Pfeiffer 2006 Museum Release Shiraz

It's always interesting to come back to something you've tried before for another go.

First time around my reaction to the Pfeiffer 2006 Shiraz around two years agowas a note to the effect that

I really liked the '06. 


Maybe not to the point where I'd be looking at a dozen for medium-term cellaring (both the winery and Halliday suggest 2015 as a drink by date) but it's a definite option when it comes to filling out an order for a dozen or two.


Very pleasant fruit notes on the nose, with pepper and spice characters on the palate that delivered a wonderfully warm and rounded style that made for contented savoury sipping once the evening's big hairy T-bone had been demolished. Part of that may well be due to the extra bit of bottle age, and if I'd taken the chance to upgrade to the three-times-a-year C3 option I may well have had more than a single bottle to sample and may have arrived there sooner.

Now it has turned up again as a Museum Release in the most recent C2 pack, and while I was impressed once again, once again I've missed the boat haven't I?

Pfeiffer 2006 Museum Release Shiraz (4.5* $n/a) Deep red with red berries on the nose and leathery tannins across the palate, nicely structured wine that would go well with most red meats or as a medium-term cellaring style, but Museum Release means there's none left (apparently, at the time of writing, may be wrong, but never mind). Another impressive wine from a winery that continues to deliver consistent quality.

Rockford 2006 Rod & Spur Cabernet Shiraz

I've remarked previously about the longevity of old habits and still haven't quite got my head around the concept of a fifty-cents-less-than-thirty-bucks red as a  Saturday night dinner for one accompaniment but it's about time to start considering the contents of the annual Rockfoed order.

With a France-Wales Rugby World Cup game on the box and a big old-fashioned lumparump for dinner the idea of a big old-fashioned red had a certain je ne sais quoi.

And, of course, I could make up my mind about including the current vintage  (the 2008) in the order...

Rockford 2006 Rod & Spur Cabernet Shiraz (4.5* $29.50) Cabernet dominant this time around (63/37%), deep red in the glass savoury leathery nose with berries and blackcurrants, not quite full-bodied but not exactly restrained either, rounded mouthfeel and silky tannins that ran all the way along the palate. Both varieties in this classic blend bring their own elements to the party and they've meshed together very nicely after five years. Could well have gone on for around a decade, but with limited cellaring space that five year span looks about right for these parts. Reorder? I definitely think so.

Bloodwood 2006 Maurice

The position of the iMac on the desktop means there are frequent distractions from reflected movement across the screen and while I can always keep the curtains closed I prefer the natural light, thanks very much.

Besides, it gives me a chance to keep an eye out for people trying to sneak up on me.

Not that we get too many unannounced callers at The Little House of Concrete.

The most frequent such caller is The Actor, who's usually bringing back a pile of material that'd usually reside on the LHoC Bookshelves. He's about due for another visit, and with 'Er Indoors transformed to 'Er Overseas Dodging the Aftershocks, the air-con on, the volume on the stereo well down to avoid disturbing the indoor feline population we're trying to keep away from the roadworks machinery as they do up the road outside, having the curtains closed would probably be taken to mean that Hughesy was temporarily elsewhere and callers should call back later.

It was just after ten yesterday morning when reflected movement indicated a couple of approaching figures, and a swivel on the Estate Manager Chair revealed an incoming ex-boss and his missus, back in town for a couple of days and checking on old acquaintances.

Given the relatively early hour and a crowded calling schedule\ it was far too early to be opening anything, but after a chat we pencilled in a rendezvous around four in the afternoon, with sampling a few of the better bottles on the premises as the main business on the agenda.

A quick trip to the butcher on the corner produced a variety of sausages (Mexican jalapeno, Mediterranean spice, lamb mint and rosemary, bush tomato and mountain pepper) to run through the oven and provide valuable blotting paper and when The Rifleman arrived on the doorstep just after four and a cleansing ale it was time to sample a few, with the rest of each bottle to be finished over the next few days.

Mrs Rifleman had a number of ex-colleagues to visit, which explains her absence from the next bit.

Tahbilk evangelism meant starting with a sample of the el cheapo cleanskin that's helping to keep the long term average price per bottle down around the $11 mark, followed by the Holm Oak 2005 Riesling and a Tahbilk 2006 Marsanne (which seems to have slipped past inder the reviewing guard) before we headed into red territory.

Matters were complicated slightly when we were half way through a couple of smidgens of the Fermoy Estate 2008 Yallingup Vineyard Cabernet Merlot. Mrs Rifleman appeared on the doorstep, and, momentarily, I thought we wouldn't quite be getting to the already opened and breathing bottle of Bloodwood.

As it turned out, however, the visit was merely intended to deliver an announcement that a change to the original itinerary meant the Rifleman had an extra half hour (at least) to continue tasting and conversing, so I reckoned we might as well have a little go at the Baileys of Glenrowan 2008 1920s Block Shiraz along the way.

