2009 Gentlemen's Agreement Heathcote Viognier; 2011 Bridgewater Mill Adelaide Hills Chardonnay; 2011 Bird in Hand Pinot Rosé; 2012 Airdre.450; Ashton Hills

As a change from the $10-or-under wines from Dan Murphy's in Lismore, I decided to try a random selection for under $15.

The best of this chance choice as a 2009 Gentlemen's Agreement Heathcote Viognier. Viognier for me is the Chardonnay you have when you're not having Chardonnay. It's fruity (apricot-y) and has depth with a warm, creamy mouthful. Oddly enough, when I looked closely at the label, it as a wine made for Dan Murphy's by Bruce Tyrrell. The label perhaps should have been an indication: black print on parchment white, with imitative handwriting on the back.

I picked up a 2011 Bridgewater Mill, Adelaide Hills, Chardonnay thinking it as a Bethany, with a little voice inside telling me that it was cheap for Bethany. Never ignore that little voice. Nevertheless this as a very pleasant, drinkable Chardonnay.

The rest of my chance choices were forgettable, including a more expensive ($20) 2011 Bird in Hand Pinot Rosé which friends had said was good. That little, ignorable voice was telling me they may have meant the sparkling. And one of my sisters was coming to stay, and we usually compete over finding good Rosés. But it was undistinguished.

Taking that sister to Ballina airport meant stopping at Aldi to pick up supplies. The Ballina Aldi has a small liquor outlet. I expected to find exotics like a South African Chenin Blanc, but found a Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills, 2012 Airdre.450, Airdre meaning altitude, for under $5, made for Aldi. This, also, was very drinkable.

I keep chasing what is now a mythic Adelaide Hills Chardonnay made by Ashton Hills, that I drank with my partner and mother and father, not long before my father's death, at the Uraidla Aristologist (once upon a time, too, run by the famous foodies Michael Symons & Jenifer Helliers). If you ever see an Ashton Hills (a rare sight!), do try it: they're delicious, stunning, and unforgettable.

 

 

 

Taylors Vermentino

While this smells of sweet lemon sherbet, it falls away on the palate to something much less exotic. I am used to Vermentio as mid-to full-bodied, and this tastes more like an Australian sav blanc or pinot grigio or reisling.

2011 Danet Gabriel Reserve Pinot Gris

This wine was available at the usually reliable Bangalow Cellars. I hadn't bought from there for a while,  so it was good to see some labels new to me. This is a Canberra district wine: a fabulous pink-tinged pale gold in colour, it smells of unripe strawberries, probably unusual for a pg, so maybe I imagined it. On the palate it tastes of those strawbs mixed with a citrus such as pineapple, so it's pretty morish. $16.99.

2011 Quea!y Mornington Peninsula Pinot Grigio

In this pale, clear, lemon-coloured wine, made by  Kathleen Quealy at Victoria's Balnarring vineyard,  there is sweet pineapple, green pea and nut in the perfume, and an initial sweet palate followed by a lengthy tartness. The winery says there is hay and seashell in the aroma, and brine on the palate. So I am kind of close, with the attempt at identifying something different other than citrus, apple, berry, or stone fruit. I'm excited by the arrival of women winemakers in Oz. Jared, at Clunes Cellars, next to the Clunes General Store, on the NSW far North Coast, knows his stuff, because this was part of the new stock. I was unbelievably glad to see it, given the lack of variation in wine selling in the immediate surrounds. It's the very small, independent  shops that still hold out, with the great secrets of Oz wine-making to be found there. Just over $20.00. A discovery worthy of discussion.

2011 Tinta by KT Tempranillo

I bought this Tempranillo at my local cellars, Clunes, NSW, the selection for which is developed by the eclectic (probably iconoclastic) Jared, the winemaker at the Clunes Cellar, the one with the great judgement skills. KY is Kerri Thompson, and the Temp is smooth as. It is ruby red in colour. There's toasted almonds and some peanut on the nose, with just a drift of deep red rose. On the palate it is so smooth it's hard to believe your drinking a Spanish grape. It would be good ... well, just about any time, with anything. You'd be happy to pay the $23.99 I did for this elegance, this understatement, this enviable wise and knowing sense of balance. You have to search a little for the credentials on the side of the single label that's  a cross between a Rubik's cube and a 1970's advert of differently neon-coloured spots. But the wine is so good, you overlook anything, and even begin to think it's high-art design.It's such a good wine, when you see it (and you've never tried it), buy it and drink it.

2012 Plantagenet Omrah Great Southern Rose

My god, this is a good rose. Complex, with its coupling of sweetness and dryness. It smells of strawberries, vanilla and a hint of something more quirkily medicinal like green kiwi fruit, or perhaps stone fruit like nectarine or peach. It's that wonderful raw salmon pink in colour. In the mouth it might immediately seem sweet, but it's trustworthy, and delivers smoothly into dryness. My sister bought it home from the Centennial Hotel.

2011 Tomich Hill Adelaide Hills Vin Gris Rose

This Rose is a dark, tawny pink salmon in colour. It smells of strawberries and tastes of tomatoes. It's very dry and very savoury. The black labels look impressive against the salmon wine. A smart label, too: Tomich and Hill are co-joined through a long, tall 'i' that goes through the middle of the two names. It is not surprising that such a good Rose is based on Pinot Noir. Nor it is surprising that it is a wild ferment wine produced organically. $22.99 from the Nevana Cellars, Campbell Parade, North Bondi.