McLaren Vale Wines – Adrian Kenny Wines

4 09 2010

Adrian is in a few words – an interesting character – and that is why I like the guy.  He has been making wines  for a number of McLaren Vale wineries and McLaren Vale grape growers that have not been able to sell their grapes so have organised to make their own wine.  I have tried a number of these wines made under contract for others.  I have enjoyed these wines so I was looking forward to trying his own wine.

Adrian likes to work on what he calls the Trinitarian Balance which is a balance between flavor, aroma and texture (or what I often refer to as mouthfeel.

Adrian has a need to do the different things and to incorporate technology to provide something different.  This burning need is a driving force in his winemaking style.  There is no standard Adrian Kenny wine as the wine he makes this vintage may not suit what he wants to try next or the next batch of interesting fruit he can find.  Adrian has also decided to reduce the work he has been doing for others and to spend considerably more time working on his wines and his use of technology.  We can then look forward to many different wines to try from this “innovator”.

2010 Fleurieu Peninsula Sauvignon Blanc Trial Batch 8a

Just bottled and nearly all the wine sold.  The grapes come from Mt Compass vines and they were picked relatively early so to achieve only 11% alcohol.  This was an attempt to make a more refined wine and a move away from the fruit bomb mentality.  I was looking forward to trying this as I am not a not normally a fan of Sauvignon Blanc and maybe this would be different.  Unfortunately the wine was all over for me before it began – the level of sulphur added to the wine was overpowering on both the nose and palate.  The level of sulphur was at 30 ppm which is normally acceptable – but not in this case.  I even left the wine tom breath for a couple of hours but to no avail.

2009 GTS ($A18)

I have not had a Grenache, Tempranillo, Shiraz blend before so another level of interest was sparked.  No disappointment this time.  Another level of interest is that the Grenache had a few bunched of Viognier during fermentation.  The aromas are dominated by cherries with the earthiness one normally associates with Tempranillo.  The flavors continue with the cherries and a melody of red fruits.  There are soft tannins and a hint of darkness which I can describe as briarness.  There is some lovely fruit here but with some darkness as well – I see this as an excellent combination with Pizza or Pasta.

2009 Fleurieu Peninsula Tempranillo Trial Batch 3b ($A22)

The fruit comes from a biodynamic vineyard on the Fleurieu Peninsula.  Adrian was trying to make a Tuscan style wine.  The aromas were understated and I believe that  the wine needs time to reach it’s potential.  There was cherries and the Briarness I mentioned above.  As the wine was breathing in  the glass I got some floral tones starting to come through.  The flavors were interesting.  At first there was some greenness and then blackness with a slightly bitter finish.  While Adrian & I were talking about this wine I found the wine changed and the greenness and bitterness disappeared, so one to watch for a few years.


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McLaren Vale Wines – Tapestry

7 08 2010

Tapestry Vineyard Views

I understand the wine under this label is made at Boar’s Rock Winery in McLaren Vale and rumor has it that little wine was made in 2010 as they are reducing their stocks plus concentrating on the functions side of the business.  The facility has great vineyard views and plenty of balcony to view them from.  There is also wide grasses spaces with a BBQ and a bench table at the rear of the complex – which would be good for families to take in the open spaces and the views.  During summer they serve Antipasto platters for lunches and during winter they have cheese platters available.

Tapestry BBQ Area

The winery used to be known as Merrivale with the vineyard being established in 1969 and wines made in 1971 with the current owners (Gerrard Industries) taking ownership in 1997 with the Merrivale label being phased out.  A second vineyard in Bakers Gully was also purchased in the 90′s.  You can check out their web site at www.tapestrywines.com.au.

2008 Tapestry Riesling ($A16)

The kerosene aromas with hints of limes is a dead give away for Riesling.  The wine is not strongly flavored but there is some limes and ginger there.  A good acid finish is the best part of the wine – a wine that is a pass for me.

2010 Tapestry Sauvignon Blanc ($A18)

Grapes for this wine were sourced from the Adelaide Hills (Gumeracha).  Not as grassy as the usual Sauvignon Blanc offerings.  I get a wine that is strong Gooseberries and some passionfruit with a soft acid finish.  I would not call this a food wine but one to drink with friends – just because you can.

