McLaren Vale Wines – Lloyd Brothers

Posted on January 9, 2010 by Lonely Grape

Lloyd Brothers is a wine and olive company.  The company property has 30 acres of Shiraz vines (20% of production is kept with the remainder sold) plus mainly Kalamata olives with holding areas for Alpaca’s close to the cellar door facility.

Lloyd Brothers Cellar Door

Lloyd Brothers seem to be taking a different direction regarding their wines.  There is a change from a number of wine variteies from McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills to estate based Shiraz based wines (Rose, Shiraz, Reserve Shiraz, Fortified Shiraz and Shiraz Verjuice).  The cellar door also has a large selection of olive oils, olives, gourmet foods, olive oil body care products and alpaca wool products.  These products are also combined into well presented gift baskets.  My experience with these products have been consistently high quality.  Two products of interest are their Lemon Pressed Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the Lime pressed version.  This high quality olive oil was pressed with either lemons or limes to produce the infused flavours.  I am looking forward to trying fresh bread dipped into these oils and then dipped into Dhukka.

Produce Area

Their web site is www.lloydbrothers.com.au.  Check out their location on the Lonely Grape McLaren vale Cellar Door Map.

Lets check out the wines.

2008 Bonvale Chardonnay ($A15)

This is an Adelaide Hills wine with a wild yeast ferment.  Some of the wine has been barrel fermented.  The wine has very pleasant pear and peach aromas with oak ceder giving increased complexity.  The palate has a continuation of peaches with a hint of nectarines with a creamy mouthfeel.  The oak is not obtrusive though it lingers on the back palate.  Drinking this makes me think of a big bowl of fresh pasta, tomato based sauce and chopped grilled chicken breast.

2008 Hand Picked Rose ($A16)

the wine had 12 hours skin contact to produce a darker coloured wine than would be considered normal for a Rose.  The nose is full of plums, blueberries with a hint of strawberries.  The palate is unusually dominated by blackcurrent with highlights of spice.  The finish is soft and dry (dryer than most Rose style wine).  I consider this a food wine – try it with BBQ’d chicken and a green leaf salad.

2009 Hand Picked Rose ($A16)

A very different wine to the 2008 version.  The colour is softer (due to only 5 hours skin contact) and the nose is dominated by red berries.  The palate is strawberries with a hint of creamyness on the back end.  There is some residual sugar and as such is a more main stream Rose.  Consumption of this wine should be done cold and with friends (not necessarily with food).

2006 Hand Picked Shiraz ($A22)

The nose was a little challenged with just a slight waft of blackberries.  The palate is berries with fruit cake, soft tannins and minimal oak influences.  The wine finishes a little quickly for my palate.  Bring on the BBQ’d char grilled meats with this one.

2007 Hand Picked Shiraz ($A20)

2007 was a very different vintage with distinct drought conditions for most of the year.  As expected the wine is very different.  The nose has some green herby / capsicum and I could not smell oak characters.  The tannins here were more grainy and bigger body with lots of fruit cake, pepper and hints of mocha.  Pass the Beef with Blackbean sauce (with lots of broccoli) and a double helping of fried rice.

2008 Fortified Shiraz ($A25 500ml bottle)

The grapes for this wine were picked on the first day of the heat wave that defined the 2008 vintage.  The 19.5% alcohol is first suspected by the slight burning sensation on the back of the nose when smelling the wine (or for those that follow Lonely Grape TV – Doing the wanky thing).  The nose and palate is dominated by licorice and sweet/clean fruit.  The finish is a little short when compared to some of the classical McLaren Vale Vintage fortified styles but I enjoyed the clean lines.  Pass the decanter – is it to the left?

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Lonely Grape TV #17

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Lonely Grape

A tasting video for 3 wines in the Backyard Shed Cru Mixed Pack #1. Lazy Ballerina Viognier, Willanbi Vineyards Verdelho and Battle of Bosworth Rose.   Check out the pack at Taste McLaren Vale (from 7th January 2010).

