Day: December 7, 2014

WSET Diploma

Lazy summer nights: Yalumba 2013 Old Bush Vine Grenache

Posted on by Josh

Yalumba 2013 Old Bush Vine Grenache[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

Grenache, especially from the new world, is the alcoholic embodiment of lazy summer nights in your underwear at home while your gut hangs out and all you want to do is watch videos of cats and turn on Netflix. (Wow, invite me over already and I’ll bring the pizza.)

The grape is an early budder and late ripener, and therefore needs sunlight and heat. It’s also a plump grape with thin skins, which equates to a fuller body without being too tannically textured, and let’s not forget about how much alcohol the grape can pump out as a result of its own gut. The grape isn’t often impressively intense in flavours, but all these reasons are exactly why Grenache is often blended.… read more

WSET Diploma

Like a supermodel: Abel’s Tempest 2012 Pinot Noir

Posted on by Josh

Abel's Tempest 2012 Pinot Noir[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

The wine was kinda like a supermodel, we sort of agreed: pretty, but just a tad skinny. Not in an overtly negative way, of course, but just as part of its personality: the wine did have a good level of intensity and concentration, even though some complexity and length was left to the imagination.

For old world Pinot, I find that there can be that difficult balance between being elegant and being watery. There’s a bit of a parallel in warmer regions, where you don’t want to amp up the volume too much, since excessive ripeness can take over Pinot’s elegance. So it’s great that Pinot is being grown in the cooler pockets like the Yarra Valley and Tasmania, where we can find ballsier but balanced versions of Pinot Noir.… read more

WSET Diploma

Because you know I’m all about that bass: Fraser Gallop 2011 Chardonnay

Posted on by Josh

Fraser Gallop 2011 Chardonnay[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

It’s so easy to typecast Australian white wines as nothing but pillowy Chardonnays – and it’s a fair statement if you compared Australia to, say, Burgundy. But Australia is a huge place, spanning the same area as a good chunk of Europe’s grape-growing regions, and it makes sense that there are lots and lots of exceptions to the rule.

This Chardonnay from Western Australia had higher acid than I expected (though it was probably selected to show the potential of Australia for such things), and it also had this toasted nut character I find in Australian Chards, which seem to be clouded by buttery creamed corn in a lot of Californian versions.… read more

WSET Diploma

A freshly opened can of tennis balls: Pewsey Vale 2006 “The Contours” Riesling

Posted on by Josh

Pewsey Vale 2006 "The Contours" Riesling[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

Anyone who knows the austere and rubbery Australian Rieslings à la Somm‘s “freshly opened can of tennis balls” knows that this is an example of a wine that splits people in the middle so much that I become afraid of suggesting it to customers (and friends) without what’s essentially a verbal pre-installation Terms and Conditions page that they’ll pretend to read.

I’ve literally heard stories of people who return bottles of Clare or Eden Valley Riesling (one of the bottles which was this exact one) because they believe them to be flawed or “off”. I once held a meeting with some UBC Wine Club executives and chose a bottle of the Watervale Clare Valley Riesling, amongst others, as a wine that we could enjoy while we held our big annual retreat, subsequently followed by me making everyone watch Somm.… read more

WSET Diploma

“Scenic World” – Beirut: Tahbilk 2011 Marsanne

Posted on by Josh

Tahbilk 2011 Marsanne[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

I’ve had this wine several times in the past, and I’m stoked that I had it in a blind setting to confirm my thoughts! I had this wine for the first time a couple of years ago (though a different vintage, I’m sure) when I was just getting into wine, hardly knowing that Marsanne was a grape and that Australia grew it. Upon smelling it, at the time, I was reminded of some sort of rubbery and mineral-driven Australian Riesling with a similar limey edge, but with lower acidity.

There’s a hint of that honeyed element that I find some descriptions exaggerate, in terms of Marsanne, but I’ve been able to pick it up the more and more I try this wine, and now blind. … read more