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Hors Bordeaux tasting notes: Australia and New Zealand

10 September 2024 By Colin Hay

The Autumn hors Bordeaux campaign sees a brilliant and very consistent set of releases from some of Australia’s most iconic producers, as well as some unique New Zealand Pinot Noirs, writes Colin Hay.

(Image: Vineyard in Barossa Valley, Adelaide, Australia)

Australian releases (red)	Vintage	Region	1st release?	Rating
Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz	2021	Clare Valley	No	96
Cloudburst Cabernet Sauvignon	2021	Margaret River	No	98
Cloudburst Malbec	2021	Margaret River	No	97
Penfolds St Henri Shiraz	2021	S. Australia	No	95
Penfolds Bin 169 Cabernet Sauvignon	2022	Connawarra	No	96
Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon	2022	S. Australia	No	96
Penfolds Red Wine Trial Bin 798 Shiraz	2022	Barossa Valley	No	96
Penfolds Grange Shiraz	2020	S. Australia	No	98+
Yalumba The Octavius Old Vine Shiraz	2019	Barossa Valley	No	96
Yalumba The Octavius Old Vine Shiraz	2009	Barossa Valley	No	96
Wynns John Riddoch	2021	Coonawarra	No	97

Jim Barry The Armagh Shiraz 2021 (Clare Valley; 14% alcohol). Very menthol. Impressive. Dark berry fruits. Quite a well-defined structure, the parameters set very early by the brisk and grainy, grippy, engaging tannins. Very, very mentholated. Eucalyptus. The aromatic fireworks are carried onto the palate too. Layered – but thickly; more cashmere than silk. Grippy and pixilating tannins. There’s considerable density here but it always remains fresh. There’s also a luminous quality that will come through more with aging. For now it’s a little disguised by the tannic presence that criss-crosses as it pixilates the mid-palate. 96.

Cloudburst Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 (Margaret River; 100CS; 13.5% alcohol; 2500 bottles). Ethereal and a singularity. Very essential. Lilac. Iris. Peony. Hyacinth bulb. Fresh and lifted, tasting biodynamic. Broad and amply framed, yet elegant, beguiling and singular. Crystalline and incredibly delicate on the finish. Leafy and aromatic to the end. But don’t miss the power, the density and the intensity of this – it’s deceptive in its levity but it’s actually quite considerable and with a significant tannic presence that will see it go the distance. Bourguignon in the best sense. 98.

Cloudburst Malbec 2021 (Margaret River; 100% Malbec; 13.5% alcohol; 888 bottles). Very similar. Stylish. Fascinating. Aromatically brilliant. Iris. Black tea, a little smoke – Russian caravan tea left – and Bergamot. Pink roses. Rosehip. Parfumier’s essences. Soft, caressing, brilliant texturally. Gentle and captivating. The nose continues into the palate and the finish. Extraordinary. 97.

Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2021 (100% Shiraz; sourced from Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale; aged for 12 months in large already used foudres; pH 3.72; 14.5% alcohol). Ultra-spicy and with a lovely fresh green peppercorn note. Dark berry and stone fruit. Eucalyptus. Menthol. Wild herbs. Hoisin. Liquorice. There’s a lovely tactile sense of tannic grip and then a release of sapid, juicy fruit. Then it grips again as the fine-grained but considerable tannins build once more. Impressively structured. Very long. Made to go the distance. 95. RRP: £110.

Penfolds Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (100% Cabernet Sauvignon; the fruit sourced entirely from Coonawarra; aged for 16 months in hogsheads of French oak, 83% of which are new; pH 3.62; 14.5% alcohol). Fresh oak. Lithe, limpid and sumptuous with a more crystalline and spherical core than the other wines tasted thus far. Fluid, despite the density and concentration. Camphor. Liquorice. A hint of firework. Candlewax. Restraint. Lots of freshness presented very vertically on the finish, almost like fresh fire hydrants of fresh juiciness directed outwards from the dense core. Particularly impressive in this vintage. 96. RRP: £160.

Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (100% Cabernet Sauvignon; the fruit sourced from Coonawarra, Barossa Valley, Padthaway and Wrattonbully; pH 3.66; aged 18 months in new American oak hogsheads; 14.5% alcohol). A little oxidative in style at first. 100 per cent new oak and it shows. Rich, deep, quite spicy and with a touch of natural sucrosity. Dark chocolate. Tactile, lithe, limpid and increasingly fresh as it stretches itself out over the palate. More impressive in the mouth, above all texturally, than aromatically at this stage. Long and gently tapering to a distant horizon on the finish. 96. RRP: £525.

Penfolds Red Wine Trial Bin 798 Barossa Valley Shiraz 2022 (100% Barossa Valley Shiraz; aged for 14 months in hogsheads of French oak, 67% of which are new; pH 3.71; 14.5% alcohol). More floral. Pretty. Black pen ink. Peony. Chocolate ganache. Beautifully limpid in texture. Crystalline. Fluid. Cool. Impressive. Sapid on the finish. More approachable at this stage than the more austere and less expressive Bin 707, but with a similar aging potential. 96. RRP: £145.

Penfolds Grange Shiraz 2020 (97% Shiraz and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon; sourced from McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley and Clare Valley; pH: 3.61; aged for 20 months in new American oak hogsheads; 14.5% alcohol). Elegant and delicate, yet complex and very aromatically expressive and engaging. Yet at the same time it feels intimate and intense, drawing you in. Bulby. Bloomy. A lovely note of Iris. Assorted parfumier’s essences. Blood orange. Chocolate ganache Plush and plump and very dynamic in and through the mid-palate. Delicate and refined despite the considerable power, compactness and concentration. Ethereal. Substantial on the finish and very gathered – you don’t notice the power until the finish. What a crescendo. 98+. RRP: £600.

Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz 2019 (Barossa Valley; 100% old vine Shiraz; aged in 100 litre French and American oak octaves; pH 3.56; 14.5% alcohol). Fresh, quite bright and lifted, with a lot of sweet baking spices accompanying the meaty, gamey, charcuterie and plum and dark berry fruits. Frangipane. Full, plump and plush, quite chewy with a lot of mid-palate matter and substance. A little incense, those sweet spices, assorted crushed peppercorns – red and black – and a little liquorice and grated dark chocolate. Grainy, fine-grained tannins pinch to release the fantail on the finish which is fresh, sapid and mentholated. 96.

Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz 2009 (Barossa Valley; 100% old-vine Syrah; aged for 20 months in 39% new French and US octaves, 33% 1 year old French barriques and hogsheads and Hungarian hogsheads, the balance in older US and French octaves; 13.5% alcohol; tasted at the International First Growths tasting in Bordeaux). A late release in tiny quantities to mark the 170^th anniversary. Obviously more mature. Sweetly spiced, but in a way that, with the vanilla oak brings out and accentuated the sense of florality. Cloves. A hint of truffle and walnut oil. Incense. Cinders. Tabac. A touch of fig. Oak smoke. Dark plum and baked plum, a lot of intense liquorice. Saline and ferrous in its minerality. Impressive. Still very dense and compact, this feels still a little unresolved, considerable tannic presence on the finish. 96.

Wynns John Riddoch Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 (Coonawarra, South Australia; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; aged for 16 months in French oak, roughly half of which were hogsheads, half barriques; pH 3.56; 13.5% alcohol). Wynns’ flagship wine since its first release in 1982, made in small quantities from the best Cabernet Sauvignon plots in the heart of its terra rossa holdings. An almost luminous shocking pink-purple rim and practically opaque at the core. A huge step up from the already impressive Black Label Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, this is seriously impressive in 2021. Wild herbs – thyme, rosemary, perhaps a hint of violet and rose petal – accompany the dark briary berry fruits and the raspberry and loganberry notes. There’s a lovely note of roasted hazelnut shells too. This is very open and expressive aromatically, more so than the 2020 tasted this time last year. There’s a little cassis with aeration and the finest dark chocolate ganache. In the mouth, this is fabulously impressive, with gentle, soft and ultra-fine grained tannins holding the fruit quite tightly to a pronounced central spinal column richly covered in dense, intense and concentrated dark berry fruits. Long and slowly tapering on the finish, with the granularity of the tannins almost massaging the fruit into the palate. I love the lithe, sapid and lifted finish. Elegant for a wine with so much natural power. As good a vintage of this wine as I have ever tasted. 97. RRP: £100.

New Zealand

New Zealand releases	Vintage	Region	1st release?	Rating
Craggy Range Aroha Te Muna	2022	Martinsborough	No	95
Craggy Range Le Sol Gimblett Gravels	2022	Hawke’s Bay	No	97
Destiny Bay Magna Praemia	2021	Waiheke Island	Yes	95

Craggy Range Aroha Te Muna Pinot Noir 2022 (Te Muna, Martinsborough, New Zealand; 100% Pinot Noir; hand-harvested in several tries and entirely destemmed; a final yield of 25 hl/ha; pH 3.75; 13.5% alcohol). Vertical. Lifted, lithe and engaging. Bright and crisp with a lovely crushed red berry fruit profile – redcurrant, cranberry, wild strawberry and loganberry, all à point. Fluid and dynamic, with lots of energy and sapidity, dynamism and, again verticality. But there’s impressive depth and substance here too and the potential for quite long term aging. Lovely precision and purity. 95.

Craggy Range Le Sol Gimblett Gravels Syrah 2022 (Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand; 100% Syrah; hand-harvested in several tries and entirely destemmed; a final yield of 25 hl/ha; pH 3.74; 13% alcohol). Pepper and spice, crushed red berry and red plummy fruits, again nicely a point – one has the sensation of biting into a ripe juicy plum and the sense of the tannins from under the skin. Fluid and dynamic, a Syrah very much in a Pinot Noir style with gentle extraction allowing a more detailed focus on aspects of the varietal often crowded out by less finely focussed and precise vinification. I like the subtle creaminess that you don’t often find with Syrah. Quite a unique style and it’s really worth seeking this out. 97.

Destiny Bay Magna Praemia ‘Bordeaux Blend’ 2021 (Waiheke Island, New Zealand; 72% Cabernet Sauvignon; 12% Merlot; 7% Malbec; 5% Cabernet Franc; 4% Petit Verdot; 14.5% alcohol). A cool vineyard new world Bordeaux blend. Very classical and fresh with a lovely delicate Cabernet-dominated nose that is neither new nor old world. The minerality is, however, very different – more the baked clay path and none of the more Bordelais sous bois notes. It has the mid-palate density and compactness and sheer intensity of a new world Cabernet-dominated blend, but some of the more floral and lifted, herbal-inflected aromatics of something much more old world. Fascinating. Black and red currant leaf brings lift and tension and energy rendering this both expressive and dynamic. I love the lithe and limpid, crystalline quality that is almost Burgundian in its sensibility and that comes from experience with Pinot Noir. 95.