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AUSTRALIAN WINES
- TORBRECK
 This
magnificent brand is one we've followed for a number of years, but it's only
fairly recently that we've brought in some of Dave Powell's wine.
His Pop had been an accountant and Dave was on a career path which would
have taken him to bean counting, as well. An uncle introduced him to
wine and soon he found himself exploring the wine business in California and
Italy. He took the wrong exit off the freeway in Europe and was in
Scotland, working as a lumberjack.-
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- When he came back home to Australia, he was associated with winemaker
Robert O'Callaghan, a major figure in the Barossa Valley wine scene.
Powell thought there might be some benefit to "old vines" and
was disappointed that the government offered money to land owners to rip
out their vineyards in the 1980s. He offered to cultivate some of
these old parcels and rejuvenated numerous vineyards. In the 1990s
he began vinifying the fruits of his labor and the first Torbreck wines
were made.
And the name, Torbreck, was selected thanks to his lumberjack days in
Scotland...it's the name of a forest near Inverness in the Highlands...
Powell is a fan of French Rhone Valley wines and he found old patches of
Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre in the Barossa Valley. A few years
after starting his own brand, Powell was able to purchase some land and he
planted white varieties such as Viognier, Marsanne and
Roussanne.
 We
have a youthful, wonderful red wine from Torbreck. It was initially
made exclusively for a Parisian wine bar owned by Tim
Johnston.
Monsieur Johnston speaks a moderate amount of English as does Mr. Powell
and so the wine is sold under the name "Juveniles," as that's
Johnston's wine bar. The painting on the label is the work of
Johnston's daughter, Carolyn.
Dave & Tim both share an appreciation for wines from the Rhone Valley
and the Juveniles cuvee is a blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Shiraz and 20%
Mourvedre. We like the berry and spice notes in this delicious red
wine. It also strikes us as having the perfect balance of fruit and
oak (it was not wood-aged, by the way). Not a wine intended for
cellaring, this is a delight served at cool cellar temp.
 We
liked the 2009 "Woodcutter's Shiraz," a wine named to recall
Powell's days as a lumberjack. Of course, given how much oak one
often finds in so many Aussie Shiraz, you might be led to believe this
wine is going to have a forest-full of wood. But, in fact, the wine
is matured for about a year in older cooperage, so wood is not a feature
of this wine. It's a medium-full bodied Shiraz. A sales rep
for the local distributor told us a group of sommeliers picked this wine
as either an Old World Barbera (Really? It's not terribly acidic!)
or an Old World Syrah (not sure what Syrah wines they're drinking from the
Old World...).
Well, we like the wine because it's not a hugely-oaked Aussie Shiraz and
yet it doesn't remind us much of Northern Rhone wines, either. It's
simply a nice, robust, big red with dark fruit notes. There may be a
very subtle spice note in there, but you'll have to dive deeply to find
it. The wine is very pretty now, though and it will probably do well
over the next three to five years in terms of aging.
Other wines in the Torbreck line-up include a Semillon, a
Roussanne-Marsanne blend, Woodcutter's Shiraz and proprietary reds such as
The Steading, The Struie, The Factor, The Pict and Les Amis (we can order
these for you).
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Currently in stock: 2009 TORBRECK
"JUVENILES" Sale $19.99
2009 TORBRECK "WOODCUTTER'S SHIRAZ" $21.99
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KILIKANOON
 We've had
wine from Kilikanoon for many years, so folks here probably think it's an
old and storied winery from Australia's Barossa Valley.
Well, yes and no.
The winery was founded in 1997, though the Mitchell family has
many decades of affiliations with the Australian wine industry. Kevin
Mitchell runs the place, but his father Mort was a vineyard specialist for quite
a number of years before the Kilikanoon winery got off the ground.
In the early days, the fruit from various vineyards was vinified at Dave
Powell's Torbreck facility. The first vintages were a mere thousand or two
cases of wine. These days, holy smoke!, the enterprise has hundreds of
acres of grapes and they make a boat-load of wines. In fact, things are so
out of control, they have ventured to France where they have a couple of
winemaking projects. Mitchell is working on sparkling wine in the Loire
and dealing with a grower's cooperative cellar in the Northern Rhone in an
effort to produce both Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage.
Success came early to Mitchell and his little winery producing 2000 cases in
1997 mushrooms to 40,000 in just ten years! Since the start, he's taken on
some investors and they've become big land barons, farming extensive acreage and
selling grapes to a number of wineries.
