LONG LIVE THIS BORDEAUX-STYLE AUSSIE RED

PERFECT partner with big-flavoured meat dishes

Wc20Sep10 

David Ellis

BLUE Pyrenees in Western Victoria has long been renowned for its sparkling wines, but for lovers of reds in the true Bordeaux style, a tempting new release is their 2006 Estate Red that like the Bordeaux practice of “assemblage,” is blended from an extraordinary number of wine parcels from different vineyards.

In fact there are no fewer than fifty-five different parcels in this wine, each made from fruit off vineyards nearly a half-century old. The result is a blend  that’s 51 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 14% Shiraz, making for a richly-flavoured drop whose trio of varietals make it a perfect partner for big-flavoured meat dishes.

Or if you’ve the will-power, at $35 a bottle to put a few away in the cellar, this one’s got a good 15-20 years of bottle life in it.

ONE FOR LUNCH: A WINE that helped put Orange in the Central West of NSW on the map as a leading maker of Australian Sauvignon Blanc, was the 2008 vintage from Logan Wines.

PUTTING NSW’s Orange region on the Aussie Sauvignon Blanc map

A vibrantly flavoured and outstandingly aromatic wine, it also has a touch of botrytis about it, due no doubt to quite substantial falls of rain while the fruit was ripening; whether it was this latter or other reasons, this wine has already picked up three trophies and a Sauvignon Blanc of the Year award.

And interestingly the just-released Logan 2010 experienced similar rainfall conditions to that successful 2008 drop, so it will be worth watching how the 2010 follows through as well on the show circuit – it has similar vibrantly fresh guava, passionfruit and sage flavours to the 2008 that nicely tantalise the taste buds with every mouthful.

At $22 it’s one to snap-up and enjoy with a French bouillabaisse.

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