Yalumba Y-Series Viognier 2005

So, when I started OBWT, I had planned for it to be a log of the wines that we were drinking….not only that, I planned for red wines only. Now, looking at the entries to date I’ve done three beers and no wines at all. So tonight I’m going to begin to redress the balance, if only slightly, by looking at a white wine. Makes sense eh?

It’s rare that I buy Yalumba wines, again it’s the BIG company syndrome. That said, I wanted a Viognier and there really isn’t a great deal around in the mainstream bottle shops. I had read a good review of the wine recently and thought to give it a try. I’m drinking the 2005 vintage so the wine has had perhaps a couple of weeks in the bottle if I’m lucky.

In the glass the wine is a pale yellow green. The smell of this wine is terrific, I expect it’s a feature of this type of wine as I have noted the same sweetness of the Viognier when it’s blended in a red, in say a Shiraz-Viognier. The nose is distinctly sweet, flowery, honeysuckle and pineapple; very fruit driven. In the mouth the wine is very light, sweet & juicy again showing the fruit characters of the bouquet. The finish lingers and is perhaps a little harsh though (and not knowing any better) this may well be due to the youth of the wine. I’d be very interested to come back to this wine in a year or two and try it again.

Viognier is a variety that I know very little about and from my experience it does not have the market exposure of the other mainstream white varieties. Trying to give an impression of this variety I’d suggest you think of the fruit driven wines along the lines of a Sav Blanc but with more body. I’d love to have this with some good Thai food!

I don’t drink a lot of white wine, however I really quite like the Yalumba Viognier and I’m certainly interested in trying some back vintages. As a variety I’m going to hunt down a few more of these wines; obviously I will pass on my impressions when I try them.

Little Creatures Pale Ale

What in the name of all that’s beer is Little Creatures Pale Ale? This guy is a strange, unique and absolutely surprising oddity; I’ve not had a beer like it before… but perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself….

Little Creatures Brewing is based on Fishing Boat Harbor in Fremantle, West Australia. Apparently the guys who set up LCB have come from the Matilda Bay Brewery (not 100% sure on this) which is a good sign up front for me as I’ve always been a fan of the latter’s beers. Also, I have read in one review that LC was part of CUB but that said I cannot find any references to CUB from the LC side or vice versa. I HOPE they are an independent brewer; I don’t want my new favorite beer to come from a big brewer.

Little Creatures Pale Ale is very distinctive on the nose, really noticeable floral and citrus tones over spicy cloves….I mean, I’m crap at sensing this stuff and it just jumps out at me. In the mouth the beer is very smooth and surprisingly sweet, the carbonation is perfect for this style unlike some other ales I’ve tried recently. The bitterness drives through the beer and while this tends to linger a bit, the aftertaste is relatively short. The sweet, floral/citrus character of this beer is so different from anything else I’ve had that I have no idea what sort of food I’d match it with…perhaps Thai curries (I’m really reaching here!).

Finishing up, I’m a real fan of this beer, I know its now on tap in a few pubs here in Melbourne….perhaps its time to hunt them down. If you can find some, give this brew a go; you will be pleasantly surprised.

Holgate Brewhouse - Old Pale Ale

The search for great micro breweries continues; tonight sampling the Old Pale Ale from the Holgate Brewhouse. The Holgate Brewhouse is located in Woodend near the Macedon Ranges in Victoria (Australia). The beer is pretty heavily carbonated, at least from the bottle and so the burp factor is pretty high, a very big head results from the pour! The tasting notes provided at the brewers site note that the beer is carbonated in the traditional way, and the makers notes suggest that this additional ‘fizz’ is a feature that the makers were aiming for…..I guess they got it. On the nose this is a BIG hoppy beer; there is a fruity note in the background that I cant place and perhaps some spiciness, its really very nice. The bitterness of the hops in this beer tends to overpower any malt and the carbonation is a bit harsh in the mouth. The finish is long and smooth; again a function of the bitterness/hoppiness I guess. Reading back over these notes my comments could be read harshly, however I quite like the Old Pale; I couldn’t drink a heap of them as they are just a bit too bitter (big?) for my palate. My uneducated opinion would be that these guys would be great on a winter day with a meal (roasts, steaks….meaty stuff). Overall, the Old Pale is quite a nice beer and I will be buying it again.

I note from the website that Holgate have pub in Woodend and it looks pretty nice. It will make a nice day trip for the Old Bastards sometime over summer methinks.

Bluetongue Premium Lager

One of the things that many people associate with Australia is beer, and the beer that folk associate with Australia is Fosters. However, as any Aussie will tell you, Fosters is, unfortunately, a crap beer and where possible we try and stay away from it. SO, if you consider your average Aussie drinker likes a beer and that the national brand is so bad, there should be a strong competitive market for other brands. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. The effects of strangle hold on the market by a couple of primary brewers combined with the monopoly (or is it an oligopoly?) by the two major supermarket chains means that boutique beers are hard to find. When you find them there is likely to be a very limited choice. In this way (from my very limited experience) I think that the American market offers the consumer greater choice and offers the micro breweries a better opportunity to get their products to market. This said, its very satisfying to find a boutique beer in an Australian chain owned bottle shop and I hope that the small breweries can get a foothold and grab a better share of the local market.

Tonight I'm sampling "Bluetongue Premium Lager" from the Bluetongue Brewery in NSW, Australia. This is a beer that I've not tried before and given that its been a lovely hot day I figured I'd have a couple of evening ales and the Bluetongue is tonight's beer of choice. The first thing you note is the packaging, its a standard long neck, but the eye is drawn to the very cool sticker art with a cartoon picture of a yawning blue tongue. The cap also has the lizard logo as well; all in all its a very cool looking bottle. Single bottles were selling for AU$2.99, I didn't get the 6 pack price but I would expect AU$15-16 thereabouts. Bluetongue Premium is a lager (marketed as a premium lager) and the makers state (and I paraphrase) that they are essentially using the best all natural stuff they can find to make this product. The beer itself is excellent; it has quite a big malty taste up front which I quite like in a beer, however in many malt driven beers the malt overpowers the hops, but not the Bluetongue. The malt plays out to a mild bitter hoppy flavour on the palate, with a very pleasant fine bead in the mouth without being overly gassy or frothy. The lager has a clean crisp finish and before you know it you are reaching for the bottle again. This beer promises big up front flavour but stays very drinkable throughout, its the type of beer that I believe you could drink all night without ending up with that big heavy bloated feeling that comes from the overdone (over-hyped?) commercial beers. I tend to 'nurse' a beer and as such I usually find that the stubby is getting pretty nasty, warm & gluggy by the time I finish. The Bluetongue stayed 'fresh' through the entire drink; I'm not sure if this is essentially a feature of the product or the fact that I enjoyed it so much that I drank it pretty quickly.

Bluetongue Premium Lager is brewed by the Bluetongue Brewery. It is marketed as a Hunter Valley product, but with my limited research I believe that it actually brewed in Newcastle. Check out the website at http://www.bluetonguebrewery.com.au/. I found this bottle at my local Dan Murphy store. I really enjoyed this beer, it would be an absolute cracker on a warm evening on the front porch. If you like to snack with your beer, try this one with something else light, perhaps fish/seafood or some antipasto.These guys also make an alcoholic ginger beer.