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Australia 2005 Montana Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
– This wine has intense acidity and the
taste of bell peppers splashed with lime.
2004 Belllvale Gippsland Pinot Noir –
Here you’ll find vibrant fruit carried
forever by noticeable acidity.
2003 Fenestra Yarra Valley Cabernet
Sauvignon – This Cabernet smells of the
classic black currants with some earthiness.
It tastes of vivacious fruit, framed with
lively acidity and light tannins – dense yet
drinkable now.
2003 Shays Flat Pyrenees Ranges
Sangiovese – While this has a slight
herbal component, I think it works with the
overall package of fruit forward cherry
flavors and ample acidity – very clean and
delicious.
A Deeper Look
The Yarra Valley, just an hour outside
of Melbourne is like a trip to Sonoma
County. The town where I stayed is even
called Healesville. Could make a good sister
city for Healdsburg?
Punt Road, named for a byway in Melbourne
where some of the early Victorian vines were
planted, is featuring stunning yet
affordable wines. The winemaker Kate Goodman
is on top of the game, delivering the fruit
of the grapes, without hiding them in oak.
Conquest Beverage Group in New Orleans newly
imports the wines to the U.S.. We may have
to ask for them before they show up in our
local shops. Favorites include:
2005 Pinot Gris, $22 – This is a
roundish, more Alsatian style of Pinot Gris.
2005 Pinot Noir, $27 – This is a
very delicate, cherry loaded Pinot that has
the balance of acidity to make it a good
wine with dinner. It is the antithesis of
many of the overly ripe and alcoholic Pinots
that we’re seeing more often in California.
2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, $27 –
There are leafy cigar box notes as you find
in Bordeaux and the palate is all about
dense fruit, ripe tannins and balancing
acidity – simply delicious.
Miller’s Dixons Creek is situated
on the Melba Highway just north of Yarra
Glen. Being growers and winemakers, they
have the luxury of choosing the best lots of
grapes for their small production. I expect
they’ll soon have distribution in the U.S.
Look for their Petit Verdot. The barrel
sample I tasted of the 2005 was delicious.
Favorite in bottle:
2004 Shiraz – With just 9 months
in American Oak, the sweet nuances are more
of silky seasoning than a cloak of syrup –
nice black pepper and black fruits.
De Bortoli, also in Dixons Creek,
is well known for affordable varietal wine.
What might be more of a secret in the
States, is the top-drawer wines embracing
organic methods and ample acidity.
Many Australian wines show luscious mouth
feel, whether in rich Chardonnays or
mouth-filling Shiraz. Yet the trend line is
moving toward a restraint of richness and an
embrace of acid. Paul Bridgeman showed me a
number of barrel samples that exemplify this
move: Chardonnays that tasted like Chablis,
Sauvignons that tasted like Sancerre and
Shiraz (labeled as Syrah) that tasted like a
top Cornas.
Domaine Chandon proves again that
good bubbly is made beyond the borders of
the vaunted Champagne region of France.
Their Green Point vineyards were planted a
mere 20 years ago on an historic property
that was a cattle ranch in the 1880s. The
tasting room and salon overlook a splendid
view of the Yarra where the landscape
remains green longer than most in the summer
season.
2002 ZD Blanc de Blanc, $28 - This
100% Chardonnay is textbook green apple,
fully concentrated and long lasting. The ZD
is for zero dosage. This wine, as well as
four other Chandon sparklings is bottled for
sale under crown cap. That’s right – the
same sort of top you see on the wine during
the secondary fermentation, like we used on
soda pop long ago. The crown cap guarantees
no risk of cork taint, which does exist in
sparkling wines just as it does in still
wines.
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