Winetastic

The Boutique Wine Festival 2006 was held last weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, surprisingly the event was staged on the same weekend as Wine Australia 2006. Fortunately the result of the clash was a relatively low attendance at the 11am-3pm session of the boutique festival that Gemma and I attended on Saturday.

The first standout winery were Vinrock from the McLaren Vale. They produce two wines, a Shiraz and a Grenache, both of which were excellent and well priced. The Vinrock Grenache 2005 ($17) showed lush berry fruits in a full bodied wine with a well balanced drying finish. The Vinrock Shiraz 2005 ($20) showed a more robust structure and needs some more time in bottle, however I feel it will develop into an excellent wine.

In a complete style contrast with Vinrock, the cool climate wines of Darling Park Winery from the Mornington Peninsula stood out due to their finesse and balance. The Darling Park Syrah 2004 ($24.50) showed restrained red fruit and pepper and the excellent balance convinced me it was worthwhile trying the Darling Park Pinot Noir 2004 ($28), which was by far the best example of the variety at the exhibition. Finally I tried the Darling Park Chardonnay 2004 ($24.50) which showed excellent balance between fruit and acidity with just a little oak on the finish.

There were many wineries from the Barossa Valley present, most of which had terribly overripe, overoaked and unbalanced wines. Enter our Barossan savior Balthazar, showing wines of intensity and balance. The Balthazar Shiraz 2001, 2002 and 2003 ($38) were all excellent, the 2002 being the pick of the bunch showing loads of ripe dark fruits, coffee flavours and enough drying tannin to provide structure and balance. I only wish these wines fell within our general price range.

Taking the Winetastic prize for the most unique wine at the show were Outram Estate from the Hunter Valley. The wine in question was the Outram Estate Verdelho 2000 ($18), which had actually been aged in oak. Another highlight was the Outram Estate Merlot 2003 ($24), which displayed typical hunter valley characters of earth and a little leather and is not unlike a softer Shiraz from the region.

The final tasting of the day was with Murray Street Vineyards from the Barossa Valley. I must admit at this stage it was becoming difficult to taste anything, even after following a strict regime of spittoon use. Starting with the Murray Street entry level range, ‘The Barossa’ Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2004 ($20) is a big and ripe example of the traditional blend that does not go over the top, it was the best GSM I tried at the show. Looking at the super premium wines, unsurprisingly all were excellent, however my pick was the MSV Greenock Shiraz 2004 ($40), a dry-grown, single vineyard Shiraz of intensity and balance.

On the whole, the majority of the wines available for tasting were very average, especially from some of the newer wine growing regions. It was actually possible to purchase wine at the event and there was a direct correlation between the quality of a producers wines, and how keen they were to offload a case or two. The top producers were happy to simply talk about the wines at length, knowing that the wines would sell themselves.