Let’s get parochial

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 27

Let’s get parochial

Wine-writing most certainly has its moments. At times, one tends to wonder whether one’s existence is known to the winemakers of the land when, all of a sudden, the samples come storming through the door. Red wines, white wines, champagnes and all of late seem to have been making their way to my place. Many of them have not as yet been written about, and that really is a bit of a shame, because you, the consumer, should hear about them all. There really has been quite a variety, like Australian half-breed blends and cabernets from Chile and even the occasional red from Canterbury. Now, let’s get parochial. The Giesen family has just celebrated its seventh year in Canterbury. I have tried every wine this vineyard has made in the last three vintages and I have yet to find a bad one. All of the Giesen wines are very well made, and clean wines. The winemaker, Marcel Giesen, has recently released his 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is simply wonderful. The wine, a lovely ruby red in colour, has real earthy characters, not unlike the cabernets from Coonawarra. The palate has beautiful weight and is loaded with full cabernet spice, and the wood enhancement of 12 months has certainly left it with a clean finish. The price is around $l9. It is worth every bit of it.

Remember the everfaithful McWilliams Bakano? Well, it is back with a whole new image and without the McWilliams logo. That is fine, what is in the bottle is what concerns me, and that is really rather interesting. It is a blend of cabernet sauvignon from South Australia, vintage apparently 1984 on, and cabernet sauvignon from Hawke’s Bay, vintage apparently 1986, in 50/50 proportions.

Sources claim the blend came about from a trans-Tasman fruit swap between Corbans and Cape Mentelle. Why not? They want our sauvignon blanc because they can’t make it as good, and we have a real shortage of well-priced red wines. The wine is a real Jacobs Creek chaser in style with its soft fruit and easy-drinking qualities. Bakano has been released in a 750 ml bottle at under $lO and a threelitre cask at well under $2O.

Having been subjected to so many great Australian reds, I went in

search of good New Zealand comparisons which, apart from a mere handful, confirm my belief that the Australians have really got us when it comes to consistently producing large quantities of high quality red wine.

One of my favourites from New Zealand though, is the Stoneleigh Marlborough Cabernet Sauvignon 1986. The wine has a magnificent deep red colour with purple hues, the bouquet has delightful cassis tonings and the palate has intense blackcurrant fruit with mint tonings. Buy some and try it. It is not very often that one stumbles across bar-gain-priced red wines, and when one does it is wise to take advantage of the situation. There have recently been . some wines from Chile brought in by a Dunedin importer which are very interesting and selling at well under $lO a bottle. The wines come from Chile’s Maipo, San Fernando and Rapel premium wine valleys. We have a tendency to forget about some wineproducing countries, in the case of Chile, no doubt because of its geographical position. The vineyards that provide the fruit for the Santa Carolina wines are positioned around 35deg South, which is around the same as the great vineyards of South Australia and Victoria. I tasted six wines from the Santa Carolina range, two whites and four reds. The two whites did not

fare well enough to be featured but the reds are great value. There is a 1980 Reserva de Familia Cabernet Sauvignon which has nice toffee characters in the palate and is still quite a wellstructured wine. The label shows more medals than an Olympic rowing team. There is also a 1982 Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from the Los Toros vineyard in the Maipo Valley, which is nice drinking now. The 1985 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot has lovely softness of style and a well-rounded middle palate, but the youthful 1986 Santa Carolina Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Rosa vineyard in the Maipo Valley, with its freshness and spiciness and intense fruit characters, really takes the cake. You have all heard of Jacobs Creek claret, Jacobs Creek Rhine riesling and Jacobs Creek beaujolais. Well, we now also have a Jacobs Creek chablis. The vintage is, of course, 1988, and the fruit is semilion and chadonnay. I find the wine delightful, crisp, refreshing drinking and great value at a little over $lO a pop from Hancocks. I believe we are going to see a lot more of this style of wine in that price range in New Zealand very soon. I do not believe it will affect white wine production in New Zealand though, or its sales; we clearly lead Australia in sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay quality.