Helm 2008 Cabernet Shiraz

When a Facebook friend posted a link to a YouTube video of the old Let's Do the Time Warp from Rocky Horror I found myself thinking, "Yes, that's fine. I remember that, but, seriously, do I really want to go back there?"

Now, I'm probably coming over as hypocritical since I've been known to bang on endlessly about stuff from the late sixties and am currently working on a Rear View of the Small Faces Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

When that's finished, anyone interested will find it here, but don't hold your breath.

No, that do I really want to go back there refers to something I noted in passing, recognize whenever it re-emerges, but won't have me going out of the way to investigate. I never got around to seeing Rocky Horror, and don't have any intention of going out of my was to remedy a situation that I don't personally see as a problem.

Which is pretty much the way I feel about a wine that comes in a style that seems awfully familiar, decidedly retro, rather pleasant in its own way but several miles removed from the red wines I've been sampling recently. In a world where even north-eastern Victorian Durif is coming through soft and rounded at significantly lower alc/vol levels (I'd point to earlier reviews of the Baileys of Glenrowan Durif and Petit Sirah as rxamples of what I'm talking about) this one comes across as a distinct exercise in retrospect.

Fine if that sort of thing floats your boat, but in this case we're in roughly the same territory as the catamaran that spends most of its time beached about a kilometre from the Little House of Concrete.

Helm 2008 Cabernet Shiraz (3.5* $35) Deep coloured, high alcohol oaky nose with plenty of big fruit across the palate and tannins that take you back to the days before winemakers started using words like feminine to describe a red wine, this comes across as a decided blast from the past which is fine in itself but the price tag won't have me lining up for more. Fine, that means an extra bottle of Riesling (or something else) in the next order.

Fermoy Estate 2008 Yallingup Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot

There are times when you find yourself scratching the noggin and wondering what happened to that stuff you know you've got here somewhere but isn't where it ought to be. I was sure that I'd filed everything from the winery side of the Western Australia trip last year in separate folders in the filing cabinet, but when I went checking a minor detail there was no sign of a folder dedicated to material from Fermoy Estate.

There should, by rights, be a scribbled page of notes that produced the tasting notes and impressions noted here, but I was hoping for a price list or something similar that would verify that the wine I'd assessed as a bit young but had things in place to improve with age had the words Yallingup Vineyard on the label. Assuming it did, ten months or so has seen things fall into place rather nicely.

There are plenty of places to visit when you're wandering around Margaret River, even if you've decided to limit yourself to the places James Halliday has allocated five stars, and the decision to add Fermoy Estate to the list was partly based on Mr Halliday's rating, partly prompted by an assessment that they were happy to keep a relatively low profile, however difficult that may be given the quality of the wines and partly by the establishment's proximity to Cullen Wines on a day where the itinerary was centred around a tasting and lunch at Cullens before hitting the road to head back towards Perth.

Getting orders in to everywhere you want to buy from is rather tricky when you've got an extensive list of places you want to buy from, limited storage space and a diplomatic need to limit the number of cases in front of the wine rack.

There are, however, some offers you can't refuse, and dozens of the Fermoy 2009 Yallingup Vineyards Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and 2009 Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc for $180 all-up including $30 freight was too good to miss, given the fact that Hallidayy had rated both at the 93 mark. I hadn't been quite so taken with a 4/5 rating, but then again at $7.50 a bottle you can afford to take a punt and prove yourself wrong.

In any case (actually, in both cases) I thought that the wines would go down well with the Merry frockster's lady friend, so a we'll go halves arrangement was fairly easy to negotiate.

Suffice it to say she liked them enough to save them for special occasions, so that when the end of the financial year offer from Fermoy had what looked like the 2010 equivalents a phone call was enough to ensure we were backing up for a restocking exercise.

You can't start on the whites until you can get 'em into the fridge, so I thought a good starting point this time around would be the...

