Competition Time!! ... and Some Young Punks 'The Squid's Fist' Barossa Valley/McLaren Vale 2008 Sangiovese Shiraz

How would you fancy a glass of ‘Raging Aardvarks’ Chardonnay, or ‘Exploding Toxic Haemorrhoids’ Sauvignon Blanc? Fortunately you won’t have to because these wines are just figments of my imagination. Yet even though these wine names are a bit strange, it is becoming more and more popular these days to brand your wine with a funky moniker just to get the punters attention owing to the fact that there are more wines on shelves than NRL player misdemeanours.

I did a search last nite on the W’s and came across some whacky names; ‘Fat Bastard’ Chardonnay, ‘Marilyn Merlot’, ‘ChardonnAlien’, ‘Goats do Roam’ and ‘Goats Roti’. Most are plays on words with the rest just being plain weird. But this is where it is all heading with a lot of these labels being produced and run by that most imaginative of generations, ‘Gen Y’.

So I have come up with the idea of holding a competition to all comers to come up with the wackiest printable wine name, be it label or company. And what gave me this idea; ‘Some Young Punks’ from South Australia.

Friends Colin McBryde, Jennie Gardner and Nic Bourke first produced their range with the 2005 ‘Passion had Red Lips’ and ‘Naked on Rollerskates’ range to make ‘rockin’ wine with an edgy wow factor. The concept of the pulp fiction artwork may be a bit tongue in cheek, but it is the wine behind the gloss that really socks it to ya!

My favourite of theirs is ‘The Squid's Fist’ 2008 Barossa Valley/McLaren Vale Sangiovese/Shiraz. The colour has a deep red garnet with a slight purple hue. The nose has mocha, with an almost stoutish feel to it. It is all ripe juicy fruit in the mouth with cherries, raspberries and plums all working together with fine tannins and soft acid.

It is a wacky wine, but it is also a great wine with even balance, good length and not to Barossa big even with the 14.4% a/v. Good stuff this one!

So get cracking. Come up with your best name for plonk. Prize to be announced soon, so stay tuned!!

Drink till 2012
Drink with a burger with the lot
16.8/20

Season of Soup - Chilli Chickpea soup with De Iuliis Hunter Valley Aged Semillon 2002

I was down at ‘Blackhearts and Sparrows’ in Brunswick last week in need of a wine that would match up to my chickpea and onion soup. The wine needed to have plenty of mouth-feel and weight to go up against a very viscous and nutty soup.

I could have gone the easy option with an Alsacean Riesling or Australian Pinot Gris, but instead went for something that I hoped would be both a great drink and an inspired choice for the soup; should have gone the safe bet. But first the soup.

My chilli chickpea and onion soup sounds simple and it is. This soup can be prepared in quick time which is good for the corporate high flyers out there who also have to juggle a couple of kids. A real straightforward flavour about this one – chickpeas gives that lovely nutty flavour with the chilli adding that extra factor to the palate

· 2 x 400g cans of chickpea’s or 500g cold soaked chickpea’s
· 4 x onions, chopped
· ½ red chilli
· 2 x cloves of garlic
· 1 litre of water
· Salt and pepper to taste
· Good olive oil
· Crusty bread
· Swimming goggles – for chopping the onions

Method
Heat oil in saucepan on low heat and glaze the chilli for about five minutes and discard. Sauté onions and garlic until soft. One big mistake us humans make with cooking is having the pan or pot too hot. All you need is a low flame which means the heat in the pan/pot is going to be more consistent.

Once onions are done, add the water and chickpeas, set to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Once there is a real chickpea smell coming from the pot, blitz and serve with bread.

It’s probably a good idea to let the soup cool for about 15 minutes, otherwise you risk burning your tongue like this amateur chef did.

The Wine:
As I said before, I was looking for something with a bit of weight and structure, so on paper the De Iuliis Hunter Valley 2002 Aged Semillon looked the goods. Me shooting 6 under in the final round of the US Masters looks good on paper also; seems like I’ve found a good use for paper then.

The wine has quite a pale look to it, so the aging has got a long way to go I reckon. The nose is very fresh with a little bit of wax there and citrus at the end. In the mouth there is more citrus – lemon, honey, toast and a little bit of spice, but it was just a little, not the lot that I thought there would be.

You know what, it’s a nice wine, but not with my chickpea and onion soup. Go with a Pinot Gris I reckon.

Drink till 2014
16/20

Melbourne's real 'Little Italy' - Mediterranean Wholesalers - 482 Sydney Road Brunswick

There is no mistaking the sounds and smells of Italy. When I first visited Italy in 1998, I spent the best part of three months working in Bardolino, a wine town on the eastern shores of Lake Gardi in the Veneto. When you live or work in Italy, there is a certain respect that needs to be heeded to the locals and local customs. In Bardolino, and I am sure in many other towns of Italy, it was that whatever was put in front of you was to be eaten or drunk – no questions. That spring I put on 5 kg’s while performing manual labour.

