The Viognier is more obvious in this wine than it is in most Côte Rôties, but that’s part of the style. It’s ripe, soft and slightly apricotty, with supple red fruits, touches of oak. liquorice and blackberry and medium weight tannins.
Country: Australia
2010 Hill-Smith Estate Chardonnay, Eden Valley, South Australia
( £11.99, 13.5%, Negociants )This doesn’t have a stockist in the UK yet, but it surely won’t be long before it does. It’s more immediate than the subtler FDW Chardonnay from the same Yalumba stable, but it’s still a very tasty modern Chardonnay with notes of citrus and honeydew melon, subtle oak and a bright, lemony finish.
2011 d'Arenberg The Hermit Crab Marsanne/Viognier, McLaren Vale, South Australia
( £9.99, 13%, Sainsbury's )The wonderfully theatrical Chester Osborn is better known for his reds than his whites, but he has a suprisingly subtle touch with the latter, as this very lightly oaked blend of Viognier with 32% Marsanne demonstrates. It’s a spicy, pithy, understated white, with good crunch and zest, a hint of apricot and a mealy, balanced finish.
2012 Tesco Finest Tingelup Riesling, Western Australia
( £9.99, 12.4%, Tesco )This isn’t quite the amazing bargain it once was, but it’s still one of the best whites on Tesco’s books, a stylish, finely crafted white from Howard Park. It’s fresh and minerally, with haunting lime-juice and citrus peel flavours and a dry, stony aftertaste. On past perfermance, it will develop well in bottle, too.
2010 Scott Shiraz/Sangiovese, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
( £14.99, 14%, Oddbins )A really innovative blend (12% of it Sangiovese) from a comparatively new Adelaide Hills winery, this is a very smart, textured red with cherrystone and plumskin aromas, supple, yet savoury tannins, bramble and mint flavours and an Italianate dry flourish. One of the best Italian-influenced reds I’ve had from Down Under.
2012 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling, Clare Valley, South Australia
( £23, 12.5%, Liberty Wines )Polish Hill is always the tightest and most restrained of Jeffrey Grosset’s wines and that’s the case here, but this excellent dry Riesling seems a little more open than usual. It’s floral and delicate with lovely, minerally acidiity and notes of lime and green apple. Long and complex.
2011 Scott Fiano, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
( £14.99, 13.5%, Oddbins )The tamptation with Fiano is to pick it too ripe and flacid, so it’s a joy to taste this subtle Ausse expression of one of southern Italy’s most promising varieties. This is minerally and fresh, flecked with pearskin and a hint of apple and a long, spicy finish. A winery to watch.
Eleven shades of Nebbiolo
by Matt Walls
To begin with I didn’t get it. Drinking Nebbiolo seemed like trying to swallow a cube, cut from a tree. It was hard, it was sharp, it was dry; and...
2011 The Society's Australian Chardonnay, McLaren Vale, South Australia
( £6.50, 12.5%, The Wine Society )It’s a measure of how far Aussie Chardonnay has advanced in recent years, that even a Chardonnay from warmer climate McLaren Vale is light-bodied and unoaked. This is appealingly dry with flavours of stone fruit and a bite of lemon zest-like acidity.
Creating a stink about screwcaps
by Tim Atkin
Imagine being a cork salesman in Australia. If you turned up suffering from bubonic plague, a dead rat dangling from each hand, you’d be only slightly less welcome at most...
Do New World wines age?
by Tim Atkin
What’s the difference between a New and an Old World wine? Twenty-seven years ago, when I started writing about the subject, the distinction was clear-cut. The received wisdom was that...
2006 Taste the Difference Hunter Valley Semillon
( £9.99 down to £7.49, 10.5%, Sainsbury's )Thsi has been on the shelves for a while at JS, which suggests that (baffling though it is to me) it isn’t selling. This is the weekend to rectify that, because it’s an amazing wine at the price. Light-bodied, in classic Hunter style, with notes of toast and lemon sherbet and a tangy finish from early picked grapes. Essence of the Hunter.