WINE ... with David Bray
Champagne is beyond me right now. I enjoyed the good stuff when the French companies invited me to sample their product. These days it’s the non-champagnes that come my way, and many of them turn out to be fine, interesting wines.
Yep, bubbles are big and they are no longer based only on the traditional grapes of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier or the well-established favourite in this country, shiraz. Some of the more interesting new arrivals: Delatite Polly sparkling gewürztraminer 2008 ($29) is the second release of what David Ritchie says he is pretty sure is “a wine style unique in Australia’ to Delatite.
If you have an interest in quality white wines you will probably know that this well-regarded family winery produces what is reckoned to be the benchmark aussie gewurztraminer. The ‘06 vintage is being served in Qantas first-class international. The grapes came from Deadman’s Hill vineyard which is also the source of the base for two new wine styles of which Polly is one.
The other is VT gewurztraminer (a dessert wine). Polly comes under a crown seal. It is named for the Ritchie daughter, now 14, who David tells us, when she was a precocious four-year-old, refused his offer to east some grapes because, “Dad, you know I hate pinot”.
Ant Moore Kiki Marlborough sparkling sauvignon blanc 2009 ($19.95) arrives with the maker’s advice that it is “a sexy looking sparkling with some seriously good wine inside . . . the fun new kid on the Marlborough sparkling sauvignon blanc block from Australian winemaker Ant Moore’’. Enthusiastic copywriting asserts that this wine is cheeky and positively brimming with the lively tropical and floral characteristics of traditional Marlborough sauvignon blanc ... offset with the exuberance of a sparkling wine...’’
Kiki is made with fruit from the Ant’s Nest, Pear Tree, Duck & Pheasant Estate vineyards in Marlborough. The final blend incorporates a dash of sweeter wine and five percent of chardonnay which had been aged in new French oak hogsheads to add balance. And who, you may ask, is Ant?
He is a well-known character in the Marlborough winegrowing community and has been making high quality sauvignon blanc in the region for 10 years. He produced Kiki to complement his award winning riesling, pinot noir, pinot gris and sauvignon blanc. Tintilla Estate John Basil sparkling red 2006 ($36) is a quality Hunter Valley version of the festive sparkler that is a long-standing tradition in Australian wine making.
The winemaking team of Robert and James Lusby put their own stamp on the style by creating a wine made mainly from merlot and named after the youngest of the Lusby boys, John Basil. James Lusby explains: “Our 2006 Vintage sparkling merlot reflects the soft, richness of the variety, the red berry, plum fruit comes through with a hint of the Hunter.
“Unlike many sparkling reds, whose second fermentation is carried out in tanks, this wine is made by the traditional method of fermenting the wine in the bottle – locking in extra flavour and delicate floral aromas. Then it ages for three years on the lees in the bottle. A dash of 12 year barrel aged Tintilla liquor shiraz goes in after the wine has been disgorged.” This really is a wine to be drunk now. Fresh and young, it goes well with a wide range of foods and is a ripper party wine.
Yilgarnia NV sparkling shiraz ($36), another methode champenoise red, is a tailored blend of three vintages. The plan is that future releases will be made up of the current vintage plus the previous two vintages.
Yilgarnia Wines & Wildflowers is in the Denmark Region on the south coast of Western Australia. The makers say that to grow quality fruit in their cool climate, yields are limited by pruning and bunch-thinned with minimal irrigation, resulting in a harvest of two tonnes to the acre. For this excellent wine, all fruit was crushed and fermented quickly after picking, matured in French and American oak, hand made in the traditional way.
What emerges is a dark red, aromatic and yielding tastes of fruitcake and black pepper complemented by leathery complexity and savoury yeast autolysis textures. Recommended as a great after dinner drink. Kreglinger brut de blancs 2003 ($58) is 100 percent chardonnay. With its cool maritime (Tasmanian) climate, nutrient rich soils and an ideal aspect, the site from which this wine was sourced is dedicated to the production of quality sparkling wines. And to round things off, here’s a brace of gentle fizzies, each new to a well-established label: Sarantos soft press moscato 2010 ($14.99)
I’ll let its winemaker, Brett Dufin tell you about it: “Our customers want to enjoy the small things in life: relishing time with friends, turning the iphone off and indulging in a good coffee or telling stories over a couple of glasses of wine. Moscato is one of those styles that suits the Australian way of life. It’s fresh an crisp with loads of flavour and a tingling spritz”. It packs a very gentle 5.5 per cent alcohol. Long Flat Pink moscato 2009 ($9.90).
Made in Moscato d’Asti style, this wine has a gentle 6 per cent alcohol, an equally gentle frizzante and the natural fruity, spice aroma and flavour of the muscat grape. A small splash of shiraz gives the wine a soft pink colour and, some say, a “unique dash of raspberry” in addition to the typical varietal characters. The Long Flat red and white moscatos have gone very well and there is no reason to expect the pink not to match their popularity.
