Riberadel duero Teofilo Reyes Tinto Crianza 1997, Spain

An aged tempranillo. We did this blind and there was no way I would have said Spain. My first impressions were Hunter Valley Shiraz as it had a very dominant leather aroma with some underlying aged fruit characters. The palate was soft with acid, but it did not have the puckering tannins so prevalent in many Spanish wines, but then it was 10 years old. Not a style I like with such dominant brett and leather characters, but always interesting to try something different from the Old World wines.

Westend Bridges Durif 2004, Riverina

An intense wine with dark berries and mint aromas. A smooth, soft, well balanced and integrated palate. A good wine especially for $15 a bottle.

Alternative Wine Show Tasting 2006

Mildura hosts the Alternative Wine Show and the head judge this year was Max Allen.
I went along for the open tasting and tried a range of Sangiovese, Pinot Gris, Viognier and a few other varieties that took my fancy.
I made a mistake right at the start by tasting a Nebbiolo wine a friend handed me which then left my mouth feeling puckered from the tannin for the next half hour.
The wine was 2004 Arrivo Nebbiolo and had been awarded a gold. It was a big wine and of course full of tannin.
I then went and perused the Sangioveses, but unfortunately most of the gold medal wines were already gone. They were the 2005 Pizzini Sangiovese and the 2005 Brokenwood Sangiovese. I did find one great wine amongst the others which was the 2004 Castagna La Chiave Sangiovese. It had more fruit weight with cherries, mint and liquorice. It was also not as oak dominated as the others. In general many of the sangioveses were quite dusty.
My palate was already quite tired at this stage so I didn't have the patience to go right through each variety. I tried the Dal Zotto Barbera and then the Nepenthe Zinfandel. I think I've tried both before, but neither was that great.
I then tasted a gold medal wine which was the Ferngrove Wines King Malbec 2004 from Western Australia. It was pretty good. Really rich fruit with plums and bosenberries with a rich balanced palate with good length.
I then did the best I could at cleansing my palate with a cracker and some water before tasting the 2006 Viogniers. In general there was no distinct style amongst the Viogniers and a lot of them were all over the place on the palate. Some were sweet or phenolic or too oily. I tried a few from different regions and producers. Overall I thought the Riverland wines had the most aromatic viogniers, but once again the gold medal wines were all gone. Yalumba is always consistent as well. The Tahbilk viognier was more like a sauvignon blanc with more tropical melon characters. The Little Wine Co Olivine Viognier 2006 was quite nice, but none of the viogniers really stood out.
Then went on the the 2006 Pinot Gris. Once again these all blended in together as many of them were quite similar, but much more consistent quality than the viogniers. The best Pinot Gris I tried was the Henschke Innes Pinot Gris 2006. This was a well balanced tight wine with straw, apple and peach aromatics. The palate had good weight with fine acidity. The Pike and Joyce Pinot Gris 2006 was also quite good.
Overall, the standard level of wines has really lifted in the last few years and there are so many more producers making alternative varieties, but at a much better quality. The same producers are obviously still setting the benchmark though with Pizzini and Henschke always taking out golds for the sangiovese and pinot gris.
I was a bit disappointed I didn't spend more time looking at classes like Durif and Barbera and some of the new stand alone varieties, but I was a bit sick of tasting wine and most of the gold medal wines were gone anyway.

Yarra Valley Tasting

First time I have been to the Yarra Valley and things that stick out is how busy it is! It was frustrating fighting your way to the counter and getting attention.
Pretty disappointed with the wines in general and struggled to find one I liked.
I didn't take any notes and most of this is from memory so vintages and exact label names are all a bit hazy. This isn't a very good account for tasting notes, but more a post just to capture the memory of the day.
Visited Yering Station first and tried a Pinot Gris which was a bit watery and tasted phenolic with a browned apple aftertaste. This might be a bit harsh, but it was not particularly good. The two Pinot Noir wines I tried were also quite poor being a bit green and under ripe with one having a very smokey palate.
The Shiraz Viognier was the best wine I tried there and it was still quite young, but had good fruit weight, intensity and ripeness with a toasty palate. It was their latest release vintage and I think it was the 2004.
Stopped at Domain Chandon for lunch and had the Domaine Chandon Vintage Brut 2003 with our meal of antipasto and morrocan lamb tagine. This sparkling was a bit acidic and steely. It was okay, but nothing special or of interest to me. Did not try any other wines here as I am not the biggest fan of sparklings or at least I am very fussy!
Next stop was Rochford Wines where we tried a Gerwurztraminer and a Pinot Gris. They were probably the best white wines of the day, but again I wasn't that impressed.
The Gerwurzt had some nice herbal and melon aromas and the Pinot Gris was a nice tight style, but still lacked a bit of intensity. More detailed descriptions are a little bit hazy now! I then tried the Macedon Ranges Reserve Pinot Noir 2003 which was quite a big style for a pinot. I didn't like it, but I can't remember the wine anymore! We then had the Yarra Valley Reserve Pinot Noir 2003 which seemed slightly oxidised. It was a new bottle so I don't know if it was a case of it being a crap wine or random bottle oxidation.
Last winery we went to was DeBortoli which had the best wines of the day.
Tried a Yarra Valley Chardonnay which I don't remember the vintage of or much about the wine as I passed it off as not thinking much of it! Then had a Yarra Valley Pinot Noir which was a nice clean wine with sour cherry and some toffee jubiness to it. It was quite a commercial style and was a reasonable wine for $16. Tasted the 2004 Shiraz Viognier which I liked much more than the 2003 which I couldn't stand!
This was the best wine of the day with good fruit, spice and intensity. Then tasted the 2001 Shiraz and 2001 Cabernet. Both were quite good wines and I particularly liked the Cabernet, but I can't remember why now!
Debortoli also had the 1997 Melba Reserve on tasting which was well past it tasting a bit porty.
We then payed $5 for a sticky tasting which included Noble One 2003, 8 yr old Tawny Port, Old Boys Tawny Port and Black Noble. The two wines of note were the Noble One and Black Noble. The Noble One 2003 was very refined with some apricot and marmalade citrus characters. Always a good buy.
The Black Noble was a blend of Pedro Ximinez and botyritised semillion. It was very interesting with aromas of soy, malt, raisins and coffee. It had a very sickly sweet taste. Interesting sticky to try, but a little with some vanilla icecream would probably be as much as I could handle of the sweet syrupness.
We finished the day by visiting the Yarra Valley Diary Farm, but by the time we had walked from the car to the shed/shop/tasting area we felt sick from the smell of cow manure so tasting cheese and wine was the last thing we wanted to do so we went and had a coffee in Yarra Glen instead.