Going Green

 Going green is a good thing nowadays as we respect the environment, but there’s the negative connotation with unripe fruit.  It’s hard to tell how green that something green starts out on the edge will turn out.  It may take a decade or two of experience and learning to get it right.  I’m still not sure if I can make the correct calls.  Way back, around two decades ago two wines presented themselves to me, and we discovered if the right decision was made
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At a super judging competition that I was involved in at the time, I tasted the 1991 Glover’s Moutere Cabernet Sauvignon.  I still remember at the time, it was black as black and massive.  The greatest extraction and tannin I’d seen in a wine of its type.  It was black fruited and absolutely linear and monolithic.  In the competition, I reckon they discarded it because it was too tough and out of balance.  I saw potential and reckoned it needed 20 years of cellaring.

 

Well, time was up.  We had the Gass-Man in town, and he described it well.  Still very dark, nearly black.  Pea-shoots galore.  Yes, too herbaceous.  The tannins had resolved, but there was still some way to go.  High, almost searing acidity.  I could live with that.  But the greens!  We’ve come a long way since then, and the herbaceousness was too much.  Its 12.5% alcohol might have been a giveaway

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In the tiny settlement of Martinborough, Bill Benfield and Sue Delamare were doing it differently.  Most people said Pinot Noir.  They stick to Bordeaux varieties.  Then came Mt Pinatubo, and the cool 1992 and 1993 years sealed the Bordeaux varietal’s fate.  Most other replaced the varieties to Pinot Noir.  Not Bill and Sue, they stuck it out ‘til 2006.  At the time, I picked the 1991 Benfield & Delamare Martinborough Cabernet/Merlot/Franc as very claret-like.  It too was a dark beast, with with elegant acid, and definite blackcurrant flavours.  Not as tannic as the Glovers, still significant.  Many people thought I was making a wrong choice.

Time to drink this one too, to pair with the Glover’s.  Lighter in colour, with more savoury berry, earth and undergrowth notes.  Fine tannins and balanced acidity.  A little plain at first.  Then SWMBO picked up more nuance.  The Gass-Man and I agreed.  Layers of detail emerged.  It became sweeter.  It was very claret like, and I’d imagine a 1989 Margaux or St Julien might not be dissimilar.  This hadn’t gone green.  Lovely.  A decision well made.  Maybe I was lucky, as the alcohol on the label said 12.5%.

Red Wine Markers

The P-Prince has a preference in red wines, but we know he’s open to trying all sorts.  It’s just a matter of opportunities, and he has different ones to us.  We have the access to styles he doesn’t  and never did cellar, so it was a pleasure to open a couple of these markers for SWMBO and I on our vinous journey.  Interestingly enough, we all tended to agree on their condition and status, with respect to how much our industry has advanced.

The first of the markers was a 2005 Te Mata ‘Coleraine’, a great year in Hawke’s Bay, and a great vintage for the Te Mata team.  Regarded as a classic by them, and easy to see why.  Dark in colour, and still very fresh with mainly primary aromas and flavours of blackcurrants, with a suggestion of savoury olives and plums.  Plenty of tannin grip and structure, moderated by fruit sweetness and a line of acidity.  A decade ahead of it.  Looking critically, this is not as dark and ripe as the wonder wines coming out of the region.  The Coleraine looks positively cool, with hints of leaf, and the acidity sticking out.  The Brits would say ‘classic claret’ and the Aussies swoon.  The Americans and avante garde Kiwis would deem it less than ideally ripe.  We all enjoyed it, noting and marking these points.

The other was the 1991 Esk Valley ‘The Terraces’, a blend of Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, from the sun-trap hillside behind the winery.  The first of the line and a special wine in its day, pushing the other Bordeaux varieties ahead of Cabernet.  Its plumminess and ripeness the feature.  This bottle over two decades later, still dark and deep, but with bricking.  Rich flavours of savoury plums, dried herbs, cedar and soy sauce, along with a subtle green line.  But also noticeable acidity ahead of the tannin extract, which was becoming resolved.  In today’s terms, certainly not ripe enough.  But easy to drink, especially knowing we were drinking history and a marker for the industry.       

