. I grabbed my duck decanter and a corkscrew and cut off the wax seal. I checked the clock again. Two hours and fifty eight minutes before the guests arrived, no time to dilly dally….then I wondered about the origin of the expression dilly dally….oh no, only two hours and fifty seven minutes before the guests arrive!

The wine sat, (well actually it stood), upon the dining table freshly denuded of dust, and glistening like Indiana’s amulet used to locate the well of souls in which resided the Ark of the Covenant. Woops, only two hours before the guests arrive. I inserted the cork screw, hmmm, soft but feeling somewhat intact. I began to remove the cork and wondered what Joe Grilli had been thinking the day this wine was bottled. Did he wonder whether some boy from Sydney would carry his wine far away only to return it like the prodigal son now fully aged and grown into a man, (wine man)? Did Joe hope this would happen?  Did he care? Arrgh only one hour and fifty nine minutes before the guests arrive.

The cork smelt good, in fact it smelt sexy! I decanted the wine and listened, just like Beethoven might have listed to the lingering timbre of the last note played after completing his first symphony. No he wouldn’t have, he was deaf! Only one hour and fifty two minutes before the guests arrive!

The guests were late…..

When they arrived we all began to kneel around the dining table like the altar to Joseph that it had now become. We poured the wine and inhaled deeply the aroma of pure joy.

There were prunes and chocolate mixed with some dusty oak characters and a funky depth that can only be described as the passing of time. What was I doing in 1995, I wondered, what was I wearing?  It didn’t matter.  There was wine to drink. I put the glass to my lips like Indiana’s grail, and my tongue was kissed by angels.

An explosion of flavours abounded; chocolate, prunes, vanilla, cedar, briar, rhubarb and nutmeg. The bottle development offered a plethora of secondary flavours including tea leaf, coffee, camphor and tobacco. There was a smokiness coming from the toasted oak and nuances of flavour that would only emanate from the wood panelling in an old world gentleman’s club. The kind of club Indiana Jones would have visited when not seeking religious artefacts like the one we were drinking.

The fruit for this wine came from two regions. The Cabernet Sauvignon, which is 90% of the blend, comes from McLaren Vale, and the 10% Merlot is from Coonawarra.

Now the Amarone method is an Italian pioneered method of air-drying grapes in racks or baskets. This method concentrates juice through evaporation and in turn concentrates the flavours of stewed fruit. Very yummy indeed, and very costly.  Joe Grilli reduces his grape yields so as to concentrate fruit flavour to begin with. To then double concentrate it via the Amarone method is a very generous offering especially for the price. The current release for this wine is a 2011 vintage. The 750 ml bottle sells for $75, and the magnum $195. Bring some good friends to help drink it.

We know this is not a casual Tuesday night bottle of wine at this price, but then again aren’t Tuesday nights precious too? 

This wine will keep for 15-20 years from vintage.

What to have it with? Stewed oxtail or venison and someone you love. No dust required.

Printhie Orange Pinot Gris 2007

“Orange by name but wine is the game”

Orange is the region where this winery is located, there are no oranges in the wine. Orange has a higher elevation than the Hunter Valley (around 863 metres above sea level), and has often been referred to as New South Wales’ Adelaide Hills.

Its cooler climate lends itself to white varieties such as Sauvignon blanc and of course Pinot Gris. Rather than get into the debate over whether the grapes are Pinot gris or Pinot grigio lets just simplify. Pinot is the grape family, gris is French for Grey, and Grigio is Italian for Grey. If a wine is labelled Pinot Grigio then is it has been made in the Italian style which is lighter, crisper and dryer, where as Pinot Gris will have more fruity characters and a deeper tinge in the colour and more pronounced aromatics.

So here we have a Pinot gris (French style) which is more suited to the Orange region. Its fruity, fruity, fruity! Think fruit salad on the nose with lots of big stoned fruit dominating. The flavours are Peach, Apricot, Nashi pear, apple and toffee, and some nutty characters coming from some French oak. This is the hallmark of a good winery, and a winemaker that gives a damn – well done Robert Black. Many winemakers will choose to omit oak from the wine because it’s cheaper that way. We like the subtle touch of oak in this wine as it gives an extra dimension making it a really good match with Chicken in steamed figs.

Usually sells for around $18.00, I picked it up for $15.99 – Bargain! Perfect warm weather drink, don’t keep for more than 3 years as its best to enjoy the lovely fruit characters while they are young and vibrant.

Grant Burge Barossa Valley Reserve Shiraz 2008

“The Baron’s new stableboy – but what was he doing on my cruise?”

