Balnaves The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2000

Pulled out a cracker from The Cellar (my wine fridge) to go with our lamb roast. As a single-ish income family with a kid, rack of lamb, a new release and a shit-hot wine is as good as it gets – and tonight is unreal.

The wine: Balnaves ‘The Tally’ Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Coonawarra, SA. It’s been in my Cellar for about two years but it feels like longer.
Colour: Ruby colour, no hint of youthful violet but not turning garnet yet. Throwing some sediment. Rich, star-bright.
Nose: Coonawarra Cabernet all the way. My first thought was Coonawarra rather than any particular character. Shows classic cassis and mint with tobacco, chocolate, blackberry and mint.
Palate: Rounded entry shows incredible suppleness in its mouthfeel, which opens up to a medium-bodied ripe wine showing medium acidity, medium-full tannin and medium-full intensity. Cigarbox spices underpin ripe blackcurrant, red cherry and blueberry notes. Seemless integration of oak and fruit. Acidity is in perfect balance with the still firm tannins. Sensational length. This is one of the best wines I’ve opened at home for a long time.

The Verdict: With great ripeness this wine just makes me think in terms of New World vs Old World. There is no way France could ever produce a wine like this.
But.

I’m not sure that this is where my tastes are any more. There is no questioning the power, intensity or balance of this wine. At this time in its life it’s showing beautiful balance between oak, acid, fruit and alcohol but it’s not what I’m interested in any more. I’ll still savour this wine, but don’t think I’ll be spending this kind of money ($100 two years ago) on Aussie wine.

Dom Zind Humbrecht H de T Muscat 2000

I’ve been aching to taste this wine for about nine months now. It came on our Bangalow holiday with us but didn’t find a suitable food match or excuse. Tonight both came at once: Yon, our great friend and Annie’s godmother arrived from Sydney to stay the week with us, and we cooked up a ginger and black pepper fish stir fry that matches this wine like you would not believe. Let’s just say that few things make me as happy as an occasion like this.

This is only an entry level wine (about $60ish from memory) from my favourite Alsatian producer, Domaine Zind Humbrecht. The Herenweg de Turckheim Muscat 2000 is a dry white made from Muscat. It’s deep golden with great colour intensity and an orange hue. The nose is at once musky and floral with a distinct citrus lift. There are notes of malolactic characters (buttery). In the mouth this wine lays down the law, stating what the region has to offer: powerful dry whites with a palate notable for elegance and balance. Firm but not overstated acidity is balanced perfectly with residual sugar only evident as a contributor to its even palate weight. The wine’s entry is a genuine, natural continuation from the nose. Musk and rosewater on the mid-palate with orangeblossom and jasmine on the back palate. All this and sensational length just makes this a wine that I want to buy every bottle I can find. This fellow is 14.5% alcohol – stronger than most Shiraz, but just doesn’t come across at all hot or overpowering. This, my friends, is what wine is all about to me. Restraint, power, beauty.

All of this reminds me of Len Evan’s famous statement that every time you drink an inferior bottle of wine it is the same thing as smashing an excellent bottle of wine against a wall, to be wasted and unenjoyed by anyone.

Stonecroft Hawkes Bay Old Vine Gewurtztraminer 2006

These guys were one of the pioneers of the Gimblett Gravels region of Hawkes Bay, NZ. Alan Limmer, one of the two winemakers is apparently unimpressed by the screwcap seal, basically because he finds too many reductive qualities in capped wines (read sulpher dioxide characters present).

The wine is light golden in colour with a slightly green hue. Residual sugar is noticeable on the palate but probably only a little below 6g/l. Lovely floral notes & musk on the nose and a little rosewater. The palate weight is medium to heavy but lacking the driving power of its Alsatian counterparts yet charming and almost seductive. Great length, as you’d look for in gewurtztraminer, and a beautifully balanced wine. Alsatian gewurtztraminer, which is the best in the world to my experience, shows great power, bracing acidity and warming alcohol. NZ seems to me to be very tuned in to the balance between sugar and acidity but does not seem to produce noble wines near the power of Alsace, with the exception of Vinoptima & Cloudy Bay gewurtztraminers. This wine would have to be the best example of the newer, emerging style of subdued gewurtztraminer with more of a focus on delicate floral aromatics and musky mid-palates than on powerful lines and acidity. There is a lovely fresh citrus finish to the wine that I dig, most probably because it’s unexpected but not out of the rulebook. Lovely roundness on the palate met by the necessary supplement of acidity on the finish, which put my mind at ease.

In sum, a lovely wine recommended but not without some thought. It’s a wine that the masses will dig without thought but offers enough complexity in its floral and powdery array of flavours to entice my fellow wine freaks.

I reckon when you decide to start publishing tasting notes on the web that you have to decide what sort of a wine writer you want to be: a critic, always pointing out the shortcomings and being excited only by the quest for the perfect wine; or a fan of wine, who enjoys the good stuff you find in every wine. I want to be the latter so let me point out that this is by far one of the most enjoyable whites i’ve had in the last month.

OK, that’s it for my first online tasting note. I like this wine and would definitely buy it for less than $50. If you see it in a shop you should buy it.