Angove Family Winemakers are celebrating 125 years of being in the wine business. Isn’t that great?

Enthusiastically I attended a celebratory bash to hear that four generations have steered this wonderful South Australian company since inception. And there are new Angove generations in line to take the company forward.

The current patriarch is John Angove, an affable chap who was totally down to earth about his business, the big pressures around the wine industry in his State, and around this rain-soaked country.

But he was up-beat about the family company, and clearly excited about the new premium wines his head grape cracker Tony Ingle was putting into bottle.

Angove have come full circle. Their original HQ is now a housing estate (Tea Tree Gully) termed the Adelaide Plains I guess; they moved to a larger place at Nanya near Renmark in 1910, and have now taken possession of vineyards in McLarenvale since 2008.

Aside from the 125th, the big news John had for me was to present a new wine crafted to coincide with release during all this hilarity; and that Angove would build a modest cellar door in McLaren Vale soon-just where they’d uprooted some no longer needed merlot vines.

The new wine is called Medhyk 2008, 14.5%, (USD 53), ++++; an old vine shiraz, selected with meticulous tasting from all the McLaren Vale barrels made that year. It’s layered, it’s juicy but contrite rather than loaded up with knock-out tannin or over-ripeness. Licorice is the major fruit flavour though subtle.

Medhyk 2008 Old Vine Shiraz

Tony Ingle outlined how three vineyards contribute to this wine: planted in 1961 (Jones Block), 1947 (Swan Block) and 1974 (Leask Block).

Angove Chief Winemaker-Tony Ingle

The next Angove generation is Richard and Victoria; as well as being a mother nurturing the next generation of owners, Victoria has worked in the export aspect of their business.

I spoke at length with Richard, a first meeting, as he rapidly came across as humble and grounded as a family wine producing member.

He has worked in other regions and countries, possesses a winemaking background yet has developed more versatile business skills along the way, and more recently worked with Angove import portfolio (Champagne and Prosecco) as well as their agency brands.

“I really enjoyed the sense of community and the fast learning curve in my early days doing vintage in the Hunter Valley. I respect the direction, and broad palate experience I copped at Brokenwood, under the eyes of PJ Charteris,” he adds.

Now he can breathe in all the depth of the South Australian regions as Angove Vineyard Select varietals come from five SA regions: Clare (riesling 2010, of course), Limestone Coast (chardonnay 2009), Adelaide Hills (sauvignon blanc 2010, all the rage), McLaren Vale (the usual suspect, shiraz 2009) and Coonawarra (one home for cabernet, 2008).

I thought the Angove Vineyard Select Riesling 2010, 12%, (USD 18); ++++, was a real banger, lime and lime juice characters, great lines of acidity, and I heard later, quite sweet, though eaten with quail and citrus polenta while tasting, it had masked this sugar.

The past wine week has been a busy one for tasting. As social media ramps itself up, the frequency of tweet tasting has markedly increased. So try #LookSB.

Nepenthe Wines based in the Adelaide Hills, part of Australia’s second largest listed wine company – Australian Vintage, were shouting about their modifications made to sauvignon blanc by oak aging.

Now I think that anything a winery can do to this over-popular, under-delivering variety for drinkers is a bonus.

The interesting information to come out of the Nepenthe winemaking camp is that fermenting this variety tends to scavenge out that vegetable component of the sauvignon blanc varietal character-and give it less aroma punch and more creaminess.

Creaminess of course is the starter for texture, as we relate to with good chardonnay, which most sauvignon blanc does not have (only razor-like acidity).

Nepenthe had gathered three sauvignon blanc wines of interest to tweet about: their own Petraea, Taltarni Three Monks and Pascal Jolivet Sancerre.

All three were quite smart but due to the penetrating acidity of sauvignon I chose to munch on some hard goats cheese while tasting.

Wines are reported in order of preference to drink now, so it was a no brainer that wines that had settled were better drinks.

Taltarni Three Monks Fume Blanc 2010, 13% (USD 25.30); ++++; straw green, smells interesting, little vegetable and more florals, a good collection of aromas from the barrel though conservatively done, no funk, the palate is generous and interesting, creaminess and layers of flavour generated by production, and not the variety which is essentially simple.

The wine is 75% Pyrenees 25% Tasmania (north), 40% barrel fermented and aged for nine months, is dry. Taltarni commenced this style in the late 70s when Mondavi Fume Blanc of California was all the rage, continued it ever since under sauvignon blanc branding, and recently reverted to the original style. They are the style leader in Australia.

Taltarni Three Monks Fume Blanc 2010

Nepenthe Petraea Sauvignon Blanc 2010, 12.5% (USD 31.60); +++1/2; straw green, lots of sauvignon smells, vegetable, cut-grass and florals, sits over the oak inputs on the nose, the taste is interesting, some cream, some vegetable, palate dryness from lees+barrel, just scrapes into the medium body class.

