Cullen Margaret River Mangan Vineyard Merlot/Malbec/Petit Verdot 2013

As far as Bordeaux blends go, for me its the Right side of the Gironde that floats my boat; Merlot, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot et al. In Australia this is also the case, with the left side of Australia - Margaret River in particular. And Cullen are at the forefront as usual. The Cullen Margaret River Mangan Vineyard Merlot/Malbec/Petit Verdot 2013 is everything I love about Merlot blends - blueberries, graphite like tannins, green peppercorns and super finely balanced cut-throat acid.
This is probably not for the people who have poo-pooed Merlot because of either a stupid movie or a stupid duo, so if you follow the the latter two, good!!! Leave this to people who purely and simply love good wine.

Drink with rare kangaroo fillet
Drink till 2019
94
Screwcap 12.5%v/v $30-$33

Millton Gisborne Te Arai Vineyard Chenin Blanc 2011

Its been a big November I tell ya....

I just love Chenin Blanc and I love this producer and this is such a beautiful wine. The Millton Gisborne Te Arai Vineyard Chenin Blanc 2011 is all about purity of fruit and balanced acid and phenolic mouth feel; orange citrus - mandarin, tangerine and kumquat all laced together with delicious rich loquat and balanced white phenolics and acid. Its great and its Biodynamic too boot!! Bonza stuff.

Drink with chilli grilled chicken
Drink till 2015
96
Screwcap 11.5%v/v $26 Seddon Wine Store

Castaño Yecla Ecológico Monastrell 2009

This is another Monastrell/Mataro/Mourvèdre that I simply cannot get enough of. The Castaño Yecla Ecológico Monastrell 2009 has been a regular in my recycling bin lately purely and simply because its so bloody good. Very red in the glass, the nose throws up blackberries and an almost iodinie-cum-medicinal- throaty-lolly-cum-gingerbread; that's the funky shit, and that's a good thing. The palate starts with crunching acid and tannins that flows along with more blackberries and black licorice. Just get some.

Drink with lamb sausages
Drink till 2017
94
Screwcap 13%v/v $22 Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

Millton Gisborne Chenin Blanc 2009

Erin is watching ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ on the dots. This may be my last post ever, because the world must be ending for Erin to be watching such rubbish TV. Better make this one count then. The Millton Gisborne Chenin Blanc 2009. Can you believe it, ‘Celebrity fuckin Apprentice’!!!!! I love Chenin. Problem is that we in Australia tend to stuff it up, so I am usually drinking Vouvray. Not anymore, or not as often anyway. I’ve got Millton from Nelson – but I better hurry up because Arma-fuckin-geddon is around the corner. Closed and tight on the nose, the palate is awash with subtle sugar and perfectly pitched ginger. Do you hear that, sounds like the four horsemen. Just want more.

Drink with my green papaya and beef salad
Drink before the end of the world!!!!
96
Screwcap 13%v/v $26 Blackhearts & Sparrows Brunswick

Pennyweight Beechworth Pinot Noir 2008

I don’t know why but I’m sort of in a retro/old school way today; listening to the ‘Big Chill’ soundtrack, making spinach and ricotta pie and drinking instant coffee. Something else that sort of falls in to that category is the Pennyweight Beechworth Pinot Noir 2008. All facets for me scream ‘back in the day’ about this wine, and its all good! First the label, stands out a bit doesn’t it. The colour is very much that dirty unfiltered red which is what the wine is and lastly the taste and aroma are just magic; musk sticks, roses petals, red licorice, brown spice and raspberries all melded in to one great wine.

They say retro is back. Where did it go?

Drink with Peking Duck
Drink till 2014
95
Quality cork 13%v/v $42 Gertrude Street Enoteca, Fitzroy

Sergio Bi-O Cardinia Ranges Pinot Noir 2003

This wine is still quite racy for something that has been sitting around for a while. Very translucent in the glass with layers of mashed strawberry and oak. The palate is very Burgundy, with a great mix of spice, tomato leaf, beetroot and rhubarb – a lot going on I’d say. I had this wine in a decanter for about three hours and it didn’t miss a beat with the acid still shining through right to the last drop. Really enjoyed this one. Oh yeah, it’s a Serge Carlei wine - the biodynamic pioneer in Victoria - so it's bio-organic, which is effectively biodynamic, so everyone can enjoy this one, even those odd people at ‘Le Cru’ in Albert Park.

