To mark our milestone 100th episode we thought we would have a special episode where we look at the four best wines in Australia. To narrow it down a little we decided to break it up into four categories.
The first category is a white, and unusually for us the top wine is a chardonnay, and not a riesling. It’s a great drop from the Margaret River region and will be no shock to anyone being named Australia’s best white, especially given the current vintage.
Our next top wine is a cult wine, from a relatively new producer. It’s a big, powerful, red from a Barossa producer who has a legion of fans across the globe thanks to some great reviews from the top wine writers. But it’s not all about power with this red, as a splash of viognier adds subtlety and grace to the super old shiraz vines.
Of course no list of Australia’s top wines would be complete without our next wine. A true icon of Australian winemaking, the name is known across the world. People who don’t drink wine know this wine’s name and know it’s reputation as Australia’s finest drop. This red is ideal for cellaring for the long term, and is the wine that so many Australians have celebrated important milestones by opening.
To round things out we thought we would include a wine that is uniquely Australian. The fortified wines of the Rutherglen region are truly distinctive and recognised as singularly exceptional when at their best. Some producers from the region have stock of old wine dating back many generations. Our pick has dipped into some incredibly old wine to offer a blend that is exceptionally rare and worth every dollar of it’s high price tag.
Jumilla is a municipality and also an up and coming wine producing region in southeastern Spain. It is located in the province of Murcia, along with other appellations (or they call Denomination of Origin or simply DO) such as Yecla, Alicante and Bulla. Jumilla’s wine production is particularly notable for its use of Monastrell (Mourvedre) as a varietal.
Like many areas from the old world of wine making. Spain, the third largest producer of wine (after France and Italy), is going through a revolution despite its very rich winemaking tradition. New generation of winemakers are not just learning the art (and science) of winemaking from grandpa and papa but they are soaking much on modern winemaking knowledge and investing big money in both viticulture and modern wine making equipments. The new Spain has arrived and getting better vintage after vintage!
The Finca Luzon is a Monastrell blend. Bright red fruits of strawberry, raspberry, red cherry with violets from the nose. Juicy on the palate, lots of ripe red fruits mixed with spicy herb, tobacco, violets with some stew fruit reduction characters then smoke, potpourri and a hint of varietal bitterness to follow in the finish. This is a good wine with food because of its acidity. (Rating 88-90 points) by Michael Lam of the Beverage Review.
Domaine Brusset is a relatively large producer in Rhone. This wine is from an appelation in Southern Rhone called Gigondas created in 1971. Unlike Northern Rhone, which employs solely Syrah. The wine would probably be a combination of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Carrigane and Cinsault. On the nose, some cherry liqueur or kirsch character popped out mixing with some earthy barnyard but the wine was not giving much. I deliberately aired the wine before tasting but still…more cherry fruit and dry berry/flower characters came out upon tasting. It has a medium to full body followed with some astringency characters like bitter lemon/tangerine. The tannin is sandy, mouth coating and immediately dried out the tongue. The finish is relatively short and leaving my mouth dry. The style is traditional and backward. I fail once again why the both WA and WS rated this wine so high (93 and 94 points respectively) in the past. (87-89 points) rated by Michael Lam of the Beverage Review.
Gary Vaynerchuk, host of the wildly successful daily online show Wine Library TV, which has some 60,000 viewers, with traffic that greatly exceeds industry Goliath, the Wine Spectator, came by the Beet.TV studios one night for some wine tasting basics.
Smelling the wine is key — as is swishing it like “mouthwash.” Well, the wines Gary brought over were certainly nothing like mouthwash. Gary really knows his wines and takes a very direct approach to sharing and teaching — there is not one bit of snobbery.
This young New Jersey wine merchant, who started his show a few years ago, has become a celebrity and is poised for stardom. He has even been signed by the Hollywood power talent agency CAA. Not sure how his career will unfold. A big TV series, maybe “Top Sommelier?”
Here he turns on some folks to some great Chianti, cabs and other nice things to rinse with.
