GREAT RED FROM “ONCE IN A DECADE” VINTAGE

IDEAL with roast lamb and fresh home-made mint sauce.

Wc25Apr11

David Ellis

EVANS & Tate’s Redbrook label wines are made only when vintages are at their best, and their 2008 Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine from one of those best-vintages – as winemaker, Matt Byrne says “one that was a once in a decade.”

Good winter rainfalls were followed by consistently even temperatures that resulted in a wine that’s medium-bodied with exceptional aromatics and great length of flavour, and the wine also reflects the vines from which the fruit was sourced: they’re some of the oldest in the region.

“Each year we are seeing the beauty of what age imparts to the vines and the resulting flavours,” Matt says. “2008 gave a lovely intensity to the fruit, while still showing refinement and balance… it was classic Margaret River worthy of bottling under the Redbrook label.”

Redcurrant and tobacco leaf are to the fore with this one, together with more subtle characters of cassis, green olives and blood plums, all rounded out with nice savoury spice from maturation in French oak. At $39.99 enjoy with roast lamb and fresh mint sauce.

TRY this with veal scallopini and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

ONE FOR LUNCH: ALTHOUGH a relatively new viticultural region, only being planted to vines in the early 1990s, Tumbarumba in NSW’s Snowy Mountains already has a reputation for some outstanding cool-climate Chardonnays.

One in particular is Penfolds’ 2010 Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay that in fact is a spin-off of the iconic Bin 144 Yattarna Chardonnay that’s made from fruit from the same region – and chosen for its superb aromatics, creamy flavours, fruit complexity and minerality.

The 2010 Bin 311 is beautifully lemon sorbet on the palate with coupling slate minerality; a great match with veal scallopini and fresh lemon at $39.99.

(NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out  http://www.vintnews.com )