Sarah Ahmed – The Wine Detective

Western Australian wineries are well up for pitting their wines and wits against the best the Old World can offer – Cape Mentelle started it with a Cabernet Sauvignon tasting, followed by Cullen for Chardonnay, Howard Park for Riesling, Peel Estate for Shiraz, Millbrook for Viognier, Woodlands for Cabernet blends and Fraser Gallop for white Bordeaux blends.

The region’s premium focus and signature elegance stand it in strong stead for such exercises (see my last post about a red Rhone blend tasting at McHenry Hohnen) and I’m loving being at the sharp end of it. This weekend, I’ve been at Howard Park guesting at their international Riesling tasting, an annual event though here’s a scoop - next year they’ll alternate with Pinot Noir at which, as the Aussies say, Howard Park are going “red hot.”   Owners Jeff & Amy Burch (pictured) have teamed up with Burgundian winemaker Pascal Marchand to make Great Southern and Burgundian wines under their Marchand & Burch label.  If this morning’s performance is anything to go by – a blind tasting of Australian, New Zealand and Burgundian Pinot Noirs – they’re going red hot in the right direction!  I particularly liked the Marchand & Burch single vineyard Gibraltar Rock Pinot Noir from a biodynamic vineyard in Great Southern’s Porongorups and the Marchand & Burch Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru 2007 produced collective sighs of pleasure around the long, boardroom table and, just to put that in context, the line up included Armand Rousseau Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2004, Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot ‘Les Cras’ 1er Cru 2004 and Domaine de L’Arlot Romanee St. Vivant Grand Cru 2004.  We’d also tasted DRC La Tache 2000 and DRC Echezeaux 1988 the previous evening….

Anyway, back to Riesling.  I’ll write up a full report later, but this was a fine showcase for Riesling’s pulse and postcode, with scintillating dry and off-dry Rieslings from Alsace, Australia, Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Washington State strutting their very own stuff.  All wines hailed from the 2007 vintage, interesting because when it came to Australia, Rieslings from the drought-affected eastern states lacked a little finesse and what I call nip and tuck (nervosity) compared with the Western Australian wines.  So just for the record, vintages across Australia are different depending on region – not that you’d have believed it reading lots of doom and gloom press reports in the UK about hail, the drought etc in 2007 which seemed to forget about WA.  Of course the European wines, especially the German wines, showed well thanks to particularly long hang times that year, perfect for flavour accumulation and concentration with balance.

My favourite Rieslings?  Top of my list Prager Klaus 2007 from Wachau – powerful, broad and oily but layered, with fabulous underlying freshness and minerality – a feast!  Von Buhl’s Paradiesgarten from Pfalz, Germany, showed bounteous fruit, almost over the top but carried off (style and length-wise) and held in check by juicy, fruity acidity.  With WA’s hallmark fine frame, Howard Park and Frankland Estate’s Isolation Ridge both looked trim, the former already hinting at the delicious honeyed, peachy notes I associate with this wine with some age under its belt, while the Frankland Estate wine had an uber-mineral quality.

OK, over and out now since I’ve been hogging the hotel computer!  Off down to Mount Barker tomorrow to judge at the Qantas Wine Show of Western Australia.  I suspect I’ll have even less opportunity to access the internet down in Great Southern and rather a lot of wines to taste, so be in touch when I’m back in blighty!

All best

Sarah
Sarah Ahmed
The Wine Detective