Wine without BS

Outpost 2004 Howell Mountain Zinfandel

Californian Zinfandel has to be as close to American red wine royalty as it can get! It is after all as close to being ‘American’ as are a Burger & Fries. Originating from Italy where it is known as Primitivo, Californian Zinfandels are known for being big on fruit, alcohol and oak. The Outpost 2004 Zinfandel doesn’t lack any of those elements yet with the benefit of eight years bottle age this one is likely to be more palatable to some than a much younger vintage.

In the glass an ageing cherry red colour has an aroma that is full of cedar and oak with hints of subtle fruit and spice. This wine is drinking pretty much at its peak now and I can’t see it lasting more than another two years so no need to buy this for the cellar. It is however a great guide to how long a good Zin should be kept for as they have nowhere near the life of other premium reds. On the flip side of that though is that at least it doesn’t take 15-20 years of patience before you can enjoy a good Zin at its best. Some may even prefer them more youthful and, being a fruit and oak driven wine, they pair best with BBQ’d meats, Burgers and Ribs as well as some sharp cheeses! 

Outpost 2004 Howell Mountain Zinfandel
Price - $63 from Grand Central Cellars
Region - Howell Mountain, California
Final Sip - Given the lack of good California Zinfandels here in Australia the ability to get one that even the locals love, with some bottle age, for less than some premium Aussie Zin's are going for is a rare treat! 

Charles Smith 'Fung Fu Girl' 2010 Riesling

Having recently been asked to review a few US Wines for the US Consulate in Melbourne who are embarking on a Festival of Food and Wine from the United States I thought I'd share these reviews with you. I'll be posting a range of US Wine reviews this week under the hastag #USWineWeek

Crystal clear with an almost glossy looking colour of pale lime. The aroma shows citrus notes, tropical fruits and sherbet. To drink it has a noticeable but not overdone touch of sweetness that is complimented with good acidity, lemon, lime and tropical fruit flavours with a little zing on the tongue. 

Charles Smith 'Fung Fu Girl' 2010 Riesling
Price - $24.99 from Grand Central Cellars
Region - Columbia Valley, Washington, USA
Final Sip - A very enjoyable wine that would be enhanced by pairing it with something light but spicy... think  Cajun prawns or fish tacos with a splash of hot sauce!

NAKED WINES HOSTING $1 MILLION GLOBAL WINE COMPETITION

My friends at Naked Wines just forwarded me this press release and I thought it was definitely worth sharing as who wouldn't want to win a cool half a million for making wine! 

I wonder if my Home made Sparkling Shiraz in the Soda Stream makes me eligible? Highly unlikely but best of luck to all those who do make real wine and do it well enough to win this great prize!

 

NAKED WINES HOSTING $1 MILLION GLOBAL WINE COMPETITION

Seeking the best Independent Australian Winemakers

 

The renowned UK online wine retailer, Naked Wines, has launched a global competition to discover the world’s most talented underground winemakers. Judged by hundreds of consumers, the competition will reward the best independent Australian winemaker with a £50,000 listing on their site – and the chance to win a $500,000 investment fund.

The contest, deemed The $1million Zero to Hero Wine Awards¸is free for winemakers to enter and will consist of six preliminary rounds which will accept entries from countries around the world including, Chile, Spain, the UK, Argentina and France. The leg for Australian entries will take place on 3^rd October at Australian House in London. Finalists from each country will receive a £50,000 listing on the Naked Wines site and will compete for a $500,000 investment fund in the grand finale this December.

“Our goal as a business is to reward genuine winemaking talent, not marketing budget, as there are thousands of top-drawers producers who don’t have the means to make give their wines presence on our shores,” explained Rowan Gormley, Founder and CEO of Naked Wines. “Zero to Hero puts every winemaker who enters the competition on a level playing field, being judged by everyday wine drinkers rather than experts or critics, on the juice inside the bottle, rather than the size of their wallet.”

Winemakers must sent samples of their wines the Naked Wines’ UK office in addition to submitting their information via the website. To find out more and enter the competition, interested winemakers can visit http://www.nakedwines.com/zerotohero-aus. Don’t delay! The deadline for entries is Friday, 28 September.

