Apologies: this long-trailed blog entry has dragged its heels owing to pressure of work and travel (to Tasmania and WA).

I’ll spare you the recitative -- though what I will say is that some of this work covered Australia for my Decanter columns, and some of it has been for the four Financial Times wine columns which Jancis Robinson is kind enough to ask me to write while she takes her summer break.

Two of those FT columns have been on Australian topics this year. Since some of those keeping an eye on this blog probably don’t see either the FT or Decanter, I will resume all of the above before long in further blogs, rather than posting them in the articles section.

I’ve also driven well over 2,000 km in the last few weeks, hundreds of them through the heaviest rain I’ve ever asked windscreen wipers to deal with. I had idly noticed in the past that Margaret River logs double London’s annual rainfall, and acknowledged in a desultory kind of way that most of that rain came in winter. Now I know what the bald figures mean: curtains of water. Heavy velvet curtains. This is, after all, a snout sticking into one of the biggest ocean masses on the planet. (And they surf tsunamis here: if you don’t believe me, take a look at Mark Matthews on the horrifying Cow Bombie at http://www.watoday.com.au/sport/bra-boys-wa-wave-judged-the-biggest-and-...).

I promised a selection of tasting notes on some of the wines which have most impressed me during the last six months. (This is a non-exhaustive selection of wines given scores of at least 15 out of 20 on the World of Fine Wine scale – which means very good or better.) I’m beginning with Tasmania and Western Australia since they are fresh on my tongue; other regions (and a few photos for this blog entry) to follow in due course.

Tasmania
Tasmania has a great wine future. Site selection is all, but the best table-wine sites are already delivering balanced wines of natural articulation with unique profiles and flavours. Sparkling wines are much better than they used to be, thanks to reduced fruit flavours, less biting acidity, more oxidative handling, more use of reserves and greater autolytic softness.

Domaine A 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon
I like the warmer vintages at Domaine A – and when Peter Althaus pulls it off, this is a Cabernet unlike any in Australia: fresh, poised, complete. Peter thinks this vintage is too alcoholic (14.5%) but I disagree. Within the overall Domaine A spectrum of freshness and poise, this has that extra succulence and textural weight, as well as an unusually long flavour line tapering away to a liquorice finish. It will age superbly for a decade or more.

Apsley Gorge 2007 Pinot Noir
Brian FranklinBrian Franklin’s faithfully Burgundian techniques deliver a magnificent synopsis of the potential of his warm site: broad, statuesque Pinot with grand depth and texture, and fine drinking qualities. The 2007 Chardonnay is wonderfully plump, grainy and chewy, too: true to the varietal, yet a balance which reminds me of avant-garde Mediterranean whites from the Languedoc or Roussillon.

Arras 2002
Large companies are better equipped to excel with sparkling wines than with any other wine style (as Champagne proves), and Ed Carr at Hardy does a great job in crafting a white sparkler from Tasmania which avoids acidic over-assertiveness – but which isn’t cautiously neutral, either. It’s softly textured, tongue-curling yet genuinely ripe, with the triple-crown hallmark of mealy creaminess (from well-managed yeast work), vinosity (from astute fruit handling) and a sense of sap and energy without overly fruity characters (from well-sourced raw materials harvested at just the right point). It’s got length and finishing complexity, too.

Clover Hill 2004
Another Tasmanian sparkler with lots of texture and secondary complexities, where the fruit notes do no more than tease aromatically then haunt rather than structure the palate. The result is complete and multi-layered.

Winter light, Clover Hill

Freycinet 2005 Riesling
Claudio RadentiThoughtful Claudio Radenti treated me to the most comprehensive tasting I’ve had yet in Australia: generous verticals of Chardonnay, Cabernet-Merlot, Riesling, Pinot and the Radenti sparkler. My highest aggregate scores went to Chardonnay, Riesling and Radenti, all of which are good and sometimes outstanding. The Riesling is about much more than fruit: iodine-fresh, grass-refined scents (the younger Rieslings have notes of jonquil), with a concentrated, orange-ripe flavour which seems to subside in a flourish of crushed dolerite. The 2005 Chardonnay is superb, too: perfect ripeness, vinous, glycerous, with remarkable inner energy.

