Best Bargain

There are a number of candidates for the best ‘classical’ wine bargains in the world.  Sherry and port, the fortifieds are out of fashion now, mainly because of their higher alcoholic content.  Immediately after these must be Sauternes.  These can be truly among the world’s greatest sweet wines, along with German and Tokay wine, says accepted wisdom.  Who am I to argue?

With The Roaders here and a number of lovely wines which they provided all finished, SWMBO and I could only bring out a Sauternes to see off the evening.  The 2007 Ch. Suduiraut Sauternes was perfect for the purpose.  A quiet and small glass of something deliciously decadent.  This in 375 ml bottle, so just enough for a sip for the four of us.  Light golden, the bouquet initially quite lifted, but unveiling layer upon layer of richness, with toffee and caramel, along with wild honey.  The Roadette said beeswax.  Honey and lanolin also.  The palate the same flavours, with and unctuous texture, but enough acid cut to keep it from cloying.  Nectar of course, but with power and strength.  Sure it was a little bottle, but it satisfied in every way.  A very good vintage, and with a future ahead of it.  We must get some more!

Brace of Burgundy

The Roaders came to visit.  We visited them over a year ago, so it was a long overdue get-together.  They are burgundy wine nuts, so of course they shared a brace of bottles with some bottle age on them, and from a pretty good vintage.  One white and one red, and both faring differently, of course.

The 2005 J-P & B Droin Chablis 1er ‘Vaillons’ was full and broad with a voluminous bouquet and mouthfilling palate.  Now a bit oft, and quite rounded, the flavours were strong in presence, but the classical flint.  Is this sea-shell limestone and terroir?  Or winemaker input with lees contact now beginning to grow and possibly swamp the fruit?  Maybe both.  It polarised us, some liking the wine, others not so keen.  I was in the former group, after all the wine is a decade in age now, and such breath and roundness is to be expected.  What about the crisp Chablis expression?  Not there for me, and the loss of the zingy freshness of Chablis of old seems to be symptomatic of climate change, some say.

Much more mysterious was the 2005 Tollot-Beaut Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru, served blind.  SWMBO and I were on the same page: Cote de Beaune rather than Cote de Nuits, and Corton over Volnay and Pommard.  We didn’t know who made it, and SWMBO was correct on the vintage of 2005, I guessed 1999.  Some browning, but very elegant, with some secondary, savoury complexities.  Beautifully fine acidity, and the tannins growing on the palate to show its class and grand cru status.  There’s no hurry with this one, for sure.  We were all happy with this…

Bundling Gruner from Brundlmayer

What do you do when you visit people who give you wine?  Give them some wine back, of course.  We ventured over the hill to visit Lazza and Kava, who plied us with plenty of wines from barrels.  It was a real treat, so we found it easy to share some different wines with them.

 

There’s a group of Austrian vineyards that are being single out as particularly good.  Besides the Kamptal DAC Reserve classification, top producer Brundlmayer has sites with the 1OTW moniker, these being Premier Cru vineyards.  It was fun and eye-opening to be able to try two.  The 2013 Brundlmayer Kammerner ‘Lamm’ 1OTW Gruner Veltliner DAC Reserve instantly surprised with its exotic tropical fruit aroma, revealing wonderfully aromatic pineapple and yellow stonefruit notes.  Quite dry on palate, the fruit lusciousness made it seem sweet and decadent.  This just unfolded richness and layers of flavour, building in refined textures.  A hint of oak emerged.  The mouthfeel of the wine took over as the focus.  Finishing dry but with exotic nuances, this was an eye-opener for us.   

Then the 2013 Brundlmayer Langenloiser ‘Kaferberg’ 1OTW Gruner Veltliner DAC Reserve.  A different beast to the Lamm, showing the influence of the site and its soils.  A full, stronger and bolder wine with oxidative handling, still exotic stonefruits, but nutty notes, and more textural and fuller and firmer in palate presence.  Not only nutty, but with herbal notes as well as the exotic fruits.  Laters of complex interactions here.  I suspect the ‘Lamm’ would entice the drinker and the ‘Kaferberg’ draw in the winemaker.  However, we were fascinated by both.

Rustic and Tertiary

We’ve been holding onto a wine to share with The Young One for a number of years.  No, it’s not the year of his birth, or anything particularly special, except the label shares his name, and the wine has been highly rated.  The Young One now resides in another city, but he came home for a few days, and it was appropriate to bring out the bottle, open it and share it.

The 1998 Oliver’s Taranga McLaren Vale Shiraz was made from old vines, and by all accounts was a typical McLaren Vale fruit bomb with sweetness and ripeness.  That was in its younger days of course.  Now with nearly two decades on it, it could be assumed to have developed somewhat.  And it had.  Still very dark in colour, but now with brick and orange, the wine opened with immense volume and presence on the nose and palate.  The initial fruit expression was of ripe dark red and black plums with liquorice and chocolate.  This was a good start.  Very sweet and ripe on the palate, and again promising for it.  Then slowly, but surely the tertiary characters became more prominent.  Savoury and cooked fruits entwined with earth and undergrowth.  What was rich and lush began turning into soupy.  What was plush began to move into coarse, funky and then grubby.  This wasn’t decrepit by any means, but it became rustic.  The wine had its supporters for sure, but SWMBO and I became less than enamoured, even though it bore The Young One’s name.  The Young One, ever so diplomatic, said he thought it interesting in a good way.  Bless him.       

