Winetastic

Hardy’s Oomoo shiraz is often raved about by aussie wine critics with some proclaiming it to be the best red wine under $15…. We’ve been looking for a sensibly priced red to quaff so thought we’d give it a go.

A very deep red in colour this wine displays hints of spices, oak and dense forest fruits on the nose. Straight out of the bottle this is a really rich and robust red, after a little time in the decanter it was less overpowering and the real flavours were allowed to come through. The palate is smooth, and full of ripe, juicy plum and cherry flavours with hints of liquorice and dark chocolate. This shiraz has a good length to it, and ends with a lovely, almost savoury dry finish. This wine was matured in French barrels for 18 months, however fruit flavours still dominate the palate.

This Oomoo was amongst the first of Thomas Hardys wine labels. The label design originates from Thomas’ first winery venture, ‘Bankside’, a property on the banks of the river Torrens just west of Adelaide, and is rather appealing to a pommie tourist such as myself.

Normally $12 at our local Dan Murphy’s we managed to pick a bottle up for only $11 on special which is fantastic value in my opinion.

Would I buy this wine again?
Yes i would buy it again. This is an excellent wine with some bold flavours which are enhanced when paired with the right food. This is a good wine to fall back on if looking for a full and flavoursome red at a reasonable price.

This little number from Peter Lehmann’s entry level “Barossa” range has scored great reviews from many respected wine writers. I must say I agree with their general sentiment, it is a good wine at a competitive price.

Before launching into a tasting note, I would like to point out the importance of serving red wines at the correct temperature, which is generally accepted to be around 15-18C. When we first tasted this Cabernet, the bottle was at room temperature, around 22-25C, it did not come across as particularly inspiring and felt overly alcoholic and peppery. However once the bottle was cooled down to around 15C it magically transformed into a far superior wine.

This is a full bodied cabernet with plenty of juicy fruit flavours in the mouth, especially blackcurrant. The finish is quite long and ends up nice and dry to balance out the fruity palate. After a little time in the decanter, there were definite mint chocolate and vanilla aromas lurking in the glass. The Peter Lehmann website has further Tasting Notes.

I picked this bottle up for $16 at Dan Murphy’s, generally the home of a good bargain. However for the savvy online buyer, Winestar carry them for $14. Now that’s value.

Score: 7/10
Would I buy this wine again?
If stranded in an unfamiliar bottle shop seeking a reliable and hearty red, yes. For now however, the Rosemount Show Reserve Cabernet 2001 comes up trumps.

Having recently re-awakened our taste buds to the delights of dessert wines we thought we would give this 2002 Noble Taminga from the Trentham Estate a go. The grape variety used in this wine was developed by the CSIRO at Merbein by cross breeding Riesling, Farana and Traminer vines.

A soft gold in colour, this Taminga has a gentle honey nose with hues of intermingled light citrus. On the palate it’s a lot lighter than I find most Australian stickies, this is a fruit driven dessert wine that concentrates less on the botrytis characteristics. There are subtle hints of peaches and apricots, with lifted tangs of lemon which make it almost refreshing. This is a wine of excellent structure, all the flavours are well balanced and there isn’t anything overpowering about it.

At only $13 a bottle at Dan Murphy’s this is an excelent value for money sticky. This wine is drinking very well now, or it has the potential for cellaring to allow it to develp some more complex flavours.

Would I buy this wine again?
At such a reasonable price yes, I love the flavour and like the fact it’s not as sweet or sickly as some of the stickies I have tried in the past.

During the first wine tour I ever took to the Hunter Valley, a small family owned producer named Tinklers gave me my first taste of sparkling red wine. Fast forward a few years and I was still yet to explore the possibilities of sparkling shiraz further, until today.

The Seppelt Original Sparkling Shiraz nearly took my head off when removing the cork, this was indeed one feisty bottle of bubbly. On the nose, the wine had clear shiraz characters of dark fruits and some spices, so far so good. However in the mouth I found it far too frothy, as if I was sucking the head off a schooner of beer. The finish was pleasant enough and fairly long, once again showing typical shiraz characters. If you are after a list of flavours that somebody else detected, why not try the Seppelt website tasting notes.

