Vinea Marson Heathcote Syrah 2008

As was in August 2011, only William Shakespeare can give it true justice:

My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth and disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my Love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, 
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did expect.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as mad men's are,
At random from the truth vainly express'd;
    For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
    Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

Sonnets 147

Brooding. Dark. Blackberries. Black Olive tapanade. Soy Sauce. Balsamic. Lust. Love. Envy. Need. Want.

The Vinea Marson Heathcote Syrah 2008  

Drink!!!
Drink till you have licked all residual flecks from the glass
100/100
Diam cork 14.5%v/v

Cavallotto Piedmont Dolcetto d'Alba 2011

“If it is true that there is no greater sorrow than to remember a
happy time in a state of misery, it is just as true that calling up a
moment of anguish in a tranquil mood, seated quietly at one's desk, is
a source of profound satisfaction.” Primo Levi, The Periodic Table

All things beautiful do not always come from a happy place.


The Cavallotto Piedmont Dolcetto d'Alba 2011, like Primo Levi from near Turin, is a seductive work of tart red cherries and chalky fine tannins that flows in layers and just keeps giving. A beautiful work of art. Yes art. A stunning wine indeed.

Drink with osso bucco
Drink till 2024
98
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $33 Gertrude Street Enoteca, Fitzroy

Clonakilla Murrumbateman Shiraz Viognier 2009

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
― John Keats, Endymion: A Poetic Romance

Not knowing how long forever may be, the Clonakilla Murrumbateman Shiraz Viognier 2009 was, and will be no doubt, a thing of beauty. Opened and finished last Saturday night, all I could write was 'majestic'. You're a good egg Mr. Kirk. More beauty please.

Drink with something stonkingly good
Drink till 2025+
100/100
Screwcap 14%v/v $105 Seddon Wine Store

Ettore Germano Piedmont Serralunga Barolo 2006

"When viewing the universe as a closed system, it also stands to reason the universe began in a state of high order, and when it ends, will be in a state of extreme disorder." Stephen Hawking on order and disorder.

Order - a full bottle of Ettore Germano Barolo 2006.
Disorder - an empty bottle of Ettore Germano Barolo 2006.

It stands to reason that Stephen Hawking is right. The man has never been wrong in his life. The Ettore Germano Piedmont Serralunga Barolo 2006 is simply quite stunning, and in the life of a Barolo, still very much an infant. Very dusty on the nose, the wine opens up with dusty dry morello cherries, ink, garden herbs and dried flowers. The palate is achingly dry like to nose with more morello cherries, violets and bitter chocolate all woven together by endless acid and tannins. A wonderful, wonderful wine.

Drink with steak au poivre
Drink till 2025+
97
Quality cork 13.%v/v $90 Seddon Wine Store

Abbazia Di Novacella Alto Adige Sylvaner DOC 2010

Thinking about this last night reading Christopher Hitchins 'Arguably', I went to school with three Sylvaner's. There, that's today's segue for the wine; short and succinct. Kinda how Christopher would have liked it.

The Abbazia Di Novacella Alto Adige Sylvaner 2010 for more than 4 weeks now has been staring at me while working at Seddon Wine Store, all the while sending telepathic messages to for me to grab my wine knife, remove the foil and pry the cork out - think 'The Shining'. I did this on Thursday night, minus the Jack Nicholson "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", and was like, "Wow. This Good". Again, think Korg in '20,000 Years BC'. So many quotes today.

Anyway, the wine. Golden yellow in the glass with a slight greenish hue. The nose was full of ripe rock melon with the slightest lick of dried green herbs. The palate was just super, with a fine mix of more full rock melon, gentle grapefruit acid and then all of the sudden there was this sudden STOP of flavour. What was next was a great wave of dried green herbs and an almost phenolic impact that pretty much cleaned up all the residual flavour from the primary palate. Just great. End Quote.

