Fine Wine Partners Trade Show 2009 (Mega Tasting)

Fine Wine Partners are probably the biggest ’boutique’ wholesalers in the nation, with a portfolio that encompasses all of Lion Nathan’s wine brands (including Stoniers, St Hallett etc) combined with all the labels that used to reside in the much respected Tucker Seabrook portfolio (Bollinger, Henschke, Bannockburn etc) to create the ultimate wine stable.

This enormous collection is then annually shown to the trade at a rather peculiar event that is unsurprisingly popular. It’s peculiar (to me at least) as irreverent drunkenness is the order of the day, a situation that sits completely at odds with the quality of the wines on offer, giving it almost a school-formal-after-party-meets-restaurant-convention vibe that is simply amazing to see. Embarrassingly cringe worthy though, especially when you see the looks on the stone cold sober wine producers faces as they try and stop some normally mild mannered ‘sommelier’ from stealing unopened tasting bottles.

I don’t mean to sound snobbish, but it’s just a truly weird and amazingly unprofessional phenomena of bewildering proportions.

Anyway, and perhaps thankfully, the range of wines on display represent some of Australia’s finest, with many of the names behind the wines doing the pouring, each one of them eager to chat to somebody who wasn’t swaying/might be interested in the wines.

The wine community is nothing if not generous, with both it’s knowledge and time.

So the notes below are some quick impressions of the wines on offer at this years event, notes that perhaps lack the absolute comprehensiveness of a proper (renowned) tasting note, but hopefully capture something of each wines character.

Champagne Bollinger Rose NV
Unsweet (Great to see in a proper Rose Champagne I think) strawberry nose. Very serious Pinot dominant style. Dry & strawberry cream palate. Great length and flavour. Yum. 18/93

Champagne Ayala Blanc de Blancs 1999
Yeasty, lavosh biscuit characters on the nose and plenty of creamy development. Some toffeed autolysis and nice creamy Chard flavours on the palate, yet everything falls away a bit towards the finish. Good, lacking only a bit more polish for truly high marks. 17.2/91

Champagne Ayala Perle 2002
Really neutral, chalky nose. Dry, raspy, uncompromising acidity. Teeth cleaner. Simply too young for drinking now. Leave for five years. 17/90++

Hesketh ‘Beautiful Stranger’ Kremstal Gruner Veltliner 2007
Very pure, tight, light pear nose. Light, quite high acid Gruner style with tight phenolic grip on the finish. This really needs some time to come together as it’s just a little underwhelming at present. 16.9/90+

Henschke Johann’s Garden GMS 2007
Grenache is certainly lining up to be the star of the 07 South Australian vintage. Sweet & brambly black fruit nose. Grenache dominant and really ripe red and black berried, smoky almost. Palate is sift, luxurious & quite oaky, though not over oaked, just well crafted. Fresh & dark and almost mysterious. Top expression of artfully blended Grenache that will get even better as the oak integrates more. 17.8/93+

Henschke ‘Tappa Pass’ Eden Valley Shiraz 2006
Deep, luxurious old vine nose. Very ripe, but perfectly so. Palate is in the black fruit, licorice spectrum that starts powerfully and fans out to a quite broad finish. Very good now, even better with bottle age. 17.9/93+

Henschke Abbots Prayer Adelaide Hills Merlot/Cabernet 2007
Immediately lesser compared to the wines above, with a slight leafiness over redcurrant fruit. Excellent fruit handling, but just a bit awkward at present. Work in progress. 16.8/89+

Henschke Mt Edelstone Eden Valley Shiraz 2006
Deep, truffled black fruit perfume with just a touch of meatiness. Distinctive nose. Effortless chocolate ingrained fruit. Really long, truffle edged black fruit palate. Just a hint of raisining, but so much class apparent here. Top class. 18.5/94

Drouhin Chablis 2007
Base Chablis. Broad nose. Palate has creaminess but all too much flab and a lack of direction on the finish. Simply drinkable though. 16.4/89

Bannockburn Geelong Chardonnay 2006
Not the best vintage for this label, but still plenty of interest. Very tight, wild yeasted nose with that typical Bannockburn tropical inflection. Palate starts big and utterly full house in style, almost excessive in it’s fresh butter richness, before tightening up again. Alcohol bite on the finish is a little distracting. 17.8/92

Bannockburn ‘Bruce’ Cabernet Merlot Shiraz 2006
Fragrant & meaty, with a pan juice, fruit backward, savoury characters forward, Italianate like expression of Cabernet Merlot. Amarone type sweetness to the palate too (any dried grapes in here?) Slightly caramelised, fennel & spice characters with oaky richness. Interesting wine that would be a blinder in a top vintage methinks. 17.5/91

Bannockburn Shiraz 2005
Disclaimer – I rarely enjoy Geelong Shiraz. Too much ham & chicken poo for my liking. This wine doesn’t help things either: Peppery, sweetly oaky and choc full of ham. Green character on the back palate detracts further. No. 15/81

Farr Rising Geelong Chardonnay 2008
Creamy, fresh timber oak dominates the note, translating as a caramel icecream like character on the palate, interspersed with apricot sweetness. Awkward, though it could get better. 16/86

By Farr Geelong Chardonnay 2007
Recognisably from the same stable as the wine above, but much more serious. Palate is very tight, mealy and long with oats & creamy fruit. Again very oaky but with a great future. 17.7/91+

By Farr Farrside Geelong Pinot Noir 2007
Classic. Intoxicating nose of pure Pinot goodness. Cherry & stewed fruit with something strawberryish. Essence of Pinot. Dry, stemmy, but so silky smooth. Beautiful Pinot. 18.7/95

