Riesling 2012
A bit thin and underripe. Well made, just not the region for it.
Pinot Noir l’ami sage 2011
Juicy bright soft tannins fresh long, quite warm for the vintage. Plenty of maceration tannins and structure. Bold.
Shiraz Col’s Block 2010
Intense dark slightly meaty spice, hints of tomato and dark pomegranate.
Filed under Tasting Notes
10x Chardonnay
Clean tight lean. Fresh balanced bright citrus fruit. Generous mineral savoury lees notes.
Estate Chardonnay 2011
Purer but lighter. Finer and a touch more savoury, very fine and poised with just enough personality. Great length.
Estate Pinot Noir 2011
Very quiet subdued, very light. Pure fine delicate, exceptionally well handled for the vintage.
10x Pinot Noir 2012
Nice and intense but still restrained and delicate, savoury. Pow, lovely intense fresh great fruit. Dark but light and bright.
Filed under Tasting Notes
Chardonnay 2010
Delicate but broad worked Chardonnay notes, toasty stone fruit. Rich ripe warm but balanced oak. Still an old school style of chardonnay.
Pinot Noir 2010
Tight lean intense red fruit spicy stalk elements. Generous warm sweet tannins, mature oak, falls away a bit on the palate.
SIngle Vineyard The Paringa Pinot Noir 2009
Dark talcy notes, rubbery oak. Sweet juicy full dark fruits. Fairly closed for the time being.
Shiraz 2009
Inky iodine, sweet briny Asian spice, a hint of green pepper. Juicy black focused generous, bold structure tannins. Somehow all the elements work in this wine. The future of Mornington?
Filed under Tasting Notes
Pinot Gris 2012
Really tight quincy freshness. Very focused and sharp, dry dry.
Verve Chardonnay 2011
Very sulphury smoky struck match, sharp thin lacking power intensity character. Not so much a fan of this style, it appears under-ripe. At least it’s not overworked.
Pinot Noir 2012
Really bright pure lean aromatics. Right up my alley, lovely and long focused delicate fine but firm tannins. Exactly what Mornington Pinot should be.
Aylward Pinot Noir 2010
Kind of different notes on the nose, oak muting the fruit. Quite warm, brusque youthful tannins and heat.
Filed under Tasting Notes
Chardonnay 2012
Pretty old school ripe malo new oak. Broad fat flabby lacking focus and drive. In actual fact oak pretty well managed, but older style.
Pinot Noir 2007
Nice nature savoury bottle aged character. tight generous sweet tannins, round and savoury thanks to bottle age.
Shiraz 2005
Fat broad bretty ugly wine.
Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Tight oaky underripe. Pleasant dry red wine, nothing more.
Filed under Tasting Notes
Pinot Gris 2012
Tight subtle spicy quince. Biting acidity, borderline tart, trying to tread too fine a line, harvested too early.
Even Keel Chardonnay 2011
Quite ripe and rich, leesy old oak. On the fat broad side, lacking in enough body or texture, unfocused.
Mill Hill Chardonnay 2010
A little minerality, jumps out of the glass, savoury rubbery ritz notes, some middle eastern spice. Full bright ripe intense, quite lifted on the palate, nice focus. Generosity and length.
Mill Hill Pinot Noir 2011
Quite subtle lean charcuterie red fruits. Light fresh bright intense yet subtle fruit and nice integrated savoury meat notes too. Levity and brevity.
Landividdy Lane Pinot Noir 2011
Fairly closed dark nutty red fruits. Tighter leaner but also lighter without the freshness. Lean, perhaps a little thin.
Filed under Tasting Notes
Chardonnay 2011
Fairly ripe stone fruit, lees and some new oak, a bit of sherbet fresh sweetness in there. Generous rich ripe fruit, sweet texture, broad, classic Mornington chard with contained malo and new oak.
Pinot Noir 2012
Bright pretty intense. Nice grainy tight stalky (subtle) hints of spice juicy light red fruit. Persistent, balanced savoury notes.
Filed under Tasting Notes
I think I’ve probably mentioned it before, but the Mornington Peninsula happens to be my favourite region in Australia for various reasons. The region is best known for the quality of its wines, particularly pinot noir and chardonnay. but it also happens to have some of the most beautiful scenery, exceptional golf courses, and fine dining in the country. For the last 30 years it has been one of the only bastions of small vineyard artisan wineries, with very little corporate presence and predominantly family owned businesses. 26 of the regions finest producers made the trek to Melbourne to show their wares both to trade/media and also to consumers. I have separated many of the producers into individual posts, but here are my notes on a range of older vintages that were also on show.