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McLaren Vale Wines – Vasarelli

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Lonely Grape

Vasarelli's Road Sign

I heard that a new cellar door was on it’s way.  I heard it was for a local identity family – Vasarelli.  I got a message on Facebook that a new restaurant had opened just before Xmas day called, you guessed it Vasarelli’s.  Well I had to find out about this myself.  By my reconing this was the 62nd normally opened cellar door (ie not a by appointment only cellar door) in McLaren Vale – I have been to 59 cellar doors in the last 2.5 years so I though I had better get to number 60.  I must say it is great to see a local business deciding to take their accountant buy the b_lls and expend at this time in the wine industry cycle – I take my hat off to them.  It is also great as this facility is within walking distance from my front door.  The first thing I can confirm is that Vasarelli’s is a Cellar Door and Restaurant combined.  Secondly, I can confirm that they have done a great job at renovating the building (see the outside below).

Vasarelli's

They are at 169 Main Road, McLaren Vale (phone: 8323 7980) and note they do not have a web site at the time of writing.  The tastings are held at a dedicated bench area found just inside the access door.  The interior is well done and it certainly has a new feel to it – very welcoming.  Anyway, what about the wines.

Chardonnay Pinot Cuve ($A12)

The nose shows melon characters from the chardonnay and these continue on the palate with an addition of berries from the Pinot Noir.  The overall wine is light and refreshing with lots of simple fruit flavors.   While I was doing this tasting a group came in and one of the ladies tried this and made a loud “oohh” sound of delight – a strong indication she liked the wine.  This would be a good party / friend wine – or as I would say, one to have on a Sunday afternoon with friends.  I would not really consider this a food wine though in keeping with the party theme then finger food would go well with this one!

Santoro Brut (Chardonnay) ($A17)

The nose on this one was closed – I let it warm up for a while in the glass with no improvement in aromas.  The palate was full of yeasty bread characters from yeast contact with melons hitting you on the back palate.  A more complex wine than the Cuvee above and it would go well as an aperitif at the start of most meals – particularly during the festive season (noting that this tasting was done between Christmas and New Years Eve).

2008  McLaren Vale Chardonnay ($A25)

Again the nose was closed, even after some hand warming of the glass.  The palate had lots of the melon with just a hint of peach.  An unwooded fruit driven style, which though not to my taste, is well made and would suit the summer restaurant market (Vasarelli’s suggest this with their Mushroon Risotto).

2008 McLaren Vale Chardonnay Family Reserve ($A32)

The wine was aromatically challenged – I could sense some complexity but not really sure what it was.  The palate was full of melons, peaches and cream (I suspect the creaminess comes from Malolactic fermentation).  Again, this wine is unwooded however has some complexity and a nice mouthfeel.  Again, I suspect this wine has seen some lees aging to achieve this.   Vasarelli’s suggest their Pollo della casa (chicken breast with mushrooms & spring onions all in a creamy masala sauce).

2008 McLaren Vale Sauvignon Blanc Family Reserve ($A25)

Unusually for Sauvignon Blanc this wine was also aromatically challenged, but on the palate showed reserved hints of passionfruit, cut grass with a good acid length.  I do not enjoy the overtly aromatic and in your face style Sauvignon Blancs – of which this wine is not one of those!  While drinking this, bring me a big plate of mussels cooked in wine and tomato sauce (with more than a hint of chilli) and along side this would be a pile of cut fresh crusty bread to soak up the juices.

2008 McLaren Vale Semillon Sauvignon Blanc Family Reserve ($25) (Magnum $65)

When I warmed this wine up (hand around the glass) it showed some straw characters.  The palate continued with the delicate flavours of grass, tomato bush and passionfruit.  There is a long finish on this wine as it has plenty of acid.  Vasarelli’s suggest their Spagetti al Scoglio (seafood selection tossed with garlic, tomato into a mound of  spaghetti).

2008 McLaren Vale Cabernet Franc ($A25)

I was keen to try the first red offering as Cabernet Franc is not what I would consider a main steam varietal.  The nose was light on the fruit but showed some wood characters – smoky and sandalwood tones.  The palate had hints of plum and nutmeg, with soft tannins and soft wood characters.  It was interesting that the oak seemed to provide a very pleasant overall lift.  Vasarelli’s recommend this wine with Pene e Pesto fatte di casa (Penne pasta with basil pesto, panchetta with toased cashew and pine nuts).

