| |
|
 |
Lavina Wine Reviews
Philip White - Australia's leading wine writer and critic.
Drinkster - Vote worlds 2nd best wine site by The Wall Street Journal.
http://drinkster.blogspot.com/
MERITUS Shiraz Grenache
McLAREN VALE 2008
Meritus Shiraz-Grenache is again "Deserving of Merit" winning BLUE-GOLD at 2011 Sydney International Wine Show -
view PDF Award
Sydney International Wine Show. The wine will now proudly display the
Competitions trademark "Blue-Gold - Judged with Food" gold-foil Medallion.
The final composition of the Meritus Shiraz Grenache is Shiraz 80%, Grenache
20%, is a blend displaying balance, elegance, complexity and structure.
Located in the Seaview sub-region of McLaren Vale the vineyards benefit from
the cooling sea breeze that intensify the complexity of the fruit flavour and
produce some of the best Shiraz and Grenache in the very heart of McLaren Vale.
The bouquet comprises succulent fruits, fresh violets and delicate notes of
fennel seed and sage. The palate is full of generous fruit with soft,
approachable tannins and plenty of mid palate weight and complimentary
earthiness and dark chocolate.
The delicate use of fine grained French Oak gives the soft savoury undertones
while emphasizing the full fresh fruit flavours on the palate that customers
find very attractive. The bouquet comprises succulent fruits, fresh violets and
notes of fennel seed and sage.
Wine Writer Phillip White remarks: "Here we see the soulful depth of complex
Vales Shiraz enhanced by the polished silky sheen of Grenache. The moody, mighty
authority and fine dry tannin of the Shiraz is enhanced and plushed up by the
slick, fleshy opulence of the Grenache."
Meritus Shiraz Grenache is designed to be enjoyed now but will also reward a
few years in the cellar. A crowd favourite that compliments a vast array of
dishes.
 Mitcham
Estate 2009 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay
Delicately creamy as much as fruity, this wine is typical of the new wave of
more elegant, cooler climate Australian Chardonnays. It has the sweet grainy
aroma of a fresh Anjou pear, with the faintest whiff of a dusty meadow in
summer, just as the vineyards smelled at vintage. These aromas smoothly become
flavours as you drink: there are no surprises or awkward aspects to spoil the
whole genteel pleasure. The finish has a gradual rise of firm astringent
acidity, which will guarantee a good life for the wine, and serves now to
cleanse the palate, making it anticipate food with modest fats, like roast
chicken, grilled scallops or prawns, or even creamy-sauced pasta with bacon and
chilli.
 Mitcham
Estate 2008 South Australia Cabernet Sauvignon
Given the right amount of sunshine, Cabernet Sauvignon thrives in Australia's
clean air, and shows a more hearty, robust character than it does in the colder
climates. This one smells of blueberry, blackcurrant, and prune, sweeter fruits
which are neatly counterbalanced by the whiffs of juniper and the savoury dark
tones of the nightshades: tomato leaf, roast capsicum, and chicory. The palate
is confident and forceful, with the right amount of peppery, savoury edge to
counterbalance juicy roast meats, offering some cleansing acidity to slice
deliciously into their fats.
 Mitcham
Estate 2008 South Australia Shiraz Cabernet
When the first Australian winemakers were emulating the great wines of France
150 years ago, the best Bordeaux reds were often blends of the Cabernet family
with Shiraz from the Rhone. Only Australian winemakers have kept that old recipe
alive. Sniff this, and it's easy to see why: the more juicy fruits of the Shiraz
add heart and simple joie de vivre to the more austere, tannic Cabernet. This
wine is dainty and clean, perfumed like a fruiterer standing beside a
confectioner's, with musk and caramel sugar adding their pretty dressing to the
deep dark fruits below. The palate follows suit, with the flesh and frivolity of
the Shiraz beautifully filling the austere, tannic bones of the Cabernet.
Mitcham Estate
2008 South Australia Shiraz
Shiraz can offer a moody, serious set of flavours, and this has such things
a-plenty. As well as the usual ripe blackberries and mulberries, it has the
whiffs of dark cured charcuterie meats, neatly offset by the dry spicy edge of
seasoned oak. The taste follows smoothly, similarly, with its intense, moody,
dark fruit mince and cured meat tones counterbalanced by fine, velvety tannins.
It's juicy, yet adult; fruity yet dry; complex, yet well-proportioned, with all
its components sitting in tidy balance. It leaves the drinker see-sawing between
satisfaction and yearning for more, and is perfectly suited to juicy roast
steaks of beef, duck, rare-cooked kangaroo, or haunch of venison.
Lavina Estate - Gold Series 2008 Barossa Valley Shiraz
Barossa Shiraz tends to be plush, like McLaren Vale, but is marginally more
tannic, and a little more austere. This beauty smells of ironstone and earth,
and dried fruits - fig, prune and pear - as much as the usual black and blue
berries. Its palate is tight and stroppy, with that ironstone backbone
dominating, and it demands bigger flavours on the plate than the more soulful,
heartily generous Vales reds. So, true to traditional Barossa cuisine, this
classic red will best accompany fattier meats, like pork belly, ribs off the
grill or from the hotpot, and Peking or tea-smoked duck.