By Farr Tout Pres Geelong Pinot Noir 2007
Described as having ‘more savouriness than fruit’ and that fits this bill perfectly. Harder, stalks and stems ‘wood’ nose. Palate is just a bit ungenerous and firmly structured for immediate drinking. Lots of potential if the fruit catches up. 17.4/91++

By Farr Shiraz 2007
See notes on Bannockburn Shiraz. Grilled meat, BBQ Pork and just too much of it for my liking. 15/82

Château de Sancerre 2007
All thats wrong with Sancerre. Stinky, forward and cheesy nose with a very simple palate. Awkward acidity too. Little wonder the Kiwis have usurped the French as the gatekeepers of Sauvignon Blanc. 14.5/80

Jaboulet Crozes Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert 2005
Pepper & merde. Gritty, ‘lets chew on some black soil, as no sign of fruit in sight’ Rhone Syrah character. Acquired taste perhaps, but there is something appealing about this utterly terroir driven style. 16.5/88

Argyle Reserve Oregon Pinot Noir 2006
Really dense, oaky, candied red fruit nose. Impressive concentration but, like many other Oregon Pinots, no finesse in sight. Sticky tannins not entirely convincing. Should get better with some bottle age. 16.8/89+

Col D’Orcia Brunello 2004
Deeply black fruited & full but with a delicious, chalky mid palate. Berried and rich but also deliciously dry and savoury in a beautiful mid weight mould. Yum. What Brunello is all about.18/93
Michele Chiarlo Barbera d’Asti 2006
Tangy, in the high acid Barbera style, with a mid weight, sappy palate. Peppery, savoury. Quite a complete Barbera package really. Good stuff. 17.3/91Michele Chiarlo Barolo 2004
The base Barolo for this producer, its all about sap and earth, in a style that’s dried but quite meaty for a Barolo with tannins that are a bit softer than the normal. Authentic. Good. 17.5/91Coriole Fiano 2009
Bright & fresh, pear juice nose with something almost chalky in there too. Palate is surprisingly grippy, but otherwise fresh, uncomplicated and simply good. Score is lowish, drinkability is high. 16.5/88Giant Steps Tarraford Vineyard Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2008
I’m going to put something out there now: I think that these Giant Steps wines are some of the most consistently good, well priced wines in the whole Yarra. Consistency, style, flavour, value. Great stuff. Buy with confidence.

This wine is suitably one of my favourite wines of this range and its in fine form here. Spicy, green apple pie on the nose, with a smidgen of custard oak. It’s actually quite lean on entry but its pure, apple juice like expression of Chardonnay is wonderfully long and articulate. Plenty of room for improvement too. Top shelf. 18.4/94

Giant Steps Sexton Vineyard Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2008
Suffering only because it follows the Tarraford, this lacks a little of the x factor of the above wine, but certainly makes up for it in intensity. Again a lean nose, this time just falling into a bit of the citrus end of the spectrum. More richness on the palate with a tad more fat too. More too love here, but still well controlled – like a plus sized version of the svelte Tarraford. Again, very good modern Chardonnay. 17.9/92Giant Steps Arthurs Creek Vineyard Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2008
Another single vineyard Chardonnay, this time from Arthurs Creek. It’s spicier and very pure, the flavours building slowly through the palate. Very attractive, but again shaded by the previous two wines. 17.8/92Giant Steps Gladysdale Vineyard Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2008
Really very pretty, vibrant and sweet smelling. Spicy, red fruited wine that is so very obvious and attractive that it’s hard to put it down. Superb. 18.3/93Giant Steps Tarraford Vineyard Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2008
Brilliant. A bigger, spicier, more dense wine than Gladys, this is again a beautifully formed, effortless Pinot, in that strawberried, full flavoured, but silken edged style that the Yarra does very well. Dry finish seals the deal. Winning. 18.6/95Giant Steps Sexton Vineyard Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2008
Bigger again, this is bolder, more full and chunky than the Tarraford, but not quite as pretty as Gladys. Very full and impressive flavours, if not as delineated compared to the wine above. 18.2/93St Hallett Old Block Barossa Valley Shiraz 2006
I really wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting to be seduced by this wine, but I just couldn’t help myself. This has the most classic, choc-bullets-over-limitless-flesh-and-flavour character that makes Barossan Shiraz great. Just the nose alone was enough to get me excited – so rich and so invitingly plush – but then the palate delivered too, serving up some raspberry edged, grainy tannins that signal this wine as very fine indeed. Superb. 18.8/95St Hallett Eden Valley Shiraz 2006
In the mode, this is a winner too, albeit cast in a slightly different mould. Enter spicy purple-black Eden Valley fruit for this number, with the same more-ish St Hallett plushness, but edged with the sophistication of its cooler Eden provenance. Just a delicious wine really. 18.3/93

Katnook Odyssey Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Typically oaky, yet with the fruit to match, this intensely flavoured Coonawarra Cabernet shows dominant toast, but with just a hint of leaf to stamp its origins. All heart and flavour, this should live for ages (and get better as it mellows). 18/92+Pikes EWP Shiraz 2005
Cooked. Pretty, but volatile, with the raisined, gamey, premature age of overripe fruit ruining what would have been a very good wine. Not for me I’m afraid. 15.4/84

Petaluma Coonawarra 2007
Cast very lightly, this is a rather forward and middling rendition of the Petaluma Coonawarra style, with a red licoricey, light & sweet nose, leading to a rounded palate that seems to lack real stuffing. Will get better with age, but will always be a forward and light wine. 16.3/88