2008 Currency Creek Shiraz ($A25)

Currency Creek is a small wine producing region in the Southern Fleurieu Peninsula near Goolwa and is heavily influenced by the weather conditions from both the Southern Ocean and Lake Alexandrina.  The wine aromas were influenced by dark plums and vanilla from the oak treatments.  The palate is absolutely chock full of sweet fruit – the wine is not sweet however the fruit sweetness is paramount here.  Blackberries, stewed plums up front and pepper combined with fine tannins on the back palate.  This wine is a good everyday lighter, easy drinking style red – very suited to finger foods or pizza.

2008 McLaren Vale Merlot ($A25)

Not normally a variety I drink, but I noted with great interest that the Vasarelli Merlot has won a number of awards over the last few years (award certificates are displayed on the walls around the tasting bench.  On this basis, plus a recommendation from the cellar door staff, I was looking forward to trying this wine.  The nose was a little closed – there was some fruit coming through but I could not tell what fruit.  The palate showed  the sweet fruit (as with the Shiraz above) based on plums and blackberries.  The up front fruit was quite juicy but it finished a little short and was not lingering on the back palate.  Vasarelli’s recommend Salsiccia di Pasquale (grilled sausages on a bed of grilled capsicums, egg plant, onions and tomatoes).

2007 McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon Family Reserve ($A32)

I am continually surprised by the quality of Cabernet from McLaren Vale – you think I would learn by now!  this one kept up this wonderful trend.  I was finding that Vasarelli red wines are very fruit driven – again the sweet fruit comes through in waves.  ll the typical cassis characters mixed with good dry dusty tannins  to produce another good drop.  Vasarelli’s recommend their ravioli with tomato based sauce.

2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz Family Reserve ($A32)

A wonderful nose infusion of spice, plums (fresh) and black fruits – easily the best aroma from the red wines so far.  The fruit continues onto the palate with lots of the spice and wood characters – all melded into a wonderfully balanced infusion.  This wine went home with me to be consumed while eating a nice steak dinner.

2007 McLaren Vale Pasquale Selection ($A50)

A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (~65%), Cabernet Franc (~25%) and Merlot (~10%) and is only available for a limited time as there are only a small number of bottles left.  The nose was vegetative – green capsicum, with cassis and mocha.  The sweet fruit characteristics are here again, with blackberries, soft tannins, unobtrusive oak with a long dry finish.  Vasarelli’s suggest consumption with their Porterhouse steak with oven roasted potatoes.

2005 McLaren Vale Pallino ($A50)

A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Malbec and Grenache (proportions unknown).  The colour was just showing some browning.  The nose was dominated by mocha and vegetative characters – not fruit based.  The palate again showed sweet fruit with hints of mocha.  I note that the  Grenache characters come through with the fruit (red berries).  The wood is mellow and the finish is dominated with dry dusty tannins.  Vasarelli’s suggest Lamb Cutlets served with grilled sweet potato, zuccini, eggplant and red wine glaze.

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Lonely Grape TV Episode #16

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Lonely Grape

Check out the wonderfully rustic cellar door of Samuels Gorge. By the way I tasted their 2007 Grenache and 2008 Tempranillo.

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McLaren Vale Wine – Brackenwood Vineyard Cellar Door

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Lonely Grape

An interesting mix!  This cellar door is on the main street of Willunga, in what was previously an antique furniture shop.  The wines are made from estate grown grapes in the Adelaide Hills GI next to Kuppito Forest overlooking Willunga.  This cellar door is relatively new and when I first saw it the blackboard out the front and saw they had wine flight options – 3 options each having 3 wines each matched with a food sensation.  I did not enter the facility as I took the wine flights as the only options to taste their wine.  I was very curious about the wines and decided to ask the owner if I could taste the wine only – not worry about the food.  My timing was excellent as I was directed to the cellar door for a specific weekend as they were about to release their 2009 MC Syrah (Maceration Carbonic) and they also had a vertical tasting of this wine from 2005 – now there was a reason to goto their cellar door.