Nepenthe Petraea Sauvignon Blanc 2010

Nepenthe are experimenting; the ferments were in 2500 litre casks: (as I often see in Barolo) chasing wine texture, deliberately dumbing down the irrepressible character of sauvignon, yet applying oak in a delicate fashion from the low ratio of volume to surface area of cask.

Sancerre (Pascal Jolivet) 2009, 12.5% (USD 30); +++1/2; pale, straw, nose muted to reveal mainly the vegetable and earthy aromas of sauvignon from a very cold area, no oak presence, taste again vegetal but impressive in its fashioned finish, mineral, quartz, all sorts of acid remnants which give the talc, the acid drying impression of acidity which has flavour.

A smart wine having no similarity with the previous two save the common grape variety. This style is often also aged in old barrel but they impart little oak character, and serve to apply yeast lees driven texture and give the minerality an extra dimension. A highly stylish wine, totally together and linear in the mouth as a benchmark expression of sauvignon blanc.

Pascal Jolivet 2009 from Sancerre (Loire)

It is not surprising to see Australian chardonnay being feted recently by the English press as the best value wines outside Burgundy; and in some cases showing obvious palate equality.

That story will not go away either as more Australian chardonnays step up to that high standard every week – and it is also Australia’s most widely-planted white grape.

The May focus tasting conducted at Uncorked and Cultivated tasting room was looking squarely at chardonnays: from Burgundy, Sonoma, Auckland and Australia (Granite Belt, Orange, Tumbarumba, Adelaide Hills, Margaret River, Macedon and the Yarra Valley), all the Oz from cool growing areas.

The tastings were conducted blind for the participants; and in rotation, were asked to identify the origin of the wines. Difficult. More so, because to get a guernsey to this tasting, deliberations need to be accompanied by sensible reasons.

Overall there were several conclusions. The wines from many regions, Old World and New World were of high quality. There were few wine faults and many highly-tuned, meticulously-handled wines.

To me the unexpected result was that Australian chardonnay has refined itself so far now, along the minerality trail and repression of oak influence, that the representative Puligny-Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne burgundies were clearly more full bodied (and more oaky).

Is that a smart outcome? Well yes when the competition is coming from light textured, acerbic sauvignon blanc and other unwooded treasures which relay on their cutting acid finish, and odd dose of minerality.

These chardonnays tasted are reported in order of my preference.

Oakridge 864 2009, Yarra Valley, 13% (USD 64); +++++; very pale green, muted, slightly smelly, peach, sweet fruit, then very minerally, long, long, minerality, and no doubt high in acid, but tantalising wine, little impact of oak, no doubt it is there, crosses over from the fruity to the savoury with the abundant fruit. From the Van der Meulen vineyard (read formerly Seville Estate); one of the regions oldest vineyards-about 35 years.

Oakridge 864-Van der Meulen Vineyard 2009-top chardonnay

Barwang 842 2006,Tumbarumba, 13% (USD 32 ); ++++1/2; greens but some age, some yellows, very complex nose, no singular pristine aromas here, a mix, spicy oak but restrained, hard to detect, some funk, very square as it dries off, a lot of power combined with complex flavours.

Top mature chardonnay-Barwang 2006 from 842m at Tumbarumba

Catalyst Flint 2009, Orange, 13.5% (USD 26.75); ++++1/2; very pale, greens only, funk, barrel-ferment complexity, oak-smoke, palate quite structured, flavours long, finish quite slippery, long-flavoured, mineral.

Bindi Quartz 2009-coolest terroir, minerality all over it

Bindi Quartz 2009, Macedon, 13.5%, (USD 80.25); ++++; pale, emerald greenness, restrained smell, barely detectable oak/barrel ferment smoke, very fresh, taste a little chunky, then dipping into sublime minerality, long, long, palate, then grapefruit sweetness; a wine of the tasting.

Shaw and Smith M3 2009, Adelaide Hills, 13.5%, (USD 42.75); ++++; pale green/emerald, sweet oak, fresh, a sniff of stressed yeast, scented oak, slither of funk, more oak, has layers of sweetness; more oak complexity and a drying finish.

Voyager Estate 2005, Margaret River, 13.4%, (USD 45); ++++; green/straw, bacony, restrained, some aged aromas-honey, muted, very tight palate, complexity in the oatmeal style, high acid, soft oak, enticing.

Puligny-Montrachet (Faiveley) 1er “Les Folatieres” 2008, 13%, (USD 100); +++1/2; straw-yellow; forward, oak cedar/spice, complex and oaky, a big thumper, oak textured and full of it, square style, lees/mlf smoke complexity, a trifle phenolic makes the finish hard.