2009 Tapestry Verdelho ($A18)

Not much here for me – either aromas or flavors.  Another miss from me.

2009 Tapestry Chardonnay ($A18)

By this time I was a little worried but my faith was restored!  The restoration started with barrel fermentation and 9 months oak maturation and continues with cream and melon aromas.  The wine finishes with a well balanced peaches and cream combined with a savory finish.  I am thinking of Salt and Pepper Squid with some Chilli Jam to go with this wine.

2007 Tapestry Late Picked Riesling ($A16)

This was a surprise as the wine had some pleasant aged Riesling character with a slight citrus note – not a sweet single dimensional wine based on sugar.  I am thinking of a nice curry – maybe a Butter Chicken or a Rogan Josh.

2009 Tapestry Rose ($A16)

This Shiraz based Rose has wonderful aromas of strawberries and cream and after such a pleasant start the wine goes down from here and the flavors do not meet the expectations after sampling the aromas.  Another miss for me.

2009 Old Vine Grenache ($A25)

From a difficult vintage good things can grow.  All the things one looks for in Grenache are here – red fruits, floral, perfume and cedar notes for the complex aromas.  This continues onto the flavors showing balance between the fruit and smart use of what I suspect was large and old oak barrels.  Simply put – I like this wine and look forward to consuming my purchase with roast lamb.

2008 Tapestry Shiraz Viognier ($A25)

Shiraz was co-fermented with Viognier skins to produce this wine as a variant of the plain Shiraz wines, and by using the Viognier skins then a different wine is produced with no new grape requirements.  The Viognier gives a lift to the aromas where stone fruit is layered over the sweet Shiraz fruit.  The flavors are dominated by the plums of Shiraz but one can tell the Viognier is there.  The tannins are drying on the palate.  Give this one a try – I suspect that a number of people will love the wine and a number of people will pass on this one.  When I consider this offering against the Grenache then this wine is a pass for me.

2008 Tapestry Bakers Gully Vineyard Shiraz ($A20)

This wine was made for the American market and I am concerned that by doing this we are dumping substandard wine that does not meet the usual standards of McLaren Vale to overseas markets – no wonder our wines are not seen as quality if this is what we send.  This wine is just loads of jammy over ripe fruit – another pass here.

2007 Tapestry Shiraz ($A25)

There is ripe plum fruit here – though not anywhere near the same extent as for the Bakers Gully Shiraz.  The flavors are sweet (like fairy floss) with some pepper, but reverts to jammy on the finish.  Not going well here as this is a pass also.

It should be noted that there is a $5 charge to taste the Reserve wines, with the fee refundable if a purchase is made.

2006 Tapestry Reserve Fifteen Barrels Cabernet Sauvignon ($A45)

The aromas were restrained but the flavors are a step up.  There is a mix of blackberry and blueberry with hints of vegetative capsicum notes combined with complex spices (not the least being Star Anise).  The french oak is obvious but not overpowering – the fruit weight does it justice.  I can almost taste the rich rabbit pie to go with this wine.

2007 Tapestry Reserve The Vincent Shiraz ($A45)

The best fruit from the Bakers Gully Shiraz fruit sees 100% new American oak for 24 months.  Based on this introduction I was expecting the vanilla oak monster to be appearing.  Sure there are vanilla aromas and flavors but they are not overpowering.  The aromas also have licorice and the spice mix of cardamon and nutmeg.  The flavors have intense fruit that combined with the oak characters and spices combine into a complex and lingering effect.  What a step up from the other Shiraz based wines from this stable.  This wine is pretty good now but let it live in the bottle for another 5+ years and it will only get better.  Right now I would drink this with lightly seared Kangaroo Loin steaks with a stir fry of seasonable vegetables.