Frogmore Creek 2008 Pinot Noir Reserve
Fascinating layer-building work from winemaker Nick Glaetzer and senior winemaker Alain Rousseau here: under 5% carbonic maceration, 20% wild ferment, 30% cane-cut ‘Amarone’ style fruit; and 20% co-fermented with Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. It could be porridge ... but it isn’t. There’s graceful, enticing violet fruit on the nose, and warm, vivid, unstrenuous fruit flavours, too, again with a floral note to them. Long, mouthfilling textures. Clever stuff.

Grey Sands 2008 Pinot Gris
I didn’t visit Grey Sands – alas. At Mark Smith’s suggestion, Rita Richter has subsequently sent me a selection of characterful samples. This fully ripe, 14.6% wine is the most successful Pinot Gris I’ve tried yet in Australia. The scents have great classicism and charm: crystallised fruits and cream. Balanced, vivid, ripe flavours of nougat, dough and preserved citrus with a mineral-salt edge to lend definition and shape.

Jansz 2004
Attractive oxidative complexities in this richly flavoured, almost chewy sparkling wine. The 2005 Rosé, too, manages to evoke strawberry from start to finish without ever subsiding into obviousness.

Kreglinger Blanc de Blancs 2000
The intense, pristine Kreglinger sparkling wines are those which most need extra cellar time if you can manage it. Even after nine years, this is sheer, vivid, deep, driving, just hinting at wildflowers and white almond and with a mineral tingle in the finish.

Lubiana Brut 2003
Steve Lubiana does everything well – and I love the look of his light-lavished site above the broad Derwent and its intriguing geologies. (Snapped a photo of fossils in limestone …) Six years on, and this tastes superb: textured, full and vinous with creamy, almost honeyed complexities. Great Pinot here, too.

Moorilla Muse 2008 Gewurztraminer
I’d like to see the exoticism turned up a little more, but if you have a taste for the refined Trimbach-like style of Gewurztraminer then this dry, delicate wine, with its clean spice, mineral purity and rose fade, is a reference. (The Moorilla Praxis Pinot from 2008 also deserves a mention: ripe and juicy pleasure, pure and simple.)

Piper’s Brook 2005 The Lyre Pinot Noir
Elegant, classy refinement here, with perfumed fruits and liquorice spice on the nose. The fruit spectrum is redcurrant and cranberry rather than riper fruits: very fresh, bright, brisk and poised. The opposite end of the style spectrum to Apsley Gorge.

And silently flows the Tamar

Pirie 2007 Clark’s Riesling
This botrytis Riesling, and the no-less-successful Tamar Ridge 2007 Botrytis Riesling, both come from the low-lying, gratifyingly humid Kayena site close to the Tamar estuary. It’s obviously a superb spot for fungus: I love the dripping unction of the botrytis characters as well as the rich orchard fruits freshened with lemon verbena; they’re both weighty and succulent on the palate yet perfumed, too. And natural in articulation, without any of the strenuousness which seems to accompany most artificially induced versions of this style.

Spring Vale 2007 Pinot Noir
The young family team at Spring Vale are doing exciting things with Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and, as here, Pinot: smooth, pure and fresh, the flavours a swirl of cherry, cassis and chocolate.

Western Australia
An exciting trip here, which taught me much about the nuances of the different GIs within Western Australia. Leading producers in WA, moreover, have made quality advances in the vineyard and in terms of harvesting and handling which I haven’t yet seen widely in South Australia; they are also obtaining and extracting levels of tannin in both Cabernet and Shiraz which I have seldom encountered elsewhere in Australia and which, as a European, I relish. I was also heartened to see that vineyard balances are often accepted and celebrated here and emerge limpidly in bottle, greatly to the benefit of the wines’ drinking qualities as well as their inherent sense of place. On the minus side, the struggle against herbaceousness in some of the Cabernet-based reds is not yet over, and there is some exaggeratedly early picking to create speciously high-impact, high-acid styles for certain whites.

