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Greetings from Australia! We needn’t look only to Germany for Riesling bursting with
acidity. In Australia, producers seem to favour a high acid, no
sugar model that is lick-smacking refreshing. The dominant
flavour in all of these wines is the taste of fresh limes and
that occasional blast of petrol. Two to seek out:
2004 Wynn’s Coonawara Estate Riesling
2003 Tamar Ridge Tamar Valley (Tasmania) Riesling
Also rocking with acidity is the 2004 Nepenthe Adelaide Hills
Unwooded Chardonnay. It’s not just lean rails of acidity; rather
it’s filled with a core of green apples. Another wine from the
Adelaide Hills is the 2004 Chain of Ponds Black Thursday
Sauvignon Blanc. It’s quite acidic as you might expect, but the
flavours are not only herbaceous; there’s also lots of ripe
tropical fruit.
In the states, Australia is probably best known for Shiraz and
two from the Barossa Valley really stood out for me. The first
was the 2000 Annie’s Lane Copper Trail Shiraz. It smelled of
berries, cassis and berry cobbler. The mouth featured a balanced
combination of berry and oak flavours, supported by firm but
soft tannins. The second, a 2000 vintage from St. Hallett, was
their Old Block Shiraz. It too was a combo of berries and oak
framed in a very elegant structure – filled out in the palate,
not aggressively tannic, yet not thin either.
The Port-style wines of Australia are quite good value for
money. In the ruby style there is the 2003 Morris sporting a
bright purple, inky appearance and very ripe berry fruit in the
mouth. The nv Penfolds Club Reserve Aged Tawny is crème caramel
personified.
Another fortified wine that I found quite delicious is called
Rutherglen Muscat. Named for one of the many Muscats, this one
called Muscat à Petit Grains Rouge, is also known as Brown
Muscat. It’s grown in the Rutherglen region of north-eastern
Victoria, east of Melbourne and south of Sydney.
There are two things I found stunning about these wines. First,
the intense viscosity is pierced by a citrus-orange zip,
balancing the wine and keeping it from being cloying. Second,
unlike many of the fortified French Muscats, the alcohol is
buried in the wine. Even at 17%, there’s no burn, just the
weight of the alcohol is there underneath. The two stunners we
tried were from Seppelt, the DP 33 and the DP 63. Both smelled
of raisins and fruit compote – the DP 63 a bit more Malmsey
Madeira-like in complexity.
In a less rational section of the price universe, I tasted some
excellent wines from Brian Croser, an industry icon in
Australia. He’s known worldwide as well, for the wines of
Petaluma, named after, you guessed it, that former hot-bed of
poultry production in southern Sonoma County. He spent some time
here years ago and his fond memories led to naming his winery
Petaluma.
In a tutored tasting, we examined three vintages of Chardonnay
from a single vineyard he calls Tiers. The site is located in a
warm spot in the cool Adelaide Hills. He aims to position this
wine side-by-side with the legends of Burgundy.
He’s done it, both in flavours and unfortunately in price. If
you can find this wine, you might have to spend $100 per bottle;
but if price is no object, this man’s wines deserve your
attention. What was delicious was to taste the seamless
integration of high acid Chardonnay fruit, lashings of new oak,
and 100% malolactic that I couldn’t detect, building complexity
without an overt butteriness.
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