N/V Tapestry Sparkling Merlot ($A22)

Readers of the Lonely Grape would know I am a fan of sparkling reds – normally of the Shiraz based wines.  So I was interested, but unsure what this wine was going to show.  The aromas and flavors showed lots of mulberries, with some spices and apparent sweetness (though not too much).  As one would expect there are soft tannins here that combine nicely with the other characters.  Again, there would be alot of people that would enjoy the softness and the sweetness (hello to my sister – she would like this), however for this money there a number of other options.


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McLaren Vale Wineries – Haselgrove Wines

8 05 2010

Haselgrove Wine’s are interesting for their changes over recent history as they evolve into a “new direction” producer.  I remember Haselgrove Wines having their cellar door at what was (until recently) the Turkey Factory Direct Outlet.  This was closed and a very small cellar door tasting facility was opened on McLaren Vale’s Main Street (next door to Blessed Cheese cafe).  The tasting room was so small they even marketed themselves as having the smallest cellar door facility in Australia.  This cellar door was shut down about 18 months ago.  I believe the company was owned by the banks for a considerable time until it was recently sold to a consortium of Italian heritage gentlemen who are transforming the company into a multi-regional winery – taking the best of what a number of South Australian regions can provide.

Keith Smith & Gordon Grant at Haselgrove Wines

It is great to see a struggling winery given a new lease on life.  The only issue I have with their branding is that for the people that have known Haselgrove Wines in the past would know the “H Series” to be the premium wine label.  Under the new regime the “H Series” is their entry level wines. So there is a potential mix up of expectations from people that have consumed this wine in the past.

H by Haselgrove Range ($A12 – 15)

2009 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

The aromas were dominated by passionfruit with hints of freshly cut grass and the distinctive tomato leaf characters.  The palate continued with the passionfruit theme with hints of citrus.  The citrus was unusual as this is normally associated with high acid and long finish whites – in this case the citrus was there but the wine was a little short on the palate.  A clean and crisp wine that would go well when drinking with friends on a Sunday afternoon.

2008 Shiraz

Straight away I get the aromas of stewed plums with a hint of cinnamon spice.  The flavors show plum, mocha, nutmeg and pepper (on the back of the palate).  The fruit is light to medium weight with minimum oak treatment plus showing a slight bitterness on the finish.  This is another well made wine that the lighter weight red wine character would go so well with home made pizza.

2008 Cabernet Merlot

This is a typical light style of red wine with blackcurrent, red cherry and earthy aromas that as it opened up it gravitated towards the cherry being dominant.  The flavors were cherries and blackcurrents with almost no oak characters.  Just the sort of easy drinking to have at a BBQ or to consume with friends sitting in front of an open fire.

Primo Taglio (First Cut) ($A18 – 20)

2008 Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc Semillon

Even though there is the usual herbaceous, it is not overt or “in your face”.  There is also a real lychee smell evident as well.  The flavors are passionfruit and lychee based  with an unusual melon finish.  The wine seems to lack an acid strength finish which means this wine would really Sunday afternoon session friendly.

2008 Adelaide Hills / McLaren Vale Chardonnay

I must say that I really enjoyed this wine – Chardonnay has such a bad wrap at the moment and selling it has not been easy, however if we keep making wines like this things will change.  There are excellent melon and tropical fruit aromas. Tropical fruits dominate the palate, with pineapple very evident here.  This is quite a long wine with some toasty oak on the end of the flavor profile.  I would like to see this wine consumed with a a Ham & Pineapple wood fired oven cooked pizza or even the old ham steak with pineapple and grilled cheese.

2008 McLaren Vale / Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon

Interesting mix of wine regions – Coonawarra has a great reputation for Cabernet with McLaren Vale being a vastly improved Cabernet region.  So I was looking forward to trying this wine.

The nose was all you expect with blackcurrent and blackberry aromas with pleasant spicy oak filed aromas (cedar based from the french oak treatments).  The flavors are based around blackcurrent and the cedary oak with soft pleasant tannins.  The flavors were a bit lacking in the mid palate but not to the point that takes much away from the overall experience.  The one thing that was missing here is that Coonawarra Cabernet can have strong vegetative character which I quite often seems to me to be like green capsicums.  I like the overall package of this wine and would love to drink it

2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz

This wine is a very obvious step up from the “H” Range.  The aromas are an amalgamation of the fruits of  mulberry and plum combined with the spice of pepper and cinnamon.  There are also hints of cedar from the good use of oak.  The flavors are black fruit based (blackberry and plums) with pepper and a toasty oak and lengthy finish.  The tannins are well integrated and are not overpowering.   How about trying this wine with Ricotta Gnocchi with a spicy tomato based sauce.

