Tag Archives: Wine

In some ways Corey Vandeleur was destined to make wine.  His parents owned the McLaren Vale local pub until he was a teenager.  He worked at Magleri’s, Hardys Tintara winery and had a stint overseas in California.  His dream started with using some cuttings from Maglieri’s vineyards to plant a 10 acre vineyard just off the Main Road across from the McLaren Vale Visitors Centre.

Only fruit from his vineyard goes into Bellevue Estate wines.  The winery is in front of the vineyard and Corey seems to approach his wines in a minimal handling way.  Each time the wine is handled (eg pumped) some flavor can be striped from the wine – thus not not making the best wine he can.

There is no cellar door at the winery, however one can try the wine at The Bahn (a restaurant also on McLaren Vale’s main street and owned by Cory’s brother, Ben).  I have now tried the last 3 vintages of the resultant wine and I can attend that each vintage has been an improvement  from the previous one.  This wine was awarded 5 stars at a Winestate Magazine new release tasting.

2010 Bellevue Estate Shiraz ($20)

Straight away the aromas showed a depth one does not normally find on a $20 wine.  As you expect there is plum fruit but the aromas of white pepper, mixed spice and a little vanilla (from the proportion of American oak).  The bottle I was tasting from had been open about 2 hours and a slight hint of musk was showing – I suggest that with increased breathing this musk could become more prevalent.

As with the aromas, the flavors shown depth – in this case some of the black fruits such as black cherry and blackberry with just a hint of blue fruit thrown in.  lots and lots of mocha chocolate dominates the mid and back palate.   The American and French oak influences are obvious and the tannins are drying, neither are over powering but it makes me think this wine will will be at it’s best in around 3 to 5 years.

The wine begs for food – big flavor food such as a beef rago and with a little patience one will have an absolutely enjoyable experience drinking a bottle or two.  At this price and quality the wine is absolutely a “should buy” from one of McLaren Vale’s smallest wineries.

McLaren Vale Scare Earth Shiraz Project Tasting

During the month of May the Scarce Earth wines are available for tasting from the cellar doors for the respective wineries or some of the smaller wineries are showing their wines at the McLaren Vale Information Center.

My view about the McLaren Vale Scarce Earth Shiraz Project this is a chance for McLaren Vale to market, as a combined approach, one of the wine styles this area does really well – Shiraz.  There has been a better roll out this year and as a general opinion the wines are much better than last year.  The big thing the group need to ensure that the Scarce Earth Project does not turn into a an “old boys club”.

Now my comments about the remaining McLaren Vale Scarce Earth Shiraz Project……

Battle of Bosworth Chanticleer Shiraz ($45)

From stony loamy soils from their Binney Road vineyard.  The fruit is very clean on the nose but the flavors really shine through with white pepper with soft velvety fruit character.

Bottle of Bosworth Braden’s Shiraz ($45)

From the Bay of Biscay clay soils from the same Binney Road vineyard.  Tis wine is all about darkness and strength.  Just so good and so different from from the other wine from this stable and from the same vineyard.

d’Arenberg Shipsters Rapture Single Vineyard ($99)

Mulberry and spice and all things nice that what this wine is made of.

d’Arenberg The Blind Tiger Single Vineyard Shiraz ($99)

The 87 year old Blewitt Springs vineyard produced a fruit rich offering with white pepper on the nose and anise infused fresh plum compote with a dark chocolate finish.  A seriously good wine but at this price so it should.

d’Arenberg The Garden of Extraordinary Delights Shiraz($99)

Of the 3 d’Arenberg offerings this wine has what appears to be the best balance between spice and fruit.  Neither is dominate over the other.

Kangarilla Road Scarce Earth Shiraz ($50)

From their Maslins Beach vineyard I got limited aromas but showed considerable depth of all the classical Shiraz flavors.

Shingleback Unedited Single Vineyard Shiraz ($70)

Limited aromas and a relatively short flavor profile of the dark black fruit character makes me wonder if this wine was only recently bottled as I know this wine’s pedigree and expected more.

Vinrock Shiraz ($40)

This is just pure juicy Shiraz in a bottle.  I enjoyed the pure flavors and definition of the plum and spice range character.  I see this as a definitely drink now wine as I am not sure I could wait.

