Best of the Best 2011
Forget all those other “Best of” lists that trawl out the same big names with equally hefty price tags, and nail these pages to your fridge! Whether you’re craving the coolest alternative wine, want the lowdown on the most cutting-edge websites or are simply keen to know which producers and importers are setting themselves apart from the crowd, it’s all here and then some.
LATEST ALTERNATIVES
Vermentino
Vermentino has had a bit of unfair advantage, with wine scribe Max Allen championing the variety from a lieu-dit of his own Caulfield Mountain vineyard, and coordinating a past spectacular in January this year – a roadshow of vermentino, sardines and questionable musical taste. Soapboxing about the variety does make sense though, it’s a hardy grape that muscles up against drought and has a knack for looking expressive and fresh even under heat duress – appropriate for Australia. Dry, slaty and baring its soul, the variety is a sizzling-fresh player amongst exotic-to-Australia varieties and in its element when made lean and clean. A big plus is the boutique interest from Riverland and Murray Darling wine-producing regions with 919 Wines, Chalmers and Trentham leading the way. Also worth checking out is the tangy, herbal inflected Ducks In A Row and the retro-chic cheapy from revitalised Seaview, a genuine thirst-slaker and a portent for affordable versions to come.
Pinot Blanc
The impish cousin of pinots gris and noir, pinot blanc is a high-acidity white variety with clean lines and plenty of tang. Though often a little wishy washy and lacking in architectural varietal definition, the wines produced from traditional homes of blanc, think Alsace, Lombardy, Alto Adige and Friuli, do have plenty of refreshment factor going for them. From southern lands, more cerebral examples are coming from New Zealand with Mike Weersing of Pyramid Valley sporting a haunting, willowy yet juicy pinot blanc from Waihopai Valley in Marlborough.
Likewise, rayon shirt-cosseted Duncan Forsyth of Mount Edward winery in Central Otago excels with the variety, finding a leaner profile and crunchy texture. Australia hasn’t quite hit the heights yet, but wines from Amulet in Beechworth and Hoddles Creek, alongside some judicious planting in northern Tasmania, show increasing promise.
Grüner Veltliner
Kudos to Austrian wine importers for igniting the passion of a handful of Australian growers. Grüner isn’t always a sexy white wine, but certainly makes for easy-drinking, thirst-quenching good times. Sure, we’re not talking prodigious complexity or epiphany moments, but Lark Hill from Canberra and Hahndorf Hill from Adelaide Hills (something about hills?) have relished in their halo grü-vee wine status early on. Both show pepper/spice complexity and a belt of tactile acidity; the Canberra wine has a cooler frame and purer feel, but Hahndorf Hill sports that mid-palate flesh for easy appeal. Chris Carpenter from Lark Hill quips, “It is a fantastic food wine because it doesn’t show overt fruit characters (so it matches a range of cuisines), and because it delivers great acid and texture in the vineyard, it gives winemakers heaps of room to experiment with styles to suit their terroir.” Delatite in Goulburn has grüner in the wings, as does Stoney Rise in Tamar Valley, Tasmania. Two more to watch.
Montepulciano
Making its natural home in the high mountain country on the Adriatic Coast of central Italy, montepulciano is wanting for carbon-copy climate in Australia or New Zealand. But then, a stroke of blind luck for Matt Gant and John Retsas from First Drop Wines – a rocky vineyard at 340 metres above sea level with a similar climate to Abruzzi in the Adelaide Hills fell into their laps. So their excellent monte is hauntingly Italian yet vigorously Australian in concentration, wild-forest berry flavours and coursing with balanced, structure-giving tannins. Gant says, “It’s a great standard-bearer for alternatives, it has a flavour profile (dark cherry, chocolate, spice) that isn’t too much of a jump for a shiraz lover to make, but with a different tannin profile (grainy, linear, drying tannins) that makes it such a versatile food wine.” Damien Tscharke of Tscharke wines has also fired up for the monte cause; his The Master monte-pulciano is a delicious but warmer, more opulent version from Marananga in the Barossa Valley. Over in New Zealand, Herzog Wines of Marlborough created consternation in their early approaches to the variety – surely too cool a site for such a fickle grape? But, no, it thrives under Hans Herzog’s meticulous care, and has cult status for its unique profile and finessed interpretation. While limited to enthusiasts now, further Australian plantings of monte-pulciano bode well for the bold-flavoured variety that soaks up heat and parties on in drought.