Bella Vigna (Beautiful Vineyard) ($A20 – 23)

2009 Adelaide Hills Pinot Grigio

The aromas were very light coming off the wine, so I waited for the wine to warm slightly in the glass in case wine temperature was the reasoning behind the relative lack of aroma.  Alas, the aromas did not change much as the wine “warmed up” however, I could now determine a hint of fresh pears.  The flavors continued with light offerings of pear and just a hint of sweetness.  I would not consider this a food wine but more in line with consumption on a Sunday afternoon session on a warm Summers day.

2009 Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc

As expected there is a strong herbaceous and cut grass aromas with pleasant passionfruit tones.  The flavors are subtle where nothing really hits you but the overall effect makes good drinking.  Passionfruit is the main theme here but I suspect each person drinking this wine will see different subtle flavor profiles.  There is a good strong acid finish here which makes me think of seafood consumption – maybe some whole baked snapper with steamed seasonal vegetables.

2008 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon

I wish I had tried this wine “blind” as my first reaction was this is defiantly a Coonawarra Cabernet – but maybe I was being led by the wine label.  Anyway, the aromas were herbaceous with hints of capsicums plus blackcurrent with the cedar expected from French oak.  I hope there was no suggestion here – but I thought there was just a hint of mint there (typically Coonawarra Cabernet character).  There is a lot going on here on the palate – cassis, capsicum, mint with initial hit of soft tannins.  There was an intensity here that gave a lingering experience that finished with grainy tannins coating the tongue and teeth.  This wine has the structure to keep for up to 10 years – however I do not expect it to last that long.  Roast rack of Lamb accompanied by mint jelly plus roasted root vegetables would go down a treat with this wine.

2008 McLaren Vale Premium Selection Shiraz

Straight away I need to say – “YUM”.  The intense aromas of mulberries and plums with a lovely infusion of nutty oak.  The flavors are complex and a joy to behold with blackberries, mulberries, nuts (particularly walnuts) and the classic cigar box tobacco and wood combination.  There are plenty of good grainy tannins that work well with the intense fruit.  With all this complexity the wine stays with you for a long while.  It maybe boring but I just want a big thick T-bone steak with this wine.

Il Padtrone (The Boss) ($A25 – 30)

2007 Sparkling Shiraz

This wine shows some pedigree straight away – there is a fine bead of bubbles and the aromas plus flavors are like a nutty / plumy fruit cake with some nutmeg thrown in.  There is a silky mouthfeel from the combination of the bubbles and the wines “texture”.  The wine does start to get a little bitter when warm – so just drink it cold.  I would classify this as a medium sweetness sparkling shiraz and as such drink it as an aperitif with a wide range of finger food.


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McLaren Vale Wines – Sabella Vineyards

24 04 2010

Well what a great few hours I had with Michael Petrucci – I found somebody who was just so passionate about McLaren Vale wine and could talk about it at least as much as I could.  What fun!

Sabella Vineyard

Sabella Vineyards started in 1975 and now have 110 acres under vine.  A number of years ago a decision was made to get Michael into the wine business via wine making.  Instead of rushing this move Michael went to school to learn wine marketing.  Straight away there was a understanding that selling wine was very different to selling grapes.  This understanding has been crucial to Sabella standing out from the pack and not just another grape grower trying to make and sell wine.

The packaging has a label that shows the Statue of Abundance – bit it looks a bit like the Statue of Liberty and gets recognition by this similarity.   All the wines produced have a point of difference to have the wines stand out from what can be a McLaren Vale wine lake.  They are about to release a Merlot under the Marilyn Merlot label and a Moscato is to be released later in the year.

