Fermoy Estate 2010 Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc

Truth, Jimbo remarked on yesterday's morning walk, is stranger than fiction. We were talking music rather than wine at that particular juncture, which may have prompted my Or, to borrow the name of a Robert Wyatt album, Ruth is stranger than Richard. Jimbo has a brother named Richard, though I'm not sure whether his circle of acquaintances is a Ruth-less or Ruth-free zone.

This morning's brisk stroll around the Front Beach, however, returned to the subject of wine, and, predictably, given the fact that we wandered around impressions of Sauvignon Blanc with and without the addition of Semillon, that truth is stranger than fiction bit kicked in again, prompted by two items I sighted yesterday and cited in the course of the stroll.

For a start yesterday's Wine Companion newsletter had Mr Halliday describing the 1.62 million tonne 2011 grape harvest as  unexpected and profoundly shocking.

I'd been rash enough to opine that we might be looking at the end of the current grape glut, thanks to a mixture of factors including floods, mildew and botrytis in almost every region around eastern Australia. Talking to Steve Doyle at Bloodwood I was told he was one of the few producers in Orange who'd been able to pick anything at all, and I'd heard a similar report from Ken Helm outside Canberra, yet here we are with a crop that's nearly 25% bigger than the quantity needed, and, to quote Mr Halliday, it is certain that the extra 300 000 tonnes were very poor quality grapes sold for a song and destined for the bulk market.

Strange. We've got a glut, so we ensure that the situation remains in place by harvesting large quantities of crap grapes for the already over-catered for lower end of the market.

I've also noted that calls for a floor price for alcohol to counter, among other things, binge drinking in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory are greeted with claims that a steep increase in the price of a five litre goonbag would remove one of the few pleasures available to the Australian age pensioner.

Strange. We have an on-going health disaster in the Territory largely fuelled by the availability of vast quantities of industrially-produced ethanol but we can't do anything about it because of the impact on our pensioners, who deserve a far better deal than they're currently getting.

Based on the Carbon Tax debate, one would have thought that the extra revenue from a floor price (I'm assuming that this would be achieved by changing the way alcohol sales are taxed) could have been evenly split between expenditure on indigenous health and raising the age pension to the point where the elderly, who definitely deserve it, could afford to buy semi-decent quality bottled wine.

Then there was the article in the Sydney Morning Herald linked from the Daily Wine News that suggests that they're selling 3.4 million cases of Sauvignon Blanc per year in this country, and most of that seems to be sourced from New Zealand, where producers seem to be (and I'm quoting from the Australian Tax Office website here) entitled to a rebate of 29% of the selling price of the wine. There's more on the same subject here.

I'm not an expert on these things but it looks awfully like we've got a continuing glut due to sales of cheap imported wine that attracts what amounts to a subsidy. Strange.

Those matters might explain why I'm able to buy something like this rather good Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc for $7.50 (the '09 back in February) or  $10.85 (the '10 in an end of financial year sale).

Fermoy Estate 2010 Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc (4.5* $22 Sale $10.85) Another crystal clear pale straw number with bright aromatics that are a bit closer to the hay and curt grass end of the spectrum than I recall from the '09, this one hits the palate with sharpish varietal character, a balanced acidity and a tinge of sugar that rounds into a lengthy finish. Under my five point scale, 4.5* means I really need to buy this, while 4* equates to I should buy this, but with eleven bottles left in the box I don't need to buy any more, do I? On the other hand 4.5 means I'll be looking very closely at the '11, n'est ce pas?

Fermoy Estate 2010 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

My tasting note for the Fermoy Estate 2009 Yallingup Vineyards Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc that I reprised from back in March concluded with Will be looking very closely at the 2010, and while $10 freight free is a slightly higher impost that the $7.50 including freight I paid for the '09 there was no way I'd be bypassing this one at the price..

A perusal of the back label suggests a cancelled order that would have been heading Stateside....

Fermoy Estate 2010 The Partnership Semillon Sauvignon Blanc (4/5 $20 Sale $10) Green tinges in the glass, the regulation tropical fruit and citrus nose that goes with the regional blend, this 55/45 combo hits the palate nicely balanced, with the same tangy complexity and lengthy finish as noted in the '09. Maybe not quite as impressive as the last one, though that may well be a reflection on the accompanying meal rather than the wine itself. I'm inclined to round things down rather than up, and reserve the right to ratchet the rating up to 4.5 after a later sample.

