Finally!!! 2013 in review - The Best

You can throw all the cliches you want at this one, but finally I am releasing my best of 2013. But hey, if James Halliday can release the Wine Companion in August with the following year's title on it with current release wines then, 'what the heckity heck bang chuck', as my five year old son Henry would say. Sorry James.

There is also a new moniker to add to the blog: The Paul Keating Wine, '...the recession we had to have' here becomes, 'the wine you have to have'. Yeah, what are you going to do hey.



So, 2013 hey. For me it was dominated by reds and a few steamy imports. So without further adieu and the blah blahs, here we have the best of 2013.

Mac Forbes Strathbogie Ranges RS16 Riesling 2013 - a most beautiful wine with the RS16 effectively telling the drinker that it has 16 grams per litre of residual sugar. But you wouldn't know. Sexy as nuts this one.

Man O' War Waiheke Island Dreadnought 2009 - pretty much the perfect Right bank blend you can have; from the Right bank or for anywhere for that matter. Stunning balance of fruit weight and minerality and an early club house leader.

BK Adelaide Hills Cult Syrah 2012 - the 2011 of this was my fave for 2012 and an example of certain wine experts going far to fucking early in writing off 2011 (Just today sampled a Geelong 2011 Pinot Noir that was simply singing!!!). Superb balance of cool climate Syrah - blackberry, soy sauce and black olive tapanade. Will not be the last time you see those tasting notes typed. Sorry no pic, must have deleted.

Sutton Grange Bendigo Fairbank Rose 2013 - Not only the best Rose's of last year but almost the top dog. A blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and a squirt of Merlot (yes Merlot you dilettantes), this wine got me with its classic onion skin colour and funky fermier cider mid palate. Oink oink!!!

Precipice Yarra Valley Syrah 2012 - Pipped at the post for wine in show at the Yarra Valley Wine Show. Not bad for a bloke making his first wine on his own. And the bloke is Marty Singh. Watch this name.

Cavallotto Piedmont Dolceto d'Alba 2011 - I love Dolcetto and so should you: tart, crunchy, little tickle of herbs, earth, sex and other wicked stuff. Just get it.

The Melbourne Gin Company - Save the World - drink Gin. This one. Go on. Nice one Marksy!!!

Il Borghetto Toscana Montigiano Sangiovese 2011 - This is the wine that stopped me dead in my tracks. Seriously. What a wine. Seriously (again), this wine could be confused with a rootin-tootin red Burgundy. It is that good.

Giovanni Almondo Piedmont Roero Arneis 2010 - A wine that delivers an uncanny balance of tart bitter lemon and grapefruit with beautiful ripe pear and quince. A stunner.

Vinea Marson Heathcote Syrah 2008 - Only the Bard can do this justice. A near perfect wine, but 100/100 really.

So there you have it. There were definitely some wines that are unlucky not to feature; Stoney Vineyard, Abbazia Di Novacella and Wickhams Road. But hey, 2014 is a big year, or 10 months to go anyway.

But the Paul Keating wine for 2013 - Il Borghetto Toscana Montigiano Sangiovese 2011. Twas the clubhouse leader back in September and kept the lead all the way to midnight December 31, 2013.

Special thanks and recognition to John, Paul, George and Ringo and the all time classic 'Revolver' playing throughout my banging of keys. xxooxx

Azienda Agricola il Borghetto Tuscany Montigiano IGT Sangiovese 2010

And the year just keeps going...

Its October. This year is going sop fast. And this year has also been a year of some amazing wine. From this post until the end of the year I will write only about super-sexy stuff. So on that note people, we have a new club house leader. The Azienda Agricola il Borghetto Tuscany Montigiano IGT Sangiovese 2010.

What a wine!!!! A serious wine that in a blind tasting could easily be mistaken for a Burgundy (the winemaker worked at Dujac in Burgundy I was told at the tasting) with plenty of game, earth and funk. The nose starts out with supple spice and tart red fruit, but it is the palate that picks it up with mouth watering acid and fine tannins all holding sway with wet terracotta, toasted spice and more tart red fruit singing singing and singing. Seriously well made wine and a label definitely to look out for down at the Brunswick East Wine Store next year. An Icona Pop wine if ever there was one!!!

Drink with crispy duck breast
Drink till 2018
98
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $32 at Seddon Wine Store

Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Sangiovese 2010

As Sunday morning contemplations go, this is a ripper; do you think Huey Lewis and The News will ever get credit from the generation that are 'hip to be square'? Don't think so. Poor Huey.

