Ruggabellus Barossa Valley Fluus 2013

My favourite South Oz producer I reckon. The Ruggabellus Barossa Valley Fluus 2013 - Grenache, Mataro, Cinsault and Syrah - has brought sexy back for this style with such unassuming style and finesse all the while walking in to the room loaded with sweaty hairy armpits; its super-suave and bogan all in one package; Sort of like The Drones - band not spy object.

Anywhoo, the wine. Dusty graphite on the nose with concentrated black fruit and savoury black olive brininess too. The palate has a very clear line of savoury gaminess and black fruit all held together with precise fine graphite like tannins. Theres almost a hint of lip smacking fish sauce at the back. This is as close to Pinot Noir from the Barossa Valley I reckon. I just love it!!!




Drink with peppered rare steak
Drink till 2018
96 Screwcap
13.6%v/v $29-$32

Ruggerbellus Barossa Valley Efferus 2010

It seems in an ever changing wine landscape, there are some things that are just what they propose to be - wine without the song and dance. Enter the Ruggerbellus Barossa Valley Efferus 2010 Mataro blend.

I reckon I had this about 2 years ago for the first time at Fix in Sydney and was simply drawn to it by it pure simplicity; gorgeous fruit, gorgeous acid and tannin structure and gorgeous length. Gorgeous.

Forward 2 years and it is now a fixture at Albert Street Food & Wine, but don't put it on the burner, there's not much left. So the wine. Deep colour in the glass with an almost black/purplish hue. Massive wafts of black fruit and black olives on the nose with a slight ashed finish, the wine powers in the palate with flavour that ascends ever so lightly and seems to go on for ever; I didn't do a Robert Parker Jnr and time the flavour length - I do have a life thankyou! But I digress. Plenty more black fruit with a slight tinge of green leaf in the acid working its way at the end. Cracking good wine.

Drink with Côte de boeuf with Béarnaise - like I did last night
Drink till 2025
96
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $42 Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

Spinifex Barossa Valley Papillon 2009

“Make the best of what we offer you, and you will suffer less than you deserve.” Camp Commandant from Papillon

I remember watching this for the first time on a wet and wintery Fremantle day when I was about 11. It let me with one lesson; no matter how much you try, you’ll always be trapped. This was pretty heavy for me at the time, but never the less apt – I had two older sisters and was always the whipping boy with no escape. But enough about my traumatic childhood.

So far this is my second favourite wine of the year. The Spinifex Barossa Papillon Barossa Valley 2009. A blend of Cinsault, Grenache and Mataro, this wine started as mistaken identity; I meant to grab the Bête Noir, but in my haste one evening I grabbed this (have since grabbed it about five times!).

This wine caught me off guard. Quite opaque and dirty in the glass, the nose offers a wonderful mix of dried herbs and tart red fruit. The palate is very true to the nose with more tart red fruit, cranberry being the dominant for me, with tight and clean acid certainly making its presence known throughout the whole bottle. This is also the type of wine that needs food, not just a lazy Friday night quoffer.

Drink with rump steak and béarnaise sauce
Drink till 2014
96
Screwcap 13.8%v/v $27 from Blackhearts & Sparrows, North Fitzroy

Listel Pink Flamingo ‘Gris de Gris’ Camargue Rosé 2008

If the Godfather of Kitsch was a wine it would be Pink Flamingo! A brand new arrival to our shores, the Listel Pink Flamingo ‘Gris de Gris’ Camargue Rosé 2008, is one of the many fine wines that I am representing through Vranken Pommery Australia (cha-ching plug!).

Now, for the record, ‘Gris de Gris’ is not a Pinot Gris or a grey wine, but a pink wine that is decidedly paler than most rosé wines because it is made exactly like a white wine where the fruit – all dark fruit – is pressed as soon as it gets to the winery and not bled or a saignee, which is I guess the traditional way to make rosé wine.

This wine is a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan and comes from some of the oldest vines in France due to they were not affected by phylloxera in the 1880’s because of the fine, almost beach like sand that they are planted in.