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.

Fermoy Estate 2009 Yallingup Vineyards Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

While mileages may vary when it comes to winery ratings those of us with a limited budget as far as time is concerned need some sort of framework to start from when we're visiting somewhere like Margaret River. Lacking either local knowledge or acquaintances who've visited the area recently (though we had one friend who pointed us towards Hay Shed Hill) it was a case of turning to Halliday, and a quick squizz revealed enough five star operations to keep us busy for a week rather than the two-and-a-bit days we had available.

In cases like that, the list from Halliday is a starting point and you (or rather I, readers may operate differently) then start sifting through other details to sort out the wheat from the chaff. We had Cullen Wines pencilled in for lunch on the last day, didn't want to overdo it, and I noted with interest that Fermoy Estate was just down the road from the planned stop, conveniently located near a chocolate factory Madam expressed an interest in, and, in Halliday's words "happy to keep a relatively low profile, however difficult that may be given the quality of the wines". Sounded good to me.

Which explains how we got there. What happened when we did meant that we'll be keeping an eye on the website for frequent orders even if they're nowhere near the heavily discounted ($20 to $7,50 by the dozen with freight)

Fermoy Estate 2009 Yallingup Vineyards Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc (4.5* $20) Not quite half and half (52-48%) the Semillon characters sit on top of the grassy passionfruit Sauvignon Blanc, resulting in a blend that's  tightly knit with a tangy complexity and a lengthy finish across the palate and plenty on offer through the nose. A wine that had me wishing there were more than five of them left.  Will be looking very closely at the 2010.

Fermoy Estate 2009 Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc

While I'm quite aware that I've been marching to the beat of a different drum for much of the past forty years a recent stroll around downtown Bowen reinforced the difference between Hughesy's tastes and the drinking habits of the wider community in these parts.

Given the prevailing humidity, a walk downtown usually comprises a two-and-a-half-block trek from home to the (air-conditioned) post office, with subsequent stops at the bank, the regular newsagent and the local library, all of which offer a temporary cool down.

The need to visit the supermarket on Friday resulted in a further stop at the corner newsagent, and with around a hundred metres to go before the supermarket I yielded to temptation and sidetracked into the liquor barn.

These days, my wine purchases are almost invariably made direct from the winery, so visits to the liquor barn have become few and far between. They've remodelled the interior as well, so these days I'm not quiote so familiar with the layout.

The new look works around the multi-layer stand the bottles up arrangement, with signs indicating areas devoted to particular varieties and styles. I'd have had no problem locating the Sauvignon Blancs, for example, though I'd have a bit of a problem if I was after something interesting and attractively-priced that didn't come from New Zealand.

There was, however, nothing to indicate where I might find a Riesling, and I managed a fair cooling off period before I found a limited range hidden at the very bottom of the Moscato and Sweet Whites section.

Now, if I had to pick a varietal that's ideally suited to the tropical lifestyle, where people tend to go for fish and seafood and some of us don't mind the flavour profile of Thai dishes, I'd be heading directly for the Riesling without passing GO and collecting $200.

I could well have gone a Riesling with dinner that evening, but an email from Fermoy Estate had landed boxes of 2009 Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, rather remarkably reduced from $20/$22 to $6.25 ($7.50 when you add freight) and the Sauv Blanc needed to be sampled.

Two points that emerge from the above:

(i) Continued bafflement at the public's refusal to go for varietal Riesling (actually, I'm sure the reason lies in the confusion between generic goon-bag swill marketed under the name and the genuine article);

and (ii) The marketing snow job that's persuaded the broad mass of Australian drinkers to subscribe to the cut price Savalanche rather than sample some of the very acceptable styles produced on this side of the ditch.

That second point presumably accounts for some of the remarkable price reduction in

Fermoy Estate 2009 Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc (4.5* $22) Almost crystal clear pale straw, brightly aromatic and leaning to the tropical rather than the cut grass end of the spectrum, balanced with genuine varietal character, depth  and a lengthy finish, this was quite wonderful drinking and had me wishing I'd (at least) doubled the order. Assuming consistency across future vintages I'd happily pay the full RRP whack, and at the discount on offer at the time (it's presumably long gone) a no-brainer.