Readers who are thinking we're going over the top a little here are reminded that there's an ongoing issue with wine cartons on the floor where they're not supposed to be, incoming deliveries, special offers and the prospect of stocking up for the summer of Riesling and Rose, so at the moment it's all about creating space…

Plus, of course, the secondary consideration that The Rifleman was one of the best bosses I've worked for and did the right thing by Hughesy a couple of times so I figured I owe him a decent sample or two. I'm tapping this out over a post-lunch snifter of the '06 Marsanne, so I'd be a reasonably happy camper if I didn't have three rogue flighty felines who appear to have gone to ground in a storm water drain and probably won't be emerging till around dusk if they reappear at all…

But I, as I frequently do, digress.

The extra half hour turned into a close to extra hour, and that gave us time for a lengthy savouring of what's probably the best red I've sampled this year.

Steve Doyle's explanation for the origin of the blend appears in this unashamed copy and pastage from the Bloodwood website:

As a winemaker you top-up and taste barrels throughout the year, and you get to know some of the better ones on an on-going and quite personal basis. If they make up a parcel of wine which holds together with continuing interest, then we will release them as Bloodwood Maurice.

Which, given the fact that everything else I've tasted from there has been impressive, probably means the extremely impressive 5* rating should come as absolutely no surprise...

Bloodwood 2006 Maurice (5* $30) Deeply hued in the glass, complex berry and chocolate notes on the nose, savoury oak lurking in there as well, silky tannins running all the way along the palate. Sampling this made the perfect conclusion to the tasting session, since I don't think there's anything on the premises that could follow it. We'll be having at least one of the current vintage in each subsequent order…

Rockford 2006 Handpicked Eden Valley Riesling

Having disposed of the caught them just in time 2003 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Riesling, and continuing with the Thai flavours around dinner time, I was inclined to see how the other cork-closed bottles in the bar fridge were going.

The rediscovery of the Art Series was, as previously recounted, a byproduct of the knowledge that we had at least one bottle of Rockford 2006 Handpicked Eden Valley Riesling in there, and it was a wine we'd tried back in December 2009, with remarks to the effect that it had a very pronounced lemon flavour, a palate that could almost be described as lemon on steroids. Very nice, but very pronounced at the same time. There were still definitely Riesling characteristics lurking behind the lemon, but the expected lime notes were more or less conspicuous by their absence, so I was rather interested to see what another year and a half had done to it.

We are, after all, about to turn the attention to the pre-summer stock up, which will include most of a box of the Alicante Bouchet, so the question's going to be what do we get with it?

Based on this one, there'll definitely be some Riesling in the order.

Rockford 2006 Handpicked Eden Valley Riesling (4.5* $19) Twenty-one more months in the bottle hasn't done much to dim the colour, which was still fairly bright straw yellow, but the lemon on steroids we'd noted back in December '09 had rounded nicely through the nostrils and across the palate, the aged (no, make that mature, five years isn't quite aged) characters are coming to the fore and while there's no rush to knock over t'other one, it'll be lucky to be still sitting in the fridge this time next year. Include the current vintage in the next order? Definitely?

Tahbilk 2006 Riesling

When I set out to compare and contrast the Gold Medal and Trophy winning Tahbilk 2010 Everyday Drinking Riesling, by grabbing a Special Offer Riesling Vertical 6 Pack back in February I wasn't expecting to find the six pack still there on offer at the end of August, but there it is, large as life and cheap as chips at the bottom of the Web Specials page on the Tahbilk website.

Not, I suspect, for very much longer.

On the morning walk one day last week I was discussing impending wine purchases with Jimbo, and was considering a box of Riesling from Kilikanoon, an exercise that would have set me back around $270 for a mix of Mort's Block and Mort's Reserve (nine of one, three of t'other).

That plan got relegated to the back burner when I sighted that Vertical six-pack still there at Tahbilk.

We're talking everyday drinking here, and the Kilikanoon order would have been working that territory, with the Mort's Reserve as a compare and contrast exercise since I was quite impressed by the difference when we were at the winery back in November 2008.

There's an order for a mix of the latest releases from Grosset going in later this week, so we'll be OK for the premium end of the Riesling market for a while.

For everyday drinking, however, I find it difficult to go past $75 freight free for half a dozen bottles going back this far, which explains why the Tahbilk stocks are about to go down by a couple of boxes, and when I run across Jimbo later this morning I'll be pointing him in the same direction.

Apart from the '09 and this one, the rest of the box slipped by without generating a tasting note, but that's part of the territory when you're talking everyday drinking, isn't it?…

According to the website, this one picked up Gold and Silver medals, though it doesn't indicate where.

When I took a gander at the ubiquitous Wikipedia, I also noted that Riesling (and I quote) is highly "terroir-expressive" … clearly influenced by the wine's place of origin. Well, we knew that, didn't we?

We're not talking Clare, Eden Valley, Tasmania or Great Southern here, but it's a wine that ain't too shabby.

Tahbilk 2006 Riesling (4.5* $n/a) Pale straw in the glass, and from the first sniff there was the familiar petrol notes that you come to expect in quality mature Riesling and the same notes came across when the wine hit the palate. Not, perhaps, in the same bracket as mature examples from premium growers in more highly rated regions, but mature Riesling of this quality at this price point (a notional $12.50 as part of a vertical half-dozen) and this quality underlines extreme value on offer if you know where to look.