Brakenwood Vineyard Cellar Door Blackboard

The first thing I needed to sort out was that their cellar door does have free tastings of their wines, as well as their wine flights (at $10 per flight).  By the way, the wine flight options are:-

White Wine Flight

  • 2008 Riesling with Marinated Artichoke
  • 2008 Sauvignon Blanc with Goats Cheese
  • 2007 Chardonnay with Smoked Trout

Red Wine Flight

  • 2007 MC Syrah with Venison Pate
  • 2007 Pinot Noir with Smoked Duck
  • 2005 Shiraz with Smoked Kangaroo

Chocolate Flight

  • 2006 Sparkling Riesling with White Chocolate
  • 2005 Sparkling Shiraz with Dark Chocolate with Red Berries
  • 2006 RW Shiraz with Bitter Chocolate Truffle

This Cellar Door is open Wednesday to Sunday 11 am to 4 pm plus any Public Holidays not already covered.

2008 Sparkling Riesling ($A26)

This wine was made with traditional bottle fermentation techniques and was only recently disgorged and will need some time to settle down.  This wine was for me surprisingly good – I was not sure what I was going to find as this was the first Sparkling Riesling I can remember tasting.  There was plenty of Riesling fruit characters with nuances of green apples and passionfruit.  The lingering acid is also a highlight.  The bead was fine and strong and I suspect would be quite long lasting.  I am a fan of well made Riesling and I certainly enjoyed this presentation.  I am told the 2006 vintage of this wine is currently drinking well and I suspect the 2008 wine will also age gracefully.  I have a couple of bottles and I don’t think I will be able to wait too long to drink them – one may even be opened on New Years Eve!

2008 Riesling ($A18), 2008 Sauvignon Blanc ($A18), 2007 Chardonnay ($A24)

Not tasted.

MC Range

MC stands for Carbonic Maceration and is a whole berry fermentation technique that is used to make softer fruit character wines.  The best known wine made with this technique would be french Beaujolais.  The wine style generally produces early drinking fruit driven styles and in my experience is unusual to taste MC wines with 5 years age.  Thus for me this vertical tasting was fascinating and worth the time to visit the cellar door and taste them.  Please note that this vertical tasting is only held over one weekend every year.

2005 MC Syrah

Lots of soft cherries and blue berry characters.  The wine is showing a bitter finish and I would consider this wine past it’s best.

2006 MC Syrah

There is plum, cherries and blueberries with a hint of violets.  Generally this wine has more lift on the nose but has a lighter finish on the palate than the 2005 wine.

2007 MC Syrah

This was my favourite wine from the older wines.  Interestingly it had 15% barrel fermentation and showed a tighter tannin structure.  There was strawberries and pepper on the nose with a well rounded mouthfeel of strawberries and soft rounded tannins.  If you had some of this wine I would be opening it soon as it will not get any better.

2008 MC Syrah

Interestingly this wine has glass stoppers – I had not previously tasted wine with glass stoppers.  The winemaker was not complementary about the stoppers as there was a significant number of bottle leakages from his wine storage.  The wine could be said to be more old world – less overt fruit flavours and more of the earthyness.  I found the nose a little closed but there was agreat mouthfeel (almost viscous).  When it was released Halliday rated this wine at 94 points.

2009 MC Syrah ($A21)

This was the new release wine and it showed it.  The dark cherry nose was fresh and paved the way for bitter cherries and chalky spice on the palate.  This wine is worth trying and based on the vertical tasting would even do well with up to a years cellaring.  A food pairing with Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta would work well.

2007 Pinot Noir ($A26)

As I explained to the people at Brakenwood Vineyard – I am not a fan of Pinot Noir, however I have not had any of the good ones.  So I will keep on trying this varietal with a negative view until I taste a good one.

The aroma of the wine is characterised by cinnamon and dark cherries.  The palate was full of red and black cherries with hints of cloves and nutmeg – wonderfully complex and fuller bodied than I expected.  OK you got me – this wine I could drink with more complex foods maybe a venison pie.

2005 Shiraz ($A21)

As expected this wine is lighter than the “normal McLaren Vale Shiraz”.  This machine harvested wine has fresh plums and pepper on the nose, with the palate full of plums, blue fruits, cinnamon and cracked pepper.  The wine is well balanced and not over oaked.

