Lamont Bendigo Central Otago Pinot Noir 2006

It struck me some time back that Central Otago Pinot Noir’s were being written up as chest beating brutes with as much appeal as a Barossa Shiraz tipping the scales at 15.5%v/v. Last week I overheard a Melbourne sommelier lament the tragedy, yes that's right, tragedy, of the “.... poor, poor Central Otago Pinot Noir – where did you get it wrong.” Strong words from a twenty something person who has yet to do a vintage, but assures me that they are more than capable of making a cracking Pinot; true story.

Well may they lament, for I would suggest they have not come across this ripper, the Lamont Bendigo Central Otago Pinot Noir 2006. A great blend of fruit with a mineral hit on the nose, the wine drifts between plums, spice, loganberries and strawberries with no real let up the longer in the glass and mouth watering acid with fine chewy tannins to balance it all out . A fair dinkum cracker without a hint of chest beating bruteness!!!!

Drink with black bean slow cooked spare ribs
Drink till 2014
91
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $47 Blackheart and Sparrows North Fitzroy

Noon Winery McLaren Vale Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

They say ‘big is better’ and ‘nothing is bigger than Texas’ and then there is this one from the late US president Gerald Ford, ‘if the government is big enough to give you what you want, then it is big enough to take it away as well’. These all may be true, but the one thing I know that is big is the Noon McLaren Vale Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2002. BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG!!!

You got that. Good!

Quite possibly the biggest alcohol I have ever seen for a table wine, this bad boy weighs in at a hefty 16.1% a/v. I could have easily have introduced this wine like some heavy weight prize fighting boxer about to step in to the ring, but that would just be too theatrical for cyberspace I reckon.

This wine has been sitting in my cellar for about 5 years now, so with a curious mind and thirsty gob, Erin and I got stuck in to this one like any other bottle of plonk – casually. What we got was a lesson about being cautious. Yes I know, too theatrical.

After sitting in the decanter for about 30 minutes, the wine had this appearance of being almost black, something I saw while at Charles Sturt Uni in Wagga; it was a class on pH (the measure of acidity or alkalinity of a solution) in red wine with lower pH of 3.2 – 3.8 being normal red wine colour, to the extreme of pH 6.1 being total black. Now the thing with pH is that the lower it is the more acid you will have and less alcohol with the opposite for those wines with high pH. Anyway, it is a fair bet that this wine had a high pH, not 8, but definitely somewhere around 3.9 - 4.0.

On the nose there is heavy eucalypt similar to that of ‘Martha Gardner’s’ wool wash. After this there is just a real big hit of ethanol, which is no surprise really. In the mouth liquorice in the way of sweet all sorts is overwhelming and seems to just go on for quite a while without much else happening.

This is a wine for all those wine drinkers who love that big smack of oak and alcohol, and with a couple bottles left in the cellar, it seems that this one will have to wait a little longer before it see’s the light of day, or the bottom of my glass.

To quote Bobo from ‘Pizza’, ‘It’s big and it’s cheesy’.

There is balance, there is length, but the wine just lacks complexity and elegance.

Drink till 2020
Drink with leg of lamb and mint sauce
16/20