Two whites (Helm 2009 Sauvignon Blanc and Stella Bella Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon)

Visitors to the Little House of Concrete (at least, visitors who will take a drink) provide an excuse to open something that I mightn't be sampling as an everyday drinking line. Those everyday drinking styles tend to arrive in multiples, not always by the dozen but somewhere between three and the box. With a visitor on the premises you can try one of those odd bottles secreted around the rack or lurking at the back of the fridge.

Selecting the appropriate bottle is, of course, a function of whatever is on offer on the food front, and these weren't the best option for a chicken tikka masala but there were other factors that came into the mix.

The visitor, this time around, was the fabulous Staggster, a forty-year acquaintance from Teachers' College days and ex-colleague in Townsville prior to my relocation to beautiful downtown Bowen. She's based in the national capital these days, so I thought it was worth starting with something from her home territory.

Inquiries about Helm while we were assembling the dinner sealed the issue. The winery, I was informed, was a bit on the expensive side (well, given the small winery bit that's par for the course) but I think we might have persuaded someone that the $25 Sauvignon Blanc and the $28 Riesling were worth investigating.

Into sitting around after dinner mode, with Richard Thompson's 1000 Years of Popular Music on the DVD player provided an excuse to crack one of the Stella Bella Suckfizzle SBS.

Helm 2009 Sauvignon Blanc (4.5* $25) Hand picked grapes and free run juice deliver plenty of herbaceous aromatics on the nose and intensity across the palate, a cool climate Sauvignon Blanc with varietal character and a lengthy finish. Will be back for more, most likely for a six-four Riesling-Sauv Blanc blend in the next ten-pack.

Stella Bella 2006 Suckfizzle Sauvignon Blanc Semillon (4.5* $36) Plenty happening on the nose, herbs, grass, berries and talc, with the interaction between Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and oak delivering a complexity across the palate with layers to savour over a lengthy sitting. Won't be waiting too long to open the other bottle on hand and definitely one to throw in the next order from Stella Bella.

Olssens of Watervale 2006 The Second Six

They don't make 'em like that any more. They can't get the wood, y'know.

Or, I suspect, in this case the Carmenère.

I've written elsewhere about the circumstances that brought us to the Olssens of Watervale cellar door, but it's worth reiterating that the drive is the sort of thing that's likely to deter any but the most determined traveller.

The continued absence of a website seems almost inexplicable in the twenty-first century and it took a while for an order to go in, but given the fact that a consultation with Mr Halliday's tome revealed a range that largely sat in the $20-$30 bracket and was consistently rated in the 93-94 range I was always going to get there eventually.

The highlight of the visit to the cellar door was my encounter with The Olssen Six, one of the few examples of a Bordeaux blend to feature all six of the classic Bordeaux varieties. There are others that go close - the Cullen Diana Madeline being one notable example - but four out of six or five out of six ain't six out of six. You're not going to get that perfect six unless you can lay your hands on some Carmenère, and it seems, from what I can gather, that there are a mere half-dozen or so vineyards in Australia where the variety is grown.

I've still got five bottles of The Six lurking in the cellar fridge with the next rendezvous with one pencilled in for some time around 2014. My note from the bottle we sampled in October 2010 reads:

Olssens of Watervale 2006 The Olssen Six (5/5 $60) Possibly unique blend of  Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Carmenère and Petit Verdot. From the first whiff there's a considerable Wow! factor. Intense, focussed, layered and elegant, a wine to savour at length and leisure.

At around $30 cheaper, its little brother doesn't have quite the same depth but there's plenty on offer here as well.

Olssens of Watervale 2006 The Second Six (4.5/5 $28) Deeply red in the glass, with complex notes across the nose and an acrobatic balance of red and black fruits across the palate this doesn't pack quite the same punch as its sibling but comes across as well weighted with a pleasing depth of flavour and a lengthy finish which, again, encourages the drinker to take some time over the end of the bottle.

Pfeiffer 2006 Merlot

Previous comments about the Pfeiffer C2 Club and the reluctance to upgrade to the three-shipment version came back to haunt me when I went looking for pricing details for this very food-friendly little number. I might have been inclined to line up for another bottle or two, but it was nowhere to be found, though I did note that there were Museum Releases of the '08 Merlot and the '06 Cabernet in the July dozen, which I won't be getting.

Given the fact that I write up these notes to help me sort out what I want in the next shipment from the winery you might question the point of carrying out the exercise for a Special Members Only Museum Release that won't be more widely available, but there's an anorak mentality lurking back there that prompts me to keep a record just in case I want to look at one of these from a more recent vintage as a short term cellaring prospect.

Pfeiffer 2006 Merlot (4.5* $n/a) Deep purple red with berry notes across the nose and into the palate, where they're matched by oaky tannins there's a depth to this that made it a versatile style with a lengthy finish that worked well with a steak but would work equally well in other settings.