Sagrantino
It’s duelling Italian varieties for McLaren Vale producers Coriole and Oliver’s Taranga. They’ve gone toe-to-toe with sagrantino releases and excelled with fiano (see below). Kindred spirit for alternative varieties, Mark Lloyd tenders experience to Corrina Wright’s keen eye and exuberance. The Coriole version is taut, gravelly and appropriately authentic with sour cherry, herbal inflections, then some fire and power in reserve. The Taranga sagrantino is wily, more seductive but still equally firm with blocky tannins and concentration at the fore. The variety teeters between these very serious versions and more youthful styles from producers Terra Felix, d’Arenberg and lesser knowns from the Granite Belt in Queensland, Preston Peak Wines. Well worth exploring for those seeking tannin fixes and additional masculinity in their wines.
Fiano
The dry white wine variety from Campania in Italy has a big future in Australia. There, I’ve said it. Acceleration in the palate through to chalky, mineral driven finishes aside, the hearty variety keeps poise even in tough climate conditions. Hence, Coriole and Oliver’s Taranga again take a run at the variety, with excellent results. There is more parity in their styles here; faint smoke, dried herbs and nuttiness add complexity to a green-apple and citrus-blossom flush. These are more-ish, refreshing wines that herald the variety as the implicitly drinkable grape that it can be when handled with minimal intervention. Fox Gordon and Rutherglen Estates do well too. The neutrality of fruit flavour and dry-without-shrillness inherent in the variety, is very applicable to mass appeal, yet also offers depth for wine cognoscenti seeking some soul searching.
Nero d’Avola
A Southern Italian variety again, this time from Sicily, and a little leaner in profile for red wines, but with much more savoury kick. Sure, the nero d’avola wines of Sicily can waiver between ghastly, conf-ected sweetness and suede-textured dryness, but the general thrust of the quality wines sees skeletal acidity, tannin-building blocks and a wash of red fruits. Slow on the uptake in Australia, but Brown Brothers and Chalmers have commercial releases that truly sing, albeit that they are lighter styles, but that’s part of the appeal. Beach Road and Pertaringa, both in McLaren Vale, also have plantings and the variety will garner interest with producers looking for light- to medium-weight alternatives that propel some decent structure onto thirsty drinkers.
WINE IN CYBERSPACE
www.wineanorak.com
Jamie Goode’s wine blog
A benchmark for content and provocative, thoughtful wine writing, Jamie Goode provides in-depth wine coverage with emphatic statements about the vinous world. A terrific resource, rich with personal thought and expression, the writing covers tasting notes to constructive criticism and back to general ephemera. This site is a must-read for how blogging works as independent commentary in the wine world.
www.caduceus.org
Rock ’n’ roller-cum-wine producer Maynard Keenan’s winery
Themed somewhere between a gothic crypt and soul-searching western, this supremely decadent website is a web programmer’s para-dise of style over substance, yet curiously stacks up with a lot of great information about the high-profile winemaker and nascent film star following the release of arthouse documentary Blood Into Wine. Flip through the virtual tome of Caduceus to learn more about wine producing in Arizona.
www.alicefeiring.com
Alice Feiring’s wine blog
There is a certain romance and high-brow art to Feiring’s writing and her general bent is the effusive and wondrous world of naturally rendered wines. By her own admission she hadn’t paid much heed to Australian wine in decades, but a visit from Didi Shobbrook and her subsequent softening to creative Australian wine producers has engendered more interest from antipodean shores. An accomplished author and commentator, this is a fascinating yet focused read.
www.saignee.wordpress.com
Finger-on-the-pulse wine writing
Evocative language and a cult of cool go hand in hand with this voluminous blog. A youthful, energetic perspective on wine with liberal attitude and some searing critique. Insightful yet hip, with a big online voice among wine fanatics searching for writing with not just general content, but a bit of attitude and colour too.
