On The Grapevine

with David Ellis

Cool summer, cooler verdelho

Classic: a $14 drop to go with a winter's chicken pie 'n' mash.

Western Australia's Moondah Brook has been long amongst the forefront of makers of Verdelho in Australia, and its 2005 not only maintains this reputation but could quite well go down as a classic of the variety.

Coming from a dry and cool to mild summer that made for an excellent vintage, this Verdelho is characteristically fresh and full of tropical fruit flavours... with passionfruit, guava and bananas to the forefront.

Winemaker, Rob Bowen used fruit from the Swan Valley, Margaret River, Pemberton and the company's own vineyard near Gin Gin for this wine.

"Thanks to an excellent vintage that was cooler than normal and produced some of Western Australia's best white varieties for many year, the 2005 Verdelho has a really attractive floral lift with great depth of flavour," Rob says.

"Its one that truly bursts with soft, sweet and fresh tropical fruit flavours, with a touch of spice, and is balanced by soft acid and a long, clean finish," he says.

Pay around $14 and enjoy with a chicken pie and creamy mash.

One for the cellar: McWilliam's have released a 2004 New Zealand-made The Crossings Pinot Noir to partner their highly successful The Crossings Sauvignon Blanc... and yet another premium wine to be bottled under screw cap.

Made from fruit sourced from the company's low-yielding Medway River and Willow Flat vineyards in Marlborough's Awatere Valley, the wine can already be likened very much to the 2002 The Crossings Pinot Noir, which garnered rave reviews... its full of ripe berry and plum fruit flavours with complex savoury notes, and aromas of berries and spice. Pay $25 and put away 'til 2010 or so.