Cradle of Hills Splash+Merge 2012

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get an invite to Paul and Tracy Smith's Cradle of Hills Wines inaugural Splash+Merge event. The word inaugural is mine, because I am very confident that they will must do this again, and if the wine drinking public is lucky, they will do it many more times.

The wine industry should be paying close attention here, because this is a perfect example of how you encourage people to understand what makes a great wine.

I was going to say 'teach' about great wine, and it was in fact termed a 'masterclass', but that could conjure up suppressed memories of classrooms, being required to pay attention, and worrying if there's going to be an exam at the end.

In fact, it was about having enormous fun, imbibing both knowledge and wine, and generally wondering how life could get better.

The backbone idea was to allow us to see that blending 3 very good wines could actually produce something even better. Blending is in fact used by almost every winery to some degree, even with single variety wines. I won't go into all I learned on blending from Paul Smith (winemaker/host), except to say I reckon I would now be able to wrire enough that you'd be bored silly with my knowledge - this is something that Paul did not do!

A brief rundown though, is that we started with a 2011 Shiraz, 2011 Mourvedre, and 2012 Grenache. The idea was to try each wine on it's own, pick what was it's strengths, and combine those to create something even better.

There was 19 of us, divided up into groups, and there was the lure of both pride and a bottle of Scarce Earth, for those who came up with the concensus best blend to encourage us to be somewhat serious.

Our group ended up with 6 blends, in parts of Shiraz/Mourv/Grenache;
60/30/10
30/60/10
45/50/5
50/50 (no Grenache)
33.3/33.3/33.3
50/47/3
and probably not surprisingly blend #6 was our best. But what was surprising is that the 3% Grenache really made a noticable difference, probably because it was younger and added some lift to the nose.

The final blends were tasted by all, blind. Meaning we didn't know which wine as opposed to our personal state, of course all of us were using the spitoons and nobody was getting sozzled!

We didn't win.

In fact a Shiraz/Grenache 65/35 got about 70% of the votes, which Paul said and I agree, was because it's the best 'drink now' wine. Our Mourv heavy blend was rated by Paul as the one to lay down the longest, so it really does depend on what you're making the wine for.

I'd like to just add too, that I was not the driving force behind the large Mourv percentage, though our group was certainly the biggest proponent overall. Also, despite the negative 2011 vintage talk, trust me that this is a very good Mourvedre already, and the Shiraz also - those vinyards are on a fair slope and get the benefit of a sea breeze, not to mention very good vineyard management, (though I do seem to have mentioned it), so whilst it shows somewhat as a cool vintage there is no negatives to these 2011's, unlike in some places.

BTW Paul, if you read this, my bet is the 2011 SM will be 60/35/5 based on my own post competition blend, but don't let me influence you ;)

There was also a lunch offered when booking, and everyone had been wise enough to hang around for that. The food was all sourced from the Willunga markets, which has some truly excellent produce from local farmers. Superbly served up by Tracy, who showed that a degree in Horticultre qualifies you to make a bloody good salad to go with beautiful hams.

CoH wines were available with lunch at CD prices, also half bottles, but I am not stupid and ordered full case of 2010 Shiraz Mourvedre with my lunch.

Here's some pics to make you all jealous. If any guest doesn't want their photo shown here, please contact me and I will swear out a Stat Dec that you were nowhere near the place and all resemblance to you is purely coincidental.

On the way to the barrel store Paul was explaining a little about their vinyard. Oh, I didn't mention the barrel store above. The day was full of bonuses like that.

 

 

 

 

 

Shiraz vines. Apparently they are 2 weeks ahead of the Cab Sav. This is a good thing.

Wee baby shiraz grapes, vintage 2013 on it's way.

The aforementioned Cab. You may notice the ground cover which is due to the organic nature of these vineyards, ie. no herbicides here!

