A is for alternative: Australia Day Tasting new finds

This year’s annual Australia Day Tasting (ADT) in London featured over a thousand wines from 65 regions and 213 wineries.  Where to start!?!?  Following the previous week’s Yarra Valley Gin revelation I elected to continue my pursuit of alternative Australia. The most alternative of all…?

That prize easily went to Crittenden Wines Oggi 2013 (Mornington Peninsula).  Crittenden’s new Oggi (meaning today in Italian) label offers a peak at the most exciting experiment father-and-son team Garry and Rollo Crittenden conduct each vintage.  This fabulously spicy, smoky yet bright and beautiful well structured white was fermented on skins and macerated for another two weeks post-ferment on skins.  It’s not just the winemaking which defies convention.  This here today, gone tomorrow blend is most definitely my first (who knows last) taste of a Friuliano, Savagnin and Arneis blend.

Oggi was not the only new (to me at least) white blend to impress.  Barossa-based First Drop can be relied upon to mix things up in ever interesting ways.  With an RRP of £12.99 the very very drinkable First Drop Game of Two Halves 2014 (South Australia) also features Arneis, here blended with Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio.   With crisp acidity and restrained crunchy fruit it’s the perfect summer thirst-quencher for those looking for an alternative to more ubiquitous tutti frutti styles.

De Bortoli La Boheme Pinot Gris & Friends 2014 (Yarra Valley) brings together Pinot Gris, Riesling and Pinot Blanc to good Alsation effect.  In other words it’s textural, round yet balanced with exotic mandarin, hints of fennel (how good are orange and fennel together) and stony minerality; a very complete wine.

A couple of Rhone white blends also impressed, especially the well structured, subtly nuanced Hewitson Private Cellar Marsanne, Roussanne 2012 (Barossa).  With Viognier leading the way Domaine Tournon Mathilda Viognier, Marsanne 2014, (Victoria) was much more effusive in perfume and fruit; with an RRP of £14 it looks like a smart buy from Michel Chapoutier’s expanding Australian stable.

A teeny tiny 2% splash of Viognier  accounts for the “V” in Plan B TV Tempranillo 2013 (Geographe) which I liked very much.  For Plan B winemaker Bill Crappsley (pictured below), the Viognier brings not only aroma but also sheen, which is a nice foil to the Tempranillo’s delightfully chalky tannins.  Tannins which, for Crappsley, transform his Shiraz.  Just 6% Tempranillo brings an attractive bit of edge – firmess and spice – to Plan B ST Shiraz 2011 (Frankland River).

Shifting into rather more conventional varietal if not stylistic territory, I particularly enjoyed the light touch (no oak, old oak) of several red Rhone blends including the beautifully balanced, spicy, silky, very lifted Teusner Joshua Grenache Mataro Shiraz 2013 (Barossa Valley), this vintage with 3% Petit Verdot and, new to me, Ruggabellus Fluus Grenache, Mataro, Cinsault, Syrah 2013 (Barossa Valley) and Ruggabellus Timaeus Grenache, Cinsault, Mataro, Syrah 2013 (Barossa Valley) with their Pinot-esque Campari, chocolate orange and pine needles riffs.

As for pure Grenache, I found the warm climate Pinot Noir style very much in evidence in Adelina Grenache 2012 (Clare Valley), which is made from 80 year old vines.  A very graceful, lifted take on Grenache – as memorable as this producer’s labels, pictured below. (By the way, I couldn’t resist also trying Adelina Riesling 2014 whose brown bottle hints at its delicate yet intense, textural off-dry style.  It’s well worth seeking out too).