Brisbane boy Shane Harris came by recently. He had a swag of wines under his arm and a smile on his face. There was much to taste too.

Shane is Pertaringa’s senior winemaker and brand ambassador – a property in the eastern hills of McLaren Vale, South Australia owned by Geoff Hardy and Ian Leask.

Pertaringa Adelaide Scarecrow Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (USD 20); 13%, +++; this is a relief to sniff, not more cut grass but worked sauvignon, some has been fermented on solids giving nose funkiness and mouth texture; rip-roaring to start then the steely sauvignon acidity rasp to remind us its sauvignon.

Pertaringa Scarecrow Sauvignon 2010

Pertaringa Adelaide Stage Left Merlot 2007 (USD 22); 14.5%, +++; mulberry nose and mulberry fruit cake flavours, is well rounded so succulent now, drying out on the palate as bottle age comes into play. Plump, warm area wine, drink it now.

Pertaringa Stage Left Merlot 2007

Pertaringa McLaren Vale Understudy Cabernet Petit Verdot 2007 (USD 22); 15%; +++1/2; smells cedary, that must be the oak in sync, is medium bodied and easy to thrash around the mouth, juicy cabernet in its easy going role, 40% petit verdot puts in a little more spine to the wine. I think “understudy” means playing second fiddle to shiraz!

Pertaringa Understudy Cabernet Petit Verdot 2007

Pertaringa McLaren Vale Undercover Shiraz 2008 (USD 24); 15%, ++++; deep colour, it even broods in the glass because it looks so good, has a massive nose too, sweet smelling, this is mighty good, Shane has kept it contained during making, it’s sculptured not hugely tannic or overblown, just complete and tight tannin threads, great wine.

Pertaringa Undercover Shiraz 2008

Pertaringa McLaren Vale Over The Top Shiraz 2008 (USD 41.50 ); 15%; ++++1/2; this is meant to be the brand’s best shiraz; essentially a bigger wine than “Undercover”, shows more new oak yet has a delicious palate, it’s a loveable wine, in your face too as McLaren Vale goes.

Pertaringa Over the Top Shiraz 2008

How are the wines travelling? Well the 2007 year was a tough one to make reds, a small production too, while 2008 was the year of the 10-day heatwave (temps above 40 oC); the 08 wines here not appearing to suffer, most being picked before the heat came (as they say). The wines however have turned out fine.

Peter Scudamore-Smith is a Brisbane-based Master of Wine, winemaker and educator www.uncorkedandcultivated.com.au

The world market leader in designer wine glassware has mainly been Riedel for sometime now, mainly because there was little competition. Glass was glass and most felt that ISO was for competition judging – and Riedel for the rest.

Of course, there are many fine European glass brands but few owners had turned their minds towards varietal and regional wine glass shapes as Riedel did. The proliferation of glass shapes by Riedel was a simple marketing theory soaking up the world’s wine production through differentiation.

When that was exhausted, the company moved onto new ranges based on new shapes and deluxe pricing – even stem extension.

The worst glass Riedel has ever released was the tumbler shape, often construed as a water glass but widely used as a wine glass. This shape tends to destroy the aroma of wine and also alters the wine palate – my tip is never to use this glass to drink wine. If unsure, test a tumbler model alongside a stemmed glass of any brand with the same wine. The difference can be noted by anyone as it is that obvious.

Plumm glass is owned by Ambient Australia, a previous importer of Riedel glass in Australia for the past fifteen years prior. The company is based in Melbourne while the glass is designed in Australian; however, the crystal glass is manufactured in Europe.

I had an informative session at Brisbane’s The Villager Supper Club recently with Plumm’s Australian chief, ex-New York sommelier John Pfister, demonstrating the brand’s Type A and Type B super tasting and drinking glasses (pictures below).

John served a series of fine varietal wines – chardonnay (white burgundy), wooded sauvignon blanc (Marlborough), sparklings (Champagne Henriot NV and Rose NV), pinot (red burgundy), cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. In each case, I was given the option to enjoy these wines in either glass A or glass B.

