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Merlot 2008

Mr Whirly says:

“ I tasted this wine just after its arrival on the 23rd October 2011, together with old friend Bob Parkinson ( another ex-Bibendum chef) at his lovely restaurant “ Made by Bob“ in Cirencester. We agreed it was quite sublime. Sometimes Merlots are a little unready, harsh and too often drunk far too young. This is so ready to go now. Damson and black cherry with a hint of a No5 Cohiba. Wonderfully balanced and so approachable for its age. So yes this wine is ready to drink now and will also be great in 8 years time.”

Alc Vol: 14%

Winemakers tasting notes, Stefano Lubiana, March 2010

“ My dad Mario can’t understand why some winemakers and consumers like to single out certain varieties and wine styles as being worthy of special attention and popular acclaim. It’s as if they would like them to be put up on pedestals and exhibited as works of art.

Our family believes the art in winemaking is all about making a product that delivers food-friendly wines with satisfying aromas and flavours.

I love the challenge that growing and making good Merlot provides in a cool maritime climate like Tasmania’s. The variety has a huge potential here. With time, we should be able to create wines that can be clearly identified with the dry, savoury, ripe tannin styles of northern Europe.

The key to success is to produce fruit in the vineyard that shows a fine balance between the briary berry sweetness of the New World and the drier, more aromatic crushed leaf characters of the Old World.

Vintage 2008 in Tasmania was characterised by big yields in almost all of the State’s wine growing regions. At Granton, we enjoyed an unusually low natural fruit set in our Merlot. The vines did not require the heavy crop thinning that became standard practice elsewhere during the warm summer of 2008.

I love the way the variety responds to the grey gravelly soils of our lower vineyard blocks overlooking the Derwent River. When I see our Merlot there with its full green canopy, I’m reminded of many of the sites I saw along Bordeaux’s Gironde in 1986.

The 2008 Merlot looks set to follow in the footsteps of the very successful 2001 and 2003 vintages. It should prove to be one of the best we have produced from our small, hand-tended vineyard. There may not be a 2009.

The wine opens with a deep crimson colour and offers up aromas of dark berries, crushed leaf, and cedar/cigarbox. I can see plenty of new French oak in this wine, but it has been built for the long haul. The tannins are firm and grainy, something which characterises many of the red wines of the hot and dry 2008 vintage. The finish here is equally dry, with undertones of Swiss brown mushrooms.

Our 2008 Stefano Lubiana Merlot is an attractive food wine with a rich, savoury fruit intensity that reflects the season’s low yield. Share it at the table with family, friends, and rare portions of Tasmanian grain-fed beef. More complex cedary notes will come to the fore in another 5 years.”

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Tasmania and Stefano Lubiana

Possibly the nest winemaker in Tasmania and Australia? That’s a matter of opinion but he’s certainly up there!

I have some great wines and vintages from this winemaker.

Please click on the links on the right, below to see the new Estate Pinot Noir 2008, Merlot 2008, Chardonnay 2008 and also Riesling 2010.

I also have some lovely wines on this page, older vintages of the 2005 Pinot that is now very rare and also some lovely old NV Brut which is drinking really well. Pictures of these two wines are on this page.

Ok, here’s a wee introduction to Steve’s very special business.

Stefano Lubiana Wines is rated 5 red stars in the James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2011.

In May 2010, Decanter’s Andrew Jefford named Steve Lubiana as one of Australia’s ten bravest winemakers: ‘their wines accurately, uncompromisingly and sometimes beautifully reflect their origins. They are like nothing else on earth.”

I did not manage a trip across the Tasman sea to this very separate part of Australia in 2000 so I had to wait until February 2006 before I flew into the little airport at Launceston on the River Tamar in the north of the island. Tasmania is Australia’s smallest producing wine state with 700 hectares of land vines. The smaller vineyard, if you like

“ Boutique” winery, thrives on this island, and the essence and faith on quality therefore thrives. Its therefore great Whirly country where the majority of vineyards fit into the Whirly wine philosophy of small is beautiful, small is good.

