One of the highlights of Faber Vineyard’s calendar is their annual benchmarking of their Reserve Shiraz against some of the best Shiraz wines from around Australia. John Griffiths (winemaker and proprietor) has hosted quite a few of these now, and presents them professionally and with humour.
The event is effectively a blind tasting, and those present are asked to talk about the wines to the larger group, it’s done in a reasonably relaxed and non-threatening manner, which means people of all levels of experience can enjoy the process. The twelve wines are tasted in three flights of four, with a course of lunch (and a glass of wine) in between each flight. The tasters knew the identity of the twelve wines in advance, but not the order in which they will be served.
In addition to enthusiastic amateurs like me, John invites a couple of industry professionals to join him. This year, the pros were David Watson (Woodlands Wines), Mark Brown (Dan Murphy) and Barry Weinman (independent wine reviewer (FIne Wine Club - Wine Reviews by Barry Weinman)
The notes below are my brief personal notes, and these were written before each wine was discussed. As is always the way, everyone’s tastes differ, and anyone who was at the event can feel free to disagree with me
. I have provided the group scores for each wine as well. All wines are 2022 vintage shiraz.
Forest Hill Block 9 (Great Southern W.A.): Red plums, vanilla, cranberry and dried herbs (thyme, chives) on the nose. The palate shows more red fruits, with soft acid, fine and mildly grippy tannins, and medium length. 3/30 votes
Thomas Kiss (Hunter Valley NSW): Blueberries, cranberry, red plums and vanilla on the nose. Slightly tart red fruits (raspberry?) on the palate, with fine and barely noticeable tannins, moderate acid and medium length. 7/30 votes
Torbreck ‘The Gask’ (Eden Valley, S.A.): Violets, blue fruits, milk chocolate, and vanilla on the nose (and perhaps a touch of VA). More mocha on the palate, and some glycerol texture. Tannins are moderately grippy, and acid plays a supporting role. Good length. 14/30 votes and my wine of this flight.
By Farr (Geelong, Victoria): Cocoa powder, red berries, wild thyme and pepper on the nose. Slightly tart red fruits, modest fine tannins and cleansing acid. Moderate length. 6/30 votes.
Then Jane’s excellent rich mushroom soup was served, before moving onto the next bracket.
Giaconda (Beechworth, Victoria): Spicy oak, red and black fruits, plums, olive tapenade and savoury notes on the nose. There’s more red fruits and tapenade on the palate, with noticeable acid and fine prickly tannins. Reasonable length. 10/28 votes
Seppelt St Peters (Great Western Victoria): Dark fruits are the dominant character, alongside mocha, cloves, savoury notes and roses. The palate shows ripe dark juicy plums, more mocha, soft acid and moderately grippy tannins. A long gentle finish. 8/28 votes
Swinney Farvie (Frankland River W.A.): A touch of VA, and an overwhelming aroma of leather, dominating the dark plums lurking beneath. A modest and savoury nose overall. More leather on the palate, with blackberries and dark plums. There’s fine grippy tannins, and prominent acid. A medium to long finish, but slightly sour. 5/28 votes
Glaetzer Amon-Ra (Barossa Valley S.A.): Mocha, blueberries, cedary oak and cloves on the nose. Juicy blueberries and blackberries on the palate, with supporting acid, grippy tannins and a long finish. 5/28 votes and my wine of this flight.
We were then treated to a delightfully rich osso bucco, and a range of Faber wines were offered to accompany this. I will especially call out the Faber Millard Shiraz 2020, which shows much of the richness of the Reserve Shiraz, and also the Faber 2006 Riche Shiraz, which (although the entry level shiraz) shows its ability to age well. Then onto the final flight:
Wendouree (Clare Valley S.A.): Overall, a savoury nose, with cedary oak, dark plums, vanilla, a little menthol, and iodine. The palate has a ferrous or blood note, with fine grippy tannins and noticeable oak. Long finish. 2/30 votes
Faber Reserve (Swan Valley, W.A.): Sweet ripe plums, vanilla, eucalypt, cloves and Christmas cake on the nose. The palate shows soft ripe juicy plums and blackberries, soft acid, moderately grippy tannins, leading to a long gentle finish. 13/30 votes
Yarra Yering No.2 (Yarra Valley Victoria): The nose shows dark plums, blackberries, cedary oak, Cherry Ripe and earthiness, all in roughly equal parts. The dark fruits dominate the palate. There’s noticeable acid, fine grippy tannins and a long finish. 3/30 votes
Standish ‘The Standish’ (Barossa Valley S.A.): Raspberry, blueberry and blackberry on the nose, with cloves, nutmeg, and coffee grounds. The palate is mouth filling, with redcurrant, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry dominating. There’s juicy acid, grippy almost chewy tannins and the wine finishes long. 12/30 votes and my wine of the flight.
Of course, at the end of the day everyone wants to know who the winners are. In this case, and purely on the votes cast, the winners were the Torbreck ‘The Gask’, Faber Reserve and Standish ‘The Standish’. It’s not a perfect scoring system, and the placement of wines in different flights may have had some influence. Regardless, most of these were high quality wines, and I certainly didn’t hear anyone complaining. John must be delighted with how well his Faber Reserve shows against the other wines from around the country.
Many thanks to John, Jane and the staff at Faber for hosting another memorable event, and I look forward to joining them for future events.
Cheers
Allan