Cape Mentelle 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Moss wood toadThe set I tasted at Cape Mentelle was strikingly consistent. (Mostly 07s and 08s – this was the only older wine – and I could have picked any to review.) Wallcliffe is a more southerly location than Willyabrup so you don’t get quite the same tannic mass in the reds as at Cullen and Moss Wood. Currant and rosehip flavours are teased towards full ripeness and allowed unforced expressive force; a poised, fresh finish.

Capel Vale 2007 Viognier
The Capel Vale range in general was impressive, based on ripe fruit and sensitive, intelligent winemaking, and I particularly enjoyed the wines from Geographe itself. Like the Perth Hills (see Millbrook), it seems to be a great spot for Viognier (though don’t ignore the fine-value Verdelho as well). This is full-gold in colour, with lush, chewy, voluptuous low-acid flavours, structured and freighted by perfume and glycerol. Amazing value for just $22. (Capel Vale also has an excellent Mount Barker Whispering Hill Shiraz and Riesling, and the Chardonnay and Sem-Sauv from Pemberton are delicious drinker’s wines, too.)

Castle Rock 2006 Riesling
Somehow or other the long, cool, drawn-out 2006 season came good for Angelo Diletti’s Riesling, grown within the spiritual gravity-field of the ancient Porongurups. This is one of the most convincingly mineral Rieslings I’ve tasted in Australia, its apple and pink grapefruit held in check behind a refreshing granite speckle. The 2004 and 2002 vintages show how well these wines age.

Cherubino 2007 Shiraz
Larry CherubinoThis is a Frankland wine, from the best block in Larry Cherubino’s father-in-law’s Acacia Vineyard. I gave outstanding scores to every Shiraz from this vineyard in both 2007 and 2008 – and there was very little to call between the Cherubino top wines and The Yard second wines, so the prices of the latter will look very tempting. Why so good? In essence, beautifully ripe fruit from what is obviously a site of high potential vinified with great sensitivity. The 07 Cherubino has lovely bacon-fat width, while at present the 08 is all sexy spice. Behind both, though, is a kind of near-austere forest-floor complexity and dignity which qualifies that surface charm and lends it distinction and potential profundity.

Cullen 2007 Diana Madeleine
The best-tended vineyards I’ve seen so far in Australia have been those of Cullen and Henschke. Both are working with biodynamics. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I love the tannic presence of this blend (84% Cab Sauv, 8% Merlot, 4 % Cab Franc ck, 4% Petit Verdot) and its savoury yet lifted character, with great palate width and complexity. Aromatically it has some development ahead of it, but the mint-and-underbrush warmth and serenity bodes well. It’s structured and built like serious Bordeaux, but the flavour spectrum is wholly different -- and unique. The 07 Mangan is an even more interesting blend (31% Merlot, 32% Petit Verdot, 37% Malbec) and is still more floral in style yet backed by disarmingly graceful textures. As good as the Diana Madeleine, but different.

Forest Hill 2007 Block 8 Chardonnay
One of the reasons why Chardonnay is worth persisting with though all the squalls of fashion is that no white grape variety registers the nuances of site in a more adaptable manner. (In that sense, it’s the perfect white counterpart not to assertive Cabernet or to demanding Pinot, but to the character actor among red grape varieties: Shiraz.) This Mount Barker Chardonnay is fresh, delicate, finely crafted, its allusions poised somewhere between cool orchard fruits and soft, creamy vegetal notes of celery or fennel. More Pessac than Puligny, in sum, and a big contrast to the best Margaret River versions.

Frankland Estate 2008 Isolation Ridge Riesling
National renown for Frankland seems to focus on Rieslings at present, but my gut feeling is that in the long run Shiraz, other Rhône varietals and perhaps Tuscan varietals (see Houghton Jack Mann below) will be what makes this hugely promising area’s reputation. The Rieslings strike me as Australia’s most intellectual at present, which isn’t necessarily the perfect springboard for wine-sale success. Nonetheless I’d be sad to live in a world without the Frankland Estate Riesling trio, though I’d love to taste them with a little more ripeness. The 2008 Isolation Ridge is taut and intricate as a watch mechanism, precise and orderly, ticking out subdued pulses of apple, pear, stone, talc and coriander.