Youthfully Firm

The 2014 vintage in Germany is yet another good one, say all the official press releases.  We all know how positive these reports ‘must’ be.  Some do mention the rainy period before harvest, and the more accurate reports say early varieties and those who waited for the grapes to fully ripen after the wet weather were successful.  Experience counts for loads, so Donnhoff in the Nahe could be expected to have smart results no matter what.  It’s ‘who’ that counts, as always.

After the previous post on the ‘harder’ nature of the 2014 Donnhoff Grauburgunder Trocken, we needed to remind ourselves of the Donnhoff wines as we’ve come to know them, as I feared that styles could change, especially with the embracing of dry German wine expression.  So it was a good excuse to open the 2014 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese.  SWMBO was delighted, as we do love the ‘traditional’ pradikat wines made by Donnhoff.   With the wine served a little too cold, my first impression was “oh no, very firm!”  But as the wine warmed up, it unveiled much more of its personality.  Beautifullly aromatic floral, lime, stonefruit and honeysuckle flavours, growing in intensity and richness as the bottle went down.  It was painfully obvious this was opened 5 years or a decade too early.  Still tightly bound, and the potential array of flavours still locked up.  Yet this was delicious, even at this youthfully firm stage.  Texturally fine-grained and indeed soft.  Not hard.  The tightness, firmness and harder nature of the Grauburgunder and this Spatlese could be vintage related?  And/or youthful in nature.  We are still immensely respectful of this producer.    

Hard and Soft

These two descriptors of state have both positive and negative connotations.  It’s the context that determines which applies.  For me, I like wines with sufficient firmness to give them body, structure and line.  I tend to dislike wines that are soft, broad and flabby as their amorphous character makes them boring and flat.  So it may seem ‘hard’ is the preferred.  But in practical terms, the food is the context, and even then it’s what kind of food too.

Making us think about this were two dry German wines.  The 2014 Donnhoff Grauburgunder Trocken was on the firmer side.  Certainly not plush and rich as Alsace Pinot Gris has moved towards.  And not like the gentle, aromatic and easy New World New Zealand examples.  Nor like the crisp, refreshing linear and taut Pinot Grigio style as epitomised by north eastern Italians.  This was clean, clear and driven, with depth and a hard core, plus 12.0% alc..  Austere white stonefruits and not the aromatic guile the variety can have.  And acidity melded into the body, adding to its tightness.  SWMBO and The Young One enjoyed this, but I couldn’t get into it.  Food definitely needed here.  This surprised me, as usually I love the Donnhoff wines from the Nahe.

More to my liking was the 2014 Wittmann Schuerebe Trocken.  This was soft, rounded and mellow on nose and palate.  Richness and mouthfilling flavours of yellow florals and stonefruits, with the soft, aromatic earthiness of the Rheinhessen.  Also 12.0% alc, but seeming lighter on its feet.  Usually, I find the Wittman wines could benefit from a little more acid bite and some more linearity.  But I do love their breadth of flavours that form a complex amalgam that just grows and grows.  That’s why they’re so highly regarded, but for me maybe a bit too soft, generally.  It may be the regionality peaking too?  But with this, it all seemed ideal.  Drink it on its own and with any sort of accompaniment, it appeared to be at ease with itself.

Lessons to be learned?  Keeping an open mind and taking the wines as they come.  They can surprise you, and you can surprise yourself.  

  

One of a Kind

I was going to title this post ‘Unique’.  But it’s too complicated a word for me, and it seems over-used nowadays.  But on thinking about it, ‘unique’ is correct.  There’s really nothing like Sparkling Shiraz.  The Aussies have perfected it over the decades, and they make it in easy and accessible to complex and ageworthy styles that just confound your mind.  It’s a style of wine that they say can go with a multitude of foods and situations, and serve it so, just to prove a point.  And the times I’ve drunk it in such varied scenarios – well, it just works and is delicious.

Hazza had a rather special one, the 2004 Seppelt ‘Show Sparkling’ ‘Limited Release Sparkling Shiraz’ Release September 2013.  From the great Great Western winery, home of so many stunning sparklings.  It was to be served with the turkey, but we had it before, during and after, it didn’t miss a beat or look awkward at any time.  A dark coloured wine, with some age appearing, this was absolutely seamless on nose and palate, but the concentration and core quite sensational.  It’s this integration and smoothness that made it top class.  Along with the gradual and unfolding detail of complexity of savoury, gamey, earthy and secondary undergrowth layers.  Yet the wine remained sweet and youthful throughout.  No autolytic boldness here, and no obvious oaking – as I’ve been told the style must show.  Gorgeous textures, the effervescence just melding in with the fruit extract.  This was so easy to see the bottom of the bottle, as in all great wines, but a little awareness was rewarded with seeing the greatness.