Ned Goodwin MW came to visit recently and we looked across our portfolio together, I think his thoughts are worth a look, even though some of the wines are sold out here so no longer available from us, but of course may still be available in restaurants, retail and in your own cellar.
Grower’s Selection Quasibianco 2018: Resolved and courageous. By this I mean that Julian Castagna has found his mojo with this style: a rich, powerful and intense Riesling that belies its lowish alcohol and balletic precision. 30 days on skins. Orange blossom, apricot pith, rooibos tea and spiced ginger crystals. The acidity, juicy and saline. The finish, pithy, nicely chewy and beautifully detailed, unravelling like an intricate quilt of patterns as flavours and the weave as textures, light and dense all at once. This is a superb Riesling of immense character 96
Adam’s Rib 2017: A Chardonnay and Viognier meld. Leesy and bright, with the exuberance of Viognier’s Orange verbena and apricot compote riding shotgun. Camomile, too. Mid-weighted, fresh and imminently gulpable. An immaculate wine of flavour, intensity and an easygoing drinkability belying substantial depth 93
Grower’s Selection Chardonnay 2018: A powerful, rich, creamy and palate-staining experience. Superb value, here. A melody of stone fruits, vanilla pod oak, brûlée and citrus blossom, lifting the mid-palate and zinging across the long, plush finish. A whiff of match strike pungency, too. A great deal of wine stuffed into the glass 94
Grower’s Selection Savagnin 2018: A big wine. Picked late, to be sure. Rooibos, mandarin, cinnamon, star anise, oatmeal and poached pear, nuts and orange. A marzipan-doused finish, warm, unctuous and rich. This demands food, with a phenolic composure as-if not more-important than the trickle of acidity keeping it on the straight and narrow 93
Ingenue 18: The attack on the cooler side for the variety. Pickle, garden herb and mezcal, segueing to apricot pith and blossom. A fine interplay of herbal freshness and textural intrigue. Not as ripe and exuberant as in past years, but fresher. Arguably Australia’s greatest expression of this capricious variety. Long and luxe and the more I stick my nose into this, the more I intuitively want to accommodate it and explore its eddies in greater detail. I drank the 2010 soon afterwards and given how well that has aged, I expect no less from this 95
Grower’s Selection Roussanne 18: Rooibos, quince paste, pistachio and toasted almond. Expansive and full-weighted, but impeccably placed. Each component in synchronicity. Richly favoured, but a bow of tension defined as much by a pungent mineral undertow as by a granitic precision, serving as a pinion between weight, density and freshness; shades of light and dark. A strident wine across the palate, alluding to the suitability of the variety to the region 95
Adam’s Rib The Red 18: Nebbiolo with a smidgeon of Syrah. Delicious drinking now. The shins and knees of adolescence sitting pretty in an almost Cru Beaujolais-esque gulpable swagger. Sour cherry, sapid notes of clove, briar, anise, garden herb and sandalwood, bound by a squeegee of freshness. Delicious drinking. In the zone. At its very best 93
Barbarossa 2017-18: This is the first time I have enjoyed this cuvée. Perhaps, a project of experimentation and contemplation. Finally! Finally! Absolutely brilliant! Suave tannins of a spindly edginess and diaphanous transparency framing notes of petrichor, campfire, sour cherry, sandalwood and bergamot. Sumptuous Nebbiolo, twisting its way across a ravine of spindly tannin and a rivulet of juicy acidity drawing the flavours long 95
Un Segreto 16: 60%/40% Sangiovese/ Shiraz. Raspberry compote, anise, brush, sandalwood and menthol. Finely tuned alloyed-smooth tannins, curtailing the plush mid-palate. Full-bodied but medium of feel as is the wont at Castagna, as much due to the structural latticework as to the granitic soils and sub-alpine setting. Riper and softer than usual, but no less delicious 94