Plumm Shape A

White Wine: The wider mouth glass A suited chardonnay and wooded sauvignon; no doubt the more restrained shape B would perform better for riesling, sauvignon blanc, pinot gris etc where an aromatic power of the nose is everything. Lesson 1.

Champagne: Both glasses presented the two champagnes excellently, providing a good aroma and clear complexity from the long residence on yeast as the Reims-based house of Henriot does.

Bear this in mind the next time you reach for a flute. The Champenois will pour you wine from a coup, not a flute (American shape).

Red Wine: The pinot performed better in glass A; as pinot is a grape, it needs to display its perfume. Hence the wider glass made this the most enjoyable drink.

For cabernet and shiraz, there is a preference for the constrained glass B, although I would advise ardent red wine appreciators to test the range of Plumm shapes to determine their best experience.

Plumm Shape B

And forget about drinking good wine from tumblers.

Peter Scudamore-Smith is a Brisbane-based Master of Wine, winemaker and educator www.uncorkedandcultivated.com.au

Sydneysiders have recently become more fortunate with their pinot noir supplies.

There are clutches of nearby makers from New England, Orange and Tumbarumba. But recently it was the set of Orange-based pinot noirs which caught my eye.

And such producers are giving the more heralded Yarra and Mornington brands some good style opposition.

The encouraging aspect about Orange is that vines are now passing the 10-15 years-age barrier that lifts the pinosity outcomes up a notch.

At the recent Taste Orange show there were a host of these.

I found a charry Brangayne of Orange 2009; 14.5% (USD 35); ++++; pulpy, streamlined and stunning; an unwooded Logan Weemala 2009; 13% (USD 18); +++, just great, brilliantly fruity and zesty; and a beautiful sappy style at Mayfield 2008; 14.5% (USD 39); +++1/2; lovely line and a touch of minerality with its age.

Then there was the older pinot Philip Shaw No8 2007; 13.2%; (USD 43); shown to me by a talkative Damian Shaw which was appreciated; this has a wonderful mature nose, enticing, foresty, aromatic, touch of sap, oak complexity and a lovely soft footprint, mineral, mouth coating and rewarding to drink.

Shiraz, cool climate style that is, meaning seamlessly soft, no great chunkiness expected of a warm region wine (such as Barossa), so the finish is pure silk and the remaining tannins softly coiled.

A relatively simple but effusive, unwooded shiraz from Philip Shaw, The Idiot 2009, caused quite a stir earlier in the year by taking a major Sydney Wine Show trophy. That was a good result because it underlines just how aromatic and enticing shiraz can become in these growing conditions (without a lot of tannin). I tasted the next vintage 2010-another mouthful of fruit.

Philip Shaw No 89 Shiraz 2008; 13.5%; (USD 52.50); +++++; stood out like a beacon, still intensely purple, primed with spiced fruit and violets, aromatic red fruits with pristine notes, no sign of the oak yet it is there, then that lovely soft, juicy palate. Seamless.

Philip Shaw No 89 Shiraz 2008

The next shiraz was just as intriguing.

Cumulus Shiraz 2008; 14%; (USD 31); ++++; just pure fruit intensity with concentration written all over it; little flowers, cinnamon-clove aromatics and sweet, ripe berries; no smell of oak, the palate then gives you pure beauty, slippery fruit, caressing tannins and a finish of mildness. Easy drink.

Cumulus Shiraz 2008

I also discovered some new drinking flavours at Angullong Wines; Fossil Hill Barbera 2009; 14.5%; (USD 23); +++; great colour and accessible nose, blackberry pips which are a telltale of this variety; super-soft palate, renowned for low tannin, high acid as this is; an easy drink.

Also try this company’s Fossil Hill Sangiovese 2010 and Bulls Roar Tempranillo 2010.

Peter Scudamore-Smith is a Brisbane-based Master of Wine, winemaker and educator www.uncorkedandcultivated.com.au

The Orange winegrowers came to town this week. What a bunch of classy wines.

