Issue1 TasteBound compressed - Flipbook - Page 39
From left: French oak barrels
are used to impart flavour and
nuance at Paringa Estate; the
family-run Freycinet Vineyard,
on Tasmania's scenic east coast
THREE
BOTTLES
TO TRY
2023 Paringa Estate
The Paringa Chardonnay,
Mornington Peninsula
Lindsay McCall makes stunning
pinot, syrah and chardonnay in
an area that was once famous
for apple orchards; he also has
a great restaurant. This is fullflavoured, textured and complex,
with bright notes of nectarine
and white flowers.
‘We are the coldest wine region in
Australia,’ says Jim Chatto, who produces
gorgeous, raspberry-and-herb pinots
near the Huon River, half an hour inland
from Mewstone. He also makes wines in
Burgundy, which has surprisingly similar
average temperatures, and those aren’t fruit
bombs, either. I could bang on – about the
green lawns and rushing river you overlook
from Derwent Estate Vineyard’s superb
restaurant, or the flower gardens and lake
that accompany another great meal at Josef
Chromy, best known for its sparkling wines.
Or I could shut up, cross the Bass Strait to
the mainland, and show you the vineyards
of Mornington Peninsula.
Here, south of Melbourne, the tree-lined
roads are stippled with that lovely light, and
the town names – Shoreham and Hastings
and Rye – signal the homesickness that this
green triangle provoked in people more used
to looking out at the English Channel. Stroll
through the kitchen gardens of Tedesca
Osteria before its five-course tasting menu
– and I strongly recommend both stroll and
lunch – and you will see something that does
not grace the fields of Sussex: the grassedover rim of a volcanic crater.
The wineries are largely clustered on this
fertile red soil and it is possible to float from
the electric lemon chardonnay at Ocean Eight
to the savoury spice of Wallis single-vineyard
pinot noir at Ten Minutes by Tractor, with
its wine bar and excellent restaurant, and
on to a spectacular orange sunset over the
vineyards on the terrace beyond Port Phillip
Estate’s six vineyard-level suites beneath the
winery. Upstairs, there are also wines to taste
from sister estate Kooyong – a favourite of
mine, with its peach and grapefruit Estate
Chardonnay, and tannins linear as railway
tracks beneath the dark fruit and orange peel
in the single-vineyard Ferrous Pinot Noir.
These are all sophisticated wines hailing
from a complex place. They taste of ancient
soils and recent longings, of acclimatisation,
adjustment, acceptance. Of Europe,
which provided the original vines, and
the Antipodes, which nourished them. Of
sunshine, of course, but also of shade.
2023 Elanto Vineyard Pinot
Noir, Mornington Peninsula
Sandro Mosele was the
winemaker at Kooyong; he
has now ventured out on his
own, and this luscious, spicy
combination of five vineyards,
while still young, is much more
than a promising start.
2024 Stargazer
Riesling, Tasmania
Samantha Connew makes
superb wines in southern
Tasmania and her new tasting
room should be ready for visitors
by October. This riesling is
electric: pure, bright, floral and
with just a touch of residual
sugar for added flavour.
TA S T E B O U N D
37
