Tahbilk 2009 Riesling

 Recurring themes recur because, by and large, there's something about them, and there's definitely something about Tahbilk's ability to consistently produce well made wines that make for interesting drinking and deliver them freight free to the Little House of Concrete in that $10-$15 price range.

This one's no exception to an exceptional rule of thumb.

Sure, it's not quite up there with the quality Clare and Eden Valley drops I've come to know and love, but we're talking something that arrived as part of a $75 multiple vintage six pack rather than a Grosset $31 Springvale or $42 Polish Hill.

When it comes to an everyday drinking style with a bit of bottle age (Halliday rated it 89, noting a strong fruit platform for medium term development) for a notional $12.50 you could do a lot worse.

Tahbilk 2009 Riesling (4* $n/a) Ticks all the right boxes from the pale straw colour, fresh aromatic citrus notes on the nose through the varietal characters across the palate. Well made, easy drinking style that had me veering between 4 and 4.5 on the rating scale. Eventually rounded down since it's not currently available. Whack it back in the Web Specials section of the Tahbilk web site and Hughesy may well be interested. Very good everyday drinking. Excellent value for money.

Tahbilk 2009 Marsanne

I know it was supposed to be Cabernet Day, but the ongoing issues with the continuing cherry tomato glut meant we were down for spaghetti with tuna, cherry tomatoes, olives and capers, which isn't Cabernet-friendly territory.

I'd previously tried the 2009 Tahbilk Marsanne in November '09, noting the change from the darker green bottle to a clear one so right from the start you can see the pale straw colour that you'd usually only get a good look at once it's in the glass and suggesting that while most of the usual suspects were present on the palate, the honeysuckle notes weren't quite as pronounced as I'd expected, though if you were to leave it for twelve months, I was confident Mr Honeysuckle would be making his presence felt.

Presumably it'll continue to figure in the odd vertical tasting half dozen (which is where I found it, a steal at $75) so I won't be buying a box, but will definitely be looking out for more.

Tahbilk 2009 Marsanne (4.5* $13 Web Special) Pale straw, in transition from the previously noted citrus aromas as the honeysuckle increasingly comes to the fore through the nose and across the palate. More, please...

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.

Tahbilk 2001 Marsanne

As I remarked the following morning it's good to have an excuse to crack a bottle that's a little above the ordinary.

We knew Adelaide Baker Girl had an affinity for decent wine, and discussions over a welcome to the LHoc glass of Alicante Bouchet revealed she was unfamiliar with both Tahbilk and Marsanne, though when I took a glance at the options in the bar fridge I'd somehow neglected to stow anything from the recent vertical six-pack (remarkable value at $75 freight free, with bottles running back to 2006) so if we were going to do the introduction it was going to be this cork closed bottle of the 2001.

We followed it with the Fermoy 2008 Merlot, a De Bortoli Noble One of uncertain vintage and unrecorded provenance that had been lurking in the back of the bar fridge and a sample of Pfeiffer Topaque in a lengthy sniff, swirl sip, sample and graze session that lasted well past the regular bedtime.

That made a rather impressive little lineup, but there's no doubt that the star of the evening was a ten-year-old wine that probably delivered change out of $12 when we bought it as a current release back before Hughesy was keeping track of the what and how much of the wine purchases.

Tahbilk 2001 Marsanne (4.5* $n/a) It'll be a while before we get another chance to try another bottle along the lines of this ten-year-old number. Given revealed form lines it probably started as a pale almost clear straw, but time has delivered a richer golden depth in the glass, subtle aromatics on the nose and the expected toasty honeysuckle across the palate. A timely reminder that Tahbilk Marsanne's one to lay down for an extended spellbut the problem is keeping your hands off those bottles you've stashed away. Halliday had this as a drink by 2010, but the vintage guide on the back of a recent Wine Club newsletter has it as Improving, with another 7-10 years ahead of it. Pity there's no more on hand...,

Tahbilk 2009 Riesling

Having invested in a vertical six pack of Tahbilk Riesling to compare and contrast with the Gold Medal and Trophy winning the 2010 Everyday Drinking Riesling, the two bottles of the 2010 Riesling managed to sneak past without generating a tasting note. Pleasant enough drinking, as I recall, but not exactly the sort of thing that has you running out in search of a box, if you catch my drift.

I'd described the 2010 Everyday Drinking Riesling in these terms:
It may well be Riesling, Jim, but it's not quite Riesling as we've come to know and love it… While initial exposure to the 2010 Everyday Drinking Riesling failed to produce what I've come to expect in a Riesling, as an everyday drinking glass over lunch it works perfectly well. with lively acid and plenty of zing.

Rangoon Lime Chicken seemed an obvious candidate for something in the Riesling line, so a bottle of this one emerged from the fridge.

Tahbilk 2009 Riesling (4* $13) Clear varietal notes on the nose and across the palate without the more pronounced acid you find in the higher end Clare and Eden Valley Rieslings, but smooth and well rounded and an almost ideal everyday drinking style at the price. A definite value for money freight free candidate for a reorder when the time comes assuming stocks have lasted (currently a Wine Club Web Special, so may not last long).

Tahbilk Everyday Drinking 'Limited Release' 2009 Zinfandel

While it might make up 10% of United States plantings the grape variously known as Zinfandel, Primitivo and Crljenak Kaštelanski has yet to establish a substantial footing in Australia, Not that you'd be expecting too many people outside its native Croatia to be trying to pronounce Crljenak Kaštelanski. There might be a bit of an issue with consumers where Primitivo is concerned as well, though that seems a perfectly acceptable descriptor for the big robust high alcohol knuckle-scraper style that seems to be synonymous with red Zinfandel.

