Merchant Taste review

I like the provenance aspect of wine, Knowing the vineyard where the grapes were grown enhances the experience

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We had a good tasting last night for WA's Foundation Day at Australia House, WC2 on Thursday 10th June 2010. Shame if you missed it. If you are on our mailing list we will let you know about future events. Did you know that WA only produces 2% of Australia's wine production, but 20% of Australia's quality fine wines? On Thursday evening it was quality, quality, quality all the way, with both the venue and the wines. There were some great WA wines on tasting (besides ours!), including Leuuwin Estate, Moss Wood, Cape Mentelle, Houghton, Alkoomi, Vasse Felix, Plantagenet, Voyager, and Cullen. You can imagine we were chuffed when this morning Sarah Ahmed "The Wine Detective" who was the guest critic last night, announced, with a "tweet", that our La Ciornia was the "top wine of the night". Here is her tweet, in full (they're only 140 characters long, but she has summed it up nicely). [sarahwine My top find/wine of last nite's Western Oz tasting - La Violetta Ciornia 2008 http://bit.ly/ankMFQ - lifted, fragrant Shiraz/Viognier. Fab.]
Sarah followed this with an article on her blog. www.thewinedetective.co.uk
Western Australia Shiraz: La Violetta La Ciornia 2008, a new high 12 June 2010 Readers will know that much as I’m a huge fan of Western Australian wines, the Shiraz has yet to really convince. As I reported after last year’s judging at Qantas Wine Show of Western Australia (see here), it can be a bit middle of the road and lacking structure/character for my taste though, oddly enough at the wine show, strapping tannins, big oak and not enough fruit let the side down! So it’s with great pleasure that I can report a watershed moment for me with WA Shiraz, courtesy of La Violetta La Ciornia 2008 from the Ciprian Vineyard in Denmark, Great Southern (pictured, from Mount Lindesay), which I tasted at the Celebrate Western Australia Foundation Day tasting on Thursday. La Violetta La Ciornia 2008 A little animal, with smoky bacon on the nose and palate, which is balanced by a lovely, sublime even, lift of violets and subtle spice, also the freshness and purity of its well-defined blackberry fruit. Intense not dense, this is a delightfully nuanced, characterful, mid-weight Shiraz with a dash (2%) of Viognier. £30 at Aus Wine Online. An exciting facet of this wine is that it hails from young vines. To date, most of the WA Shiraz I’ve rated comes from relatively old plantings at say Cape Mentelle or Juniper Estate in Margaret River or Plantagenet in Mount Barker, Great Southern. The Ciprian vineyard was planted as recently as 2000 by John Ciprian of Kalgan River Wines, from whom La Violetta’s Andrew Hoadley buys the fruit. But there’s something else at work here too. Inspired by working in Piedmont, rather than focusing on extracting rich, ripe fruit and big tannins, Hoadley wanted to make a food-friendly wine which expressed the vineyard (see here for more details). To that end, the fruit was carefully sorted and gently handled (de-stemmed but not crushed, moved by gravity not pumps, hand plunged not pumped over), which explains its lift and delicate intensity. As for nuance, Hoadley created different batches by using four small open top fermenters, each treated differently. Some fruit was cold soaked, a batch was co-fermented with whole bunches of viognier and both wild yeast and inoculated (Rhone and Australian-isolated yeast strains) were used. The wine was then aged for 14 months in new (40%) and seasoned French barriques. The catch – there’s only a measly amount of this single vineyard, hand crafted wine (3,100 bottles to be precise) and, tragically, no follow on vintage thanks to hail….They say patience is a virtue, so I’ll be looking forward to the 2010! And speaking of patience, if you buy the 2008, UK distributor Brian Oakwell of Aus Wine Online tells me the wine got even more expressive a couple of days after opening and still looked good five days on – a good indication of its ageing potential. No Comments currently posted. La Ciornia '08 is available by the bottle from Thorold Wines, 22 Ritherdon Road, London SW17 8QD 020 8616 0503; and hangingditch, Britannic buildings, 42-44 victoria street, manchester M3 1ST 0161 832 8222. Alternatively by the case (6 or 12 bottles) from www.auswineonline.co.uk Regards Brian Oakwell 07802 259473www.auswineonline.co.uk

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Top 100 Listing for La Ciornia '08 & Ocean Eight's, Verve Chardonnay '09

Matthew Jukes's Top 100 Australian wines 2010 list.

