Australia and New Zealand (reds)

db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay gives his verdict on the premium wines from Australia and New Zealand that are are being released in the La Place de Bordeaux’s September campaign.

A note on the tasting notes:

As regular readers will know, I am the Bordeaux and La Place de Bordeaux correspondent of The Drinks Business. My specialism is Bordeaux, in particular, and northern Europe (especially Piedmont and Tuscany), secondarily. This should perhaps be born in mind when it comes to my tasting notes for other regions with which I am less familiar and which I encounter primarily through la place. My notes, as ever, are those of an enthusiast and a wine-lover and, for these regions above all, they are best read as such. All of the following wines were tasted either in Bordeaux at the offices of the courtiers or négociants bringing these wines to the international market, at trade tastings in London, at the property itself, or in Paris, from samples sent directly from the property – and, in many cases, multiple times.

NYT – not yet tasted (with tasting notes to appear in a later article).

Red – Australia

Australian releases (red)
Vintage
Region
1st release?
Rating

Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz
2022
Clare Valley
No
97

Cloudburst Cabernet Sauvignon
2022
Margaret River
No
98

Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
2022
S. Australia
No
96

Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon
2023
S. Australia
No
97

Penfolds Red Wine Trial Bin 798 Shiraz
2023
Barossa Valley
No
97

Penfolds Grange Shiraz
2021
S. Australia
No
99

Yalumba The Octavius Old Vine Shiraz
2020
Barossa Valley
No
96+

Yalumba The Octavius Old Vine Shiraz
2010
Barossa Valley
No
95

Wynns John Riddoch
2022
Coonawarra
No
96

Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz 2022 (Clare Valley; 100% Shiraz; pH 3.4; a final yield of below 30 hl/ha; 14% alcohol). Quite gracious for Clare Valley Shiraz. There’s a bulbal floral note, a little oak smoke and plenty of plump and juicy dark stone fruits. Eucalyptus and cinnamon – the koalas would love this. I do too. Impressively svelte and ample, with very fine-grained tannins gently outlining the external parameters of the mid-palate. Fluid and energetic. I love the little sprig of spearmint on the finish. A strong showing. 97.

Cloudburst Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (Margaret River; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; 13% alcohol; just 1100 bottles produced). Lighter in extract than the other Australian offerings. Amazingly floral. So distinctive. Gladioli bulbs, hyacinth bulbs, peonies. Wild mountain herbs. So amazingly lifted. Very distinctive – even more so than usual. Extraordinary to the point that it’s difficult to pick this as Cabernet Sauvignon. Maybe not to everyone’s taste, but an incredible wine that is very much to mine! Patchouli and pink rose petals on the finish. Fresh and sapid, juicy and energetic. 98.

Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2022 (South Australia; 100% Shiraz; sourced from Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale; aged for 12 months in large already used foudres; pH 3.72; 14.5% alcohol). Meaty. A little animal. Plump. Gracious tannins on the attack, more and more present over the palate’s evolution. A lovely limpid core. So accomplished technically and so fresh and bright and lively. A little graphite on the finish. 96.

Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 (South Australia; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; the fruit sourced from Coonawarra, Barossa Valley, Padthaway and Wrattonbully; pH 3.66; aged 18 months in new American oak hogsheads; 14.5% alcohol). So gracious and glossy in texture, very lithe and expressive, evolving and flowing as it does so over the palate. Ultra-fine grained tannins trace the shapely exterior. Really plush and elegant in style. Finessed. Better even than the excellent 2022. 97.

Penfolds Red Wine Trial Bin 798 Barossa Valley Shiraz 2023 (Barossa Valley; 100% Barossa Valley Shiraz; aged for 14 months in hogsheads of French oak, 69% of which are new; pH 3.6; 14.5% alcohol). A wine whose staggering quality probably didn’t seem possible after the multiple challenges of a trying, troubling and tricky spring – including flash floods and thunderstorms that delayed flowering. There’s no sense of any of that in the glass. This is a wonderfully svelte and succulent wine with plump raspberry and darker berry fruits vying for attention with the more subtle black cherry and stone fruits. Speaking of subtlety, there are delightful floral undertones here, accentuated rather than hidden by the sweet spices from the oak (which needs a little further time to integrate fully). There’s a little hint of cordite and incense and a touch of cedar and graphite that will become more prominent with age. Soft and caressing with the finest of polished tannins, this is accessible already but built to go the distance. 97.

