Moondarra Gippsland Beurot Pinot Gris 2012

We hear a lot about terroir in the wine world. We also hear a lot of people compare Australian wines to Burgundy or Champagne or Piedmont. Me included. What we need is to how to use terroir in terms of where the wine comes from and what terroir means to that growing region. Its an open ended question if there ever was one but a question that needs to asked whenever we compare our wines to those of the old world.

Anywhoo, the Moondarra Gippsland Beurot Pinot Gris 2012 is all about, yep thats right, terroir. Coming from a region where the soil is rich with a friable clay soil profile, this wine screams what the vines are grown in. Soil and wet earth. The nose is full of dried porcini mushrooms and wet earth. Its quite amazing really. This just goes on and on and on. Quite amazing actually. In the palate the wine continues with more mushroom flavours with lush layers of checked acid, prickly pear and quince, and finishes with tiny talc-like white tannins. Just a great wine Mr. Prentice.

Drink till 2015
Drink with porcini risotto
96
Screwcap 11.5%v/v $25 Seddon Wine Store

Moondarra Gippsland Studebaker Pinot Noir 2012

For the cool people:

"We were lounging in a Camden flashback in the commons, splitting a Molson, our sunglasses on,our eyes glazed over, a peeled orange sitting untouched between us on a table, and we'd already read our horoscopes and I was wearing a T-shirt that read IF YOU'RE NOT WASTED THE DAY IS and waiting for my laundry to dry and she was alternating between playing with a pencil and smelling a Thai orchid a secret admirer ha sent her and heavy metal pop - Whitesnake or Glass Tiger - was playing from somewhere where we couldn't figure out and it was driving us nuts and her dealer wasn't coming up until next Tuesday so we were fairly unresponsive toward certain events and in the sky things were getting dark." Bret Easton Ellis Glamorama

Moondarra Gippsland Studebaker Pinot Noir 2012. Its cool. Its now. Its dirty. Its got spunk. Its now. Its what Bret Easton Ellis would make his characters drink if they weren't strong out on xanex. Cool and dirty.

Drink
Drink till theres no more
95
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $32 Seddon Wine Store

Wickhams Road Gippsland Pinot Noir 2012

The best wine of 2013 thus far!! Simple.

The Wickhams Road Gippsland Pinot Noir 2012 would certainly be the most written up and reviewed wine since its release, and you know what, every word written about it is spot on; The Best value bar none.

First tasted on January 24^th this year with Stef d’Anna, the wine, as the note says, “ticks all the boxes”. Lovely and earthy spice on the nose, the wine lifts after a while and throws up subtle leafy notes with tomato and rhubarb present. The palate follows suit of the nose with a great lick of prickly spice and prickly plum. This is another Icona Pop wine I Have to say. Just get it. Now.

sorry for the poor handwriting

I’m going early, but clear favourite for wine of the year so far

Drink with Buffalo chicken wings

Drink till 2015

98

Screwcap 13.2%v/v $17 Seddon Wine Store

Briagolong Estate Gippsland Chardonnay 1996

A wine that was left on its own too long is sometimes good, sometimes not so good. The Briagolong Estate Gippsland Chardonnay 1996 unfortunately sits in the latter. First purchased at a charity dinner as a six pack back in 2003, the wine was quickly consumed by Erin and me over the following 12 months, but ones slipped by. So, what does a 13 year old chardonnay taste like; custard. That’s all I got. A very golden colour with custard on the nose and custard on the palate. There is a perfectly good reason for this, but to find it I would have to trawl through all my uni wine science notes, but right now I cannot be shagged; something about phenolics breaking down with the acid – sorry!

Drink with something that has a lot of acid
Drink 4 years ago
84
Cork 13.2%v/v $30 – 7 years ago

Season of Stout - Grand Ridge 'Hatlifter' Stout Gippsland

It still cold and rainy here in Brunswick, so it is time for another stout.

Grand Ridge ‘Hatlifter’ Stout from Mirboo North, that’s right, Mirboo North – so fun to say isn’t it, in Gippsland is one of the easiest Stouts to drink I would have to say.

Grand Ridge has been around since the late 80’s when Aussie Rules was played by men, ‘greed was good’ and so to was Bryan Adams. Re-branded after a failed brewery vacated the premises, Grand Ridge has consistently been winning awards on the global stage essentially since the first frothy came off the brewery floor.

One of the great attractions to this brewery in Mirboo North is the bar that hovers above the brewery floor. In a visit to Gippsland last year with my family we happened across the brewery (a scheduled stop actually) for some lunch and a beer or two. Well, Erin had to drive back to the holiday house cos’ at $4 a bottle for Grand Ridge at the bar, this scribe was virtually obliged to taste the entire range – except for the ‘Supershine’ which is about 13% a/v.

Although this blog is on the ‘Hatlifter’, I still think the stout was the best had on the day. Leaving Grand Ridge with us that day was a mixed case of stout, Black and Tan, Yarra Valley Gold and the Brewers Pilsener (six of each).

Anyhoo, the ‘Hatlifter’ stout. In the glass it is a brownie/black colour with a creamy coffee head. On the nose there is chocolate mousse and liquorice. In the mouth it is very smooth, very un-stout like I reckon, more ‘Newcastle Brown’ than stoutish, but stout never-the-less. But right at the end after a while in the glass, the chocolate from the nose comes and pays a visit. Super stuff this one!

Drink with BBQ Buffalo chicken wings

http://www.grand-ridge.com.au/