There have been three major expenses that have wasted the taxpayers money since Tony Blair won his landslide and Prescott danced to 'Things can only get better'. The Millennium Dome in London and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Alongside the latter in Edinburgh, there is Dynamic Earth, a building that bears a striking resemblance to the waste of money in London, but this glorified tent has a purpose. On land gifted to the people of Edinburgh, on the condition that it be used for the public good, Dynamic Earth tells the evolution of this small planet we call home. Built in the shadow of Arthur's Seat, it was the venue for the 2008 Australia Day tasting, where suppliers of Aussie wine congregate to show off the jam and spice fest that is Shiraz.
Having had my faith in wines from the colonials restored in the second half of last year, I was actually looking forward to going and seeing how Australia wanted to portray itself on the international stage, and I was surprised by what I found. The nation that gave us the over oaked jam fest, heralded the grape variety on the label and that said that "terroir is just a poncie name for dirt" are wanting to be like Burgundy!
I started off at the Negociants table, trying wines from Yalumba. Having heard many good things about the oldest family owned winery in Oz, I found that they were nearly all pretty appealing.
Yalumba Y Series Riesling, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
Good, clean, crisp. Simple lemony and limey fruit on the nose and palate, quite clean with good acidity. 6/10
Yalumba Y Series Unwooded Chardonnay, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
Melon and a bit of weird pear drops on the nose, the palate is a bit flabby, but it is drinkable enough. 5/10
Yalumba Y Series Viognier, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
Take a bar of soap and suck on it. That is pretty much what you are getting. A total lack of fruit and it's just pretty poor. 4/10
Yalumba Y Series Shiraz Viognier, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
A touch confected, but simple. A bit of cherry Coke on the nose. Palate has a touch of bubblegum, but it is not bad. This, cold, in the summer will be great. Not a serious wine, but it doesn't have to be. 7/10
Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier, 2006 £8.00 - £10.00
This is bigger than the Y Series, spicy nose and a lot of limes. Palate has a flavour a bit like Wine Gums and is a bit thin on fruit and fat on weight. Iffy. 5.5/10
Yalumba Hand Picked Shiraz Viognier, 2005 £12.00 - £15.00
It is porno! Big, gloopy and thick. Cassis and a wallop of cracked black peppercorns. The palate is chunky with a lot of spice and chocolate, and more of the dark berry fruit. The finish is a little wak though. 7/10
Yalumba Hand Picked Tempranillo Grenache Viognier (TGV), 2006 £12.00 - £15.00
Good fruit, a lot of ripe, light berries. Quite floral. Fruit is nice on the palate, a bit of light cinnamon and then a strange bit of marmalade coming through on the finish. Nice though. 6/10
Yalumba Tri-centenary Grenache, 2005 £12.00 - £15.00
Herby with light simple fruit. Its a very soft wine, nice chocolatey flavours and a lot of cherry stone flavours. 7/10
Yalumba The Menzies Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 £23.00
Herby, a lot of green, old Cabernet flavours - cherry, cassis and green pepper - and then sweet tobacco. It is nice, but at that price? 7/10
Yalumba The Octavius Barossa Old Vine Shiraz, 2004 £45.00!!!
It might be tasty, but it is not worth the best part of fifty quid. It is gutsy, like a cigar that has rolled around on the earth for a bit. Soupy palate, a bit of bitter burnt toast ad rich, sweet jammy fruit. 6/10
Yalumba The Signature Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz, 2004 £25.00
Rich and brambley. It has a nice stalky aroma with the sweet, spicy fruit mingling with it. The finish is a bit poor, and you'd want a bit more than that for over twenty pounds. 6/10
With the stars definitely being the sub £10 reds and the hand picked series, which have cool packaging by the way, Yalumba was indeed, a perfect place to start. These are Australian wines as they always have been. The grapes are of utmost importance, and the region second. They are not complicated, and deliver bang for the bucks, which is what Australia has always been about.
Moving on, I visited the Stratfords Wine Agencies table. Wakefield's 2006 Shiraz was one of the wines that got me interested in antipodean wines again, and they were showing their new Jaraman range, so new they were being shown under their non EU brand, Taylors. They are taking wine made from grapes from their owed Claire vineyards, and, taking inspiration from 'Fusion food', they have 'fused' them with wine from other regions of Australia. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but multi region Australian wines were always the cheap wines. Wakefield are trying to do to wine what Gordon Ramsay did to the steak and kidney pie - take something cheap, make it brilliant and sell it for twice what it used to be!
