Murray Darling NSW 13.5% Screwcap $11.95- Tasted 25/7/09
Back from some turgid theory and into some cheap TNs, just to keep you on your toes.
Ok. Trentham. Do a lot of different things. Make a lot of a different wines, attractive package of range, value, typicité and terroir. And, with the continuing water problems of the Murray, well worth supporting. Halliday’s article in the last Weekend Australian was interesting and worth seeking out (July 25/26). In fact that’s why I chose this bottle from under my bed.
And it’s pretty much what I’ve come to expect from Trentham really. The problem is, good sub $20 Pinot is much more common than it used to be, so this wine suffers a bit due to the availability of the likes of De Borts Windy Peak and Gulf Station, Ninth Island from Tassie, and some NZ gear if that’s your thing. It’s a tough market.
Cherries, sap, five spice, cola, plums and a little vanilla. You wouldn’t normally associate the Murray with Pinot, and while Trentham have done more than a decent job, it just doesn’t quite work for me. A little clumsy and the bass notes of plum are quite stewed. I like freshness in Pinot fruit flavours and it was somewhat wanting in that area. The finish is decent, with sappy grainy tannins carrying the flavour quite well. It just lacks subtlety.
I had a couple of glasses of this with some weird egg & vegie bake thing, and some more with roast lamb that night (yes, I do rely on roast lamb as a fall back meal. You could do worse, no?). Worked better with the egg & veggie thingy. They sort of seemed to match aspirations a little. Well, the wine was probably better than my meal, but you get what I mean.
So, at $12 you get a taste of Pinot and of the Murray. There is better pinot for the price out there, but tasting different things is fun too.
86.7235/100
Winery website- click on title
Going to have to start reading halliday as well as lethlean now. PS: Read Wine Hunter author's own review of Wine Hunter on Winestar or whatever it's called: "This is the best thing I've every written . . . you have to buy this book'' . . . che?
Yes, JH deserves his status in Oz wine history.
On CM, to be fair, he also writes- "I hope this doesn't sound unsavoury but it's also immensely important to me that this book gains an audience – because if people don't respond to this book in numbers, then I shouldn't be writing about wine."
I think that what this is getting at is his passion for wine, wine history and O'Shea. And that is something I am very passionate about myself. TNs are fun, and sell more (the public want them), so you kind of have to sell "wine history" and "wine writing" yourself. And WineStar, whilst loving the book, also want to sell copies and make their money.
At a guess, I think CM is probably more concerned with people reading about the amazing story of O'Shea and his legacy, which is truly a gift to Australain wine, than selling "his" product though.
Once again, I really recommend the book. It was one the reads that got me interested in wine outside of just enjoying and attempting to evaluate its consumption. Seriously, it all adds to the fun
cheers
j