By Anto Coates
"It’s the same arse
in a different pair of pants, mate…”
This was Jane
Ferrari’s measured appraisal of the credentials of one Australian politician,
who shall remain nameless here but certainly didn’t in our Yalumba wine tasting
on Wednesday night. Such incisive
political commentary is rare in this setting, but then so is conversation about
dating websites, men marrying their ex’s daughters and the Milky Bar Kid.
I was soon to learn
what everybody else who knows Jane Ferrari learned long ago – politics is just one
of a long list of topics on which she can hold court. She has the uncommon knack of making an outlandish
statement seem like an incontrovertible fact. Even if you were tempted to disagree with her,
you’d have to wipe the smile off your face first. And pity anybody who chooses
to aggressively adopt a contrary position – she’ll chew you up, swirl you round
and spit you out into the nearest spittoon, but you’ll probably quite enjoy it.
The recipe for
making Jane Ferrari wine is simple – crush a vineyard full of highly
concentrated personality, co-ferment with formidable technical knowledge, rack
to seasoned oak barrels to rough it up a little bit, and then fly it round the
world for about 48 weeks of the year to wow the public and the trade. This week it was New Zealand’s turn to meet Jane
Ferrari, Communications Winemaker for Yalumba, and I’m sure I don’t just speak
for Regional Wines & Spirits when I say she didn’t disappoint.
Our tasting began
with two Viogniers, the Eden Valley 2007 and the Virgilius 2008. The Eden
Valley had almost a buttery note mixed in with the florals, apricots and pears,
which must come from the battonage and light oak regime, as Jane assures us
that to let Viognier, with its low natural acids, go through malo would be – to
use her vernacular – dopey. It actually
reminded me a little of a Pinot Gris, but it had a creamy texture that was
leaning towards Condrieu.
If the Eden Valley
was leaning towards Condrieu, then the Virgilius Viognier 2008 had donned a
beret and started smoking Gauloises. The
nose of light coconut, stonefruit and a hint of citrus and ginger was exquisite
but sophisticated, and the apparent comparisons with Guigal’s La Doriane seem
apt. I called it 18.5/20, though I feel
my objectivity was a touch influenced by Jane’s infectious enthusiasm (which I
guess is why she was hired).
The Bush Vine
Grenache 2007 was the first of the medium-bodied reds, and had a very light
colour that looked incredibly like a New Zealand Pinot Noir. On the nose, Jane gave us a vivid and
appropriate food image of "raspberry over rosemary”, further testament that her
skills as a speaker extend from after-dinner right back into dinner itself. The Bush Vine is an easy wine that has the
light tannins and fruitiness to go well out of the fridge when the weather gets
warmer too. The Hand Picked TGV 2006 (Tempranillo, Grenache, Viognier) had a
blueberry smoothie-type character with hints of raspberry licorice and 5 spice,
and was well worth the dinero at just a touch over $30.
The next pair of
wines was getting into the real Yalumba classics, the Shiraz Viogniers. The
Eden Valley 2008 was blood red with a nose of licorice and leather, raspberry
nougat on the palate, savoury meat, maybe a little herbal note. It was a
delightful wine from a delightful vintage, and I felt safe to nudge it past my
imaginary gold medal threshold at 18.5+/20. The Hand Picked 2007 had a deeper cadence
on the nose that I wrote down as approximately a G above middle C in one of my
occasional musical moments. The palate was surprisingly mid-weight, building to
a complex finish that seemed to get a second wind, at least in this mouth.
The Patchwork
Shiraz 2008 built on the same theme with Christmas pudding, vanilla milkshake
oak, dark berries and leather again, showing a consistency that foreshadowed
what was to come (foreshadowed - I feel like I’m writing my School Certificate
English paper). Then the heavy-hitting
Octavius 2005 was arguably the wine of the night with beautifully meshed mocha,
chocolate, brown sugar and rhubarb. It’s a far cry from the wine that the press
had once dubbed ‘Oaktavius’ and represents everything that is right with
Yalumba at the moment.
I pointed out to
Jane that the Menzies Coonawarra Cabernet 2005 was chucking a bit of sediment,
which got me a very interesting story about the winemaker lobbying for the wine
not to be fined so as not to strip it of its flavours, but his success and the
resulting sediment only resulted in him being stripped of his right to not fine
the next vintage. Thrown in for good
measure was a story about the paleo shoreline from "dinosaur times” forming the
limestone cigar covered in ferric red dirt that is now known as
Coonawarra. The Menzies wine had milk
chocolate, mocha, cassis and a very subtle suggestion of mint as a nod to
acknowledge it hadn’t forgotten where it came from.
The Scribbler
Cabernet/Shiraz 2008 was probably the buyers’ deal of the night and Jane acknowledged
its popularity with a story about how it is their first national wine listing
in the United States
with a major hotel/restaurant chain (I think).
Great concentration, meaty, approachable, lively – it ticked every box
you’d want for a Cab Shiraz, and it is straight-up charity priced in the early to
mid twenties. The Signature Cabernet Shiraz
2005 was another stunner, with classic tobacco, cigar box and sweet fruit over
top of fine-grained tannins. This wine is deliciously naughty and will
definitely find itself having a lengthy time out in my cellar. But to prove I’m not too authoritarian, I’ll
let it have its friends to keep it company.
In a fitting end to
a night that was so dominated by food (without there actually being a morsel
present), the Reserve Cabernet Shiraz 2001 was dark blood red with graceful age,
secondary mossy oak and a great oil-roasted potato character that almost had me
running from the room to the nearest restaurant for dinner.
Luckily, I had Jane
Ferrari at the same table to continue my education…