Fermoy Estate 2008 Yallingup Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot (4.5* $20, sale $10) Dark red with purple notes in the glass, subtly pronounced cabernet character on the nose with some plummy merlot in there as well, berry flavours across the palate with ripe firmly rounded tannins and a lingering finish this 70% cabernet blend hit the spot rather nicely and left me regretting the fact that I only ended up with half a dozen. Somehow I doubt that I'll be able to reorder at the sale price.

Leeuwin Estate 2008 Art Series Riesling

 The predictable end of financial year stock clearance offers haven't exactly been flowing into the Little House of Concrete, but the impending arrival of a couple of cases from Fermoy Estate to join recent deliveries from Tahbilk, Baileys and The Wine Society means that we need to concentrate on getting things out of the wine rack to make room for what's sitting on the floor in front of it. The easiest way to do that, of course, is to clear out some of the wines that are there in multiples, but last night's dinner needed something in a Riesling and this one was, conveniently in the bar fridge, so…

Leeuwin Estate 2008 Art Series Riesling (4.5* $22) After a couple of younger Rieslings from other regions where the citrus notes were far more pronounced the relatively restrained nose and the semi-aged notes across the palate (that hydrocarbon element's there again, but lurking below the surface rather than muscling its way to prominence) made a rather pleasant change. In the mouth it sat comfortably in between the citrusy zing of a young Riesling and the overt developed characters you find in the aged versions. There's a tendency to see that transition from youth to maturity as leaving a void that detracts from the drinking experience, but there was, I thought, plenty going on here. Thankfully, there's still another bottle to go.

Pikes 2008 Eastside Shiraz

Under different circumstances I may well have delivered a polite refusal when the nice people from Pikes called at the end of the week that saw us back at base and contemplating kitchen conversions.

Having arrived home on Tuesday afternoon the unpacking and getting things sorted factor got us through Wednesday and well into Thursday, and there was plenty of catching up to do, so checking wine stocks and looking at reorders was hardly the highest priority.

I knew there was a box coming from Helm, there would be half dozens from Hay Shed Hill, Baileys and Brook Eden in the pipeline between mid-May and the new financial year, and I'd be looking at mixed boxes from Lerida Estate, Lark Hill and Clonakilla over the next month or two. I really need to get something from Cullen in Margaret River as well, so you might think that there wouldn't have been much room for anything else along the way.

I hadn't actually got to the monitoring stock levels side of things, but I couldn't help the sneaking suspicion that we were light on for wine at the everyday drinking end of the spectrum, things that slot in between the el cheapo Tahbilk Everyday Drinking bottles left over after we've resupplied The Barra and the mid- to high-twenties that aren't quite your everyday quaffers but deserve something better than Hughesy's regular curry and pasta staples.

There's still a reluctance to open a really good bottle with the chilli con carne…

And if the call from Pikes had been offering something other than the Traditionale Riesling (RRP $23) and the Eastside Shiraz ($25) for an effective $18 a bottle freight free, I may well have been issuing a polite not this time, thanks.

On the other hand I knew I was light on for everyday drinking Riesling, and I need at least one bottle every week…

The Shiraz would, I reckoned, be handy along the way as well, particularly when the new oven's ability to deliver roasts and pizza was factored in.

In any case, the dozen took a good two and a half weeks to arrive, and if I'd known that I may well have gone to Tahbilk to meet the perceived requirements.

Pikes 2008 Eastside Shiraz (4* $25) Plums and berries on the nose with a touch of peppery spice thrown in for good measure, plenty of fruit and smooth chocolaty tannins across the palate. Very enjoyable  drinking, though I'm not sure I'd be queueing up for a resupply.

Lerida Estate 2008 Merlot Cabernet Franc

They say you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, but there are times in this wine drinking game when you have to do something very close to it.

An email in the in tray a week ago advised that, having entered my details on the Lerida Estate mailing list I was this month's lucky winner of a complimentary bottle of wine.

Nice, I thought at the time. That'll help me sport out the order when it goes in.

