Topic: TN: Jenise, Bob and I go touring in Victoria Pt2: Great Western
Author: Murray, Aus
Date: Sun Nov 19 22:01:08 2000
Jenise and Bob Stone’s swing through South Australia and Victoria left a couple of areas untasted, so I took it upon myself to show my fellow denizens of the online community the glories within these premium Victorian Wine Regions. All tasting notes are my own impression.

The first day’s travels and tasting through the Pyrenees Wine Region of Victoria have been posted separately

The following morning dawned a touch cloudy but nevertheless clear and fresh. On leaving Warrenmang we drove past a couple of scarecrows from the annual competition run by Montara. The costumes were great and we are able to verify the Elvis has left the building.

Our route from the Pyrenees to the Great Western wine regions took us around the western end of the Pyrenees ranges. We passed through Stawell and had a clear view of the Grampians Mountain range. Ten minutes past Stawell on the route back to Melbourne we arrive at the hamlet of Great Western and Best’s Winery.

Best’s was founded in the 1860’s with the original cellar, which you can still tour through, built in 1866. The tasting room is the former stables built from 1867 to 1870. Best’s has some of the oldest Vines in Australia still producing wine, with Pinot Meunier from 1867, Dolcetto from 1869 (actually the Dolcetto was labelled ‘Malbek’ until clarified by a gene test in 1970) and Shiraz from the 1860’s.

The tasting room Bests range comes from the Great Western vineyards, and also from warmer climate vineyards at Lake Boga.

2000 Bests Great Western Riesling
Herbaceous floral nose of lemon and spice. Light spice palate with lime, medium weight and long finish. Very nice.

1998 Bests Gewurztraminer
Spicey tangerine with lift acid. Medium weight and a long finish. A nice example of the variety.

1996 Bests Pinot Noir
Full red colour, slightly pale. Earthy characters, good australian-style pinot. Acid is not quite matching the overall profile. The dusty-earthy characters dominate the wine. I liked it.

2000 Best’s Pinot Meunier
From vine planted in 1867. The wine has nice cherry/berry with a hint of spice. Good medium weight, with fine tannins and a long finish. Delicious.

2000 Best’s Dolcetto
Vine planted in 1869, labelled “Malbek” until 1970. There were still some bottles labelled as such in the underground cellars we saw. Lively spritzy mouthfeel with upfront acid. Mid long finish. To me a great wine that demand food.

1997 Best’s Great Western Cabernet Sauvignon
Red Brick colour. Ripe Berry, chocolate and a touch of mint. Big mouthfeel, not overly oaked and quite sweet fruit. Balanced tannins and a long finish. Delicious wine with a great future.

1998 Best’s Great Western Shiraz “Bin 0”
Great shiraz nose with rich spice and dark red-purple colour. Fantastic mouthfeel with powerful smoothness, Jenise described it as ‘seamless’. Rich drying tannins. A wonderful wine will go 5-25 years easy.

Best’s Liqueur Muscat
Butterscotch colour. Raisin and rich fruit. Full mouthfeel, rich long finish, a wonderful wine.

Best’s was as wonderful as always. We headed into Great Western proper out trip took us to the Seppelt Tasting room, and we came back for the tour later. For consistency I’ll cover them both together.

Seppelt at Great Western is part of the Seppelt empire within Southcorp. There’s also a complex in the Barossa Valley, but this has the disadvantage of being very commercially aligned to the Barossa. The Great Western facility, home of the Sparkling wines as well as the lovely Great Western and Drumborg wines, has the advantage, at leats in my opinion, of being sufficiently far from the ‘big smoke’ to establish it’s own identity.

The Seppelt facility has different areas for tasting and buying. The tasting room is in the oldest part of the winery complex, with a view down to the historic Drives, the 5km network of hand-hewn caves that still store the riches of Seppelt. The store carries the full range of wines, including a wonderful series of back vintage and cellar door specials. Highlighted was the wonderful 1984 Eden Valley Riesling, fresh up out of the Drives, the levels were Astounding!. This wine won a trophy at the Canberra Wine Show (the Biggie) in the museum class,. Apparently John Vickery (who knows his old Rieslings) rang up and advised that they’d sent the wrong one. This couldn’t be older than 5 years. Such are the benefits of careful cellaring of a great wine!