Now that I have got that off my chest its on to the wine from last night. The wonderful Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Sangiovese 2010. Is there anything that Jonno Harris cannot make? As rhetorical questions go, that is a definitive no. Wonder what he is like at macrame? Anywhoo, the wine.

Quite a dense and heavy red in the glass, the nose takes a while to get free but when it does it is full of savoury tart cherries with a waft of chocolate after a little longer in the glass. The palate is a great blend of soft tannins, mouth watering acid and perfect fruit. Once again, after a while the wine delivered perfect and delicate bitter chocolate tannins. You're a good man Jonno Harris!!

Drink with chilli nacho's
Drink till 2018
95
Screwcap 13%v/v $32 Seddon Wine Store

Payton Vignerons Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2010

In just under two hours our house in downtown Brunswick will be inundated by 4 screeching 7 year old girls and one screeching and attention seeking 3 year old boy for Imogen’s birthday party. Doesn’t sound like too much, but when you factor in one very fluie wife, the thought of wrangling 5 kids this afternoon and for dinner on my own is dead-set frightening! Need to go to a happy place toot-sweet!!!!

One such happy place lately has been the Payten Vignerons wine range from Yarra Valley; Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and a very handy little Tempranillo. Run by young guns Troy Jones and Behn Payten, who also happens to be chief cider maker for Napoleone & Co, their wine is easy to spot on the shelf by catchy caricatures of what can only be described as wine lushes. Brilliant, because isn’t that what we are all inside?


All are varietal. Thats important. Whats more important is they are all lip-smackingly awesome. I think the Sangiovese is my favourite right now, but the Pinot Noir had last night is an absolute cracker. But so is the Tempranillo. But to the wine at hand. The Pinot Noir 2010. Dirty pinkish/red in the glass, the wine smacks of subtle strawberry and tart raspberry. The palate has an instant hit of acid with the finest line of tannin coming through. More tart fruit, this time coming from cranberry. One of the best Pinot Noirs I’ve had from the Valley in a while. Easy.

Ohh God. They're here!

Drink with pizza with salty anchovies
Drink till 2015
94
Screwcap 13%v/v $26

Between Five Bells Geelong Red Wine 2010

In life as it is in science, things just gel and go together; positve and negative ions, bees and honey and meatpies and footy. Yet sometimes some pesky butterflies in Japan have been know to disrupt Ying and Yang and all hell breaks loose; Marilyn Monroe marries Arthur Miller, Michael Phelps loses a race and George W. Bush wins two terms as President! Yes I know, head-scratching stuff indeed.

So when a group of Geelong wine makers decide to blend Shiraz, Sangiovese, Grenache and Zinfandel, yes Zinfandel, you gotta start thinking that these butterflies in Japan need a good dose of Mortein. But as it happens, this blend fucking rocks; you are safe this time butterfly.

The Between Five Bells Geelong Red Wine 2010 has all the hallmarks of becoming a cult wine very fast for two reasons; A) the whacky blend, and B)its so good God Damn it! This wine has it all with tart red and dark fruit but sitting so soft and smooth in the mouth, silky tannins, subtle licorice all-sorts and achingly perfect acid. It is such an easy wine to like and such a hard one too share.

Drink with Melanzane alla Parmigiana
Drink till 2015
98
Wax seal with Diam cork 13.5%v/v $39 Albert Street Food & Wine

Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Sangiovese 2010

This for mind is the perfect pizza wine. The Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Sangiovese 2010 contains all the elements of a Friday night footy wine with pizza - cherry ripe fruit without the ripeness, grainy chocolate and a hint of green vegetalness (yes, I made that word up)- a good thing I reckon, along with super chewy tannins which were, and are, perfect with a homemade prosciutto and mozzarella pizza. Cracking stuff Jonno!

Drink with pizza.... der!
Drink till 2015
95
Screwcap 13%v/v http://www.mitchellharris.com.au/
NB not sure on the $$; wine obtained when I won a round through the 'Mitchell Harris' footy tipping comp. And it was when I was in Vietnam!!

Blue Poles Margaret River Teroldego 2009

Once in a while you get a wine that raises eye brows. It could be because it’s biodynamic, or because it’s a blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris or because the winemaker is blind – true story; Mountford in Canterbury NZ. However, this eye brow raise is because when I mentioned this grape to a few wine industry professional, the common response was, ‘Terol-what’.

That’s right, Teroldego. Native to Alto-Adige in Trentino NE Italy, Teroldego has a little over 4 acres –just under 2 hectares – under vine in Australia. Three of these acres are planted in Osmington, Margaret River in the Blue Poles vineyard. So here it is, the Blue Poles Margaret River Teroldego 2009.