One fact binds them all together – that of elevation. The region is generally depicted as having all vineyards sited above 600 metres.

Now that effectively eliminates most other Australian vineyard regions save the Granite Belt, New England and Tumbarumba – all essentially east Coast Australia with Orange dotted in the Central Ranges of NSW.

These high elevation sites form part of the Great Dividing Range and their wines unmistakably cool climate.

The Orange bunches stood out with riesling, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay whites, importantly pinot noir, then shiraz and the cabernet family with a little new Mediterranean stuff (barbera, tempranillo, sangiovese, savagnin etc).

This is an exciting place-the brands are small but at the high quality end.

Even the sauvignon blanc is not made in the simplistic Marlborough NZ mould, but the opposite, dumbing down the obvious and chasing wine texture. Hooray.

Here I review a range of whites.

Mayfield Vineyard Riesling 2010; 12% (USD 30); ++++; well how pleasant, single vineyard, pale colour, attractive smells in the flower spectrum, just heavenly then the most delicate palate, racy, mineral, lime zest (hints not overdosed), long and ultra-fine for light bodied wine, acid high of course, that’s the animal.

Mayfield Vineyard Riesling 2009

I met Charlotte Gundry, the GM who works with the family brand. Vineyards in Icely Road occupy 800-920 m elevation. The riesling enjoys the terroir, very old, weathered, gravelly soils with a north-east face contribute to its minerality and high raciness. That’s fine riesling.

Patina Riesling 2009; 12.5% (USD18);+++; I encountered an additional style, having one delicious nose, engrossing from the cool growing conditions and preserved aromas in the cool ferment, then the lovely line of sweet salivating acidity, yet plenty and deftly held low body weight.

Patina Riesling 2009

Patina is the business of Gerald Naef in Summerhill Lane, his vineyard is at 930 m, and his wines are distinctive.

Logan Weemala Riesling 2009; 12.6% (USD 16); +++; is decidedly a German parallel, pale lime nose, quite pretty too, then the differing palate, a dab of sugar (9 grams) and counter-balancing acids (7.5 grams), makes for a light wine with a fuller mouth effect from sweetness-very food friendly with Asian spice levels.

Logan Weemala Riesling 2009

Peter Logan is the MD; he has made a study of German riesling, mainly the Nahe and hence the off-dry style which grips the people making wine in those areas. White varieties are grown at 1000 m and reds at 850 m.

Angullong Fossil Hill Pinot Gris 2011; 13.5% (USD 24); +++1/2; is a good example from a tough season, just bottled, very exotic nose, yet restrained on the second sniff, gladly it is not called pinot grigio as it has the slippery palate, is not simple; has the nice texture which drinkers enjoy.

Angullong Fossil Hill Pinot Gris 2011

Ben Crossing is the owner: his vineyard is at the foothills of the mountain, Canobolas, at 600-650m.

Brangayne of Orange Isolde Reserve Chardonnay 2009; 14% (USD 30); ++++; is very good, perfume, oak nuttiness but restrained, the palate ever-so-long, in this climate the chardonnays are slow maturing, this included, crisp, bright and stylish.

Brangayne of Orange Isolde Reserve Chardonnay 2009

I met Marianne Brown; petite and polite, she described her wines’ distinctiveness and reason for enjoyment; vines are planted at 950-1050 m for whites, 850 m for red varieties.

Ross Hill Pinaccle Chardonnay 2009; 13%; (USD 30); ++++; smells succulent then goes towards restraint, has a long flavour, mid-palate subtlety, nuts, limes, fabulous length and still youth, something that only time can alter for the better, still young wine.

Ross Hill Pinnacle Chardonnay 2009

I met James Robson; his vineyards are at 900 m for pinot, 800 m other reds, and 750 m for sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. As is often the case, this is old apple orchard country, and the family winery is a renovated apple packing shed.

Peter Scudamore-Smith is a Brisbane-based Master of Wine, winemaker and educator www.uncorkedandcultivated.com.au