Hunter Valley, Australia
Tasted Thursday, February 24, 2011 - Saturday, February 26, 2011 by David Paris (dbp) with 1,917 views
This was part of a 15 day trip from Portland, OR, USA to Australia. We started in Sydney, then drove north up the coast, stopping every 2-4 hours and spending three nights. We wound up an hour North of Brisbane. I've never been much of fan of most Australian wines available in the US, so this trip was certainly not intended to be a wine vacation. However, I did think that since we were there anyway, I would certainly like to experience some bit of Australian wine. The only reason we picked the Hunter Valley was due to its proximity to Sydney, and it followed the path we intended on anyway ("head north"). I am very glad we came here though, as it was one of the highlights of our two weeks in Australia.
Before this trip I knew nothing of the wines from the Hunter Valley. This is probably mostly due to the fact that they are hardly available in the US at all. The Hunter accounts for only 2-4% of Australia's wine production, and their yields here are WAY lower than other areas of the country. It's quite a warm climate. Hotter in fact that Barossa and McLaren Vale, the two regions I despise for their 16% extracted bombs. The Hunter actually makes quite a bit more restrained wines, though. Many of the whites hover around 11% alcohol, with reds rarely getting above 14%. Since the Barossa and McLaren Vale are cool(er) climates, they can let the fruit hang on the vines quite late in the year without catastrophic results (well, I think 17% is pretty catastrophic, but whatever). However, since it's so hot in the Hunter, if they did that they wouldn't get anything that much resembled wine. As a result, they pick quite early in the year, before the consistently hot stuff arrives and can cause damage. They often pick Semillon starting in January! Reds come in February. This results in lower alcohol levels, and quite high acids. This brings up an interesting point, though.. many argue elsewhere in the world that the reason they have to let fruit hang so long is due to global warming and their lack of phenolic ripeness. I wonder why then here they are able to just pick earlier in the year without any adverse effects? All the fruit tasted properly ripe... but it also wasn't a mess of alcohol. The acid was incredible, and what makes this region interesting for me.
My method for the wineries I chose was to look up the highest rated wines from the Hunter in CellarTracker, and hit all the places with high averages. This worked out quite well, though there were some duds.. we also stumbled upon some random places by chance, and also by recommendation. By no surprise, the places the community liked the best I also liked the best.
This is a fairly commercial operation these days, with one of the largest productions from The Hunter Valley. They produce 1.2 million liters of wine here. Of course not all the fruit is here, as there's "just" 310 acres on the site. However, while they make mass produced, commercialized wines, they also make a lot of really interesting stuff in smaller quantities. The gentlemen behind the bar was incredibly friendly, and poured us all of the good stuff he had open. We didn't try any of the really mass produced stuff, which I suppose is good, but probably makes my view of this place perhaps better than most people who see them in the stores.
We did a wine tour half way through our tasting and learned quite a few interesting bits of information. They are very honest about the production, and part of the standard tour included a discussion of the additives they put in most of the wine. She said that it is very common to add things like tannin and sulfur to the freshly picked grapes. They also add acid. I was shocked that this info was just volunteered without any questioning. I guess this type of practice is just accepted here. Really strange. They also add all the yeast; no natural fermentation. No qualms are made about doing pump overs here, either. In Oregon people freak out, trying to do gravity flow everything. She must have said pump 10 times during the tour, though.
Another interesting tidbit she mentioned was that one of the big reasons the Australian wine industry moved to screw tops was simply because they weren't able to acquire high quality cork. The "big" wine regions of the world kept all the good stuff, so the cork that was usually used in Australia was even worse quality than the usual variety.
They had both small concrete tanks for some of the smaller production stuff, but also these nasty retro drum fermenters for the mass produced stuff. This is the machine that makes wine taste like it came from nowhere. This thing was massive:
Apparently they have two tasting rooms here, and they're a mere 800 meters apart. Unfortunately we picked the "wrong" one, which is really just a Cellar Door (read: tasting room) on a resort of sorts. The one 800 meters down the road is actually at the vineyard/winery. They pour all the same stuff, but it would have been nice to be at the winery. We just came upon this place first, so we thought it was the only one (who'd expect two in under a kilometer?) The wines here were all fairly average, which was a let down considering some of the things I had read about the place. The ILR Semillon was pretty decent, but the price point just didn't make sense.