The tour through the Drives is a must for any wine loving tourist of the area. The network of mould-covered caves, dug by unsuccessful goldminers is a sight in itself, let alone the many thousands of bottle stored within.

On entering the tasting room, with something over 30 wines to try, Jenise and Bob wanted to start with a bubbly, I insisted, try the Sherries. The Seppelt Show sherries are consistently Australia’s best and are one of my favourite tipples. I tasted a selection over the whole range.

Seppelt Show Fino
Straw colour, Rancio oxidised characters with a gorgeous drying mouthfeel and a very long finish. Wonderful, ideal pre-dinner palate sharpener.

Seppelt Show Amontillado
Wonderfully full bodied, medium sweet wine, wonderful character and a great long finish. My favourite of the Seppelt sherry line

Seppelt Show Oloroso
.Ripe old rancio nose, mid-long flavour, lovely rich and elegant, a glorious wine.

Seppelt have a range of bubblies from the highly commercial, tank fermented, Imperial Reserve, to the glorious Salinger. I kipped the Salinger as it’s a regular tipple. The cellar door range includes an old classic and a very nice cellar door only release.

1991 Seppelt ‘Hans Irvine’ Ondenc
A methode champagnoise sparkling made from Ondenc, the variety for many years called ‘Irvine’s White’ in Oz. & years on lees. Pale colour, apple/citrus characters, lovely mouthfeel and a lovely long finish. A wonderful, if idiosyncratic, wine.

1995 Seppelt “The Drives” Chardonnay Pinot Noir
A methode champagnoise sparkling showing the benefit of the large company being able to invest in ’follies’ such as this. A wonderful Oz sparkler
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Then onto the still wines, from a variety of regions, such is the reach of Seppelts.

1998 Seppelt Drumborg Pinot Grigio Drumborg (near Portland), Vic
A very cold climate vineyard in South western Victoria. The Drumborg Riesling is fantastic!. This was had minerally spiced characters with pear and melon. A young wine, lovely acid up front and a great long finish. A great wine.

1996 Seppelt Partalunga Chardonnay
The only Chardonnay made by Seppelts. Fairly oaky nose with melon, mid-long finish. OK value at $17.

1998 Seppelt Chalambar Shiraz
A multi-vineyard blend. There are 6 back vintages available for purchase at Cellar Door back to ‘89. Rich dark colour. Deep dark shiraz characters. Medium tannins. Not quite together at this stage. It’ll age nicely for a long time. A great wine.

1996 Seppelt Great Western Vineyard Shiraz
A favourite, highlights fantastic use of French Oak. Muted nose of gamey spiced dark berry. Great elegant flavours with quite power and a long finish with obvious fine tannins. Age for 5-20 years. Beautiful. The 92, 93 and 95 are available to buy at CD.

And no onto the glorious fortifieds. These use either Rutherglen or Barossa fruit.

Seppelt Show Tokay DP 57
Wonderful butterscotch cold tea characters. Very luscious cloying characters, fantastic length. A wonderful character-filled wine.

Seppelt Rutherglen Show Muscat DP 63
Dark brown, rich nose of fruit cake with deep raisin and dried prune. More luscious than the Bests.

1985 Seppelt Show Vintage Shiraz (fortified with Brandy Spirit)
This is the name Seppelt give it to avoid the term ‘port’. Still showing plenty of varietal shiraz flavours. Very young still with great balance and a long finish. Value at $18.50

Leaving Seppelts we drove the short distance to Garden Gully Winery along the Western Highway. Garden Gully has been in operation for above 10 years, using 60 year old vines that were part of the Seppelts property.

1999 Garden Gully Riesling
Very pale straw colour. Nice pleasant Riesling characters. Medium length finish.

1999 Garden Gully Shiraz
Not long in the bottle. Dense red-purple colour. Nice intense fresh fruit. Rich drying tannins and a long finish. Very nice with plenty of development.

1998 Garden Gully Sparkling Shiraz
Red purple colour, fine bead. Medium length. I’d enjoy it more with a few years bottle age.

Driving eastward we enter Ararat, and hanging a right at the main intersection we drive a short distance out of town to Montara Winery. Montara is set on the slopes of Mount Chalambar. The tasting room has a great outlook over the vines to the bush to the east.

2000 Montara Riesling
Pale straw gold colour. Aromatic herbaceous characters. Rich full bodied with some spicey characters. Good long finish with a hint of greenness.

2000 Montara ‘M’ Unwooded Chardonnay
This also has 15% Riesling. The nose was quite closed with a mid-weight mouthfeel. Lifted acid, very cleansing and a mid-length finish. Slightly odd. Made for early drinking.

1998 Montara Chardonnay
Put in French oak for 8 months. Good melon Chardonnay with slightly oily (malo?) characters. Full flavoured with a long finish.

For the reds the assistance took to rinsing the glasses in hot water, which warmed the glass ‘to release the aromatics’. Jenise was not comfortable with this technique. To me it seemed to force the wine a touch.

1998 Montara ‘M’ Pinot Noir Shiraz
Full bodied characters. Slightly oxidised character with a slightly bitter finish.

1997 Montara Pinot Noir
From 30 year old vines. Pale berry aromatics, pleasant young nose. Medium bodied mouthfeel with a peppery/fruit character. Medium-long finish. Good medium style pinot for early drinking.

1998 Montara Shiraz
Just 3 weeks in the bottle. Medium-full dark berry. Spicey mineral and salt. Medium weight finish and drying tannins. A slight bitter character, perhaps coming trough with the salt.

1998 Montara Cabernet Sauvignon
Dark full red colour Full mouthfeel with rich characters balanced with mint. Mid long finish with firm drying tannins. In bottle 3 weeks. Still quite rough yet.

Melbourne bound along the Western highway we come to the hamlet of Buangor, following the signs we drive past the Caravan Museum, and then to Mount Langi Ghiran Trevor Mast has been crafting wine here for over 10 years, and they’re respected as some of the best around. The first big attention was a bottle of the Langi shiraz was made the front cover of Wine Spectator alongside bottles of Grange and Hill of Grace.

The tasting room features the full range of wines.

2000 mount Langi Ghiran Riesling
Aromatic nose. Nice lifted mouthfeel with balanced acid showing fine citrus with lime. A great wine which should age well.

1999 “Four Sisters” Semillon Sauvignon Blanc
Nice cut grass/grapefruit nose. Pleasant mouthfeel, long finish. Very nice.

1997 Billi Billi Creek, Joanna Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
From vines at Naracoorte, just north of Coonawarra. Hints of mint/capsicum with dusty oak. Rich mouthfeel and a mid long finish. Young & aggressive, would suit strongly flavoured food.

1997 Mount Langi Ghiran Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
Mint/Capsicum characters mixed with wonderful dark berry and chocolate. Rich fine tannins and a long finish. A great wine that will age very well.

1998 Billi Billi Shiraz
Shiraz with a bit of Grenache included. Medium weight red-purple colour. Dark berry, spice and hints of coconut coming through. Medium Full bodied and medium finish with just a hint of bitterness. Age to 6 years.

1998 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz
Very dense dark red-purple, almost black. A dark berry with pepper and a hint of mint. A seamless flavour profile integrating the very full palate with wonderful oak, rich drying tannins and a long finish. A true premium wine. Age to 20 years plus. Wonderful.

And thus we packed the last of the purchases into the car and set off back to Melbourne. The counts from the US Presidential election come through which made for interesting discussion on the ebb and flow of counting. As we entered Melbourne George W was announced as having won. Little did we expect the events to come.

It was a fantastic couple of days. The Pyrenees and Great western regions are favourites of mine, and it was a thrill to be able to host a couple of fellow enthusiasts around some of my turf. Thanks Jenise and Bob, I hope we can do it again in some other part of the world before too long.

Murray