Miceli Rosé Brut 2004
Quite intense bright aromatics, cheesy red fruits. Density and weight on the palate, juicy red fruits, raspberry roll-ups, dried apricots.
Montalto “Eleven” Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2008
Quite prominent leesy buttered oak, peachy cream. Reasonably light fresh on the palate, dried peach/pear, fat and textured on the back.
Crittenden Estate Chardonnay 2006
Dried stone fruits, thin but hot at the same time.
Moorooduc Chardonnay 2005
Quite dense rich mineralic heat coming off, leesy ripe stone fruits and citrus. Quite ripe and rich but very balanced elegant, exquisitely long, holding together beautifully.
Yabby Lake Pinot Noir 2008
Stalky floral musky lavender blueberries. Pure focused lean still very fresh, purity and finesse.
Phaedrus Pinot Noir Reserve 2008
Darker fuller on the nose, sweet briny earth. Denser fuller tannins, warmer rounder sweeter fruits.
10x tractor Judd Pinot Noir 2008
Quite pale in colour. Subtle but classic Mornington Pinot notes. Fresh light long and balanced. Ethereal length, balanced fruit and tannin.
Port Phillip Morillon Pinot Noir 2008
Darker more brooding nose. Quite warn and fairly extractive, a touch overworked, cooked okay fruit.
Quealy 17 Rows Pinot Noir 2007
Darker colour, more intense. Black ruby intensity, warm fruit ripeness. Broad fat juicy bland short.
Stonier Windmill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007
Dark earthy clumsy oak. Hot maderised fat. Not what I think of for Mornington Pinot.
Hurley Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008
Bright pretty earthy savoury. Full dense concentrated structured. Powerful and generous.
Prancing Horse Pinot Noir 2006
Meaty oyster sauce soy. Old-world style with a touch of new world fruit. Very unique and excellent wine.
Paringa Estate Reserve Pinot Noir 2006
Certainly big, plenty of oak still sitting over everything and making the tannins a little aggressive, pretty aromas but just a bit too much intervention.
Filed under Tasting Notes, Wine Events
Montalto was one of the first wineries I visited, all the way back in 2005. Even then they had garnered much praise for their restaurant which continues to be one of the best on the Mornington Peninsula. The winery received five stars from Australian Wine Icon James Halliday, and from memory this had much to do with the superior site selection and vine age, and less with winemaking. Back then the fruit would be loaded up and ferried across Port Phillip Bay to the Bellarine Peninsula based Scotchman’s Hill winery.
In an effort to improve quality the owners made two important decisions. The first was to build their own winery within the region, and the second was to appoint Simon Black as the winemaker. In the last few years Simon has been making some changes to how the wines are made, such as keeping parcels separate, allowing oxidative handling, encouraging lees contact (even using previous vintage lees), and careful use of oak. At this stage I am liking the direction the wines are going as they distinguish themselves from much of the region’s wines. It is still early days and there is a lot of improvement to come in terms of quality and personality.
Pennon Hill Chardonnay 2012
Clean pure stone fruit classic Mornington fruit profile, a hint of malo fat old oak. Full and textured, fruit not broad or flabby, nor sweet. Certainly going for more texture and savoury, but possibly a tad brutish at the moment. Cheese rind plain yoghurt.
Estate Chardonnay 2012
Tighter more brooding subtlety, oakier density, toastier salted butter. Rounder yet more focused through the mid-palate, more integrated texture and savoury notes, maturity of citrus fruit.
Pennon Hill Pinot Noir 2012
Bright ruby black cherry blood plum. Purity zing freshness, straight, not fat or fruit-sweet, not grainy or broad.
Estate Pinot Noir 2012
Darker sweeter fruit profile, juicier esters. Bolder fuller body and texture, builds a bit more on the palate, more length with integrated oak. Enough fruit generosity? Too much savoury texture?
Filed under Tasting Notes
When I was young my grandparents owned a holiday house that our family made use of at least twice a year, particularly during summer. The house was pretty old, the beds weren’t very comfortable and worst of all there was no television. In spite of this I always looked forward to holidays there. The house was in Rye on the Mornington Peninsula between Rosebud and Sorrento, and I have fond memories of beaching, fish & chips and the summer carnival. They sold the house when I was in my early teens and suddenly there was a hole in my heart where those experiences used to be. Once I became interested in wine that hole was filled in a different way when I discovered it as a wine region. Over the years I was introduced to many other wines and regions in Australia, especially in the Yarra Valley where I worked for quite a while, but Mornington always remained my favourite region in Australia. So it seems fitting that the first region I visited since my return was to the Mornington Peninsula.
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| At Main Ridge Estate, my favourite producer in the world |
Filed under Winery Visits
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