As Expected and More

Sometimes you look at a label and you know exactly what it’s going to give you.  And if you’re lucky, you get a bit more than what you might expect.  It’s a pleasure when that happens.  You’re happy because you receive all you’d ask for and then a little more.  A nice treat for the day.  Our friend the P-Prince brought along a box of wine, and there were two disasters on opening.  His previous experience was that they’d passed their ‘use by date’.  And sure enough, they had.  He’d been hoping they might be better, but alas no, and they were as he thought they might be.

Then onto the next two whites.  His contribution was a 2010 Hubert Lamy Sainr Aubin 1er ‘Clos de la Chateniere’.  Lamy is based in Saint Aubin, but it ain’t the most prestigious place for white burgundy.  ‘Also-ran’ might be an apt descriptor, or ‘poor man’s Puligny’.  However things are on the up there, and some smart wines are being made there nowadays.  Our thoughts – it could be better than expected, and sure enough it was.  Much better.  Rich and fat, with body and depth.  More Meursault-like, and delicious with white florals, nuts and a hint of creaminess.  The bottle didn’t last long, especially with SWMBO in raptures.

Then a 2011 Salomon Undhof ‘Wieden & Berg’ ‘Tradition’ Gruner Veltliner from Kremstal.  Gruners can be straightforward or really complex.  Unless you go to the higher levels and specifics, GV is usually the former.  This Salomon has the reputation of very smart straightforward.  And indeed it was.  But as you drank it, the classic herb, pepper and waxiness grew and the textures from the phenolics became the feature.  This is the sort of stuff many people strive to achieve, and here it is, all apparent quite naturally.  It delivered more than expected.    

The Continuum

We have an on-going relationship with The Eventress and The Old Salt.  It continues to flourish with irregular and infrequent, but positive get-togethers.  The last time was a dinner, and this time they were on a journey from one end of the country to the other, calling in on us, as they continued with their travel.  I’m sure their lives have all types of flavours, but essentially they working and having fun, so it’s a good flavour.

The analogy to two Shiraz/Syrah wines was very obvious.  We all seem to love the Shiraz/Syrah grape when it is dome properly, and are happy to accept the differences in style, especially when climate has a say in how the wine tastes.  There is a continuum of aromas and flavours that is a family, and all the wines along it bear a basic and core resemblance.  Taking a wine from one far end, say cool-climate and comparing it to the polar opposite, from a very hot region, and allowing vintage conditions have a say, one could easily think there was no similarity.

Our dinner had two such wines.  The cool was the 2006 Te Mata ‘Bullnose’ Hawke’s Bay Syrah.  Very elegant and extremely aromatic. Perfumes with pepper and spices, and silky smooth on the palate with lovely fresh mouthfeel from the acidity.  The penetrating aromas and flavours were certainly the feature.  Deliciously fine stuff!  And alongside it, a 2008 Penfolds ‘Bin 150’ Marananga Barossa Valley Shiraz.  Ultra dark, ripe and densely concentrated,  Black fruits with liquorice and spices, with chocolate, and masses of weight and texture.  Sweet and lush, and very mouthfilling.  There was a spice and pepper theme, albeit different in expression.  One refreshingly light, the other heavy and sweet.  Both satisfying and both great to drink.  

Expectations Altered

It is easy to let expectations rule the mind and prejudice your impressions.  The ‘V Man’ brought along a 2011 Vigneau-Chevreau Vouvray Demi-Sec ‘Clos de Vaux’ for dinner.  My last couple of experiences of 2011 Vouvray were a bit disappointing, even though the reports are that it is better than the 2010, examples of which I seemed to enjoy.  I haven’t see Vigneau-Chevreau before, though my research said it was a “producer of note”, and there were no notes on them.  So I wasn’t expecting too much.  Where the ‘V Man’ sourced it from wasn’t a place of great provenance.  The odds were against it.