Ridgemill Pedigree 2009, Granite Belt, 13.5%, (USD 37.50); +++1/2; very pale, oak spice, lime and peachy fruit, long and linear, good minerality.

Corton-Charlemagne (Latour) Grand Cru 2005, 14%, (USD 200); +++ 1/2; slightly golden, closed up, oak spice, very full flavoured, lots of marmalade, nectarine, bitters, age complexity, lots of concentration, soft, trifle hot. Producer information says “drink now”. Grapes are harvested as ripe as possible.

Chateau St Jean 2008, Sonoma, 2008, 13.4%, (USD 14); +++; pale green, perfume, a fruit salad of ripeness, stonefruit, not very subtle oak, a powerhouse of flavour, more a commercial style favouring fruit ripeness over complexity and texture.

Macon-Verze (Leflaive) 2008, 12.5%, (USD 30); +++; pale, apples to the fore, slight funk, lots of natural yeast, composed nose, quite a simple wine, taut, high acid, essentially unwooded white.

Kumeu River Mates Vineyard 2005, 13%, (USD 43.50); +++; deep colour, intense emerald, some gold, aged and aging, honied, aromatic with lots of lemons, nectarines, very sweet fruit, good wine but quite old, very high acid which ends up as dryness.

A pinot noir benchmarking is not complete without some Burgundy – the single red varietal grown so widely as a monoculture north of Beaune.

But there is a smidgen of chardonnay there too and this variety I would never belittle.

Sommelier Australia guys Ben Edwards and Dan Sims had herded a few 2008s from various appellations, and fortunately some included a good section of grand cru properties.

After all if one cannot document what the pointy end of Burgundy did in this difficult year, there is little point in recording any overall impressions.

What must be said is that all wines showed well-there was no cork influence (for a change), eight out of eight perfect corks is a record in my presence too. Three wines were grand crus.

More importantly there were no wet vintage effects in these wines: 2008 was a year of poor fruit set, cold summer temperatures, early September rains, parts with botrytis, then a golden spot of sunshine and a big requirement on bunch and berry selection-the norm rejected being around 30%.

With the exception of the small heat-induced 2003 harvest, it is 10 years since the harvest was so low. As for red wines, with the equivalent of 60 million bottles (-6 %), there had not been such a small harvest (with the exception of 2003) since 1984.

Echezeaux 2008 (Ligier-Belair)from Flagey-Echezeaux, 13.5%; (USD 425); +++++; looked tremendous, light colour, cherry actually, lots of skin maceration nose, bilberries fruit spectrum, oak out there, sweetness of fruit abounds, perfume also, wine has fineness now, all the bits are integrated; it comes out of that taste spot on the middle palate with big fruit and big weight, all flavour and some minerality. Good to drink now but the easy aging window is 2011-2020.

Liger-Belair Bottling

Romanee-St-Vivant 2008 (L’Arlot) from Vosne-Romanee, xx%; (USD 425); +++++; has good colour yet no great intensity, cherry dominates, lots of whole bunch smells, lot of fruit lift saying that this is good, new oak pervades for a second, then the fruit intensity returns, the taste follows the aroma in the same order as described, all the flavours are lined up, heavy on alcohol, the final impression is some tannin restraint overtaken by fruit sweetness. Not drinking well yet, little edgy, aging window 2013-2025. AXA owned.

L’Arlot bottling

Clos de la Roche 2008 (Dujac) from Morey St Denis, (USD 295); ++++; just cherry-red, closed, monster wine, leafy, square, monster wine, tannic but sweet, the oak filtering out is outstanding, just a wine muscled up for the future, made in the old style burgundy mould where structure dominates fruit and aromatics, not to drink now, aging window 2015-2020.

Dujac Bottling

Chambertin Clos de Beze 2008 (Bruno Clair) from Gevrey-Chambertin, (USD315); +++1/2; pink-cherry, lots of syrup references from high ripeness, then flowers for pinot, very bright and fresh, modern pinot, quite clean and taut on tasting, lots of minerality coming in, warm meaning hot alcohol on the end, subtle and young, drinking window 2013-2016.

Bruno Clair Bottling

The last grand cru was from the previous vintage: Bonneau du Martray 2007 from Corton, (USD 180); +++++; light cherry, perfume lifts from the glass, is it a simple nose?no, oak char, gaminess from lees aging effects, swirling reveals a very fine palate, linear and layered, mineral, sweet, the palate goes on with elegance, the final flavour is sweet fruit. Drinks well, aging window 2011-2020. Reflects the extra year in bottle.

Also tasted:

Les Vaucrains (Chevillon) 2008 1er Nuits St Georges (++++); La Justice (Alain Burget) 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin (++++); and Clos des Chenes (Glantenay) 2008 Volnay (+++).