Lavina Estate - Gold Series 2008 South Australia Shiraz Cabernet
Mellow and mature, with intense, dark fruits, from dried fig to prune, mulberry
and blueberry, this is a classic Australian version of the old Bordeaux blend of
the 1800s, but with sweet Shiraz, rather than leafy Cabernet, dominant. It has
the glowering spice of seasoned, toasted French oak adding piquancy to its
welling syrup of berries, and yet still shows some pretty confectionary topnotes
of musk and marshmallow sugar. The flavours are more slender and tight than this
generous bouquet indicates, giving a wine of elegance and precision which will
cellar well for three to six years. Its acidity is strapping, and adult; its
tannins velvety, fine, and drying.
Meritus 2008 McLaren
Vale Shiraz Grenache
McLaren Vale's proximity to the sea ensures a constant background humidity which
the inland vineyards do not have. This constant atmospheric moisture produces
wines which are softer and more supple than their arid land cousins, explaining
why, in the old days, McLaren Vale was called 'the middle palate of Australia'
Here we see the soulful depth of complex Vales Shiraz enhanced by the polished
silky sheen of Grenache. The moody, mighty authority and fine dry tannin of the
Shiraz is enhanced and plushed up by the slick, fleshy opulence of the Grenache.
The wine is finer, and more sinuous, than either of its components. It is
perfect for drier, simple pasta dishes, tapas, antipasta, and mezes.
Meritus 2008 McLaren Vale
Shiraz
This is a gamey, meaty Shiraz of the old school, its fruit swampy and funky,
like many of the famous wines of the Mediterranean coast, which enjoys a similar
maritime climate to McLaren Vale. It has much plush softness and mellow
fruitfulness, with hints of old harness leather adding rustic allure to its well
of stewed mulberry and blackberry. There's a whiff of vegetal green, too, as if
somebody garnished a fine blackberry tart with fresh blackberry leaf. The palate
is smooth, supple and wholesome; the finish long and dry and velvety. The wine
seems custom built for the gentler game dishes with low fat, like venison
sausages, goat hotpot, hare confit, or rabbit rillette.
 Lavina - The
Aurum Release 2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz
At first sniff, this wine seems as generous and smoothly plush as any top
McLaren Vale Shiraz. But there's a great depth below all that flesh, and a
mighty spine of iron and stone that reflects a vineyard of profound stature and
geology. It smells too of raisins and currants, like an amarone, with rustic
hints of old leather and the blacksmith's forge. But the palate is majestic,
lithe and elegant, with a rapier of steely acidity aimed at the drinker's heart,
via the sensories of the head. It's profound, stylish and svelte, like any
finely-honed swordsman. More disco dancer than grande dame ... more Grace Jones
than Joan Sutherland, if you get the drift. Dribbling haunch of beef, please, or
buffalo.
Lavina - Select
Series 2007 McLaren Vale Shiraz
This dark beauty is more like kalamata olives than simple fruity berries ... a
dark fresh doughy bread made with olives and truffles and fresh ground coffee,
spread with tapenade. But this flesh covers a basement of intensely firm Shiraz
fruit, black and mysterious and irony. The tannins are gradual and velvety, the
acidity perfectly harmonious, yet steely enough to ensure many years of reward
in a good cellar. It is a powerful yet elegant wine that demands grand cuisine:
beef medallions in morel sauce; venison fillets on beetroot paste with parsnips;
veal livers in cream and capers with caramelized spinach ... or, simply, a
beautiful creamy blue vein cheese on the bread described at the top.
Lavina - Select
Series 2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz
Darkly phenolic, with glints of gunmetal and juniper, this wine is another step
up in the Lavina tower of power. It has deep nightshade aromas: tomato leaf,
chicory, and watercress, with consoling layers of beetroot, prune and fig, which
are much more complex than simple berry fruits. There's a pretty layer of musk
and confectionary sugar as the wine takes air, but that iron base rules, tight
and impenetrable. Fresh-ground black pepper, too, in modest measure. The palate,
given its slick, lithe nature, is still amazing in its gunmetal intensity. This
is one of the most impressive McLaren Vale wines of recent years, much more
adult and austere than most, but with exceptional elegance and poise. It'll live
and bloom for two decades in a good cellar.
 Lavina
- Grand Royale 2008 McLaren Vale Shiraz
From the ancient stones of the McLaren Vale earth, through meticulously-tended
vines, through the very finest, tightest-grained cool climate French oak, this
majestic beauty is seamless, tight, and unforgettable. Black olive, beetroot,
blueberry, dark bitter chocolate and gunmetal are the entwined, mysterious
aromas; in the mouth they become an inseparable amalgam; a sinuous slippery
whipsnake of gastronomic wonder. The wine deserves only the most elegant,
unpretentious food, or none at all. Try fresh truffle sliced on charcoal-dusted
chevre, on the thinnest slice of lightly-toasted rye
|
 |
