Dart River Pinot Noir 2008 (Central Otago)

Now THIS is a nice wine. Possibly my favourite Pinot Noir thus far and unfortunately unavailable now.

The reason I like this wine so much is that it has a very strong and extremely pleasant 'strawberries and cream' flavour to it, whilst maintaining the iconic Pinot Noir sensibilities.

I had heard that Central Otago in NZ was pretty much the best place in the world for Pinot Noir and I can only agree. Dart River is apparently just a label for the wine as it was bought and distributed by Get Wines Direct in Australia.

They wont say which winery actually produced it, so I can't really replace my dwindling stocks. GWD say that it does retail for $55 under it's real name.

I could almost believe it.

I did end up buy a couple of dozen and actually bought the very last stocks from them. Some of which ended up as Christmas presents... Hmm... Lets hope that they were as loved as they are here!!

I have had one pinot that I liked from Tasmania and one from Victoria, but neither really matched this one for overall enjoyment. Please feel free to make suggestions as I am keen to find good Pinot Noir whenever I can.

Price: $18

Rating: 9.2

Witches Falls Syrah 2006 (Granite Belt)

A big surprise this one. A QLD red that ended up being extremely drinkable.

Bought by Jean on our last trip to Tamborine (an obligatory tasting purchase at the Cellar Door), we decided to try this one last night.

I was a bit dubious, because at the tasting it seemed to taste like every other Queensland Shiraz... but by the end of the bottle we both wished we had bought more.

Unfortunately, it comes in at $20 a bottle and I would assume that is the only place it's available at the moment. However, it tastes like a $20 bottle.

It has a nice nose of slightly sweet but oaky black currants. Now I am partial to black curranty tasting wines, so that won me over. It's a little spicy and just oaky enough to smooth it all out with really fine tannins.

With all due respect, I could not believe this was a QLD wine.

Definitely one to look out for if you happen to be visiting Mt Tamborine. It was my first visit to this winery and it will be the first place I go next time I'm there doing photos.

Price: $20

Rating: 9

(basically anything I think I could drink another bottle of straight away will be rating a 9 for me)(the various decimals that follow the 9 will just be there to help separate things)

Devils Lair - Margaret River

Although this was a fair while ago, I had to share this photo.

Taken by my mate Ben, after a long drive to find my favourite winery in the Margaret River... Not only do they have the coolest label, but they are consistently among the best wines in the region.

Devil's Lair also make the 'Fifth Leg' range and although they are considerably cheaper, they are also outstanding wines.

In particular the Chardonnay, of which many bottles were consumed this summer. Cheap (under $10 on special) and among my favourite Chardies ever.

So it was for this reason that I wished to visit my 'Mecca'...

After many dirt roads and missed turns we found it. Only to see this welcome sign.

That was that. No entry :(

At least we tried.

Ballandean Estate Wines White Pearl 2009 (Granite Belt)

First wine back for 2010 and it's appropriate that I look at a white. From QLD.

This was a gift from friends Adam and Ngara and very much appreciated.

As you may already know, I'm not a big fan of white wine, but this one I could drink til the cows come home.

It's definitely sweet, but in no way overly so. It's easy to drink, but not in a 'cordial' sort of way. It has a definite lychee flavour.

A little acidity is balanced by the generous fruit taste making for an excellent mouthfeel.

As this was a gift I'm not sure what it cost. Unfortunately, I have no idea if there is any distribution in place either. So if you find yourself in Stanthorpe... pop in and try some for yourself.

Again, I really... REALLY enjoyed this and I don't usually find many whites drinkable.

I'm keen to hear what anyone else thinks, so please, drop me a comment.

Rating: 9.0

Price: Not sure but I would think they have a website, so check that out.

Back for 2010

After a self imposed hiatus for the majority of 2009, I have decided to get back into this blog.

Thanks to a comment from anonymous that reminded me why I do this...

One reason was that, as a full time student, I have limited my purchases to Grays Online and Get Wines Direct (for the obvious price reasons)

I was reluctant to dribble on about the cheapies all the time, but since I have found a good many great wines under $10... I figured I should.

Also, I have made a decision to aim for quality instead of quantity. This is partially due to health reasons and partially because I prefer drinking for pleasure, rather from habit. A lot of the 'quoffers' that I have had from Grays etc have been cheap, but ordinary. I will write some of these up, but focus my spending on people's suggestions and great deals on good wine.

So we'll see what happens :p

Capel Vale "Howecoft' Merlot 1998 (Margaret River)

Damn.

This wine is magnificent. Showing all the class of the Margaret River and the benefits of a bit of age.

Had this bottle with my good friend Ben over in Perth. He was saving this for a special occasion and I'm so glad that he did. It's been a while since I've seen him and he was my tour guide on my recent pilgrimage to the Margaret River. But I'll talk about that later...

Unfortunately we didn't make it to the Capel Vale winery, but while I was over there we drank only wines from the region. That wasn't difficult.  :)

This merlot was quite simply brilliant. It reeked class in a way that I didn't expect from a merlot. I don't mean to sound wanky about Merlot, but it's never really my favourite style.

This had an almost honey and citrus nose, with a very smooth and almost smoky rich mouthfeel.

I'm going to have to try and find more of this. For special occasions.

Rating: 9.6

Price:   not sure yet, but will find out.

Heritage Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2007 (Granite Belt)

My goodness.

This wine has gained a lot of attention following it's win in the blind tasting 'WineState Magazine Wine of the Year' 2008.

For a Queensland wine (and a white at that) to win this is a HUGE surprise. But a great one. 

Lucky for the winery, since they put the price up from about $20 to $55 to cash in. Now you can only buy 2 bottles of it.

But that's ok, they deserve their day in the sun. On to the wine...

Good friends A and N brought round the bottle and we were all quite excited. We drank a couple of other whites first, but this one just blew them all away. It was simply brilliant. 

Beautiful balance of oak and fruit. Quite complex and very easy to drink. Unfortunately I couldn't tell you what flavours came up, since we ended up drinking 7 bottles between the 3 of us that were drinking :)

But the feeling that what we were consuming was somehow 'magical' was quite overwhelming.

Yes, it's a white wine and yes, it was good. Damn good. I ordered another two bottles at $55 straightaway and hope to somehow get another few. 

This is the second wine from Heritage that I have liked, so it's looking good for the rest of the Granite Belt into the future. Go Queensland  :)

Price $55

Rating   9.8/10  ( yes. )

Ballandean Estate Wines Sylvaner 2005 (Granite Belt)

An Historic posting for my wine blog... my very first white wine. (So you know this has to be special)

After spending an awesome day at the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show I am amazed that I didn't fall asleep on the train on the way home and end up in Caboolture... So glad I went.

Which is where I discovered this little beauty of a dessert wine from Queensland's own Ballandean Estate.

Now if you have read anything on this blog before you know that I am partial to my big reds. That hasn't changed, but since our trip to the Yarra Valley, I have learnt to like a few whites.

This is one of them. Definitely sweet and quite marmaladey in the mouth, this wine is still crisp and doesn't have an overly syrupy feel. It is very easy to drink and I am wishing I still had some cheese left as I finish off this bottle.

I have to say that I was impressed with the full range of Ballandean Whites, in particular the SSB and the Chardonnay. I'm so glad to see that our Queensland wineries can mix it with the southern states and I look forward to trying a lot more whites during the summer months.

Rating: 8.8/10 (hey, it's still a white wine) :)

Price: about $16 for the 375ml bottle from the cellar door at Ballandean Estate.