Rushed Reviews

I have been to Mudgee and Orange NSW of late, turning down a very kind offer to visit buzzing bees curious for the abundant lavender and stumpy Grenache of summer in southern France in doing so. Insane? Perhaps, but after 48 hours by a French pool the novelty wears thin on a four-year old as is my beautiful son, Jack.

Conversely, tax-fed parks of even rural Australian town and cities mid-Winter serve to sate youthful energy by mid-morning. More so, kids are everywhere in Oz! By 11 am. I am able, with a a little convincing, to visit some wineries and Jack and I square off fairly as traveling companions. Such is our relationship.

In any event, more on that tomorrow with more time....

Tonight, very spontaneously, I wanted to scribble a little about Ngeringa Syrah '06 as I just about polished off a bottle on my own after two seminars and plenty of wine today.

Quickly...yeeha.....energy on nose of cracked pepper that manages to straddle the optimal zone of marginal ripeness without being green. In doing so, even as the wine opened, it remained moreish and savoury which to be frank, is what I seek and why I find myself drinking more and more Italian wines these days.

Cracked pepper became an echo behind lavender, wild violet and black olive with gritty hints of peat in the best sense; as the wine opened. In time, some crunchy blueberry notes emerged but again-I emphasize-the wine never became too sweet and remained a mellifluous meld of impeccably yet marginally ripe tannins, juicy acidity and crunchy layered sweet/sour fruit. Boysenberry notes became apparent as the wine opened further. Svelte texture and a joy to drink; I thought this one of the finest wines tasted in the last year.

Biodynamic religosity in the vineyard by the sounds of the website yet hey; if that serves to fuel a modus-operandi of conviction and passion, good on it!

Fine stuff. Imported by A-Wines out of Hokkaido apparently. Around JPY 5,000 a pop but well worth it. Bravo. 96.