Launceston has Cornish heritage quite clearly: the Tamar crosses the main road down to Cornwall just west of Plymouth and like the Cornish river, this river is wide and full of stature and very important to the agricultural make up of the land in this part of Tasmania. The climate also changes due to the river here, it’s significantly warmer on the west side of the Tamar. When I arrived there was damp, wet fog in the middle of summer around Dalrymple vineyard and the windy, woody roads and yet across the river the sun was out. The varietals grown on each side of the river therefore vary greatly.

One of my favourite wines I tasted on Tasmania was from Dalrymple where they made some sublime cool climate Chardonnay. The vines here were first planted in 1987 and I tasted the 2002 Chardonnay when I was there, with oak, which was a rich wine of yellow peaches yet with a lovely grapefruit finish. They made very little of this wine since this area of the island is very open to the elements and it gets pretty windy here: in December 2001 the wind thrashed through the vineyard and destroyed 70% of the crop.

I drove across to the other side of the river and yes the temperature did indeed rise by 5-10 degree’s. These little micro climates in Australia are amazingly interesting. On the other side I found some lovely little garage wines, one called rather beautifully, “Humbug Reach”, which literally was a garage wine when I was there. But the wines here were incredibly impressive: I tasted their 2005 Riesling, very limey and zesty, their Velo’05 Riesling was softer and a little peachier in its makeup.

The road to Hobart and the Derwent valley

The drive from Launceston to Hobart takes 3 hours, that’s the entire length of the island from north to south, less than the drive from Margaret River to Manjimup, or from London to Liverpool on a good journey, to paint a picture of a more accessible image of distance, that is if you’ve been to Liverpool. If you have not then please do go. I have a lovely client there on Hope street called “ 60 Hope street”, cut in between the two landmark cathedrals that differ so much in age and architecture and the city has really come of age in the last decade. Anyway, back to Tasmania. The drive takes you down through rough, rugged sheep country, pretty dry and barren and about half way across, is Ross, famous for being the centre of the wool industry, a former garrison town that looked after over 12,000 female convicts in the 1850’s, and being almost half way between the two main cities of the Apple Island (called because it used to be a major apple producer in the world) was also an important coaching station in days gone by. It’s a wonderfully preserved little town that literally transports you back 150 years.

Stefano Lubiana, Granton, Hobart

Located high above the Derwent river, a river that flows 187 km from its source 1545 metres up at Lake St Clair in the national park down to New Norfolk, a point 34 kilometres beyond Hobart, the vineyards of Stefano Lubiana lie, planted over 20 years ago. I arrived here on January 31st 2006 after a 3 hour journey from Launceston via a lovely little vineyard called Jinglers Creek, to taste, what I think at the time was, the most exciting and delightfully full in quality and stature range of wines that I have had the pleasure of whirling. It was like that moment in Quince, San Francisco when I first drank a great Oregon Pinot with a lovely large, very large Burgundy wine glass: I GOT VERY, VERY EXCITED. Every wine I tasted was simply amazing:

( extracts from my Papyrus, globetrotter journal written that day, that Simon Hatcher and staff brought me when I was leaving Bibendum Restaurant in October 1999 to go travelling to Australia and India. It has a heading on the leather bound cover which reads “ Further adventures of Simon Charles Newson” which is rather endearing)

NV Brut: Tarte Tatin and toasty..a winner…yes!!!