A pretty spot, but the wines just were not good. The folks pouring here seemed to be all business (as in, not friendly), and the other customers seemed to be getting what they wanted. I couldn't believe what the other guests were enjoying. In talking to a few of the other producers in the area after the fact, apparently they seem to be going for the "modern" palate, and not really making traditional Hunter style wines. Much more oak used here, and I found the wines quite out of balance overall. The free cheese plate was a nice touch, though.
Why did we go here... well, I guess because Rosemount is such a big brand in the US, once I saw it I thought, "Well we're in Australia... we HAVE to go to Rosemount!" Actually, that was more of a joke... but we still wound up here, after the woman at Brokenwood told us they actually have good wines here. I guess she's not a wine drinker... Lindemans is of course also massive. They are together as they are both owned by Foster's. Neither company actually has a very big presence in the Hunter Valley any more, but due to their history here they decided to keep their Cellar Doors. Most of the wine poured is from other areas, though (Rosemount owns 4,800 acres in the McLaren Vale!!)
I guess both brands now are marketing wines called "Early Harvest". They include things like 6% abv. dry Chardonnay! And 8% dry Shiraz! It's all part of the "low calorie" fad. They were mentioning what massive sellers these are for them. They're in hip bottles that just beg to be opened on a summer day. We didn't even both trying them... even the people that worked there said they have virtually no flavor. Why bother? This is all marketing at this point... it's now "hip" to drink wine, so people want to be seen drinking wine even if it has no flavor. BTW, those are her words about their marketing, not mine.
Anyway, as expected, nothing here was worth remembering. They also had herbal infused wines here... we did try a couple, but I didn't bother noting them. I'll tell you the highlights, though: The blood orange and elderflower infused Chardonnay tasted like blood orange and elderflower.
Certainly one of the highlights of the trip. Audrey Wilkinson is one of the oldest wineries in the Hunter Valley, and in all of Australia, established in 1866. They probably have the most beautiful spot of any of the wineries we visited, high up on a hill over looking some lakes. The grounds are very well kept and it was a pleasure walking around after our tasting. The whites here weren't too great, but their reds from the Hunter Valley were the best lineup we had anywhere. I would have loved to have been able to bring back more of their wines than we were able to. All of their Hunter reds had great fruit, but also really impressive structure and balance.
Considering the balance of the reds, one surprise was that they still had Shiraz hanging on February 24th. They were the only winery we visited that did, and the week before we arrived temperatures reached 45 degrees (113 Fahrenheit)!! Almost all of the Shiraz was showing tons of shriveling. I had heard stories about how in Australia they let the grapes hang until they shrivel on the vines, but I thought that was some kind of joke... or at least only done in the heavier handed areas. But this was pretty interesting. And by the way, this photo is fairly representative. While there were some clusters with less shrivel, I'd say over 50% of it looked this bad or worse.
2/25/2011
The next day, Natasha and I rented a tandem bicycle and decided to ride around to the wineries. All in all we road 29 kilometers and still were able to visit 5 wineries as we did the day before in the car. This was an incredibly fun way to explore the Hunter Valley, and we really had a blast. One of the highlights was riding as fast as we could as 5 o'clock approached to try and find one more winery that was still open. As we were sprinting I looked up for a moment and saw to my left our first kangaroo of the trip, just as he noticed us. This guy was massive, probably 6+ feet tall as he stood straight up when he saw us. I wanted to stop to take a photo of him, but I hear kangaroos can give you a hell of a punch in the face if they feel threatened, so we road on (besides... gotta keep the eye on the prize, right?).
