Wine judging is hard yakka

I’ve spent the last week judging at the Royal International Wine Show. “International” means that New Zealand wines are allowed to be entered although I understand that this years entries were fairly small.

This is one of my favourite Australian wine competitions, not the least because I like Hobart and Tasmanians. Judging standards are high thanks to a good judging team. Let’s cut to the chase. A selection of the top wines (few of which are available in NZ) are as follows:

Tamar Ridge 2007 Botrytis Riesling – a stunning wine that competes with the best in NZ.

Banrock Station Albarino – I’ve no idea what vintage at this stage but this is a top example of a style that may have a bright future in this country.

Nautilus Estate 2007 Pinot Noir – top Pinot Noir in the show.

Yalumba Octavious  2006 Shiraz – top Shiraz, a terrific wine with great concentration and poise.

Stefano Luniana 2006 Pinot Noir – A cracker Tasmanian Pinot with great intensity and style.

Coldstream Reserve 2006 Chardonnay – Oz Chard doesn’t get much better than this.

Morris Old Premium Liqueur Muscat – More of a religious experience than a good glass of fortified wine.

Chateau Reynella 2004 Vintage Port – Made with Portugese varieties – a modern style that’s approachable now but will age. Port lovers should make an effort to buy this.

Super stickies from the master of sweet

I recently attended a new release tasting of six Framingham Botrytised wines from the 2008 vintage – a year when botrytis made its indelible and sometimes painful mark on many Marlborough wines. The wines will be reviewed in full when I have had a second chance to taste samples blind with similar styles.

The wines are:

Framingham 2008  Botrytised Viognier 375ml (148 bottles) RS 250g/l $40

Framingham 2008 Botrytised Gewurztraminer 375ml (450 bottles) RS 240g/l $40

Framingham 2008 Noble Riesling 375ml (2500 bottles) RS 190g/l $30.95

Framingham 2008 No.1 Auslese 375ml (260 bottles) RS 220g/l $40

Framingham 2008 No.2 Auslese 375ml (265 bottles) RS 220g/l $40

Framingham 2008 No.3 Auslese 375ml (254 bottles) RS 275g/l $40

I plan to add prices and residual sugar levels when I can get these from Framingham’s brilliant winemaker, Andrew Hedley. All are very good (and very collectible). My own favourite is the Gewurztraminer, an absolutely amazing wine with pure botrytis and strong varietal flavours.

Andrew says that the harvest sugars on all three Auslese Rieslings are above or just on the minimum for trockenbeerenauslese wines in Germany.

The botrytised Viognier will be sold in a two-bottle gift pack with the (outstanding) 2007 Viognier table wine for around $80. The three Riesling Auslesen will be sold in a pack of three for $100 and the leftovers (if any) will be sold as single bottles at the above prices.

Stephen Bennett MW - photo taken two years ago but he hasn't changed much

Stephen Bennett MW, founder and principal owner of Auckland-based wine distributor, Bennett & Deller, has put his money where his fairly outspoken mouth is by launching his own wine label.

Bennett & Deller mainly distributes wine from France, Spain, Italy and Argentina although they have represented several local wineries, including Isabel, Daniel Schuster and Gravitas. Steve has worked with some of his brand owners helping them to fine tune wine styles to more closely meet the market. Now he has taken total control by “designing” three wines he describes as “uncompromisingly food wines” for his mostly restaurant customers.

To demonstrate the strength and style of his Sauvingon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Noir Steve presented them to me blind with other benchmark wines.

His Discovery Point 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was matched with Dog Point 2008, Cloudy Bay 2008 and Saint Clair 2008 Wairau Reserve – three wines that I had previously rated highly. Discovery Point has a retail price of around $22 while the others sell for $25-$32. Discovery Point did not disgrace itself, in fact I thought that this bone-dry style oozed Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc character. It has good power and purity – I gave it 90 points.

Discovery Point Dry Marlborough Riesling $22 was matched with Craggy Range Fletcher Vineyard Marlborough Riesling – a slightly uneven playing field because the latter wine has a residual sugar level of 13.5 grams/litre while the Discovery Point is 5 g/l – although the difference probably works in favour of Craggy Range. They are both good wines. The Discovery Point Riesling is weightier with a richer and more voluptuous texture. It is, as Steve claims, an excellent food wine that gives a nod in the direction of Alsace.

