07 September 2015
THREE VERY SLICK REDS
LongLine Albright
McLaren Vale Grenache 2014
$26; 14.5%; screw
cap; 94 points
From old struggler dry-grown vines in the extremely old
rocks high above the Onkaparinga Gorge comes this very clean, modern Grenache.
It's all a polished sheen of raspberry, cherry and redcurrant, so slick and
shiny and seamless it gives me the feeling of red chrome. There is no lurchy change
of gears between that determined bouquet and the flavour and texture: the wine
is a polished lozenge, harmony all the way. It reminds me of the shape of Sir
Donald Campbell's Bluebird, that long space-age teardrop of a machine that won
him the World's Speed Record on Lake Eyre when I was a kid. Only in its long
tapered tail does anything interrupt this reassuring feeling of speed and smooth
luxury, and that's pretty smooth in itself: there's just the tiniest tease of
very finely focused tannin there in the exhaust to make the lips smack with the
notion of delicious resolution. In my case, this fool notion didn't really
resolve until the bottle was done, which took no time at all. It went past like
the Bluebird. Peking duck, please.
S. C. Pannell McLaren
Vale Grenache 2014
$55; 14% alcohol; screw cap; 94++ points
This one's from a sandy rise north of McLaren Flat, old
vines again: 72 years without irrigation. It has a darker glimmer than the
Albright, with a heart like the core of swamp blackwood pumping there in the
middle: slow, almost sinister. So, talking Burgundy, while it has all those
Morey-St-Denis cherries and raspberries like the Albright, it has the added
glint of polished gunmetal, licorice and leather at its centre. Call it a Les
Suchots Vosne-Romanée from, say, Domaine l'Arlot. It is smooth and shiny and
polished like the Albright, but it seems to have a more wicked intention. Not
only does it seek to delight you, but the damn thing actually wants your soul.
It makes its calm, smooth, acquisitive confidence clear. Tea-smoked duck, please -
quick, before it gets my soul!
Provenance Geelong
Shiraz 2013
$32; 13.5% alcohol;
screw cap; 93++ points
Drinking this after those two Grenache wines, the
diligent ethanologist would find it a logical step: it's like the Shiraz adds
some mulberry, juniper and blackberry to the shiny morello syrup of those
brilliant Vales beauties. It's still smooth and teardropped in shape, but to
exaggerate its step closer to the Heart of Darkness it also has the death-dry
tannins of the stockman's black tea pannikin. It's not strong enough to suck
all the water out of your eyes, but it will set them quietly leaking and keep
you awake in the saddle for a few more emotional hours.
Ki-yi-yippy-ki-yaaaayyyyy. (Whistles.) We're crossing over into pork belly
territory, hombres. More black pepper in the hotpot, please.
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