Having started with the Watervale Riesling, it made sense to try The Lodge Hill 2008 Riesling in close proximity to the younger sibling, and an interesting exercise it was. The Lodge Hill's a lighter, more delicate style on the surface, with a less pronounced nose, but obviously a wine for the medium to long term. There's plenty to like in the glass, but with another twelve to eighteen months there'll be more on offer as the elements lurking under the surface start to rise. All in all, an argument for knocking over your stock of the Watervale in the meantime. If you can do that you'll probably be giving yourself a pat on the back if you're tucking into a bottle of the '08 The Lodge Hill around the middle of the next decade.

Having worked through the drink in the near future whites, by Christmas night I was looking for something to wash down supper, and my hand was drawn to the 2005 Three Little Pigs Shiraz Malbec Cabernet. I had fond memories of the "nicely peppery" 2004 from our visit to the winery.

Three Little Pigs

Like the Silly Mid On, you might glance at the label (half a dozen versions, featuring three pigs engaged in decidedly non-pig activity) and push the bottle to one side on the grounds that gimmicky packaging diverts attention from what's in the bottle, but it only takes one whiff of what's on offer on the nose to allay any concerns. You could spend quite a while trying to identify separate notes on a rather complex bouquet, but given the nose I was really interested in what was contained in the glass, and the complexity on the nose is more than matched in the glass, a medium-bodied style with well-balanced mouthfeel.

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