As said before, the wine is very pale in colour with an almost peach fuzz about it. A simple waft of delicate raspberry and musk precede the same in the mouth with a real slippery, vinous mouth feel not unlike a Marsanne or Roussanne.

This wine is very brand new here, and so far Mr. Wilkinson in Brunswick the only bar to have this listed, and they are pouring it for about $8 – top stuff I say!

Drink with charcuterie meats
Drink now
No rating – its part of my portfolio
Quality cork 12.5%v/v at Mr. Wilkinson, or if you are interested shoot me an email on tcohen@vrankenpommery.com.au

Châteauneuf-du-Pape and my friend Mario Guiot

Earlier this week I was going through some off my old vintage notes from the late 90’s in France. In a four year period I worked at Clos Hermitage, Tavel in the Southern Rhone and also at Jean-Marie Etienne in the Marne Valley in Champagne, and through all of these vintages I had one stable factor throughout – Mario Guiot. You see, both of these wineries were represented by Alchemist Consultants of London, a restaurant consultancy group I was working with, and Mario was effectively the Liaison in France for Alchemist

Mario was a big influence on me back then, and it was while we were in Tavel that Mario not only got me in to Institut Auvignon to study wine, but he was also my travel companion on most Sundays when we would head out on the road exploring the southern Rhone; Carpentras, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (CDP), Lirac, Rasteau and Saint-Pantaléon-les-Vignes.

Before heading overseas, my wine knowledge was quite small you may say. If I was at a BBQ there might of been a box of our world famous, ‘man and woman in boat’ – better known as Coolabah, or a bottle perhaps of Jamieson’s Run or Penfolds Rawson’s Retreat, and if we were lucky, Bin 28 – good times!

It was here in the Rhone, and also in New York at Le Fauchon Bistro, where my wine education started. And it was probably the many visits out to Château La Nerthe in CDP. It was here that we befriended a very wise old gent, Lauren. He had lived within CDP his entire life, and had been living on the Château La Nerthe for the last 15 years. He was full of stories and was orphaned during WW2, as he kept telling us every time we saw him. He said he was not sure how old he was, but he said that he remembered having his first beer when Montpellier finished runners-up in the 1928 French Football championships.

It seemed everyone in CDP knew Lauren. Everywhere we walked through the Village, people would stop us and pour Lauren a glass of this or a glass of that. Mario and I also got a glass and more often than not another bottle was opened; Domaine Raymond Usseglio, Ch. De Vaudieu, La Nonciature, Laurus, Vieux Telegraphe and Ogier were just some of the wines I quickly jotted down in my little journal from our walks; sour cheery, morello, chocolate, cedar, blackberries and on and on. These are wines that can only come out of CDP and flavours that are masterfully extracted from Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvèdre.

Mario Guiot (left)

Now my French was very poor, but I could always understand the, ‘coner Australien’, or stupid Australian, for it was my fault apparently that Australia, to the French, made such crap wine. But these were not rude sniggers, because this was often followed with a wink and a smile and a comment that pretty much equated to how lucky I was to be in France to get my education – they were right.

You see, the French always thought our wines were far too ripe and alcoholic, a fact really that cannot be argued I reckon. It was during these afternoon sessions that I learnt that wine should not be expressed through its alcohol, but its mouth feel, and this just did not mean fruit also, but of minerality, acid, tannins and savoury factors; these are words I would have never of used to describe Australian wines of the 80’s and 90’s!

My last visit to CDP was in late 1999 where I again walked with Lauren and Mario and listened as best as I could to their great stories of wine, war, women and football. I am not sure if Lauren is still living at La Nerthe, or even living period, but I hope one day to take my kids back there and hopefully get some kind gents to open up something wonderful and again listen to old French men speak.

I am writing this today because I just got an email from an old friend in London to inform me that Mario passed away on Thursday from cancer. So thankyou Mario for introducing me to not only your culture, but also your beloved Châteaunuef-du-Pape. Mario was 45.