Sevenhill Cellars Inigo Shiraz 2010

Hmm, been a while since I wrote a blog entry. It's not been for lack of drinking good wines. In fact it may be the opposite really. Anyway, I'm back like Batman.

This Inigo is typically a good wine most years, but unfortunately 2009 wasn't one of those, which is interesting considering how good the 2009 St.Ignatius is. Regardless, I am happy to say this 2010 is a great return to form. For those who know these wines, I think the 2008 was marginally better, but there's not a lot in it, and time may prove me wrong.

Dark crimson red meniscus and glass that's black as a nun's habit, although I don't recall seeing any nuns at Sevenhill.

Bit of sulphur stink even after a quick double decant, and I could still taste the SO2 bitterness, so give this one a good bit of air before imbibing.

The nose is a tad light, but I think that's more to do with the winter room temperature - I am all greenie tonight and the heater isn't on. I'm smelling the hills around Clare, where of course the air is laden with regional vinous aromas. Lovely stuff.

I was really pleased with the tannins, these 2010 babies are smooth like talcum. Mouth coating and gum licking goodness.

Mostly black fruit, crushed blueberry, with a bit of red there for interest, a dash of garam masala and gently stirred with a bay leaf.

There's good balance here, a well made wine that's not yet actually into it's drinking window, though that shouldn't stop anyone trying it out young-ish.

Highly Recommended++ especially at sub $20 retail if you do some homework

Marius Matarius 2010 (Preview)

It's a straight Mataro if'n you haven't guessed it from the name.

So there I was, sitting with a large glass of the Matarius in my hand. In struts Underworld's Selene (aka Kate Beckinsale). She's wearing tight black leather, and has a faint aroma of gunsmoke, and blood.

She's a vampire, of course.

I look at her.

I look at the glass.

I look at her again.

And I really can't decide whether to offer her the glass, offer her my neck, or swallow the wine and then offer her my neck.

Then I realise the vamp in tight black leather was in the glass all along, and I've already offered my neck...

....and my soul.

Outstanding wine.

Inkwell Shiraz 2010

I was going to describe this as inky black with a very thin purple rim, then I realised how stupidly obvious that sounds.

And then I got a whiff of the bouquet and forgot all about the colour.

I have a pretty good smell memory, in that I can detect smells in the wine that remind me of other smells. What I often can't do is remember what those smells are, and it drives me crazy trying to work it out. This one however didn't take me too long tonight; it's cinnamon.

I tasted this wine yesterday at Dudley Brown's winery which is in full swing for vintage 2012 - I also tried a 2012 Shiraz that is about 2 weeks old and was pressed yesterday and put into barrels, but try not to be jealous.

I'd also sampled this 2010 Shiraz last October and with neither of those two previous tastings did I get cinnamon. It's been breathing 24 hours and tonight it's pretty clear to my snoz. Whether it's to do with the extra air, or just part of this wine's development only time will tell.

The aroma overall is brilliant, and whilst I could pick the cinnamon out, it is part of a blend of spices and fruit that has my nose jammed firmly in the top of my glass.

There's a heap of Indian spices on the palate too, combining with the dark fruit flavours. It's full bodied without being at all sweet, and really has me hanging out for a curry. Tannins are firm and very fine, acid balance is excellent, and has an extremely long finish.


Right, we're on day 3 now. I got distracted and didn't finish the post, but I did manage to hide the glassful still left in the bottle. I have to hide it well too, my wife has a 'girl look' for the good ones. You certainly can't tell it's been open more than 48 hours.

The cinnamon has faded a fair bit, and it's more just overall Indian spices to me. Dudley claims cardamom and I certainly wouldn't disagree, but that may also be the power of suggestion.

I'm not sure when this wine will be released, but I believe it's not too far off, possibly when vintage madness is over. I'm always a little hesitant to score a preview of a wine that isn't released because basically the winemaker hasn't declared it "ready". So let me put it this way, I'll be buying a dozen when it's released - at least.


This post was written a week ago, it got delayed for a few reasons.

