Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ‘ok drinks’, and some are just bad…
Plenty of the wines in this collection of last month’s wines that almost hit the silver medal quality mark are fine drinks. They’re not expensive, they’re accessible, they’re doing what they were meant to be doing. Yet others feel like a missed opportunity altogether…
Crittenden Estate Los Hermanos Tempranillo 2022
A surprise member of the Almost Club, this angular King Valley red has plenty of cherry/dark berry fruit in a jubey sort of way, but lots of hard edges. A joven style, so no noticeable oak to soften the raised acidity either, and then alcohol warmth trots in, combining with a lack of generosity – it all adds up to something uncomplicated but unrefined, in an Almost Club way.
Best drinking: soonish. 16.8/20, 89/100. 14.5%, $30.
Mesh Aged Release Riesling 2016
How can a Riesling with such legendary DNA (it’s an Eden Valley joint project with Jeffrey Grosset & the Hill-Smith team) be so polarising? I struggle with the Mesh releases so often. Maybe it’s just me, but hey, here we are again. This Aged Release is so heavy with TDN-like character (the petro-chemical flavour seen in aged Riesling, sometimes associated with sunburn or just certain vineyards) and toasty nutty bottle age that it’s just distracting. There is clearly powerful citrussy fruit underneath, but the obviousness of the nose is hard to get past.
Best drinking: now, I guess. 16.8/20, 89/100. 12.5%, $45.
Blackstone Paddock Shiraz 2021
A $15 Barossa Shiraz of simple charm. A cliched Barossa red, perhaps, but hey, you could pay double and get the same quality. Purple juice is the charm here, and without obvious oak – just purplness. it’s a bit tart to finish and warm, but ultimately generous enough, and bound to win friends for $15.
Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14.5%, $15
Rowlee Single Vineyard Fumé Blanc 2023
Orange Sauvignon Blanc, but it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Light to medium-bodied, it’s punctuated by green pea and unripe melon on a pithy grapefruit palate that pitches at delicacy and fumé complexity but ends up as sour and a bit of a hallway bet.
Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 12.2%, $35.
Silkwood Estate The Bowers Pinot Noir 2023
Sometimes with WA Pinot I think ‘why bother, when there are much better grapes for the climate?’. I mean, there are thousands of non-Pinot grapes out there that will look great in Pemberton/Great Southern, etc. Why flog a dead horse and deliver dry-reddish Pinot? Sure, plenty of wines argue against me here (like the latest very smart Castle Rock Pinots), but I’d still be grafting over my Pinot Noir vines to try something else (like Grenache. Or something Italian like Nerello Mascalese). Anyway, rant over – this Pemberton Pinot is at least varietal, with a little Pinoty undergrowth and mint in among the ripe red fruit. It then gets a bit chewy and medicinal to finish, without quite the fruit to help drive the palate. It’s ok for $25 wine, really, but not going to change my mind about WA Pinot.
Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 13%, $25.
Tin Shed Single Wire Shiraz 2021
A bold, confected Barossan red awash with liqueur plums and purple fruit, topped with warm alcohol and jutting acidity. It’s plump and plummy, but with a grain, spirit-ish alcohol hit that eventually swallows everything.
Best drinking: 16.5/20, 88/100. 15%, $65.
Tin Shed All Day Rosé 2023
Barossa Rosé. Coppery orange and looks forward and lean. Just not enough fruit, and then snappy acidity, to the point where it feels underdone.
Best drinking: now. 16.3/20, 87/100. 11%, $27.
Harewood Estate Flux-V Denmark Pinot Noir 2023
Exhibit B of the argument above. Muted glacé fruit with a minty menthol edge and a light palate that just finishes resinous, warm and biting. I’ve never got this wine, and the balance isn’t great here again.
Best drinking; now. 16/20, 87/100. 14%, $40.
JP Drouet Cabernet Franc Rosé 2022
Basic Loire rosé and an entirely ok $10 Aldi-exclusive drink. Bone dry and lacks much with a bit of coppery orange watermelon juice and a lean palate. There’s a little Cab Franc dried herbs plus late strawberries and cream texture, but you’re still scratching for flavour.
Best drinking: now. 16/20, 87/100. 12.5%, $10.
Castel Firmian Pinot Nero 2022
Not my wine. A bold Trentino Pinot that tries too hard. Light ruby coloured, it’s swamped by chocolate sawdust oak, then a raw, green, oak tannin finish. Power, sure, but hard, oaky and ultimately unfun too.
Best drinking: now. 15.5/20, 85/100. 13%, $40.
Help keep this site paywall free – donate here
You might also like
5 Comments
Generally agree with your comments on WA pinot, even down to agreeing that Castle Rock makes some very good juice in this regard. There are a couple of other smart spots around including Batista Estate and Picardy, although I confess with the latter to not liking their pinots young but with 10-15 years plus of age, they are great. Recently has some from 1999 that were quite gorgeous
Picardy is the exception, although I’d take the Chardonnay over the Pinot every day. I haven’t had a Picardy Pinot in years though (and I loved those wines in the mid 2000s).
Agreed, for me, their chardonnay is one of the best in the country, although it certainly flies under the radar in that regard.
$40 for wine that nearly made it?
That’s a price tag I rarely meet for wine.
The $65 wine that didn’t make it is even more noticeable