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.

Pinot Noir Tasting

Chambolle Musigny 2001, Burgundy
This was a lovely light style pinot. It had aromas and flavours of sour cherry and some stalky green characters. It was still very fresh with good length and the aromas just kept flowing as you smelt it.
When I came back to this wine later on it was one of my favourites. The stalky characters had subsided and the wine was very delicate in comparison to the heavier styles with some nice perfume aromas.
$58 wholesale.

Dalrymple Vineyards Pinot Noir 2003, Tasmania
Blackberry, pepper and vanilla aromas with some jubiness. This wine was quite rich and big for a pinot. It seemed a lot like a shiraz and seemed a bit unsettled and all over the place. Nice wine, but undecided as a pinot. RRP $32.

Frogmore Creek Organic Pinot Noir 2004, Tasmania
An organic wine with some raspberry and cherry characters. There was a hint of clove and spice on the aroma. A balanced wine with sharp acidity.
A nice wine, but not outstanding. RRP $32.

Wellington "Hoodies Reserve" Pinot Noir 2002, Tasmania
Black cherry aromas with blackberry and vanilla on the palate. Some stalkiness which became more dominant as the wine opened up. I found this wine too woody from the oak and the green stalkiness dominated the wine once it had been sitting there for awhile. RRP $55.

Stonier Reserve Pinot Noir 2003, Mornington Peninsula
This was my favourite wine of the tasting. It was quite closed at the start, but opened up to be a nice refined wine. The aromas had some clove, sour cherry and barnyard characters. A toasty palate with good length, tannins and acidity.
RRP $60.

Wither Hills Pinot Noir 2003, Marlborough NZ
Sour cherry aroma with some pepper and barnyard, mulchy characters. Palate had good length with raspberry and cherry flavours. A good wine, one of the better wines of the day. RRP $50.

Martinborough Vinyard Pinot Noir 2004, Martinborough NZ
A really crap wine. It was really green. Very methoxy pyrozene like. Someone said it reminded them of rotting green vegetables. RRP $78 (what a joke!).

Nuits St George 1996, Burgundy
Very disappointed that this wine was slightly corked. However, there was still a lot of wine character showing through and it showed potential to be the best wine of the day. Aroma showed sweet perfume with a dry well balanced savoury, smooth palate. Wine was holding up really well and I'd love to be able to try it again hopefully without it being corked!
$58 wholesale.

Kilikanoon Prodigal Grenache 2004, Clare Valley

This wine was really good. It had intense fruit aromas mixed with an almond marzipane aroma and tasted scrumptious. It was 15% alchohol, but the wine was big enough you didn't notice. Would like to get some of this wine, apparently at cellar door it sells for about $24 a bottle.

Bremerton Tamblyn Cabernet Shiraz Malbec Merlot 2003, Langhorn Creek

This wine showed all sorts of different characteristics from the different varieties. There were aromas of dark cherry, blackberry, capsicum, liquorice and olive. The wine was all over the place and didn't seem well integrated which I think is possibly a result of the stelvin closure. The wine has great potential and is excellent value for $13 dollars through the Bremerton Wine Club, but too young and needs some ageing to let the wine integrate and smoothen out more. I will look forward to trying this again in a couple of years.

Commissioner's Block Viognier 2006, Sunraysia

I thought I would put in a plug for a wine my boyfriend made which has just won a trophy at the Riverland Wine Show. Viognier is proving to be a variety that does very well in hot climates and this wine is a great example of that. It has some intense fruit characters and retails for about $10 a bottle so is a fantastic buy.
The 2006 Commissioner's Block Sauvignon Blanc is also great value for money too.

Binder Mitchell Dovetail SGM 2003, South Australia

A blend of shiraz, grenache and mataro (mouvedre). I thought I would mention this wine as it was an interesting example of the use of screw caps on a red wine. Initially this wine was fairly closed and one dimensional. It had some pepper and blueberry aromas and the mataro showed a lot of meatiness on the palate. The tannins were also quite powdery and the palate dominated across the middle. With some air the wine opened up more showing some lovely vanillin oak integration and the palate became smoother showing more balanced fruit. It was an interesting exercise and the wine was quite nice, but probably not as good value as some of the other wines we have bought of Grays Online.

De Bortoli Shiraz Viognier 2003, Yarra Valley

I didn't like this wine. It had too much brett character for me to enjoy so I only had one glass. However, the wine did open up with a bit of air to show more fruit character and Stuart was quite impressed by the wine.

Vignadel Sorbo Fontodi Chianti Classico Reserva 2000

An Italian Sangiovese. This wine had black olive, liquorice and leather characters with a bit of brett which added to the complexity. Unfortunately I hate olives and liquorice so this wine wasn't my cup of tea, but definitely an interesting example of an Italian Chianti.

Ciavarella Oxley Estate White Port, King Valley

Made from verdelho this port had dried apricot, almond and citrus aromas with an intense dried apricot flavour. It was an interesting wine, but very alcoholic and after a few sips I couldn't stomach any more. RRP $18.

Konrad Noble Riesling 2003, Marlborough

A botrytis riesling dessert wine from New Zealand. It was rich and intense with apricot nectar and nectarine flavours and aromas. It was scrumptious, very yummy! RRP $40.

K1 by Geoff Hardy Shiraz 2001, Adelaide Hills

A big fat shiraz. An intense wine with black and white pepper and blackberries. Fine, tight tannins, but slightly green. Reasonable wine.