A Taste of Bordeaux in New Zealand and Under-the-Radar Margaret River Chards: Weekly Tasting Report (Oct 12-18)

I just landed in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday morning from Perth, Western Australia, and headed straight to Puriri Hills, a tiny producer about an hour outside of the city. The five acres or so of hillside vineyards overlooking the Wairoa River are pristine and green, resembling lush paddocks in southern England more than a special vine-growing area. Yet despite the richness of the tiny place, Puriri Hills bottles some incredibly structured Bordeaux blends.

The Puriri Hills Clevedon Pope 2020 is like the Chateau Latour of New Zealand, with its superb structure of tight fruit and polished, powerful tannins. This small-production wine won’t be released for a few years, but it already shows fantastic aging potential. It’s a blend of 57 percent merlot, 20 percent cabernet franc, 17 percent carmenere and 6 percent cabernet sauvignon. I drank the 2010 earlier this year, and it was fresh and beautifully balanced. It was just a baby. The wine is the creation of American Judy Fowler, who moved to the area almost three decades ago in a search of “something to do” and she now makes one of the best wines of the country.

I am exploring some of the best small wine producers in New Zealand for the next 10 days and I will be reporting back.

Last week I spent time in Australia’s Margaret River region tasting and rating more than 600 wines with two of my editors/tasters. The region is best known for its top Bordeaux blends as well, but I fell in love with a number of its chardonnays, particularly the reserves of Deep Woods Estate. The whites have the power and intensity of a top grand cru Burgundy, but they show vivid acidity at the end of the palate. It’s surprising that the best chardonnays from the region are still under the radar for many.

Deep Woods winemaker Andrew Bretherton told a story during our visit about a group of high-wealth wine collectors who visited his winery recently and they refused to taste his chardonnay because “they don’t drink chardonnay!”

Bretherton said, “I thought to myself, come on guys, where have you been living, under a rock?” I couldn’t agree more. Search these awesome chardonnays out!

American Will Berliner is another chard producer to look for in Margaret River. The few hundred cases of his Cloudburst chardonnays are dead ringers for premier cru Chablis from such illustrious producers as Raveneau. “That’s my dream,” Berliner said about living up to the comparison during a dinner at his house, which he calls his “shack.” He’s got the passion and vibe to make terrific quality wine, including chardonnays as well as cabernet sauvignons and malbecs.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF AUSTRALIA 2021

Another clear star in Margaret River is Vanya Cullen, with her winery in Wilyabrup. She is the queen of biodynamic viticulture in Australia and makes wines, both reds and whites, with a unique energy and depth. She evens does special wines that are bottled on “fruit” and “flower” days based on the biodynamic calendar.

“We owe it to earth and the wines” she said with great warmth and dedication. Her Vanya cabernets are some of the most moving wines being produced in Australia at the moment. The 2020 is rated in this report.

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was also in Australia, but in the much more remote Great Southern region of Western Australia. "I first traveled there back in 2000 when most of the wines were as rustic as the place, but now there are some elegant shiraz that are lighter and more peppery than those from South Australia, plus some exciting dry rieslings,” Stuart explained. “That makes the region completely different from Margaret River, with its focus on chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon.”

Among the standouts was the Frankland Estate Riesling Frankland River Isolation Ridge 2021, which Stuart called a "Western Australian dry riesling masterpiece."

GARNACHA TRANSPARENCY FROM GREDOS

The wines of the week from our Hong Kong office come from two ingenious Spanish winemaking partners who focus on old-vine garnachas in Sierra de Gredos and operate in elevated vineyards rich in granitic soils in the mountains of central Spain. Fernando Garcia and Daniel Landi are the heroes behind these unique expressions from Comando G, a joint project that strives to deliver delicacy, purity and terroir transparency from a grape often considered the pinot noir or gamay of Spain and which epitomizes Spanish finesse and drinkability despite relatively high alcohol.

The dry 2019 vintage saw severe fires hitting vineyards in Toledo and Madrid in late June, causing a drastic loss of fruit and vines. This resulted in a very small crop for Comando G, yet the quality of the wines remains very high. One of their most impressive is the Comando G Vinos de Madrid Tumba del Rey Moro 2019, which comes with a little more structure than their other offerings but remains ethereal and elegant. Its minerality and chalky structure help define what is a beautifully drinkable, old-vine garnacha that comes from wild and sandy granite terrain of over 1,100 meters in altitude.

The Comando G Vinos de Madrid Las Umbrías 2019, on the other hand, is a more savory and Mediterranean expression delivering fine herbs and spices to the chalky fruit, with a tactile palate that remains zesty and ethereal and has an orange peel character. The Rumbo al Norte from 2019 comes with a more natural and positively wild sensibility, underscored by attractive saline and stemmy edges, superb drinkability and expressiveness. It’s a wine that makes you want to finish a whole bottle but at the same time savor every sip.

READ MORE GREATNESS RISES FROM SPAIN’S NEW WINE SOUL: 2022 ANNUAL REPORT

The El Tamboril 2019 comes from a north-facing parcel of even higher altitude than the Tumba del Rey Moro, where garnacha works hard to ripen, thus usually delivering lower alcohol. The 2019 vintage comes in a racy, pure and bright package with an airy and mossy character that immediately brings to mind the finest pinot noirs or Beaujolais.

Landi also makes his own wines apart from the Comando G project, and  these are equally seductive and exciting. Senior Editor Zekun Shuai enjoyed the superb juicy and tangy quality of the fruit and the tautness of the vertical tannins of the Daniel Landi Castilla y León El Reventón 2019, while the Daniel Landi Castilla y León Las Iruelas 2019 keeps it going with its punchy and expressive aromas alongside mossy fruit and tight, mineral tannins and texture.

The wines from Landi and Garcia aren’t just great to taste but, more important, are an absolute joy to drink. What is even more exciting about these wines is that you can fully appreciate the nuances in terroir differential and vintage characteristics when comparing them, with delicious unpredictability guaranteed.

– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman; Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.