Every morning there was the unmistakable smell of coffee; the aroma was that robust that it would dead-set wake you up. Breakfast was generally a small affair (it was for me anyway) with everyone in the vineyard gearing themselves up for morning tea, or the Italian version of morning tea anyway. More coffee, cheese, ham – lots and lots of ham, salami and masses of bread. Lunch was generally grilled fish and dinner was huge.

Each evening the vineyard crew would sit down to what can only be described as a feast; pasta to start with, plates of olives, artichokes, sardines, anchovies, eggplant and a copious amount of other delicacies. Then there came more fish, braised lamb, plenty of veggies and then plenty of more other stuff – every night I tell ya! To finish off we would have a digestive; grappa, amore, strega – whatever and usually home-made.

Like I said, an extra 5 Kg’s.

10 years on and I am living in Brunswick (which we know) with my family and have sadly not been back to Italy since 1999. This brings us to Mediterranean Wholesalers on Sydney Road.

From the outside it’s just another Sydney Road facade, but as soon as you walk thru the doors the smells instantly transport you back to Italy. Everything, and I mean everything you want that is Italian and yum is here. EVERYTHING!!!

Coffee, pasta, cheese, salami, hams, lentils, anchovies, prosciutto, grappa, Barolo, Bardolino, canoli’s, bread, cake, sardines, tinned tomatoes, amore, beer, strega and even retsina. You know what, there’s even more.

Mediterranean Wholesalers is like Bunning’s – you go in there for some basil seeds and come out with three trailer loads of stuff that you don’t need, but hey, seemed like a good idea at the time.

Located at 482 Sydney Road, Mediterranean Wholesalers seems like it has been there forever. It is essentially split in too two areas – dry goods and deli area on the right and alcohol, coffee and bread on the left. The centre isle is essentially pasta heaven; any sort of pasta you can think of is here. The deli is down the back, but you already know this when you walk in from the scent of cheese and meat smallgoods. On the left there is a great assortment of wine, stuff that you will only find here, liqueurs, digestives and imported beers. And the beer is genuine, like the Stella Artois – this one is brewed in Belgium, not Sydney, and only $14 a six-pack – gold!

Also on the left is one coffee machine with one patrone behind the grips. You will not find any chai or soy or vanilla syrup. This guy makes coffee; cafe latte in the morning and espresso and macchiato in the afternoon. And if you get your daughter to ask nice, he will make a little hot chocolate for her.

Mediterranean Wholesalers is Italy in Melbourne. Lygon Street Carlton thinks it is Melbourne’s answer to Italy, but is so far off the mark when it comes to authenticity and quality. Mediterranean Wholesalers has the smell, or the stink - a really sweet stink, sound and soul of the Italy that I experienced 10 odd years ago (yeah yeah, I know it sounds corny).

By now you know I have a Birk rating for eateries. Now Mediterranean Wholesalers is not what you would call an eatery, but it has everything, so it is going to get a Birk – a gold one.

Buy your pasta there, buy your wine there and buy your cheese there. Just get there.

'42° South' Chardonnay Pinot Noir Tasmanian Sparkling Wine

As aperitifs go, '42° South' Chardonnay Pinot Noir Sparkling by Frogmore Creek in Tasmania certainly does the trick. You see, I think any, and all by Jove, social gatherings should kick off with a sparkling wine. I guess that is just the prude in me.

The wine is bone straw with a slight pink hue about it and a fine bead. Toasty brioche and a faint hit of grapefruit. In the mouth there is a quick hit of granny smith apple and then the dullness of lead pencil, which is good. After a while as the wine comes down to room temp, semi ripe strawberry comes through. The acid held its length the whole way through the bottle – about 45 minutes.

Even balance, even length, simple complexity and subtle weight in the mouth - a nice wine I say.

Drink now
Drink with ceviche scallops or natural oysters.
16.5/20

Punch 'Close Planted' Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2006

Don’t you love August? The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and there’s a BBQ within spitting distance. Stupid southern Hemisphere!

Yes it is winter. The season that brings influenza, this year in the shape of a pig, Ugg boots and the wanting and yearning of something warm and familiar. Come on down Punch ‘Close Planted’ Pinot Noir 2006.

Ever since I had this wine about a year ago I have dead-set been in love – what a wine I tell ya!! Born from the Lance Family vineyards in St. Andrews of the Yarra Valley, Punch is the off-spring of the old Diamond Valley ‘White Label’ Pinot Noir. The Diamond Valley label has since been sold to the Rathbone empire that holds Yering Station, Parker of Coonawarra and Mount Langhi. The Lance family still own the vineyards and sell some of the fruit and hold the rest for themselves. In February this year this almost was lost with the devastation of the Victorian bushfires. Even though the Lance family lost the winery and some vines, like everyone else affected in Valley, they will, and are, persevering.