205 Reserve Shiraz ($A38)

The hand picked expression of these grapes was similar to a McLaren Vale Shiraz.  This wine saw new French oak and spent longer in oak than the previous wine.  The fruit and wine expressions were typical big Shiraz (black fruits, plums & pepper) with layers of obvious oak and skins/pips tannins.  There is also hint of cloves on the back palate.

NV Sparkling Shiraz ($A26)

One of my favourite styles – particularly at Christmas with Turkey and Cranberry Sauce, a partnership made in heaven!

I suppose I had better talk about the wine.  There was an unusual hit of cinnamon on the nose with the usual plum and black fruit palate, with the usual pepper and chocolate nuances.  The wine has some sweetness (8 g/L) but it is not a sweet bomb.  One bottle of this was consumed on Christmas Day – what a joy.

2006 RW Shiraz (375ml) ($A$38)

RW stands for Raisin Wine – the handpicked shiraz bunches were laid on a straw bed for 88 days, then crushed and wild fermented.  The resultant low volumes were stored in French oak for 18 months before bottling.  This dry wine smelt of raisins and berries with bitter chocolate, cinnamon and raisins on the palate.  What an unusual wine – but this would be wonderful with some strong cheeses.

2006 Botrytis Riesling ($A28)

A wonderful infusion of sweetness, apricots and slight oak flavours.  It was a pity I had my Xmas pudding wine already organised – but wait, I made 2 puddings so one of these will be consumed with the second pudding on New Years Day (if it lasts that long).

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Lonely Grape TV #15

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Lonely Grape

Today I am doing a tasting at the Maximus Wines cellar door – tasting their 2009 Viognier and the 2008 Premium GSM.

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McLaren Vale Wines – Alpha Box & Dice Cellar Door

Posted on December 19, 2009 by Lonely Grape

Justin Lane (the Alpha Box & Dice winemaker) has a reputation for being something different and that he does things his own way.  Their facility – including the cellar door is across the road from Maxwell Wines in  what I remember as the Manning Park cellar door and more recently Settlement Wines cellar door.  There has been an effort to clean up the site and make it reflect the Lane family philosophy.  The cellar door is not your new style with lots of polished wood and glass – here is all about character.  With Justin being a character and his wines showing a lot of character then it should follow that the cellar door has character.  There is also a view to setting up a courtyard area for BBQ’s etc.

The wines are very different in a positive way.  When I was offered a Dolcetto as the first wine to taste from his range, I was concerned as in my very limited experience with this variety it was sweet wine style.  How wrong I was!  The wines show an overall structure with selected fruit parcels (the emphasis is on sourcing the correct fruit to produce a style) with old oak maturation in specially sourced oak barrels plus some funky treatments to produce experience wines.

The cellar door is open weekends and I recommend this as a visit  

Dead Winemakers Society 2008 Dolcetto ($A20)

The Dolcetto grapes comes from a Scott Hicks Kupito vineyard and is aged in old 500L puncheons.  The wine is a pleasant surprise with distinct orange peel aromas.  The low tannic nature of the wine strikes you the moment it hits the palate with the orange peel nature continuing with some fennel overtones and a eucalypt finish (the vineyard is surrounded with gum trees).  Oak plays only a minimum part on the flavour profile and there is long acid finish that is complementary to the rest of the flavours.  The wine is very dry wine that would go well with complex slow cooked food or the citrus nature would appeal to the duck lovers out there.

Fog 2006 Nebbiolo Cabernet Tanant ($A30)

The wine is made up of 80% Nebbiolo from Blewitt Springs and aged in old 500L oak puncheons, 10% McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon (aged in new french oak) and 10% Kupitto Tanant (also aged in new french oak).  The Nebbiolo had extended skins contact (4 weeks) and then a long time in barrel to ensure the different tannins to integrate.

The citrus characters continue on the nose – this time it is reminiscent of mandarin peel.  On the palate there is a fruit sweetness (though it is a dry wine) with lots of sour cherries.  There is a layering effect of tannins (grape tannins and oak tannins) probably assisted by the use of Tanant, fruit and citrus flavours, high volatile acid and high acids generally.  All of these components make this an enjoyable and complex wine.  Food matches would be the same as for the Dolcetta. 