Marius 2012 Harvest

I left home at 6am and it was already very warm. The forecast four days earlier said it was going to be around 30C, but by the day before harvest that had jumped to 39C. Since Marius wines are hand picked, and are picked by his customers, then picking at night or rescheduling at such late notice can't be done so easily. The best laid plans of winemakers are often thwarted by the weather.

Early in the day the vines provided decent shade

At this point taller vines would have been welcome

We took it in turns to be on the sunny side, but soft Steve (not in photo) opted to go shadey only later and pick through the vines

Someone had that sunscreen that smells strongly of coconuts, luckily we wore gloves else the wine may have ended up with a more tropical bouquet.

Only one person dropped out of the harvest team, which says we are all dedicated and will suffer a lot to get a free tasting of several Marius vintages. A great crew to pick with.

 

Cut the red wire, not the green one!

I have to admit I might have trimmed a few more leaves than I really needed to. Roger's very neat vines are pretty easy to pick from, but sometimes working out just where the top of that bunch is can be tricky.

Is that Edward just there?

When picking opposite someone, which is fairly often, you need to be aware of Mr. Scissorhands, who may also be wondering where the red wire really is.

Roger has small ones, and he likes em that way

The Marius vines are dry grown, and the foliage is kept a lot thinner than many vines you'll see through the Vale. This results in smaller berries, which is desirable as most of the flavour is near the skins and small berries means a better skin to juice ratio. The penalty for Roger is low yields every year, but better wines because of it.

This year however yields were extra low, with many Shiraz vineyards across the Vale down 40-50%. That was in part due to the weird weather ie. high summer rainfall in 2011, where the vines did not set themselves up for the following season properly.

A few rows are extra low yielding with even smaller berrier and bunches because....

The low yielding vines with the water stealing pines in the background

The workers enjoying the fruits of previous years labours

This is Roger not telling us what's in the 2008 End Play but dropping some hints, I'm now 66% certain I know what it is

The rewards, not in drinking order, and possibly a few bottles are missing, none in my esky I promise. The 2010s are not released, this was an early preview for a lucky few, and keep in mind review samples for some of the professional reviewers are sent in somewhat early as you never know how many months they'll take to get around to reviewing them.

Apparently the Symposium does not sell as quite as well as the straight Shirazes, but the 2006 is starting to hit it's straps now and is Oustanding drinking, the wine of the day for many of us there. There will not be a 2011 or 2012 Symposium for a few reasons, but I strongly recommend you do yourself a favour and try the 2010 and the Matarius when released.

Love this

Getting even better with age

Excellent

May become my new favourite

Great character

Many years left

Some of us are lucky

Exceptional

Red Wines In Summer

I was at a nice restaurant last Friday, lovely balmy evening around 25C, and we were almost al fresco sitting at the front of the premises where the doors were wide open. They had a good wine list and great food. The unfortunate thing was the Cab Sav was already warm when delivered, and only got warmer when exposed to the lovely evening air.

The crazy thing is the white wine the ladies had, and I'm not claiming whites are for ladies only (though my mate Brian might), was served chilled and with a wine bucket to keep it cool. So the restaurant took the most care of the cheaper white wine made in stainless steel and that was barely 10 months old, and left the Cab, which the winemaker had nurtured for 3 years, to stew in the warm air.

It's about time Australia realised that "room temperature" for red wine is too warm, especially in summer. A Cabernet Sauvignon, like most reds, is best served around 15C, with even 20C really being the upper limit. Pleasant temperatures for humans isn't so great for red wines.

At home this warm weather I don't stop drinking reds, they either get around 30-60 mins in the normal fridge or come from my wine fridge which is 13C. I then put it in an insulated wine bucket. I also have this little round plastic chiller brick thing that I put in the bottom that is perfectly shaped for the bucket and works better than ice would.

If you overchill your red, it will warm up in the glass anyway, possibly with help from a warm hand. I reckon that's far preferable to sticking in an ice cube, as I've heard of some desperate people doing to a too warm wine. It is after all without external means, considerably easier to warm a wine than to cool it.

