#curly flat

[winetalkandreviews-blog]

2010 Curly Flat Pinot Noir

Where to start... Earth, cherry, rhubarb, garam marsala, earth, nutmeg, graphite. Equally on the nose as the palate. Beautiful tannin and line of acid. Could be cellared. Best CF since 2006. Wow.

[huonhooke]

New tasting notes: pinot gris and pinot grigio

Pinot gris and pinot grigio (let’s call them PG for short – and not Pig, like some detractors do) are johnny-come-latelies in Australia and New Zealand, and while there were few examples to get excited about in the early days, I’m finding more and more very good wines lately.

Whenever I’ve done a PG tasting in the last two years, I’ve found a handful of excellent wines that I really want to drink. They’re a far cry from what Mornington Peninsula veteran Brian Stonier used to disparage – with good reason – as ‘dishwater’.

There are 75 new reviews, mostly 2012s. Outstanding examples came from Curly Flat (tasting), Casa Freschi (tasting), Ocean Eight (tasting), Foxeys Hangout (tasting), Leura Park Estate (tasting), Pike & Joyce (tasting) and Scorpo (tasting).

The best wines tend to be a little ‘worked’, rather like chardonnay, with a proportion of barrel fermentation, solidsy juice and lees-contact adding extra layers of character. There’s no point doing this with wishy-washy grapes, like the vast majority of gris, though: it has to be superior quality fruit with good concentration.

All of these wines – and more – have that. While I still find most New Zealand gris too sweet, there are some absolute stunners from across the ditch in this latest crop, with absolute blinders from Ostler (tasting; in the Waitaki Valley north of Central Otago) and old faithful, Ata Rangi (tasting).  

[huonhooke]

Top Aussie white

Curly Flat Pinot Gris, Macedon Ranges 2012 $29

This is a very ripe, rich, full-bodied gris with typical light coppery tinge to its colour and spicy, ripe-peach aromas with a suggestion of oak. It’s rich and full in the mouth with a tickle of sweetness and a silky texture. Lively acidity keeps it fresh. Now to 2017. 13.9 per cent alcohol. 93/100 (Huon's Wine 360)

Food: pizza with eggplant, tomato and cheese

Stockists: Five Way Cellars; Vaucluse Cellars

[huonhooke]

New tasting notes

This month I’ve uploaded the largest bunch of tasting notes ever, with around 800 reviews.

These include about 300 wines from the 2013 Tasmanian Wine Show, a tasting of 130 New Zealand wines from the Wairarapa (Martinborough, Gladstone and Masterton), and a large number of imported wines from my travels in France as well as tastings in Australia.

There’s also some sparkling and Champagne and quite a lot of ‘alternative varieties’ – such as pinot gris, viognier, verdelho, gruner veltliner, vermentino, marsanne, savagnin and gewürztraminer.

And a complete Curly Flat chardonnay (tasting notes) and pinot vertical (tasting notes), back to 1998. And don’t miss the latest Bass Phillip releases (tasting notes), in which the magical 2010 vintage is the star. Tops is the 2010 Reserve Pinot Noir (97 points; $539; tasting notes).

And a teaser for next month: a complete vertical tasting of Henschke Hill of Grace back to 1958.

[findyourlegs]

[findyourlegs]

Williams Crossing, Pinot Noir 2010

Williams Crossing is the entry label for Phillip Morahan's Curly Flat Winery located in the Macedon ranges less than an hour from Melbourne. The Williams Crossing Pinot Noir is made in the exact same method and from the same grapes as his premier Curly Flat label, a barrel tasting is completed just before bottling and it is determined the higher rated barrels are to go to Curly Flat and the balance goes to Williams Crossing. The end result is a high quality Pinot at nearly half the price of the sister label. Jancis Robinson has in previous vintages actually rated the WC higher than Curly Flat, just goes to show the beauty of a wine is seen differently by different people. The only catch with Williams Crossing is it's only available at cellar door and a handful of carefully selected restaurants. The 2010 has a great dark fruit bouquet with a medium to light weight, sweet and sour cherries with a fine smooth finish. Quality Pinot at a bargain price. 93/100