This is a wine that was definitely better when paired with food, this time around a vegetarian lasagne. I always enjoy nearly losing an eye when opening a bottle of wine, however the style did not really grab me and demand further attention. On a side note, demand your sparkling reds are closed with a crown seal, not a cork. This will ensure the bottle is exactly as the producer intended and free of any possible cork taint.

Score: 6/10
Would I buy this wine again?
For around $15 this number is touted as excellent value for money and I am sure those who enjoy the style consider it to be a great midweek quaffer. I probably will not be buying this one again, however if you have never tried a sparkling red before I encourage you to grab a bottle and have a go!

Malbec is a variety which is usually blended with Cabernet and is rarely bottled on its own, so when I spotted this one from the Potts Family Winery, I figured an experiment was in order.

The Bleasdale Malbec has a fragrant fruity nose with a little pepper and some earthy tones underneath. Fairly soft and medium bodied, cherry and dark fruit flavours are evident through to a dry, earthy and slightly spicy finish. The Bleasdale website is out of date and lacks a tasting note for the 2002 vintage.

Unfortunately 3-4 hours after opening, the intoxicating fruit aromas and flavours completely vanished, leaving the wine a flat and bitter shell of its former self. In short, it became undrinkable.

Score: 5/10
Would I buy this wine again?
No, there are better wines available for $13, it was worth a try.

Having been suitably impressed with the 2002 Show Reserve Shiraz, we recently picked up this bottle of the 2001 Rosemount Estate Show Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon which hails from the Coonarwarra region of South Australia, the traditional heartland of Australian Cabernet.

Having strong blackcurrant and berry aromas, this Cabernet is very full and juicy in the mouth with flavours of dark berries and plums. The finish is long and well balanced with drying tannins. This is a wine of structure that should continue to age well for several years, in fact in the official Rosemount Tasting Notes, a drinking window up to 2018 is recommended.

Most retailers currently have the 2002 vintage of this wine available, generally falling around the $20-25 a bottle mark. However if you are down in Sydney’s south, Dan Murphy’s at Menai found a few cases lost in a corner of their warehouse and are clearing them out at the very reasonable price of $16.

Score: 8/10
Would I buy this wine again?
Yes, this is my favorite straight Cabernet Sauvignon to date. Cannot complain about the $16 price tag either!

Origionally picked up two of these after a tasting at our local bottle shop. I was not so impressed with the first bottle a few months back, however the second one made a good showing this evening.

Plum and blackcurrant on the nose, the wine is dark and fruity on the palate. Definitely goes down very smooth with the tannins being very subtle and only a little dry. Overall a well balanced and pleasant wine. The De Bortoli Website has a broken link for the producers tasting notes, tsk tsk.

A quick check of various online retailers would show this wine is currently selling for over $30 a bottle. A rip off at that price, we paid between $15-20 at Dan Murphy’s.

Score: 7/10
Would I buy this wine again?
The wine is technically very good, it just lacked a little excitement. Maybe ill try another vintage in the future if I spot it cheap.

Gary Walsh from Winorama was kind enough to give Gemma and I a bottle of unlabled mystery wine. We have no idea of the variety, vintage or where the wine came from, however all will be revealed live on Winetastic!

Initially after opening, the wine showed some dark fruit, mint & spices on the nose. Rather full in the mouth, a burst of hot pepper follows on a fairly long & dry finish. Sometime later there was some sweaty leathery smells evident, the fruit flavours had emerged on the palate and the pepper/heat calmed down somewhat. My initial reaction was that the wine may have been a Cab/Merlot/Cab Franc blend, however the guess for day 1 is: Hunter Valley Shiraz. The following day the pepper/heat had all but vanished, some fine tannins were evident on the finish. The wine was still drinkable, however it was definitely showing better on the first day.

Overall I felt the wine was likely to retail around the $20 mark, it had some complexity there and a good length once the peppery fire had calmed down. Finally after some deliberation with the Winetastic team, I have decided I still have no idea what this wine is, or its likely location. The final guess: It’s a Hunter Shiraz/Cabernet blend.

Score: 7/10
Would I buy this wine again?
If I had a free bottle of wine of this quality every day, I would indeed by a happy man!

Gemma has already posted most of our impressions from this event, however I have a few points I would like to add, as well as a list of my “top wines” at the show.