The highlight of the trip, with the most amazingly consistent showing across the board. I'm amazed at my scores across the board. In fact, this is one of the most consistent lineups I've had anywhere in my life. Though he wasn't pouring us any of the pedestrian stuff... only the best of their offerings. When you factor in the price on these, perhaps it makes sense that they were so good, but still... great stuff, and again a really fun encounter with the man pouring. Tyrrell's is also one of the oldest wineries in the region (established in 1858), and their Semillon is fantastic across the board. He gave us each four glasses a piece, so we were able to taste all the Semillon's at the same time, comparing the age, etc.
Tyrrell's has 300 acres in the Hunter Valley, and 700 additional across the rest of Australia. Also, a really pretty spot:
Cool labels, cute names for the wines, but unfortunately nothing here was worth drinking. The only plus here was it was the ONLY place on our whole trip that poured us wine in proper, large bowl glasses. Everywhere else uses these little 4 oz taster glasses that are difficult to deal with and just feel wrong in the hand.
We had a fun chat with the young guy behind the counter, but nothing really stood out. Nothing was bad, which is appreciated, but these are all pretty simple quaffers. Ironbark Hill was first plated in 1988, and they currently have about 100 acres planted.
You can tell this place has commercial success. This felt like one of the more marketing driven places that we visited... the wines tasted a bit commercial as well, without much standing out. Again nothing horribly bad, but they are also almost all every day wines, without much interest.
Another one of the highlights of the trip, but not entirely for the wine. Keith Tulloch closed at 4:30pm, and we asked if she knew of any other wineries that were open later. She said most in that general vicinity closed by 5, so we took off riding around 4:20. We found a few places that said they were open until 5, but at one we couldn't find any people, so we got back on the bike and continued on. We came upon a sign for Veladare, which said it was open until 5pm. We had never heard of this place before, and it wasn't even on the winery map. When we walked in the door it was 4:45. David Fatches, the (owner? and) winemaker was in the winery, but he heard us walk in the door so he came upstairs. Apparently we were his first (and of course last) guests of the day, despite his hours of 10-5. He didn't have any wine open when we arrived, and opened all of these fresh for us, just at the close of business. We initially tried to make a pretty quick pass through these wines to let him leave at 5, but he said he could stay until 5:30 when he had to pick up his daughter. We were having a great time chatting, at which point he went in and asked his wife if she could get the daughter, and she could. At that point, David pulled up a chair, poured him and I a fresh, full glass of wine, and we just started chatting.
We talked at length about our experiences in the Hunter Valley thus far, and he enlightened us to a lot of the history, background, and current politics. He seemed quite knowledgeable about the area, and he seemed to love educating newbies to the area. We wound up staying until around 6:20pm, at which point we feared for dark and our 8km ride home at dusk, so we took off.
All of the wines here were quite good, but nothing was amazing. Still, if I am ever to come back to the Hunter, Veladare is one of the first wineries I will visit. David was one of the friendliest and most knowledgeable people in the valley. What's unfortunate is the next day as we stopped into to some of our previous visits to pick up some wine, we were mentioning to everyone about Veladare and not a single person had heard of them, despite the proximity. Surprising that someone who knows so much about the others isn't known in those circles.
2/26/2011
The first winery on our last day in the Hunter. We made an attempt at this place the day before on the bike, but they were closed. This was the only spot in the whole Hunter Valley that had a tasting fee. You could have 5 or so wines for free, but if you wanted all of the wines, including their top wines, you had to pay a $3 tasting fee. Okay, no problem. Unfortunately, none of the wines were really up to snuff. This place was recommended by a number of folks, so we were both disappointed at the showing. Natasha didn't even bother with the second half of the tasting after the first few wines.
Another visit due to recommendations, and another bust.
Definitely a really pretty spot. Several people had recommended we visit Pepper Tree, so we did. It was fun for the spot, but after just a few wines I could tell that I wasn't going to much enjoy myself, so I decided to complete our tour here. The whole place seemed very commercial, with not very friendly folks pouring, and very average wines.
Overall our time in the Hunter Valley was awesome. I did not expect to enjoy as many wines as I did, and I really fell in love with the potential of Shiraz and Semillon from the Hunter Valley. All of my favorite all time Australian wines occurred on this trip. The shame is that virtually none of these wines are available in the US, and certainly none of the small production stuff that I liked.