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Riesling, 2005 £13.99
From Claire Valley & Eden Valley. Clean, light Riesling with nice lime flavours and a mineral element. It is nice and zingy with good acidity. 7/10
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Chardonnay, 2005 £13.99
From Claire Valley & Adelaide Hills. Nice, simple fruit. Good, simple fruit with a slight oaky aroma, vanilla pod and mango. The palate is nice, with an cedar flavour. Quite simple. 8/10
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 £13.99
From Claire Valley & Coonawarra. Earthy secondary flavours dominate with cassis and cherry creeping through. A lovely mouthfeel, with grippy tannins and a bundle of fruit. Good stuff. 8/10
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Shiraz, 2004 £13.99
From Claire Valley & McLaren Vale. It's big, juicy and thick with damson jam and a bundle of chocolate on the palate. It does then clean up and is quite light and clean on the finish. 7/10
All good, solid wines, well worth the money and filling a gap in the Wakefield range between the super Estate wines and the premium St Andrews range. I can't help thinking that they should just drop the Wakefield name from the label, as independent retailers, which this wine is aimed squarely at, will not want to have shelves filled with one brand.
At the other end of the spectrum, but on the next table, were the Kooyong wines rom Mornington Peninsula. These wines are possibly the closest Australia will ever get to Burgundy, but will they sell? Two estate wines, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir, get the range started just under twenty pounds, and then an extra seven or eight pounds will get you some interesting terroir influenced wines.
Kooyong Estate Chardonnay, 2005 £17.99
Nice, easy fruit with a bit of tropical fruit and very restrained oak. Nice and clean. 8/10
Kooyong Faultine Chardonnay, 2005 £24.99
Deeper tropical fruit, showing a lot more balance on the nose than the Estate wine. Subtle yeasty flavour with a little lemon zest showing through. 8/10
Kooyong Farrago Chardonnay, 2005 £24.99
Huge! A lot of brioch and masses of passion fruit and mango. This is a big fella. 7.5/10
Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir, 2005 £17.99
Good cherry fruit with a brilliant, earthy palate. It has good fruit and a bit of cherry and cranberry going on. 9/10
Kooyong Ferrous Pinot Noir, 2005 £24.99
Nose is soft, with very simple cassis and green peppers. A bit of spice and chocolate round up this wine.
Kooyong Haven Pinot Noir, 2005 £24.99
Soft, very opulent. A touch of Pinot stink. Palate is rich, spicy and spirity. Good. 9/10
Kooyong Merres Pinot Noir, 2005 £TBC
Sweet and spicy. A rich wine with a mass of juicy fruit finish and a bit of hotness just to spark things up. 9/10
They certainly show Terroir in Australia, and do it very well, but they are just a bit too pricey. Nobody will buy them without trying them first, and they certainly won't understand them without having a taste. The same applied with wines from Cult & Boutique Wines, a specialist importer, run by two massively passionate men who love all things Australian.
The Colonial Estate 'Emigre', 2005 £44.99
Soft and juicy nose, with spicy pepper coming through the bramble. A lot of spice, cherry and cassis on the palate and a nice finesse on this Shiraz/Grenache/Cabernet/Mourvedre/ Carignan/Muscadelle)! 7/10
Clarendon Hills 'Onkaparinga' Old Vines Grenache, 2005 £44.99
Not a lot of fruit on the nose, with Cranberry just creeping through. The palate is super simple, a touch of spice and cranberry and then a MASS of spice smacks you in the mouth. 7/10
Kay Brothers Amery 'Block 6' Shiraz, 2004 £44.99
It's got nice balance, the palate has good tobacco, spice and bramble and it's not too jammy. This is a food wine, but it shows good balance. 8/10
I walked from table to table, sampling these wonderfully designed wines, yet realised that very few people would actually get to try them. You see, Australian wines are like the two big tents. Wakefield's Jaraman range or Yalumba's wines are like the Australia Day's venue. They are maybe not brilliant, but are reasonably inexpensive and actually serve a worthwhile purpose and can be enjoyed by millions.