But back to the wine. But be warned, I have had this wine quite a few times so the rating might be a bit biased, bit like reading a Jane Faulkner restaurant review actually.

Fair dinkum sexy stuff this one. The colour is a bit brownish red with a slight translucency. The nose is all spice up front; cinnamon and cassia bark. After a while there is game and bacon and sex and acid and so much yum. In the mouth there is more to come; more spice more game more, more and more. Then the tannin comes with some sort of Oloroso flow – that’s an Enya moment isn’t it – with an herbal feel about it finished with musk. By gingoes, what a wine hey! Mucho fantastico!!

So there you have it, a sort of cyber orgasm you might say.

Drink with goat ragu
Drink till 2020
19.6/20


I would like to sign off by saying that many people lost a great deal on February 7 this year. So even though there have been numerous benefits for which we have all given to, make sure that when the 2009 vintage release of Yarra Valley wine hits the stores, go out and get some, support the people that make us read and write blogs about them.

Sutton Grange Bendigo Viognier 2008

Did you know that up until 1968, the only plantings of Viognier in the world were in the Northern Rhone, and there was only 14 hectares! Thankfully today Viognier is planted at over 180 hectares in the Northern Rhone, as well as here in Australia, NZ, California and South Africa.

Viognier is generally associated with high alcohol volumes, and with this it develops its maximum flavour profile of fruit pastilles, apricot, honey, orange blossom, orange peel and peach aroma. It also has quite a unique mouth feel, being almost like soap – slippery.

However, Viognier is most famous for its co-fermentation with Syrah in the Cote Rotie of northern Rhone and around the world. Traditionally, the co-fermentation is about 95% Syrah/Shiraz with the rest being Viognier. Here in Australia we have experimented with up to 12% (I will not name the producer of this garsley drop cos they knew they stuffed it up with the following vintage resorting to 4% co-fermentation). Australia’s most famous example of this would be Clonakilla from the Canberra District.

But today, this blog is about Viognier on its own, and more in particular, the Sutton Grange 2008 Bendigo Viognier.

One of my favourite wine producers at the moment, Sutton Grange is doing everything right up in Bendigo right now. Gilles Lapalus is a third generation Burgundy wine maker who is plying his trade primarily with Rhone varieties – Syrah and Viognier.

So the wine. The colour is a pale yellow-grey with an almost clear hue to it. The nose has a really good Viognier whack of apricot, but not like the Condrieu Viognier where they can be stewy, this one is more on the sweet side; this is also backed up by the lowish a/v – 13.5%. The palate has a surprise up front with quinine, or a tonic water taste, being the primary hit. The longer in the glass the wine gives off a more classic style of Viognier with orange rind and apricot kernel (that’s if you have ever sucked on an apricot kernel) and a slippery almost soapy mouth feel.

Good balance, medium length – if a bit short perhaps, nice complexity and really good Viognier weight.

Drink with pork chops
Drink till 2011
16.8/20

Oakridge '864' Yarra Valley Shiraz 2003

Giddy up I say. It’s the horse’s birthday today and this blog has absolutely nothing to do with our equine friends.

What this entry is about is the wonderful winemaking skills of Oakridge’s David Bicknall. Since 2002 he has been plying his trade at Oakridge, which he now a paid up stakeholder in. In 2008 I worked the vintage there (some of us used another word to describe the vintage but it is a bit blue for this forum) where we crushed just under 100 tonne of fruit in 8 weeks, turning the winery over four times. Now if you really want to shed some kg’s, work a vintage; I dropped 11 kilo’s in 8 weeks!!

Anyhoo, Oakridge and in particular David, are putting out some serious cool climate wine. The premium range 864, address on Maroondah Hwy, is probably the truest form of Yarra Valley premium wine; Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet Merlot. These wines year in and year out display what Yarra Valley wine can are – elegant, heaps of finesse, structure and massive cellar potential.

This entry is on the Oakridge 864 Shiraz from 2003. The colour is showing a little bit of translucency, but it is not the pale red pinkie style that Pinot Noir gives, more the reddy chocolate sort. The nose is very Rhone like with Cornas coming to mind – herby bay leaves feel about it. The longer in the glass a bit of liquorice comes in the form of the black savoury kind. The mouth follows the nose with a Cornas sting, great acid length that holds up more savoury touches of olive tapenade with a touch of red liquorice at the back – very long.

Great balance, plenty of length and incredible complexity that is not overwhelmed by weight – only 13.5% a/v; no JABS here.

Drink till 2018
Drink with herb crusted lamb
18.5/20

Oh yeah, for the punters out there; Caulfield, race 3 number 4 ‘With Apologies’ – giddy up.