2008 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Phil Ryan Signature 88 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
This has a kind of soapy nose, some funky melon, and a fermenting pickle. The palate is tart, with some nice acidic fruits (peach and pear), and pretty green feeling. The finish is mostly tart green apples, with really nice sharp acid. Tons of apple skins here.
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2005 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Elizabeth 90 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
Intense nose, a little funky and tart. The palate is like melting plastic poured over some sweet honeydew melon with funky acids; really quite nice and interesting. Good acid and quite intense through the finish. Deep and long acids. We bought two bottles and enjoyed one even more later in our trip, and the other came back to the US with us. Hope to let this sit for another 5 years.
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2005 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Single Vineyard Lovedale 91 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
At first this shows some nice pleasing white fruit on the nose, but then a huge wallop of an orange and a pine tree aroma... interesting and cool. The palate is really rich, with nice tertiary development showing, with still plenty of pleasing acids while still being mouth coating and fresh. The finish is really rich, expressing tart acids into the long, pleasing finish. Really impressively balanced, even if it's a bit sharp
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2008 Mount Pleasant Wines Chardonnay Phil Ryan Signature 90 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
Sweet and rich nose. Lots of tropical fruits present, including passion fruit. The palate is rich, with a really pleasing sharp acid streak. It's impressively balanced with just a touch of oak. Nice spice throughout, with some delicious coconut scented surf board wax. The finish shows big acid and light bits of spiced butter. Not too much complexity for future evolution, but great now. We came back two days later and tried this again, not enjoying it nearly this much... so not sure if the latter bottle was just old or what.
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2010 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Sauvignon Blanc Florence 85 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
Big time cat pee and grass on the nose. Is this New Zealand? More really soft green grass on the palate. Mild acid and more grass on the finish. A one trick pony.
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2006 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Philip 78 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
Plenty of butter on the nose. Like a grilled cheese sandwich, with butter, spice, and salt. The wine tastes like really fake butter (the kind you get at McDonalds for breakfast), mixed with distilled berry soup. The harsh finish is bitter, sharp, and tart. Blah. Really unenjoyable lingering flavors.
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2007 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill 86 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
(2/24/2011)
From 65 year old vines. The nose is rich and port like. Big fruit, but fairly balanced despite it. The palate shows pretty big fruit, soft texture, and overall is pretty nice. The finish follows through with the same massive, port like fruit, and not much else. This is a rich wine.
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2008 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Phil Ryan Signature 83 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
Oaky with big fruit. I was beginning to tire of these Shiraz's at this point. The palate was a little dry with more big fake fruit and spicy alcohol. The finish is tannic, and not nearly as dialed up fruit, which saves this wine a bit. Still, not too much interest here either. Quite pedestrian.
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2005 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Maurice O'Shea 90 Points
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
(2/24/2011)
A nice pleasing Shiraz. The nose does show some big fruit (blackberries), as well as some rubber cement glue. Really soft and mellow palate, though expressing some rich, soft fruit. Quite pleasing with some forest floor also pleasant. Quite spicy on the finish, which is quite nice and rich, with more complexity to the fruit, showing some solid balance with the fruit, tannins, and high levels of acid. Impressive stuff, but not worth the $64 for me.
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2005 Brand's Laira Shiraz Stentiford's 89 Points
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
(2/24/2011)
$74. Intensely dark, and spicy nose, with some smoky bacon fat type aromas. The palate is soft, but massive and rich, showing chocolate, syrup, spice, and clove. The finish kicks in with lots of spice, tar, cream, and fruit concentration like a port. Really spicy but not really coming across as hot (label says 15.5%). This is only 89 points for me, but for others more keen on this massive style I could see it being a lot more, as it's done in a fairly restrained and balanced way for the style.
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2001 Brand's Laira Eric's Blend 86 Points
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
(2/24/2011)
$75 Rich and soft nose with deep berries and primarily chocolate. The palate is soft and creamy with some strange old fruit showing up. Really spicy on the finish, with dark fruits, and quite a bit of splintery wood.
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