“As a parochial Australian, I'm anticipating an Australian winemaker to scoop the awards,” quips Luke Jecks, Managing Director of Naked Wines Australia. “This competition is a once in a lifetime opportunity for independent Australian winemakers to gain recognition for their craft and to show the rest of world how talented we are.”

 

Naked Wines (www.nakedwines.com.au) launched in Australia on July 1, 2012 with the mission of ensuring that up-and-coming winemakers without big brand budgets are able to reach consumers on a personal level with investments and distribution. Naked Wines will invest $1.5 million over the next year in Australian vineyards from different regions as part of its first international expansion. The site has also released iPhone and Android apps that allow users to chat to the winemaker of the wine they are drinking, view videos and tasting notes and access exclusive deals.

 

For more information please visit www.nakedwines.com.au

Facebook Page Naked Wines Australia

Twitter @NakedWinesAus

Mandoletto 2011 Catarratto

(Picture shown not correct vintage)

Catarratto is an Italian white grape variety native to Sicily where it is the most widely planted variety. Outside of Sicily it is still one of the most widely planted grape varieties and often used as a component of marsala wine. This dry white wine version under the Mandoletto label of Fazio Winery and distributed in Australia by Fourth Wave Wines is a rather rare find and inexpensive to try at least once.

It is light yellow and slightly gold in colour and has a rather light aroma with nothing in particular worth sticking your nose in the glass to experience. It has a nice flavour with elements of pear, green apple and stone fruits. It is not as acidic as many Italian white wines often are so it can be enjoyed on its own as much as it would be a great accompaniment to things like seafood, light pasta or salads. 

Interestingly, I read some other reviews of other Catarratto wines and words such as 'unusual' and 'different 'seemed to be rather common. I like the wine myself but I can tell that this will be a wine with a divided opinion. 

Mandoletto 2011 Catarratto
Price - $9.99 from WineStar
Region - Sicily, Italy
Final Sip -  At $9.99 you don't have much to loose by giving it a try. I also find imported wines like this that punch well above their price point great gifts as people will think you spent far more just because it's 'imported'.

Olivers Taranga 2012 Fiano

I've had the pleasure of trying at least two previous vintages of the Olivers Taranga Fiano and I cannot recall disliking any of them. Fiano is an Italian white grape variety that originates from the Campania region in Southern Italy. A few producers in Australia make wine with Fiano but the Olivers Taranga's drop is the best I've had to date.

It has a light, pale gold like colour in the glass with an aroma and flavour that I really do struggle to reduce to other common elements. It is when writing reviews for wines like these that I wonder where the obsession lies with the majority of wine writers who stop at nothing to break down a wine into as many other elements as possible. Don't get me wrong, 9 times out of 10 you can smell and taste a wine and be reminded of another smell or taste, however every so often a wine comes along that, put simply, is unique enough to say it has a taste and aroma all of its own. 

Maybe one day I'll be eating or drinking something and think 'Hey, that reminds me of Fiano!', which brings me to yet another point to ponder. If the first time you experience a particular aroma or taste should whatever you experience first become the reference point? Let's say you've never eaten a Gooseberry, then you try a wine that you're told has a taste very reminiscent of Gooseberries... you cannot be expected to pick this up if you've never had a Gooseberry! I often read wine reviews and think how wine writers seem to be the most undiscriminating eaters as some of the things they've clearly had to have smelled or eaten before goes way beyond the average man or woman's experience!

Anyway, enough of that and if I REALLY had to list some elements of this wine that you may or may not discover yourselves it was a faint almond, possibly marzipan-like aroma, and some citrus notes on the palate. Apart from that it was all pure Fiano, and a bloody good one at that!

Olivers Taranga 2012 Fiano
Price - $24 from Olivers Taranga 
Region - Mclaren Vale, South Australia
Final Sip -  Simply a great white wine that has impressed pretty much everyone I've introduced it to and one that I intend of having around my place regularly.