The only thing that could have made the day any better was if you could bunk down in the barrel store at the end. Probably best we didn't, but we did have a taste of the 2011 and 2012 Scarce Earth Shiraz, which thanks to us is now even scarcer.

We were probably supposed to be listening to Paul here, but there was splashing and merging to be done!

The failed 5. Due to our sacrifices, you may be sure that a 33.3/33.3/33.3 GSM won't be on offer this year.

If I was classy I would have taken a pic before eating, but venison salami and great chorizo does not give a belly much patience.

Cork Ignorance

You'd think the cork vs screwcap debate is over, but having just come back from the USA, I was baffled to see so very few screwcaps in use, and none on premium wines even from Australia.

I just read this by Robert Mann,Senior Winemaker & Estate Director of Cape Mentelle Vineyards, a guy who knows wine better than most;

"Last month we were busy tasting, topping and re-corking the Cabernet wines in our cellar, dating back to the first wine produced from our vineyard in 1974 up until the 1989 vintage and missing only the 1975 (the cows ate the crop). All of these wines were characterised by modest alcohol levels generally below 13% and all were still in great condition, if you exclude the 40% of bottles rejected due to the deleterious impact of the cork through oxidation and taint."

How heartbreaking would it be if you were the proud owner of a 1974 CM Cab, and after half a lifetime of careful cellaring, you had to tip it down the drain simply because it was sealed with a 'natural' product instead of a reliable one?

Sure, a good winery will replace the bottle if cork affected, but with a recent vintage, and half a lifetime's cellaring is lost.

Vinsanity.

Premium wines come sealed with screwcap.

Gamblers wines come with corks. 

Lazy Ballerina Shiraz 2009 - Revisit

I reviewed this nearly a year ago, and after opening a bottle last night I was so impressed I thought I'd  check what I thought and give an update on how it's travelling.

Before reading my old review, my impression is this is a very classy wine, excellent complexity, and lacks nothing. It's only flaw is I've drained the glass without even getting two paragraphs done!

So how does it compare to my review a year back?

Well, the colour is a bit more crimson now, which you'd expect. It's still got that something dark and wicked, but now it seems a little more savoury with Christmas ham and a lovely aromatic sweetness that reminds me of Roquefort cheese.

The biggest change is the tannins which have that brilliant blend of firm and soft, giving mouthfeel without dryness. Another 2 years won't hurt, but you can safely crack one now, though it is better after 24 hours so still I reckon I'm right about it's potential long life.

Surprisingly it's still apparently available. It would have to be my favourite 2009 Shiraz and a bargain for this quality really.

Whistler Hubert Irving (Red Blend) 2010

This wine exudes quaff, and I don't mean that in a negative way. This is a wine that goes with everything a red wine goes with; food, fireplaces, friends and footy on the TV. By the way, I didn't have any trouble coming up with four F words, I had more problem in limiting to 4 clean ones.

Possibly, probably even, the reason this wine goes with everything is it's a blend. In Australia we seem to be fixated on single variety, but how many of us are aware that most of the single variety stuff is a blend of vineyards, sometimes a blend of regions, and occasionally a blend of States. It can even be a blend of vintages, but it's rare to get an admission of that.

I have nothing against single variety, and indeed single vineyard is pretty hard to beat when it's a good 'un, but I reckon there should be a lot more labelled blends out there. And a bit more willingness to experiment beyond GSM, Cab-Merlot and Cab-Shiraz.

This one is somewhat unusual, with 30% Mourvedre, 30% Merlot, 25% Grenache, 8% Shiraz and 7% Cab Sav, and they go so well together. Mostly red fruit on the nose with a touch of rosemary and oregano, reasonably full body and chewy tannins give longevity to red and black fruits on the palate,  and there's just enough quality acid to keep it all in balance. I reckon this would be a cracker if it had been made with their premium fruit.

Very good value at $16-$19, ready to 'quaff' now and good drinking for the next 5 years.

Recommended. 