Grant Burge is known as one of the Barons of the Barossa, and for making some chunky long living wines.

This is a new wine to his stable and has been made for the wine society rather than the greater trade. Methinks it’s for this reason that it’s a little like a pretender rather than a contender for the title.

It smells of Barossa Shiraz – rich sweet plums and fruitcake which does follow onto the palate along with vanilla from the oak and some fennel and licorice. It has fine tannins but is a little short on the length. The fruit is sweet up front but is more of a promise of thinks to come than an avenue.

It’s a nice enough wine, but for the money there are some better wines around at the moment. Grant Burge is a great guy and should stick to making the big wines he is famous for rather than putting wines together for a price for a vendor, even one as benevolent as The Wine Society. In fact, we ran into Grant Burge aboard P&O’s Pacific Dawn 18 months ago. He was there promoting his wines by way of a tutored wine tasting. We joined in and sat next to the big guy and his lovely wife. We had our fill of some lovely wines, and the night before even purchased a bottle of his Holy trinity to go with our dinner. That is a great wine, a blend of Grenache Shiraz and Mourvedre, which the Barossa is famous for. We love it when you make these wines Grant. Please continue Sir.


Available exclusively through the wine society for $15.99

Voyager Estate Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2000

"Ground control to Major Tom"

This beautiful Dutch inspired winery in Margaret River owes its name to the Wright family’s original farming company rather than the satellite of the same name.

This is their premium red blend and is made to cellar for the medium to long term. It is a dark inky colour even though it’s now 10 years old. It has a rich nose of green tea leaves, plums, eucalyptus, mint and blackcurrants.

There are no shortage of flavours in this wine and everything that is in the nose follows through to the palate. There is bacon fat, green tea leaves, eucalyptus, mint, blackcurrants, plums, and nutmeg. However, the fruit does taste a little green and under ripe.

Even with the negative this is a pretty decent wine. The question is however, in the vintages since the 2000, have they improved on the wine? The answer is yes. I was at their cellar door in 2008 and tried their 2004 vintage and it was definitely looking riper in the glass. Problem solved.

I paid $30 for this in 2004, current vintage 2005 Sells for around $60.

Is the wine worth it? Margaret river wineries are often accused of having a chateau mentality whereby they make massive art filled mansions for cellar door and surround it with impeccably planted rose gardens. Voyager has all this, but it is bloody nice. The point is, are these Margaret River grape stompers funding a lifestyle with overpriced wine, or are they making good value wine and giving it a deserving place to be housed and tasted before you by it. The answer is, some are overpriced, and some are on the ball. Voyager is on the ball. Buy the current vintage and leave it for a decade, then you’ll think it truly was a bargain considering what you paid for it at the time.

Gotham Langhorne creek Shiraz 2008

“Holy cow Batman, what a bargain!”

We’re back at Langhorne Creek again, which goes to show how popular wines from this region are starting to become. Not that it was every any secret, Otto Wolfgang Blass (Wolf Blass to his mates), used fruit from this region for years to give depth to his wines, especially in his super premium wine the Black label.

We stumbled across this wine by chance, and I was sorely tempted to hire a Batman or Joker costume for the tasting. There was one problem with that, (apart from the fact that I might be labelled Fatman by the guy in the costume shop), and that was the Lady of the house wouldn’t agree to dress up as Batgirl, Catwoman, or even Robin. By the end of the discussion I would have settled for her dressing up as Arthur the butler, but by then it was a moot point.

So one evening we opened the wine at stately Wayne Manor, with the Batphone nearby in case of emergency, and the curtains drawn so that a shiny bat signal could be spotted from the corner of my eye.

With a familiar tune going through my head and images of omnamatapoeia swimming through my mind such as Kapow and Blam, there wafted an aroma of cracked pepper, chocolate and prunes. Holy Cow Batgirl, it’s coming from my glass! Da na na nana na na nahhhh…

The palate was very generous in weight and offered sweet plums, cloves, menthol, redcurrants, and aniseed. There was a nice layer of oak, both American and French, which added some coconut and sawdust flavours to the wine. The tannins were soft and balanced nicely with the sweet flavours. I looked at the batphone – still silent. The wine was opening up nicely in the glass and went down beautifully with a bird in red wine sauce – I think it was penguin.

