
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
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I am a very interested amateur wine taster and drinker. I have collected wine since 1983 and hold a 1500 bottle wine collection of mainly red Australian wine, but also some wine from France, Italy and other countries. A blog of new and mature wine reviews for the discerning wine consumer.
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
1d ago
In a recent tasting of high quality French and Australian wines from 2010, one wine shone above the rest; the 2010 Château Margaux.
The wine first impressed with its aromatic and perfumed aromas, so typical of the Margaux subregion. In this case, they were caressing the nose with seamless fragrances.
The main impression is that this is such a complete wine. Nothing sticks out; no acidity, no particular flavour. The mouthfeel is one of intensity and opulence. The wine is elegant and in perfect harmony. It almost detracts to discuss fruit flavours, but if you must, blackcurrant and blue ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
6d ago
I enjoyed the 2015 Sordo (reviewed below) quite a lot. I thought let's see how this compares with the 2015 Elio Grasso Casa Maté.
Wow! What a wine this is. It is only just getting ready to drink at 10 years. This wine is very tannic, but finely grained. The red cherry fruit is mellowing. Mocca flavours and licorice make the palate quite complex. This wine is piercing through the palate. The finish is ultra long. This wine is not for everybody, but I love this.
Elio Grasso has been one of my favorite producers, even more so since I visited a couple of years ago, and saw the special vin ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
2w ago
The 2021 Barolos are coming onto the market. While in some countries the latest vintage is always proclaimed the best, the Piedmontese have a slightly different approach. Of course, the new vintage is always good, but the emphasis is on comparing the vintage with a similar one of the past.
The key features of this vintage were a warm and dry summer. It followed a snow cover in spring, which is better than rain, as rain is drained very quickly in the Barolo soils. As a result many wine makers describe it as delivering wines with good structure and approachable fruit. The comparison ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
2w ago
Normally, I do not like new wines coming onto the market as the next big thing, with a big price tag. However, Swinney has been around for quite some time, the property for 100 years. It has a large high quality vineyard at Frankland River, planted in 1998, and has supplied Margaret River royalty ever since. Highly regarded winemaker Rob Mann came on board in 2018, and the Swinney label was created.
Farvie is the premium label. This 2019 Swinney Farvie Syrah is the second vintage of this wine - and what a triumph it is! The colour is a deep intense purple.
The wine is named Syrah, and ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
3w ago
I quite enjoy US Pinot Noir from time to time. It needs to come from one of the better producers in Sonoma or Willamette Valley. Given the dramatic price increases of premium Australian Pinot Noir (e.g. Bindi, by Farr, Place of Changing Winds), the US wines are not too expensive now. What I enjoy about these wines in comparison to Burgundy is the somewhat dialed-up fruit flavours, as long as the structure is still good.
I was looking forward to this 2019 Peay Ama Pinot Noir, given I liked the 'standard' blended Pinot Noir quite a lot. This wine comes from the West Sonoma Coast, t ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
3w ago
I have never done this before, that is to start with a description from the winery website, but it works in this case. The wine is new and relatively unknown, and the description quite simple and forward.
Darshan vineyard is a tribute to Bindi founder Bill Darshan Singh Dhillon, who passed in early 2013. The vineyard preparations began a few months afterwards with planting taking place in 2014. Darshan faces west on quartz riddled soils similar to the Original Vineyard and is planted at 11,300 vines per hectare with 20% of the vines being a Crazy section at 22,600 vines p ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
1M ago
The Henschke Mount Edelstone has always been a very popular wine on my blog. I am continuing to explore the 2018 vintage with this wine.
Nice to see a traditional and well trusted label
Wow! The 2018 Henschke Mount Edelstone is not what I expected. Therefore, I had a look at some other reviews. They reported what you would expect of this wine. But I experienced something different. A different bottle or lazy reporting by others? Anyway, this is my take on what I drank.
This wine is different. It is predominantly red fruited, red cherry, pomegranate. It is lighter on its feet than the ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
1M ago
I am digging into a number of wines from the 2018 vintage. It is regarded as a very good one with a hot summer early on, but then an Indian summer towards vintage. Today's tasting is of the 2018 Yarra Yering No1 Cabernet Blend. Cabernet Sauvignon, the leading variety in this wine, has always been the flagship of Yarra Yering. How is this vintage shaping up?
I am blown over by my first taste. This is a big wine. Redcurrant and ripe raspberry flavours deliver a big fruit profile. Different in flavour, but similar in fruit weight to the Cirillo I reviewed just before. Despite the fruit co ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
1M ago
The Cirillo Ancestor Grenache is one of the few wines I buy on an annual basis. The latest release is the 2018 Cirillo 1850 Ancestor Grenache. One of the things I like about this wine is that it gets released at six years of age.
This wine is more fruited than in the previous two years. Blueberry and mulberry flavours are quite ripe. There is an unusual mint character as well, not unpleasant. The wine to me is borderline on confected, but it has the pleasant characteristics of concentration and strong aromatics, and it lifts towards the long finish.
Cirillo does not represent the soph ..read more
Thomas Girgensohn's Australian Wine Reviews - and Beyond
1M ago
Sorry for the long break, but there is not much wine to report from Muslim Indonesia. Now back in Australia, we are faced with what to drink during warm summer nights. I still have a preference for red wine in the evening. And I want it to be more than a quaffer, but not too heavy obviously, and not too complicated. Enters the 2021 Pooley Pinot Noir.
I have been critical about the single vineyard Pinot, and to some extent, the story is repeated here. This is a fruit dominated wine, red and black fruit, quite big in the mouth. The fruit weight does not allow much complexity. There is an ..read more