Tasting a bunch of Australian pinot gris and sauvignon blanc lately wasn’t that much fun. A few wines stood out, but by and large our sauvignon blancs don’t taste enough of sauvignon blanc, and the less said about our average pinot gris, the better. Thank heavens I inserted as a benchmark a wine from Marlborough, The Crossings Sauvignon Blanc 2003, into the tasting, just to show how far off the pace our sauvignons really are at present. This wine, incidentally, is simply packed with intense fruit, is deliciously but not overpoweringly grassy, and presents the sort of racy, steely palate that the best from Marlborough regularly deliver, before a bracing mineral finish. Fine wine. The best of the locals was the rather complex and leesy, but intensely flavoured and minerally Cannibal Creek Sauvignon Blanc 2003. This southern Victorian vineyard continues to impress. As for the pinot gris, I liked the rather complex, unashamedly reductive and heavily worked Shadowfax 2003 (Adelaide Hills), the slightly green-tinged Rochford (Macedon Ranges) 2003, the generous and savoury Joseph (McLaren Vale) 2003, the rather fine and tightly focused Hanging Rock The Jim Jim 2003 (Macedon Ranges) and the Foxey’s Hangout 2001 (Mornington Peninsula), which expresses some very pure varietal fruit qualities. The Madew Belle Pinot Gris 2003 (Canberra) is dusty and nutty, alluringly complex and savoury.
