Saturday, December 22, 2012

Domaine du Colombier 2010 Chablis

When we lived in France, back in 1996-2001, the Chablis and Petit Chablis from the Mothe family at Domaine du Colombier were among our regular house wines. The Mothes were delightful people with a friendly little cellar at Fontenay, and their wines offered excellent value for money. Now Marcus Gniel from Ce Soir Wine is importing the Chablis into Australia and I was delighted to discover it is still a really lovely, racy wine. It's pristine and flinty example with terrific acid and length. Match this with oysters, grilled seafood, or some snails in garlic, and you won't go wrong. $32. www.cesoirwine.com.

Monday, December 17, 2012

West Cape Howe 2012 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

It had been a while since I had tasted any wines from West Cape Howe - but I've always thought of them as reliably good. Working my way through a recent batch of West Australian samples, the WCH 2012 Sauvignon Blanc was very decent, and the WCH 2012 Chardonnay excellent. And this wine blew my socks off - particularly after I looked at the recommended retail price. This is nothing more, nothing less than an excellent summer drink with semillon and sauvignon blanc playing a virtuoso quitar duel on your tongue. There's freshness, crispness and lots of drinkability. Ridiculous value for $17. www.westcapehousewines.com.au

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Vignobles Paul Mas 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon


This is such a terrific bargain that I feel like keeping it to myself and going off on a big buying spree. So much of what you see in bottle shops for under $10 is complete rubbish, it comes as a real surprise to find a French import that's quite so good for such minimal outlay. This wine from the Languedoc has has blueberry juiciness and gentle cigar box notes; serious structure, impressive tannins and plenty of length. In short, it's a ripper - and it's under screw cap, as well. There's also a very impressive 2011 marsanne in the same range. Exclusive to Dan Murphy's, apparently. $6.99. [That's not a misprint].      

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Mitchell Harris 2011 Mataro Grenache Shiraz

John Harris, formerly the winemaker at Domaine Chandon and Mount Avoca, is now devoting all his attention to his family label. And what a delightful wine from the cooler-climate Victorian Pyrenees this is. Forget all the doom and gloom about the 2011 vintage, there are a lot of excellent wines if you look in the right places - and this is a very good place. This mataro-dominant red blend is juicy, spunky, spicy and very slurpable. There are some bright red currant notes, earthiness, lashings of pepper and some appealing softness on the palate. Good stuff. $27. www.mitchellharris.com.au