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Liquid Refreshment

14

Aug

Down Under & Back Up Again

Jacob Gaffney  in Red Wines, Shiraz/Syrah, White Wines, Merlot, Chardonnay, Viognier , , , ,

Last week focused on Cabernet, with some harsh words directed at the cheaper-end of Australian producers. Not fair.

This week takes a look at more Australian buys from between the £5 and £7 mark. Primarily Shiraz, that great Australia grape: peppery, bold, cocky even…well maybe not, but still very self-assured.

There is this rule of thumb in the wine trade that says blends tend to taste better. By using Shiraz as the backbone, winemakers may add Merlot, for elegance, or more Cabernet, for added rustic flavour. With this in mind, I headed to my local Costcutter corner grocery store to check the selection.

This will be brief. After taking Monday and Tuesday off from the sauce, I returned with a renewed vigour. Ready to tackle the average Aussie vin de table. I started with (and these are all 2004s) a Shiraz Merlot blend… I’m reluctant to name names here; but it’s a big producer (aren’t they all from down under?) Initially it tasted a bit rusty, unpleasant, but after an hour or so, it became decent enough to drink. The alcohol level in this wine seems almost purposefully jacked-up, as if a nice buzz will make you forget your worries as well as the lazy winemaking. The bottle was left unfinished.

Then it was a Shiraz-Viognier. Not a typical blend, but still remarkable similar to the previous evening. Again, not finished. It also burned my throat. What are they thinking? That stuff hurts, man.

I then tasted another blend, the next night. I’m getting in too deep with this – over my head…

Speaking of heads, the next night, I drank a Yalumba. You see, for me, a true wine should give the drinker an ironic feeling: a contradiction where the wine washes away the stress of the day and relaxes, whilst still enabling the drinker to feel invigorated and alive. No, this wine… this wine… just made me feel WEIRD. The next day, my head hurt.

I capped the Australian tour with a Rosemount 100 percent Shiraz. Frankly, I shuttered when I took it off the shelf. Maybe it was feeling the eyes of the shopkeeper on my back as if to say ‘you sure have been drinking a lot this week.’ But, mainly it was the label. The label was shouting ‘I’ve been designed to grab your attention, and hold it, so you don’t care if I’m any good on the inside.’ Luckily, by mid-week, I was decanting the wines and letting them sit for an hour before trying. This burned off the alcohol and brought out the tell-tale spiciness of the Shiraz. Spiciness? What kind of description is that? What kinds of spices? Fresh marjoram? Year-old garam masala? Some one should develop an electronic nose or something to sort this out. How about it science?

Electric Wine Nose

Funny thing; my wife refused to take part in this mad experiment and asked again for a decent glass of white. I was in the middle of a red wine tasting. RED WINE, dammit. In a moment of brief introspection, I remembered the piece I was currently working on for Wine Spectator magazine, where white wine may be as good as reds, in terms of cardiovascular health. How salubrious.

At any rate, I wasn’t about to spend my vast wine knowledge on someone who rarely gives me wads of cold, hard cash, so I just grabbed a cold bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc from Concha y Toro screw cap (superior to cork when it comes to a ‘drink now’ status). It was lovely, crisp, almost the colour of water.

Three nights later she gave me the same request, even though she still had a glass left in the old bottle. I’m sure it would’ve been fine. But, I went into the store and grabbed another bottle, same shelf, same place… same COLOUR. Only when I got it home did I notice it was the Chardonnay. But the label looks exactly the same! And how can a Chardonnay not retain any of its straw-like hue? It was a decent wine, but c’mon guys. Give us more credit than that. Surely, when people buy wine, they don’t just grab any familiar bottle and don’t care if it’s a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon, an Albarino, a Viognier…

Or do they?

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