Australia
Mount Majura Tempranillo 2009
A busy week at work last week, perfectly capped off by seeing Blues Explosion at the Espy on Friday night. Great to see these guys in a small venue. Anyway, on to the wine. This wine really stood out at the TempraNeo tasting last year (along with the Mayford), and the thing that attracts me to this wine is that it has personality. Sure, there is a nod to Spain, but this shows firmly individual and unique characters that could only be Mount Majura Tempranillo. This is what we should be doing with Tempranillo in Australia.
Los Hermanos Homenaje a Cataluña 2009
I’ve been a big fan of this project, and I have to say that this is the best wine from the project in it’s short history. It’s a blend of Tempranillo (47% Tempranillo from the King Valley), Mataro/Monastrell (35%), and Grenache/Garnacha (18%, both from Patersons Lakes) aged in 3 year old barrels. As Campbell from The Winefront said in his review, there isn’t a lot of wine made from Mataro or Grenache in Victoria. If this is anything to go by, there should be a hell of a lot more of it.
Los Hermanos ‘Tributo a Galacia’ 2009
If I was going to pick a wine scandal of the year, it would have to be Albarinogate. But there are those out there with the cunning and guile to recover and release something with a great name like ‘A tribute to Galacia’. I loved this label last year, but it seems to go better with the new name.
Mount Majura TSG 2008
Another cracking wine from Mount Majura, this time a blend of Tempranillo (56%) Shiraz (31%) Graciano (13%) aged in older wood. I haven’t seen a lot of Graciano aorund, I’d be interested in seeing what else is being done with this variety here. These kind of blends are really showing potential in Australia, and the resulting show a bit of Spain, a bit of France, but show through very much as Australian. Putting an Aussie stamp onTempranillo can only be a good thing.
Mount Majura Tempranillo 2008
There was a little pile of foam wine mailers in my office when I got back from the US, a couple of bottles from Mouth Majura was stashed away at the bottom. Complete with a hand written note (I haven’t had one of those in years!) from Frank, the winemaker. I’ve had a couple of bottles of this wine, of various vintages, over the years and I’ve always been impressed. But this is taking CanberraTempranillo to another level. Canberra has a couple of features that make it, on paper at least, an ideal proposition for growing Tempranillo: climate and limestone in the soil. There is an old wifes tale in Spain that the best Tempranillo grows in soil rich in limestone…
Los Hermanos Tempranillo 2008
img_4862I’m tight for time at the moment, so I’ve done some quick notes to keep things moving…This is the hermano (brother) wine to the albarino that I had a look at last year. I think this is a great first crack at a the joven style, this looks a little like a joven tempranillo from the warmer climates of Valandapans.
Rusty Fig Verdelho 2008
Now I’m not too sure how closely related Verdejo and Verdelho are, depending on who you talk to they are exactly the same with different names, or they are completely different. The theory that I like is that it started out in North Africa and worked it’s way up to Rueda via Madeira, then mainland Portugal. It makes sense. However, it would appear that the two are so distantly related that DNA sampling shows very little commonality at all according to the 2006 version of the Oxford Companionto Wine. It’s either Spanish or Portuguese, so that’s fine for Tinto y Blanco…
Rusty Fig Albarino 2008
A couple of Aussie whites turned up in the post the other day, an Albarino and a Verdelho from Rusty Fig in Bermagui. I know Bermaguai in Queensland, this one is on the south coast in NSW. I had a look at these on the weekend, they are both really interesting and show plenty of promise. This is the first wine I remember having from this region, so I have nothing smart to say on the climate etc, however these look good.
Los Hermanos Albariño 2008
I don’t drink enough of the local wines made from Spanish or Portuguese varieties. It’s not that I don’t think they’re up to scratch, but I usually have my hands full keeping up with the imported stuff. With the ever dropping dollar, imports are going to get more expensive and wines like this may well fill the hole when most imported Albariños are pushing $35 to $40 bucks a bottle.
Telmo Rodriguez Pago la Jara 2005
This is the top wine from Toro for Telmo Rodruigez and it must be hardest bottle in the world to take a photo of, its a good thing that the wine is bloody good. Toro generally grows big and bold fruit that can handle plenty of oak, so there is always a temptation to bung the wine in loads of new, high toast oak. As a result there are some oak milkshake type wines that come out of Toro, however this wine fruit shows through with great pruity and plenty of earthy, gamey character. There is some expertly handled oak in there too, but it’s aiming for best supporting actor, not the big gong.
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