Where to start. Because of its eye brow raising attributes, I will let Nicholas Belfage introduce the variety:

“Teroldego is called the “prince” of Trentino red wines, prized for its elegance, complexity and harmony. Overcropped, as it often is, it can be very ordinary, at best a pleasant wine for drinking early. But in the hands of a quality producer it can reach impressive heights of breeding and concentration.... These days the undisputed top producer of Teroldego is Elisabetta Foradori of Mezzolombardo.”

The last sentence is where the Australian connection starts. It is from Elisabetta Foradori where the cuttings came from to propagate the Margaret River Teroldego plantings; pretty good lineage if you ask me. But we are here for the wine right?

One of the deepest ‘red’ colours in a glass of wine I have ever seen, sort of like ‘blood in the moonlight’ in colour; yeah, I know that’s the funky shit. The nose is a real head turner with obvious characteristics of Nebbiolo and Sangiovese – ripe plum, mulberry, dust, leather, tobacco, violets and tar just to name a few. Tight and fine grippy tannins greet the palate with some tart raspberry thrown in. The longer in the glass the tart raspberry fades in to a sweet mulberry feel with the acid and tannins still pulling all of the strings. This is a real special wine.

This is produced in small quantities; tiny really. So if you see it give it a go because it will not sit around on the shelf for too long.

Drink with lamb ragu on wet polenta
Drink till 2020
96
Screwcap 14%v/v $32 at The City Wine Shop or by the glass at Grossi Florentino’s Cellar Bar

Sassingo Fattoria Casablanca IGT,Tuscany 2007

It's $21 so it shouldn't be fantastic right? Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong! Such a great wine and such a great price. The Sassingo Fattoria Casablanca 2007 from Tuscany is a 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon and uses both varieties fantastically with the Sangiovese delivering savoury tannins and bitter chocolate and the Caberent supplying subtle brambly fruit as well as tannins and a ripper cassis nose.

I guess I'm lending a line from the Vermentino blog, but when you want something authentic and an insight in how it's done traditionally, go to the source.

Drink with lamb shanks
Drink till 2016
93
Cork 13.5%v/v $21 Enoteco Sileno, Lygon Street Carlton

Santa Marta Salusrti Tuscany Montecucco Sangiovese 2004 DOC and my Prickly Moses Beef and Potato Pie's

Vineyards of Santa Marta

There is not more important factor than the weather when it comes to producing great wine. The wine maker can be as famous as they want to be, but if they do not get a decent growing season, you can kiss goodbye all those glowing reviews they had been counting on. The final month is probably the most fraught with stress to the wine maker; when is the right time to pick? Can I leave the fruit out for just one more week? Will that rain band alter its course and miss my fruit?

Just one hot day at the end of the growing season can push the potential alcohol up in fruit by up to 2% which can effectively change the style of wine that was intended to be made. In Tuscany in 2003, the vintage after the hottest on record of 2002, growers were faced with this dilemma in late September with their Sangiovese. Ultra dry and hot weather hit the area in the last week of September and pretty much wiped out the fruit for that year to a lot of growers. So in 2004, growers were so vigilant in this period that they had picking crews on standby if the celsius got over 28°. With added bunch and shoot thinning in this season, 2004 eventuated as the most stressful for some years in Tuscany, but the stress paid off with many saying the 2004 vintage as the best since the great vintage of 1997.

One of the great wines to come out of this vintage is the Santa Marta Salusrti Montecucco Sangiovese 2004 DOC. Yet another gem purchased from Mediterranean Wholesalers in Brunswick, this wine shows all the hallmarks of coming from a superior year, with just a touch of ripeness telling me that they got the fruit of just in time I’d say. This wine however was not an impulse purchase; I needed something that had great acid structure with fine and tart fruit layers in it for my stout chuck steak and potato pie.


Like most meals I prepare, plenty of time is needed as the chuck steak needs about three and half hours to braise with the spuds. So here is how you do it:
· 500 grams of good stewing beef
· Good oil
· 750mL of stout, Prickly Moses for this one
· Water
· Three Desiree potatoes, peeled and diced
· Two cloves of garlic, crushed
· Three shallots, cut fine
· Puff pastry, baked in oven


As I said, the meat needs to be braised for about three and a half hours, so brown the beef in a pot and add stout and water and bring to boil. The mix will head up quite a bit so keep an eye on it. Once it has boiled, bring to simmer and add the remaining ingredients and stir every 15 minutes. Once you have the braise, spoon in to bowls and cover with the pastry. Bake to a desired puffiness.

