Nice wines I have drunk recently - Red or White

Hi all, I am going to be a complete heathen and submit a commercial link (that has a photo) rather than my own personal snap, as I am trying to give up on technology.....


Tonight I picked up a couple of bottles of what is new in my local Dan Murphy's store - a tempranillo by Caliza. This is a very moderately priced Spanish wine - current pricing is $9.99 as a single.

I know this thread is infested with a glorious array of wine snobs like Daver6 and JohnM, but I am sure that there is also interest from people of lesser desires and means :)

Tempranillo is a cornerstone of the Spanish wine scene - principally because it is a medium bodied wine that fits perfectly with their local cuisine - think tapas. So it is exactly that - an easy drinking, mass produced item in Spain, wine for the people at the lower/mid brackets, but it is also, in its refined forms, a spectacular varietal that commands obscene prices. This particular wine, the Caliza, I find a tad watery compared to the upper segments, but still a very nice drop at the price. I highly recommend you try a bottle or two.

For ten bucks a bottle I think you are getting an amazing bang-for-buck. I think I will get quite a few cases......

As an aside, you will need a corkscrew - this is old-school stuff.
 
I think further to @Daver6's post, all the wines were good. There was no stand-out wine - either good or bad. It was just surprising that the Woodlands didn't stand head-and-shoulders above the others.
 
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Not sure where I got this bottle from, it retails $150 at cellar door, $100 at DM, $90 at QF but doesn’t taste anything close to that. I’m guessing the RRP means it’s one of those made-to-export wines (the kangaroo logo is telltale sign).

To be fair it is a nice Shiraz and I would probably pay $25-30 for it. Needs to be decanted for an hour to open up.

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boomy said:
Not sure where I got this bottle from, it retails $150 at cellar door, $100 at DM, $90 at QF but doesn’t taste anything close to that. I’m guessing the RRP means it’s one of those made-to-export wines (the kangaroo logo is telltale sign).

To be fair it is a nice Shiraz and I would probably pay $25-30 for it. Needs to be decanted for an hour to open up.

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this is another one of the Curtis family vineyard wines, most of them are at the $100 rrp,recently one of those direct wine sale had another 2 of these on sale in a pack , high rrp then 70% off for locals. Not sure hows the sale goes overseas.
 
afro said:
this is another one of the Curtis family vineyard wines, most of them are at the $100 rrp,recently one of those direct wine sale had another 2 of these on sale in a pack , high rrp then 70% off for locals. Not sure hows the sale goes overseas.
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From my experience the Curtis and the Martins are way overpriced for average wines just like 3 Associates. Even at $40 a bottle there is much better wines around than these @$40.
 
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Opened since Friday and finished the bottle last night, the combination of different vintages really gives this wine more complexity, new fresh fruits with aged fruits ,dark fruits comes along some earthy characters, it’s very smooth and a 2 hour decant is necessary. Very good finish at the end,very similar tannins as Friday night, sweetness didn’t increase ,good sign that it didn’t turn into port?
It doesn’t taste like a new release wine at all and I think this wine does really well on a restaurant/bar wine list, you can definitely drink now or it can be cellar for long term. very interested to see how the aged fruit goes with the aging fruits in the future.
 
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My computer is in the shop so I'll have to do this on mobile, forgive any typos.

So this is the MWG iconic Central Otago pinot I ordered hoping for Felton; soon realised this was the go. Some ordinary reviews got me nervous.

This is a huge pinot, the nose is hot, and a little stewed. No feel of precision or purity, more like jam and funk and maybe some strawberries. As I reread this it sounds horrible, and it could definitely be improved, but there is complexity on the nose and it drew me back in. Really felt this was Givry-esque, rustic but interesting.

Palate is just as big, stalky and tannic. This isn't a bad pinot, I would say strawberries and cream, a richness that is wrapped up by tannic length. It's a bit challenging, for sure, but this is one I want to sit on. Day 2 was much improved, it seems to get funkier but the jamminess settled into more fruit purity somehow. Although still young its firmly in that 'serious complex pinot' category, as opposed to 'faultless delicate pinot'.

I can see why they wanted to get rid of this, but I think time will help to elevate the wine and I'm looking forward to cracking one in 2-3 years for another try.
 
tielec said:
View attachment 207321
My computer is in the shop so I'll have to do this on mobile, forgive any typos.

So this is the MWG iconic Central Otago pinot I ordered hoping for Felton; soon realised this was the go. Some ordinary reviews got me nervous.

This is a huge pinot, the nose is hot, and a little stewed. No feel of precision or purity, more like jam and funk and maybe some strawberries. As I reread this it sounds horrible, and it could definitely be improved, but there is complexity on the nose and it drew me back in. Really felt this was Givry-esque, rustic but interesting.

Palate is just as big, stalky and tannic. This isn't a bad pinot, I would say strawberries and cream, a richness that is wrapped up by tannic length. It's a bit challenging, for sure, but this is one I want to sit on. Day 2 was much improved, it seems to get funkier but the jamminess settled into more fruit purity somehow. Although still young its firmly in that 'serious complex pinot' category, as opposed to 'faultless delicate pinot'.

I can see why they wanted to get rid of this, but I think time will help to elevate the wine and I'm looking forward to cracking one in 2-3 years for another try.
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Interesting. Just bought 6 From Dan’s. One of my favourite (and best) CO pinots is Pisa Range. They have been making brilliant Pinot for many years and this GS vineyard is just down the road from their original vineyard. Looking forward to trying. Thanks for the tip.
 

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