I looked at Batgirl, she liked it too, and I asked if she was reconsidering the costume bit, she wasn’t. Nevertheless, Stately Wayne manor was full of lip smacking enjoyment and that ever present need to listen for the phone or look to the skies. In the end, there was no need to fire up the BatMazda so we settled in and noticed that we had also acquired a Cabernet from the same producer. To be continued next time, same Bat time, same Bat Channel. Da na na nana na na nahhhh…

Price normally $17.99, but my friend the Riddler picked it up for a steal at $13.99. This is the current vintage, and it will drink well over the next 3 years. It isn’t a long term keeper as its real beauty is in its honest and unmistakeable primary flavours that abound in its youth.

Peter Lehmann Barossa Valley “Seven Surveys” Shiraz Mourvedre Grenache 2007

“Its winter - time for a Barossa Cote”


Seven surveys is a tribute to the early settlers of the Barossa who brought vine cuttings from Europe in the 1870’s.

Peter Lehmann recently stepped down as chief of Peter Lehmann wines and these days is owned by the multinational Hess group (85%), as well as The Lehmann family (10%) and the rest is distributed amongst other shareholders.

This wine has been made in the style of the Cotes du Rhone wines of Southern France. The three grapes are traditionally used in the Rhone valley and coincidentally are the oldest and most established varieties planted in the Barossa valley.

These three grapes marry in nicely giving a warming wine that has some funky barnyard flavours, spice and some sweetness from the Shiraz, gamey and leaf characters from the Mourvedre, cherries from the Grenache. Just ignore the upfront sweaty socks aroma as this will only put you off. This is a hallmark of the style and nothing to do with stinky feet crushing the grapes, especially as that task was done mechanically.

It is soft on the palate, medium bodied but with good length. The wine is a good winter dish, goes fairly smartly with a beef casserole. Drink over the next 2 years – not one for long term cellaring.

Paid $16.00 but shop around as its often on special.

Cartel Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

"Soft cartel"

The cartel venturing into Cabernet? Well, perhaps (really), they shouldn't.

Coonawarra is renowned for Cabernet Sauvignon, it is also famous for producing some really big styles for an equally big price. This wine is neither.

It is an easy drinking style of Cabernet with alludes to what can come out of the region with hints of the big dusty plummy wines but lacking all the length as well as having a degree of sharpness and tartness that has come from over extraction – read: squeezing the hell out of the grapes, which were also pretty young, based on the lack of body.

This typical easy drinking style means you get what you pay for. The lesson here is definitely don’t buy it just because it has Coonawarra on the label as there are great wines for the same price from lesser regions that will take this wine out like Mike Tyson took out Evander Holyfield’s ear.

It doesn’t really like food, as it’s too easily overpowered. So drink it like you are on a diet and have it with some water crackers or a carrot. Don’t wait too long as age won’t be of benefit. Buy it on a Monday and drink it by Friday.

No more can be said about this wine. Available exclusively through the wine society for $9.99.

Casa Santos Lima Bons Ventos Vinho Tinto Regional Lisboa Portugal 2008

“A mouthful"

You deserve a drink after saying that! Yes it’s a mouthful I know, but so is the wine. This is a Portuguese red wine (vinho tinto), made by Casa Santos Lima called Good winds (Bons Ventos).

It is a typical red wine from this region consisting of several grape varieties; Castelao, Camarate, Tinta Miuda, and Touriga Nacional which is often used in Port.

This wine smells a little like wet socks taking a herb bath – yummy I know. Yet get past the nose and there is a very savoury style of wine here that is dry with lots of Japanese tea flavours along with Briar, and a touch of dust from the oak.

It doesn’t have a lot of length and is fairly medium bodied but sits pretty neatly in the easy drinking style of wine along with some cheese and crackers.

Sells for around $12.00, it is the current vintage and don’t bother putting it in the cellar. Drink it now! Unlike port, it’s more of a summer red than a winter one, as it is only 12.5% alcohol, it doesn’t have the warmth of a big Barossa red nor the body to go with those bigger hearty winter dishes.

Bleasdale Frank Potts Langhorne Creek 1998

"the Reverend wants a drink"

Bleasdale is the second oldest registered company in South Australia, therefore it has history by the bucket load. Twenty one year old former British sailor Frank Potts, the founder and first winemaker arrived in Adelaide in 1836 aboard HMS Buffalo alongside the State’s first Governor.

