Australia Day Tasting 2014

An annual trade fair celebrating the world of Australian wine in London, giving opportinities for importers to vie for the attention of the supermarket buyers as well as producers seeking distribution within the UK. The below notes refer to only a small fraction of wines available.

• 2009 Katnook Estate Riesling Founder's Block

  Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra

  This has the classic cool pebble-stone texture on the nose; lime, grapefruit and some tropical notes. The citrusy flavours become much riper on the palate, yet doesn't retained the same concentration as on the nose, which makes the presence of the alcohol felt more. Soft, lingering finish. Solid and well structured ***1/2

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• 2007 Tyrrell's Sémillon Vat 1

  Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

  As already mentioned by others, this is still fairly closed and will probably need the best part of five years at least before it starts truly opening up. At the moment, you can only hint at the underlying creamy tropical fruit, but there's also a leafy, slight greenness on the palate that forms its nervy, acidic backbone. Rich, fatty apricot, peach, some cream, long biscuity finish. I'm sure this will only become more complex ****(*)

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• 2007 Gatt Wines Shiraz Single Vineyard High Eden

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, High Eden

  Dark ruby in colour, the nose has an almost "compote"-like black cherry intensity, very forward with some blackcurrant as well. Uncomplicated on the palate with more cherry and dark fruit, and a dose of black pepper spice rounding off the finish. The bubbles give the fruit an almost grape-fleshy texture. ***1/2

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• 2012 McHenry Hohnen Shiraz

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  Dark ruby in colour, the nose is really forward with a good mix of bell pepper, red cherry and vanilla, chocolate and some blackcurrant. Soft ripe red fruits on the palate, and the peppery spice gives it weight, despite being fairly light. The finish is quite drying and there is a slightly metallic character which is a bit off-putting ***

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• 2010 John Duval Wines Shiraz Entity

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  This still feels very tightly wound at the moment; the tannin is keeping a firm grip on the intense dark cherry fruit, and really opens up with a pronounced earthy, green pepper herbaceousness. This needs a bit of time to soften. The peppery notes become sweeter on the finish, a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, long length ****(*)

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• 2010 St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon Coonawarra

  Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra

  Dark, inky texture; as you'd expect, heaps of blackcurrant but some violet and white pepper and general earthiness, but the intensely extracted concentration of flavour seems to overwhelm acidity and many other of the important components. Perhaps this just needs time. ***

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• 2012 Hand Crafted by Geoff Hardy Teroldego

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Langhorne Creek

  There's a first time for everything, and Teroldego from Australia was bound to come along sometime. There's a lot going on here, soft rounded tannins support redcurrant, cinnamon and groundspice notes, hints of caramel and biscuity on the finish, but held together with a fearsome whack of sappy, sour cherry acidity. Something completely different, fantastic ****1/2

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• 2010 Hand Crafted by Geoff Hardy Lagrein

  Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast

  Another pleasing oddity here; earthsmoke and barbecue with a perfumed dark cherry note, slightly buttery with some bitter chocolate. The texture is quite savoury despite the richness and this also has a glorious sappy, nervy backbone of acidity, almost a velvety caramel, coffee-creaminess on the finish. ****

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A great tasting; I would conclude by saying that although the oscillations between quantity and quality are becoming smaller, what did strike me was the lack of diversity and perhaps the most intriguing wines were those that were not made by international grape varities, but from regional grapes such as Aglianico, Lagrein and Teroldego. Nevertheless, it's always a great opportunity to meet customers, distributors and even see some famous faces.