The investors also bought the famous Seppeltsfield winery with its remarkable
cellar full of fortified sweet wines.
We've often found the Kilikanoon wines to be good quality.
 Currently
we have a 2008 Killerman's Shiraz in stock. This is sort of an entry level
bottling of Shiraz and you'll probably wonder "if this is the entry level
wine, what do the special bottlings taste like?"
The 2008 is fairly dark in color and displays a nice blackberry fruit
quality. It's not a huge, pushing-the-envelope sort of Aussie
Shiraz. We find it rather well-mannered and one might even use the word
"elegant" in describing the wine.
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Currently in stock: 2008 KILIKANOON "Killerman's
Run" SHIRAZ $18.99
2002 KILIKANOON "Sybarites" $17.99
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PENLEY
 The
Penley label is fairly new, but the fellow behind it has great pedigree in
the Australian wine world.
That man would be Kym Tolley and he's the great-great-great grandson of
Christopher Rawson-Penfold. And of course, he's a Tolley family
member, another old name in Australian wine.
The winery name, then, comes from PENfold and tolLEY.
Remember, he's a winemaker, not a rocket scientist!
The Penley winery was founded in 1988, well after Kym Tolley had worked at
the Penfolds winery and Grange Hermitage winemaker Max Schubert.
The property covers something like 166 hectares and they've planted
approximately two-thirds of the estate. They're in the Coonawarra region,
so Cabernet is a prominent feature of the Penley roster of wines.
The first vintage was 1989 and a decade later they built a new cellar.
The Penley style seems to be that of elegance, rather than power.
These sorts of wines probably won't appeal to the fans of Marquis
Phillips, Molly Dooker or Two Hands brands.
We have Penley's 2009 "Phoenix" Cabernet in stock. You
might think Tolley chose the Phoenix name as he's resurrected some old
winery, vineyard or the like. But, in fact, a Tolley family member
had purchased the Phoenix Winemaking & Distilling Company back in 1888
before changing the name to “Tolley Scott Tolley."
The wine is entirely Cabernet Sauvignon and it spent 15 months in wood,
28% of the cooperage being brand new French oak. It's intended for
immediate drinking, rather than cellaring, so enjoying a bottle of this
wine over the next couple of years is ideal.
We can order other Penley wines for you...
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Currently in stock: 2009 PENLEY Coonawarra
"Phoenix" CABERNET SAUVIGNON SALE $19.99
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TALTARNI
 The
Taltarni name has been around a good number of years now and it's never
really gotten much of a hold in the California market, despite having ties
to the Napa Valley.
The California Connection would be with the Clos du Val winery, a nice
little producer located south of the Stags Leap District. Both
Taltarni and Clos du Val have French connections, too.
The wineries are owned by a fellow named John Goelet. He is a
descendant of the French wine family called Guestier, as in B&G
(Barton & Gustier). Goelet set up two wineries at nearly the
same time hiring the French-born Portet brothers to run each facility.
Bernard Portet took care of the Napa winery and his younger brother
Dominique ran the Taltarni winery. They are 9th generation
winemakers, it seems and their Pop was the regisseur of a somewhat
well-known little estate in Bordeaux known as
Lafite-Rothschild.
Taltarni, located in the state of Victoria, had started out with perfectly
nice, well-made Shiraz and later added a very good Sauvignon Blanc.
They're in the Pyrenees, about 135 miles northwest of Melbourne. In
1997 they added some acreage in the slightly warmer area of Heathcote,
about 90 miles east of the "home" vineyard in
Moonambel.
In 1986 the company added a property in Tasmania for the production of
sparkling wine. Those wines bear the Clover Hill label.
The local distributor still had some 2004 Taltarni Pyrenees Shiraz and so
we pulled the cork on a bottle in late 2011 to see "what's
what." We found a rather nice wine...still quite alive and
showing elegance and finesse rather than power and fruit-bomb notes.
There's a fragrance we associate with violets and cassis on the nose and
the wine is medium-bodied, not heavy or robust. For our palates,
this was quite smooth. It's a good example of Aussie Shiraz without
being 'extreme'. And it's well-priced.
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Currently in stock: 2004 TALTARNI Pyrenees
SHIRAZ $13.99
BROKENWOOD
 The
Brokenwood story is a remarkable one, in that involves some "heavy
hitters" in the world of Australian wine.
