Hoddles Creek Pinot Noir 1er Yarra Valley 2008

This wine had a lovely and very light burgundy colour and is still a young looking wine, this was reflected in the nose with its hints of light cherry a bit of indian spices and a touch of brightness. The fruit and acidity followed onto the palate making for an easy to drink light summer Pinot Noir. The really interesting thing was how it developed beautifully over the next 2 days, gaining a savory complexity and a slightly earthy taste which gave it a lot more body and helped flesh it out a bit more than when first opened. A fine example of a Yarra Valley Pinot Noir and at $50.00 this is a wine that is not over the top in price, fair value.

Purchased 6 bottles from LaVigna August 2010 @ $50.00 per bottle

James Halliday 92 points

And now for something completely different

Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2006 Macedon Ranges

It’s a Pinot Noir, it’s from Victoria so when I say something completely different it may just be a slight exaggeration but the segue sounds good and they are quite different in style and very different in how they both developed over the few days that they were consumed.

This was a lot darker in the glass and showed more age than the Hoddles Creek, as it should with 2 more years in the bottle. The savory and spicy nose was well-balanced by the darker fruits and these flavours were on the palate from the start, the surprising thing is they didn’t develop a more aged musky profile over the 3 days it took to drink. If anything the wine become lighter in flavours! Not a bad thing but not what I was expecting at all, but then that’s a good reason to drink wine, it can always surprise. This is another good example of Pinot Noir, this time from the Macedon Ranges in Victoria.

Purchased 12 bottles from the winery direct about 3 – 4 years ago @ $46.00 a bottle there are now 7 left in the Wine Room. Just purchased another 3 bottles each of the 2007, 2008, 2008 and 2010 vintages giving me a rather nice vertical of this wine.

James Halliday 95 points

Jancis Robinson 18 points

Hoddles Creek Estate

Curly Flat

Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir 2008

Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir 2008 with my new reference book on Wine Grapes in the background

Finally it’s back to posting on wine and I thought that as its got to be a favourite wine Mt Difficulty fits that bill. But I should really set the scene first to give an idea of why wine is more than just a beverage, it’s 6.00pm on a Saturday evening and we are sitting in the backyard of our holiday cottage watching the birds coming in to drink, eat and interact with each other. There are 4 Common Bronzewing Pigeons around the birdbath, Wattle Birds flitting in and out of the trees making a racket and creating general havoc, a couple of Pink & Grey Galahs eating seeds next to the house a couple of Australian Ringnecks high up in the eucalypts just outside the property and a family of Magpies lording over it all. An all round relaxing place and time to be drinking wine.

Even a Two Buck Chuck¹ would taste good in this setting but a wine with a little more complexity is elevated to greater heights, something a Coke or Pepsi Max could never do. One senses come alive and one sees more in the wine than if it was been drunk out of a foam cup in a fast food joint (as in the movie Sideways).
Back to the wine. Nose is a beautiful scent of dark cherry and raspberry with a hint of the alcohol that one comes to expect from a Central Otago Pinot, the dark cherry fruits follow through into the palate with a wonderful sense of brightness for some subtle acidity and there are light fine tannins which give a truly beautiful mouth filling feel that lingers on well after the wine is gone and getting ready for the next mouth full. This is defiantly a wine that is at its best drinking after a couple of extra years in the bottle, it gives the wine time to balance out and not be dominated by either the fruit or wood.
As there are still some 13 bottles residing in the Wine Room, this will be a favorite that needs drinking over the summer and I’m sure there will be more than one or two Santa’s little helpers out there who will lend a hand.
After drinking another glass (kept under Argon in the Wine Room) 2 days after opening, I came to the conclusion this will get even better with some more bottle age, it had developed more earthy animal flavours and the were hints of wild thyme on the nose, this is great value Pinot.

Purchased from Langtons for $40.00 per bottle

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine

Mt Difficulty Wines

Coal Pit Pinot Noir 2008

Coal Pit Pinot Noir 2008
Central Otago is that rare region that keeps surprising and producing value for money, had the good fortune to share a bottle of Coal Pit Pinot Noir at Balthazar a few days ago with the The Retailer (formerly the Frock Salesman) and if he wasn’t bigger and uglier than me I would have drunk the whole bottle myself but alas we had to share the bottle.

Before going further about this wine a little about the Central Otago region and its terrior, or more to the point, those areas within Central Otago that I have a preference for. Top of the list would be the Bannockburn region of Central Otago, which produces some of the icon single vineyard wines of the region including the famed Calvert vineyard. Followed by Gibbston region which produces good Pinot Noir but the single vineyard wines are not in the same league as Bannockburn. Well there is always one to prove us wrong and the Coal Pit Pinot Noir is that one, it may not technically be a single vineyard wine coming from two separate blocks on their estate, one 4.0 hectares planted in 1994 and the other a 1.5hectare site planted in 2000. But it has a wonderful expression of place and the two blocks are close together. From my notes on the night;

“A tight but delicate nose that wants to open up (and will) and express its fruit. There is a subtle hint of soft oak and cherry fruit that is gentle and not over ripe, with earthy and wild thyme binding it all together. The palate starts of smooth and soft, but given a few minutes it develops deep red fruit and earthy forest floor flavours bound together with silky tannins. Works with and complimented the steak tartare I was eating, after the tartare we were given a sorbet of lemon and lime……”

That’s as far as the notes go, concentrate on enjoy what is a wonderful wine that is great value as well and was keeping an eye on The Retailer as he buttered the wait staff up, hoping to get a greater share.

Purchased at Balthazar can remember how much but it sells for $42.00 New Zealand from the winery direct

Coal Pit Wines