Grampians 14.5% Screwcap $85
I do not consider myself to be the most technical of wine tasters…sometimes that’s an advantage, other times it might well be a deficiency. A rather self indulgent mood saw me opening this wine spur of the moment during a weekend lunch. I was seeking a specificity of pleasure – drinking windows and price be damned.
Concentrated plums and cherries, herbs, light florals and complex spices; pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace. Roast meats, coffee grounds over dark chocolate. Beautifully pitched oak, good acidity, fine grained tannin, excellent intensity of fruit without overbearing weight. Complexity and joy in a glass.
After writing those notes, for some reason, I reached for Jeremy Oliver’s Wine Annual to read his thoughts. I could recognise the wine in his note, but not the joy I felt drinking the wine. Yes, the fruit was quite ripe and perhaps a little raisined. Yes, there was a slight dip in the finish and it could have been longer…but bugger me, this was a delicious wine and one to revel in. It will only get better but it is balanced enough to enjoy now.
Of course this is a critic’s dilemma – when do allow your brain to switch off and let the pleasure wash over you? Isn’t your role to think long and hard about the wine…to dissect it? It’s a difficult balancing act. The 2007 vintage was warm in the Grampians and ongoing drought was having its effect too. I think this speaks with beauty and authenticity of its place and time. Ultimately, when coupled with copious drinking pleasure, this is pretty much all I can ask of wine.
Winery website- www.langi.com.au/
I've lost count of the number of wines that Oliver has given an average to poor review of, that I have subsequently tasted and really enjoyed. Your review, JP, is much more in line with what other critics have written i.e. that it is a quality wine, and Oliver is the odd one out in that regard
Thanks Andrew. Oliver is an interesting one. Whilst there are things I admire about his approach, overall it leaves me cold…and we are obviously poles apart when it comes to styles of reviewing wine
I love his fearlessness in calling a wine how he sees it, but I have just come to the conclusion that he has a super-sensitive, super palate, that operates somewhat removed from the rest of us