St Hallett Gamekeeper’s Reserve 2007

Barossa, South Australia, Australia
Alcohol: 14.5%
Available in government ($14.23) and private stores

The St Hallett Gamekeeper’s Reserve is the red equivalent of the Poacher’s Blend that I reviewed earlier this month. While neither is a “special occasion” wine, both are reliable and provide excellent value. They are also widely available, making for an easy choice when you’re in a hurry.

Another similarity between the wines is the blend. The label on the Gamekeeper’s Reserve says Shiraz–Grenache (a traditional blend in France’s Rhone Valley), but they use a third grape to give it a bit more character: Touriga Nacional. Never heard of it? No surprise; it’s a Portuguese grape that is traditionally used to make Port. That’s probably how it made its way to Australia, but winemakers have recently been using it in tables wines, either on its own or as part of a blend. Although St Hallett only uses about 4 or 5% Touriga Nacional in this wine, it certainly helps the wine stand out from other inexpensive Rhone inspired blends.

The wine is a dark ruby colour, and has spicy, blackberry, and floral aromas. Once you get it in your mouth, the blackberries are joined by flavours of dark cherries, plum, tobacco, and a touch of smokiness and earthiness. The tannins and acid are soft but obvious from start to finish. The flavours linger in the mouth and the alcohol is pretty obvious during the finish. While there has been no oak aging for this wine, it has had left on the “lees” (the yeast residue that sinks to the bottom of the container after fermentation), adding more complexity.

While this is a wine that is easily enjoyed on its own, it also works well with plenty of foods. It’s light enough to be a Pinot Noir replacement, so will work with lightly flavoured cheeses, meats (e.g., chicken), and vegetables. But it has enough fruit and character to also work with more flavourful foods, such as steaks, lamb, and even mild or medium hot curries.

Buller Black Dog Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

Victoria, Australia
Alcohol: 14.5%
Available in private stores only ($20.60+)

Much of the state of Victoria in Australia can be considered a “cooler” climate, but only in the context of Australia, where “cooler” seems to mean hot only some of the time. Joking aside, many of the best wine regions in Victoria are cooler than the best regions in South Australis, such as the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. This allows them to shine with different grapes (e.g., Pinot Noir in the Yarra Valley) and to create wines with different styles from other regions in Australia.

Buller is an established producer (since 1921) in Rutherglen, a small town along the Victoria-New South Wales border that has been long known for its fortified wines (“stickies” in the Australian vernacular). (When I visited in the early 1980s, there was a billboard at the entrance to the town proclaiming that “Sydney may have a great harbour, but Rutherglen has a great port”.) Less well known but gaining attention are the table wines. The Black Dog Creek line (named after a creek on the Buller property) gives us a choice of the Cabernet, a Shiraz, and a Chardonnay, all at a reasonable price.

This wine is a nice Cabernet Sauvignon, with out getting too crazy in style or price. It is a dark ruby colour, with plenty of purple and some brick colour on the rim. It smells of raspberries and other red fruits, plus some tones of earth, cedar, and vanilla. In the mouth, it is full bodied, with soft tannins and a good dose of acid. The raspberries and cedar are even clearer in the mouth than on the nose. There is a the typical Cabernet Sauvignon doughnut, with strong flavours at the start, followed by a drop in the middle and then a good finish that lingers for a while with noticeable alcohol that, in this case, is balanced by the fruit.

This is no “fruit bomb”, with a tad more depth and maturity than expected. The brick colour tones, and some of the flavours (cedar and earthiness) indicate enough age to make me think that this wine is probably near its peak, so grab a bottle and enjoy it before the end of the year.

Black Chook Shiraz-Viognier 2007

McLaren Vale & Langhorne Creek, South Australia, Australia
Alcohol: 15%
Available in government stores ($19.96) and private stores

Shiraz (or Syrah as it is known in France) is currently one of the most popular red wine grapes. You only have to wander the aisles of any shop selling wine for the proof. You’ll find examples of Shiraz/Syrah (including blends) from around the world: Australia, France, South Africa, California, Chile, and even the Okanagan. In fact, more than 200 Shirazes and Shiraz blends from Australia alone are available through the government liquor stores today!

(As an aside, the success of Shiraz has resulted in many mediocre, overly fruity, sweet tasting wines that lack character. You can often spot these by the “cute” and colourful animals on the labels, leading to the pejorative term “critter wines”. I hasten to add, however, that not all wines with cute, colourful animals on their labels are necessarily bad or lack value.)

The ancestral home of Shiraz/Syrah is the Rhône Valley in France. Syrah is normally part of a blend in this region, usually with other red wines (e.g., Grenache), but sometimes with white wines. That’s what they do in the famed Côte-Rôtie and with this wine, a blend of the robust red Shiraz (95%) with a bit of the perfumey and delicious white Viognier (5%).

This is a dark and densely coloured wine, with aromas of black currents and plums, and hints of flowers (violets) and sweet stone fruit. The fruit follows onto the palate, where plenty of dense, ripe, dark fruit is tempered by medium acid. The tannins are soft, the body full, and the Viognier adds an overall lovely spicy floral note. This wine is lovely drinking on its own, or well-matched with robust foods, such as grilled meats, stews, or even chicken in a spicy tomato sauce. This is a wine meant to be drunk young; ageing is not likely to improve it.

(Proving an earlier post, I first tasted the wine after it had been in the fridge only a short time at the end of a hot day. The fruit dominated the palate and – while not unpleasant – it lacked the complexity and structure that came out after a while longer in the fridge.)