Tasting Friday 19th October
I was fortunate enough to gain access to this industry event this morning, which features Australian wines exclusively, awards the Jimmy Watson trophy for best overall wine, and include in this review my pick of the bunch.Wine maker Frank Butera was my host. His family run winery Bass River Wineries were skillful enough to garner a silver medal in the Pinot Noir Category.
The wine notes/guide at the door lists 68 pages of wine with up to 49 bottles/types/vintages per page, so there's around 3,200 bottles of wine to try. Sorry I couldn't cover them all, but the morning was only so long.
Find out the winners and grinners below...
The wines are not listed alphabetically, but by their blind tasting number allocation, and often only the winery is listed... not the actual "brand" of wine that winery might produce. So forgive me if I get the brand wrong, but the winery will be correct.
Key to the following notes: asterisks (**) and italics mean they got my personal approval. The first number is the wine's "catalogue" number for the blind tasters, the next title is the exhibitor/winery, then I mention what medal category they won if any, and finally is the judges' tasting score.
Top tasting notes
Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
**5332 Xanadu Wines Gold 97.0
The overall winner (the Jimmy Watson trophy) was Xanadu wines, with their offering of this Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. If you like cab sav's, you'll like this; with plenty of soil on the nose and profile, it's meaty and would go with a steak, roast or capricciosa pizza. I'm more of a pinot guy myself, so I only tried one Cabernet Sauvignon, and this was it.
I visited Xanadu, in Margaret River some years ago. You can check that visit here... in writing, or see the movie!!
Sparkling, Traditional/Classic Method 9 + months Tirage Age
**1682 House of Arras Gold 96.0
4621 Domain Chandon Australia Gold 96.0
Riesling 2018
**9646 Eddystone Point Gold 96.0 (my pick of the Rieslings)
3556 Peter Lehmann Wines (Wigan Riesling) Gold 96.0
5179 Caslte Rock Wine trust Gold 95.0
5641 3drops Gold 95.0
Pinot Gris/Grigio 2018
** 4287 Raidis Estate Gold 96.0 (a winner, and an unusual rosé tone for a Pinot Gris, left on the skins and then squashed out the colour... novelty value?)
** 7727 Bay of Fires Gold 95.0 (these guys also killed it, again check out the pinots)
9163 Kirrihill Wines Gold 95.0
Chardonnay 2017
**8300 Tolpuddle Vineyard Gold 97.0 (class category winner)
**9559 Shottesbrooke Vineyards Gold 95.0 (my ABOSLUTE favourite of the day - my hairs stood up on my neck when I smelt it, that good)
**8838 Strategic Link (trading as Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove) Gold 95.0 (these guys cleaned up, a new wine maker, check out the pinot section... they get about tewnty mentions)
1542 Giant Steps Bronze 85.0
5009 Dominique Portet Winery Gold 95.0
5254 De Bortoli Wines (Riorret... "Terroir backwards, a French joke, and the label's kinda French too) Gold 95.0
6080 Yabby Lake International Silver 92.0
6112 Jacob's Creek Wines Gold 95.0
7766 The Jack Russell Wine Company Silver 93.0
7870 Brookland Valley Gold 95.0
7955 Giant Steps Gold 95.0
9274 Brokenwood Wines Silver 93.0
9430 Whimwood Estate Wines (Frank's mate) Silver 91.0
Pinot Noir 2017 & Younger (now we're in my country!!)
**5098 Bay of Fires Gold 96.0 (again!! – and this one the category winner)
**3445 Strategic Link (again) Gold 95.0 (a goody)
1632 Paringa Estate Bronze 89.0
4263 Boomer Creek Silver 90.0
4435 Frogmore Creek Gold 95.0
6999 Home Hill Bronze 89.0 (I liked it... they were ptretty tough judges!)
7388 Oakridge Wines Gold 95.0
7724 Spring Vale Vineyards Gold 95.0
78.45 Coldstream Hills Silver 90.0
8374 Greenstone Vineyards Gold 96.0 (very trendy)
8726 Gypsy Brewing Gold 96.0
9367 Frogmore Crekk Silver 90.0
9425 B Seppelt & Sons Gold 95.0
9730 Frogmore Creek (again) Gold 95.0
So there you have it! Soz I haven't included more on Italy, Rome tasting and the Umbria region and truffles, but they are coming. This article just seemed more timely/pertinent. From now, it's me your pal Kit, saying go get 'e. Avanti!!
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