www.vinofreakism.com
Dave Brookes’ treatise to ‘authentic’ wines
Bottle by bottle, with no scores or /20s or smiley faces (to paraphrase his words), vinofreakism.com is a blazing entrant into Australian online writing without pretension or allusion to anything more than expressions about wines Brookes loves drinking. Familiar to GT WINE readers, of course, Brookes has an immense online presence and a long history of blogging, but this feels more like it’s in his zone. Though this site is in its infancy, it is readily attracting interest for honesty, turn of phrase and exotic drinking. Oh, and he posts cool pictures too.
www.winedisorder.com
Wine forum chaos; join a conversation
This site is really enjoyable for its schizophrenic, frenetic conversation and general wine postulation. A wide audience of enthusiasts clash and mingle in forums that cover myriad topics. Settle in for an argument or two.
www.justwinepoints.com
Umm, just wine points…
Time poor and lazy? Couldn’t be bothered reading? Just want some arbitrary points sent via email blast to your inbox? The dudes behind the now defunct Wine X Magazine have a matrix for scoring wines and only mark-up those that settle in the 90+ zone. Sign up for the free newsletter and look at the pretty numbers roll in. An amusing concept, irony included.
www.bonnydoonvineyard.com
Californian winery with psychedelia-inspired website
This website is all about the user experience and out-there visuals. Part acid trip, part genuine alternative wine principles and part vanguard for the US natural wine movement, Bonny Doon, under the vinous captaincy of wine soothsayer Randall Grahm, has created an online world of swirling, seemingly hand-drawn design and op-art visuals to guide you through their vineyard and wine vision. Taking wine websites to another level.
www.winelabels.org
Celebrating unusual wines
This is a curiously designed and somewhat clunky site with retina-damaging comic sans font that revels in an interpretation of the unusual. You feel compelled to click on links like ‘Pink Mystery of Sex’ and ‘Tame Your Sommelier During Wine Ordering’. So bad it’s good. And some of the writing is genuin-ely okay. Plus, there are heaps of pictures of horrible wine labels to peruse.
www.winehumor.net
Weird wine video/image collation
This site hasn’t been updated in a while, but is one of those great time wasters for idle internet time. Videos and images have been racked up and posted to this blog and all material pertains to wine… sort of. Worth a look for a bit of a light-hearted laugh at some steamier and weirder wine content.
WINE TRAIL NOSH SPOTS
Barossa Valley
Schulz Butchers Angaston, 42 Murray St, Angaston, (08) 8564 2145
Someone once said it takes a lot of beer to make great wine, but they omitted that it takes even more bacon to get past the hang-over. Barossa vignerons often forget their privileged position of having Schulz’s bacon so close at hand. Visiting wine journ-alists top their PR sample bags with the porky goodness on the way back to Adelaide to prime their larders between visits. Double smoked and traditionally cured, this is a benchmark Barossa foodstuff.
Margaret River
Miami Bakehouse, Falcon Grove Shopping Centre, 609 Old Coast Road, Mandurah, (08) 9534 2705
Okay, so it’s not quite Margaret River GI and it does sit off the main road to and from Perth, but the side-trip to Miami Bakehouse for their intergalactically famous pies is worth the trouble. A vast array of pies, from gourmet to stupid fancy ingredients and back to the classics, including the breakfast pie to murder all breakfast pies, Miami has you covered. Cellar rats know the route well.
Northern Tasmania
Pipers River General Store & Take Away, 5098 Flinders Hwy, Pipers River, (03) 6382 7157
Pan-fried white bread, eggs over easy, thick bacon and some plastic cheese. It’s not exactly your gourmet version of the egg-and-bacon sarnie, but an amazing concoction of these essential ingredients creates the tastiest, flavour-filled and finely balanced toasted sandwich ever. Epic in its inverse grandeur, this supremely basic treat is legendary for its deliciousness through the Australian wine trade, and an essential on northern Tasmanian wine trips. Gourmet Traveller WINE’s own Nick Ryan is the patron saint of this sandwich.
McLaren Vale
Russell’s Pizza, 13 High St, Willunga, (08) 8556 2571
Set on High Street in Willunga, Russell’s denies pizza-lovers six days a week before triumphantly opening only on Friday nights. By then, this converted blacksmith’s cottage is swarming with hungry hordes seeking their pizza nirvana. Local produce and rustic vibe aside, this is a meeting point for McLaren Vale winemakers and their brethren. Think a snap-to-attention crust, judicious layering of flavour and a clip through the wood-fire oven for added texture. Get there.