On opening the bottle, the‘Magic Man’ said it was a good example that would drink well earlier in its life.  He’s a man with lots of experience in such things, so I took it on board, with a grain of salt, of course.  First impressions were that it was light, a bit plain, and somewhat thin.  Sure some sugar was there, a little honeysuckle, and fine, sinewy reduction.  It was as I expected it to be.  Or was I programmed to see what I was told I should see?

With a little more time in the glass, it got richer, sweeter, and more complete with fruit depth and harmony.  Lovely tingling and dancing acidity, some yellow stonefruits, honey rather than honeysuckle, and a smooth, seamless texture with a hint of lusciousness.  Don’t get me wrong, it hadn’t changed dramatically, only subtly, but definitely in the right direction.  SWMBO and the ‘V Man’ had grins on their faces as they saw my expectations altered.   

Settled Aussies

 There’s a lot of talk in and about the Aussie wine industry and the styles that are made.  It seems that elegance and finesse is becoming the only place to be, and the traditional wines of old are less desirable by the world.  That’d be a shame as the good old fashioned wines have their place in the world.  Sure the styles are gradually evolving and better wines the result.  But I reckon it’s good to be inclusive and each style for what it is.  The Aussies are going through a bit of a tough time in their wine life, and they’ve got to get to a position of being more comfortable with themselves.  Then the world will accept them more so.

We finally caught up with our Little Aussie Battler after a little break.  She’d worked through some life turmoil too, and she’s in a really good space.  We missed a significant event by a few days, so we were in catch up mode.  We celebrated with some Aussie wines very much settled in themselves, as she was

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One of my favourites and a classic, a 2006 Penfolds ‘Bin 389’ Cabernet Shiraz.  A baby by all means, even though it has seven years of age.  Black hearted in colour and character, packed full of dense fruit and sweetness, perfectly moderated by fine, dry tannins.  More Shiraz than Cabernet tonight with spices and a black pepper line.  Still tight, but oozing fruit lusciousness in the glass.  Nice integrated oaking, but definitely there.  Baby Grange?  Quite possibly, and this will keep another 20+ years, maybe even longer.  A match with the venison.

Then a birth year wine, for the Battler and one year older than Donski.  A 1972 Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon.  Still dark ruby at the heart of the glass with some garnet/bricking on edge.  Wonderful nose, still fresh with lovely cedary fruit aromas, soft red currants, and a whisker of resinous oak.  No green, no stalkiness, no animal funkiness.  Clean as a whistle.  Still commanding presence on the palate, but the tannins resolved.  Cedar and resin again, the mouthfeel soft and dry, but not drying or dried out.  A little more fruit sweetness and length would make it a super star instead of just a near star.  A treat to see a wine in its fourth decade.

Two Sides

There’s two sides to every story they say, and my lazy impression is that Italian whites are a bit bland and flavourless.  Well, in comparison to the flavour-packed whites we see in the New World.  It’s easy to be biased in favour of flavour, but there’s a lot more to wine, and cleanliness, precision, cut and quenchability have a large say in seeing how a wine can work in with food and life.  A pair of Tuscan whites made the point pretty clear.  And they show how the Italian’s can foot it with the New World.

Firstly the traditional.  A 2012 Castello Banfi ‘San Angelo’ Toscana Pinot Grigio, pristine and pure, pretty much bone dry, with subtle stonefruits, nuts and herbs.  Refreshing and mouthwatering.  You might as “where’s the flavour” if you were on a diet of Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc, but it is there and is judged perfectly if you are sipping away, quietly.  Finesse with cut.

Then the innovative.  The New World is discovering Vermentino, but the Italians have had it as a staple.  It suits the modern world, because it can be so up-front and fruity.  And it was with a 2012 Banfi ‘La Pettegola’ Toscana Vermentino.  Exotic florals mixed with herbs.  In your face in aroma and flavour, but balanced by freshness, raciness and a clean, crisp finish.  It offers the taste for flavour seekers, but the palate for those who need the food-friendly cut and dryness.