2012 Rowanston On the Track Heathcote Viognier

It was good to see a straight Viognier in a bottle shop. But this was disappointing. Cheapish, but watery like a watered-down Chardonnay. Pale in colour too. Was I getting confused with Vermentino? As I write this up, I noticed it is a Heathcote wine.  Heathcote is terrific for Rose, but I've yet to come upon another good varietal for the region. 'Winemakers John and Marilyn Frederiksen operate this small family vineyard and winery  on the famous Burke and Wills Track'. It could do with a better label. In plane green and white it looks a little no-brandish. But as I look seriously again, the image is doubled: green for potentially a drop of wine, and that drop shape forming a female's breasts/cleavage: was this intended? I think not, as the colours are not sensuous.

Mirabeau en Provence 2015

Mirabeau en Provence 2015, made by an Australian couple gone France-ward. Syrah and Grenache based, it’s a pale but bronzed pink with a jube-ish smell of vanilla, strawberries, and cream and a dry palate. It has been a gold winner at the International Wine Challenge. On the label, and the cap top, birds flutter over a vine, possibly mimicking common shapes, but normally you’d not want birds with grape vines!

The Lane Vineyard Block 2 Adelaide Hills Pinot Gris

The Lane Vineyard Block 2 Adelaide Hills Pinot Gris. It’s pale in colour, with a hint of pink tinge in its yellowness, a beautiful perfume of barely there musk and pineapple, and subtle sweet pea. There’s a sense of fizz/sugar-spun in the mouth like a waterfall, river run, froth and swirl. It would be a good slow-drinking wine with friends in summer in a hotel garden or by the sea. ‘Drink it in’ says the label. And I think that. At the bottom of that label, there’s a little square of the latter two numbers of the year in silver.

Treasury Wine estates Truvée wines

Treasury Wine estates Truvée wines are created by women. The two very drinkable varieties are the South-Eastern Oz Grenach/Syrah Rosé and Pinot Gris. The Rosé is watery blood in colour, with a mixed perfume of red-ant dreaming, vanilla and red jube, and a long, dry palate of tomato and tart orange. You’re sure to return to the pale, aromatic Pinot Gris with lightly salted nuts on the palate. But the label strikes me as annoyingly lace-doily-ish.  

2015 Ta_Ku Sauvignon Blanc Pink

2015 Ta_Ku Sauvignon Blanc Pink. Thus, it proudly labels itself pink, features a glossed-pink Kiwi, and a tag label proclaiming loudly and anxiously that it is ‘not sweet’ but rather ‘crisp and fresh’. Of the two that I have tried so far, the Tori Tori is the better, with a more sensuous palate.

Coté Mas Sud de France

Coté Mas Sud de France, from Langudedoc or South of France, via winemaker Jean-Claude Mas (you may recognise Paul Mas as a label on cheap French wines in Oz). It’s a mixture of Grenache Blanc, Vermentino, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Never give up the chance to drink a Grenache Blanc, one of those great delicious grapes around, but not often enough in Oz. However, there are two more Grenache Blanc blends in Northern Rivers’ bottle shops: Fontanet Pays d'Oc Les Terrasses white (Grenache Blanc, Colombard and Sav Blanc) and Torres Viña Sol white of Paralleda and Grenache Blanc.

2016 Two's Company Evans and Tate Sav Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay

Evans and Tate, whose wines I have kept way from because in the past I remember headaches accompanying them, currently have a cheapie 2016 Two's Company of Sav Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay. Though I think that a sure-fire recipe for success is single vineyard, single variety (matched to place) and wild ferment, nevertheless I do like Semillon Chardonnay (now truly very difficult to get, even though it was supposedly an Oz wine staple) and this E&T mix which is a good quaffer, much better than a Sav Blanc on its own (unless, of course, it’s Shaw & Smith or Cloudy Bay or the pink Toi Toi Marlbourough Hidden Treasure sauvignon (to which Pinot Noir is added)). (I do also clearly like parentheses.) Though shouldn’t the E&T be called Ménage à Trois?