The likes of Kooyong, Kay Brothers and, of course, The Grange are, technically, superior products, which cost a lot more to create and will be enjoyed by a select few while the masses go on, ignorant to their pros and cons. These wines, these Australian 'terroir' wines, are the Millennium Dome.
Having had my faith in wines from the colonials restored in the second half of last year, I was actually looking forward to going and seeing how Australia wanted to portray itself on the international stage, and I was surprised by what I found. The nation that gave us the over oaked jam fest, heralded the grape variety on the label and that said that "terroir is just a poncie name for dirt" are wanting to be like Burgundy!
I started off at the Negociants table, trying wines from Yalumba. Having heard many good things about the oldest family owned winery in Oz, I found that they were nearly all pretty appealing.
Yalumba Y Series Riesling, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
Good, clean, crisp. Simple lemony and limey fruit on the nose and palate, quite clean with good acidity. 6/10
Yalumba Y Series Unwooded Chardonnay, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
Melon and a bit of weird pear drops on the nose, the palate is a bit flabby, but it is drinkable enough. 5/10
Yalumba Y Series Viognier, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
Take a bar of soap and suck on it. That is pretty much what you are getting. A total lack of fruit and it's just pretty poor. 4/10
Yalumba Y Series Shiraz Viognier, 2007 £6.00 - £8.00
A touch confected, but simple. A bit of cherry Coke on the nose. Palate has a touch of bubblegum, but it is not bad. This, cold, in the summer will be great. Not a serious wine, but it doesn't have to be. 7/10
Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier, 2006 £8.00 - £10.00
This is bigger than the Y Series, spicy nose and a lot of limes. Palate has a flavour a bit like Wine Gums and is a bit thin on fruit and fat on weight. Iffy. 5.5/10
Yalumba Hand Picked Shiraz Viognier, 2005 £12.00 - £15.00
It is porno! Big, gloopy and thick. Cassis and a wallop of cracked black peppercorns. The palate is chunky with a lot of spice and chocolate, and more of the dark berry fruit. The finish is a little wak though. 7/10
Yalumba Hand Picked Tempranillo Grenache Viognier (TGV), 2006 £12.00 - £15.00
Good fruit, a lot of ripe, light berries. Quite floral. Fruit is nice on the palate, a bit of light cinnamon and then a strange bit of marmalade coming through on the finish. Nice though. 6/10
Yalumba Tri-centenary Grenache, 2005 £12.00 - £15.00
Herby with light simple fruit. Its a very soft wine, nice chocolatey flavours and a lot of cherry stone flavours. 7/10
Yalumba The Menzies Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 £23.00
Herby, a lot of green, old Cabernet flavours - cherry, cassis and green pepper - and then sweet tobacco. It is nice, but at that price? 7/10
Yalumba The Octavius Barossa Old Vine Shiraz, 2004 £45.00!!!
It might be tasty, but it is not worth the best part of fifty quid. It is gutsy, like a cigar that has rolled around on the earth for a bit. Soupy palate, a bit of bitter burnt toast ad rich, sweet jammy fruit. 6/10
Yalumba The Signature Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz, 2004 £25.00
Rich and brambley. It has a nice stalky aroma with the sweet, spicy fruit mingling with it. The finish is a bit poor, and you'd want a bit more than that for over twenty pounds. 6/10
With the stars definitely being the sub £10 reds and the hand picked series, which have cool packaging by the way, Yalumba was indeed, a perfect place to start. These are Australian wines as they always have been. The grapes are of utmost importance, and the region second. They are not complicated, and deliver bang for the bucks, which is what Australia has always been about.
Moving on, I visited the Stratfords Wine Agencies table. Wakefield's 2006 Shiraz was one of the wines that got me interested in antipodean wines again, and they were showing their new Jaraman range, so new they were being shown under their non EU brand, Taylors. They are taking wine made from grapes from their owed Claire vineyards, and, taking inspiration from 'Fusion food', they have 'fused' them with wine from other regions of Australia. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but multi region Australian wines were always the cheap wines. Wakefield are trying to do to wine what Gordon Ramsay did to the steak and kidney pie - take something cheap, make it brilliant and sell it for twice what it used to be!