Un Segreto 17: A very different animal to the 16. Herbal. Sassafras. A carapace of firm twine soused tannins binds the more reclusive fruit to future possibility, rather than imminence. Sour cherry, orange zest, scoops of liquorice all-sorts and cardamon. Mid-weighted despite the higher alcoholic buffering. More savoury and bony over sumptuous in this nascent stage. The 17’s boast a saline core with ferrous edges. Mulch and forestry undertones meld with Sangiovese’s inherent friskiness, serving to mitigate the higher alcohol of the vintage. Ironically, this vintage feel more compact and mid-weight despite the higher alcohol 95
La Chiave 16: Jubey, dark and sour fruited of nature with a core of crème de cassis mitigating the brushstroke of spice and scrub. Highly savoury with a ferrous core of tannin, looser than usual perhaps. But quelle tannins! Attenuated and detailed, they sweep across the mouth in a plume of authority, while conferring an immense core of savoury umami. A thoroughly delicious wine 95
La Chiave 17: A brew of forestry scents of pine, autumnal mulch, mint, anise and porcini broth, warm and nourishing. The tannins, fine boned and long limbed. As yet unresolved. Yet this wine promises the most of the Italianate expressions here. The darker tones of fruit, a backdrop. The oak, an addendum. Long, edgy and fresh. An extremely convincing wine with pedigree and ageability written all over it 96
Genesis 16: Lilac, smoked sweet meats, boysenberry, darker cherry, kirsch, tapenade and iodine. A sweeter, riper year conferring a plush approachability. Peppery, to be sure, while doused with an Indian spice sachet of star anise, clove and cardamon, The tannins, exceptionally fine despite the richer fruit. A more forward expression than usual, backed by a skein of sub-Alpine acidity 94
Genesis 17: A great nose. Superlative before it hits the palate. Tight. Compact. Wonderful tension. The tannins, a benchmark of extraction for others to emulate. Clove, pepper, nori and blueberry. Mid-weighted and beautifully furled, unravelling screw by screw; joint by joint; joinery by joinery; detail by detail, strongly suggesting that this will be a wine of the ages 97
Genesis 06: One of the few older expressions that Julian held back for posterity’s sake. And now it is time. Indelibly Rhône-like, boasting whiffs of cardamon, pepper grind, salumi, iodine and violet, the youthful blue fruit allusions giving way to dried porcini, mace and umami with age. Still electric with life as it crackles through the mouth, this is going to sit pretty for a further five-years at least 97
Allegro 18: Syrah with a dollop of Viognier. Mandarin of hue with onion skin edges. A potpourri of clove, Seville Orange, pink grapefruit, sour cherry and cinnamon stick. A curl of firm tannins transcends the usual structural lattice of a rosé, making for a more sophisticated wine closer in aura to a light red 94
Chenin Blanc 18: Dry, tensile and gently lanolin. Rapier-like of intensity and thrust. Pear granita, nashi apple, lemon drop and honey dew melon. Spice, too. Mid-weighted and highly textural, yet this could use another degree of ripeness, more time on lees and a bit of envelope-pushing. The oak, impeccably nestled. A fine wine at is nascent point of development and ascendancy. After all, everything takes time 92
Sparkling Genesis 2009: A deep mottled garnet segues to scents of spiced liquorice, black cherry, dark berry allusions, sassafras and bracken, all smeared with a marinade of clove, tapenade and pepper grind. Intensely flavoured, yet light on its feet as the fizz imparts refreshment factor, the tannins detail and grit and the acidity an uncanny etherealness. With a mere 6 grams of dosage, this is a lesson to the rest of us on how to keep this most traditional of Australian styles current and meaningful 95
Pet-Nat Allegro 2017: Strawberries and cream-type aromas, with a whiff of fennel and lemon verbena for perk. The fizz-gentle, persistent and attractively frothy-sets a tone of lightness, vibrancy and most importantly, joyousness. This is surely the wine’s MO. The acidity, a juicy linger in the background, serves to tow the melee long. A ‘thrills with a chill’ type of proposition 93
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ABN:20 002 315 175
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