Pinot Grigio 2005: Gooseberry intensity, and melon. 5 ticks

Riesling 2005: Provence Lavender, subtle grapefruit and citrus fruit. 5 ticks

Primavera Chardonnay 2004: delicious, honeydew melon, wonderful soft quality. 5 ticks

Chardonnay 2002: sold out. Too soft and oaked for me. 3 ticks

Chardonnay 2003 reserve: yes! 5 ticks

Pinot Noir Primavera 2005: means Spring, first grapes picked and released in Spring following. Sold out

Pinot Noir 2005: the best season in Tasmania, wonderful quality. ( I wasn’t too sure about this wine when I tasted it since it was less than a year in bottle but I am sure it will go on to be a great wine)

Pinot Noir estate 2004: fantastic depth, low alcohol

Merlot 2004: blackberry, cassis, right bank quality!! 5 ticks

Gravelly, limey soil. Micro appellations. 90% estate grown grapes

Extract from JAMES HALLIDAY Australian Wine Companion 2008

After searching Australia, fifth-generation winemaker Steve Lubiana selected Tasmania for his cool-climate vineyard back in the early 1990s. His family’s winemaking origins stem back to Trieste in Northern Italy. Steve discovered a parcel of land overlooking the spectacular tidal estuary of the Derwent River at Granton, a mere 20 kilometres north of Hobart. The vineyard was first planted with the Burgundy varieties of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir during the spring of 1991. From those humble beginnings, it has expanded to 18 hectares of closely spaced vines, which now also comprise of Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Riesling and Nebbiolo.

Despite its growth, Stefano Lubiana Wines remains a family-owned and operated business, passionately focused on producing small quantities of hand crafted, cool climate, Tasmanian wines. Although Stefano Lubiana Wines produces Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Merlot, it is Steve’s sparkling for which the label is perhaps best known.

Stefano Lubiana’s sparkling wines have claimed both national and international praise. He produces three styles- a perfectly handled and balanced Non Vintage (NV) style and a more complex Vintage Brut which spends longer time on lees. Steve has also just released ‘Prestige:’ a 1995 vintage with more than a decade on lees. Prestige is a refined style with aromatic and textural complexity. Power, class and freshness combine on a perfectly sublime palate with purity and balance. All three wines have been written up in James Halliday’s 2008 Australian Wine Companion- the NV scoring 92 points, the 1999 Vintage Brut 94 points and the Prestige features in Halliday’s ‘Best of the Best by Variety’ with 95 points.

Steve Lubiana is also well known for pushing the boundaries of winemaking techniques in Tasmania and is always exploring innovative methods to extract maximum aroma, flavour and palate dimensions in his wines. He regularly experiments with yeasts (wild and/or inoculated) and uses whole bunch fermentation where appropriate.

His business boasts a modern, state-of-the-art winery facility, capable of processing up to 300 tons during vintage. The winery features a temperature-controlled barrel hall to prevent temperature fluctuations through varied season conditions. It also permits regulation of temperatures during fermentation thus allowing better management of the process and advancement in overall quality. Steve also plays an active role in the Tasmanian wine industry as a Board Director of Wine Industry Tasmania and Chairman of the WIT marketing committee.

NV Brut

“ From the Apple Isle comes this delicious traditional Champenoise with a light gold colour and a fine bead. Its bouquet has aromas of cream, nuts, honey and toast- its finish is dry and clean. It also has a vigorous mousse, which is wine speak for lots of bubbles.”

Naren Young, Jet Star In flight magazine, April-May 2006

For accolades on NV refer to: www.slw.com.au/slw/winereviewSparkling.htm

For product info/tasting notes on NV refer to: www.slw.com.au/slw/documents/SLWNVBrut.pdf

Mr Whirly says

“Possibly the best Southern hemisphere sparkling in the UK? Delicate, small bubbles give this wine away as something special. The wine oozes class with dried mango, pineapple, apricots and a nutty and delicately creamy finish. I am not sure how old this wine is but it’s probably about 5 -6 years old by now. This is a wine to be enjoyed with food.”

2005 Pinot Noir

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“ Some time ago I reviewed Stefano Lubiana’s Primavera Pinot Noir. As the name suggests a fresh and youthful expression of the variety. This is a more sophisticated drop, showing the depth of a superior vintage with ripe varietal definition, layered soft tannin structure and complexity. It’s a wine that intrigues and holds your interest from first sip until last and ought to develop with 5-6 years bottle age.”

