This week, I had a chance to experience what wine judges do so often: work my way through almost 200 wines. Not blind, mind you, but still an experience that tests your judgement and your stamina. When I walked into Pernod Ricard’s clinical tasting room, Huon Hooke, Rob Geddes and Ray Jordan were already sniffing wines and typing notes on their laptops.
At Best Wines Under $20, we taste a carefully selected number of wines over several days, with and without food. It’s a lot easier when you can take your leisure, and get some input from friends and family. It’s very different when you’re confronted with wall-to-wall wines all around the room, and a table in the middle.
Pernod Ricard makes a lot of wines, and imports a few more
- The Jacob’s Creek Sparkling range
- Jacob’s Creek Classics, Cool Harvest and Twin Pickings
- Jacob’s Creek Reserve and Double Barrel
- Jacob’s Creek Premium – Orlando St Hugo, Steingarten etc.
- St Helga, St Hillary, Gramps, and George Wyndham
- From across the Tasman: Brancott Estate, Church Road and Stoneleigh
- From across the world: wines from Spain and Argentina, and Champagne
Our host was National Wine Specialist Katherine Candy, who also put together an impressive catalogue that gave us details of all the wines and provided background on some of the winemakers. Ben Bryant has taken over from Bernard Hicken who retired last year. One of the giants of Australian wine, Phil Laffer, was chief winemaker at Pernod Ricard until 2010.
These two pairs are big shoes to fill for Ben Bryant but he seems pretty calm about it, says he has a great team and enormous resources to call on. He talks about his goals: freshness of fruit, vibrancy, achieving drinkability earlier. His calm confidence suggests that he knows exactly what he’s doing.
Where do you Start?
I used the occasion to taste those wines I wasn’t familiar with. The basic range is called Classic for reasons that escape me, and a couple of samples proved to me that it continues to offer well-made, well-priced industrial wine. The Jacobs Creek Reserve range hits our sweet spot for value, and it has grown: there were 9 Reserve wines and 3 Barossa Signature wines (that also say Reserve).
The wines offer a trip across Australia, from Margaret River to the the Adelaide Hills, the Barossa Valley, the Limestone Coast and the Yarra Valley. They range from $10 for the Reserve Shiraz from the Limestone Coast to $15 for the better reds and whites. The Double Barrel range starts at over $20. These are good solid wines made to offer value for money.
Next I homed in on the Rieslings, The Steingarten and the St Helga. The first is an austere acid trip for the long haul, while St Helga is much more approacahble. Cousin St Hillary Chardonnay was in the same generous mood. The Gramp’s reds are a bit chunky to my taste but the Botrytis Semillon is a winner. I’ve no idea why this sticky doesn’t get more raves. It’s been our go-to dessert wine for years.
I worked my way through the Kiwis on the middle table, the Stoneleighs, Brancott Estates and Church Roads. There are some interesting whites there once you get away from the basic savvies, but I’ll get some samples to check at leisure.
I left the best until last: the bubbles. The Deutz Marlborough range impressed as always with the Blanc de Blancs the stand-out, and the French Mumm wines were much better than the last time I tried them a few years ago. PR’s champagne whisperer Chris Sheehy’s eyes lit up when I said that, and he explained that new owners had put a lot of effort into the brand, getting the quality back up to scratch. The basic Mumm NV is now a lovely, feather-light fluffy customer.
The Perrier-Jouets provided a wonderful finish to this tasting, which confirmed my view that the way we taste wines – A few bottles opened over several days, tasted with and without food – is a better way. The big tastings are great for an overview or for filling in gaps, and that’s what this tasting did for me.
Kim
