Blackbilly Sangiovese 2009 & roast duck pasta

The Blackbilly name is truly linked to the Australian landscape as it is the Yacca tree which is unique to our heritage.   This wine is made by Nick Hazelgrove and he is based in McLaren Vale which happens to have some very good Sangiovese vines.  The 2009 vintage was plagued by heat suggesting that the wines may not age as well but will show well on release. On the bottle of this wine Nick recommends that a duck pasta would be the perfect match so I thought I should give it a go.

Roast Duck Pasta

400 gr best possible penna pasta you can find
3 cloves garlic
1/2  Cantonese Roast Duck, pulled apart
Duck fat as reqiured
salt and pepper for taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Place pasta in boiling water and cook until tender. While pasta is cooking heat a pan on a medium temperature.  Melt some duck fat in pan and add garlic, sauté until tender. When pasta is ready, drain and the add garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper, roasted duck and more duck fat to pasta.  Serve immediately. This recipe is dead easy as I cheat by buying the Duck at my local Chinese markets.

While this meal was divine it did not have enough stuffing to compete with the flavours of the wine.  A better match would be pepper steak or any full bodied dish.

Blackbilly Sangiovese 2009

This is a rather full bodied Sangiovese but I guess that was always going to be the case as it comes from a hot vintage. There is a little charry oak at play but it soon settles down to reveal pepper and spice with a side serve of cherry delight.  This is so easy to drink and it does have a funky earthy element that provides a nice counter point to the ripe fruit.  On the back of the palate there is a bit of alcohol heat but this would work well with a skewered steak on the end of your fork. What this wine has is typical for sangiovese and that is nice acidity, an easy feel and food friendliness.

Alcohol: 14.5%
Price: $22
Rated: 86
Drink: Now - 2016

Guigal Chateau d'Ampuis 2005

The Chateau d'Ampuis is a stronghold that is situated next to it's own village.  The stronghold or castle has been used since the Roman times and is a beacon of light for the area. As is normal for castles built around that period the architecture is statesman like with cylindrical turrets on one end with large witches hat roofing to allow for the snow to slip off easily. The building is used today when celebration and prestige are in order.

Guigal Chateau d'Ampuis 2005

You have to love a big time wine in a big time glass as it brings with it a sense of occasion. This wine does so in a big old fashion like one of those macho wrestlers did in the early 90s. You know the one I mean. The one with big muscles but with a top that was just too small for him. Were you into that sort of thing back then? Well most probably yes but now you look back at yourself and are a little red cheeked about the whole thing. Now back to the wine. It is flush with roasted meat complexity and big ripe blackcurrant and polished leather aromas that translate perfectly on to the palate. There is also a little rust and red fruit action building on my palate which suggest that while this tastes new world, you can feel a bit of old world coming through.

Alcohol: 13%
Price: $250
Rated: 93
Drink: 2015 - 2030
Importer: Negociants Australia

Bremerton Old Adam Shiraz 2009

The Langhorne Creek agricultural area was first founded as it was close to the Bremer and Angus Rivers which allowed for people to utilise the watering capacity around the critical periods over the growing season. While many would think of the Barossa or McLaren Vale as the best tourist destinations, Langhorne Creek provides brilliant value wines from top to bottom plus some spectacular historical buildings such as the hotel which was built in 1850s and you can still have a meal at the bar today.

Bremerton Old Adam Shiraz 2009

Boom, boom, boom, boom goes the heart of this wine. This is a big gun of a wine with plenty of bourbon, smoked plum and molasses flavours mixing with chocolate and marshmallow fruits. The power of the fruit can deal with the level of oak but it still took two days for the balance to come around which suggests you shouldn't open this now. Repeat Do Not Open This Now! I really liked this wine but only a little more than the 2010 Selkirk which makes me think I should watch out for the 2010 version of the Old Adam. It is a little unfair to judge two different vintages against each other, especially when 2010 is such a brilliant vintage.

Alcohol: 15%
Price: $50
Rated: 88 +
Drink: 2017 - 2026

Castagna Un Segreto 2009 plus eggplant lasagna

Castagna walks to the beat of his own drum as he was one of the first in the Beechworth region to plant an Italian variety and was also one of the first to adopt a biodynamic approach to vineyard management. The vineyard is 500 m above sea level and there are herbs and wild grasses speckled throughout the vineyard which attract bees and other positive wild life. If there is something that is attacking the vines these positive wildlife, such as birds, come in to eat those little nasty things. You really have to take your hat off to the people that can think outside the box and adopt a life style that is both good for their own health and good for the health of the vine. Julian is one of those guys and he has a clear vision about what variety should be planted where! I think this wine is the future for blends in Australia as it combines food friendliness and drink-ability in one.

