Filthy Good Vino

Two whites to kick off…

2013 Guigal Côtes du Rhône – Viognier, Roussane, Marsanne blend. Fun every day drinker with plenty of personality. Bargain for under $20 a tube.

2013 La Font du Vent Côtes du Rhône Viognier. Some succulent acid & spice with an edge of that oily texture typical of Viognier and resting beautifully in this wine. Lots of intrigue. Again great value at less than $20 a tube.

Overall lots of yumminess and plenty of bang for your buck!

Next up 3 x sub $20 Côte du Rhône Reds!

2011 Guigal Blend of 60% Syrah, 35% Grenache & 5% Mouvèrdre. Year in year out this is a great value wine, particularly given the volume they make. Insane that they manage to age it for 18 months in foundres (massive old oak barrels) and have an average vine age of 35years!

Mont-Redon 2012 Grenache, Syrah fun booze intriguing, layered, yummy!

Château Pégau 2012 Grenache, Syrah, Mouvèrdre Stepped it up with greater depth & a real lift. Bags of personality and a refined texture! Wine of the bracket.

Overall great value, complexity, yumminess. Get one of each and go back for the one you like.

Last up 2 x 2012 Châteauneuf du Papes!

Mont-Redon Little hit of new oak. Almost only density. Solid booze. Needs some time to settle into it’s skin and reveal full potential $65.

Pégau had an edge of the pox (brettanomyces, a spoilage yeast) it was at a level that you could say added to complexity. The challenge being that it could dominate more over time. Some great fruit and texture behind it. $120.

Keep on the Rhône theme with a Rhône inspired red.

Yarra Yering Dry Red No2 a Shiraz Viognier Marsanne plus secret ingredients blend. A cheeky Dolcetto on the side.

YY Beautiful core of juicy fruit. A rawness that comes from not getting enough air time during oak ageing. May have been a result of the first time the winery has bottled under screw cap.

Benevelli Dolcetto an animal, well developed, a bit of animal. Serious structure that just asks for a bit of cow on your plate! Bargain at $25.

2002 YarraYering No2 without a doubt some serious Filthy Good Vino!

Loved this vintage. Making wine in 2002 was the definition of true love. Yields were close to 0.5 tonnes/acre. Economic viability was not a factor in 2002. We would have had to charge $300 a bottle to make any money! Intensity was insane, yet, the No2 retained the delicacy you’d expect from a YY. Personality & refinement. Seeing this wine evolve is a demonstration of excellence, showing how wines of real personality that have the fruit to back it tell even more intriguing stories as they age! Wine wisdom!

An often missed detail of the YY labels is the leaves that adourn them. The are Bay Leaves, also known as Laurel, not vine leaves. A tribute to Laurel, the Doc’s other true love. There is a beautiful Laurel at the Cellar Door. It’s a tree with a real connection to the history of the winery and the founders.

If you want to know more about Yarra Yering, I share some of my thoughts from the four vintages I enjoyed with the Doc in The Winemaking Years – Vintage 1996 Yarra Yering Part 1 & Vintage 2001-2003 Yarra Yering.