Tag Archives: cabernet sauvignon

30 years ago the Patriarch of the Ruffilli family left his Italian home to travel to Australia with not much more than his viticulture background.  He came to Australia with the ambition o make wine and thus he made his way to McLaren Vale full of ambition.  This is why the estate label has the word Ambition.

Today they have about 58 acres under vine in the Willunga and Sellicks areas.  The grapes are made into wine under contract with a majority sold as bulk wine and the best grapes and wine selected for the estates Ambition label.  Grape varieties grown are:-

• Shiraz
• Cabernet
• Grenache
• Merlot
• Chardonnay
• Riesling

Currently there is a focus on red wine releases under a Reserve and Estates labels.

Up to now these wines have been sold to restaurants but there is a move to retail sales.  Check out their web site here.

I will be placing these wines on the Taste McLaren Vale red wine sales page as well.

2009 Ruffilli Estates Ambition Cabernet Merlot

More complex than I was expecting – herbs of mint, lavender, Rosemary and thyme combined with blackcurrent fruit wrapped with an envelope of unobtrusive oak tannin.  There is a slight hint of greenness and a small donut effect.  The donut effect of Cabernet is where the mid palate flavours diminish in the middle of the wine.  It is here but only just.  When left to breathe the secondary flavours and aromas of chocolate and licorice come through.  The chocolate here defines the mid palate and thus no donut!  Definitely a food wine maybe a rabbit and root vegetable casserole.  One to watch out for and to keep – if you can.

2010 Ruffilli Estates Ambition Shiraz

The aromas were dominated by blackberries and red liquorice mixed with a sense of dustiness on the nose.  I was please to taste minimal oak influence and straight after opening I got blackberries, chocolate and lingering cloves.  There is some smokiness and I felt there was an influence of residual sugar.  After opening I left the wine for a day with the air evacuated and the difference was just – WOW.  No longer a sense of residual sugar but now it was all about the milk chocolate – layers and layers of it.  This will wine needs time – time in the glass or bottle.  This patience will be worth it.

2009 Ruffilli Estates Ambition Reserve Cabernet

Upon first opening I got the sense this was more a dry red wine style more than a classical Cabernet.  McLaren Vale seems to make a number of these wines.  However after a few hours of breathing the wine took on a whole new character.  The fruit was all black – current, berry and cherry with a hint of the mint one expects from good Cabernet.  On the back palate there was a hit of drying tannin which was saying to me the wine would like some more time in the bottle.  What also impressed me was what was not there – greenness.  A number of Cabernet wines seem too green for me – herbaceous and capsicum flavours have little place in a glass I want to consume.  So this wine was alright by me.

2009 Ruffilli Estates Ambition Reserve Shiraz

Not tasted.

Mitolo Wines is part of the Mitolo Group.  This group includes one of the largest potato and onion producers in the Southern Hemisphere and is also one of the largest Olive Oil suppliers through ollo Oils.  Frank Mitolo, who manages the whole group had an interest in wine that took him to amateur wine making in the 1990’s and undertaking wine making course led to Mitolo Wines.  Ben Glaetzer can on board as a business partner and winemaker in 2001.  Ben is no longer the winemaker but his influence remains with the Reiver Shiraz which is Barossa sourced fruit.  The most of the fruit in Mitolo Wines comes from the Sellicks area of McLaren Vale.

In early 2013 a Mitolo Wines cellar door was opened in the “The Producers” facility on Branson Road, McLaren Vale.  Seeing it was so close I just had to drop in and try the wines………

Jester Range

2012 Vermentino ($22)

Another wine of this variety that is making it’s way into the market.  Still considered an emerging variety and I am seeing quite a variation in quality while the vineyards and winemakers are finding out how to best treat this variety.  This wine I find intriguing.  Not for the nectarine, citrus and dried herb character, but for the low alcohol crispness (showing not all wines need to be alcohol monsters) and the almost salty finish.  This salty finish makes me think of seafood – particularly sardines.  Not the sardines in a can but fresh sardines skewered and BBQ grilled.  If you have not tried this variety before then I suggest this wine is one to try.

