Last Friday night David & Pam Cross of Winter Creek presented a number of their wines to the API Wine Club; the new Fiddlesticks wines are sourced from various regions in South Australia:
2008 Fiddlesticks Sauvignon Blanc (screwcap) $10: Very pale green/straw. Grassy, clean and sweet nose with basil, lime and gooseberry; the palate’s also varietal and sweet with a good acid backbone, with more gooseberry and some creamy banana with breathing. An early drinking style with some obvious residual sugar that I can imagine would match a Thai green curry chicken very well; just like the Mike Press equivalent it makes many more expensive Savvy’s look like a bad joke.
2008 Winter Creek Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc (screwcap) $18: Very pale green. The nose is more closed, intense and complex than the Fiddlesticks, grassy, mineraly and a little limey at first, then flinty before letting rip with some sweet gooseberries. There’s much more structure to the palate which is slightly chalky and very long, seemingly bone dry with excellent acidity; a major step up on the Fiddlesticks for not that much more, and oysters would be the perfect match here.
2007 Fiddlesticks Merlot (screwcap) $10: Medium to dark red. A sweet and slightly stony/plummy nose with touches of cinnamon, the palate’s just as varietal but not that impressive, medium-weight at best with a grippy/tannic entry and a short, peppery finish.
2007 Winter Creek Second Eleven Barossa Shiraz Grenache (screwcap) $18: Very dark red/purple. Sweet blueberries/cherries and earthy, spicy and slightly porty characters more associated with Grenache despite it being the lesser player in the blend (40%); likewise the palate is sweet, earthy, spicy and lean like Grenache, a hint of dark chocolate and good length courtesy of the Shiraz. Drinking well now, and I reckon would match a casserole or hearty stew.
2005 Winter Creek The Old Barossa Blend Grenache Shiraz (screwcap) $25: Medium to darkish red. Peppery/meaty raspberries, old leather and a little saddle/hide on the nose; while the nose has a little funk to it the palate’s pure/jubey strawberry/raspberry sweetness, finishing long, soft and mineraly. This looked pretty good tonight, but not quite as impressive as eighteen months ago – then again it wasn’t in the shadow of the following two wines either…
2004 Winter Creek Barossa Shiraz (screwcap) $30: Dark to inky red/purple. There’s just a little funk too at first here, but it quickly blows off with breathing to reveal pure kirsch/blueberry and pepper characters matched by a lick of sweet oak. The palate’s even more impressive, a slippery entry, almost syrupy at first, full of black cherries and blackberries and just a little olive, the finish long, soft and lingering, more akin to the Rhone than the Barossa.
2005 Winter Creek Fortified Shiraz (375ml) (screwcap) $20: Inky red/black. David & Pam’s VP’s are so consistent I could almost just go back and duplicate a previous note; deep heat/mint, scrubbed blackberries, red/black liquorice and just a hint of mushroom backed by powerful brandy spirit full of character, the finish very long and lingering. Outstanding.
Halfway through the tasting David handed around a couple of masked bottles and played a game of options with the group – I didn’t come close to picking this, thinking its green characters and leanness suggested Victoria or Adelaide Hills:
2007 Rymill The Yearling Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon (screwcap): Medium to dark red/purple. Minty/green nose with plummy fruit, black olive and coffee; light to medium-weight palate with a spicy entry of cherries/plums, but is on the very thin and green side and finishes quite short. I was shocked when this was revealed to be from the Coonawarra – very disappointing for a Cabernet.
Cheers,
Ian
TN: Winter Creek wines at the API Wine Club 27/3/09
TN: Winter Creek wines at the API Wine Club 27/3/09
Forget about goodness and mercy, they're gone.
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Shiraz Man
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n4sir wrote
Totally agree with n4sir about this wine. Very disappointing. In fact, I would go as far as to say Rymill are a winery that have gone off the boil big time in the last few years. I used to buy their wines regularly, but have not for probably 5-6 years.
2007 Rymill The Yearling Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon (screwcap): Medium to dark red/purple. Minty/green nose with plummy fruit, black olive and coffee; light to medium-weight palate with a spicy entry of cherries/plums, but is on the very thin and green side and finishes quite short. I was shocked when this was revealed to be from the Coonawarra – very disappointing for a Cabernet.
Totally agree with n4sir about this wine. Very disappointing. In fact, I would go as far as to say Rymill are a winery that have gone off the boil big time in the last few years. I used to buy their wines regularly, but have not for probably 5-6 years.