Central Otago
Provisions, Melmore Terrace, Cromwell, New Zealand, +64 (0)3 445 4048
They make hundreds of the buggers a day: tactile, doughy treats with the kind of intense layering usually found in snail pastries, whorling here through the whole bun. Add in some caramel icing and enough external sugary coating to make fingers tacky. The Provisions sticky bun is a staple, and famous in the lower Central Otago principalities.
Hunter Valley
Binnorie Dairy, cnr Mistletoe Lane & Hermitage Rd, Pokolbin, (02) 4998 6660
Jim Chatto from Peppertree Wines in the Hunter Valley was trying to convince me that a sausage roll from the Pokolbin Village General Store was the staple foodstuff for the region. Sort of fits the bill, but he was surely embarrassed by his proclivity for Port Stephens oysters and Robert Molines’ fine pâtés, so we agreed that Binnorie Dairy Cheeses were a good compromise for regi-onal delicacy. They use only local dairy and specialise in soft cheeses; get your hands on Binnorie for light, springy labna and a variety of excellent fetas. These are well-made cheeses with a footprint of the warm Hunter Valley firmly embossed into the product.
King Valley
Pizzini Wines, 175 King Valley Road, Whitfield, 03 5729 8278
John Retsas from First Drop and Adam Foster from Syrahmi (and I’m sure many others) will be screaming at me for not mentioning their amazing sausages, but King Valley and Salsicce (made by several of the Italian families there) is where sausage verity is at. The homemade sausage at Pizzini is celebrated at their Sangiovese e Salsicce festival annually, and will again be revered on the Queen’s Birthday weekend (June 11-12, 2011). The gently spiced, densely packed pork sausages are a revelation.
WINE PRODUCERS TO WATCH
Domaine Lucci, Adelaide
Anton Van Klopper is part of the Natural Selection Theory collective, a fairly loose association of wine creators who farm their plots with organic and biodynamic principles, ferment naturally and pretty much leave the wine to itself until bottling. Domaine Lucci wines are guttural and wildly expressive – wines of immense pleasure and intrigue. The 2010 Domaine Lucci Natural is merlot gone feral and hugely vital, while the 2010 Domaine Lucci Rosé is a remarkable wine not only for pure enjoyment but for basking in the impossible, multi-faceted dimensions of grape juice.
Blind Corner, Margaret River
Ben Gould first came to national attention for his winemaking talents while working at his then family business, Deep Woods Estate. A bit of soul searching and vineyard touching in Europe brought him back to Margaret River and his tiny, biodynamically maint-ained estate on the banks of the Wilyabrup River. His first estate wines, Blind Corner, offer a crémant-style chenin blanc sparkling and lees-and-skin fermented sauvignon blanc, set alongside Blind Corner Cabernet Sauvignon A and a shiraz blended with two per cent viognier. Foot crushing, hand plunging, no filtering, no fining, along with some very minimalist winemaking, make them an interesting proposition, and future vintages should be even more promising.
Glaetzer Dixon Family Wines, Tasmania
Glaetzer is a pretty handy name to have in winemaking circles, but Nick Glaetzer paved his own way by settling in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley wine region. Working with Alain Rousseau at Frogmore Creek has great merit; the winery exposed Glaezter to a wash of excellent fruit sources and a cross pollination of ideas in the think-tank style winery. While shiraz isn’t synonymous with Tasmania, GDF’s version is superb, lithe and mocks the finesse that pinot noir has from the island-state wine region. Burgundian enthusiasts have been skeptical about shiraz in Tasmania, but this is an emphatic wine contrary to the cause. A finely tuned riesling and a metered pinot noir complete the GDF wine portfolio. They all definitely warrant closer inspection.
Isle, Tasmania
0417 109 794
When Jim Chatto isn’t sweltering in the Peppertree, Hunter Valley, harvest months, he can be found having reflective moments in his own patch of dirt at Glaziers Bay in the Huon Valley. Planted to 10 clones and 100 per cent pinot noir, this boutique wine affair is Chatto’s personal canvas and set for release within coming months. Crystal-balling aside, Chatto’s distinction with Peppertree, his very fine palate and love of labour will see this rookie wine become highly sought-after.
