TN: Grant Burge @ API Wine Club 1/4/05

[n4sir]

Last week the API wine club staged its first monthly meeting, and featured a number of wines from Grant Burge. It was originally to be presented by stalwart Mark “Marbles” Conroy, only for him to resign! A second presenter Olivia was arranged and she put together the list of wines to be tasted, only to back out, leaving stand in Rob Gordon to lead us through the following list.

Considering Rob had just come back from Europe and was roped in at the last second, he did an excellent job presenting the wines. That said, I found the list of wines slightly disappointing; it was put together with a "Rhone theme" in mind, but coincidentally featured some slower selling/lower profile wines, where I personally would have preferred the Thorn Riesling, Kraft Sauvignon Blanc, Filsell Shiraz or Summers Chardonnay. Also the brilliant 20-year-old Tawny Port was replaced with the standard Tawny, although that was excellent.

The wines were tried with a light supper arranged by members Andrew, Gail & Tom Gaal – a special thanks to them for their fantastic work on the night.

2004 Grant Burge Zerk Semillon $16 RRP: Bright green/yellow colour. A fresh, breezy and unpretentious nose of green apple, citrus and some grass opened the proceedings. The palate is likewise ripe and fresh, with green apple, some honey and a hint of fennel. I wouldn’t call this a classic example of the variety as say a Hunter Valley style, but more of a food-suited cafe' wine to match seafood, salad, or antipasto.

2004 Grant Burge Reserve Adelaide Hills Viognier $20 RRP: Dull, pissy pale yellow colour. A very floral nose of apricot, white peach and blossom, with hints of spice with breathing. The palate is average weight, featuring over-ripe apricot fruit flavours. The more wines I try related to this grape variety the less I care to try any more.

2003 Grant Burge Miamba Barossa Shiraz $20 RRP: Dark to inky red/purple colour with a glowing purple hue. Spicy American oak characters of coconut resin and vanilla dominate the nose. The vanilla oak is also in full command of the mid-weight palate, with spicy blackberry fruit in tow, and adequate length. It’s a decent quaffing wine for drinking now if you can get it at a discounted price, but it’s not a touch on the superb, rich, fruit-driven 2002.

2002 Grant Burge Cameron Vale Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon $20 RRP: Dark to inky red with a hint of purple. The slightly green nose with cassis and spearmint reflect the variety perfectly. The palate is equally varietal and stylish, with ripe cassis fruit, mid-weight, and finishing with fine ripe tannins and a hint of olive. Another convincing 2002 Barossa Cabernet, and my pick of this bunch.

2002 Grant Burge Balthasar Eden Valley Shiraz Viognier $35 RRP: Dark to inky red/purple with a glowing purple rim. I’ve struck a fair bit of bottle variation with this wine, and this was yet another version to the list. The nose was spicy/peppery nose/meaty at first and turned decidedly stewy/porty with breathing. The palate was disjointed, with ripe, porty/peppery Shiraz on entry, and sickly apricot Viognier taking over halfway, finishing with those razor sharp tannins. Not a good bottle.

2001 Grant Burge The Holy Trinity Barossa GSM $35 RRP: Dark to inky red/purple. A complex, slightly porty bouquet featuring sweet confectionery at first, raspberry, dried herbs, spices, and tobacco. The palate is complex, again with those peppery/spicy tobacco characters, but is surprisingly hot and lightweight for the label. Good drinking now with a rich, spicy casserole and plenty of breathing, but not worth cellaring in my opinion.

Grant Burge Tawny Port about $10 RRP: Glowing tawny/orange colour. A slightly varnishy nose with a hint of apricot; the palate is superb for the price, with deep-set rancio characters and a long, nutty aftertaste. A great way to finish the tasting off.

Cheers
Ian