The winery was founded as a hobby for three Sydney-based attorneys, John
Beeston, Tony Albert and a fellow whose fingerprints are all over the
world of Australian wine, James Halliday.
The trio purchased ten acres of land and planted Cabernet Sauvignon and
Shiraz on what was going to be a sports field for cricket.
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- That's James Halliday back in the early 1970s...
- Another famous wine guru, Len Evans, was instrumental at the beginning,
pitching in and lending a hand in 1973 for the first harvest.
The enterprise grew in 1978 when a half a dozen more investors joined the
company and allowed Brokenwood to buy another "plot" of land
neighboring the estate. In fact, that turf was intended to be a cemetery,
but today it's known as the Graveyard Vineyard.
They were also able to buy fruit, purchasing Cabernet in Coonawarra.
In 1982 things stepped up even more. The investors hired a real
winemaker and managing director for Brokenwood. Iain Riggs has been
with the company ever since and he was instrumental in Brokenwood becoming
a major producer of Hunter Valley Semillon. White wine was not part
of their portfolio until then...and the partners were thirsting for some
white wine.
In 1986 the staff doubled in size when they hired an assistant winemaker!
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- Today there are 27 "partners" in the enterprise and the avowed
mission statement involves making wines which "deliver value for the
money" and which "over deliver" at that.
The winemaking crew at Brokenwood will tell you it takes a lot of
"GUTS" to make good wines. They consider GUTS to stand for
"Grapes Unique to Site."
Well, we were first introduced to the Brokenwood wines by some wine-savvy
friends in New York. I recall tasting some very distinctive
red wine...something like this...
- Today the place is quite large and they make a vast array of
wines. It's quite a big business compared to such humble
beginings.
Semillon and Shiraz are our interests here, but the company now makes just
about everything under the sun. Viognier, Pinot Gris,
Chardonnay, Cabernet, Pinot Noir...Roussanne, Nebbiolo...and they make a
bunch of sweet wines, too.
The top of the line Semillon is called "ILR" Semillon and the
ILR stands for the initials of winemaker/GM Iain Leslie Riggs. In a
warm vintage such as 2003, they didn't make very much, using only a small
portion of their production for this straightforward wine. It's
fermented in stainless steel tanks with no oak aging and no
malolactic. They bottled it not long after its fermentation and used
screw cap closures, assuring it should have a long life span.
It's a low alcohol wine, weighing in at just 11%, with corresponding high
acidity.
What's remarkable is they don't release this until it's five years of age
and it's still a baby! While the wine has a nice austerity on the
palate, there's a lot of character and fairly deep flavors.
We also have a few bottles of their 2006 Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz.
This vintage was unusual in that they harvested much earlier than normal
as a result of low yields and a fairly dry growing season.
The juice gets a few days of cold-soaking before a warm and rapid
fermentation...then it's into barrel where they encourage a
malolactic. The wine is then matured in a high percentage of new
wood and there's a four-to-one ratio of French to American
cooperage. The wine is medium-full on the palate (it's below 14%
alcohol...imagine that!) and shows nice dark fruit and hint of spice and
some oak/mocha-like notes.
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Currently in stock: 2003 ILR SEMILLON Sale
$39.99
2006 GRAVEYARD VINEYARD SHIRAZ SALE $99.99
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PIRRAMIMMA
 The
Johnston family arrived in the McLaren Vale in the late 1800s and purchased
nearly a hundred hectares of farmland. Pioneer Alexander
Johnston named the place "Pirramimma," an Aboriginal word for
"moon and stars."
Geoff and Alex Johnston now run the place. They're the grandsons of
the founder and they're making some interesting wines.
We first noticed this brand when I purchased a bottle of Petit Verdot.
I know this grape has fallen a bit out of favor in Bordeaux, but I was
curious to see what an Aussie could do with it. The few California
wines made of Petit Verdot struck me as nice blending components, but not a
wine which really stands well on its own.
Amazingly, the Pirramimma is magnificent and I find it be a nice, deep and
balanced wine. Dark and fairly deep, it's got nice black fruit aromas
and a mild woodsy element. Medium-full bodied and quite drinkable now,
you can serve this with "Cabernet Cuisine."
Currently in stock:
PIRRAMIMMA PETIT VERDOT $22.99-
- MOUNT LANGHI GHIRAN
 The work of
a man named Trevor Mast, this is a relatively new property located in Victoria, not too
far from Taltarni. Mr. Mast has an impressive résumé, starting with studies at
Germany's famous winemaking school in Geisenheim, followed by stops at Stellenbosch in
South Africa and then making Show Reserve wines at Seppelts before starting at Mount
Langhi in 1980.
