Shiraz Viognier Tasting

Cote-Rotie Brune et Blonde de Guigal 2000
Rhone, France 96%Syrah, 4%Viognier
Red berry, cherry aroma with a slight pepper lift. Meaty savoury characters on the palate with fine green tannins. Not too bad a wine. Retails for $100 in Oz, but more likely the equivalent of $25 in France.

Cote-Rotie - Chateau D'Ampuis 2000
Rhone, France 95%Syrah, 5%Viognier
Intense red fruit characters with an aromatic viognier lift. Intense flavours of pepper, silky tannins, a tight style with great length. Retails for $300 in Oz, more likely $70 in France. The better of the two French wines.
Both wines were from the same producer, the second is their icon wine.

Yering Station Shiraz Viognier 2004, Yarra Valley
Aromas of young blueberry fruit, sweaty saddle and white pepper. The palate tasted of blueberry, had good acidity and young course tannins. A young wine, but good quality. Retails for about $20. Good value wine and potential to age for a few years.

Yarra Burn Shiraz Viognier 2002, Pyrenees and Heathcote
Corked........disappointing as this wine showed potential as being one of the better wines at this price point. I would definitely like to try this again. Retails for about $20.

Wolf Blass Gold Label Shiraz Viognier 2002, Adelaide Hills
Aromatic sweet eucalypt, blackberry and spice. Viognier not too dominant. Flavours of liquorice and blackberry. Retails for about $25. Another good quality wine.
This wine reminded me a lot of a Barossa Shiraz.

D'Arenberg The Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viognier 2004, McLaren Vale
A very commercial style wine. Intense liquorice, black berry and spice aromas. Sweet fruit, apricot flavour. Tannins were a little powdery. I could drink a glass of this, but any more than this would probably be a bit rich.

Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2003, Canberra
Plum, apricot and pepper aromas. Riper than the 1999 vintage. Savoury flavours of black pepper and blackberry. A very good wine, but still quite young. Look forward to trying some other vintages. Retails for $70.

Castagna Genesis Shiraz Viognier 2004, Beechworth
Dark berry aromas with a strong apricot presence from the viognier. Tannins are soft and silky with a pepper finish. Stuart thought this wine was a little one dimensional, but it was one of my favourites of the day. Retails for about $60.

Summary:
An excellent example of shiraz viognier. All the wines were very good quality, but most were still very young and probably better to drink in a year or two. Favourite wine was probably the Castagna, but the Clonakilla and Chateau D'Ampuis were also very good. The least favourites were probably the Laughing Magpie and the Brune et Blonde de Guigal, but they are still good quality wines!

Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 1999, Canberra

Wicked wine. It was quite different in style to most other Aussie wines and the first wine I have tasted from Canberra. It wasn't too upfront with fruit like many Australian Shiraz Viognier blends. There was intense white and black pepper mixed with some berry fruits, cherries and spice. It was like the wine was sweet, but savoury at the same time.
It told the 1999 vintage is tasting best at the moment.

101 Semillion, 2001, Margaret River

Interesting wine. Had some tropical passionfruit aromas, but was dominated by green bean flavour and aroma. There was also some toastiness to it from age, but it is probably best to put this away for a couple of more years as it was still tasting very young. Bought of Gray's Online for $10 a bottle. RRP $38.

Tyrells Rufus Stone, Shiraz, 2004, Heathcote

Pretty disappointing wine. I thought it was much like a Riverland wine and definitely not of the quality I would expect from the Heathcote region. Not much more to say really. Bought it at Duncan's for $22.

Barossa Ridge Valley of Vines, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, 2001, Barossa Valley

A classic Bordeaux blend with some interesting complexity from age and barnyard characters, but still showing some fruit. Quite dry and freshest poured straight from the bottle suggesting the wine won't cellar for much longer. A great buy off Grays Online for $8 a bottle. Would rate this as a $30 bottle of wine.

A wine blog

I realised that I had forgotten what some really good wines were I tasted a few weeks ago, or at least I remember what some are, but it would be nice to have somewhere to record some tasting notes for reference in the future.