NobleRottersSydney - Southern Highlands - Centennial tasting & Lunch
Centennial Vineyard, Bowral
Tasted Sunday, May 7, 2006 by graemeg with 443 views
Introduction
An ultra-relaxed Sunday lunch began with a tasting at Centennial Vineyards, the Central Highlands’ answer to Voyager Estate. The vast Tuscan-style buildings host a tasting room and restaurant which dwarf the 120-ton capacity winery, but there is room to expand. The long driveway winds its way between the immaculately trimmed rows of wines glowing in the autumn sunshine; it really is very easy on the eye. For the first time ever, the Hunter has a rival as a serious wine-tourist-magnet; moreover it is only half the distance from Sydney, and with considerably better roads. Three ranges of wine are offered here, the quaffing ‘Bong Bong’ wines, then an extensive varietal ‘Woodside’ range, with the ‘Reserve’ wines completing the collection. We preceded the tasting with a tour of the winery; it must be one of the few in the country to actually have reverse cycle temperature control in part of the winery; when you pull cabernet off the vines in May and get a cold spell in Bowral there’s evidently the risk that the fermentations will grind to a halt altogether unless the winery can be heated!
Flight 1 (7 Notes)
Flight 2 (4 Notes)
The lunch was very good indeed; value was probably in keeping with a boutique-type affair in a tourist-oriented region. And the place was full as well, which bodes well. (I can’t imagine that the overall operation is making money at the moment.) Let’s hope they can get some decent local fruit for their flagship wines as soon as possible. We sampled the following wines over lunch:
Closing
Very enjoyable weekend – despite what appears to be a lot of lukewarm tasting notes above the wines were generally fault-free, sound examples of cool-climate winemaking from mostly young vines. With some more vine age, and a little more personality to the wines, I think this area has an excellent future and will give the Hunter a scare on the tourism front. Once the word gets around, that is. The other especially recommendable thing is how many of the wines are available for under $25 – less than $20 is probably a better psychological barrier, but low-$20s prices shouldn’t discourage anyone from buying who finds a wine they like – and that won’t be hard. Special thanks to Andrew for organising, and to Mark Bourne and the other local folks who looked after us so well.
2004 Centennial Pinot Noir Chardonnay
Australia, New South Wales, South Coast, Southern Highlands
{11.5%, cork} Clean and simple bubbly, a whiff of strawberry on the palate, pleasantly dry on the finish. No great depth, it’s undemanding summer drinking.
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2005 Centennial Sauvignon Blanc Woodside
Australia, New South Wales, South Coast, Southern Highlands
{A$20, screwcap} A pungent, greenish gooseberry nose. This is ‘old-style’ new-world sauvignon, and is no less polarising nowadays than it was ten years ago. Medium weight acid, it’s an early drinker that needs seafood!
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2004 Centennial Chardonnay Unwooded Woodside
Australia, New South Wales, South Coast, Southern Highlands
{A$19, screwcap} A butterscotch-aroma-ed, tropical, low-acid, off-dry kind of early-drinker with a short finish.
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2004 Centennial Chardonnay Reserve
Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Orange
{A$27, 14%, screwcap} Oddly enough – a reflection of the newness of the estate no doubt – many of Centennial’s reserve wines are not in fact made from local fruit. This wine has a almond and peach nose, but the palate is refreshing, not over-worked, and mercifully free of malolactic characters, despite carrying a fair degree of oak flavour. Overall it’s quite light though, a middle-of-the-road style which is pleasant, if over-priced, drinking.
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2004 Centennial Tempranillo Woodside
Australia, New South Wales, South Coast, Southern Highlands
{A$20, 12.8%, screwcap} A clean, fruity, bitter cherry nose. The palate is light, oak free, but with some grape tannin astringency. Front palate weight and a short finish establish this as a food-friendly quaffer.
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2003 Centennial Shiraz
Australia, New South Wales, Southern New South Wales, Gundagai
{A$27, cork} [From Orange, not Southern Highlands] Precious few wines on this trip have been sealed with cork, so the resourceful TCA gremlins need to take every opportunity left to them. Bullseye! The second bottle opened showed some black berries on the low-intensity nose. It’s soft and smooth on the palate, resulting from the fairly low levels of acid and tannin apparent. Not especially distinctive; and it is ripe, at least, but rather pricey…
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2003 Centennial Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Orange
{A$26, cork} Yet a third reserve wine from across the dividing range. This is more interesting, with medium intensity blackcurrant, charcoal and liquorice aromas. Medium weight tannins and a herbal note to the palate fruit all add up to a decent sort of wine.
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