Drink with crab mornay
Drink till 2015
94
Quality cork 13%v/v $34 Seddon Wine Store

Cascina Morassino Langhe Nebbiolo 2008 DOC

'O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, 
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse 
Without all hope of day.'
John Milton - Samson Agonistes

Not quite the end of the world stuff, but dark nonetheless. The Cascina Morassino Langhe Nebbiolo 2008 DOC appears almost black in the glass with the hue seemingly black also. The nose is all true Nebbiolo with tar steaming off the surface. The palate, like the nose, is again all Nebbiolo with lip smacking tannins and acid all holding tart red fruit in check. No need to wait for the apocalypse to enjoy this.

Drink with osso bucco
Drink till 2020
94
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $50 Blackhearts & Sparrows, Fitzroy North

Valli Waitaki Valley Pinot Noir 2009

"Take short views, hope for the best, and trust in God." Sydney Smith 1771-1845

Now I'm not pontificating like the erstwhile Mssr Smith; he was a God-squadder unlike myself being anything but. Anyway, the jist is short and to the point.

The Valli Waitaki Valley Pinot Noir 2009. I know it says North Otago, but Jim Jerram from Ostler would have my neck if I didn't lead with Waitaki Valley, New Zealands newest wine region.

So to the wine you say. Quite a deep colour in the glass, the nose is a great marriage of new world and old world Pinot Noir with prickly plum woven together with gamey and bacon fatty notes. The palate follows the nose with wonderful depth of games and dark fruit all held together by balanced acid and tannins. Well worth looking for.

Drink with five spiced duck breast
Drink till 2020
96
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $60ish at Raffles Cellars, South Perth

Red chillie's from my garden

"Colour has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it. I know that it has hold of me forever... Colour and I are one. I am a painter"
Paul Klee

Vinea Marson Heathcote Syrah 2008

Words fail me, so I’ll let someone else say it for me. The Vinea Marson Heathcote Syrah 2008…

To the onlie Begetter of these insuing Sonnets. Mr. W.H. All Happinesse. And that eternitie promised by our ever-living poet wisheth the well-living adventurer in setting forth.
T.T.


From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should time decrease,
His tender heir might bear his memory;
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy lights flame with self substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.


William Shakespeare; The Sonnets: 1


Drink with steak tartar
Drink till 2024
99
Diam cork 14.5%v/v $46 Purvis Cellars Balwyn and Bistro d’Orsay Collins Street

Hardys Pemberton/Yarra Valley HRB|D643 Chardonnay 2008

Quote the label: “…continues the tradition of Hardys rich blending heritage” I think you are reading from the wrong manifest Jenkins!

The Hardys Pemberton/Yarra Valley HRB|D643 Chardonnay 2008 – maybe the license plate of the B-double that ferried the juice over the Nullarbor – barely scrapes in as a Jack Dyer wine and is unfortunately headed to the near-sub 80 category. On first glance the wine in the glass has all the hallmarks of a chardonnay; its bone/straw colour and tight and closed nose right away makes me think I have got a bargain from Uncle Dan’s at $28. Oh the fleeting glimpse of joy, with the palate displaying full, heavy and rich and chockers of all that was chardonnay back in 1994 – big and flabby; nuts and creaminess dominate the palate with the notable absence of lemon that is clearly printed on the label. Oh well, never thee mind.

Drink with fondue
Drink now or at a ‘Melrose Place’ party (thats a reference to the early 90’s if you didn’t pick it up)
Near-sub 80
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $28 Dan Murphy’s Coburg

S.C. Pannell Adelaide Hills Nebbiolo 2007

"what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

I'm bleary eyed this morning. It's not because I tied one on last night - that would be Friday nite. I'm bleary eyed this morning because I had a really restless nite sleeping. You see I had this dream where I was the 'Great Gatsby', Robert Redford version, and I was there in the Long Island mansion swanning around with a bevvy of beauties and a herd of hangers-on. My attention really got going in this dream when all of the sudden one of the said beauties was dancing ona table holding a bottle of S.C. Pannell Adelaide Hills Nebbiolo 2007; thats the funky shit!

So today as I sit at the kitchen counter, I am reading in peace yesterdays and todays The Age newspaper, and I read not one but two articles with reference to 'The Great Gatsby'. Am I still dreaming or am I actually writing this?

