THE WOOLLAHRA HOTEL - 'Pinot Noir around Australia'
This year there were 160 wines on
show at The Woollahra Hotel 'Pinot Noir
Around Australia' tasting.
With that many wines the best one
can hope to do is concentrate on a region or focus on recommendations from the
'experts' there.
As I have an affinity for wines
from the Mornington Peninsula I concentrated on the 26 wines on show from that
region (alas from only 16 wineries).
The 2001 Kooyong looked good, the ‘Massale’ lived up to expectations but
although the much sought after ‘Haven’ was listed, it was not available for
tasting.
The 2003 Port Phillip Estate showed to be very restrained, almost raw,
although quite cherry evident, and the
2003 Scorpo looked pretty good in this line-up.
The 2003 Moorooduc ‘Devil Bend Creek’ 2003 was one of the better Mornington
Peninsula wines. Winemaker Ric McIntyre
manages to introduce enjoyable, challenging complexities into his wines.
The well promoted Gold Medal
Winner at the Red Hill Show, the Darling
Park 2004, was unapproachable, herbaceous and a completely fragmented
wine. One must ask in what company it
won the Gold Medal, or indeed who the judges were?
A Mornington Estate 2002 at $18.99 was excellent value and not unlike
a less expensive Santenay in its flavour profile.
All Willow Creek wines were under-whelming.
Paringa Estate - 2002,
2003 Reserve and 2004 PE, showed varying degrees of hard, bitter and short
flavours and was nothing like the Reserve seen at the Mornington Peninsula
Pinot Noir Conference just some weeks ago.
The Stonier 2003 looked very saleable albeit with their predictable
fruit driven, firm tannin style [$42.99].
This wine is very popular at The Woollahra Hotel and Centennial Hotel
(my two locals).
Red Hill seem to have
some serious winemaking/fruit problems with the 2000 Red Hill Classic Reserve
sour and astringent [$32.99].
Of the few others I was able to
try I would recommend Curly Flat
2002 [this is still readily available and excellent], Apsley Gorge 2001 [one of the best wines I tasted], Lenswood 2002, Ashton Hills 2003 and Carlei
Green Vineyards 2002.
The Domaine A 2001 from Tasmania was a shocker with overpowering leafy
characters and very feral flavours. The
Phillip Jones Old Cellar 2003 was
cloudy, astringent and plain weird.
The Yarra Valley Long Flat 2004 at $12.99 was a good value-for-money
example. The firmly structured Sarsfield
Estate 2002 at $23.99 is also good value and worth trying.
The most expensive wine on show
was the Curlewis Reserve at $82,
which must be a reflection of the costs of viticulture rather than the quality
of the wine.
John Cunnington runs The Art of Wine & Food in Woollahra and is well known for speaking his mind!