Tasting Notes - the best of Coonawarra

Taste Food and Wine 2009 by Matthew Jukes and Tyson Stelzer

If you're planning a tour of Coonawarra, in the flesh or just in an evening, then try some of the best releases this year from the red heaven of South Australia.

Penley Estate Phoenix  2006 $22.00 
More backward than the Penley's Condor, this is an impressive red for the money. It's built with the chassis of a far more expensive wine, with the same horsepower and accompanying tannin accessories. We suggest that you buy it as soon as you can, but hold off test-driving it for a year or so because it is still fairly dry. Given twelve months it will blossom beautifully into a spicy, black-fruited cruiser. 

Majella Cabernet Sauvignon Coonawarra  2006 $34.00 
Warning: Do not, under any circumstances, drink this wine. Do not buy it unless you have a very deep hole under your house where you can hide it until at least 2020. There is a magnum’s worth of blackcurrant and capsicum intensity in every bottle and we would not advocate even opening one to see how tight it is because it would be wasted. Just load your cellar with as much as you can afford (quite a lot at this bargain price, we would imagine) and you will be back to thank us in ten years’ time. An invitation when you open the bottle will suffice.

Jacob’s Creek St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon  2005 $40.00 
We have been following St Hugo closely for decades, and its inaugural inclusion in our book is a massive statement on the standard of this vintage. It’s inevitable that some of the Cabernets in our list will have quite dusty tannins, and this wine is one of them. It’s a classically shaped Coonawarra Cabernet, because it is built for the long-haul but does not for a moment sacrifice any of its beautiful violet lift or precise blackcurrant fruit flavour.

Petaluma Coonawarra  2005 $60.00 
We have had the great pleasure of drinking virtually every vintage of this wine, including the inaugural 1979 - which was and still is a staggering piece of crasftsmanship.  This glorious 2005 may be as delicious, too, after thirty years in a cellar.  One this is certain, though, and that is you can, without feeling too guilty, take a sneaky peak at this wine now to get a glimpse of the excitement that is to come. The blackcurrant fruit is stunningly lifted (Cabernet's trumpet call) and then the outriders of red berry notes flank this movement thanks to the astute addition of top quality Merlot. On the palate the vanillin oak and woodsmoke notes call out, adding to the cacophony. While this wine will need a long time to soften and integrate it makes for and extraordinary experience already. One of the incredible things about this wine was that we noticed that there was some left in the bottle three days after having tasted it and we couldn't resist dipping in again to see what changes had transpired (by the way, this is a top tip to determine how a wine might mature). It was beautifully balanced and even more alluring with great length and savoury complexity. Initially, this wine was so compact that it felt like there was a barrel's worth of wine in this bottle and with time, albeit only three days, we could see how settled and magnificent this wine was and will be. Does the 2005 have the wine of the quality of the 1979? We are absolutely certain that it does. 

Majella Coonawarra Shiraz  2006 $33.00 
Under no circumstances should you drink this wine, and if you do, there is a GPS system embedded in the wine which will alert the Majella constabulary and they will pour in through your front door and caution you for crimes against drinkability. We place a priority of approachability on all of the wines that we include in our book but this is one which you must pop into your cellar because it is too good to miss - and it will all be sold out before our book is released next year.

Penley Estate Condor Shiraz Cabernet  2006 $20.00 
With fresh plum-dunked fruit and a really fit feel on the palate, this is a superb entry level wine from the great Kym Tolley at Penley. We have not included his more expensive wines this year because Condor and also Phoenix Cabernet (read on) are doing so well this year and the big boys need some time to mature anyway. With cracking (literally) pepper notes on the nose and stylish fruit concentration and length, this is a delicious wine that soars high! Not a blockbuster, more of a genial sort, just like Kym!

Melody Majella Coonawarra Rosé  2008 $16.00  
This wine is the diametric opposite of Prof Lynn - delightful, clean, refreshing and light. This is an elegant, gentle rosé with pretty red fruits and it's as well made as anything from this great estate. Despite its delicate style it's the definitive wine for any pink crustacea and it will also handle some chilli on the top. 

Katnook Founder’s Block Sparkling Shiraz  2005 $21.00  
A more masculine wine than the other two sparkling reds this year, this is a foodier proposition, but not a wine that is more tannic than the others, it’s just a little more structured and a little dryer. Fat black plums and dark cherry fruits make up the battering ram of flavours here and there is ample pepper and spice to making it the perfect companion to a meat feast. A savoury finish with yet more spice means that you could even stretch to top flight Indian lamb dishes and really impress your mates. 

Penfolds Cellar Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz  2006 $250.00 
When we wrote up the 2005 last year with the biggest rave review we could muster, it was priced at $100 a bottle. Imagine our surprise when the sample of 2006 turned up this year and the sticker on the back said $250. We thought the rate of inflation in Zimbabwe was extreme, but clearly at Fosters it’s even steeper. So, when tasting this wine, we did something that we very rarely do, which is to take into account the extreme price of the wine and try to justify it throughout our tasting exercise. We are happy, and somewhat shocked, to report that this wine ranks among some of the best in the world, and therefore, despite its stomach-churning cost, unlikely as it sounds, it still offers good value for money. 

Reproduced with permission. © Copyright Matthew Jukes and Tyson Stelzer 2008

VisitVineyards.com Members can purchase Taste Food and Wine 2009 from our online partner Seekbooks at a 12.5% discount, postage and handling extra. 

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• Barossa Valley (SA)
• Coonawarra (SA)

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