AceHighWine

After settling back into my first day back at the office after our holiday, I see the lovely ladies in reception to pick up the wine that’s been sent to me during my absence. Like a kid at Christmas, I dive into the box of Howard Park Scotsdale and Leston releases and notice five bottles rather than four packed neatly in to the box. Curiously - I’m the kind of person to read included release notes after ripping open a carton - I start pulling up each bottle to see what the mystery fifth bottle might be and as fate would have it, I discover that the very last bottle I yank is a new Howard Park sauvignon blanc. I really loved the ‘05 vintage (Howard Park didn’t release an ‘06 vintage as the fruit quality wasn’t deemed good enough) so quickly made plans to prepare a dinner that would give me an excuse to open a bottle of white in the middle of winter…

Cool aromas of pineapple, apple, nashi pear and sprinklings of spice hint at the exceptional quality of fruit used in this one-hundred-percent-free-run beauty. Atop of a canvas of zesty lemon-y acidity, Tony Davis and his palette of southern Margaret River and Pemberton grapes paints a vibrant, lively picture of high-definition tropical fruit flecked with crunchy lime and lemon highlights. The flavours are almost ethereal in their purity and slowly and deliberately waltz from the front of the palate to the back, one content tastebud at a time. With the release of Howard Park’s fourth vintage sauvignon blanc, the new Howard Park and MadFish winemaker has set himself a lofty benchmark to aspire to – I’m looking forward to tasting more 2007 Howard Park wines in future. www.howardparkwines.com.au

Turning 28 (more to follow) and some freelance writing gigs combined with some NLHE MTT and PLO online poker action accounted for much of my free time last week, so I’ll be doing my best to wring whatever free time I can out of this week to update AceHighWine. Tonight I had the privilege of being part of an exceptional chardonnay tasting with some real heavy hitters towards the bottom of the batting order. While the bulk of the reviews from today’s tasting will be posted later in the week, I’ll also be highlighting some wines that deserve individual attention, starting with the latest release of Yattarna.

Considering that Yattarna was developed as an Australian chardonnay style that could be cellared with confidence over the long term, it should come as little surprise that the wine still looks incredibly youthful, even three years after vintage. As expected, some great fruit went into this wine, as reflected in the tight lemon palate and racy acidity still coursing through the 04’s veins. Citrus fruit dominates the creamy palate and the long, juicy finish which sparkles from go to woah. Right now it’s still far too young to really show at its best, but if I had bottles of this in my cellar, I’d be waiting til close to 2009 before having another look.

Like its darker-hued sibling, the direct descendant of Penfolds’ “White Grange” project is a controversial wine - even Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago will admit to that. Much of this wine’s infamy can be traced back to its off-premise asking price of more than a hundred dollars. I can think of very few chardonnays with similar price tags on the local bottleshop shelf. No doubt Yattarna is a very good wine - particularly this release, hailed by a member of the tasting panel as “one of the great Yattarnas” - but is Yattarna twice as good as, say, the clique of top shelf Margaret River chardonnays such as Pierro, Cullen, Cape Mentelle, Devil’s Lair and Voyager Estate (all priced at around the $60 mark or less)? Answer truthfully to discover whether buying a bottle of this is the right choice for you. www.penfolds.com.au

It’s amazing what a bit of cold will do to a chardonnay. Serve a chardy too cold and it’ll smell all minerally and lean and pretty shy but once it’s had time to warm up a little, you’ll really get a good look at the wine’s true character. After starting off shy and lean, a temperature hike led to the revelation of a complex bouquet of fig, biscuit, coffee, nectarines and a hint of pastry - little surprise considering the wine’s very devleoped butterscotch-y hue. In the mouth: multi-layered, rounded, soft and balanced with lots of savoury stonefruit characters underpinned by pins and needles of gentle acidity. The finish is long and shaped like a bell curve with splashes of nuttiness and citrus in the mouth. Judging by this bottle and the one we opened at the start of the year in Margaret River, those in possession of bottles of ‘98 Yattarna would probably want to start drinking up now rather than later… Alternatively, you could just send a sample bottle my way and I’ll let you know what it’s looking like. Email me for an address. www.penfolds.com.au

“I’m not drinking any f##king merlot!”

It’s the most only memorable part of the movie Sideways (which for the record sucked fat ones and had nothing going for it, even resorting to a bout of uncalled-for varietal bashing to give it any kind of substance). But shithouse American films aside, merlot in Australia faces quite the uphill battle: often relegated to a supporting role in Bordeaux-style blends, merlot in this country has yet to establish any one style with efforts ranging from the green and weedy through to ripe, Christmas pudding-laden flavour explosions. Conversely, this makes approaching merlot and merlot-dominant blends exciting as there’s no benchmark or style for the wines to be measured against. Without prejudice or bias, these wines get arguably the fairest hearings of the red varieties with performance on the day being the single most important factor to a wine’s showing. With this in mind, I think the fact that I’m up to my second glass (and counting) of the Chateau Tanunda The Chateau Merlot 2005 speaks volumes about this wine’s drinkability factor. Sitting pretty between both merlot extremes mentioned above, this is merlot without pretension: full of dark black fruit flavours (yet still kept in check) and a hint of toasty French oak, built upon a framework of soft, smooth tannins. Very yummy and easy to drink – since writing this review, I’ve stopped typing no less than four times to nab a sip from my gradually-dwindling glass of merlot sitting by my side. The 2005 vintage provided Chateau Tanunda winemaker with some exciting opportunities to create single-vineyard Barossan wines. I look forward to tasting the fruits of his 2005 labour over the next few years. www.chateautanunda.com