Tasted 24th March 2011

The Crossings Pinot Noir 2009 £ 9.95
The 143-hectare estate, with its state-of-the-art winery, is planted with pinot noir, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay on three distinctive vineyards on river terraces on the northern bank of the Awatere River. 14%
Lovely pinot nose. Sweet, ripe and pleasant. Quite floral. Typical - pretty good.

Villard, Le Pinot Noir, Grand Vin, Casablanca 2008 £14.50
Fine, fresh, elegant black-cherry-scented pinot noir matured 10 months in barrels. 14%
Quite a restrained nose compared with The Crossings. Definitely pinot, though, but in a more rustic way. Spicy, toasty and interesting.

Au Bon Climat, Isabelle Pinot Noir 2007 £35.00
For this year's Isabelle, the irrepressible Jim Clendenen was presented with more quality components than he has ever had to work with due to the exceptional nature of the vintage. 13.5%
Crazily heavy bottle - looks more like a litre. A load of new oak on the nose - seriously attractive. Very nice balance of everything. Still not found the millionnaire who's going to keep me in this sort of wine. PS, this was my favourite wine of the tasting, but it damn well ought to be for this price.

Warwick Estate Cabernet Franc 2007 £13.95
Warwick’s occasional single varietal cabernet franc bottlings are hard to come by. This is from the more restrained 2007 vintage. Drink now if you like robust fruit with a lick of oak, or cellar happily to 2015. 14.5%
New oak on the nose. Very, very attractive indeed. So ripe and cabernet franc-y. Omg - reverting to being a teenager - it is delicious. New World, clearly, and with a beautiful sweetness of vanilla on the finish. I'd love some to keep. **

Catena Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008 £10.95
Special Selection for The Wine Society
Toby Morrhall was allowed to select a vat of cedary cabernet sauvignon from Catena's superb high altitude 1,450m Adrianna vineyard, to which a little cabernet franc and malbec were added for extra complexity. Aged for 16 months in French oak coopered by Taransaud, 50% of which was new. 14%
Inky and dark. Really astonishingly attractive smell. Not necessarily cabernet, but rich, concentrated dark fruits. Sweet and very, very spicy. *

Cline California Zinfandel 2009 13% £ 9.50
Fred Cline sources fruit from some of the best growers in the state to make this, his entry-level zin.
Nice sweet, fresh fruit on the nose. Sweet, baked and actually quite refreshing taste. Not my thing but fair to good.

Undurraga Candelabro Carmenère Malbec Carignan 2009 £ 6.50
Wonderfully fruity yet balanced wine. Rich and plummy carmenère (60%) blended with fruity malbec (30%) and a little carignan (10%) for structure and freshness. 14%
Lovely aroma. Tropical fruity and ripe apricots. Beautiful carmenere taste. Quite sweet but savoury enough to be interesting. Great price, but label not good. *

Undurraga TH Maule Carignan 2009 £11.50
Superb carignan from 50-year-old, unirrigated, bush vines in Maule. This is a blend of two vineyards, Loncomilla and El Sauzal. 14.5%
Very heavy bottle. Green and black pepper on the nose and ripe blueberries. Also something like coco butter. Very, very attractive taste. Juicy acidity and very fragrant in the mouth. **

De Martino Las Cruces, Cachapoal, Single Vineyard 2007 £14.95
This special vineyard planted in 1957 is unirrigated. It is a field blend of 60% malbec, 30% carmenère and
10% unknown varieties. Aged for two years in barrel. 14.5%
Coco butter on the nose. Smells like hand cream. Very extracted. Massive and too butch for me. Coco butter on the finish.

Tabalí Reserva Especial Syrah 2008 £ 9.75
One of Chile’s best syrahs, made by the excellent new team at Tabalí (Felipe Muller in the winery and Hector Rocquas in the vineyard) in Limarí. Lovely intense cool-climate syrah with smooth, caressing palate. 14.5%
Chocolatey, oaky nose. Plain chocolate oakiness in the palate. Quite tannic and a little bitter on the finish. The tastes are interesting, though.

Bilancia La Collina Syrah 2008 £45.00
This hillside vineyard produces tiny yields of exceptional syrah with just 3% viognier. The wine spends
18 months in French barrels. 14.5%
Very heavy bottle. Not so much on the nose. Dark flavours and it hides its 14.5% well. Dark spices on the finish. Good, but I can't quite see how the price fits.

Rolf Binder Heinrich Shiraz Mataro Grenache 2006 £13.95
Refreshing nose. Quite floral. Baked and rubbery taste, as expected, and with sweet vanilla on the end.14.5%

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