2012 Sangiovese Rose ($22)

Firstly it is great to see a Rose being made in the vineyard and winery as Rose – not just some free run juice or a portion of juice separated from the skins leaving the rest to make the “serious” wine.  Here the grapes were hand picked, cold soaked overnight and then the juice removed from the skins quickly.  This is the style Australians should drink more of a dry light wine just made for lunch time consumption.  There are layers of creaminess, red fruits, cleansing acid and a savory finish.  Bring on the Ploughmans Lunch.

2010 Shiraz ($25)

This wine spends 14 months in the barrels used the previous vintage for the GAM Shiraz and helps to produce a good everyday drinking Shiraz that has the McLaren Vale traits of plums and dark blackberry.  The French oak use is obvious more with the aromas as the wine has a very soft tannin structure that tells me this wine is ready to be consumed now.  With the softer tannins I could see this wine being consumed at a Chinese Banquet with things like sizzling steak, Mongolian Lamb and Chicken with Black Bean.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon ($25)

20% of this wine is made in the traditional Amarone style where the grapes are picked and placed on drying racks.  The drying concentrates the flavours before the grapes are crushed and wine made.  In this case the grapes come from McLaren Vale and are transported to Virginia (North of Adelaide) and placed on Potato drying racks.

The wine is currant and pip centric.  The intense plum and currant character invades both the aromas and flavours.  The tannins give you the feel that you are crunching on some ripe grape pips.  The concentrated elements lead to a lingering after effect.  Well worth your 25 bucks.  I am thinking BBQ lamb chops with this one.

Mitolo Wines lineup

Single Vineyard Wines

2009 GAM Shiraz ($58)

When I first herd about this wine I was trying to work out what the blend was – Grenache and something and something with the Shiraz.  I could not have complicated this or been more off the mark.  The GAM is the first letter of each of the Mitolo children.

Made from single vineyard fruit from the Sellicks area of McLaren Vale this fruit gets to know new french oak barrels quite well.  Sweet oak notes mixed with the perfume of fresh plums and some dried herbs sees a silky smooth wine that is not over oaked as there is plenty of fruit character to soak up all the oak it has seen.  I suggest this wine needs to see a few more years in the bottle before it would go well with a beef wellington.

2009 Reiver Shiraz ($58)

Sometimes one cannot get away from the Barossa and this is one of those times through the influence of Ben Glaetzer who is a partner in the business.  The Reiver Shiraz fruit is sourced from  Greenock and wars the Barossa all over it.  The wine is dark and brooding with the hints of plum, raspberry and licorice.  There is a deep earthiness here that has dried oregano mixed with just a vanilla hint (some American oak here I sense).  Needs time and food.

2009 Savitar Shiraz ($80)

Selected rows were kept aside from the vineyard.  This fruit was from the rows next to the Almond trees.  Why does this matter, I hear you ask.  Well the trees compete for the soil moisture and thus these vines are more water stressed thus producing lower yields.  With the lower yields the flavour from the vineyard is packed into less grapes and thus these berries have more flavour than the rest of the vineyard.  In 2 words the wine is intense and smooth.  I suspect there has been some American oak used here as a minor oak component as one can get the toasty sweetness of the oak of the American kind.  Plums and blackberries packed around some dried herbs with a somewhat mouth drying (tannin) finish.  Needs lots more time in the bottle before getting let loose.

2008 Serpico Cabernet Sauvignon ($80)

A fully Amarone style as discussed above.  The wine was fermented on skins for 2 weeks and then left on skins for another 3 weeks before pressing.  This delay in pressing helps soften the wine as the Amarone process can produce aggressive tannins.   I have only tried a few Amarone style Cabernets and I was really taken with this one.  There was intense fruit character with the same dried herbs I got with most of the other reds.  This tells me that the oak that these wines see is similar across the range.  I also get a hint of eucalyptus and menthol or mint.   The tannins are very much in balance here and all that is needed is a bit of time.  As an indicator – I do not drink much Cabernet but I took a bottle of this home with me.