by Martin Field

The Crossings Sauvignon Blanc 2006 – $19 \_/\_/
Marlborough, New Zealand. Nose of lychees and fruit salad. Clean lime juice palate with tangy, citric acidity to finish. Ideal aperitif style.

d’Arenberg The Stump Jump Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Roussanne, Marsanne 2006 – $13 \_/\_/
McLaren Vale, South Australia. Nose of sweet melons and dried pears. Softish, generous white with plenty of fruit sweetness and mild acid. Would suit entrée pasta dishes.

Peter Lehmann Eden Valley Riesling 2006 – up to $15 \_/\_/\_/$
South Australia. Green-tinged, very pale. Lime blossoms and lemon sherbet on the nose. The palate shows more of the citrus and finishes crisp and dry. Will age gracefully to 2013.

Haselgrove Reserve Viognier 2006 – $25 \_/\_/\_/
Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Bouquet of dried apricots and faint vanillin oak. More stone fruits on the palate are supported by oak toastiness. Finishes firm enough to suit well-seasoned entrées.

Roundstone Gamay 2006 – $20 \_/\_/
Yarra Valley, Victoria. Gamay is the grape of Beaujolais and this wine has obviously been made after that style. Redcurrant jelly hues. Fruity juicy nose. Pleasing medium-weighted palate of ripe raspberries with an off-dry finish. Lovely lunch wine, serve cool.

Allinda Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2004 – $24 \_/\_/\_/
Strawberry conserve dominates the savoury nose. A biggish (14% alcohol) pinot of mouth-filling cool climate berries over a mild tannic structure. Firm, dry and persistent on the finish.

Frog Rock Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 – $25 \_/\_/\_/
Mudgee, New South Wales. Plummy nose with a hint of liquorice and oak. This is a generous red showing more plumminess in the mouth along with pleasant savoury aspects. Assertive tannins, upfront acidity and a long finish augur well for the dinner table.

Wolf Blass Grey Label Shiraz 2005 – up to $40 \_/\_/\_/\_/
McLaren Vale, South Australia. Deep crimson coloured. Attractive spicy peppery nose. The palate is thick and chewy with intense blackberry fruit and mocha to follow. In a word, scrumptious.

Spitbucket rating system
Five gold spitbuckets \_/\_/\_/\_/\_/ – brilliant
\_/\_/\_/\_/ – classy
\_/\_/\_/ – first-rate
\_/\_/ – good stuff
\_/ – spit it!
An added $ or two denotes excellent value for money.

China correspondent Ken White reports from Dalian.

‘Hi Martin, My favourite tipple here is Dragon seal 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s about $AU9 but in my opinion is above the rest for everyday quaffing. That said there is a great Cabernet Franc I drink every time I’m in Beijing, the name of which escapes me. [Possibly Changyu? Ed.]

I have only found it in Morels, a European restaurant in the San Litun district where the Embassies are situated. Sells for about 40 bucks in the restaurant. Yantai, which is just across the bay (three hours by fast ferry), is a fast growing wine area and the above wines stem from there.

Forget the whites. Long way to go before they become drinkable.

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by Martin Field

Pooles Rock Hunter Valley Semillon 2003 – up to $25 \_/\_/\_/
Grassy, lemon sherbet nose. Light-bodied style with lemon zest, fine honey and a crisp, citric acid finish. Will cellar well to 2011.

Grant Burge East Argyle Pinot Gris 2006 – $20-ish \_/\_/
Eden Valley, South Australia. Nose of tropical fruits and dried apples. Quite full-bodied for this varietal. Shows more of the Granny Smith apple on the palate leading to a dry, tangy finish.

Tallarook Viognier 2006 – up to $24 \_/\_/\_/
Tallarook, Victoria. Shows attractive aromatics of dried pears with a hint of oaky butterscotch. This wine has a creamy mouth feel with rich full flavours of dried orchard fruits. Finishes slightly off-dry with soft acidity.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006 – up to $32 \_/\_/\_/\_/\_/
Marlborough, New Zealand. The benchmark of Australasian sauvignon blanc does it again with a nose of pungent grassiness, blackcurrant leaves and asparagus. All these characters and more combine on the palate, held together with lip smacking lime acidity. Delicious and persistent finish.

Red Knot Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 – up to $15 \_/\_/
McLaren Vale, South Australia. Purple edged crimson. Warm spicy plummy nose. Ripe plums continue on the palate with earthy undertones, medium tannins and good acid structure.

Sparkling Mad Shiraz – $12-15 \_/\_/\_/$
Clare Valley, South Australia. Nose of ripe blackberries supported by subtle French oak. Rich and smooth in the mouth showing flavours of ripe summer berries and lightly toasted oak. Ideal summer drinking.

Campbells Bobby Burns Shiraz 2004 – up to $22 \_/\_/\_/
Rutherglen, Victoria. Deep ruby appearance. Complex nose of plums, raspberries, aniseed and vanillin oak. Robust Rutherglen red shows good ripe fruit concentration, medium tannin astringency and a noticeably firm, food-demanding finish.

Taminick Cellars Durif 2005 – $15 \_/\_/\_/\_/$$
Glenrowan, Victoria. Nose of ‘fruits of the forest’ conserve, liquorice allsorts, vanilla and coconutty oak and noticeable alcohol (15.8%). A red wine for serious red wine drinkers. Extravagant fruit matches well with integrated American oak. Solid drying tannins lead to a long, warm ‘let’s have another glass’ finish.

Spitbucket rating system
Five gold spitbuckets \_/\_/\_/\_/\_/ – brilliant
\_/\_/\_/\_/ – classy
\_/\_/\_/ – first-rate
\_/\_/ – good stuff
\_/ – spit it!
An added $ or two denotes excellent value for money. Prices in Australian dollars.

Virtues and Necessities
by Martin Field

Wine is all about the senses. About sensory evaluation, sensuality and consensual enjoyment. And wouldn’t it be awful to lose your sense of taste, of smell, of touch, of sight?

It happens. Years ago, a wine-loving colleague went through a devastating course of chemotherapy to treat cancer and was cured. Afterwards he told me he had permanently lost his taste for wine. He sold his not inconsiderable cellar soon afterwards. Another friend had an operation on his nose that left him without a sense of smell. He’ll drink a glass of wine with dinner but admits to being indifferent to its finer points.

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Best Shiraz in Australia
by Martin Field

Announced on 27 October was this year’s winner of the Great Australian Shiraz Challenge – the irrepressible Geoff Merrill, with his Geoff Merrill Reserve McLaren Vale Shiraz 2002.

Twelve years ago the search for the best shiraz in the country saw the creation of the inaugural challenge competition. This year 370 wines competed for the prestigious trophy and were judged by a panel of leading palates – James Halliday, Stephen Henschke, John Duval and Geoff Merrill. Merrill admitted at the awards ceremony that he was the only judge to give his own wine (unidentified at the time of judging) a low mark.

My tasting notes for the winning wine read, ‘Rich, dry red with a nose of blackberry, a hint of mocha and toasted oak. Mellow on the palate, with plums, sweet oak and lasting fine tannins.’

Runners-up were, in second place, the 2004 Clayfield Grampians Shiraz; third place, the 2004 Howard Park ‘Scotsdale’ Shiraz. The award for best under $25 wine went to the 2004 McLaren Wines Linchpin Shiraz.