Imogen in Action.... literally

A good fun thing to do with the kids is to cut out the starting letter of their names in pastry and put it on top of the layer of pastry. This is an easy way to get your children to eat their meal because they have some sort of ownership in the making of it, that’s what happened with Imogen anyway.
Now the wine. Very Sangiovese in the glass, with a clear translucency about it with a ruby red/pinkish hue. The nose is all prickly fir and morello cherry with a little hint of prunes. Very savoury acid in the mouth that builds to red fruit right at the end. This wine also had about 30 minutes in the decanter before dinner.

Like I said, you get a good growing season you get good fruit and in the end good fruit equals good wine, and this Sangiovese is great and a definite Susan with my pie’s.

Drink till 2025
Drink with my stout beef pie
92
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $30 at Mediterranean Wholesalers, Brunswick

South Pack tasting @ Transit Lounge Fed Sqaure, August 2009

It has been four months since I finished up at ‘The Point’ restaurant in Albert Park as Head Sommelier and traded in my ‘Laguiole’ wine knife in for Huggies night time nappies and sterilising teats twice a day – oh the joys of parenthood I hear you sigh. One of the great perks of being a sommelier of a restaurant like The Point was the steady stream of invitations to what seemed to be daily wine tastings in and around Melbourne; and it is no exaggeration when I say daily!

With so many producers out there trying to sell you their product, these tastings were not only important for them, but also for the trade in knowing the product you were selling. But us sommeliers are a busy lot, so you sort of have to pick and choose the tastings that are not only going to interest you, but tastings of wines that have a realistic shot of getting on to your list.

But as I said, for four months now it has been nappies and walks and 3am feeds. So it was a quick yes that James and Claire Lance from ‘Punch’ wines got from an invite I received from them for a tasting at Transit Lounge in Federation Square put together by South Pack, a wine group repersenting new Victorian winemakers.

So on a rainy Monday afternoon I toddled off to Fed Square and to probably one of the best ‘independent’ tastings I have been to. ‘... a fiercely independent collection of likeminded souls.’, read the handout as I entered the room filled with sommeliers, restaurant managers, wine retailers and wine writers, and on show were some of the brightest and hippest producers from Victoria; Barney and David from Allies, Timo Mayer, Luke Lambert, Lincoln Riley and Adam Foster of Foster e Rocco and Syrahmi.

What made this group of winemakers ‘likeminded’, was that all of them were singing the praises of low alcohol wine. This is not to be mistaken with ‘low carb’ or ‘diet wine’, but wine that is driven by savoury tannins and piercing acid made for drinking with food, and wine not driven by massive oak, ripe fruit and seem splitting alcohol; I reckon the highest volume was about 13.5%v/v shared by a few of the bigger reds on show.

As I said, it had been a while since I have done something like this, so it was good to see my own likeminded people as well and swap the obligatory story of horror diners and more to the point, horror nappies. But back to the wine.

With glass in hand, I tried to start with whites first, but the first stop was Luke Lambert with some really sexy Nebbiolo, my favourite wine – a 2008 and 2007 release with the 2007 being the standout with great early characteristics of Nebbiolo coming through. On to Foster e Rocco and then to Punch for a catch up with Claire and James and a chat on how everything is going out at the property since the February 7 bushfires; and things are looking good with minimal damage to the vines, but not so lucky with the winery however.

On the other side of the room were Barney and David from Allies, two of the nicest blokes in the industry I reckon. On heading over there I was pleasantly greeted by David with a warm ‘Hello Tim’ – do I know this bloke from somewhere I thought, which was also very easy to read from my expression when he then politely said, ‘that’s what your name tag says’ – I told you it had been a while. So for the next 20 odd minutes I learnt a lot more about these two, and more particular their wines and vineyards, which were all dynamite and very affordable also.

From here I ventured over to ‘macforbes’ followed by Jamsheed and finally with the very affable German, Timo Mayer. Having made wine with Gembrook and now Tibooburra, Timo has firmly entrenched himself as one of the Valleys more astute, and busiest, winemakers. And his current selection under his very Chambertin label, together with Bloody Hill and Big Betty labels, puts Timo in almost every corner of the Yarra Valley.

After having a wee chat with Timo, it was time to go. A quick beer with Claire Lance and I was off to Rockpool where I was meeting some of the aforementioned likeminded heads for some ‘witty’ banter, burgers, wine and more beer as well as a debate that is still going on now – Is Twin Peaks a child of the 80’s or the 90’s? My money is in the 90’s.