Given the size of the operation (5000 cases according to Halliday) a range of five whites, the same number of reds and three in the Rose style is going to be a bit tricky to fit into a mixed dozen, assuming, of course, that you're looking at one of each.

Having sampled the 2008 Merlot Cabernet Franc has simplified matters.

Lerida Estate 2008 Merlot Cabernet Franc (4* $29.50) The 80% Merlot definitely comes through on the nose, and there's nicely integrated oak and fine tannins across the palate, combining to produce a wine that'seasy to drink and extremely food friendly with savoury notes and a lengthy finish. As a reorder prospect, however, the price tag (at least for my money) doesn't match what's on offer in the glass.

Hay Shed Hill 2008 White Label Tempranillo

Rather than the unbroken half dozens that are apparently the go for the other three seasons, the Hay Shed Hill Four Seasons Club Autumn Pack arrived as a fifty-fifty split between the 2008 Tempranillo and the 2009 Sangiovese. While autumn in these parts may not quite be the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, this one definitely turned out to be mellowly fruitful.

Hay Shed Hill 2008 White Label Tempranillo (4* $30) Medium bodied elegant, silky style with full, soft, rounded tannins, gently spicy with tasty mouth feel. Very easy to drink. While it mightn't be the greatest Tempranillo going around it's a long way from being the worst.

Baileys of Glenrowan 2008 1920s Block Shiraz

I'm not a big fan of flowery descriptive terms when it comes to wine, but as I took my first whiff of this a couple of months back for some reason my mind went back to the dusty ancient leather-bound encyclopaedia Britannicas that were shelved beside the fireplace in the landlady's half of the majestic old Queenslander where my family lived until we moved north in 1963.

With a couple of substantial orders on the way it's a case of clearing things out to make room in the rack, so I've been revisiting some things that have previously been tasted and reviewed on the website.

Baileys 2008 1920s Block Shiraz (4.5* $35/$29.75 1870s Club) Leather notes on the nose, abundant tannins, surprisingly silky mouth-feel (I was expecting something substantially bigger and bolder when I first tried this one) combine to result in a wine that's complex, stylish and quite delightful. At 16% alc/vol, this is a wine that could easily creep up on you and should last well into the 2020s. While there's no guarantee Hughesy will still be around to enjoy it when it really hits its straps there's some left in the wine fridge.

Pfeiffer 2008 Chardonnay (Relocated)

A visit to the cellar door at Pfeiffer Wines at the end of 2006 left us extremely impressed, and apart from signing up for the C2 Wine Club (two shipments a year, a dozen at a time) there have been regular reorders of the Gamay and Ensemble Rose. Apart from the fortifieds, which are very much in the mould you'd expect a regional trademark to be, the rest of the range is generally more than acceptable and the C2 parcels usually throw up a few other order possibilities. 

Pfeiffer 2008 Chardonnay (4* $17) Pale straw in the glass, some varietal character on the nose and across the palate, and a touch of oak as well. Workman-like style that's pleasant enough drinking but wouldn't have prompted a reorder, and, in any case, the winery's sold out of this vintage. Maybe there are others out there who liked this more than I did.

Baileys of Glenrowan 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (Relocated)

Under normal circumstances I'm wary of the offshoots of the big corporates, but Baileys of Glenrowan occupies a special place in my personal wine iconography, thanks to the old HJT Liqueur Muscat, whichexplains the apparent inconsistency. I joined the 1870 Club because the freight free delivery would probably keep me in Liqueur Muscat and Tokay (along with thje odd bottle from Pfeiffers), but the 1904Block and 1920s Block Shiraz have found a niche in the wine fridge, and I may well be back for more of this one.

Baileys of Glenrowan 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (4.5* $25) Arrived as part of 1870s Club shipment, and presumably available cellar door or phone call only, since it doesn't appear on the website. Surprisingly soft (I was expecting something substantially bigger) fruit-driven style with smoothly rounded tannins and a very moreish mouth-feel. May not be one for the long haul, but could well be part of a reorder after I've tried the other three reds in the pack.