Gippsland Tasting in Melbourne 19/09

[mychurch]

Moving on from the excellent Beechworth tasting a few weeks ago and tonights quiet Curly Flat tasting, next week there is a Gippsland tasting at the Revel HQ in Collingwood. I’ll probably get there early, and will of course publish some impressions. Any other forum items going ?

[mychurch]

Well that was not nearly as much fun as the Beechworth tasting. Sure, I was not feeling 100%, but the wines were just not of the same quality. The best I can say, is that this is a source for midweek, drink now wines. Only 8 producers

Fleet
The Wine Farm - the only 1 I had tried before
Cannibal Creek
Dirty Three
Moondara
Lightfoot & Sons
Bass River
Gippsland Wine Company

Venue was much busier than the last 2 tastings - amazing what a temp of 23 degrees does to people

As usual I tried all the whites first, which were a mixture of Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon and Pinot Gris. The latter was probably the best grape for the region. A lot of the wines showed a distinct herbal character and that goes down well with Pinot Gris. Best Chardonnay's came from Lightfoot and Fleet, both of which had a lot of butter and plenty of fruit and were good to go now. There are however a lot better Chardonnays in other areas.

The only 1 of the whites I would have bought was the '17 Studebaker White from Moondarra, a blend of Pinot Grigo and Fruilano, that was cloudy, fat and round. Natural wine style, but with 11.5% this was very drinkable. Not a wine to keep though and I imagine that this vintage will be past its best quite soon.

The few reds I tried were disappointing. The herbal notes seem to suit Sauvignon and Gris, but they are not my cup of tea in Cab, Shiraz or Merlot. Best, but far, was the 17 Gustoso from Gippsland Wine Company. This is an odd blend of Cab, Sangiovese and Pinot. Nose was blackcurrant and redcurrant compote, with some raw elderflower thrown in. Its a fruit forward easy drinking style and the flavours were cherry, licorice and bay leaf. A fun wine, with some interest.

I think Fleet was the best producer. As well as the Chardonnay where was a good Cabernet, with an intense, chalky blackcurrant nose and a good tannic bite on the finish.

I was hoping for a lot from The Wine Farm - i gave one of their Pinot Gris wines a 4* rating last year - but they only had 3 wines on show and while they were ok, the QPR was low - $60 for an average tasting Riesling is a bit much.

Conclusion on this showing is the Gippsland is not really a region for me to go and visit. Shame.

[cuttlefish]

So, no pinot noir ?

[mychurch]

Yes, there was Pinot, but it was midweek, drink while eating a pizza Pinot, much the same as the Chardonnay.

[cuttlefish]

OK, so which Moondarra pinot noirs were on tasting ? Neil makes some pretty handy single vineyard stuff. The Lightfoot pinots are pretty good, too.
I imagine you would have been tasting 2017 releases ? I've been impressed by the pinots coming out of Gippsland, and especially excited by the regionality they hold.
Just out of interest, what are a couple of Aussie pinot noirs that you have been impressed by recently ?

[mychurch]

Moondarra were the most popular stall for the evening and they had a couple of Pinots and a Nebbiolo. Their white was my wine of the evening, but didn’t see anything in the reds and didn’t bother taking notes I did like Fleets Pinot/Shiraz blend - very yummy.

The previous week a friend was visiting and we ended up tasting/ drinking Pinot at Oakridge, Giant Steps, Kooyong, Port Philip, Curley Flat and Pimpernel. Out of these, Giant Steps were the highlight, with their 17 Applejack and Wombat Creeks being the best 2 Pinots of the week. The 16 Curley Flat would be at a similar level. Pimpernel were interesting - recommended by Oakridge as the best Pinot in the area - but all their wines (red and white)had a similar rounded mouth feel, which made me think these were made to a recipe