So, onto the wine then. It wasn't that long ago that I pulled one of these out of my cellar. A dark and dirty reddish purple in the glass with lovely and dependable aroma's of rose petals, cherries and a leather the longer it sits in the decanter. Lip smacking tannins give way to big and full fruit, but not ripe fruit; tart and crisp instead. It's a great example of a very good Nebbiolo being made in Australia.

Drink till 2022
Drink with braised goat
92
Screwcap 14.0%v/v $50 Dan Murphy's Hawthorn East

Wine fact #3: Retsina

“You there! Drawn onwards through this stretch of Hell, tell me you know me. Say so, if so you can. You! Made as man before myself unmade.’
And I replied: ‘The awful pain you feel perhaps has cancelled from your memory. Till now, it seems, I’ve never ever seen you....
Dante Alighieri, canto 6 40-46, Inferno



You may think that this is about extreme, but I do not. It all really started back in 2002 and it was my first trip to Wagga for Res School at Charles Sturt University where I had just started Wine/Vit science. And one of the first units involved wine evaluation with Malcolm Allen. The usual stuff was looked at; pH, alcohol, clarity of wine, baumé and other fascinating wine tid-bits. Then he gave us some Retsina or Ρετσίν in Greek. Gosh it was awful. I’m not sure what the lesson was, but whatever it was the message was duly noted; Retsina is to be avoided. To this day I have not, and doubt if I ever will, had good Retsina. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it...
“Its unique flavor is said to have originated from the practice of sealing wine vessels…”
Unique flavour indeed. You’d think that they would have got it right after 2000 years wouldn’t you?

So then, Retsina is not a nice wine, and that’s a wine fact!

Punch Yarra Valley Close Planted Pinot Noir 2006 (II) and crispy skin duck

Lauren Bacall on Humphrey Bogart, “For myself, I can only say that he changed me. He was my teacher my husband, my friend. In his life and his work, Bogey was integrity, truth, and courage. He taught me how to live. That it was okay to trust. He taught me to keep going no matter what. He did. And he is.”

You get the jist; they were soul mates. Just like duck and Pinot Noir I guess. And it was Friday night in downtown Brunswick in my little kitchen that I introduced Punch Yarra Valley Close Planted Pinot Noir 2006 to my crispy skin duck with tarragon lentils with baby carrots braised in white wine and butter with fennel seeds – cue wocka wocka music now.

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Punch wines – Huge! It is safe to say that I am also a big fan of duck. So why has it taken me so long to figure this little union out? Buggered if I know. Needless to say, the wine was just sexy as (my last six pack is now a five pack) with layer upon layer of toffee, bacon fat, delicate violets and just simply gorgeous and quite frankly perfect. And the duck; cooked to perfection (i just had my oven fixed the following day after being without her for close on three months). There’s nothing else to say really.



Drink with the above dish
Drink till 2021
100/100
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $75 mailing list three years ago

A few Semillons with Ferris

It’s been one of those weekends really; so much planned, so little achieved yet so much to look back on. A few bottles have been opened, a great curry was made and scoffed down, 'Ferris Buellers Day Off' was watched for the 166th time (really, I can almost do it word for word) and the Northcote pool was bursting at the seams. But it was the two Andrew Thomas semillons that stood out (saying that there is still two hours to go and I am still a bit thirsty).

So for this post it will be the Andrew Thomas Hunter Valley Individual Vineyard Braemore 2009 that will get the nod. Pure in clarity , the nose combines even citrus of lemon and lime which is backed up in the glass with piercing acidity but an almost lanolin-come-mascarpone feel about it; funky shit I know.

Either way you look at it, it’s a great wine and a lip smacker for this summer. And before I go, a little gem from my good friend Ferris,



“Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people”

Drink with shallow fried white bait
Drink till God knows – I never know how long to hold on to semillon
94
Screwcap 11.5%v/v $27 Blackheart and Sparrows Fitzroy North

Cidrerie d’Anneville Normandy, France

“A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood” Austin O’Malley

I would actually prefer to save a gallon of cider in this hot, sticky humid weather we are having right now – somehow I always think of Brer rabbit stuck in the briar patch when it is the humid, don’t know why, just do. Anyway, the cider today is Cidrerie d’Anneville from Normandy, France. Made from ripe apples this cider sits very cloudy in the glass, similar to a Coopers Sparkling Ale but more orange than Yarra River brown. Both nose and palate deliver fresh, clean, and after a while, sweet tones of ripe apple. The real surprise came about 3 hours later when a sort of sweet grilled pineapple flavour came wafting out of the bottle; just gorgeous.