Penfolds Grange Shiraz 2021 (South Australia; 94% Shiraz and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon; sourced from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Clare Valley; pH: 3.61; aged for 20 months in new American oak hogsheads; 14.5% alcohol). Very accomplished; very complete; very harmonious. Poised and plush, delicate and refined, but succulent and sumptuous in its way – very classical. A wine of amazing textural refinement. A true vin de garde that will outlive me but that it is accessible in its youth (I don’t imagine I was that either!). Polished and precise, focussed and rapier-like on the near infinite finish. 99.

Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz 2020 (Eden & Barossa Valleys; 100% old vine Shiraz; aged in 100 litre French and American oak octaves; pH 3.64; 14.5% alcohol). 72% of the fruit is from the Barossa valley, the remaining 28% from Eden Valley. Plump, plush, quite glossy and viscous with lots of extract and beautifully polished fine-grained super svelte tannins. A little hint of leather and charcuterie accompanies the dark berry and stone fruits. There’s a deeper, richer, gamier note of lièvre a la royale too – and a hint of molten candlewax. The almost sparkling purity renders the mid-palate impressively crystalline despite the considerable density. 96+.

Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz 2010 Museum Release (Eden & Barossa Valleys; 100% old-vine Syrah; aged for 20 months in 39% new French and US octaves, 33% 1 year old French barriques and hogsheads and Hungarian hogsheads, the balance in older US and French octaves; 14% alcohol; tasted at the International First Growths tasting in Bordeaux). Almost 90% of the fruit here is from the Barossa valley, the rest from Eden Valley. Sweeter scented, richer and deeper than the 2020 with a little less tension and freshness. But this has the same grace and succulence in the mid-palate. Rich and full, dense and compact. Creamy, with that gamey note also to be found in the 2020. It’s a little more monotone perhaps and, unremarkably, more evolved with the secondary notes more prominent – above all towards the finish. Dry autumnal leaves and hint of sous bois. 95.

Wynns John Riddoch Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (Coonawarra, South Australia; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; aged for 17 months in French oak, roughly half hogsheads, half barriques, of which 43% were new; pH 3.6; 13.5% alcohol). Wynns’ flagship wine since its first release in 1982, made in small quantities from the best Cabernet Sauvignon plots in the heart of its terra rossa holdings. Dark, quite spicy but herbal too, with a wild almost moorside heathery note. Black pepper and black berries vie for attention, with a little dark plum and black cherry coming through with aeration. Tight to the spine and linear at first, but just ample enough in form for the fruit to glide and dance, rendering this more sinuous, relaxed and fluid than you first imagine. A beautiful gathered finish renders this once again linear as the fruit tapers to a long distant vanishing point. Stylish and composed with significant aging potential. 96.

Red – New Zealand

New Zealand releases
Vintage
Region
1st release?
Rating

Craggy Range Aroha Te Muna
2023
Martinsborough
No
96

Craggy Range Le Sol Gimblett Gravels
2023
Hawke’s Bay
No
96

Craggy Range Aroha Te Muna Pinot Noir 2023 (Te Muna, Malborough, New Zealand; 100% Pinot Noir; hand-harvested in several tries and entirely destemmed; pH 3.71; 12.5% alcohol). A difficult vintage with much need for the sorting table, but you wouldn’t really guess. This is juicy, sapid, lithe and attractive. We have a very lifted, bright and crisp style of Pinot Noir. It’s also intensely floral, with a lovely wild rosemary, thyme and lavender note alongside those radiant hints of rose petal. Quite Burgundian in its cool vintage signature crispness. Excellent. 96.

Craggy Range Le Sol Gimblett Gravels Syrah 2023 (Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand; 100% Syrah; hand-harvested in several tries and entirely destemmed; 12.5% alcohol). Again, the cooler vintage produces a lovely succulence here. This is intensely floral and herbal – with lavender, rosemary and thyme interwoven with that signature charcuterie and gamey element that I typically now associate with this wine. Juicy and succulent, quite plump and lush. Precise, pure and extremely fresh – above all juicy! 96.

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