Interesting little story behind this wine, which also explains the question mark over the CD price. I consider James Hook, maker/producer of the Lazy Ballerina wines, to be an advocate for interactive social media. Twitter in particular. And he performed a little experiment recently, where anyone who followed him on twitter were informed that they could buy bottles of the new 2009 Viognier for $10 each, delivered freight free to anywhere in Australia. I suspect that some of his work mates and colleagues may have been questioning the worth of his efforts in promoting his wines on Twitter. Well, I grabbed six, and I know a few others who availed themselves of this bargain too. Happy I did too.
Viognier takes a whole new form under James’ direction here. The 2009 was deliberately picked early and is very much a racy summer wine. I don’t think this is about displaying varietal correctness, which is fine by me. I’ll leave the judging of varietal correctness to those on the show circuit. I taste and textualise wine myself.
The colour is indicative of the palate, extremely light straw with a suggestion of bronze. The nose gives shy expressions of McLaren Vale honey suckle, lemons and white nectarine. On the palate, the furthest we get to Viognier’s apricot aspects are a bit of apricot kernel flavour/texture. It’s more in the citrus end, with lemons, unripe nectarines, a dash of honey and some orange tang at the finish. I even got some green apple from one of the bottles I’ve shared. Anyway, this is to say there is a pleasant tart quality at work here and it lingers, asking you to take another sip.
Texturally, the wine enters bright and crisp, softening over the mid palate and building up some interesting pithy qualities that pull the fruit up, but add complexity. The warmer the wine was, the more the pithy texture played out. When that texture was brought into relief I enjoyed it with some food. I also enjoy a little friction, so I liked this cold and also as the temperature of the wine increases.
But to most, I’d suggest taking it chilled from fridge, & pouring and enjoying it with some food and friends on a warm summer’s day. In that form, this Viognier works very well.
And it also leads me to say that to write Viognier off as a varietal is starting to become a bit frustrating. I’m increasingly tasting a wide variety of interpretations of the grape. If you don’t like Viognier, can you please tell me which form of Viognier you don’t like? I hope the quality information on the history of the grape (written on the back label), from its near extinction in Northern Rhone to its plantings and resurgence in Australia, plays true to the end where it is described as “the grape that would not die”.
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Hi Jeremy. I like viognier but I don't like the overly tart and flabby, rather one dimensional, apricot syrup-like styles. More often than not they tend to lack essential, refreshing acids for balance. There's a hell of a lot of those coming out of South Australia at the moment.
What I do like though is viognier with a little bit of oak, whether through barrel fermentation or short term maturation, present.
I'm also a fan of viognier with more restrained, almost reductive primary fruit with elements of mineral, more citrus fruit (like you mention in this review) and especially any more savoury characters, particularly light pastry or nutty tones.
The 2004 Virgilius was about as good an Australian viognier as I've had, but I've tended to not like Yalumba's other efforts with the grape as much as others, I did like their 2006 Heggies though.
Tahbilk's is usually my favourite, value for money Aussie viognier, with the 2007 being my recent best pick. It's a fine example of the restrained primary fruit characters wrapped with mineral suggestions, citrus and refreshing acidity I so admire. Restraint, delicacy and finesse achieved without sacrificing varietal quality, not easy at that price point!
Cheers again
Chris P
Hi Chris
Yep, it's a grape that can go horribly wrong and I guess that's part of the reason it's received so much bad press. But wines like this Lazy Ballerina, 2007 & 2009 Blue Poles and any Clonakilla but especially the 2007 are making even Viognier critics think again I reckon.
FWIW I reckon the Granite Belt in Qld can make some handy ones too. But I've not had the time or money to sample much recent GB, so I won't say much there until that changes.
I love the intelligence of your response here. You're doing me the kindness of "listening" to my post & commenting from there. Much appreciated as always I do like my reading audience! Smart peoples
The Vs I like most often have similar qualities to those you mention. My palate can get into a bit more opulence though, as such I quite like most Yalumba's with the Virgilius a favourite. I've almost bought a Heggies, must do so now! And I've had the 2007 Tahbilk version. I remember it as solid and value plus, but I like their Marsanne and Roussanne more. That's me
cheers
j