A Quick Dish N’ Dazzle Review of 3 Aussie Wines

The BC Hospitality Foundation’s Dish N’ Dazzle is coming up May 18.  I tantalized you with 3 Australian Semillon in a previous article, and now a quick review of three completely different white wines from Australia.  The grapes are:

• Chardonnay
• Roussanne
• Vermentino

Chardonnay and Roussanne are grapes that originated in France.  Chardonnay is grown in the Burgundy region of France.  You may have heard of terms such as Chablis (which is in the northern most region of Burgundy) or appellations such as Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne.  Chardonnay is widely grown in Australia, with the ones from Western Australia (Margaret River) to South Australia.  Yalumba is a well-known producer of wines in Australia.  We have an example of their Organic Chardonnay today.

The Roussanne grape comes from the northern Rhone Valley, where it is typically blended with the Marsanne grape.  Rousanne on its own can have floral, herbal, pear, and nutty flavours, which you will see matches up quite well my my notes of the d’Arenberg Roussanne.

Finally we have the Vermentino grape; originally from Italy, found in Sardinia and Liguria.  It is a lighter bodied wine, and can have flavours of limes, preserved lemon, green apples, peaches; it has higher acidity and sometimes a salty minerality.

Check out these 3 wines when you visit Dish N’ Dazzle next week.  Get your tickets here.

Let’s Taste Some Wine

Yalumba Organic Chardonnay 2015 –  It is a pale straw colour.  Medium intensity, youthful aromas of green melon primarily with lesser amounts of citrus, lees and baby powder.  With decanting you get green fruit aromas as well.  It is between dry and off dry, with medium plus acidity.  Round with a heavier mouth feel.  The flavours in this wine are subtle; stone fruit and green fruits, together with hints of bitter leaf, oak and minerality.  With decanting the bitter leaf flavour lessens and you get some melon toward the finish.  Upon opening the wine is very peppery but with decanting this is reduced.  It is tart and peppery on the finish, but with decanting the finish becomes less peppery and you get long, persistent pear flavour.
Rating:   A nice wine with green fruit and citrus character. Decanting is recommended as the wine gets softer and has more interesting flavours.

d’Arenberg The Money Spider Roussanne 2013 – Medium lemon with a strong green tint.  Medium intensity nose with ripe stone fruit, lime and honey aromas.  Very nice to sniff.  With decanting you get some vegetal and oaky tones on the nose.  The wine is dry with lots of fruit flavour and heavier body and mouth feel.  Stone fruit, lime and a hint of petrol on the palate together with some minerality.  Again decanting brings out some vegetal flavour.  Medium length that ends with mouth-watering acidity and some bitter leaf, and then honey at the very end.  Rating:

Mitolo Jester Vermentino 2014 – The Vermentino grape originates in Italy but has found a new home in Australia; in this case the McLaren Vale.  The wine has a youthful aromas of lime, citrus, some lees, together with a whiff of petrol and some oak/smoke.  On the palate it is dry and has a light acidic prickle on the tongue.  Medium mouth feel; angular not round.  It has flavours of tart green apples and petrol, with a lesser amount of green citrus and a hint of minerality.  With decanting the wine becomes a bit smoother.  It finishes with mouth-watering acidity and sour green apple flavours, when first opened, but as mentioned the acidity smooths out with some decanting.  Rating: