After a heads up that one of the new kiwi cult wines was being tried at a dinner in the Inner West of Sydney, I headed over to Leichhardt last night for what had to be one of the best value wine dinners I have attended in a long time. All you could drink and eat for just $65, reminded me of my old varisty days. As the winemaker is from the US, I thought some of the participants on this site might be interested in her wines, especially if you live in VA, her old home state. I have a quick look at the website for the winery and the wines are extensively sold in VA (I smell a US/NZ business trip coming on)
First up was a merlot based Puriri Rose 2007. I enjoyed the style, finding it crisp with a dash of strawberries and a dry savoury finish. It is a style that is much less fruit driven (aka fruit bomb: see Charles Melton Rose of Virginia) than comparable Australian styles and hence did generate some debate amongst the Inner West attendees. Some found the wine lacking in fruit and when we exhanged prefered rose styles, I cold understand where they were coming from but then I would go for their prefered styles as a first choice.
The meal then proceeded in a series of flights based around the 2006, 2002/2003, 2004 and finally 2005 vintages. Styled after Right Bank Bordeaux wines, the wines are a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Carmenere with the percentages varing quite radically from year to year and from Estate to Reserve.
Starting with the 2006 vintage, predominately Merlot based, the Estate is a garnet like red, medium bodied wine and much lighter in style than its more serious big brother the Reserve 2006. To be drunk now or over the next year or so, it has soft tannins built around red current fruit. By way of contrast the Reserve has considerably more depth of flavour and quite frankly is a far more interesting wine. Still very approachable now, again very soft silky tannins I found the flavours to include mild tobacco and spices with an overall elegant structure, think outstanding St Emillion claret from a vintage such as 2002 or 2004.
The 2002 Reserve again had lovely depth of flavour with 50% Merlot, 42% Carmenere and 8% Malbec. Not dissimilar to the 2004 with just a little more bottle age complexity coming through. The 2003 Estate, was one of my least favourite wines of the evening. On the nose I got tomato leaf and capsicum, not something I normally pick up on in wines. Again medium bodied, this finish was much shorter than the 2006 and the flavours rather vegetal. As the vines were only planted late 1990s, I suspect the increase in the age of the vines at this stage of the vineyards existance is fairly noticeable year on year.
2004 Reserve. This time the mix is 36% Merlot, 46% Carmenere, 11% Cab Franc and 7% Malbec. The bouquet on this wine was extremely deceptive, blind tasted, a number of us would have guessed Burgundy with its rose and mushroom aromas: also extremely seductive. Slightly more dark fruit style and fuller bodied but with more of the super soft tannins, again very elegant and probably my favourite wine of the evening. By way of contrast, the 2004 Estate comprised 67% Merlot, 3% Carmenere, 11% Cab Franc, cab sav 15% and 4% Malbec. Quite a different bouquet, this time more cinnamon and spice with a medium bodied ruby colour with red current flavours, some tobacco and more spices.
We were also luck enough (I think) to try the 2005 Estate, 2005 Reserve and 2005 Pope. Unfortunately the portions were miniscule and served in tiny plastic container not dissimilar to the ones I serve the kids their cough medicine in. Of the three, I actually prefered the Reserve as the palate appeared more robust than the super silky Pope with hint of white pepper and spices. Overall very enjoyable wines though my preference would always be for the Reserve. The only question is whether the wines have enough structure to really develop sufficent complexity over time to justify the price tag which is high for such a new vineyard.