Wine & Spirits - October 2016 - 89

IMPORTED NEW RELEASES detail and complexity this wine will develop as it ages in bottle. § Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ 118530 91 | Giant Steps $45 2015 Yarra Valley Pinot Noir ^ Starting off dark and pungently sappy, with floral scents of violets and fennel, this reveals its elegance and freshness as it seems to gain focus with air. The fruit tightens into spicy cranberry and raspberry, with juicy, crunchy acidity. It's simple, youthful pinot to enjoy with roast duck. § Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA 118565 90 | Fowles Wine $15 90 | Moorooduc Estate $60 2015 Victoria Farm to Table Pinot Noir (Best Buy) ^ If you like delicate pinot noir, check out this light, savory red. It has scents of raspberry jam and tight, lithe flavors with a strawberry and raspberry raspiness. For brook trout roasted with herbs. § Fowles Wine USA, Calistoga, CA 118460 2012 Mornington Peninsula Robinson Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ This wine's fresh berry flavors have a tart, acidic kick, like the bitterness of pink grapefruit. Hugh Robinson farms this vineyard; Richard McIntyre destems the fruit and ferments it without added yeast, aging the wine in French oak for 15 months (25 percent new). The oak sweetness and the ripeness of the fruit needs time to integrate with the coastal acidity, but even now, the wine finishes clean. § Little Peacock Imports, Wilmington, DE 118485 90 | Riposte by Tim Knappstein $22 2015 Adelaide Hills The Dagger Pinot Noir (Best Buy) ^ Light in color and bright in flavor, this needs time in a decanter to show its delicate raspberry and rhubarb notes. The foresty eucalyptus scents and iron-edged tannins are primary at first, then take a supporting role to the clean, fresh fruit. A lovely, grapey pinot noir. § Little Peacock Imports, Wilmington, DE RED BLENDS bright and light, lean and fragrant, the kind of wine that's refreshing and easy to drink a lot of without realizing how grand the structure actually is, how beautiful the lasting flavors of red fruit, game and leather. § Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ 118510 93 | Yangarra Estate $28 2013 McLaren Vale GSM (Best Buy) ^ Close to half of this wine comes from Yangarra's old bush-vine grenache planted in 1946, the balance made up of shiraz and mourvedre. Peter Fraser keeps the fruit cold for five or six days before letting it spontaneously ferment, then ages it in old French barriques. Its black raspberry flavors flow like a river of fruit, the freshness accented by scents of leather and game. There's youthful tension in the wine, a deep red glow against the raspberry-seed grip of tannins. Give it enough air and the flavors continue to accelerate, juicy, racy and graceful. § Sovereign Wine Imports, Santa Rosa, CA 118076 92 | Maverick $25 2014 Barossa Twins Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre (Best Buy) ^ Ron Brown blends grenache from two contrasting vineyards for this wine: mostly from a high-elevation estate site in Eden Valley, the rest from Greenock, in northern Barossa. The combination creates an eerie resonance, grenache in a minor key, weirdly, beautifully fragrant with scents of red fruit and saddle leather. Savory notes balance the light raspberry sweetness, the wine presented without any excess weight. Founded in 2004, Maverick is a biodynamic project with 150 acres of vines in Barossa and Eden. § Cannon Wines, San Francisco, CA $70 2014 Barossa Timaeus ^ Abel Gibson's parents worked at Penfolds before starting Gibson Wines in Barossa. Ruggabellus is Abel's personal project, which he started in 2009 while working for Spinifex. His wines focus on traditional varieties in Barossa, this one emphasizing grenache (83 percent) with mataro and cinsault, fermented with some whole bunches and without added yeast. It's 91 | Jim Barry $20 91 | Ruggabellus $70 90 | Henschke $65 90 | Mitolo $35 90 | Yalumba $47 2014 Clare Valley The Barry Bros (Best Buy) ^ Buzzing with red fruit, this is a lean and willowy blend of shiraz and cabernet with the scent of a Clare eucalyptus forest. The texture is supple, the flavors tart and lean, with herbal notes that will last past the charry flavors of anything meaty off the grill. § Negociants USA, Napa, CA 118688 2014 Barossa Archaeus ^ Abel Gibson blends this from syrah, mataro and grenache, contrasting bright floral scents and anise with darker notes of raw meat. It's smoky and savory, with unusual power for a wine that doesn't present overt alcohol, not at all shy in its expression of Barossa character. And yet it's still clean, a red to serve with roast game. § Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ 118465 118686 93 | Ruggabellus beginning with the cabernet sauvignon, later adding franc, malbec, merlot and petit verdot. She blends their fruit into this classic cool-climate red, sleek in its integration of herbal complexities and earthy depths. The wine's tannins are rich enough to feel chocolatey, or maybe like finely worked leather. They provide the base layer for bright cherry flavors and green herb scents, all working together toward a soft, clean finish. § Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA 118639 118592 92 | Yeringberg $90 2013 Yarra Valley ^ Sandra de Pury's father started replanting his family's estate in 1969, 2013 Barossa Keyneton Euphonium ^ Though franc makes up only a small portion of this blend, it points up the green herb notes in the wine. Shiraz, the dominant factor in combination with cabernet sauvignon and merlot, brings meatiness and a sweet, sanguine note. Overall, the wine captures the coolness of the high Eden Valley, presenting its flavors with cleanness and grace. For a hanger steak. § Negociants USA, Napa, CA 118567 2014 McLaren Vale 7th Son ^ Mostly grenache and shiraz, this includes a small amount of sagrantino that takes the wine's red fruit in a brooding, tarry direction. It has an intriguing black spice, with notes of persimmon and a bloody, ferrous edge that makes the tannins a little sticky in the end. Decant it for slow-smoked beef ribs. § Vintus, Pleasantville, NY 118467 2012 Eden Valley FDR1A ^ Kevin Glastonbury blends this wine from cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, its cool Eden Valley origins giving it a tight frame. Its delicate sour cherry WINE & SPIRITS OCTOBER 2016 89 http://www.maverickwines.com.au/ http://www.yeringberg.com/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2016