Hugh Hamilton Black Blend #1 Single Vineyard Shiraz ($50)

The 2 Black Sheep wines were probably the most interesting for me.  These wines were almost under oaked and I believe the wines could have been better with a little more oak.  I do not think I have ever said or thought this about a red wine before – this wine made me think about what was happening and not just experiencing the wine.  My notes just said – fruit, fruit and more fruit.  In this case mulberries.

Hugh Hamilton Black Blend #2 Single Vineyard Shiraz ($50)

As for the wine above this is all about the fruit.  This wine showed more concentrated black fruit profiles so was very different than the previous wines.  One could not argue this wine was showing off the essence of the vineyard!

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleaseure of attending the McLaren Vale Scarce Earth Shirz Project.  Check out my views about the project and the tasting here.  This post will continue my rieviews of these wines.  As I discussed last week I will be reviewing the McLaren Vale Scarce Earth Shiraz Project wines over a few weeks, with each review I will be mainly discussing the differences between the wines and not that all of them have plum character.  I hope you enjoy the comments and I welcome any of your comments as well.

Tatachillia Hall Entrance

Sabella J. Petrucci and Son Shiraz ($25)

Another value offering from the Sabella vineyard and winery.  I have tried the last 3 vintages of Shiraz that Michael Petrucci has made and I think each year has been better than the last.  I suppose one should make good or better wine from the 2010 vintage, but I get a sense of more.  I get the feeling that Michael is getting to understand his craft and his raw materials (grapes from his father’s vineyard) better. The wine shows the aromas expected from Shiraz and a mild dose of white pepper.  I really enjoyed the strength brought on by the fruit as much as any oak treatments.  There is plenty of acid here also so the wine should last for ages.

Penny’s Hill Footprint Shiraz ($60)

Even though there is minimal American oak used in the making of this wine I got an immediate sense of the vanilla and sweetness brought on by oak of the American variety.  What I also took away was the depth of character that lingered until the next mouthful.

Wirra Wirra Patritti Single Vineyard Shiraz ($132)

Grapes for this wine were from the Whittings Road vineyard in the Blewitt Springs area.  The deep sands with peat layers have a distinct effect on both the aromas and flavours.  I also got a feeling of blue-ness what tasting this wine – there is a Shiraz clone that exhibits blue berry, so I guess this is what I was experiencing.  The spice mix was more towards pepper aromas but anise flavours.  A special note about the packaging here, the bottle shows a contour map of the region showing the vineyard location (see the photo).

Wirra Wirra Scarce Earth Shiraz

Geoff Merrill Reserve McLaren Vale Shiraz ($75)

Just making it into the McLaren Vale region being made from Kangarilla fruit next to the Mt Bold Reservoir.  One special barrel was selected that shows anise aromas but a fruit driven front flavours with a big mid palate and a soft finish.

Hastwell and Lightfoot Scarce Earth Single Vineyard Shiraz ($28)

My first wine from this stable and I was not disappointed.  This wine from the Foggo Road vineyard has lots of spice and length with an interesting mouthfeel that brings me back for more.

Chapel Hill The Chosen House Block Shiraz ($65)

Blue aromas mixed with a funky, earthy and almost barnyard stink style flavours.  The fruit has been well looked after here.

Chapel Hill The Chosen Road Block Shiraz ($65)

The aromas were somewhat closed but the wine here is all about the fine structure and lovely spice.  This wine will live for a long, long time and will reward anybody who cellars this wine.

Angoves Warboys Vineyard Shiraz

From a small section on the hill of the Warboys vineyard .  Lots of spice and fruit sweetness that melds into an interesting viscocity and the resultant mouthfeel.

Dowie Doole Scarce Earth Shiraz ($45)

A little fruit sweetness here as well with a depth of fruit based character and the wonderful experience of mixed spice.

Brash Higgins SHZ ($37)

This wine really made me sit up and take notice.  A meatiness like chorizo sausage loaded with paprika, the usual iodine character (that I seem to get consistently from this Malpas rod vineyard) and some slight citrus (most unusual).  There is sufficient tannins here that act like all they want to do is to is to dry out your teeth.  This wine is my second favorite from the Project wines.