You know what irks me about the modern rosé boom? How many of the wines end up with frustratingly harsh acidity.
Sure, such is life when you’re early picking red wine grapes – that acidity is rarely soft – but so often I wish desperately for some barrel ageing/lees work/riper fruit/something to stop that fire on the finish.
Why am I banging on about this on the first Friday of #ChardoMay? Because there are two rosé wines on the bench that don’t finish hard. And I really liked seeing it.
We kick off with the Quartz Hill Mencia Rosé 2021.
It’s early days for Mencia in Australia, but here is grape that can make not just lovely aromatic light reds, but also rosé. I drank a heap in northern Spain about 8 years ago and so it feels exciting to see it in Australia. This Quartz Hill, from Pyrenees fruit, feels very Euro too – pale orange coloured, it’s delicate, creamy and velvety thing with a strawberries and cream generosity to it. It’s light, and the bottle age has faded the fruit, but the savoury elegance makes this interesting for drinking right. 17.7/20, 92/100. 11% $25.
Right, also on this theme, enter the Hewitson Belle Ville Rosé 2022.
Coppery colour and clearly Mourvedre and Grenache-based, this initially tasted to me like Dean Hewitson has benchmarked it up against a bit of Bandol (but it turns out that he lived in Provence for a bit). You can tell with the coppery colour and the contrast of pretty pink strawberry/watermelon fruit, but with a certain lees lift on the finish. It’s still more white wine than red – which is just like lots of Provence pinks, where they use ultra-low ferment temperatures, serious filtration and some clever lees/barrel work in the bid for extreme delicacy with texture. What I like about this Barossan rosé is that it’s not just delicate; it still packs some welcome and quite pretty creamy pink fruit to match. Smart stuff. 17.7/20, 92/100. 12.5%, $25.
Now that the pink wines is out of the way, let’s tick off today’s Chardonnay in May entrant – the Heggies Vineyard Estate Chardonnay 2021.
There is a curious bag of contrasting styles in the Heggies range, where wines vary from the ultra-early picked reserve release (which can be great but needs years to look good) right through to this rather generous and old-school plump Estate Chardonnay.
Wild fermented Eden Valley fruit, it spends 11 months in barrel. Nectarine, yellow peach, and this gently nutty golden ripeness before a more typical chalky fry finish. It’s a teensy bit obvious and chunky but will keep lots of people happy who like actual flavour in Chardonnay. 17.5/20, 91/100. 13%, $36.
A few more from the bench:
Gundog Estate Rare Game Shiraz 2021
Rare Game sits at the upper reaches of the Gundog range and always feels like a premium wine – a wine of gloss and impact. This vintage feels Mid ruby – it feels a bit redder and less purple than most modern Hunter Shiraz, a bit more of the Hunter Burgundy style, just with a lacquer of vanilla cream oak richness over the top. Underneath its a primal, generous and gentle creamed boysenberry wine that for the moment feels a bit simple – I kept waiting for something to happen, but can recognise that it’s long enough, so likely just a bit too young, especially with that oak sticking out a smidgen (despite it seeing just 25% new wood). Wait. 17.7/20, 92/100+. 13%, $80.
Hewitson Ned & Henry’s Shiraz 2021
Plump and jubey (thanks to 100% whole berries) Barossan Shiraz that is really all about fruit. It’s just a little rough-edged to finish – the acidity is a bit raw, and it looks warmer than 13.5% – but the middle is packed with appeal. 17/20, 90/100. 13.5%, $36.
Worlds Apart Wines Someone Great Blewitt Springs Grenache 2022
Lots of interest in these Worlds Apart Wines. Cool lo-fi wines. This Grenache comes off one of the handful of old Blewitt Springs Grenache vineyards and sees an extended time on skins. Great colour too – light ruby purple. The nose is going to divide though – if I had my wine judging hat on, this would get a flat ‘no medal’ and be out straight away. It’s just a little gluey and volatile. But I’m in the real world today, so I pushed on to a palate that has a great palate texture – captures the red fruit and sandy, thick-grained tannins of Grenache that spends more time on skins. Ultimately I can tolerate that volatility for its palate – it’s a rather nice drink, even if it offends my sensibilities. Score is a bit of a halfway bet. 17/20, 90/100. 13%, $70
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There is so much dross rose coming out of South Australia. I imagine it’s as a result of the rampant over supply of red varietals at present. I imagine a lot of those red winemakers have total inexperience when it comes to balance in white/blush wines and it shows in the glass.
The last part is particularly important. Lots of winemakers are now making rosé because it’s an easier sell. They’re using any variety, picking early and then following a formula with predictable results.