Chris Shanahan, The Sunday Canberra Times, 9th September 2006

“ Tasmania is still finding its feet as a winemaking state but Stefano Lubiana is already well established. The 2005 Pinot is full of velvety soft tannins and forest berry fruits. There’s more than a little Gamey complexity and it continued to improve, a sign of its quality and cellaring potential. One of the best Aussie Pinot’s I’ve tried……”

Fergus McGhie, The Canberra Times, 14th March 2007

Mr Whirly says

“This wine is possibly as balanced a wine as one could hope to taste. You can almost feel it perfectly balancing itself on each side of your mouth. Earthy berry fruit with a hint of dark chocolate. Tasmanian Pinot at its best made by this extraordinary winemaker ”

Merlot 2008

Riesling 2010

Chardonnay 2008

Estate Pinot Noir 2008

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Cobaw Ridge, Macedon Ranges

 Cobaw Ridge, Macedon Ranges – “ Benchmark Chardonnay and Shiraz/ Viognier, rated 96/100 by James Halliday in his book, Best of the Best of Australia wine 2006. The 1999 vintage of these two wines were the launching pad for Whirly wine in 2003 when I first started importing wines from Australia, yes with just two wines!! These wines were amazing though. I still remember clients faces as they tasted it and their profile formed a smile of wonder and delight. So I have much to thank Alan and Nelly Cooper for in helping me launch Whirly wine and build it up from two wines to what it is today ( 66 at last count.)

Established and owned by Alan and Nelly Cooper in 1985 when the first vines were planted. The soil is Granitic and sandy on warmer northern slopes on the cusp of the great divide, 610 metres above sea level. Positioned in a natural amphitheatre backing onto the Cobaw State forest in the pristine heart of the Macedon Ranges. The wines produced are of an individual character and style. All wines are 100% Estate grown and bottled. Hand picked, pruned and tended. Wines made with passion and crafted with care.

I am indebted to Alan Cooper who gave me the opportunity to import his wines and launch “ Whirly wine” in February 2004. Their 1999 Chardonnay and Shiraz is now finished but his 2003 vintage of Shiraz-Viognier is still available here in the UK. Halliday raved about these wines giving the 2003 Shiraz-Viognier 96/100 in the 2006 edition of his book, the same rating as Grange. Alan Cooper has been the pioneer of La Grein in Australia, which I hope to obtain small parcels of as well as some Pinot Noir for 2007.

For awards and terroir please see www.cobawridge.com.au

Shiraz Viognier 2003

“ To say that Shiraz loves heat is an understatement. If this is global warming bring it on. Full, but not fat, rich, opulent and dark coloured, filled with spice and minerals. Plush ripe tannins and brooding power but still in balance with our great natural acidity. This is the eighth Shiraz-Viognier we have made and we keep thinking “ we are onto something here!” After such a tough year for the vines to throw up a wine like this it must have something to do with wine age. Maybe it’s the shout of the last teenage year. Blended as fruit with 4% Viognier then co-fermented.”  Cellar 5-8 years.

Alan Cooper, winemaker and co-owner

Rated 96/100 James Halliday, “ Australian wine companion 2006”

In the category, “ Best of the best of Australia wine 2006”

“ Best of the best by variety Shiraz”

“ vivid purple-red; gloriously scented example: vibrant black cherry, raspberry and spice: lively and long; oak eaten by fruit”

Remington Norman, MW London, Author of Rhone renaissance and great domains of Burgundy

“ Deep, firm, opaque youthful colour. Fine, complex, spicy nose-youthful but very promising. Ripe, tight, elegant flavours- long, complex and finely wrought. Little obvious new wood. Well balanced and not over extracted. Mouthwatering flavours and considerable potential. Lovely quality.”

