WTN: Lots of Oz and South African wines

Short notes from a tasting of new Australian and South African wines including a couple of samples considered for possible importation. The tasting was done at Le Souffle Restaurant.

Southern Right Wines from Walker Bay, South Africa. Sister company of Hamilton Russel Vineyards.

Southern Right Sauvignon Blanc 2007 - Good nose Dry. Lacks fruit for balance. Very tart on finish. Needs food.

Southern Right Pinotage 2006 - Candyish at first then quite dry. Strong flavors. Not bad.

Cape Point Vineyards Stonehaven Sauvignon Blanc 2007 - Quite tart but with lots of fruit. Boiled sweets. Lemony crisp finish.

Kooyong Clonale Chardonnay 2006 - From Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Good nose. Very nice. Oranges. Good fruit. Classy stuff.

Next up were the wines of Geoff Merrill from McLaren Vale and Coonawarra.

Geoff Merrill Shiraz 2004 - Very rich. Oaky, jammy, unpleasant.

Geoff Merrill McLaren Vale Shiraz/Grenache/Mourvedre 2004 - Sweet, oaky, jammy. Slightly better than the Shiraz.

Geoff Merril McLaren Vale Merlot 2004 - More of the same. Hard to tell the Geoff Merril wines apart. Didn't like any of them.

Sample wines from Crackerjack Wines

Crackerjack Chardonnay 2006 - From Murray Darling, Victoria. A bit smoky. Prominent oak but good balance. Dryish. A little spicy. Not bad.

Crackerjack Shiraz/Viognier 2005 - From Murray Darling, Victoria. Lots of oak but well balanced. Full-on, rich. Soft, for current drinking. Surprisingly long finish. Quite impressive for the price.

Crackerjack Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 - From Coonawarra. Lots of fruit. Well balanced but rather weak on the finish.

We also had a couple of samples from Bondi wines from South East Australia.

Bondi Semillon/Chardonnay 2006 - Not much on the nose. Slight sweetness. Pleasant but not a lot of character. Boring.

Bondi Cabernet/Merlot 2005 - Rather pale. Friendly, drink now style. Dry finish. Just ok.

[Jenise]

Jay, you may not get many comments from the Norte Americanos on this board--I don't think any of those wines are exported here. Don't recognize a one!

[Jenise]

Jay, hilariously (at least to me, anyway), the VERY next note I opened after replying to you above was Nicholas Grenier's note titled "07 Already?" And guess what he reviews. Southern Right Sauv Blanc. I obviously know nothing!

Jay, you may not get many comments from the Norte Americanos on this board--I don't think any of those wines are exported here. Don't recognize a one!

Actually, I used to buy, on a semi-regular basis, some Geoff Merrill wines. This was quite some time ago and they used to show up in Ontario a couple of times a year. I can't recall seeing any for some time now though.

Geoff Merrill (part owned by Tahbilk these days?) and Kooyong I've heard of (and Southern Right via the Hamilton-Russell connection). Not tasted from any of them, but do recall Geoff Merrill selling his chardonnay with significant bottle age and it seeming to have a very mature looking colour.

Brave man tasting something with an obviously manufactured 'marketing' name such as Bondi, but from South-East Australia. The sweetness but lack of much else was not a surprise!

regards

Ian

I opened a bottle of the Southern Right Pinotage last week and kept our usual 280ml for follow-up tasting. You're right about the wine being candyish upon opening. It was full bodied with strong flavors that lingered quite a bit in the palate. I opened my small bottle after a few days and there was quite a change. While there were still hints of fruit and sweetness, it was a lot softer and I would say more balanced, without giving way to a lingering finish. Although I haven't tasted a lot of pinotage, I would say that this is the most favorable I've tasted so far. It would be interesting to compare it with the Kanonkop pinotage, and see how it would fare.

Brave man tasting something with an obviously manufactured 'marketing' name such as Bondi, but from South-East Australia. The sweetness but lack of much else was not a surprise!

When you get invited to these tastings you have to take the good with the bad.

I guess they ran out of animals to put on the labels so now they've resorted to beaches.

I opened a bottle of the Southern Right Pinotage last week and kept our usual 280ml for follow-up tasting. You're right about the wine being candyish upon opening. It was full bodied with strong flavors that lingered quite a bit in the palate. I opened my small bottle after a few days and there was quite a change. While there were still hints of fruit and sweetness, it was a lot softer and I would say more balanced, without giving way to a lingering finish. Although I haven't tasted a lot of pinotage, I would say that this is the most favorable I've tasted so far. It would be interesting to compare it with the Kanonkop pinotage, and see how it would fare.

Have you tried the Kanonkop? I'm pretty sure the Kanonkop would win in a taste-off but then again, you never know till you try. One of these days we should ask Lester to do a blind tasting of his Pinotages.

Kooyong produce mainly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (Estate and more recently single-vineyard bottlings) with some Pinot Gris and Viognier from the warmer climes (read northern section) of Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. I've recently purchased several bottles of the 2005 Estate Chardonnay and found every bottle to be outstanding. The wine displays a mealy minerality on both nose and palate with restrained citrus and stonefruit amidst some very clever winemaker-induced barrel work. I suspect it will drink extremely well for at least 3-5 years. I rated every bottle opened thus far at around 91/92 points.

More info can be found here - http://www.kooyong.com/kooyong/about

David,

Thanks for the additional info. Unfotunately the Clonale is the only Kooyong we get here. I'll try to persuade the importer to bring in more as it seems they have a style I rather enjoy.

Brave man tasting something with an obviously manufactured 'marketing' name such as Bondi, but from South-East Australia. The sweetness but lack of much else was not a surprise!

When you get invited to these tastings you have to take the good with the bad.

I guess they ran out of animals to put on the labels so now they've resorted to beaches.

Jay
I can see Avalon working, but feel Coogee may be a hard sell and slightly worried by how they'd market Manly
regards
Ian

David,

Thanks for the additional info. Unfotunately the Clonale is the only Kooyong we get here. I'll try to persuade the importer to bring in more as it seems they have a style I rather enjoy.

Theoretically, the single-vineyard labels should be superior to the "Estate' and the "Clonale", especially considering the price. I find it a little quirky why only the one Chardonnay makes it over your way. From reading their website, 2005 looks to be a particularly successful vintage for Kooyong.

[Jenise]

I opened a bottle of the Southern Right Pinotage last week

Dennis, welcome to WLDG.