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This evening let us have a peek at the wines of Australia that
we may not normally think about when we decide to purchase a bottle
of Australian wine. Mireille
Sauvé,
just recently back from Australia, was full of information about
the Australian wine industry, and these interesting wines.
 Mireille
let us know that Australia, just like France, has a long history
of blending. Wolf Blass is a good example of this. That being
said, there is now a trend for more single vineyard produced wines,
which is what we are seeing in the wines for this evening.
Our reception wine was the sparkling Banrock
Station Sparkling Chardonnay. This is a non-vintage
sparkling wine. The winery, Banrock Station, is owned by Hardys.
The wienry is located in the Riverland area (Murray River). The
wine has a pale straw colour. It has pleasant acidity. There are
flavours of peach, lime and melon. We did try to locate a non-Chardonnay
sparkling wine for our reception wine, but were not successful.
These wines are produced in Australia, but we currently do not
have access to them in BC.
 Our
first white wine was the Bremerton Verdelho. The Verdelho
grape is a native of Portugal. In Australia it is tied in plantings
with Riesling. This wine was pale straw in appearance, with a
honeydew melon aroma. The taste was of melon and apple. It had
nice light acidity. We talked about this wine being good for sipping
out on the patio in the summer as well as being a good food wine.
The Tahbilk Marsanne was our second wine. The Marsanne
grape is originally from Southern France and is a spicy grape.
As such, this wine is a food wine. This wine has a bit deeper
yellow appearance compared to the Verdelho. The aromas were of
honeysuckle and lychee. The taste was of tropical fruit, some
green apple with a clove/nutmeg spice finish.
Henschke Innes Vineyard is very well known for their "Hill
of Grace" wine, which competes head to head with Penfold's
Grange wine. They are also producing their Henschke Innes Vineyard
Pinot Gris. The Pinot Gris is a cool climate grape, making
very nice wines in BC. With Australia's hot climate, you would
not expect Pinot Gris to be grown here. This vineyard is located
in the Adelaide Hills which is in the Mount Lofty Ranges east
of the city of Adelaide giving some cooler temperatures. This
wine has a medium yellow colour with some pink tinge. Note this
grape does have pink in it's skin. The bouquet has some oak and
aromas of peach and other sweet fruits. This wine has low acidity,
has some sweetness, and flavours of peach, lime and some spice.
Our
next wine was the De Bortoli Dry Semillon. This wine is
no longer available unblended. We were told the 1995 vintage may
have been the last vintage for this particular wine. So the members
that attended this tasting had an exceptional chance to experience
a wine that is no longer available. The Simillon grape has high
acidity when young, but loses it's acidity and gains complexity
as it ages. The 1995 vintage was excellent for Semillon in Australia.
There was some rain near harvest which caused some Botrytis growth.
This wine was golden and viscous in the glass. The bouquet was
oaky (although it is unoaked), with dillweed, grassy and candy
on the nose. Upon tasting the oakiness flavour continued and also
had some lemon. This was a wonderful wine.
 Our
red wines began with the D'Arenberg Custodian Grenache.
The Grenache grape is the third most popular red wine grape grown
in Australia. Grenache is usually blended with Shiraz and Mouvedre.
The wine had a light red appearance. The bouquet was light and
was of red fruits. The wine had strong tannins, and a short length.
There was some sweet fruit flavours.
The Pirramimma Petit Verdot from Australia comes from the
MacLaren Vale, South East of Adelaide. This wine is big and bold.
The colour is inky dark. It has a eucalyptus, savory, chocolate
and vanilla bouquet (The vanilla coming from aging in all American
oak barrels). The flavours are of oak, vanilla and black cherry
with a long finsih and smooth tannins.
Our next wine was the Grant Burge Hillcot Merlot. The wine
is medium deep red in colour. The bouquet has oak, plums and a
hint of eucalyptus. On the palate there are ripe red fruits, good
tannins, some sweetness and maybe some chalkiness.
 Our
last red wine was the Penfolds
Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon. This is our one blended wine for
the evening, with the grapes coming from 6 different regions of
Australia. This wine was inky dark, leaving long tears on the
sides of the glass. The bouquet showed some oak from both French
and American barrels along with black current aroma. The tannins
were smooth. There was some chalkiness, oak and spice on the palate.
 Tasting
Selection
Our favourite White wines are:
1.
Henschke Innes Vineyard Pinot Gris 2001
2. De Bortoli Dry Semillon 1995
Our favourite Red wines are:
1. Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
2. Pirramimma Petit Verdot 1999
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