Drink with salt and chilli squid
Drink now
Cork wrapped in cage 4.5%v/v $16 from Blackheart & Sparrows, Brunswick

Domaine de la Chauvinière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie 2007

“I find pleasure in things that are simple.” Stephan Jenkins

Pretty much says it all doesn’t it. The Domaine de la Chauvinière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie 2007 is fresh and clean with citrus, honeydew and white oleander with a touch of phenolics about it on both nose and palate. By the way, the variety is not Muscadet but Melon de Bourgogne, a common misconception made here in Australia. Just a great little wine.

Drink with moules marinière while listening to Demolition by Ryan Adams
Drink till 2012
88-91
Good cork 12%v/v $20ish from Blackheart and Sparrows, Brunswick

Clos Guirouilh Jurançon Sec 2007 Pyréneés-Atlantiques

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability." - Sam Keen

We are not exactly in deep summer just yet, but what the hell is deep summer anyway? I guess it is the second part of the quote that rings true – “...laziness finds respectability”. And it was this laziness that I shared with a bottle of Clos Guirouilh Jurançon Sec 2007 Pyréneés-Atlantiques in South West France (Gros Manseng and Courbu varieties).

Sitting yellow white in the glass, the aroma has an instant hit of wax and honeysuckle wafting up the olfactory. Another thing that is quite noticeable is the viscosity in the glass – subtle hint on the sec I’d say. In the mouth it is rich and textured with just a touch of crème brulée about. The acid is not sharp, as expected, but nevertheless clean and pronounced.

A seriously good wine and such a great companion this summer.

Drink with salmon gravlax
Drink till 2012
94
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $26 Blackhearts and Sparrows Fitzroy North

Mount Riley Marlborough Pinot Gris 2009

For all of you who do not know who Jack Dyer is, here is a brief synopsis:

• Richmond Football club and VFL legend
• One of the dirtiest players in his, and for that matter any era
• TV personality
• Creator of some of the best quotes in last 50 years

A few times I have mentioned in my blog the phrase, ‘good average player’. This was one of Jack Dyer’s more common summations of players he commented on while he was in broadcasting, and probably for that matter, playing also.

For me, ‘good average player’ is effectively saying he is not a star, but he holds his own; wine imitating football you might say. A wine that will not blow your socks off, but something that deserved to be bottled. Pretty simple really.

This leads us to the Mount Riley Marlborough Pinot Gris 2009. A nice wine without the lap dance. All categories tick the box: colour – slight greyish pink; nose – prickly pear and full; palate – more pear with a slight viscosity about it. In the end, a nice bottle of wine, or in footy terms, a good average drop.

Drink with seared scallops
Drink till 2012
88
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $19 from Psarakos markets, Thornbury

Paradigm Hill Mornington Peninsula L' ami Sage Pinot Noir 2008

'Well done is better than well said.’ Benjamin Franklin

Such a stonkingly good wine!

I could easily sit here in my sunny little home in Brunswick and pontificate about this wine but I shant. The Paradigm Hill Mornington Peninsula L’ami Sage Pinot Noir 2008 is such a good wine. Simple. So here is what I saw.

Great colour with virtually no translucency at all. Tight nose, so I decanted. After about 30 minutes the wine opened up to gorgeous tart red fruits of cranberry and brimming raspberry with brown spice’s the longer in the glass. Super clean acid held in check by the littlest of super fine tannins. Musk, tart red fruits again and just super gorgeous.

The wine I must say is at its peak three days later (I decanted about two glasses back into the bottle to see how it travelled). It is so Burgundy like, with descriptors I can’t give justice to. But I’ll have a stab anyway. Definite 5 spice aroma’s that meld deliciously into mushrooms, blackberry and more spice in the form of cinnamon. Mazel tov George and Ruth!

Drink with Asian style duck
Drink till 2018
98
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $55 Armadale Cellars

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