Sieber Rd Shiraz Mataro 2008

The deer have gotten into the vineyard again.

You'd think they would be still full after gorging themselves on the half fermented raspberries and blackberries from the bushes that line the north paddock. The buggers had even been eating the wild black olives.

So in the immortal words of Ugluk, looks like meat's back on the menu boys, and it's venison.

To the self marinaded vension, we've added a sprinke of black pepper, a dash of garam masala and given it a rub with thyme and lemon peel.

Juicy, tender and gum lickingly good. Probably should have aged it a bit more, and it got a tad charred on one edge when we had the BBQ too hot, but the charcoal aids digestion they say.

Recommended++, but not easy to find outside cellar door and not even on the website, so you might want to email them and ask.

Pyramids Road Mourvedre 2011

I was pretty excited to try this as it would be my first Granite Belt wine. In an attempt to be unbiased I decided to have a pseudo blind tasting with friends prior to dinner, and then try the wine again with food. Only I knew what the wine was and where it came from.

The blind tasters had a variety of aroma descriptors; raspberry, lime, chocolate, old leather, rain on hay. The concensus was the nose was very complex with the fruit being somewhat in the background. Everyone agreed the palate was quite peppery with probably the best descriptor being 'like rocket'. Overall it was felt the palate was not yet living up to the nose and that the acid was currently too obvious - "I can smell the wine that this will become, but I am not tasting it tonight".

My notes were that it had a nice beefy aroma, some cocoa powder, fruit blend of cranberry, raspberry and blackcurrent, with fine dusty tannins. I did not find the acid to be as noticable as my friends, but not being a fruit driven wine I can see why it was comparitively sticking out.

We went back to it a few hours later with dinner, which was BBQ chicken thighs with a Thai green curry dipping sauce - I got the idea from a Jamie Oliver recipe and it worked extremely well. The best thing was the wine absolutely melded perfectly with this dish, and if I do say so myself one of the best meals I've had for a while.

I really enjoyed it, particularly with the food, and I rate it Highly Recommended as a dinner wine.

Longwood 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon

Dark and sultry, lithe and muscular, intensity and complexity, balanced and finished impressively.

You thought I was describing the wine, yeah? Actually I was watching the Olympic women's artistic gymnastics floor exercises and that would be my description of the Romanian competitor, Catalina Ponor. Eventually she would win the silver medal ahead of our own superb Lauren Mitchell. I thought Catalina the most impressive of them all, but the American was good enough in the end to win the gold.

Let's face it though, all those gymnasts are better than 7 billion other people at what they do, regardless of the medals, and the beauty of their skill brings us to tears at times. Beats me how the judges come up with the points at this level, all of the girls are clearly champions.

I'll avoid saying anything about the comparison with assigning points to wine.

At the risk of sounding like a marketing writer, I rather amused myself by comparing Catalina to this Longwood. Keeping in mind I have no commission to be made, and as tacky as it is to compare wine to an Olympic athlete, the description above is, in my opinion, very accurate.

It is of course a McLaren Vale Cab, so lovers of Coonawarra or cooler climate Cabs need to consider that this is more about blackberries, licorice, and dark chocolate, rather than earthy, mint and herbal characters.

I left half the wine a day to breathe some more and, as expected from Phil Christansen, it's even better today. He's got a real knack of making wines that age wonderfully. There's a bit of sediment suggesting perhaps no fining was done, and I love that. This wine can't have been too long bottled, as it saw 20 months in French oak.

It's hard to talk about the price of this wine without sounding like a bad wine retailer ad, but it's price has no relationship I can see with it's quality. This is not remotely a quaffer despite being $10 a bottle! It is a high quality limited production wine.

It's also not close to it's peak, which is at least 5 years away, and more likely 10. In all honesty it could do with a year to meld before drinking, but that intensity of flavour is so hard to resist drinking now, just give it a long airing before you do, and please put a number away for future years.

Highly Recommended+++  and the value excellent.