Last week the Adelaide Fine Wine Appreciation Club (AFWAC) had a look at a number of wines from New Zealand, deliberately omitting Sauvignon Blanc to focus on other wines from the country. I'd like to thank everyone who attended this enjoyable night and the rest of the committee for organising it; AFWAC meets the last Monday of every month, and anyone in Adelaide who's interested in joining and/or attending can contact the club at afwac365@gmail.com
2012 Drift Pinot Gris, Marlborough (screwcap): 13.5% alc. Pale straw/green with some spritz on the glass. Very fruity and yeasty, pale ale and juicyfruit gum, some white sambuca, and then sweaty/cat piss characters. The palate's even more in Sauvignon Blanc-like territory, passionfruit and banana with a massive hit of harsh acidity mid-palate, finishing rather hot and steely. Uninspiring stuff.
2012 Wild Rock Sur Lie Pinot Gris, Marlborough (screwcap): 13% alc. Fairly closed compared to the Drift, more peachy and a touch toasty, before some sweaty phenolic characters appear; a creamy entry leads to another whack of harsh acidity mid-palate, not as bad as the Drift but still unpleasant, finishing rather bitter with some passionfruit. These two Pinot Gris aren't an improvement from your basic, bottom-end, bulk produced Kiwi Savvy, if anything they're a downgrade.
2008 Kumeu River Village Chardonnay, Auckland (screwcap): 13% alc. Brassy, straw/yellow. Smells like a young Hunter semillon, lemony and grassy, some magazine print and struck flint, a little honey already with breathing; a sweet entry leads to a palate full of grapefruit and flint/spicy oak, finishing crisp and minerally with good length. The acidity again is just a touch on the high side mid-palate, but there's not as much heat as the previous wines.
2008 Kumeu River Mates Vineyard Chardonnay, Auckland (screwcap): 13.5% alc. Brassy, medium to dark straw. Sweeter than the Village Chardonnay, lemon and fig with a touch of honeycomb and lanolin, still very flinty though; there's more fig and spice on the palate with acidity that dances on the middle of the tongue, finishing with milky malo and spicy/toasted cashew oak. It's almost a little old-fashioned, but its texture and complexity cannot be questioned; easily the best of the white wines tonight, although admittedly there wasn't much competition.
2008 Craggy Range Fletcher Family Vineyard Riesling, Marlborough (screwcap): 11.4% alc. Pale-ish straw/green with some spritz on the glass. Full of kerosene, durian and diesel fumes on the nose and palate right from the first whiff; the palate itself is surprisingly very dry with an awful, bitter and green finish that wouldn't surprise me if it could strip paint, no sign of the expected 10-15g RS here. This was a shocker.
2010 Escarpment Pinot Noir, Martinborough (DIAM): 14% alc. Medium crimson. Attractive nose full of mushroom and stalks, shoe polish, plums dusted in castor sugar, beetroot, cigar box and white pepper. The palate's very earthy and dry, with a huge spike of acidity and heat mid-palate, finishing with bitter tannins, lots of grip, but it's too disjointed, hot and stalky for its own good.
2007 Mt. Difficulty Pinot Noir, Central Otago (screwcap): 14% alc. Light to almost medium crimson. Riper and spicier nose than the 2010 Escarpment, cherry, crispy duck skin and white pepper; a sweet entry leads to an earthy palate of cherry and mushroom, sage and spices, but again the acidity and heat mid-palate sticks out and lingers through to the dry finish.
2007 Neudorf Moutere Pinot Noir, Nelson (screwcap): 14% alc. Medium to darkish garnet. A bit more rustic and feral than the Mt. Difficulty but in a good way, raspberries, barnyard, tobacco and spice, slightly cheesy and meaty too. A sweet cherry entry leads to a tidy palate with bright acidity mid-palate, not as hot or confronting, finishing crisp and minerally, really needing food at this stage. Overall it was the best of the five pinot noirs tonight, but I still feel 14% alcohol is just too high for Kiwi pinot.
2003 Escarpment Pinot Noir, Martinborough (cork): 13% alc. Murky, medium garnet. Volatile nose with touches of tea chest, earth and leather; the palate's fresher, soft and round with strawberries, game and cherry, struck metal and smoked meats, tingly acidity and a finish that's just beginning to dry out. The stalky characters three and a half years ago have gone leaving a lovely front and mid-palate texture, but the fruit's already well on the way out; at tens years old it's barely hanging on by a thread.
2003 Mt. Difficulty Pinot Noir, Central Otago (screwcap): 14% alc. Light to medium garnet. This wine last tried three years ago has always been too stinky/rubbery on the nose, and that smell hasn't moved; the palate's better with more prominent cherries and mushroom, but there's also minty heat mid-palate, leading to a spicy/earthy finish. On the surface it's younger than the Escarpment, yet I feel it will never win me over.
2006 Dry River Lovat Syrah, Martinborough (cork): 13.5% alc. Medium to very dark crimson/black. Sweet and smoky, blackberries, soy, toasted nuts and tobacco, backed by spicy (French?) oak; the palate's sweet and syrupy, medium to full weight with black cherry and black olive, finishing with white pepper. A lot of local comparisons were mentioned by the group; Clarendon Hills, Ngeringa, Clare, maybe that's why it attracted more than twice as many WOTN votes as any other red.
2005 John Forrest Collection Gimblett Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawkes Bay (screwcap): 14% alc. Medium to dark red with a hint of purple. Opens with a massive, ever changing bouquet packed full of youthful fruit and cedar/lemony oak, blueberries, touches of shoe polish, tar, tobacco, ink and iodine, dried chilli pepper, ground paprika, peppermint, tomato skin, crushed ants and black pepper. The palate doesn't disappoint, full-weight with chunky tannins and blackberry/blueberry fruit running through its core, finishing extremely long and chalky with malty oak way in the background. Outstanding - so much about this wine reminded me of a young John Riddoch or Bin 707 that it had to get my WOTN vote.
2006 Craggy Range Sophia, Hawkes Bay (cork): 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Malbec, 20 months in 60% new oak, 14% alc. Medium to almost dark red/crimson. Sweet nose of cherry cola and charred fireplace bricks, black pepper and mixed spices, with noticeable lift/bite throughout; the palate's riper again, with kirsch and high acidity/heat mid-palate, finishing very dry. Good, but third best for me tonight.
Unanimously voted white wine WOTN - 2008 Kumeu River Mates Vineyard Chardonnay
The overall group votes for red WOTN:
1st: 2016 Dry River Lovat Syrah
2nd: 2006 Craggy Range Sophia
3rd: 2005 John Forrest Collection Cabernet Sauvignon
Cheers,
Ian