The winery is named after Reverend Bleasdale who gave the family a great deal of solace in those tough early days by preaching the virtues of wine.
Frank first learnt shipbuilding as his trade in his new country working with Australian red gum timber which he later used to build the winery. It still has a massive red gum lever wine press which is made from an entire tree. His love of red gum also inspired him to build his own coffin from it, which he used to store apples until he was ready to use it himself.
Frank also built flood gates on the Bremer river next to his vineyard and these 100 year old flood gates are still employed to deliver the rich alluvial silt from the river to the thirsty vines.
Five generations on, the Potts family still own this winery and make all the wines. The wines are indeed rustic and old fashioned but that’s certainly nothing to be embarrassed about.

This wine is their flagship and is named in honour of Great, great Grandfather Frank. We opened this wine after 10 years, OOPs! Cellaring recommendation was only 5-6 years but I think winemaker Michael Potts was erring on this side of conservative caution.

This is a true Bordeaux blend comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit verdot, Merlot, and Cabernet franc. The nose is fruitcake and port. The palate is smooth, with flavours of chocolate and Christmas pudding, and some vanilla from the American oak. It is full bodied, with a tongue kissing texture that finishes with cinnamon and eucalyptus, (maybe it’s red gum).
This wine is good stuff, dressed with a hat (on Frank’s head), and 3 gold medals at the time of purchase in 2001.
Price at the time of purchase was approximately $24.00 , current vintage 2006, retails for around $30.00 . A great example of why it pays for families to maintain hold of a business. The passion and desire to maintain family traditions definitely shines through on their wines and the winery has recently been refurbished complete with a little museum. Well worth a look.

Metala Langhorne Creek Shiraz Cabernet 2007

"the prodigal son returns"

Metala is an iconic Australian wine brand, and was the winner of the first ever Jimmy Watson Trophy in 1962 with their 1961 vintage shiraz cabernet. That wine was made by Brian Dolan, and in later years his son Nigel took over the winemaking reins and won his own Jimmy Watson trophies in 1992 and 2003 under the Saltram label (part of the same company).

This wine is a return to that old fashioned earthy style of wine that has helped make Langhorne creek famous, as well as confirm Shiraz Cabernet blends as a truly Australian style of wine.

Langhorne creek is located 70 Km South East of Adelaide, and this vineyard like many in that region are on rich alluvial soils alongside the Bremer river. Periodic floodings of this river deliver ancient silt into the vineyards that flavour the grapes with a dark chocolate earthiness which makes them quite unique.

Even though this region can get fairly warm, the breezes off nearby like Alexandrina cool the grapes and stop that cooked sensation coming through to the wine, not unlike the cooling ocean breezes that deliver God’s air conditioning to the Mclaren vale region down the road.
If you like an old fashioned style of red wine that will keep led in it’s own pencil, then this one is for you. It has a big 15% alcohol content but rather that tasting over the top, it just delivers a mouth filling desire to drink more.

The wine is meaty, and earthy on the nose, with the meat and leather flavour coming through on the palate. It has a virtual spice rack of white pepper, nutmeg and cassia, along with flavours of blackcurrant, eucalyptus, mocha, and licorice. Even though the wine is big and brutish, the tannins are soft, a bit like your big rugby mate with a heart of gold. The length is impressive for a wine of this price, and even though it is now part of the massive Fosters corporation, this wine seems to have become less homogenised then most in their stable and has remained true to form. Even the labels have remained fairly similar to those made in the sixties.

This wine is normally priced around $19.99 a bottle, and there are still stocks of the 2007 vintage around which you will regularly find on special. Buy a dozen, drink a bottle every year till it runs out, and watch this wine evolve into a great wine at a bargain price.

Alexander Park 2008 Central Victoria Pinot Noir

"Alexander the great"

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house was cooking and expletives and no sign of a mouse-spider.

Ah that time of the year when families come together in spirit and try not to harm one another. Everyone is pressured to get everything perfect for everyone else even though they are sure that no-one will appreciate their efforts. While Madam was cooking and swearing, I was hunting for a mouse spider that had resulted in several bumps to head and knees as I scrambled under tables in my quest and I hadn't even opened any alcohol as yet.

We gave up and decided it was time to eat (and drink) before St Nick came a clatter upon our roof.

Pinot Noir is a fiddly grape that can be difficult to make into good wine. Its a smaller grape than most red wine grapes, therefore it takes more acreage to make Pinot Noir than it does Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon. It needs the right soil and climate more so than other more robust varieties and is less forgiving than more masculine varieties such as Shiraz than can fare well in almost any climate.

Pinot needs a longer ripening season, more constant temperatures in its ripening periods form bud burst to harvest. Even if you get all that right it can still be stuffed up by the wrong choice of oak or the winemaker not paying attention during fermentation or oak maturation.