Drink till 2012
Drink with duck pie bought from La Parisienne Pates in Carlton
91

Cork 13%v/v $30

M. Chapoutier ‘Deschants’ 1997 Saint-Joseph Marsanne

You know how sometimes you get in a rut and things just seem to go along grey. Right now there isn’t really that much happening over here in Brunswick - some street work happening outside and two people bickering about who knows what in an accent I cannot seem to pick. Apart from the skies opening up and Henry spending another night crying and wanting to play, nothing much is really happening.

I needed a buzz other than coffee. So as I was sneaking past Henry’s room so as not to wake him up, and still wearing my pj’s, the thought of posting something other than, 'this is nice, this goes with that' got me going, so off I went to my recent wine archives and pulled out this gem - to write about, not drink; it is only nine in the am right now.

So here goes. M. Chapoutier ‘Deschants’ 1997 Saint-Joseph from the Northern Rhone. This is a wine I paid about $10 for back in 2003 at The Wine Societies Xmas sale where they were flogging wine that people either did not want or did not know. Ten bucks is damn cheap so I took all three that were available.

Now the ‘Deschants’ is 100% Marsanne grown biodynamically in the Rhone, and a variety that is lost in the ocean of Savvy B and Chardonnay that is on the market today. It is also a variety that can be drunk young or cellared for 20+ years. Yet it is also a variety that demands a good growing season, with natural acidity being its hallmark to a great wine.

On a side note, M. Chapoutier has since 1996 transcribed Braille on to all of their labels. Far from being a gimmick, the symbol draws on the history of the Hermitage vineyard. Maurice Monier de la Sizeranne is the owner of the plot of the Hermitage, ‘la Sizeranne’, is also the inventor of the first version of abbreviated Braille.

So the wine.

Like I said, I got all three for $30 – a steal I thought. The first one was oxidised to the be-jesus, not a good start. The second was soaked in cork-taint and at this point I was thinking I had got jibbed. So the third bottle was neatly tucked away in my cellar until last week when I was doing a bit of inventory and happened to come across the forgotten third bottle.

Now it is fair to say that I was quite pessimistic about this one, with its two siblings failing to show the goods. There was promise on looking at the bottle, with no ullage noticeable. In the glass the wine had the appearance of Botrytis orange, and at only 12.7% a/v, I thought the horse, and the wine, had definitely bolted. But alas, this one was the gem! This nose is possibly one of the best I have come across for any wine, with very noticeable honeycomb coming through in the form of the crunchie bar chocolate. In the mouth was very viscous, with wax and more honey bobbing up. The real pleasure of this wine was that Erin did not like it. More, or actually all, for me – mucho fantastico!!

Great balance, wonderful length and real complexity. Just a shame that it was my last one.

Drink now
Drink with braised Rockling with a leek and butter sauce
19/20

Hochkirch 'Maximus' 2006 Tarrington Pinot Noir

Hochkirch, I recently found out is the original name of the western Victorian town of Tarrington. This area was essentially populated by German immigrants in the nineteenth century, and if you head out that way, around Hamilton and Tarrington, you will find a lot of their German roots still there, like the six Lutheran churches I counted in Hamilton; that's a few I reckon.

Another German throw back is Hochkirch Wines in Tarrington – it’s all coming together now isn’t it. Hochkirch have been producing biodynamic wines for some time now, and they have been doing it rather well I might say. One thing that makes this label ever so German is not the name, but the little insignia of the eagle crest on each side of the label; very German don’t you think?

But the wine. The Hochkirch ‘Maximus’ 2006 Tarrington Pinot Noir has a great pinky red look about it with obvious translucency. The nose is instantly gamey with a hint of freshness at the back coming through as strawberry. The mouth has a soft hit of spice up front with a long savoury run down the middle of the palate that is held up by crisp acid. Right at the end, when you think it is time to pack up and go home comes a lovely whack of beetroot and beetroot leaf which is really strong and, what reckon, really obvious; obviously!

