Australia on #winechat

This Wednesday’s night subject on #winechat on Twitter was Australian wines. #Winechat is a twitter event hosted by @mariepayton of Life of Vines at 6pm Pacific time (9pm Eastern) where there is a different theme each Wednesday. It is open to everyone and all who participate try to get a wine or two that matches the theme and tweet about it. You don’t have to have a wine, just join the discussion anyway. Details of what the theme is each week is on the Life of Vines web site.

I bought two wines to try while we participated. A 2005 Annie’s Lane Riesling from the Clare Valley and a 2008 Two Hands Gnarly Dudes Shiraz from the Barossa Valley. We had generally stayed away from Australian wines because many were overripe fruit bombs. However, recently we tried a couple of Australian wines and were pleasantly surprised at how nice they were. With this #winechat subject being Australian wines we thought it would be a great opportunity to try more Australian wines.

The 2005 Annie’s Lane Riesling is from the Clare Valley which is in South Australia, north of Adelaide. The valley is named after County Clare in Ireland where some of the first settlers came from. With an altitude ranging from 1300 to 1600 feet they get nice cool nights and are known for the quality of their Rieslings. The Annie’s Lane was a deep gold color with notes of petrol on the nose. The flavor was a very nice blend of pears and petrol. This was a very nice refreshing wine with great flavor and a nice finish.

I see I need to do more exploring of the Clare Valley Rieslings. I think I’ll try to collect several and taste them together. Maybe a couple from Clare Valley, a couple from the Finger Lakes area and a couple from Germany, all in the same price range.

From the Barossa Valley which is also in South Australia, north of Adelaide, the 2008 Two Hands Gnarly Dudes Shiraz was a dark inky purple. The nose was dark ripe fruit, spice and just a little note of vegetal. The flavor was dark ripe with rubber tire and leather and a little vanilla. Nice big smooth tannins, this wine was very well balanced and did not show the 14.9 alc. at all. Very nice to drink a wine that has this much flavor without it being overripe.