My Winning Whites Of '08

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday January 14, 2009

JOHN LEWIS

LATE 2008 saw sauvignon blanc dislodge chardonnay as the top-selling white variety in Australia but the Leeuwin Estate 2005 Art Series Chardonnay is my wine of the year, white wine of the year and chardonnay of the year.

According to AC Nielsen market research, the New Zealand Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc label became our top-selling wine in the September quarter last year.

Of the 400 or so wines I reviewed over the past 12 months, the Leeuwin Estate 2005 Art Series, from the Margaret River Region, was one of only three that earned five-and-a-half stars.

Priced at $76.95 to $93.95 a bottle, it combines finesse, flavour, complexity and elegance and I rate it one of the best to come from the beautiful Western Australian wine estate established 36 years ago by Denis and Tricia Horgan.

It is brassy gold in the glass and has scents of melon, pear and crushed almonds. Intense, vibrant nectarine flavour captures the front of the palate and elements of spice, ruby grapefruit and fig marry with supple vanillin oak on the middle palate. Silky smooth flinty acid comes through at the finish.

Sublime semillon

MY wine of the year and white of the year runner-up and top semillon is the $65 McWilliam's Mount Pleasant 2003 Lovedale Semillon. I gave this superb Hunter semillon five-and-a -half stars when I reviewed it last December and a month before it was judged the Wine of the Show in the 2008 Tri-Nations Wine Challenge involving 321 top vintages from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

It was one of many fine Hunter semillons I encountered last year, such as the $25 to $30 Tyrrell's 2004 Stevens Individual Vineyard Semillon , the $40 Warraroong Estate 2006 Semillon , the $32 Poole's Rock 2005 Semillon and the $23 Hungerford Hill 2007 Hunter Valley Semillon.

Another beauty is the $25 Pokolbin Estate 2005 Semillon, made by Andrew Thomas, which was the second-top semillon in the 2008 Winestate magazine Wine of the Year Awards.

Top-value wines are the $20 Oakvale 2008 Gold Rock Semillon and the great-value $17 First Creek 2007 Premium Reserve Semillon, which won a gold medal in the 2007 semillon dry white class at last year's Hunter Valley Wine Show.

Apart from the Leeuwin Estate 2005 Art Series, 2008 brought forth some other excellent chardonnays, among them two Hunters the $35 to $40 Tyrrell's 2005 Single-Vineyard Belford Chardonnay and the Tyrrell's 2005 Vat 47 ($50 to $55).

Other top-ranking chardonnays are the Shaw and Smith 2007 M3 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, the $42 Cape Mentelle 2007 Margaret River Chardonnay, the $32 Mistletoe 2006 Reserve Hunter Chardonnay and the $24 Scarborough 2005 Yellow Label Chardonnay.

Podium finish

THE sauvignon blanc of the year is the Logan 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from the Orange area of Central Western NSW.

This wine produced a boilover in the 2008 Winestate magazine Wine of the Year Awards by edging out three New Zealand Marlborough wines.

Other class Australian savvy blancs are the $25 Shaw and Smith 2008 Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc and the $20 Barwang 2007 Tumbarumba Sauvignon Blanc, while my top-value Kiwi is the elegant $12 Kono 2007 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

Best of the rieslings

MY best riesling is the $32 Jacob's Creek 2006 Steingarten Riesling from the Pernod Ricard group.

The $32 Penfolds 2008 Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling, from the Foster's Group, is another clinker. It is from a marque that began in 1999 as the Penfolds Eden Valley Riesling and was rebadged as Bin 51 in 2006.

Other top drops are the Penna Lane 2007 Hand-Picked Clare Valley Riesling and the $22 The Wilson Vineyard 2007 Polish Hill River Riesling.

Tulloch is tops

IN my book, the $16 Tulloch 2008 Verdelho is the year's dux for the variety.

It distinguished itself by winning a rare trophy and the only gold medal in the current-vintage verdelho class in the 2008 Hunter Valley Wine Show at Singleton.

Another goodie is the $22 First Creek 2008 Hunter Valley Verdelho.

Best dessert white

THE McGuigan 2005 Personal Reserve Botrytis Semillon gets my vote as the best sweet dessert white of the year.

Crafted by Peter Hall from grapes grown at Denman, it was judged the top wine in the sweet white section in the Winestate magazine 2007 Australasian Wine of the Year awards.

The Hunter seldom figures in this category, usually dominated by wines from the Riverina or Rutherglen. The Winestate panel, however, put the McGuigan ahead of the McLaren Vale d'Arenberg 2006 The Noble and two other wines from Hunter producers the Allandale 2006 Anna and the Tatler 2006 The Sticky.

That Yarrabank sparkle

THE Lewis choice as the best Australian sparkling wine of 2008 is the $38 Yarrabank 2004 Cuvee.

The Yarrabank sparkling wine operation, a joint-venture between the Rathbone Wine Group (RWG) and the French Devaux Champagne house, is based at RWG's Yering Station property in Victoria's Yarra Valley.

Since its establishment in 1993, Yarrabank has built a reputation for excellence and this applies in the 2004 Cuvee.

The $39 Chandon 2005 Vintage Brut, the $34.95 Blue Pyrenees 2001 Midnight Cuvee Chardonnay and the $35 Seppelt 2005 Salinger deserve special mention, as does the $29 The Tatler 2007 Sparkling Chardonnay-Pinot Noir.

From the Lovedale Rd, Lovedale, Tatler operation, the wine won a gold medal in the Winewise magazine 2008 Small Vigneron Awards in Canberra.

It can be bought at the cellar door or on 4930 9139 or www.tatlerwines.com.

Offbeat delights

THE tastings of 2008 were enlivened by a number of offbeat white wines, such as the $20 Symphonia 2008 King Valley Albarino and the $30 Freeman 2007 Fortuna.

The Fortuna comes from the vineyards and winery of former Charles Sturt University Professor of Wine Science Brian Freeman at Prunevale, in the Hilltops area near Young and is an adventurous mix of pinot gris, riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and a splash of the Italian aleatico variety.

It has honeysuckle scents and pear and kiwi fruit flavours underpinned with lime zest, mineral and spice characters and it's available by mail order on (02) 6384 4299 or www.freemanvineyards.com.au.

The albarino comes from the Symphonia vineyard, at Myrrhee in the Upper King Valley in Victoria's north-eastern high country, which is owned by Newcastle lawyer and businessman Peter Evans, his wife Suzanne and their eldest daughter Rachel Miranda.

Albarino is a Spanish variety and the 2008 Symphonia is a zingy, refreshing white with lime blossom aromas and green apple flavour on the front palate, backed on the middle palate by lemon sherbet and pear characters. It can be bought at the cellar door in Snow Rd, Oxley, Victoria, or on 1800 994 750 to order or visit www.sammiranda.com.au.

? NEXT WEDNESDAY IN GT: John Lewis's red wines of the year.

© 2009 Newcastle Herald

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