First of all, the wineries from the inland regions Mudgee and Bathurst are producing some seriously good red wines at crazy low prices. The average “boutique” wine from these regions fetches $15 at the cellar door, the premium reds were generally around the $20-25 mark. Several of these premium red wines would easily fetch upwards of $30-40 if they came from a region such as the Barossa or even Hunter Valley. There were not as many standout wines from the producers of Cowra, Young or Orange, indeed one particular Orange producer has got to be kidding themselves if they are asking $40 for their so-so Shiraz.

Winetastic Top Wines of the Show

Mudgee Region
Farmer’s Daughter Cabernet Sauvignon - 9/10
Farmer’s Daughter Merlot - 8/10
diLusso Estate Sangiovese 2004 - 8/10
diLusso Estate Vino Rosato - Rich Rose style wine, lovely dry finish - 8/10
diLusso Estate Aleatico 2005 - Pink dessert wine with dry tannin finish - 8/10
Elliot Rocke Estate Merlot 2004 - Big Merlot like most from Mudgee - 8/10
Mansfield Wines Spectabilis Red - Beujolis style, full bodied Rose, only $13! - 8/10
Mansfield Wines Touriga - New variety for me, very long finish and great balance - 8/10

Bathurst Region
Winburndale Wines Solitary Shiraz 2004 - Wine of the show, only $25 - 9/10
Winburndale Wines Fontana Cab/Merlot - Rich, complex wine - 9/10
Mount Panorama Winery Shiraz 2005 - Showing really well very young - 8/10
Mount Panorama Winery Riesling - Good acid backbone, citrus and floral notes - 8/10

Cowra Region
Mulyan Viognier 2005 - Bursting with apricot and nutty flavours, very long - 8/10

In essence these are the wines that stood out from the rest. Keep in mind that I am in no way an experienced judge, especially of over 200 wines on the day! Across the board, Farmer’s Daughter have the most complete range, diLusso are the most interesting, Mansfield are the best value for money and Winburndale had the best premium wines, ones I would be prepared to pay far more than $25 for.

Last Saturday Murray and I attended the NSW Inland Food and Wine Festival which was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and i’d like to share some of my thoughts and feelings on the event and some of the wines on offer.

There was a fairly large crowd at the event on the Saturday morning, which is primarily aimed at the general public - one winery representative was even honest and open enough to share his dissapointment at the lack of industry people present. I personally felt very comfortable at this event, unlike the feelings of awkwardness and insignificance i left the Exhibition of Victorian Winemakers experiencing earlier on in the week. I found the representatives of the wineries and the winemakers to be much more approachable at this event, they were really enthusiastic about their wines and we weren’t dismissed because of our age. There was an obvious strong sense of community amongst the wineries and the reps as well, there was a lot of friendly banter and everyone seemed to know everyone else.

Several of our favourite Mudgee wineries were present, including Farmers Daughter Wines, Simon Gilbert Wines and di Lusso Estate, plus we got the chance to sample wines from several wineries we hadn’t had the time to get to whilst in Mudgee.

Across the board the standard of wine at this event was good, there were a lot of what i would call ‘average’ wines, but they were priced accordingly, so i could easily see myself drinking them as quaffers. For us the Semillons were particualrly dissapointing, we may have had high expectations though because of our experience with Frog Rocks 2004 Old Vine Semillon. The reds seemed to wipe the floor with the whites but maybe that’s becuase we both prefer fruit driven wines, not to say there aren’t some good fruit driven whites on the market at the moment. We did however stumble across some little gems.

Winburndale Wines produce a fantastic 2004 Solitary Shiraz which is full of rich berry flavours mixed with chocolate and spice, all beautifully balanced. They also have a 2004 Fontana Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc & Merlot which is superbly smooth and a little sweeter. I think these two wines along with Elliot Rocke Estate’s 2005 Ice Wine, and di Lusso Estate’s 2005 Aleatico were my pick of the show. The Aleatico is a pink sticky with a soft muscat nose, and on the palate there is a slight sweetness present that isn’t overpowering, followed by a lovely dry finish. It really is a beautiful, balanced wine and at $25 a bottle i think there is fantastic value to be had.

Overall i came away from the event impressed. Impressed at the different styles within some varietels and impressed with the value of some of the wines on offer. Also i’m keen to explore ‘ice wine’ having never even heard of it before the show. The show was definatly worth attending and i feel a lot more familiar with the wine varieties and the big names to look out for in NSW.