He's a fan of the wines of the Rhone Valley, so you won't find
Cabernet-styled, oak-burdened Syrah/Shiraz here. The Shiraz, a much sought-after red
wine, has hints of peppery spice. Mast also makes a good Cab/Merlot
blend which has a hint of wood, but not the knock-you-over-the-head levels of oak of many
Aussie wines. There's a softer, milder red called "Billi Billi Creek" (I
guess one "Billi" wasn't enough) and this is a blend of Cabernet, Grenache and
Shiraz...nice plummy fruit and a berryish quality with just a touch of oak.
Mast
also makes a dynamite red wine under the "Four Sisters" label (he has four
daughters) from McLaren Vale fruit and this is a fruity, spicy, peppery red which
showcases (marvelously!) Grenache with a dollop of Shiraz.
- Currently available:
- Mount Langhi 1996 "Billi Billi Creek" $17.99
- Mount Langhi 1995 "Langi" Cabernet/Merlot #34.99
- Mount Langhi 1996 "Langi" Shiraz $31.99
- CHARLES MELTON WINES
 Melton's
is a tiny winery in the Barossa Valley located in the shadows of Penfolds, Wolf Blass and
Orlando.
However, while those wineries spill more wine in a month than Melton makes
in a year, his quality has people lined up in hopes of acquiring a bottle of wine.
Knowing that Grenache, of which he owns some rather old vines, is thought to be
somewhat "noble" by those compatriots in the southern Rhone Valley, Melton
decided to make a Chateauneuf-du-Pape-styled blend (Australia's version of Randall Grahm's
Le Cigare Volant?).
As he's not fluent in French, Melton's translation in
"Australian-speak" came out as "Nine Popes." (Neuf,
of course, is both the number 9 as well as signifying "new" as in
Chateauneuf). While this is
comical to some people, the wine is quite serious and the fact that it's nearly impossible
to obtain is even less funny. The wine has nice spiciness and a mildly cedary
note from the touch of oak you'll find in this Grenache-dominated blend.
Typically it incorporates a bit of Syrah and Mourvèdre.
He also makes a
sensational Rosé from Grenache, a deep-colored pink wine with exceptionally raspberryish
fruit and mild spice notes. It is quite dry and a bit fuller in body than a typical
rosé. In Australia it's called Rose of Virginia in honor of Mrs. Melton.
Here, the U.S. government made him change the label so people would not
think the wine was from the state of Virginia.
- Currently available: Charles Melton 2002 "Nine Popes"
$39.99 (last bottles)
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D'ARENBERG A prominent winery in the McLaren Vale of South Australia, D'Arenberg,
ironically, was owned by a teetotaler in the early part of the 1900s. Today they
make 120,000 cases of an impressive portfolio of wines. Maybe
more. There are 45 wines listed on their website currently!
Many are relatively simple bottlings and they may have a good market for
them at home and at the cellar door, but these don't find a home in our
shop.
At one time, this brand seemed like a reliable producer. We tasted a
few of their recent bottlings which have been bottled with screw-caps and
these showed "reductive" notes on the nose, with stinky, H2S
aromas. It may be, however, that the wines went into the bottle in
good condition, but that these more secure closures have allowed the wines
to veer off course and into a curiously funky state.
More serious from D'Arenberg are their Shiraz wines.
They also make a wine they could
probably call "Really Old Vine Shiraz," but instead it's labeled as "Dead
Arm Shiraz." This is because the vines are so old an "arm" is
actually nothing but dead wood (not to be confused with oak or the sawdust some producers
use to flavor their wines!).
Older vintages, we seem to recall, had some Cabernet in the blend, but
recent notes from the winery do not indicate this is their current
practice.
There are a few bottles of the 2007 Dead Arm in stock...a magnificent
wine. In tasting a number of D'Arenberg wines, this remains the most
interesting from a connoisseur standpoint.
It's a fairly full-bodied Shiraz, showing lots of black fruit notes and a
mild spice tone. The oak is present, but well-matched by the
fruit. It's a delight now, despite its relative youth, and probably
can last another ten, or so years.
- Currently available:
- D'Arenberg "Dead Arm" Shiraz 2007 (Sale) $59.99
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