2008 La Ciornia, Shiraz, La Violetta, Denmark, WA £30

Apparently the word ‘ciornia’ means dark or black in Russian. In Piedmontese dialect, ciornia is a term for a very attractive woman. Winemaker Andrew Hoadley notes that it’s a pretty bad pun on Cornas, too. Either way these are superb reasons for calling this wine this word. When I first tasted La Violetta I was completely blindsided. I didn’t expect the pepperiness and certainly had no idea that a Shiraz from Denmark could have Pinot Noir tenderness under its malevolent, vampiric exterior.

There is bugger all stock in the UK – but if you have read this note, I would expect that the vast majority of you (if you know/follow my palate) will do anything you possibly can to find a bottle.

We were delighted that it received such a full endorsement from Matthew.

We are pleased that Matthew also included another of our wines, Ocean Eight's Verve Chardonnay '09:

2009 Ocean Eight, Verve Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Vic £25

Serious Chardonnay does not need to rely on overt power nor should it have to lean on posh oak staves to garner plaudits. Verve is an example of a wine which does what it says on the label - it injects vigour and dynamism into a class of wines which is often too serious and lacking in momentum. Bright citrus fruit and punchy acidity make for very happy bedfellows, particularly when the results are as holistic and uplifting as this. We will see more from this newcomer in due course, but for now turn up the Verve.

We continue to source high quality, small production run, boutique wines, which are hand crafted by winemakers using minimal intervention methods to make their wines. La Ciornia and Verve are fine examples of this philosophy.

We will keep them coming.

Agent: Auswineonline,

Stockists:

www.auswineonline.co.uk

Thorold Wines
020 86160503 22
Ritherdon Road
London
SW17 8QD

hangingditch
0161 832 8222
britannic buildings,
42-44 victoria street,
manchester M3 1ST

If you wish to view the full list it is available at www.matthewjukes.com

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A SPRING EVENING AT THOROLD WINES

Daniel Thorold of Thorold Wines in Ritherdon Road, SW17, was certainly on a winner when he chose Wednesday 21 April to host a food and wine matching evening for his clients. It must have been one of the first truly Spring evenings that we have all been hoping for and perfect for an evening of “Italian Canapes and Chocolates with Australian wines”.

Valentina Harris, the local TV chef and author of many cookery books, chose Daniel’s evening to launch her new cookery holiday website www.cucinavalentina.co.uk. Valentina had chosen her selection of Italian canapés to match a range of fine, handcrafted Australian wines from Western Australia that Daniel is now stocking. Local people and adjoining shop owners joined with some of Valentina’s old clients from far afield in appreciating the wonderful Flametree wines, some of which have the accolade of appearing on Qantas airlines 1st class list. Another treat was also in store as Raffaella Baruzzo of Baruzzo the chocolatiers www.baruzzo.co.uk made a welcome appearance and treated everyone to a range of exquisite chocolates which had been matched not only with the canapés, but with the Flametree wines.

All in all, some very satisfied Thorold Wines’ clients, who had enjoyed the evening so much there's been lots of demand for another date for Daniel and the wine supplier www.auswineonline.co.uk to host another event.

If you would like to be invited to the next event at Thorold Wines then please email - sales@auswineonline.co.uk

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A serious Aussie Chardonnay: Eldridge Estate

Australian Chardonnay doesn’t have a great image these days. But, as the Landmark Tutorial last year showed, it’s a serious category. Here’s a new wine to me, which I really rate. It’s from Eldridge Estate in the Morning Peninsula.

Eldridge Estate Chardonnay 2008 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
14% alcohol. Complex, powerful and intense with rich but balanced flavours of nuts, fig, peach and pear, as well as subtle toasty notes. Fruit dominated with real refinement and complexity. Wish it was a bit cheaper, but it’s worth it. 94/100 (UK retail £30, available at www.auswineonline.co.uk)

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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)