Vinteloper, South Australia
Sourcing regionally works well for winemaker Dave Bowley. Picking and choosing from a variety of vineyard sites has honed his portfolio into a sharp hit list of regional specialties from South Australia, but with an individual flair thanks to his more relaxed approach to winemaking. Bowley’s sauvignon blanc, riesling and pinot gris are orderly, fresh wines with plenty of enjoyment factor. Where it gets real is with his remarkable 2010 Odeon Riesling, Clare Valley (labelled ‘Natural’ this vintage), which eschews normalcy for riesling produced in Australia and tows an unfettered, unadorned line. Textured, alive and brittle with electric personality, Odeon is brilliant white wine. The 2008 McLaren Vale shiraz has plenty of pluck too, and finds a very even keel balancing fruit verity and finesse.
Ravensworth Wines, Canberra District
Sure, Ravensworth isn’t a new winery to watch, but vigneron Bryan Martin’s brush with the Len Evans Tutorial and general musings about his wines has seen an evolution that will be realised this year. Old school sensibility with larger-format oak, varietal blending, smaller ferments, no pumps and more whole-bunch pressing will impact on the inherent wine styles. Couple this with Martin’s first crop of roussanne to accompany his maturing marsanne in a 60/40 blend and his first genuine foray with a southern Rhône blend, and things are looking exciting for the right-hand man who also calls Clonakilla his home away from home.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Peter Forrestal, wine writer
A little bit of a teary eye from Forrie as he repudiates his favourite wine tool as it moves along its path to becoming obsolete. “My all-time favourite has been the foil cutter that accompanied the Screwpull corkscrew… they were such time-savers.” Currently Forrie claims his Riedel polishing cloth as his next-most important tool. “There may be other cloths that you can use but this works magic cleaning glasses for me.”
Huon Hooke, wine writer
Things are a bit more pragmatic from Huon. “I don’t go crazy for wine gadgets, but I do like the Rapid Ice wine-chilling sleeves.” According to Hooke these are a bit of a must-have, especially to drop the temperature of a white wine quickly – or even the odd red in warmer weather. “But I usually use them for whites when I’ve forgotten to fridge a bottle earlier,” Huon says. “Don’t we all do that?”
Matt Swieboda, sommelier and owner of Love, Tilly Devine, Sydney
The tools of the trade, eh? “I literally would never go to work without my Château Laguiole Grand Cru wine opener” states an emphatic Swieboda. “Sure, they can be made from some fairly expensive and ostentatious materials (check the woolly mammoth tusk on the customcurling.com website out), but the real joy is the sharpness of the blade and the perfect balance.” He says he knows plenty of sommeliers who use these knives, but the rising tide of influence has been from the Australian-made Code Wine Knives, “which are also very good, but very ugly, I think”, finishes Swieboda.
Andrew Guard, wine importer, Andrew Guard Wines
Mr Guard claims a broader reach with wine accessories, as his picks range from stemware to wine fridges. “My favourites would have to be Stölzle glassware, Ovarius decanters and my Transtherm MAS wine fridge alongside the useful Cartailler Deluc wine opener and the Riedel Cabernet Magnum decanter.”
Pat Nourse, features editor, Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine
Nourse is pretty straight up here. “I’m allergic to wine doodads, mostly because I’d usually rather spend the money on more and better wine.” However, he does reminisce about a youth spent living above Sydney’s Ultimo Wine Centre where he saved up and bought a set of Riedel glasses (“this is back when they all had stems”) which paid for themselves in “impressing girls. And, yes, they really do get more out of the wine.” He hasn’t subscribed to the Riedel company line, however, resisting the need to complement his existing set “with glasses specifically designed for everything from Passiona to Worcestershire sauce”. Solid thinking.
Liam O’Brian, Dux, 2010 Len Evans Tutorial, and Sommelier-at-large, Melbourne
Liam heads a bit left of centre: “In terms of gadgets, at the moment, when the barbie is fired up and we’re tucking into delicious red wines on a regular basis, my favourite gadget is the fridge”. Simple things? “I get a bit evangelical about it, but I love showing people that it’s not uncouth and it will make it a much better wine experience than a room temperature bottle.” Wine-accessory sales people take note!
TEXT MIKE BENNIE
This article is from the April/May 2011 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.