Browse Tag

victoria

Indicator finger

[vineyard]Green Point 2006 Shiraz (Victoria) – Syrah demiglace, concentrated to the extent that licorice and jam dominate both nose and palate. A little bit volatile. There’s nothing here other than severely reduced (I don’t mean chemically, but as one would concentrate a sauce) fruit. No structure is evidence, though I’m sure there’s some lurking somewhere underneath the infantry assault. If you’ve ever looked at a porn star and thought, “well, she’d be more attractive if her implants were bigger,” this is the wine for you. (3/10)

Ferris Buller’s day off

RL Buller & Son Tawny Port (Victoria) – Smells like butter, and not the freshest kind either. Sickly-sweet, with the emphasis on sickness; in fact, there’s a hint of…well, I don’t want to gross everyone out, so never mind. If you can avoid smelling the wine, the palate is actually quite fruit-forward and enjoyable, with more red stuff than one expects from a tawny, and certainly more acid than seems likely. But that smell never really goes away, unfortunately, even over several days. (3/09)

Tah for now

Tahbilk 1999 Marsanne (Central Victoria) – Honey, but more verdant than that. Honeysuckle might be more accurate. Rich peach flavors, well-spiced, rest over a foundation of clay. Nice early maturity, though there’s no hurry. Quite appealing. (3/05)

A plea for marsanne-ity

[label]Tahbilk 2006 Marsanne (Victoria) – Friendly, appealing yellow fruit. Simple and clean, with fair acidity and not much in the way of additional interest, but definitely quaffable. (1/09)

Billi club

[fog]Mount Langi Ghiran 2004 “Billi Billi” Shiraz (Victoria) – Alcoholic (14%) and volatile when first opened, so I close it back up and move on to another wine. Twenty-four hours later, everything has changed: the alcohol is subdued, the volatility is gone, and in their place are a gentle, pure expression of leathery blueberries and a soft…dare I say it?…almost Burgundian texture. No one will actually mistake it for Burgundy, because it’s both varietally expressive and rather hefty, but it’s a very pleasant wine. A second bottle gets to the good stage right after opening, which is an odd bit of variability for a wine under screwcap, but both are enjoyable. (11/08)