Buller Wines (Rutherglen) – A winery that is renowned for its superb Fortified wines and is now making moves to create better awareness of their improving table wines. “Caspia” Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc 2005 – 73% Semillon with the remainder Sauvignon Blanc. This is well blended with the two varieties balanced rather than one dominating. Some lemon […]
Category: Wine Events
Brown Brothers (Milawa) – Brown Brothers is one the largest and oldest family owned wineries in Australia. The wines that were being shown are generally aimed at the under $10 price point and a specific market segment. They do have higher quality wines but these were not available for tasting. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier […]
Blue Pyrenees Estate (Pyrenees) – Quite a (almost overwhelmingly) large number of wines on offer here, with five sparkling wines alone. Some good quality, especially amongst some of the sparkling wines and some of the Reserve wines. Midnight Cuvee 2000 – 100% Chardonnay. Lots of toast and apples. Good acid structure. 88/100 Vintage Brut 2000 […]
Balgownie Estate (Bendigo) – This winery has been around since 1969 and it is known for its full flavoured red wines that have excellent aging abilities. The two “Estate” red wines that I tried are going to live for a long time. “Estate” Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 – Like the Shiraz, quite concentrated and full flavoured […]
Austin’s Barrabool Wines (Geelong) – Some good wines here from an up and coming region. I also take a look at the 2004 Pinot Noir in the Pinot Tutorial here “Ellyse” Chardonnay 2004 – Named after the winemakers grand-daughter. Some good complexity and “funkiness” here along with roasted nuts on the nose. 89/100 Riesling 2005 […]
This is the final update from the Victorian Winemakers Exhibition 2006. This master class looked at seven Shiraz based wines from the Heathcote region. The wines are listed below in order of preference. Heathcote Estate Shiraz 2003 – Nose is fairly tight at this stage, but after some vigorous swirling I got some dark chocolate, […]
Eight Pinot Noirs tasted as part of the recent Victorian Winemakers Exhibition tutorials in order of preference. Paringa Estate “Estate” Pinot Noir 2004 – (Mornington Peninsula): Quite an unyielding nose – cherry and some well blended oak. Nice textured mouthfeel – length is great. Just needs some time to develop some complexity and open up. […]
Earlier this week I attended this event at the Menzies Hotel in Sydney. In the coming days I’m going to have writeups on the Pinot and Heathcote Shiraz masterclasses and some (very) brief notes and ratings for the numerous wines tried. Some themes that I saw emerging at the show were the use of both […]
2005 was an interesting year for consumers of premium Australian wine. Amidst the merger of Fosters and Southcorp and the continuing battle of the supermarkets versus the small independant stores, consumers enjoyed an ever expanding selection of great quality wine, both at low and high price points. Thus as I look back at the year […]