Versatile Australian Wines

This Thanksgiving holiday we had several different wines with many different foods. The great thing about that is you can choose your wine to pair with the food item you are eating at the time. You also get to see what works with what and what doesn’t work. I did, however, find two wines from Australia that would pair with a wide range of food items and would have been just fine if they were the only two you had. Between the Chardonnay and the Shiraz/Grenache blend you could cover everything that went with a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

The first was a 2010 d’Arenberg The Olive Grove Chardonnay. This is a very nicely made Chardonnay from the McLaren Vale & Adelaide Hills in South Australia. Being near the sea, McLaren Vale has a Mediterranean climate with distinct seasons. With warm days and cool nights during the growing season the wines tend to be complex and well balanced. The 2010 d’Arenberg Chardonnay had a nose that smelled of the Chardonnay grape with a little char from the barrel. I love it when you can smell the fruit! There were flavors of citrus, lemon and orange peel, white peaches, caramel, barrel char. A complex Chardonnay with restrained oak so you can really taste the grape. Great acid and a long finish of orange peel. This went well with the white meat of the turkey and all the side dishes. At $17 this also makes a great wine for sitting in the backyard on hot summer day.

The second Australian wine that paired well with much of the dinner was the 2008 Kilikoonan Killerman’s Run Shiraz Grenache. The blend of 60% Shiraz and 40% Grenache really made a flavorful balanced wine. This wine is also from South Australia in the Clare Valley. This is one of Australia’s oldest wine regions first settled in the 1840s’. The first grapes were planted by Jesuit Priests escaping persecution in 1851. While McLaren Vale is south of Adelaide the Clare Valley is about an equal distance north of Adelaide. The altitude varies between 1300 and 1600 feet and is a little more continental with cooler nights so the fruit ripens more evenly. Interestingly, the Clare Valley is best known for it’s Rieslings.

The 2008 Kilikoonan Killerman’s Run Shiraz Grenache was a rich ruby color. There was ripe dark fruit with some vanilla in the nose. The flavor followed the nose, rich, ripe (but not over ripe) dark fruit with some vanilla and spice. The tannins are very soft and well integrated with the flavor. Since it wasn’t an over the top Shiraz it went very well with the dark meat and the sage dressing. I think the Grenache is a really pleasant addition to round out the Shiraz. At $20 it made a complimentary pairing with the Chardonnay to accompany a turkey dinner.

Note: These wines were provided as tasting samples.