Nicely balanced, great length with what I think is surprising complexity about it. All in all, a great wine.

Drink with lamb assiete
Drink till 2014
16.5/20

Jasper Hill 'Georgia's Paddock' 1996 Heathcote Shiraz

There are wines in the Australian psyche that are truly Aussie; Penfolds Grange and Bin 389, Wynn’s Black Label, Lakes Folly Cabernets and De Bortoli’s Noble One. These wines I would put in to the bracket of the ‘Triple M’ category; mainstream wines that have the ‘everyman’ appeal.

Then there are the wines that rock the boat, or do not necessarily play by the rules. These are wines that are a bit more edgy in style, marketing and flavour; Bass Phillip, Nicholson River, Domaine A and Jasper Hill. These are the producers that I will put in the alternative pile, the ‘Triple J’ wavelength.

Unlike the former, these last four producers undertook their lot by throwing caution to the wind; Bass Phillip with Biodynamics and a gravity fed winery, Nicholson River fermenting Riesling in oak, Domaine A growing Cabernet Sauvignon in Tasmania and Jasper Hill growing dry grown, or more simply, with no irrigation. And it is Jasper Hill more than any of the other wines that have pushed its way in to semi mainstream, and still coming with a large price tag.

Ron Laughton has been making wine in Heathcote since the mid 70’s, primarily Shiraz with his ‘Georgia’s Paddock’ which is 100% Shiraz and ‘Emily’s Paddock’ which is a blend of Shiraz and Cabernet Franc. Dry grown fruit relies entirely on what comes out of the sky, and with the current drought not looking like going away, growing conditions remain tough up in Heathcote, with Ron resorting to donning a weed-spray backpack full of water and walking the rows spraying his vines – that’s hard work.

Recently I had the pleasure of sharing a bottle of Jasper Hill ‘Georgia’s Paddock’ 1996 Shiraz with Arnaud, my former assistant at The Point restaurant. Now Arnaud is a young Frenchman with knowledge of Australian wine. He has already come to the conclusion however, that Barossa Shiraz is crap – smart fellow this one hey? So when we happened across this gem, he was quite taken aback by not only its power, but also elegance for a wine that has spent the best part of 12 years in a bottle.

The colour was still quite deep, with no sign of fading or breaking up. On the nose was bright eucalypt; very Heathcote. In the mouth came savoury chocolate, cedar, a little bit of prickly plum and acid a plenty, which once again tells me that there is still plenty of kick in this bad boy.

Wonderful balance of secondary flavours with this wine with enough complexity and length for this wine to still be stunning in many years to come.

Drink till 2026
Drink with lamb shoulder in onion sauce
17/20

Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir 2007 Central Otago

This is an absolute belter!

Felton Road is one of my favourite wines easy. Year in and year out these guys from Central Otago in NZ produce some fantastic wine, and not just Pinot Noir – Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and a wonderfully dry Riesling.

Central Otago has unfortunately got a reputation of producing over-ripe berryie Pinot Noir wines. I believe this is unfounded or it is a generalist view held by people who have far too much spare time on their hands.

For me, the wine is near perfect – very Burgundy like I would have to say. The 2007 Block 5 Pinot Noir is fantastic baby, or mucho fantastico for our latin friends!!! This wine shares its name with another one of my favourites, Bindi Block 5 Pinot Noir and, like the shared name, this wine is all elegance and lust rolled into one fine vessel.

Onto the wine then. The Felton Road Block 5 2007 Pinot Noir has got a deep red going on which sort of tells me that there was plenty of time on skins to extract both wonderful colour and flavour. The nose is complex with musk stick, rose petal, prickly spice with a little bit of cassia bark and plum after a while. In the mouth there is more musk stick with a little bit of green leaf rhubarb thrown in. The longer in the glass, the wine delivers an elegance that I am used to with this producer; soft spicy acid with a wonderful grainy mouth feel which makes it perfect with food such as spiced duck or rare beef for all of that acid to soak up the blood.

Beautiful balance, plenty of length, wonderfully complex and as said before, great weight to go up against strong flavours on the plate.

Drink till 2020
Drink with roast duckling with Asian spices.
19/20