Wine Blog - Secret Sommelier Blog Featuring Wine Podcasts

The Hunter Valley 2 hours north of Sydney is known for one thing in Australia and that's wine and in particular Semillon. Set in a landscape of green fields, gum trees and sleepy towns is one of the Hunter Valleys oldest wineries, Tyrrell’s. A family business now handed down to its fourth generation owner Bruce Tyrrell, it has reach all over Australia and indeed the world. When you drive up the long gravel drive passing 120 year old vines and arrive at the head quarters of this global player you wouldn’t know it. The original pioneer’s house of the first generation Edward Tyrell is but a humble one room ironbark wooden shack complete with iron cooker and is still standing in the gravel car park for all to see. A vivid reminder of how long this new world wine maker has been in operation. Indeed this year they are celebrating their 150th year. Behind the shack is there office, again a wooden house and this is connected to the tasting room which is an important watering hole for the many wine tourists that travel around the hunter in mini buses from vineyard to vineyard.

Proprietor, Francois with Christopher Burr MW at the Brasserie Saint Julien in Barbican, London

Following our most enjoyable tasting last week at the Brasserie Saint Julien, we are able to give you our notes, and the shipper Daniel Dancygier of ASAP Assistance Limited has made a special offer of all the wines we tasted for anyone who would like to purchase some good regular drinking Claret. The wines we tasted were: Chateau Chatain 2002 Montagne Saint Emilion Chateau des Charmilles, Cuvee Emilie, 2003 , Graves Chateau Tour Castillon 2003 Cru Bourgeois Medoc Domaine du Petit Brouard 2003, Lalande de Pomerol Chateau la Grave 2004, Chateau Moulin Taffard

Now, to the 2006 Burgundies.  I have attended four tastings and tasted over 500 wines so I have a good perspective on this vintage. But the very best wines top Grand Cru are still to be released. This is not an easy vintage to appreciate at this stage, that is to say there are a lot of poor wines, some fair wines and some good to very good wines, so be careful.  

 

The whites are fine although not great, I particularly like this style of vintage which is pure and quite lean with good acidity, and very typical of individual terroir. I like these whites because they will age quite well and particulary liked the Chablis and southern Burgundy communes where picking was earlier. There is some clumsy chapitalisation which gives the impression of sweet fruit, and as a result often the wines are unbalanced. 

 

The reds are much harder to understand even for the professional. Again we have the unbalanced wines, and we have some dry mean wines which are unripe. There were some nice Cotes de Beaunes reds at junior level, and at a more serious level one should be very selective.  I liked the red wines from Robert Arnoux and Nicolas Potel and de Montille, and the whites from Fevre in Chablis, but I will give a full review when I have finished all the tastings and been to Burgundy in four weeks time.