Alc 13.5% vol

Mr Whirly says:

“A wine that continues to amaze, bewilder and excite people. Quite simply, as quirky and Whirly a wine as one should hope to come across. Fresh blackberries, Damson, toffee fruit, tobacco, lemon piff, wild hedgerow fruit, wild black cherries with discreet essences of wild herbs and flowers and medicinal notes. These are a few comments I have gathered together about this wine. It’s not for the unadventurous but it’s definitely for the passionate wine lover. Cool climate Shiraz. Not Australian Shiraz in any way and certainly more European and in particular Cote Rotie in style, from that wonderful appellation in Northern Rhone. Thanks Alan!”

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Passing Clouds, Bendigo

I visited this vineyard in 2000 and also a few years ago with Alan Cooper, as touched upon already on the Cobaw Ridge page. When I arrived here, one afternoon in February 2006 the Shiraz vines were literally hanging in the heat. They were so flacid and past help that to me there was no chance they would survive the remaining summer months. But as Graeme Leith, the wonderful, crystal eyed winemaker tells me, Shiraz vines love heat and no water. These vines are un-irrigated, hence the name “Passing Clouds”, which promotes the fact that the vineyard simply relies on the passing clouds for its water, and they love the lack of water: their roots  delve down deep into the soil and ensure that if there is any moisture down there the vine will somehow grab it.

These people, like Alan Cooper further south, know how to make wine. They are also fabulous people since they are wine lovers, full of passion, organic and wholesome, setting up their vineyards with their own hands, sweat and toil and blood three decades ago and now seeing their hard work pay dividends.. They did it themselves, they lived their dream and for that reason alone, and there are many others too, I admire them wholeheartedly.

Passing Clouds, Bendigo

This is red wine country and in particular Shiraz which accounts for 65% of the red wine crush total.

Winemaker Graeme Leith, has a superb reputation in Victoria for producing wonderful wines. They started planting their vines in 1974 at Kingover, 60 kms northwest of Bendigo. Sheltered by the hills of Ironbark Forest, the valley offers an ideal growing climate for premium red wine. Low rainfall and no irrigation combined with well-drained deep soil, produce small intensely flavoured berries with a richly coloured juice. Passing Clouds is a small, hands on operation using traditional winemaking techniques.

www.passingclouds.com.au

Mr Whirly says:

Graeme’s Blend 2004

This is Graeme Leith’s variation on one of the first and therefore classic blends of two grapes that Australian winemakers like to dabble in: Shiraz predominates and Cabernet follows very quickly behind. I introduced this wine with the 2002 vintage a few years ago in 2006 and it went down a storm. everyone loving that honest, up front taste of fruit that was mature and not overpowering in anyway but voluptuous and rounded in the mouth with a velvet finish in the mouth. Lovely Autumn berry fruits, no tannins, perfectly rounded, this wine epitomises what a Cabernet Shiraz Blend should taste like from Australia. Now almost five years in the bottle this wine is drinking with perfection and after the long wait after the 2002 Vintage sold out a few years ago I expect this wine to also sell though pretty quickly.

” Low yielding, 30 year old dry land vines produce fruit of great intensity. Hand pruned, hand picked and fermented in open vats before maturing in new and one year old oak barrels for 12 months to maximise flavour and complexity.”

Graeme Leith, winemaker

SOLD OUT

New vintage arrives 2014

Alc: 14.0 %  vol

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“Organic Blanc de Noir” 2009

Mr Whirly says:

“ This wine is made from the pure and sensitive Pinot Noir grape and left on the skins for a very short time so as to create this very pale salmon grey-pink wine. A delight this summer.  A very pale rose style with just a hint of onion skin colour. The aroma’s are subtle cherry with some spiciness while the palate has a fine delicacy and subtle flavours. It’s a drier style of rose, more in the European mould.”

Winemaker tasting notes:

“ On a cold March morning, Pinot Noir grapes were picked and pressed as a white wine. This wine is delicate, tantalising and clearly a rose. Fine pink blush with cream and strawberry bouquet, subtle strawberry on the palate with slight acidity.”

