Christmas servings and seasonal confusion

I thought I’d kick off my first blog piece on our recent early Christmas dinner festivities. I’ve noticed at this time of year that trying to buy wine becomes a mine field of confusion, special deals and “what to drink at your Christmas dinner” self-help guides.

So, it was my Dad who sent me out with his member’s card to buy the booze but luckily I’ve discovered that if you read enough about wine throughout the year, you’re less likely to be distracted by the boxed gift set editions strategically stacked in tripping distance of the cellar door.

Despite this, I still chose wines I hadn’t tried before. On the white wine front I grabbed a bottle of Brown Brothers’ Pinot Grigio and was well satisfied with the result. For a white, it has a lovely dusty quality to it, balanced by a sweetness - my sister had more than one glass which is a good sign of its versatility as she normally guzzles those lolly, pre-mixed drinks. This is a great value wine for its class – it was quietly sophisticated and certainly gives some of the international pinot grigios a run for their money.

I was disappointed when my Dad cracked open his own bottle of red, a shiraz viognier, taking this to be a sign that I hadn’t chosen well. I’m still not sold on this variety, preferring my shiraz straight-up – I love the body and pepper of this wine and am sometimes disappointed by the softer combination. I feel wine makers are erring on the side of being sexy for the market and are innovating to chase sales. The words of a purist, perhaps?

So, I turned to Yering Station’s Mr Frog pinot noir which was a very surprising wine for this variety. Pinots can be hard to negotiate at times, being either successful or very disappointing. This wine was interesting for its tannic structure as a pinot. The fruit was still there, but I wasn’t expecting the feel of the wine in the mouth – this was a pinot with body.

I have to say, thought, that still one of the best pinots I’ve had comes from Wine Point, a shop specialising in clean skin wines. Their 2T Mornington Peninsula pinot noir is incredibly balanced, perhaps owing to the fact that the grapes are sourced from differing vineyards. Apparently it’s sold so well that the team at Wine Point are putting in a special order for more. From memory it sells at around A$20, dissipating the fallacy that clean skin wines are cheaper. Still, with a lovely smoothness and delicate structure, combined with great flavour, it’s worth it to know that it’s a pinot noir that can be relied on.