The Wanderer: impressive Shiraz and Pinot
from the Yarra Valley

Two very nice wines from a new (to me, at least) producer in the Yarra Valley, Andrew Marks’ The Wanderer. The story of Australian wine isn’t actually about big brands, over-ripeness and critter labels – it’s a country with many hundreds of good small producers, many of whom are making very interesting wines. Marks is a good example of a winegrower aiming at elegance and complexity, not power.

The Wanderer Pinot Noir 2008 Yarra Valley
13% alcohol. The first thing you notice about this wine is that it is a very pale cherry colour, Few Burgundians are brave enough to make Pinot Noir this light in colour, but Marks has been careful not to overextract, and with Pinot Noir, the pale ones are often the best. It’s made from a single vineyard site in the lower Yarra near Tarrawarra, and the fruit is destemmed but not crushed, leaving whole berries, which are cold soaked in open fermenters before inoculation and hand plunging. A third of the blend goes to new French oak; unfiltered and unfined. Subtle complex cherry fruit nose with some earthy, spicy notes. The palate is nicely textured with some smooth cherry fruit and subtle spice and earth characters. Nicely complex with real elegance. An understated wine with nice purity; it could develop nicely. 92/100 (£30 will be available from www.auswineonline.co.uk)

The Wanderer Shiraz 2008 Yarra Valley
From a 30 year old single-vineyard in Dixon’s Creek. Fermented in open fermenters with some stems. Aged in 20% new oak; neither fined nor filtered. Interesting stuff. Initially a little reduced on the nose, with some spicy, earthy notes in the background, but the dominant theme is sweet fruit with cherry and raspberry notes as well as lovely elegance and a smooth texture. Quite pure; like a very ripe, rich Pinot Noir. May develop in interesting ways. 92/100 (£30 will be available from www.auswineonline.co.uk)

April 7th, 2010 | Tags: australia, pinot noir, shiraz, yarra valley | Category: australia, pinot noir, syrah | One comment

On the 21st April 7.30pm we are holding a Flametree tasting at Thorold Wines at 22 Ritherdon Road, SW17. 

Valentina Harris is preparing some canapes for us, and launching her new cookery holiday web site www.cucinavalentina.co.uk   Places are limited, so if you want to come book your place now-price £10 per person. Send us an email  sales@auswineonline.co.uk

This week we presented Flametree's wines at a secret dinner club in Shoreditch. We matched the wines with an Italian menu prepared by our good friend Valentina Harris, who also gave the dozen "secret diners" a demonstration on how to prepare artichokes (By the way, I know a good joke about artichokes!). The Flametree wines went down a storm. It was touch and go whether I made the Dinner. The way these things work, you do not get to know the venue until the day of the event. I was given 53 as the street number. Imagine my surprise to discover number 53 was the Islamic Cultural Community Centre! However that was nothing to the surprise on the faces of our Islamic brethren seeing me walk in with 2 cases of alcohol asking where the the Dinner was taking place! Whoops! I'd been given the wrong address: should have been number 63. Contact me for more details on the secret dinner club. They are all the rage!

We are currently on a search in Australia for some exciting new additions to the Auswineonline line-up (someone has to do it!), and our search has not been in vain.  We have unearthed some real wine gems for later in the year, on which we will keep you posted. In the meantime some exciting news about yet more accolades for the Flametree Winery.  They have won the 2009 Margaret River Wine Show Gold Medal  Trophy for Best Sauvignon Blanc Blend for their SBS '09. And that's not all, there's more......having won the Jimmy Watson for the Cabernet Merlot '07, they made it into the last three for their '08 which had already won Gold at the Perth Royal Show. These wines are only available at Auswineonline.co.uk We will back soon (honest!), but in the meantime the service continues and you can buy these award winning wines from www.auswineonline.co.uk