Houghton 2004 Jack Mann
OK, it’s Cabernet-Merlot from Frankland’s Justin vineyard – but I kept thinking of Tuscany as I tasted it. Tangy, savoury and complex, yet with a shadowland austerity to it which makes it complete, satisfying and a fine food wine, too. I wonder how Sangiovese would perform here?

Marchand & Burch 2008 Mount Barrow Pinot Noir
You wouldn’t guess this wine was made from cool south-facing vineyards in Mount Barker. It’s ripe, and full of personality: warm, tangy, meaty aromas, with a rich, vivid, mouthfilling flavour, packed with cherry and cinnamon plum. Delicious and exuberant. The 2008 Gibraltar Rock Pinot (from vineyards under the Porongurups) is purer and more poised with less texture and a kirsch note to the cherry. Oddly enough, since those vineyards are north-facing. But they’re two very good wines and testament to the Jeff-and-Pascal partnership.

Millbrook 2008 LR Viognier
One of the two or three finest Viogniers I’ve tasted in Australia and an inspiring white wine which ought to rearrange the boundary posts for what is possible and desirable here. The scents, almost eerily, seem to convey texture: glycerol, cream, perfumed balm. The flavours then deliver a thick carpet of unctuous, multi-layered late summer fruits infused with floral essences. Given the Condrieu-challenging quality, the price ($42) seems very reasonable. The ordinary Viognier very nearly as good as this, and the Shiraz-Viognier is making great progress.

Moss Wood 1986 Cabernet Sauvignon
This was the best bottle I’ve drunk (as opposed to tasted) in Australia so far – thanks to Peter Forrestal, who very kindly brought it when he visited us in Adelaide. Wonderfully classy and expressive scents of sweet resin, cedar, coffee and leather; a balanced and complex flavour with real textural depth, even after over twenty years, and with a palate keynote perfectly poised between sweetness and ripeness. The recent vintage I tasted with Clare and Keith Mugford was 2006 -- which is built on a much lighter scale (the coolest vintage ever in WA). I didn’t taste the 2007 Cabernet, but the 2007 Amy’s and the 2007 Ribbon Vale Cabernet-Merlot suggest it should mark a return to denser form.

Picardy 2007 Pinot Noir
Bill Pannell and Picardy dirtPale and bright in colour. One of the hallmarks of fine Pinot for me is an aromatic lift, a sense of aerial enchantment, and this wine has that quality: round, engaging, charming, fruit-led at this stage. On the palate it’s lively, fresh, graceful, its raspberry fruits swept into focus and definition by palpable but supple tannins. Svelte, swish finish. The 2008 is looking very good at this stage, too.

Pierro 2007 Chardonnay
My pick of the Margaret River Chardonnays: I love its mealy, oaty, almondy style and its mouthfilling, textured flavour profile. There is structuring vinosity here, not too much fruit, mouthcoating glycerol and soft acidity: the Meursault of the West.

Plantagenet 2007 Shiraz
A Shiraz scent for lovers of Syrah: brushed earth, Havana leaf, tangerine peel, all very limpidly expressed. The palate is deep, full, lively, textured: a mixture of raspberry and underbrush with some of that tangerine perfume lingering into the finish. Tony Smith and winemaker John Durham were kind enough to treat me to a long-range vertical tasting, and the 1978 Plantagenet Shiraz, made by Rob Bowen, was in better shape than the 1978 Chave Hermitage I drank on millennium night. So there’s history here ...

Salitage 2007 Pinot Noir
I love the sane balances and outstanding drinking qualities of the Salitage range from Pemberton, of which this soft, lingering, elegant and freshly defined Pinot is a good example.

Suckfizzle 2007 Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon
Not raw and underripe, as at some wineries, but teased towards full expressive force in this southerly vineyard site, and given exceptionally well-judged oaking. Apple fruits, a little pea flower, cream-napped and linen textured: a fine-dining white, if ever there was one.

Woodlands 2007 Malbec
Not many bottles of this, sadly (just 300), so it was a privilege to try it. When the leafy characters in Margaret River reds are fully ripe, as here, they are hugely attractive, like fine Havana wrapper. Rich and warm yet light, lively and fresh on the palate, with disarming grace and drinkability.