Puligny Montrachet versus NSW Chardonnay - too close to call

We enjoyed one of our favorite Montrachets yesterday with lunch, that being the 2009 Bouchard Peres & Fils Puligny Montrachet.  This is a beautiful rich, creamy Montrachet yet balanced with ample citrus flavors.  It cost us $75 per bottle in Australia.  Thinking it sinful to use 100 ml of this fine wine for the mushroom and wild rice soup (see my post on wine math!) we are making this evening, and since there was only enough for one glass left over since yesterday, we opened a 2008 Tamburlaine Reserve Chardonnay made with grapes from Orange, NSW.  This fine wine is $30 per bottle and was made organically.  I bought a dozen of this wine several years ago, and it is one of the best organic wines I have ever had.

While the Bouchard lost a very small touch of flavor since yesterday, it was still drinking well.  The smell of the Bouchard was more evident than for the Tamburlaine, but the color identical.  I had my wife do a blind tasting of each and she could not tell the difference, and with a bit of hesitation, pointed to the Tamburlaine and said it was the Bouchard.  While I had the knowledge of knowing which wine was which, I also had a tough time deciding which wine I liked better.  Except for the more aromatic nose of the Bouchard, I have to say, I enjoyed both of them equally!  And for the money, the 2008 Tamburlaine Reserve Chardonnay from Orange wins hands down with regard to value.

The Tamburlaine tastes of orange (how coincidental being the grapes came from Orange!), mandarin and lemon.  It starts strong, but does not have quite the finish that the 2009 Bouchard Peres & Fils Puligny Montrachet has.  But it still packs a mouthful of flavor!  I would highly recommend this wine and all the organic wines from Tamburlaine.  They make good use of their Hunter vineyards and their Orange cold-weather vineyards to produce some outstanding wines, and if you are looking for organic, this is my wine maker of choice.  I have sampled a lot of organic wines and frankly, have not been impressed.  However, I am open to trying more and also giving a number of the organic wine makers another chance.  But Tamburlaine is the only organic wine maker from which I have purchased any wine!

While the Hunter Valley is known for Shiraz and Semillon, they are also the fine producer of some great Chardonnays, and so are the colder climates in NSW of Orange and Mudgee.  I am becoming a big fan of NSW Chardonnays, whereas previously, I was only drinking Australian Chardonnays from Margaret River.  Now I am seeking out and enjoying NSW Chardonnays at a fraction of the cost of the better Margaret River Chardonnays.

It was spur of the moment that I decided to compare side-by-side these two Chardonnays as I thought there was no comparison, but I was wrong and glad for the comparitive tasting I did.  Both are worth drinking, but for those of us in Australia, being able to buy Tamburlaine organic Chardonnays at a fraction of the cost of a good Montrachet is the way to go!


Steve Shipley
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!

A wonderful week with wine

My life does not revolve around wine, but my appreciation and enjoyment of wine is integrated into my lifestyle.  I enjoy drinking it, I enjoy sharing in fellowship over a good glass of wine and I enjoy reading and understanding what makes wine so special.  I sometimes refer to it as 'living the wine lifestyle!'

As I look back over this week and forward to the weekend, I reflect on how wine has made my life better.  It started last weekend by reading several books on wine and philosophy and making me think about how wine fulfills all five human senses.  I have always been curious about which senses are the most important and how they effect our enjoyment of life in general and wine in particular.  (Separate blog on this to follow.)

Then Monday after work, I met with a work colleague and client at deVine, one of my favorite wine bars and restaurants.  They client had asked a favor and I was glad to help him out which was why I brought my other colleague along.  Then after that meeting, my colleague and I caught up on his project status and a few other things.  And upon leaving, I saw another contact who is a Partner at a Big Four advisory firm, waved and later that evening received an email from him asking to meet to discuss a large project we may consider doing between his firm and mine.  In 90 minutes, that was quite a good amount of business to get accomplished made more enjoyable by a good glass of wine!

I did not drink wine Tuesday or Wednesday as we were going to a Riedel wine glass masterclass Thursday evening which would include tasting, and then out for a big birthday lunch on Friday at our favorite restaurant in The Hunter Valley, Bistro Molines, where we would be drinking some of my wife's very favorites wines.

