Words from a Wine Glass

Years ago I watched a show called Wine Lovers Guide to Australia.  On one of the episodes, Bob, Wendy and Susie Roberts, the original owners of Huntington Estate, were interviewed by Grant van Every and presented some of their wines for tasting.  You could tell just how proud the Roberts’ were of their wines.  I can’t remember which of the older wines they presented but van Every was mighty impressed with how they had cellared.

If you head to the website you will see photos of Tim and Nicky Stevens, the current owners, and the rest of the Huntington Estate crew.  I couldn’t help but notice they are also proud as punch.

Lovely, ripe dark fruits are unmistakable from smelling it to tasting it.  Palate pleasing plum flavours do their bit to balance out the sweet/savoury notes and slightly dusty drying tannins.  It’s up there in the alcohol stakes but it didn’t interfere with the wines lushness and drinkability.  That should tell you just how nicely balanced this wine is.

This ain’t no wallflower let me tell you.  Yes it’s big, bold, brash and bountiful in what it presents but it’s not over the top at all.  I’m not saying it is elegant either but it has benefited from a few years of bottle age for sure.  It paired very well with a perfectly cooked scotch fillet steak.  Loved it!!

huntingtonestate.com.au

Region: Mudgee, NSW     Price: $36     Source: Sample courtesy of Define Wine

Second born child.  The poor cousin.  The second in line for the throne.  Shiraz in Coonawarra.  Every one of these seems to sit behind the ‘other one’ getting the attention and usually not justified.

How cool is it that something comes along to change the landscape and move people’s thinking away from the mainstream in a sensible yet dramatic way from the presentation to the contents.  This Penley Estate Wild Ferment Coonawarra Shiraz sits in this interpretation perfectly.

It’s fresh, vibrant and designed to excite from the get-go.  Red fruits and cherries give it the ‘more front than Myer’ character from the start and it doesn’t let go.  Tannins don’t interfere one iota because they realise what this wine is all about.  Generosity is the punter’s friend here.

penley.com.au

Region: Coonawarra, SA     Price: $35     Source: Sample courtesy of Wine Brands

Many years ago I worked in a land far, far away.  Not really but it may well have been.  A place called Queenstown on the West Coast of Tasmania and, if you know the place, you’ll understand what I mean by far, far away.  Where is this headed?  This is not the place I expected to have my first experience of Huntington Estate Shiraz.  No, it wasn’t available in the town, it just so happened some friends from Dubbo visited and brought a bottle with them.  It impressed me enough that I gave them some money and they sent some back to me when they returned home.

I was pretty excited when this arrived on my doorstep.  Although I can’t remember what the first wine of theirs I tasted was like, I knew with the current reputation Huntington Estate had, this was bound to be a good drop.

A terrific deep colour in the glass, it promised heaps.  It was a bit shy to start with, the aromas taking their time to come out (decanting recommended) but when they did, vualá!  Lovely, juicy black fruits and plums on the palate were no suprise after the nose revealed itself and then everything seemed to move up a notch.  It just seemed to open up and show its class the more I swirled it in the glass.  Very friendly tannins contribute to good length on the finish of this full bodied and dead-set honest shiraz.

huntingtonestate.com.au

Region: Mudgee, NSW     Price: $26 (Cheap!)     Source: Sample

I’m a sucker for tradition.  I’m a sucker for nostalgia.  I’m a sucker for a good red wine.  Put all these ‘suckers’ together and I am THAT kid in the candy store.  This wine has everything that took me back a few years (understatement) and it was a pleasure.

It’s a pretty attractive package when you have it in your hands.  A nice tall bottle with a very cool label.  That’s the way to get things started.

The aromas are going to delightfully fill your sinuses so be very mindful of that because you’ll need to move on to the good bit of tasting it.

This is deliciously Adelaide Hills when you drink it.  It’s not full on, more “I would like to get to you know you better” style.  A smooth and sophisticated sort of thing.   Medium bodied, plums, ripe dark cherries, a nice touch of spiciness and it all comes together on a persistent, elegant finish. Yep, it won’t leave you alone in a hurry.

1847wines.com

Region: Adelaide Hills     Price: $35     Source: Sample

I don’t know about you but I get frustrated when a wine teases you about its future, but it’s worse when it teases you about its ‘now’!  This one does exactly that and, I’m not saying it’s the case but, it’s almost like the winemaker has done it deliberately because I kept going back to it to try and delve into its intriguing complexities.

Inky and dense. That’s it.  I honestly don’t know how else to describe the colour.

It’s pretty full on, beautifully rich, but I’m guessing that’s what was intended.  This is a quality wine so nothing would have been spared in its creation.  It has ‘black-as-the-ace-of-spades’ fruit but gentle on the delivery.  Plums pull it back a bit and provide some fruit balance (that sounds odd so try it and you’ll know what I mean).  Creamy oak makes it pretty slippery, lush and very moreish.

If there is one thing I did notice, the tannins still need to integrate.  They are a bit intrusive at the moment but, coupled with the quality fruit, it tells me it has a bright future.  The other option if you can’t put it away, decant it and offer up some protein (like I did).  A match made in my little piece of heaven.

tatachilla.com.au

Region: McLaren Vale     Price: $57     Source: Swap