Odd impressions of the more interesting wines drunk over Christmas/New Year in Tasmania:
1996 Barossa Valley Estate E&E Sparkling Shiraz Showing some development now – some earthiness, coffee, chocolate. Seems neither excessively oaky nor sweet to me. Fine yet prickly bead. No need to keep.
2003 Stefano Lubiana Sauvignon Blanc (Tasmania) Fresh & clean, citrusy with passionfruit overtones, and a hint of grass/straw. A Sauv B. to convince the sceptics without offending the purists. Very drinkable indeed!
2001 Weingut Friedrich Fuchs Klüsserather Bruderschaft Riesling Auslese (Mosel) Purchased from the weingut itself nestling beneath the south-facing Bruderschaft hillside vineyard, I suspect we’re drinking 50% of Australia’s stock of this wine tonight (the remaining 50% being in my cellar still). Although an auslese, it weighs in at 11.5% alcohol, and shows only the faintest trace of sweetness. Only one shade away from colourless, the wine’s aromas are subdued, some wet stone with a hint of candy-apple. It’s feathery-light on the palate, a rainbow of yellows & pale greens – almost like a spider web glittering with the morning dew. The acid is fresh and racy, the fruit subtle. It’s hugely drinkable – perhaps not showing much development, indeed I suspect it may be hibernating to some degree, and in the interests of science I’ll keep our remaining bottle for a few more years. But it’s a very lovely wine, and gratifying to know I didn’t fall victim to ‘Cellar-Door-Syndrome’ when buying this for all of €7.50 in April.
This contrasted remarkably with (and was immediately followed by):
1997 Pewsey Vale ‘Contours’ Museum Riesling (Eden Valley) Under screwcap, this wine was a mid yellow colour. If the last wine was a ballet dancer, this was a front row footballer. Heavy aldehydic nose redolent of kerosene led to a palate not without some freshness, but a generally thick oily texture. It’s not unattractive, but seems to have aged before its time (along with most of the 97 vintage Rieslings from Eden and especially Clare valleys, it seems). It has some honed flavours, with no hint at all of oxidation (as I’d expect after 6 years under a screwcap), but definitely has more appeal to those familiar with aged Riesling, rather than being a crowd-pleaser of a wine.
Both the above were consumed with gravelax (spelling? – from a recipe published in the Australian newspaper the previous week – salmon {cured overnight in a mixture of sugar and salt} eaten on bread) and crackers with wasabi-flavoured cheese. Neither were unattractive matches – but perhaps the delicacy of the Fuchs complemented better the salmon, while the PV stood up to the heavy cheese. Interesting to watch the Riesling grape product two so utterly different wines.
2003 Moorilla Estate Riesling (Tasmania)
Utterly pale, with a nose very closed indeed. A hint of peachy fruit, perhaps? Not so acidic as I’d expect – rather thickly textured for a wine so young. A subdued palate as well – not particularly satisfying to drink. Must be one of the few 03 Australian rieslings still under cork…
1990 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon IÂ’ve little to add to the vertical tasting notes I posted months ago, except to note the benefits of large glasses when consuming wines such as this. Cedary, with the fruit perhaps not showing as well as before, but still a very fine wine.
2001 Bannockburn Pinot Noir (Geelong) For the princely sum of $65 at the wonderful Lebrina restaurant in Hobart. Crimson red, but not dark. Classic new world pinot, with sappy strawberry fruit, soft but ever-so-faintly bitter tannins and a lightish finish of moderate length. Not earth-shattering, but good value. The Lebrina wine list is very acceptable (if light-on for imported wines), particularly concerning price. The bargain of the list was probably a half-size 93 d’Yquem for only $275, but we didn’t bite… oh, and the restaurant is excellent as well – and bargain-priced by Sydney standards.
Finally, a note on the Taste of Tasmania, the week-long festival of food and wine (and with a growing emphasis on buskers and live music, I notice with reserve). The Elizabeth St Pier is turned into rows of food and wine stands, all dispensing refreshment, with trestle seating down the middle of the shed, and overflow seating spilling outside onto the waterside. Once this was truly a ‘taste’ festival, with most stalls offering small plates of wares for a couple of bucks. The trend is towards ever-larger portions, to the extent that it has become largely a vast open-air take away food festival. Prices are no bargain any longer – indeed on the Saturday you could have bought some of the very same food a few hundred metres away in the regular weekly Salamanca markets for 20% less! Wine is worse – the standard ‘glass’ sold upon admission is a tawdry plastic affair holding about 120ml filled to the very rim. Vignerons were offering glasses at typically 20-25% of the bottle price. No bargains there. From past experience, it is possible to ask stands to pour you a true taste (in the normal CD style), but if that’s your objective you may as well smuggle in your own ISO glass, and just buy a full bottle of whatever takes your fancy to drink with your meal.
I’ve not often been much impressed with the standard of wine on offer in previous years – some of the state’s better makers don’t show up at all, some of the others won’t offer tastes, or by-glass sales of, their top releases. And clearly some of the stallholders are small makers trying to flog old stock – I noticed 2000 vintage whites being poured by some. Still, there are sometimes interesting things to be found, although the vast crowds make it a less than ideal wine-tasting atmosphere. At least smoking is largely banned now, which helps.
Reservations notwithstanding, its certainly worth a visit – there’s no charge for admission, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to find something appetizing to eat – indeed for the more adventurous wishing to enjoy the delights of emu-burgers and other such items assembled from animals on the national coat-of-arms there is plenty of scope to experiment. Just buy your wine by the bottle!
Cheers,
Graeme