Blood of Jupiter 2006 Sangiovese Cabernet ($A25)

The wine is made of 85% Sangiovese and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon – both from McLaren Vale.  The Sangiovese free run juice went straight into old oak pungeons and the Sangiovese pressings and the Cabernet Sauvignon went into new Burgundian Bariques and had extended time on the lees.

The nose showed the typical Sangivese earthy and peaty characters with distinct sour cherries.  These carry over onto the palate that has layers of fine tannins, oak char and fruit sweetness.  Again there is an almost viscous mouthfeel that is very pleasant.

Apostie 2008 Shiraz Durif ($A30)

The wine is made of 50% McLaren Vale Shiraz, 23% Barossa Shiraz and 27% Durif, that went into Burgundian Buriques of which 70% were new.  The first item of note for this wine is that it is 14.1% alcohol – the wine is neither a fruit or alcohol bomb.  The nose has elements of spice with red and black fruits – but is not typical of Shiraz I have drunk lately, it has a more refined and delicate.  The palate has lots of plums and layered tannins with a real lift due to the textural structure and wonderful acid.

Changing Lanes 2005 Tempranillo Cabernet ($A35)

An interesting mix of 50/50 blend of Margaret River Tempranillo with McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon (from the Willunga foothills) – again the wine has seen Burgundian Bariques of which 70% were new.  Three years in oak and 1 year in bottle was required for Justin to be happy to release this wine.  Some Tempranillo funkyness came through on the nose.  On the palate was this fruit sweetness even though the wine would be considered dry.  Combining well with this fruitiness was layers of dry and dusty layers of tannins that was just starting to show some aged characteristics.  Another wine to buy and experieince a wine that is enjoyable but not main stream.

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Lonely Grape TV #14

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Lonely Grape

What a joy to conduct a wine tasting video for you at the Olivers Taranga Vineyards Cellar Door. Here I tried their Fiano and Shiraz.

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McLaren Vale Wines – Bellevue Estate

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Lonely Grape

The Bellevue Estate wine is available for tasting at The Bahn – a Bistro and Wine Bar on the Main Street of McLaren Vale. The Bahn is a resturant is a location of note in McLaren Vale – with one if it’s features being a “Cellar Door” where the cellar contains a large selection of wines from McLaren Vale boutique wineries. The Bahn is owned by Ben & Bev Vandeleur.   The Bahn looks like a great place to eat and the “Cellar Door” caters to most wine styles.

The Bahn

Discussing the wine available for tasting at The Bahn indicated that Ben’s brother, Corey, makes wine from his vineyards (2 x 5 acre blocks) between Main Road (across from the McLaren Vale Information Centre) and Caffrey Street (next to the McLaren Vale Hotel). The vineyard is planted with Shiraz. The grapes are hand picked, crushed and basket pressed at the vineyard.

Bellevue Estate Vineyard & Shed

The wine sells for $18/bottle, or $30/2 bottles and $150/dozen.

2007 McLaren Vale Shiraz

The wine is true to variety but is not exceptional when compared to a lot of other McLaren Vale wines.  However, at the price point it is value for money and the classical plum, black fruits that are on the palate means the wine is worth trying with pasta dishes when coupled with tomato based sauces.

2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz

Hold the bus ……… this wine is a large step up from the 2007 Shiraz.  As they are self-sufficient Corey was able to pick the wines the day before the 2008 heat wave hit McLaren Vale.  The bottle I tasted was only bottled the previous week so it is quite possible the wine will be even better when allowed to overcome bottle shock for a couple of months.  The plum and blackberry characters are well balanced with the oak and the natural acids – they all produce a wine with a mouthful of a textural wine.  This wine is one to check out when the bottling shock has settled as at this time it looks like they have hit the right notes.  I would enjoy this with slightly chared BBQ’d meats.

Bellevue Estate Vineyard (from Caffrey Street)

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Lonely Grape TV Episode #13

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Lonely Grape
Today a tasting at the Alpha Box & Dice Cellar Door – Tasting their Dolcetta and Nebbiolo offerings.   Both impressive wines from alternative grape varieties that I am fast becoming a fan of!
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