The better reds for summer are Grenache, Mataro, Tempranillo, and of course blends of those, but I'd encourage you to always cool your Shiraz and Cabs back down to ~15C to have with a nice BBQ steak or ribs.

I wasn't paying for the reds last week, but I regret not asking for an ice bucket so that I could have enjoyed them as much as the food. I didn't want to seem like a wine wanker, but on the flip side I would not have hesitated to ask for an ice bucket for a Riesling in the same conditions.

There's probably a few guides out there, but I suggest 13C is about as low as you want to go, 15-16C is ideal, and 20C as mentioned before almost too warm.

McLeans Farm Mataro Shiraz 2009

I spent a couple of very educational and enjoyable hours with Bob McLean this afternoon. I had sought him out because I'd randomly picked up his 2005 Shiraz Mataro, which was drinking beautifully earlier this year.

His vineyard and cellar door are up on Mengler's Hill, which is effectively the border between the Barossa Valley and the Eden Valley. Hence he uses the term Barr-Eden to describe his vineyard's terroir, which is at an altitude of 477-510m.

His Mataro vines are the highest in the region, and surprisingly, to me at least, they are grown as bush vines, which is a method far more common to Grenache, which he also has planted there.

Bob has been experimenting since at least 2005 blending various amounts of Shiraz, Mataro and Grenache. He very generously gave me effectively a vertical tasting of those, and just in case someone has one of those extremely rare bottles I'll give a quick overview, but the main purpose was to get an idea of where the wines are headed as a style.

The 2006 was a Grenache Shiraz Mataro, possibly not with respect to percentages in that order. The wine is excellent right now. It had a tiny bit of carbonation at first, which I don't see as a fault as it blows off fairly fast, but I mention it because it does mask other flavours. Regardless it needs to breath at least 30 mins, and longer is better. It's complex, intense, balanced and downright delicious. It saw only old oak and whilst Bob felt perhaps it could have used more I didn't find it lacking. This was the best wine of the day, mostly due to it's age developed complexity and poise.

No 2007 left, so to the 2008 Mataro Shiraz (sold out) , which I think was roughly a 70/30 blend. An intense wine initially, but settled down well to show more complexity. Bob felt it a bit steely but I more thought it showed a slight touch of  raisin character from the hot vintage. Again good balance, acid in harmony with fruit intensity. Perhaps slightly sleazy but you're not always looking for a girl to take home to mum.

The current vintage is 2009 Mataro Shiraz and sans notes I'm remembering this as being 50/50. I've got a bottle of this open right now so I'll try to be a little more accurate with this one. Initially both aroma and palate somewhat closed, at least compared to the older wines, but it's had 6 hours breathing now and both have opened right up. The Mataro is quite obvious with it's chorizo sausage and olive characters dancing around with the plums of the Shiraz. But whilst both are great dancers it's more like they're doing jazz ballet rather than a tango just now, but time will bring them closer together. Tannins quite fine, the gum licking acid is highly suited to a good meal. Very classy.

I also tried the 2010 which was effectively a barrel sample and found it hard to get past the tannins at this stage, but that's often the story with Mataro, it's just not a drink young grape, hence it often being teamed with Grenache. However I tasted enough to want to seek it out again next year.

The 2009 gets a Highly Recommended++ and **** especially given the very low production.

Sieber Road 2009 GSM

It smelt bloody good pouring it in the decanter, and 2 hours later it smells even better in my glass.

I'm not a huge fan of Grenache, but the Frenchies in Rhone got it right when they blended it with Shiraz and Mourvedre. This is luscious and slurpable. Not sure whether to lick my chops or suck on the glass.

I really like all these Sieber Road wines, and I sometimes wonder whether I've been swayed to buying them by the very affable Val Sieber. Then again, when I enjoy them this much I don't really care.

This is everything I want in a slightly lighter weight wine for summer drinking, it's red fruit dominant but there's some black and blue too, tannins not too challenging for a warm evening, and just the right amount of acid for food or sipping slightly chilled (about 15C).

Recommended and ****, particularly good value in dozens from their website or cellar door.