The Code 38 Wine Knife

I've always had a fascination for things that are totally over-engineered. Things like the Bugatti Veyron, a car that has an automatic gear box, leather seats and can be driven as easily as a Holden Commodore yet is capable of reaching over 400Km/h and can get to 100Km/h in just 2.5 seconds from a stand still! Or the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fighter jet. A plane so advanced that its computing power is said to be as much as the IBM Blue supercomputer that takes up a whole floor in a warehouse and that, in combat if the enemy does not have two planes for every Raptor it is deemed to be an unfair fight by F-22 pilots!

Both of the above examples took many years to develop and relied upon resources from around the world. So what if you took these elements and applied them to a simple corkscrew? Turns out you get the Code 38 Wine Knife, designed and made by Jeff Toering. It has to be the most over-engineered, most expensive to develop and most expensive corkscrew in the world... which to many might seem a heap of BS! The funny part is that I am reasonably confident that on some level Jeff would agree with that. Yet on another, you have to admire one mans dedication to something most of us probably never give a second thought to as we crack the cork on a bottle of wine many take equally for granted.

Jeff spent over a decade.. yes a decade.. developing the final product. He travelled the world buying as many corkscrews, wine knives and waiter's friends as he could get his hands on to test the competition and to see what separated the good from the bad. Each Code 38 takes many hours to put together and has an expertly made helix (the part you screw into the cork) that comes from France and can be engraved and shipped worldwide for no extra cost!

I've had the pleasure of owning one now for a few months and I must say, it is better than I thought it was going to be, but then again I am not really sure what I expected from a $225 corkscrew! (I realise it is called a wine knife and with all due respect to Jeff the No BS part of me just has to call a spade a spade, or a wine knife a corkscrew). I've opened everything from current vintages to 20 year old corks with it and have not had one single drama. No broken corks, no second attempts... just a smooth, easy pull every time! And before you start over analysing the price, keep in mind a few things. Firstly, it was never really designed for personal/domestic users as it is aimed at wine professionals, sommeliers etc Secondly, if this over-engineering leads to just one special bottle of wine opening properly, where perhaps a cheap corkscrew may have led to a broken cork... it has most probably just paid for itself!

Plus, in my examples above the Bugatti is over 2 million AUD and can't even be registered in Australia while the 20 year old F-22 Raptor is still over 159 million USD, costs over $40,000 US per hour of flight to maintain and cannot be brought outside the US Military. So... all of a sudden the Code 38 at a starting price of $225, with a lifetime warranty, free engraving and shipping seems like an absolute steal and I am told even more improvements and models are in development. I honestly cannot think of a better birthday or Christmas gift for any wine obsessed friends or family you may have!

 

For more information and online purchasing click here

Torbreck 'The Struie' 2010 Shiraz

I've actually been looking forward to getting my hands on this wine ever since I was in the Barossa Valley in 2010 with a local wine maker who gave me a tip I've never forgotten when it came to buying Barossa Shiraz. He said that after 2005, 2006, not to waste any money on any other vintages until the 2010 reds are released and then... "buy as much as you can afford!". A large reason for this is that 2007 was a difficult year for the Barossa Valley and 2008 wasn't much better. 2009 was good but will probably be forgotten as 2010 was given 10/10 by Langton's and many have said it is the vintage of the decade... some say of the last two decades!

With this knowledge I started to think of all the great Barossa Shiraz wines I'd experienced from 2005 (another solid year for the region) and for me the 2005 Torbreck Struie stood out as it was under $50 and just had everything I really enjoy in this style of wine. I finally got the chance to get a 6 pack of 2010 Struie and had my first taste the other day. Immediately upon pouring it into my glass I noticed the deep purple hue to its colour. Given a little time the aroma becomes a lovely, almost vanilla oak/woody smell with fruit notes lingering in the background. Flavour wise there is no doubt this is a bold wine that is rich, full of quality fruit and I even found some faint chocolate-like flavours. Decant for an hour or so for maximum enjoyment. The true rewards will come with extended cellaring and I personally cannot wait to re-try this wine at 8-10 years.

 

Torbreck The Struie 2010 Shiraz
Price - $48.50 from Torbreck
Region - Barossa Valley, South Australia
Final sip - Fans of Barossa Shiraz will no doubt love this wine as much as I do and for those who think big, Barossa Shiraz is 'out of fashion' all I can say is while fads come and go in the wine industry as much as any, a truly great wine will always remain just that... a great wine! 

