I have a notebook that I carry with me pretty much everywhere, it contains all sorts of scribbles and ideas and to do lists that unfortunately just don’t ever seem to get completed but it is mainly full of tasting notes from various meetings with reps and trade tastings that I happen to get along to.
These tasting notes always start out very pretty with lovely headings and a format of “Appearance, Nose, Palate” and sometimes even have a score attached. Then as the tasting goes on they become more and more illegible until it’s a mere scrawl, that even I can’t make out, whether I liked the wine or not!!
Quite a waste of time really.
So I thought it would be a good idea to get the tasting notes that I can read, out of the book and into the world!!
Here is a collection of what has passed my lips the last few weeks!
2009 Domaine des Espiers Sablet Cotes du Rhone
This is a recent addition to Bloodwood’s Biodynamic/Organic Wine List. This wine made by Philippe Cartoux, in the Southern Rhone village of Sablet is right next to Gigondas and produces wine of a slightly more elegant quality than its neighbor.
A blend of Grenache (80%) and Syrah (20%) I have found that this wine really needs decanting as there is a certain musty almost brett like quality on the first nose that does blow off with some air contact. After that the nose shows dried herbs and potpourri like dried rose petals with some red fruit hiding there also.
The palate is beautifully balanced with a nice line of acidity and up front tannin structure, I also found black pepper spice and fleshy red fruit!!
A beautiful Cotes du Rhone and I gave it 4 x Kiss from the Mistress xxxx
2009 Marchand and Burch Chardonnay
Tyrone from Howard Park brought this interesting little number around the other day, a joint venture between Jeff Burch and Burgundian wine maker Pascal Marchand. Marchand is a Biodynamic ambassador with over 26 years experience making and growing Pinot Noir in Burgundy and Burch, as we all know is responsible for the Howard Park and Madfish range of wines.
The 09 Marchand and Burch Chardonnay I found to be a very elegant wine with a nose full of cashew nuttiness and hints of lemon rind. The oak was nicely integrated with a generous and creamy mouthfeel and I give it 3 1/2 kisses from the Mistress. Very good indeed.
With the weather starting to get really damn cold all I yearn for at the moment is a big busty Shiraz, so it was quite fitting that on the first day of winter the lovely Nina from Moortangi Estate popped by with her beautiful Heathcote Shiraz. Heathcote in my opinion is a wonderful region for Shiraz. I love the spicy characters that are so prevalent on the nose…. black and white pepper. Yum!!
2005 Moortangi Estate Cambrian Shiraz, Heathcote
It really is great to see a recent release that has some bottle age. I feel that all I ever see these days are 2010 vintage wines, which is fine don’t get me wrong, I just have to comment on a company taking the time to age their wines, just a touch, (to get them to where they want them to be) before selling. I find it pleasing.
The nose of the Moortangi Shiraz came complete with that Heathcote spice that I like so much. Black peppercorns and Cassia bark with some well-rounded dark fruit characters also. The palate showed spice, medium acidity and nice length. It could have been a little more balanced, I found the tannins a little lacking for the amount of acidity but it didn’t worry me too much I still really enjoyed it and have listed it on my wine list and I give it 3 1/2 kisses.
Being a Sommelier, one of the best things about my job is food and wine matching… I love the way it makes you look at wine, the way it makes you de-construct it and look at the individual flavours. It’s also nice to spend time just thinking about food and wine matching. I don’t get to do it enough these days!!
I am planning a Biodynamic Wine dinner at Bloodwood Restaurant in Sydney, in September with the Wine Maker from Higher Plane in Margaret River, Western Australia; so on Friday I sat with Chef Jo Ward and Chris from Vinous and we had a look at the entire range of their wines. Some were OK and some were great. There wasn’t a lot of middle ground with these wines. I either loved it or didn’t.
We started with –
2009 Higher Plane South by South West Semillon Sauvignon Blanc
The nose showed raw almond, citrus and white petals. It kept making me think of ruby grapefruit segments both on the nose and on the palate.
I found lemongrass on the palate with really balanced acidity and nice weight. For the price this is an excellent wine and one of my favourite examples (of this varietal blend) that I have seen for a while. 4 x kisses from the Mistress
2010 Higher Plane Estate Sauvignon Blanc
It is probably not really fair to review this wine yet as it is not released or on the Vinous price list as yet. To be honest I think that is probably a good thing as I didn’t feel this wine was ready at all. I really think it needs a little more time in bottle before we start sticking our noses into it!!
But what I did find was a potential for a fume style Sauvignon Blanc hiding in there. More of a smokey nutty quality than a fruit driven style. At the moment the wine was looking quite bitter, hopefully that will settle down with time.
I’m not going to kiss the Estate Sauvignon as I wouldn’t recommend it just yet.
2010 Higher Plane South by Southwest Chardonnay
The first thing I noticed on the nose was Golden Syrup, rose petals and sea salt. This would go great with food, as the palate really needed some extra flavours to pull what was already there. I found the nose really up front and the palate quite reserved. I would like to match this with Salt Cod Brandade.
The Higher Plane reds were also quite outstanding. I shall write about them soon.
OK kids… that’s enough for today!! I’m going to go find some wine to stick my nose in!!
Kisses MOV xx
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