To date wines have only been released every second year.  The reasoning for this is that they are making enough in these years to take 2 years to sell – so why make wine that they may not be able to sell and thus just build up their stocks.  Wine is still made but is sold to other wineries in the area.

Sabella Vineyards Vats

Sabella has another point of difference and it is probably their most interesting.  It is their Reserve Shiraz, and it is so different that the process used is patented.  Michael wanted to get the consumer involved in the winemaking process.  Yes, I can hear you already saying – How!  They add a sliver of oak into the wine which will impart a certain amount of oak flavor into the wine.  So where is the customer involvement – the consumer makes the decision when the wine has been subjected to enough oak.  If the wine is left to mature to the point the oak has had maximum extraction then the wine would need time to mature before being optimal to drink.  So again the consumer not only decides when the wine has had enough oak, the consumer also decides on the time the wine should be aged.  To ensure the wood does not come out of the bottle there is a plastic inset in the bottle neck.  On another occasion I have tasted the current release 2004 Reserve Shiraz and was not impressed with how “over oaked” the wine was – so I expect the wine has extracted the maximum amount of wood tannins etc into the wine and now the wine needs to be cellared for a few years for the wine to show it’s best.  I can now better understand the wine I tasted with the correct context.  The next Reserve Shiraz looks to be from the 2008 vintage.

Sabella Vineyards Barrel Store

Now for a review of the wines.  Also, check out my video tasting of 2 Sabella wines.

All wines were tasted at room temperature.

2009 Mother & Daughter Sauvignon Blanc

Straight way this was different – no strong smells of cut grass or the cats pee (which is good).  I was immediately surprised that the main aromas were a minerallity with just a slight herbaceousness.  The theme continued on the palate with minerallity on the back palate and continues with a good acid length.  The grapes for this wine come from 2 vineyards – the first on a higher location on sandy soils, and the second on a lower section on vineyard in heavy soils.  As one would expect these 2 different soil types and locations have different ripening characteristics.  For this wine the grapes are harvested at the same time and are co-fermented.  This methodology produces a wine with broad flavor profiles – particularly with the aim of a final alcohol level of 12.5%.  The minerallity and acidity lends itself to work well with seafood – maybe a paella.

2010 Sauvignon Blanc (Vat sample)

The aromas were reminiscent of the commercially available Banana Lollies with just a hint of passionfruit.  the banana lolly continued as a flavor (but not as strong as the aroma) combined with crisp green apples.

2009 Marilyn Merlot (barrel sample)

This wine is expected to be released later this year.  The aromas had some plum but the aromas and flavors were dominated by “Cherry Ripe” which would come from the oak treatment.  The flavors also had some vanilla (from American Oak) with soft tannins.  An easy drinking style but not the real softness that one normally gets with Merlot.  I can imagine drinking this with Pumpkin Gnocchi with a burnt butter and sage dressing.

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

I did not get any obvious wood interaction on the nose – all fruit, mainly blackcurrent tones.  The flavors continue on the black fruits theme theme (blackcurrent and blackberry) with soft oak overtones and the softness continues right through to the lingering finish.

The soft finish is a conscience play and has been successful with the 2005 vintage of the wine winning the George Mackey Trophy in 2009 for the best Australian Export Wine and in doing so knocked the big producers off their perch (Penfolds have won this trophy for the previous 3 years).

2007 Shiraz

The aromas start with the typical berries you get with McLaren Vale, and end with what I can only describe as the smell of freshly cooked cinnamon donuts.  The cinnamon continues on the flavor profile and I suspect this comes from the cleaver use of oak and the various oak toasting combinations.  The flavors also include the usual plum characters your find in McLaren Vale Shiraz.  As with the Cabernet the tannins are soft and combine into a lingering experience.  Please bring on a steak with this one.


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Lonely Grape TV Episode #23 – Pertaringa

16 02 2010

I had the pleasure of tasting some wine at the Pertaringa cellar door.  I wanted to share the joy, so check out my review of their Sauvignon Blanc and Grenache.  Both wines are worth checking out from this mid size McLaren Vale wine producer.

Check out the pictures of the pickers working on their lovely Fronti grapes that will be used in Pertaringa’s Moscato.


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