The continuing rise of the alternative varieties is likely to change that, however, which brings the question of learning how to handle and what to do with what is, by all accounts, a rather ornery varietal into play. 

Brown Brothers would put it through The Nursery and release the result as a Limited Production Cellar Door offering while they worked things through, and the decision to throw this into the Everyday Drinking Range at Tahbilk looks to be along the same lines. As an $8.95 Limited Release it'll give the punters a chance to try it while those other matters sort themselves out.

Tahbilk Everyday Drinking 'Limited Release' 2009 Zinfandel (4* $8.95) While I was expecting a big brawny knuckle-scraper of a wine, this one, while certainly substantial in flavour, tannin and alcohol/volume (they don't provide an exact percentage on the label but 8.9 standard drinks puts it in well over the 15% mark) came across as remarkably rounded and while it certainly packs a punch it was remarkably easy drinking. Given the Limited Release side of things it won't be around forever, and in any case I don't know that I need a dozen of these little devils, but as one-third of the Everyday Drinking New Releases Dozen @ $80 (RRP $95.40) along with Everyday Drinking 2007 Chairman’s Red and 2008 Chardonnay I may well be lining up for more around mid-March (assuming, of course, there's any left)

Tahbilk 2010 Everyday Drinking Riesling

It may well be Riesling, Jim, but it's not quite Riesling as we've come to know and love it.

Alternatively, maybe it is and I was a tad premature samplinga bottle less than twelve hours after it landed on the premises after the lengthy road haul from Nagambie Lakes to Bowen.

Having read in the latest Wine Club brochure from Tahbilk that this Everyday Drinking Riesling ($6.95/bottle) had picked up a Gold Medal at the 2010 Hobart Wine Show and gone on to take out the Trophy for Best Riesling of the Show, it's hardly surprising that when it was reorder time for Everyday Drinking Whites I went the Riesling rather than the regular $55/dozen cleanskin.

For comparison and contrast I also went for the Riesling Vertical 6 Pack ($75, not bad value for a double of the 2010 and single bottles from '09, '08, '07 and '06), none of which has found their way into the fridge yet.

While initial exposure to the 2010 Everyday Drinking Riesling failed to produce what I've come to expect in a Riesling, as an everyday drinking glass over lunch (my standard four days a week lunch tuna and bean salad's nothing really out of the bag) it works perfectly well. with lively acid and plenty of zing. 

Undoubtedly more will be revealed in the fullness of time, particularly time to recover from the transit trauma, and eleven and a half bottles will provide ample opportunities for that to happen.

Tahbilk 2000 1927 Vines Marsanne (Relocated)

Back in November 2009 Tahbilk was offering a Marsanne Trophy Six Pack for $115, three wines, two bottles each and remarkable value with two $45 bottles included. The day after the order arrived, this one appeared in Halliday's Hundred, which may explain why it took me so long to get to it...

Tahbilk 2000 1927 Vines Marsanne (5* 20 points $45) Almost transparent pale straw colour, but there's nothing pale or insipid about the nose or the flavour of this one. Complex notes of honeysuckle and citrus up front and a long finish mean that in Marsanne terms this is probably about as good as it gets. Still another bottle to go, probably somewhere around 2015....

Tahbilk 2009 Mourvedre (Relocated)

The sugo alla bolognese recipe called for a cup of red wine, the resupply of the wine I usually use for such purposes is on a truck somewhere between here and Tahbilk, and so I reached for the last bottle in the Cellar Door Reds dozen.

Tahbilk 2009 Mourvedre (4* 16 points $15.45) Deep red, savoury note with some tobacco notes in there, full on the palate and rather attractive, but didn't impress as much as the 08. When the next box arrives I'll be putting this one aside for a hearty winter stew.

Tahbilk 2009 Tempranillo (Relocated)

With Tahbilk as my preferred source of everyday drinking wines (having started with the Everyday Drinking range and moved upmarket when finances allowed) this is close to the end of a box of the Cellar Door Reds selection, which is close to a steal at $160 freight free, and includes the rather good 1997 Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tahbilk 2009 Tempranillo (4.5* 17.5 points $13.95) Deep, brooding red in the glass, tobacco and leather on the nose with savoury tannins I'd be right in line to reorder if it wasn't sold out, but there should be a bottle in the recently ordered Cellar Door Reds dozen. Memo to self: Watch for the 2011.

Tahbilk 2009 Cabernet Franc (Relocated)

Anyone looking for a source of everyday drinking wines that aren't the offspring of industrial scale production by multinational concerns could do a lot worse than Tahbilk, which offers freight free delivery along th eastern seaboard (handy when you live where I do) that's remarkably quick (I've had a Monday morning order delivered lunchtime Thursday). Whether the mixed dozen I ordered last night gets through as quickly in the current circumstances is, of course, problematic, but I wanted to get my hands on another bottle of this one, along with its cousin=brothers....

Tahbilk 2009 Cabernet Franc (4* $14.45) Predictably, given the genetic relation to Cab Sauv there are the regulation aromatic Cab notes on the nose. Across the palate it isn't an overly elegant wine, but at this price point elegance usually isn't an option. Still, there's a hint of it lurking there. Aromatic and spicy with  varietal character it's got a certain raffish earthy charm. A pleasant little number that I'll be happy to revisit in the appropriate mixed dozen.