Both the Reidel masterclass and lunch were brilliant and among two of the finest events I have ever enjoyed.  Georg Riedel, 10th generation glass maker took us through a brilliant dissertation and tasting on the pleasure of drinking different varieties from different types of glasses and the very noticeable difference in taste and pleasure involved.  I have written on this previously (in total in about seven different posts as I am so impressed with Riedel glassware and their impact on improving the wine drinking experience) and will certainly do so again in the very near future!  Georg also discussed how the shape of the glass effects our smell and taste senses and reinforced what I had been studying over the previous weekend.  It was an amazing two hours spent with a master in like company and was both educational and entertaining.

Birthday wines at Bistro Molines

We then drove this morning to our place in The Hunter Valley and went to Bistro Molines for my wife's birthday lunch.  A pure delight and treasure!  As usual, the food and service were impeccable and the wines we drank (too much of!) were my wife's favorites and truly outstanding.  I will be writing a review on the dessert wine, the 2006 Chateau Rieussec very soon.  And while Bistro Molines certainly has fine glassware, including Riedel to serve from, I was insistent on bringing our own Shiraz and Montrachet Riedel glasses to make sure the wine was served as perfectly as it could be.

And now onto the remainder of our four-day weekend in The Hunter Valley.  I will be reading on wine, writing on wine (I have about 15 ideas for posts and I want to build up an inventory for the next month as I will be otherwise quite busy and it is always good to have a number of posts in reserve), studying a wine appreciation and tasting course and of course, drinking wine.

While my life does not revolve around wine, it certainly is enhanced because of it!  Wine helps me with business, friendship, and fuels my thirst for continuous learning.


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!

Is there a better Semillon than the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1? Possibly

There may be and I will get to that in a minute.  The 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon is considered by some to be the best Semillon ever made.  It is featured in the book 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die.  And 1999 was an iconic vintage for Hunter Valley Semillon.

I love the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon and am fortunate to have a little under a dozen left.  I also love some of the older (especially the 1992) Waverley Estate Semillon.  But let's stick with the 1999 vintage for a while.  This was a great vintage.  Meerea Park makes great wines and along with Tyrrell's and De Iuliis, are my three most favorite wineries in the Hunter Valley.  Meerea Park has the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillon which is comparable to the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 in quality.  It is slightly different in style, but both are classic Hunter Valley Semillons and I have faced these two off against each other previously with split results as to which one is better.

Yesterday, I opened a bottle of the 1999 Meerea Park Terracotta Semillon and what a treat that was!  While cheaper than the Alexander Munro, this is a magnificent wine with quite a different style to the Alexander Munro or the Vat 1.  It is slightly less acidic, tastes of honeyed flavored roasted nuts, caramelized pear with a touch of citrus, and could almost pass as a dessert wine (if it was sweeter still).  This would make a great wine to pair up with quiche, fritatta, or anything else with eggs.  (As if I really need a 'breakfast' wine!)

I had this wine last night with a mushroom risotto and it matched better with the risotto than the Nuits St George Burgundy which I also tried.  (I wanted to try both to compare.)  Most wine critics would recommend a Pinot Noir with a mushroom risotto, but the 1999 Meerea Park Terracotta Semillon was excellent (of course, I also used 100 ml of the Terracotta Semillon in the risotto!) and matched better than the Nuits St George Burgundy at three times the price!

I tend to like my white wines dryer - as in Riesling, and more acidic and on edge - as with aged Chardonnays, but when it comes to Semillons, I find the slightly sweeter and honeyed toasted flavor to be more to my liking.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the 1999 Tyrrell's Vat 1 and the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillons, but the 1999 Meerea Park Terracotta Semillon has won my heart as the one to match up with a lot of different food dishes!

This is a great wine for the money and worth trying.  Check with Meerea Park or on auction sites to see if you can find some - it is well worth the money.


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!

Wine pursuits - by choice

This has been a great Saturday.  With minor commitments and a relatively free reign, I could choose to do what I wanted, and much of that involved wine.  I finished Roger Scruton's great book on wine and philosophy entitled I drink, Therefore I am: A Philosopher's Guide to Wine, and in the reading, generated a lot of different ideas, including a dozen different topics on which to blog over the next few weeks.

And then, looking for another book to add to my pile of books to read (I am currently reading about six), I elected another wine and philosophy book!

I also took the time to respond to four different people who sought me out for advice on different wine topics, including choice of decanters, good wine books to read, my thoughts on some selected Penfold's wines, and to help review a wine list for the opening of a new restaurant.  I spent several hours doing so that could have been used elsewhere, but it was a pleasure to be asked and provide advice on wine topics.

I then made a visit to my wine cellar to select a nice Burgundy (the 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George Grand Cru) to go with a meal of pork belly and mash this evening.  My wonderful wife, DAZ in the Kitchen, does a great pork belly and it deserves a great Pinot Noir to go with it.