All of this means you usually pay a pretty penny for a decent Pinot Noir and many drinkers will confess that they lack the punch or depth of flavour they would have expected for the price.

This one however was a gem. It sits nicely in that sub-twenty dollar bracket (just), and provides everything you expect from a new world Pinot.

There was a slightly funky berry nose with hints of mushrooms and a silky sexiness that suggests a naughtiness lurking under the covers.

Ah yes tonight please Josephine! The palate is silky just as the nose suggests. There are flavours of dark cherries, cranberries, redcurrants and plums. This wine has good length and is the epitome of a great value elegant Aussie Pinot. If this was from New Zealand it would be twice the price. So shop locally and enjoy a great alternative to those masculine reds, and then head straight to bed. I'll be there shortly Josephine. Forget the spiders.

Purchase price was $19.99 last month - worth every penny and then some. Don't keep it hidden away in the cellar. Drink within two years will be my recommendation.

Mr Riggs The Gaffer 2007 McLaren Vale Shiraz

"Call me Gaffer me old son"

Most wines are purchased based on their label. For this reason wineries strive to create a label that will attract the consumer's attention enough to take it off the shelf and to accompany them on their journey home or to their favourite BYO. This simple black and white label depicts a man who appears to be somewhat of a ruffian, the kind that might lend you money in the darkest corners of that pub that no-one goes to. Is this the case? Well you have to pick it up and read the back label. Research indicates that once someone has read the back label of a bottle of wine they are usually engaged enough to buy it.

This didn't happen in my case. I was feeling somewhat rough and dusty after winning this weekend's worst handyman award for making retaining walls and steps that don't meet. I was thus inclined to buy several bottles of wine in the hope that it may improve my carpentry skills or at least allow me to forget where the back yard was and therefore the monstrosit I had created. It didn't work. The wine, however, was a nice distraction.

Made by famed Mclaren Vale winemaker Ben Riggs under his own label, the wine is a tribute to his Great Great Great Grandfather John "The Gaffer" Riggs who was a medal winning wheat farmer. Not a ruufian as far as I know.

The Nose is earthy with crushed leaf and spice. There is big alcohol in this wine (15%) but there isn't that alcohol heat on the nose or palate.

There is that typical Mclaren Vale edge of sweetness, which shifts into flavours of white pepper, camphor, and nutmeg. The flavours are more spice than berry, suggesting a more sophisticated wine that is Ben's trademark. Ben looks like he played for the Wallabies and makes wines to suit. Enjoy this with pepper steak medium rare and keep a sprig of wheat and a football nearby. Forget the spirit level and hammer, they will only lead to frustration.

I paid $19.99 last week - worth the money, and Mr Ben Riggs donates money from this wine to breat cancer research. That's gentleman's work there me old gaffer.

Zilzie Pinot Grigio vs Monte Campo Pinot Grigio

This wasnt meant to be any sort of pepsi challenge but that's what it turned into.

We opened the 2007 Zilzie Pinot Grigio from Karadoc in Victoria and were immediately confused. Not by the pinkish hue which sometimes comes through this type of wine buy by the flavours. It tasted green, tart, a load of acid, too much as it was probably picked too early and the fruit hadn't ripened enough. The back label promised us that it would be bursting citrus and fresh pear flavours. There were no pears and the citrus we received was lemon peel at best. All in all very disappointing. We paid $12, but doesn't matter what it cost, I wouldn't buy it again!

Then I got to thinking, Pinot Grigio is supposed to be drunk while its young and fresh. Was two years from vintage simply too long? What if i compared it to another Pinot Grigio of the same age? So I went hunting through the cellar. Behold I have found one from Italy that is actually 1 year older, and the Italians allow oxidation of the fruit during winemaking so if anything it would be even more dull if 2 years plus is too long for Pinot Grigio. Thus our journey now takes us to the Delle Venezie region which is on the gulf of Venice and borders onto Austria in the North and Slovenia in the East.

Monte Campo 2006 Delle venezie Pinot Grigio

Wow! what a difference. The nose and palate had distinctive smoky flint, delicious fruit flavours of monsteria delicioso, longan and lychee. The texture was a touch oily, something you usually get when this grape is made into the Pinot gris style which often ends up more fruity rather than crisp. This wine was a bit of both. We looked at the Zilzie, poured it down the sink and went out to buy some more of the Monte campo.

Paid $14 in 2008, worth every cent, a great example of Pinot Grigio from the country of the style's origin and proof that you don't have to drink Pinot Grigio the week it was bottled.