Here are the highlights of a fantastic line up:

Foster e Rocco Sangiovese Rosé 2009 - a fantastic pink number for the upcoming Spring Carnival; soft in colour with fragrant palate that is both dry and refreshing.

Punch Berry’s Creek Vineyard 2008 Noble Riesling – low alcohol makes this wine not only a great drop with season tropical fruit, but also as an aperitif with heaps of zingy acid.

Luke Lambert Heathcote Reserve Nebbiolo 2007 – a super drop with gorgeous notes of Nebbiolo characteristics coming through and at Barolo alcohol levels – 13.5%v/v, not the Australian levels.

Luke Lambert Heathcote Reserve Syrah 2007 – layered with liquorice and super firm tannins, this wine will definitely demand time and a decanter when you open her up (12.5%v/v).

Syrahmi ‘Maelstrom’ Heathcote Shiraz 2008 – ripe red fruit alongside a whack of pepper and perfume; a great follow up to the 2007 ‘Don’.

Allies Tuerong Viognier Saone 2008 – a wine that is definitely a personal style rather than the big oily imitators of the Northern Rhone. There is still apricot, but with a more balanced palate with soft acid and lowish alcohol – 13.5%v/v.

Allies Heathcote Stone Axe Shiraz 2008 – an immense wine this, with deep garnet red and no over ripe fruit make this one of the standouts of the tasting. This spent 19 days on skin which ended up extracting a perfect amount of tannin to balance a very savoury palate.

Mayer Yarra Valley ‘The Doktor’ Pinot Noir 2008 – the standout wine for me; 100% whole bunch pressed wine displaying a very complex nose and palate with savoury spice and game already noticeable. And you know what Timo said about the wine, ‘...it works!!’ Yes it does!

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 - Minestrone with Foster e Rocco 2008 Heathcote Sangiovese

Minestrone soup – this one I used to think was the hardest of the lot. Actually, I used to think soup in general was difficult and messy to make. It just turns out soup is mess, not difficult in its preparation.

The classic Minestrone from Lombardy includes pancetta for the salt kick. In Milan the recipe varies according to what is on hand, which is handy I guess. My recipe is pretty basic, and like the Milanese, variations come and go with what is in the pantry.

It’s hearty and filling and really is a few meals in one. And this is a great meal to have in the fridge or freezer when it comes to leftovers.

Tim’s Minestrone
· A good couple of glugs of olive oil
· Bacon or pancetta or cacciatore sausage or salami or cooked spicy lamb sausage
· 1-2 onions finely chopped*
· 2 garlic cloves; crushed
· 2 celery stalks; peeled and chopped
· 1-2 carrots; chopped
· 1 zucchini; chopped
· 1 litre of stock; chicken or veg
· 2x400g cans crushed tomato
· 2 cups of water
· 1x420g can cannellini beans; rinsed and drained
· 2 cups of finely shredded cabbage
· ½ cup of pasta shells
· 1 handful of chopped parsley
· Crusty bread

*when cutting onions I find wearing swimming goggles helps avoid the tears. It may look funny, but it works!

Heat oil in a large pot and cook of meat. Try and burn the bottom of the pan; this leaves crusty bits which add heaps to the flavour. Once cooked set and leave aside. Sauté onions and garlic for a couple of minutes and add carrot (I always add carrot about 3 minutes before other veg just to cook through a bit more), zucchini and celery and cook until tender.

Return meat to pot with stock, tomatoes and water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for ½ an hour. Stir in beans, cabbage and pasta and cook for about 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked. Add parsley and serve with bread.

The wine:
This is a fairly rustic dish so I thought of a rustic wine. White I believe would be no good with this because of the heavy flavours from the meat. We had a Sangiovese from Heathcote, Foster e Rocco, a wine made by Adam Foster and Lincoln Riley.

Both guys are sommeliers like me, with Adam just having started at The Lake House in Daylesford and Riley having been at Taxi for a few years. These guys have constructed a very nice little wine here, and they haven’t over worked it like a lot of Australian Sangioveses. This wine has got a good lot of earth and acid to keep it grounded and food friendly.

The colour is deep red with a pink hue, telling me it spent a bit of time on skins. The nose starts out as morello cherry, which is typical with Sangiovese, and then longer in the glass shows a good hit of dark chocolate. The mouth is very true with the nose; morello cherry followed by chocolate. All in all, a very nice wine.

Drink till 2013
17/20