I made this meal to match with Julian's wine and it did so superbly. Watch out that you don't reduce the tomatoes too much as this increases the level of richness in the dish.

Eggplant Lasagne

2 x boxes of fresh Lasagne sheets.
200 g pecorino
5 large eggplants, sliced
flour
oil
3 large tins of chopped tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed

Place tomatoes, onion and garlic in large pot and simmer until reduced. Heat pan and add oil. Roll eggplant in flour to cover and then fry in oil until tender. removed from heat and set aside. Heat oven to 180 degrees. In a large baking dish cover the bottom with tomato sauce and then layer lasagne sheet, eggplant, tomato and pecorino until you have reached just inside the top of the dish. Add another layer of lasagne sheet and then over with tomato sauce and pecorino. Cover with foil and place in oven for 20 min and then remove foil and cook for a further 15 min.

Castagna Un Segreto 2009

Medium bodied wine goes perfectly with medium bodied food so this match works perfectly. The Un Segreto is a 60% Sangiovese and 40% Shiraz blend that is lip smackingly dry and savoury with its perfume aromas and wild blueberries bouncing around before light red-fruits and spice take a strangle hold. At this stage the wine is holding is cards close to its chest but it still shows great flavours and mouth watering acidity. The best thing about this wine is the tannins! They are some of the best tannins in the country as they are light yet perfectly balanced with the favours and they spread out on my tongue like a fan that has opened out for the first time. Furthermore the wine is totally balanced with a little extra funky town action that is happening on the back palate.

Alcohol: 13.5%
Price: $75
Rated: 92 +
Drink: 2015 - 2024

Brokenwood Regional Blend Shiraz 2009

Brokenwood make a variety of wines from fruit from all over the country. When I first opened the box and noticed the label I was immediately felt a glow of joy as I thought I was in for some Hunter Valley magic but alas on closer inspection this wine comes from McLaren Vale and from a very warm vintage.    This wine is 70% McLaren Vale with a touch, 30%, of Beechworth thrown in.

Brokenwood Regional Blend Shiraz 2009

When I normally taste I have at least five bottles open at one time so I can track their development over three to seven days but with this wine I just kept on wanting to go back to this over all the other wines.  This wine does have richness, through the flavours of tar and chocolate, woven through it but it never gets a head of itself.  There are even elements of glazed cherries and spice mixed with dark plums that freshen the palate right up. In fact I wrote down elegant in a lighter full bodied style across the top of my notes.  In the end I thought a lot of this wine and even though there was a little alcohol warmth on the back palate, for the vintage this is spectacular. I guess that one of the things that takes it up the quality spectrum was the fact that I drank more of this wine that the other samples combined as it was so appealing. 

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $32

Rated: 89

Drink: Now or over the next 7 years

Michael Hall Roussanne 2011

Roussanne can pair so well with so many different foods, especially if it is made in a chiseled and sculptured manner like this one. There is not much of this variety in Australia, which might be due to the fact that it is difficult to grow well and if handled incorrectly will oxidise quickly. Roussanne loves to be paired with any sort of root vegetable and bird even if there is a thick creamy white sauce lathered on top. It is the sort of wine that would be perfect when it starts to get a bit cooler, like it is now.

Michael Hall Roussanne 2011

It is amazing that this wine is so together and complete at such a young age.  The mouthfeel is creamy and slippery with a line of acidity running down the centre of the wine. As the wine travels down my tongue it moves from lightness to a rich mid-palate and then finishes with a lightness which is both invigorating and mesmerising at the same stage. I'm not going to even worry about the flavours but I will say that complexity is not an issue.

Alcohol: 13%
Price: $35
Rated: 90
Drink: give it 5 years before opening your first one.

Dawson & James Chardonnay 2010

I always get excited when I see bottle of wine from a new winery come across my tasting bench.  This wine is the first release from two gentlemen that have been in the industry for donkeys years. In fact they have retired many times from different wineries.  The vineyard that this wine comes from used to make it's way into the top wine from Bay of Fires.

Dawson & James Chardonnay 2010

Massive barrel ferment characters yell from the bottle as soon as I open it but they soon mellow out and allow the bright flavours of grapefruit and peach skin to take the stage.  On day one, the entry of the wine was a little too sweet but by day five everything was humming along. This is a beautiful wine with huge amounts of flavours like toffee, gunpower, smoked spice and nuts woven into the fabric of the wine. At 42 bucks it provides very good value for a wine of this quality.  The only thing that let me down from moving the wine into stupid value territory was the weak mid-palate but I would still happily stash these away for a while before I pulled them out at a party.


Alcohol: 12%
Price: $42
Rated: 89
Drink: 2017 - 2025