[TN] Several wines down under

Pending a more complete description of our time spent in the Hunter Valley of Australia, here are a few notes on wines tried in recent days:

With a dinner of duck (me) and venison (Jean) at the Panorama restaurant in the Hermitage in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park (NZ):

2008 Amisfield Pinot Noir (Central Otago) nose: sappy, bright red berry fruit palate: medium-light body, juicy, good acidity

Light on its feet and very food friendly, this Pinot Noir definitely appealed to our sensibilities. We've had a few other Central Otago Pinots that were much more extracted and oaky, so this one stood out for its restraint and delicacy.

2011 McGuigan Bin 9000 Semillon (Hunter Valley, Australia) nose: saline, citrus, seashells palate: light, high acidity, moderate fruit

More about this later, but McGuigan styles their wines for earlier drinking than e.g. Tyrell's Vat 1. This is a very appealing wine in the vein of Muscadet, Chablis and Riesling Trocken.

Tonight, with dinner of venison (me) and lamb (Jean) in St. Clair, NZ, a suburb of Dunedin:

2010 Allan Scott Hounds Pinot Noir nose: sappy, piney, bright cranberry fruit palate: light, high acidity, deep fruit

One lasting impression from my visit to New Zealand in 2001 was the sappy/piney impression left by most NZ Pinot Noirs, as well as their distinctly purple color. This trip I still find that same character in the Pinots tried to date, though the color is more red than I noted previously. Jean felt that this wine was an early quaffer, though it certainly took on more heft as the wine sat open.

Mark Lipton