At that point I ran out of time to complete the tasting and had to dash. Steve left me three glasses of Pinot Noir: his Breaksea Sound 2006, Mt Difficulty 2007 and Peregrine 2007 – all from Central Otago. I tasted the wines a couple of hours later but didn’t record notes because they had been exposed to too much air by then. Once again Steve’s wine stood up well to the competition and at a $30 price point is significantly cheaper (Mt Difficulty is $40 and Peregrine $37).

A good start. I highly recommend all three wines. All are reviewed on this site (I haven’t yet figured how to hot-link them to reviews).

They say it will age ... but will it?

A chance remark resulted in an extensive tasting of 41 examples of Central Otago Pinot Noir from 2003 or earlier. The objective of the tasting … to determine whether we should drink Central Otago Pinot Noir now or later.

When the question of ageworthiness was raised, Ruenell Rapoza, marketing and events co-ordinator of Central Otago Pinot Noir Ltd (COPL), swung into action. Member wineries were contacted and invited to send Pinot Noir from 2003 or earlier to me for a tasting that might determine just how well these wines age.

Wineries that sent samples were: Akarua, Amisfield, Carrick, Chard Farm, Desert Heart, Felton Road, Mount Edward, Mt Difficulty, Olssens, Peregrine, Pisa Range Estate, Quartz Reef, Rippon and Two Paddocks. 13 wineries sounds like a good turnout although my database reveals a further 20 wineries made wine from 2003 or before. They may not have had stocks to share or perhaps they were not members of COPL (two no longer exist).

Why is ageability an issue? Central Otago Pinot Noir is often so drop-dead delicious when it’s released why not just drink it? Ageing is an issue because it ADDS VALUE. Central Otago is already a probationary member of the Pinot Noir Big Boys Club. To gain full membership it must demonstrate that its wines improve with age. Not just hang-on-in-there with age, but improve.

Check out the president of the Pinot Noir Big Boys Club – Burgundy. Grand Cru burgundy of stature is parctically undrinkable when first released. It’s expected to be cellared for at least 10-15 years by when it will be mellow and (with luck) very complex. Would anyone shell out $1000 for a bottle of La Tache if it was best enjoyed two years after vintage? Even Premier Cru burgundy undergoes a metamorphosis from ugly egg to beautiful butterfly. Village burgundy is best enjoyed within a few years of release – but most of it cowers well under the $50 price point.

The tasting was complicated by vintage variation, a transition to screwcaps in 2001 or 2002 and, I guess, vine age plus the expected evolution in vineyard and winery that tends to create a lumpy playing field. Cutting to the chase, here are my conclusions from the tasting:

• 2002 was such a good vintage generally that it frequently emerged as the best wine in a single winery vertical. In general terms Pinot from the 2002 vintage are ageing well depite predictions that they would become over-blown and be short-lived.
• 14 out of the 41 wines were sealed with a cork. None were corked although two wines had a noticable woody cork flavour that did them no good. The two oldest wines in the tasting, both from 1999 and under cork, looked very good. I believe that both had improved significantly since they were released.
• Many wines that had seductive fruit flavours and were deliciously drinkable on release (Akarua 2002 is an example) still looked good although they hadn’t gained much benefit from bottle age.
• Felton Road “Block” wines that are (in my opinion) often over-shaddowed by the winery’s regular label upon first release seem to have outstripped the less expensive wine with bottle age. They showed very good bottle development. Conversely, I regard the recently tasted Felton Road 2007 Block 5 Pinot Noir as the best New Zealand Pinot Noir I have ever tasted. Will it get even better. You bet!

Finally … not all Central Otago Pinots are equal. Some deliciously fruity wines will never be much more than that – deliciously fruity and seem destined to decline in quality (quality = fruit) with bottle age. Others did seem to improve markedly with bottle age (Felton Block 3 & 5 are examples). I wonder whether the increasing use of stems during fermentation, in vintages that allow it, will add an extra dimension of complexity? More work needs to be done and winemakers who wish to build ageing potential into their wines need to keep a close eye on those who are already able to build wines with a future.

Tasting notes, with scores, are on my website database.