Valminor Davila 2004

I've been looking for some new white wines from Spain, so I ordered this in. It's Valminor's upscale wine from Rias Brixas, made from 55% Albarino and two other local grape varitaties, loureiro (30%) and treixadura (15%).  I'd never heard of them either, but this blend makes for a very interesting wine. The packaging is quite [...]

Cillar de Silos Joven 2005

Unoaked Joven wines like this really show the quality of a vintage and from the couple of 05 jovens I've seen so far, it looks like 2005 will be a very good year indeed.  This has got to be the best joven wine I've ever had, so full of ripe fruit but with good acid and [...]

Pondalowie MT Tempranillo 2005

I thought I had the latest release with the 04MT, but those clever people at Pandalowie have already put out the 05 MT.  Of course I had to have a look at it straight away… Quite different in style to the 04, a lot less of the cola/sarsaparilla aspects but beautiful, silky tannins that give [...]

Vega Sicilia Dinner

I went to a great event hosted by Randalls and Negociants on Thursday the 27th with almost the entire Vega Sicilia team. The guys had been ensconced in the big private room out the back of the Botanical on Domain Rd, South Melbourne. To start with, the food was outstanding, a fantastic egg and truffle dish and a glorious beef cheek dish where the highlights for me. The service was also excellent, professional and friendly.

But really the main focus here was the almost complete range of wines produced by Vega Sicilia, Pintia, Alion, Valbuena and Uncio. Plus two Tokaji wines form their estate in Hungry. The only wine missing was Unico Reserva Especial.

Martinez Bujanda Conde de Valdemar Crianza 2002

The 01 of this wine was pretty good, if a bit daggy in the packaging stakes.  For the 02, looks like the marketing guys got a bit more in the budget and could flash things up a bit.  Given the huge differences in vintage conditions, 01 is seen as the "perfect" vintage and 02 was [...]

Valminor Albarino 2005

Traditionally wines from this region are drunk fairly quickly after fermentation.  This wine is out to distribution about 40-60 days after picking.  This is starting to change now with some producers leaving the wines in storage for a year after bottling, many wine critics agree with this saying that the wines are much better for it.  I don't [...]

Valenciso Reserva 2001

Valenciso is a modern operation that was founded about 15 years ago. They produce just this one wine, the Reserva, from old, low yielding tempranillo vines.  The oak treatment is a light touch approach, a mix of 75% French and 25% American oak, one third new each year.  The wine is styled after traditional Rioja [...]

McHenry Hohnen Tiger Country 2004

This is a venture by David Hohnen and Murray McHenry.  Murry is an ex wine retailer, David was the winemaker at Cape Mentelle for many years.  David also has an organic pig farm from what I hear; the guy must have some Spanish heritage to grow Tempranillo and raise pigs for a living! Deep red [...]

Palacios Remondo La Vendimia 2004

A joven style from Rioja Baja, very different from the Pondalowie I had before it. It's 100% Tempranillo, but compared to the Pondalowie, this one is much lighter and rounded.  You could drink a lot of this, its fresh fruity and lovely. Rioja baja is lot warmer than Rioja alta. Its only a 30 minute drive between the two, [...]

Pondalowie MT Tempranillo 2004

I think there is a big future for Tempranillo in Australia.  I bet this is not the first time you've heard that, but its wines like this that make you think "why aren't people planting this stuff like crazy?"  Oh yeah, that huge over-supply thing.  Regardless of all that, in 10 to 20 years time, [...]