Saturday 24 January 2015

Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir 2013

Tasmania should be one of the best places to grow Pinot Noir in Australia due to the climate. The team as Shaw and Smith bought this vineyard in 2011 and it is said that it was one of the best vineyards in the area.

Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir 2013

Cherry bomb with a lovely green peppercorn number coming through underneath. It is full in the mouth but does have a nice line and length of structure woven into the fabric of the wine. The wine is a mix of ripe confected cherries and the more cooler Pinot notes of dried herbs, leaf litter and star anise. I think the wine was make with some stalks in the mix and I think it was a perfect idea as it has added complexity and structure to the wine.

Alcohol: 12.5%
Price: $75
Rated: 93
Drink: Now - 2023

2013 Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir

Saturday 17 January 2015

Rosa by KT 2014


Rose or Rosado, as it is called in Spain and Portugal, is often very light in colour as this one is. This wine spent 24 hours in contact with the skins. The grapes were allowed to undergo wild fermentation in a mix of stainless steel and old French oak.  I loved the colour of the wine as I thought it would mean that this was a dry style of Rosado. More dry styles should be produced as it makes them easier to drink more of it on a warm summer’s day plus it pairs better with food.
 

Rosa by KT 2014

The wine is a blend of 65% Grenache and 35% Tempranillo with the Grenache taking centre stage at this stage. The flavours of confected strawberries and brown sugar dominate and make this more of a sweet style wine. I’m not a fan of the flavour profile but the texture is rather nice. Nice acidity with a bit of thickness on the mid-palate keeps my interest but I think that there is way too much residual sugar hanging around. I’m not sure why as I think this would have been made in a dry style. Oh well better luck next time.

 
Alcohol: 12.5%
Price: $22
Rated: 84
Drink: over summer but will go another couple of years

Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve NV


I love the story about how Champagne came to being. The climate near Reims is cold with even the summers being very mild but with good daylight hours.  The grapes ripen slowly and are normally picked in autumn just before the big chill kicks in. What would have happened back in the time when the area was establishing itself was that the temperature drop would have resulted in the yeast and ferments slowing down to a standstill while the yeast goes into hibernation.  Many wine-makers would have bottled, what they thought was a still wine, only to find that when the weather warmed up they would have wine bottles exploding around them. The bottles would have needed to change to accommodate the bubbles and a new closure developed.  Now bubbles are opened on a mass scale and I have to congratulate the leaders in Champagne for persisting with the development in the early days.

 

Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve NV

 

My wife sucked down half the bottle before I could put the first sip to my mouth so I was thinking this was going to be good. The wine has precision and drive with plenty of champagne goodness. To start with moments of roasted nuts and glazed sweet bread emerge before transitioning to strawberry meringue, lemon rind and cut quartz. The flavours hold long enough to be recognised before moving onto the next delightful experience. There is depth of flavour and structure to keep this going for a while but I would recommend drinking this now and just buying another bottle if you run out.

 
Alcohol: 12%
Price: $65
Rated: 92
Drink: Now