Monday, 1 June 2009
As soon as the average drinker embarks on Elementary Wine Tasting 101 he or she is going to pick up on the link between a wine’s nose and the taste on the palate. Our sense of taste is, after all, closely linked to the olfactory organs. Anybody doubting the link needs to try tasting wine with a heavy head cold congesting their nasal passages.
At the same time, for many drinkers taking a whiff of a wine’s nose is a matter of a perfunctory pass over the top of the glass before taking a sip rather a long slow immersion of the hooter into the opening at the top of the glass. Since most of the wines that sit at highly affordable price points at the bottom of the market are made from what’s left after the pick of the harvest has been channelled off for premium lines you’re not likely to be seeing much specifically varietal character on the nose unless you’re looking at something like Riesling where the winemaker is more or less stuck with what came out of the vineyard.
While I knew about these things, it wasn’t until we reached Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley on the cusp of 2007 that Hughesy encountered a winery where literally everything smelled wonderful. In fact, I would have been happy to spend an extended period just revelling in the bouquet of each wine before I took a mouthful, but when you’ve got time constraints to consider that’s not always possible. When we opened a bottle of Brown Brothers 2008 Viognier with dinner on a recent Friday night those factors didn’t come into play, and Hughesy was left to revel in the aromatics of one of the best Viogniers I’ve sampled. Lovely.
Most drinkers probably know Viognier as the minor partner in the increasing number of Shiraz Viognier blends on the market, and may be surprised to learn that the significant impact on the nose and taste of the wine may be the result of as little as 3% Viognier in the blend.
As the Anything But Chardonnay campaign continues to kick in, and the Sated With Kiwi Savvy Blanc factor joins it, we’re going to see a number of varieties being tried as wine makers set out in search of the Next Big Thing. Check, for example, the flood of Semillon Sauvignon Blancs being produced, and the disappointment when many growers learned that Albarino, widely held to be the Wine Most Likely turned out, in many cases, to be Savagnin instead.
I doubt whether Viognier, as a straight varietal, is the Light At The End Of The Tunnel, but it’s definitely worth investigating if your palate likes to wander around the aromatic end of the spectrum. Be warned, though, since the nose can arrive with about the same impact as an on-coming locomotive. A few samples have made their way through The Little House of Concrete. We’d tried the 2006 Viognier from Zilzie in a Wine Society value dozen in late 07, and a Tahbilk from 2005 early last year, a yellow-green rich style that scored 94 points from Mr Halliday and picked up a couple of gold medals at wine shows.
Sourced from vineyards at Banksdale in the King Valley, the Brown Brothers 2008 Viognier (Cellar Door/Epicurean Club only RRP$16.90 Epicurean members $15.21) arrives in the glass as a light, pale, straw-coloured wine. It’s an appearance that belies the intensity of the bouquet which is almost overloaded with apricot and almond aromatics. Once I’d got past luxuriating in the aromatics, the palate was smooth, rich and lingering. Great drinking, and a wine that I wished I’d sampled before I rang to reorder the Nero d’Avola and Petit Verdot. More please!