Ken Forrester 2006 Chenin Blanc (Stellenbosch) South Africa is full of sunny, inexpensive chenin that expresses a round, fat-faced fruit thats absolutely irresistible, and also of overly-ambitious oaked versions that manage to be more interesting than most similarly-constructed New World chardonnays, but perhaps arent the best use of chenin blanc. Very, very few wines straddle a middle ground, but heres one, and its a beauty. Richer than it would be from the Loire, and youthfully simple, but with familiar honey, chalk, wax, and quinine at a nudged-up volume, yet balanced and pure. Ive had this with a little age (albeit from younger vines), and the expected characteristics of aging chenin were indeed on display, to the wines benefit. I have high hopes for this wine. (1/10)
Donaldson Family Main Divide 2005 Riesling (South Island) Just as bright and lively as all previous bottles, but a little less overtly fruit-happy, which is actually to the benefit of the wine because it reveals some sun-drenched rock underneath. Not much this is still a fruit-driven riesling but just enough to add welcome complexity. A nice wine. (12/09)
Fromm La Strada 2002 Pinot Noir (Marlborough) Perhaps the always-fearsome structure is beginning to weaken, or maybe theres just bottle-variation here, because the dark, moody, truculent fruit is more accessible than usual, and the wines youthful aromatics have suddenly reasserted themselves. Thus, a wine that used to smell like pinot but feel like tannat begins to veer away from a stage in which it more closely resembled the latter. Frankly, this is pretty enjoyable, though one has to like filo-esque layers of tannin. (12/09)
Paul Cluver 2007 Gewurztraminer (Elgin) Starts out promising, showing ripe peach, apricot, some cashew oil, and a bit of rose. Not too heavy, not too sweet (but somewhat so). But then, a lack of acidity makes itself generally apparent and eventually somewhat annoying, theres an intrusion of weedy growth, and the wine flattens, wrenches round, and ends up somewhere a good deal more vegetal than it started. (1/10)
Donaldson Family Main Divide 2005 Riesling (South Island) Just as bright and lively as all previous bottles, but a little less overtly fruit-happy, which is actually to the benefit of the wine because it reveals some sun-drenched rock underneath. Not much this is still a fruit-driven riesling but just enough to add welcome complexity. A nice wine. (12/09)
Fromm La Strada 2002 Pinot Noir (Marlborough) Perhaps the always-fearsome structure is beginning to weaken, or maybe theres just bottle-variation here, because the dark, moody, truculent fruit is more accessible than usual, and the wines youthful aromatics have suddenly reasserted themselves. Thus, a wine that used to smell like pinot but feel like tannat begins to veer away from a stage in which it more closely resembled the latter. Frankly, this is pretty enjoyable, though one has to like filo-esque layers of tannin. (12/09)
Paul Cluver 2007 Gewurztraminer (Elgin) Starts out promising, showing ripe peach, apricot, some cashew oil, and a bit of rose. Not too heavy, not too sweet (but somewhat so). But then, a lack of acidity makes itself generally apparent and eventually somewhat annoying, theres an intrusion of weedy growth, and the wine flattens, wrenches round, and ends up somewhere a good deal more vegetal than it started. (1/10)