I also picked out several bottles of wine for my bride's birthday coming up next weekend.  I always take the day off, and this year, we decided to take off two days from work to spend a four-day weekend at our place in The Hunter Valley.  We will be eating at one of our favorite restaurants, Bistro Molines, and I have selected a 2007 Bouchard Pere & Fils Montrachet and a 1999 Penfolds St Henri (these are of course, two of my wife's favorite wines) to bring along and enjoy with our 2.5 - 3 hour lunch this Friday!  I also selected a few more bottles to bring along for the four-day Easter weekend coming up in three weeks.

There were plenty of choices of things to do today, including exercise, reading other material, going shopping, getting a massage, etc., but I spent most of it reading, thinking about, selecting and drinking wine.

Work has taken a lot of energy recently, and we have also had to focus on other life events of importance.  I was great to have an unencumbered day and to spend most of it in the presence of wine-related activities.  I believe that the virtuous drinking of wine provides a continuous form of redemption - it makes you feel great and makes you appreciative of what you have.  (More on this interesting topic in an upcoming post!)

Drink safely, drink well, and enjoy the wine lifestyle - by choice!


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!

A Cabernet Sauvignon without peer

I am just finishing off a bottle of one of the very best Cabernet Sauvignon wines I have ever had.  I was very fortunate to have bought 21 bottles of this wine and have about 18 left.  It was one of those deals where I tasted the wine, knew it was a winner, and the wine maker was willing to deal as he was ready to be stocking and selling more current vintages.  I paid $45 per bottle for it and it was a steal!  It compares with imported Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends which cost several hundred dollars per bottle.

It is truly an amazing wine.  I shared a bottle last year with one of my friends who is a wine judge and critic and likes his Cabernet Sauvignon wine.  He called it 'ethereal.'  The wine I am referring to is the 2005 Saddler's Creek Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

This wine has large tannins for a Cabernet Sauvignon and coats the inside of your cheeks providing a very long finish.  It possesses strong blackberry and boysenberry flavors.  While more robust than elegant Grand Cru Bordeaux's, it is still refined, beautifully balanced and ripe with giant, live fruit flavors.

I had this wine with a Waygu cheeseburger a few nights ago and it would go great with almost any cut of firm and slightly marbled steak.  This wine is also drinkable on its own as it is so ripe in fruit - it is almost a meal in itself!

I will be careful to allocate this wine over a long period of time as it has at least another ten years of optimum drinking pleasure.  It is a pure delight to drink.  I have had the bottle open for three days now and it is as fresh as when I opened it.

The grapes for this wine are from Langhorne Creek which is well known for some great Cabernet Sauvignon wines.  I drink more Shiraz than Cabernet Sauvignon, but this is a full-bodied red wine and truly enjoyable.  There are not many Cabernet Sauvignon wines or blends you can chew on, but this is one of them.

I have searched high and low and have not found this wine for sale anywhere and expect that most stock has been consumed.  There may be some in a private cellar or two similar to mine, but it will be a difficult wine to source, so I am almost reluctant to promote its praises.  But I wanted to in case you ever do come across a bottle, you will know to scoop it up without question.

Or if you want to try a bottle, then convince me to have a dinner with you, bring a great bottle yourself and I will bring a bottle of the 2005 Saddler's Creek Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon to share!


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!
 

Must I stand corrected on 2013 Hunter Valley vintage?

Yesterday I wrote a post lamenting the persistent rain over the last six weeks in the Hunter Valley and the impact on harvesting this years vintage.  I stand by much of what I said, even though it was based on only one detailed and written vintage and harvesting report and conversations over the last three weeks with several other wine makers.

But in reading my blog, one of the very prominent Hunter Valley wine makers felt I had overstated and misrepresented a number of key points, and I take notice of that and accept his input as another key source of information.  He was prepared for and believes he got a great vintage this year.  I also called several other prominent and smaller size wine makers to get more information.  I had limited data points yesterday and wanted to ensure I had more facts on which to base my statements.  The additional data points from my conversations today can be summarized as follows:

• First and foremost, there will be some great wines from the 2013 Hunter vintage - I did not mean to give the impression the entire vintage was a total write-off!
• The impact of the rain varied by vineyard and it is important to remember that vineyards in Broke, for example, are 30 km from vineyards in Pokolbin, and 45 - 50 km from vineyards in North Rothbury and Dalwood.  Therefore each vineyard will be impacted quite differently throughout the season
• Another prominent vineyard was down about 30% in tonnage of grapes picked this year because of the weather, given credibility to a decent sampling of vineyards that were picking less due to the rain
• Several vineyards reported much more botrytis this year, and not the good kind to make Semillon dessert wines!
• Grapes like Chardonnay and Semillon that ripened and were picked earlier have had excellent results
• Some prominent vineyards had a 'mixed bag' of quality based on when they picked and 'getting caught out' by having to pick at the wrong time.  Therefore, they are separating the batches and reserving the very best grapes for their select wines and considering what to do with the other grapes
• The above point means that while there will still be some great wines from the 2013 vintage, the overall quality will be lower than the outstanding year it could have been had the heavens treated the wine makers more favorably
• The best (and this usually means the biggest and and most experienced) wine makers suffered little as they (1) anticipated the rain patterns and dealt with them better than others, and (2) know what to do to put the grapes to best use once harvested
• Some of the less mature and inexperienced vineyards and wine makers got caught out and suffered accordingly

I therefore probably did overstate (even though I mentioned I came to a figure intuitively) the financial loss from this years vintage due to rain.  It appears to be much smaller than I was 'guess-imating' in yesterday's post.  However, I still am of the opinion that the late rains have had an impact on the quantity and quality of Hunter Valley wines from the 2013 vintage, but my prominent wine maker friend is right in that I over-stated and put more fear into the buying public than I should have for the 2013 Hunter Valley vintage.

There will still be a number of great and great valued wines from this vintage, so as always, I hope you support the great wine makers from the Hunter Valley and buy what you can!  I certainly plan to!


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!

Mother Nature makes a real mess of 2013 Hunter Valley vintage

I had recently published a post where I stated the 2013 Hunter Valley vintage would be among the best of all time.  The content for that post was written in early January, 2013.  However, just before harvesting the bulk of grapes for the 2013 vintage, Mother Nature has deluged the Hunter Valley vineyards persistently and forcibly over the last six weeks.  This has turned the 2013 Hunter vintage from superior to below average on the whims of Mother Nature, God, or some force of bad karma.

The tonnage will be far less than expected and the quality of the grapes far less also.  Many grapes were picked too early, too late, or worst of all - not at all.

I spent a lot of time in the Hunter Valley this vintage and saw the growth of the vines and grapes through almost perfect weather conditions.  My excitement and anticipation of both a large and high quality haul of grapes was unprecedented.  After buying a lot of the 2007 Shiraz vintage and some of the 2009 Shiraz vintage, I was excited that 2013 would be a better vintage than either the 2007 or 2009.

But damn if Mother Nature did not wreak its havoc!  Six straight weeks of tumultuous rain had crippled, if not destroyed the harvest.  The cooperative vineyard where we have a place just released their vintage notes with less than satisfactory results.  I have been following the harvesting schedules of  many of the Hunter wineries and they have had to pick early, late or not pick at all.

There will of course be selected pockets of success and the big growers such as Tyrrell's will have picked as optimally as anyone possibly could have.  But overall, the rain in such a short period of time has turned a once in a decade vintage to an inferior one.  I really feel for the growers and the wine makers.  They may be making 25% - 40% (purely a speculated guess on my behalf!) what they could have had the rain held off.  Why, oh why, is Mother Nature so cruel to wine makers?  And why tempt us all with the promise of such a great vintage to have it mostly destroyed through rain and more rain?

I am heart broken for the Hunter wineries, yet some of them will still do all right.  Bruce Tyrrell will of course still claim it is the vintage of the century as he does most years!  (And having followed in detail the harvesting by Tyrrell's, they seemed to have done as well as they could!)  But many of the smaller wineries would be suffering and wondering why they are in the game at all.  It is one thing to have dry conditions and add a little in irrigation when necessary.  But when you have torrential rains, there is nothing you can do, especially so late in the season.

But so is the cycle of life. And next year is another year.  And many will fail and many will prosper in 2014.  But I was looking to 2013 as the year that many of the coffers of the Hunter Valley wineries would be lined to provide a buffer for future years and that will not happen now due to the cruelty of Mother Nature.

I hope to hear good news from some of the vineyards as to their success in picking grapes at the right time, but am not hopeful that the Hunter Valley overall will have a great vintage when only two months ago, it look like it would be one of the best of all time.

A roll of the dice against the Gods and once more the Gods made their lesson known.  So is the unpredictability and excitement of being a wine grower or wine maker.  Not for the faint of heart!


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!