Some great wines on show today at the Australia Day tasting in London’s Saatchi gallery. Great venue for wine tasting: lots of natural light, and big airy spaces. Couldn’t have been better.
I didn’t taste everything, by any means (in fact, I was only there a couple of hours). But what I did taste impressed. Some of my highlights?
Biggest surprise, and new discovery, was Shobbrook Wines. Natural wines from the Barossa, with amazing presence, purity and elegance. They’re all great, but two Mouvedres stood out. The Nouveau was just beautiful. A little cloudy, with deliberately high carbon dioxide levels, this was utterly beautiful, showing sweet, elegant, pure fruit. And the Ebenezer Mourvedre 2010 had staggering elegance and pristine black cherry fruit, carrying its ripeness effortlessly. Supple, with an amazing mouthfeel.
Stonier are on fire at the moment. I love the regular Pinot and Chardonnay (both 2010), which are some of Australia’s best value wines. Particularly thrilling, though, is the 2010 Lyncroft Chardonnay, which is elegant, expressive, fine and intense. Brilliant.
Tamar Ridge, from Tasmania, are also over-performing at the moment. Their Devils Corner range is really good, and represents superb value. The Kayena Vineyard series of wines aren’t much more expensive, and they are consistently fine. In particular, the 2010 Pinot Noir is superbly balanced and elegant.
Leeuwin Estate is also in good form at the moment. This Margaret River star is best known for its Art Series Chardonnay, which is now quite expensive, but the 2008 is utterly fabulous. Prelude Chardonnay is almost as good and less than half the price. Art Series Riesling 2010 also impressed a great deal, with delicate transparency.
Finally, don’t miss the Yabby Lake 2010s. Particularly the Block 6 Chardonnay and Block 2 Pinot Noir.
2 Comments on At the Australia Day tasting
I picked up one of the Ebenezer Mourvédre recently. Apparently they are 50/50 sulphured/ no additions. Those with a black wax seal are sulhur free and those red are with the SO2.
So the distributor here advised. Glad to hear they stood out.
We had a lovely tasting at Stonier about a year ago, I keep meaning to do a blog post with some of my Australia photos… Man time flys!