Tertini Wines 2010 Arneis

This Italian grape variety, grown in the Southern Highlands of NSW and made by Tertini wines, is a great example of how tasting something at a cellar door doesn't always translate as the winery would hope. I tried this wine at their cellar door back in 2010 and thought it was good, but nothing beyond good. It was then recently and generously donated for an event I held that focused on alternative wine varieties. Having the chance then to enjoy the wine in the usual way with normal wine glasses and a normal serving I absolutely loved it! I'm not the only one either. This wine was picked by two serious winos at the event as their favourite white wine. Furthermore, one of the least wine knowledgeable mates of mine tried it recently and said it was one of the better white wines he'd ever tried!

It has a colour of light gold and pale lemon yellow accompanied by an aroma of apple and pear-like fruits. I also get a faint whif of honey as well. It is very enjoyable to drink and as you'd expect the flavours flow on from the aroma with apple and pear with some citrus fruits also noticeable. However, I find with so many Italian white varieties and even blends  that it can be rather hard to describe, and define them into singular components for use in tasting notes. I think that may be part of why I enjoy them so much! 

 

Tertini 2010 Arneis
Price - $35 from Tertini Wines
Region - Southern Highlands, NSW
Final Sip -  I've had the pleasure of enjoying this wine quite a few times now and with a diverse group of people and as yet I have not come across one single person who didn't enjoy it! 

PS - The variety is pronounced 'Ar-Nay' 

Brokenwood 2010 Quail Shiraz

Interestingly this wine wouldn't exist if Brokenwood had its way... its way with the weather that is! You see this release really should be the 2010 'Graveyard' Shiraz, the flagship wine from this Hunter Valley producer that is one of only 17 wines to be given the highest possible classification of 'Exceptional' by Langton's Fine Wines. However, a storm in 2010 damaged the fruit in the Graveyard vineyard, yet left nearby vineyards virtually untouched!

The solution was to take what fruit was salvagable and include 50% McLaren Vale Shiraz from one of Brokenwood's long standing growers in that region. This results in the Quail Shiraz, which was first released in 1994. 

The 2010 Quail Shiraz has a great colour that is an almost perfect mix of classic red and purple hues associated with great wines. It has a really lovely and rather complex aroma as I picked up hints of everything from fruit, oak, spices, vanilla and floral notes. Sounds like BS I know but there really was a bit of everything in there with no element overshadowing another. The aroma alone showed this was a high quality wine with plenty of potential.

To talk at length about how this wine is drinking now is probably not doing the wine, or yourself any great favours. Don't get me wrong, it is a perfectly decent drop as it is now, but it does come off tasting a little young and it reminds me of the first time I tried Penfolds 2005 St Henri, which was within months of its release. I knew I was drinking a really well made wine but that it really needed time to reach its full potential. 

So do yourself and your cellar a favour and grab a bottle or as many as one desires and put it away for at the very least 5 years before opening and ideally I'd think 8-10 years would be better. If you do insist on trying it now then pair it with something meaty and fatty. A Wagyu steak would do the trick as would confit of duck!

One thing this wine does highlight for me is that blending of a single variety from multiple locations shouldn't be seen as a lesser wine than one that is 100% from the same vineyard.

Brokenwood 2010 Quail Shiraz
Price - $95 from cellar door and SVC club only
Region - 50% Hunter Valley, 50% McLaren Vale
Final Sip -  My tip is to try it at the cellar door so that you can say you've tried it, then purchase and put it away for celebrating NYE 2020! I'm also strongly tipping that this wine will easily make the cut for a HBA release, which is Brokenwood's release at 10 years of age.

Wine without BS in Wine Business Monthly

Sorry to bore you with this potentially self indulgent post that is nothing more than a link to an article written about myself and published in the May edition of Wine Business Monthly magazine. I post this mainly as a way of keeping the article on file but it was nice to have a forum to get my message in front of the industry, instead of the consumer for once.So far all feedback from readers of the article has been very positive.

Download One Man's War Against BS

 

Thanks to Anthony Madigan from WBM for his interest in Wine Without BS and a great job on the article!