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Riesling, 2005 £13.99
From Claire Valley & Eden Valley. Clean, light Riesling with nice lime flavours and a mineral element. It is nice and zingy with good acidity. 7/10
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Chardonnay, 2005 £13.99
From Claire Valley & Adelaide Hills. Nice, simple fruit. Good, simple fruit with a slight oaky aroma, vanilla pod and mango. The palate is nice, with an cedar flavour. Quite simple. 8/10
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 £13.99
From Claire Valley & Coonawarra. Earthy secondary flavours dominate with cassis and cherry creeping through. A lovely mouthfeel, with grippy tannins and a bundle of fruit. Good stuff. 8/10
Taylors (Wakefield) Jaraman Shiraz, 2004 £13.99
From Claire Valley & McLaren Vale. It's big, juicy and thick with damson jam and a bundle of chocolate on the palate. It does then clean up and is quite light and clean on the finish. 7/10
All good, solid wines, well worth the money and filling a gap in the Wakefield range between the super Estate wines and the premium St Andrews range. I can't help thinking that they should just drop the Wakefield name from the label, as independent retailers, which this wine is aimed squarely at, will not want to have shelves filled with one brand.
At the other end of the spectrum, but on the next table, were the Kooyong wines rom Mornington Peninsula. These wines are possibly the closest Australia will ever get to Burgundy, but will they sell? Two estate wines, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir, get the range started just under twenty pounds, and then an extra seven or eight pounds will get you some interesting terroir influenced wines.
Kooyong Estate Chardonnay, 2005 £17.99
Nice, easy fruit with a bit of tropical fruit and very restrained oak. Nice and clean. 8/10
Kooyong Faultine Chardonnay, 2005 £24.99
Deeper tropical fruit, showing a lot more balance on the nose than the Estate wine. Subtle yeasty flavour with a little lemon zest showing through. 8/10
Kooyong Farrago Chardonnay, 2005 £24.99
Huge! A lot of brioch and masses of passion fruit and mango. This is a big fella. 7.5/10
Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir, 2005 £17.99
Good cherry fruit with a brilliant, earthy palate. It has good fruit and a bit of cherry and cranberry going on. 9/10
Kooyong Ferrous Pinot Noir, 2005 £24.99
Nose is soft, with very simple cassis and green peppers. A bit of spice and chocolate round up this wine.
Kooyong Haven Pinot Noir, 2005 £24.99
Soft, very opulent. A touch of Pinot stink. Palate is rich, spicy and spirity. Good. 9/10
Kooyong Merres Pinot Noir, 2005 £TBC
Sweet and spicy. A rich wine with a mass of juicy fruit finish and a bit of hotness just to spark things up. 9/10
They certainly show Terroir in Australia, and do it very well, but they are just a bit too pricey. Nobody will buy them without trying them first, and they certainly won't understand them without having a taste. The same applied with wines from Cult & Boutique Wines, a specialist importer, run by two massively passionate men who love all things Australian.
The Colonial Estate 'Emigre', 2005 £44.99
Soft and juicy nose, with spicy pepper coming through the bramble. A lot of spice, cherry and cassis on the palate and a nice finesse on this Shiraz/Grenache/Cabernet/Mourvedre/ Carignan/Muscadelle)! 7/10
Clarendon Hills 'Onkaparinga' Old Vines Grenache, 2005 £44.99
Not a lot of fruit on the nose, with Cranberry just creeping through. The palate is super simple, a touch of spice and cranberry and then a MASS of spice smacks you in the mouth. 7/10
Kay Brothers Amery 'Block 6' Shiraz, 2004 £44.99
It's got nice balance, the palate has good tobacco, spice and bramble and it's not too jammy. This is a food wine, but it shows good balance. 8/10
I walked from table to table, sampling these wonderfully designed wines, yet realised that very few people would actually get to try them. You see, Australian wines are like the two big tents. Wakefield's Jaraman range or Yalumba's wines are like the Australia Day's venue. They are maybe not brilliant, but are reasonably inexpensive and actually serve a worthwhile purpose and can be enjoyed by millions.
The likes of Kooyong, Kay Brothers and, of course, The Grange are, technically, superior products, which cost a lot more to create and will be enjoyed by a select few while the masses go on, ignorant to their pros and cons. These wines, these Australian 'terroir' wines, are the Millennium Dome.
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