Price: Sold out

Alcohol: 12.0%

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“Organic” Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Mr Whirly says:

“ More like a Sancerre Chavignol or Pouilly Fume than a Sauvignon from “down under” I think? Is this good? Yes, I believe it is fantastic to have something more classical in its makeup, more steely and dry yet with some down under freshness and creativity”

Winemakers tasting notes:

“Clean and beautifully pure impression strikes from the first sniff into the glass. There are some nice lemon scents with a pleasant mix of tropical fruits and gooseberry. The palate is light bodied but with excellent flavours sustained with a vibrant fresh acidity.”

Ray Jordan, Western Australia wine writer:

“ In 2006 Mountford wines was the first winery in the Pemberton region to gain organic  certification status with WASAA, the internationally recognised accreditation body. The vineyard is now well established and this is starting to be reflected in the intensity and complexity of the fruit. The grapes are handled in traditional and innovative ways with the emphasis on simplicity and care.”

Price: Sold out

Alcohol: 12.0%

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Semillon-Sauvignon 2009

Mr Whirly says:

“ With the addition of 45% Sauvignon, more than normal in this famous WA blend, the wine is given an added boost and freshness that make it far more approachable and adaptable to different styles of food.  Fresh cut grass with hints of green Capsicum.”

This is my first Western Australian blended white wine and I have chosen the classic white wine blend that has made this region famous.

Winemaker’s tasting notes:

“ Margaret river has rightly become known as the prominent region for this blend. The two varieties combined offer a layered, fresh and balanced wine that is a pleasure to partake in. Harvested on the 10th March 2009. Old, dry grown vines produce lovely aroma’s of passion fruit, a hint of citrus and some underlying savoury nuances of green beans and fresh mown hay.”

Alc vol: 13.5%

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Willespie Merlot 2006

Mr whirly says:

“ This is possibly one of the best Merlots I have ever tasted! And yes, Mr Whirly, that is quite a statement, but you know what, I believe it ! Quite beautiful fruit, wonderful mouthfeel, very Autumnal, blackberries and wild hedgerow berries. I tasted this in early November 2011 down at “The Gurnards Head” in Cornwall, a great place to get away by the way, with owner Charles Inkin, and I think I can say safely it blew him into the Atlantic ocean a few yards away. He then tasted it with some discerning Aussies who were having lunch and they rated it the best of that varietal from their homeland!”

Winemaker’s tasting notes:

“  A great Margaret river Merlot! Full of rich berries, spice and Chocolate. So much more than many expect from this variety. Lovely integrated oak, adds to the considerable length and depth of flavour. Harvested 27th April 2006 ( that’s pretty late by the way). Harvested from old, dry grown vines. A Merlot with considerable body and the benefit of ageing to soften off tannins and gain additional complexity.  Basket pressing has contributed to a round, soft mouth feel.

Alc vol: 15.5%

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Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

Mr Whirly says:

“The 1998 has sadly sold out and I was depressed for a week! Then I eventually grew the courage to taste the new 1999 vintage and I was over the moon.  The next vintage, ( sadly 2000 was not a good year, pity since this is the year I first visited this lovely wine country) 2001, I think follows the 1998 a little more. That was an epic vintage, never to be re-produced possibly. This vintage, more mineral full than the 1999, with hints of sloes, plums and spearmint. This wine is unfiltered so would benefit from being decanted. Enjoy with butter-flied leg of lamb marinated with garlic, rosemary and salt and loads of good virgin olive and slam it on the Barbeque or  in the oven! “

Its February 2014 and I have just tasted a bottle of this wine and it rocks! Absolutely fantastic and such wonderful value. Try getting a top of the range left bank wine for under £20?

Alcohol: 13.5%

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Riesling 2005

Riesling 2005

Mr Whirly says:

“This is a big, citrus and lime Riesling, very different from a Clare valley Riesling (just north of the Barossa and a thoroughly beautiful place) and to be honest it’s a pretty serious wine. It’s unusual to have a Riesling from Margaret River and as usual the Willespie Family have come up trumps!”

Alcohol: 13.5%