2016 Amato 2016 Amato Vino Bianco Riverland Fiano, Slankamenka Bela and Tinta Berocca,

A rare find in the Northern Rivers bottle shops is Fiano. There are about two Fianos available on occasion, and perhaps a third in a restaurant. Another is the 2016 Amato Vino Bianco Riverland Fiano, Slankamenka Bela and Tinta Berocca, the second grape being an ‘ancient variety from the Balkans’ and the third a Portuguese red-wine grape. A fan on the web says ‘Brad Wehr’s Amato Vino label is equal parts traditional and experimental’. The blending has made it un-Fiano-like. It has little perfume – nut if anything, and it’s relatively clean on the all-front palate, with some creamy texture and melon, pine, honey and a little pear and white nectarine. The bottle’s screw cap is emblemed with a metallic V. Have this Fiano blend on the beach or with cerviche or cheese, perhaps some fried food or toasted bruschetta with oil and garlic – something to balance it out.

2015 Wild Thing Lisa McGuigan Hunter Valley Semillon

 The 2015 Wild Thing Lisa McGuigan Hunter Valley Semillon. While clearly labelled wild yeast, its text on the back of the bottle reads ambiguously: ‘A natural wine is ideally unfiltered, unfined and unsulphured. This semillon is the most natural wine I can make.’ Does that mean it isn’t unfiltered, unfined and unsulphured? Its clear colour would suggest it isn’t.

2015 Shobbrook Barossa Sammion

I would so love to think ‘natural’ wine is just fine. I understand, and love, wild ferment. What I don’t understand is unfining/unfiltering which makes the wine a cloudy yellow/on-occasion-orange. ‘If that bothers you,’ says the cheeky website of Shobbrook, apparently the home of natural wine in Australia, Tom Shobbrook being its ‘father’, ‘then you could always drink in the dark’. Just to be equally pernickety, the 2015 Shobbrook Barossa Sammion does not say what it is. I’ll take a wild guess, and say it’s Semillon. Fizzes it does, which is the first thing you can say. Its perfume makes you think of raw silk or maybe of the word crocus, maybe of the word lime. On the palate it could be a lime fizz, which does not say much about the grape-for-adults that is Semillon. But then maybe this is a winemaker who has made Semillon child-like. This would be a wine to have with fish or prawns, but not oysters, even though it is champagne-like. For Northern Riverites, it is favorably ‘made by hand from organic and biodynamically grown fruit’. Its label is grey, textured paper with running writing in a lighter grey: title only on the front of the bottle.

2015 Highroller SA Reserve Riesling

The 2015 Highroller SA Reserve Riesling is as good as a Clare Valley. Neither the bottle nor the website says where in SA (it could be Clare Valley, but, because that isn't stated, it is more likely to be the Riverland), but it is single vineyard, which usually contributes to quality. It's very, very drinkable and cheap. Highroller is one the labels of Byrne wines. Peter Gajewski (who had worked for Penfolds) and Phil Reedman (one of only 315 Masters of Wine worldwide) are the winemakers.

2016 Matua Lands and Legends Marlborough Pinot Noir Rosé

Yet another very drink-downable Rosé is the 2016 Matua Lands and Legends Marlborough Pinot Noir Rosé in a gorgeous bronze pink, with a creamy, dry palate. Several pink wines are coming rapidly out of New Zealand.

2016 Smallfry Barossa Rose

The 2016 Smallfry Barossa Rose is made from Cinsault, Grenache and Mataro. Suzi Hilder and Wayne Ahrens are the winemakers. It's an odd label, with the name on the side, but it has a softly beautiful image of something like a pale pink water lily. Blood orange in colour, it has a roasted chicken aroma or it's musky or cotton/linen-ish, with a very smooth, vanilla velvet or jam light-to-medium palate. Again, a very drinkable wine

2016 De Bortoli Sacred Hill Rosé

The 2016 De Bortoli Sacred Hill Rosé is very cheap. Bronze-pink in colour, its perfume is milky, ripe strawberry and dusky, damask rose. The palate is dry with a sweet twist. A little watery, but what can you expect for the price?

2016 Tempus Two Rosé

The 2016 Tempus Two Rosé is bronze pink in colour, has, again, the strawberries and cream perfume, a dry palate, a very subtle touch of sweetness, and is a very good drinking Rosé that I would order if the only Rosé on the menu. I do wish they would put the grape on the label (and I find the website impossible to get into.).