Saturday, December 27, 2014

Aimery Brut Grane Curvee Cremant de Limoux ...

is a very drinkable champagne, and I'd be comfortable brining it to any party. Chardonnay , Mauzac  (I don't know this grape) and Chenin Blanc ( I love this grape). Matured two years before release. Made in traditional method.

2013 Wills Domain Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

Part of my Christmas 2014 buying. And drinkable. But not very lush. Perhaps will not rush to return to it. 'Delightfully crisp' says the label: yes, but perhaps a little too severe.

Friday, December 26, 2014

2013 Twelve Signs Hill Tops Classic Dry White

So this is a wine from Young, to the near West in NSW, perhaps one of, if not the newest wine area in Oz. The discerning people in the family-run Cellars in Bangalow and Byron and Ballina know what to order in. This is ok/reasonable drinking. What I do not like is not being told the grape variety.

2013 Mitchell Clare Valley Watervale Riesling

Clare Valley, South Australia, and/or Watervale, and then Mitchell: all of these are going to mean excellent Riesling. Mitchell is a winery that has never failed me. I remember sitting once in a restaurant, oh, somewhere in the last two decades of the last century in South Australia, in Rundle Street and having a Mitchell and thinking the same: this is a winery that will never fail me. Mitchell, I think, have a really distinct label, although not necessarily immediately recognisable as such, perhaps because of its grey-silveriness and limited decoration.

2008 Lawson's Dry Hills Marlborough Gerürztraminer

A terrific elegantly spiced but dry Gerürz that you'd happily take to an event to impress with your unusual but distinct taste. Gerürz would then surely have more followers. Very, very drinkable. From Ballina Dan Murphy's. Lawson's, so the label says, is an environmentally aware winery.

2013 Spring Vale Freycinet Coast, Tasmania Pinot Gris

This is a label which looks deliberately aged: from a distance the dripping black paint across the top looks like a tear on paper, the colour of aged paper. The label has a cluster of ye olde nineteenth-century-looking/early white settler images (minus the Indigenous peoples). But I've been looking for years for a pink Tasmanian Pinot Gris that I once had late in the last decade of last century, and I think this is as close as I'm going to get, apart from Victoria's Tar and Roses Pinot Grigio. This is just-so-ever vaguely pink-tinged and, as the label says, very 'moreish'. From the Ballina Dan Murphy's . Something I'd return to.

Friday, December 12, 2014

2013 Mike Press Adelaide Hills Chardonnay

A very light white-gold even lime-tinged colour. A soft, subtle honey-almond on the palate (white stone fruit, the label says). A very drinkable Chardonnay that you'd always be well-respected for bringing to the table.  The palate has length, even though mid-weight. After all, this is a single vineyard, Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, moreover by a winemaker ALWAYS on the pre-eminent Australian wine critic James Halliday's annual list of best Oz whites under $20 – how COULD you go wrong? So when in doubt, and if available, choose this. Simply recognisable in the simple big print of the winemaker's name on the label with first name in the colour of the grape variety.