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The Pawn is the wine label of Tom Keelan, former vineyard manager and still significant other at Bremerton in Langhorne Creek, along with some of his wine industry colleagues. It is a new name to me, introduced by his Tasmanian distributor Joe Holyman, and all three wines I tried, this, a sangiovese and a tempranillo, shone. As you might have guessed, the focus is mainly on alternative varieties and this Adelaide Hills take on the aromatic Austrian grape gruner veltliner sings with all the silvery tone of a diva soprano. It offers both refreshment and textural interest with orange blossom fragrance, apple and pear notes and hints of white spice. There is brisk minerality and some assertive acid. Fun and interesting. $27. www.thepawn.com.au.
At a time when many Barossa producers are charging several hundred dollars a bottle for their flagship reds it is remarkable that St Hallett's Old Block Shiraz still has an RRP of just $100. It is an outstanding wine in its own right, cellar-worthy for sure, but also a tad more suave and elegant than several of its more brash, robust contemporaries. This is a stylish wine that's made from both Barossa and cooler-climate Eden Valley fruit. Matured in French oak, its has both power and restraint. From a great vintage, this supple and savoury wine weighs in at an eminently sensible 13.7% alcohol and is designed for sipping and savouring, perhaps when matched with a venison casserole. $100. www.sthallett.com.au.
Ken
Helm has been making rieslings in the Canberra region for close on 40
years now. He was a pioneer of the variety so when he describes his
2015 Classic Riesling as “an extraordinary wine from a spectacular
year” there is more truth than hype in play. From a year Helm
describes as “Nulli
Secundus” - none
better, this is a wonderfully aromatic example made
from grapes sourced from the Helm estate and neighbouring vineyards
within the Murrumbateman valley. Fresh floral aromas lead on to lime,
grapefruit and Granny Smith apple flavours, hints of slatey
minerality, river pebbles and a gram or two of residual sugar. The
finish is brisk and clean and this was superb with a dish of
pan-fried blue-eye trevalla. $35. www.helmwines.com.au.
A gloriously gluggable trans-Iberian blend of the Spanish grape tempranillo and Portuguese variety touriga nacional that is full of youthful enthusiasm and offers tremendous drinking pleasure at a wallet-friendly price. McLaren Vale maestro Steve Pannell makes several wines more serious than this - but few that can match it for vinous joie de vivre. It is a juicy, fruit-driven red this, with some attractive savoury/deli notes. The previous vintage of this wine won several trophies and sold out, so it may pay to be quick off the mark this time. I'll give it 94 points and a bonus point for being such fun to drink. $28. www.pannell.com.au
Margaret River produces some outstanding sauvignon blanc/semillon blends and if your penchant is for enjoying them when they are at their freshest and most vibrant then this is a wine that you should make the effort to track down. It is a crisp as the water from a mountain stream, as pungent as newly-baled hay and fruitier than an old-style English comedian. Imagine vibrant lifted aromas that leap out of the glass; lime citrus notes alongside hints of passionfruit and guava; and then throw in some brisk, refreshing acid. This blend of 55% sauvignon blanc and 45% semillon was been entirely fermented in stainless steel and is hopefully a harbinger of good things to come from the 2015 vintage out west. Drink now. It's spectacular value, too, at $20. www.rosabrook.com.au.
If you haven't heard of Levantine Hill, you've probably been living under a rock for the past couple of years. The brainchild of Elias and Colleen Jreissati, this is an operation set up to make benchmark wines. With former Yarra Yering winemaker Paul Bridgeman at the helm and a plush cellar door soon to open at Coldstream in the Yarra Valley (chef Teage Ezzard is also on board), everything about Levantine Hill screams quality. I caught up for lunch with the Jreissatis during the week, so this wine was not tasted blind, but it could not fail to impress with its quality. A classic blend of Bordeaux grape varieties from a superlative vintage, this is the epitome of wine elegance. Think cassis and dark berries, gentle oak and impressive structure. Medium-bodied and impeccably balanced, this is remarkably good (and extremely French in style) for a wine made from such young vines. It shines with food and I'm happy to score it 95. I can't wait to see subsequent releases. $125. www.levantinehill.com.au.
Kevin Judd made his reputation at Cloudy Bay, where he was largely responsible for the global success of that brand. Nowadays, he combines his career as a world-class photographer with making far smaller amounts of wine under his own Greywacke label, named after the rounded greywacke
river stones in the soils of his vineyard. Judd makes wines with soul and a sense of place and this is elegant with sweet fruit and spice and lots of length. Concentrated, taut as a violin string and potentially very long lived. $45. www.greywacke.com.
