Once a year the Sunday Times Wine Club takes a selection of about 25 to 30 wines to the Glasgow Trades Hall, along with one of the winemakers. This year it was the turn of John Thorne from De Bortoli in Australia's Riverina district. Although the Riverina is not necessarily synonymous with the finest of Australian wines, more likely mass produced alcoholic grape juice, De Bortoli wines are known for quite a bit more character and quality. See below for the tasting notes on John's wines.

Back, by request no doubt, was what the Club dubs the 'Taste Tunnel', where wines can be compared to the fruit or otherwise they are said to evoke. Once again some interesting wines to be tasted from these tables. The Trades Hall is a great venue for a tasting. It has quite a grandiose and old world feel to it. This doesn't mean the tasting is old-fashioned or formal in any way. The wines are kind of sorted by weight, lighter whites together, followed by the heavier, followed by reds and so forth. More 'classic' wines are shown together as are the guest's wines. (i.e. De Bortoli) The one thing that was annoying was the very basic glass. What happened to using the ISO tasting glasses they always used to provide?
 

De Bortoli Wines:

De Bortoli Family Reserve
Riesling 2004
South Eastern Australia
£6.39 - Sunday Times Wine Club

Nice fresh lemony nose with hints of petrol. Trust me, quite pleasant.
Lovely acidity. Lemon and lime fruit, fresh, not too complex (yet?)

De Bortoli Family Reserve
Chardonnay 2003
South Eastern Australia
£8.49 - Sunday Times Wine Club

Bananas jump out in the nose. The palate reminds me of banoffie pie. Creamy, but a bit heavy. This is not really for a warm day, which it was, but a lovely food wine.

De Bortoli Family Reserve
Durif 2002
South Eastern Australia
£8.69 - Sunday Times Wine Club

Introduced by John Thorne from De Bortoli, this wine is made from 100% Durif (Petite Sirah). Aged for nine months in two year old oak.
Reminiscent of the black wines of Cahors in Southern France. Very concentrated, spicy, high extraction with noticeable tannin and great structure. The fruit is more like currants rather than fresh, which gives it an almost port like structure. A bit like opening a bag of Sun maid raisins. Very good.

De Bortoli Family Reserve
Petit Verdot 2002
South Eastern Australia
£8.69 - Sunday Times Wine Club

Smoky, spicy nose. Nice structure, good food wine. Slightly more elegant than the Durif, with fresher fruit. Because this is a late ripening variety it is very well suited to the hot Australian plain. The fruit is still fresh rather than the sometimes jammy, overripe characters you get. It is used in very small quantities (a few percent)  in the best Bordeaux wines, to literally spice them up a bit.

And a few other lovelies:

Domaine de la Rieste
Cotes de Gascogne VdP 2004

France

£5.69 - Sunday Times Wine Club

I tasted this wine next to a Sancerre (Michel Thomas 2004 - £10.99) and this does very well indeed, considering it is almost half the price. Beautiful, pure sauvignon nose. Very nice and fresh grapefruit, wonderfully fruity but not too opulent.
In comparison it maybe lacks some of the pureness of the Sancerre, maybe not as intense, but great value for money.

 

Selection de la Hante
Chenas 2003
Beaujolais – France
£9.79 - Sunday Times Wine Club

Now this is a wine to get excited about. Lovely full strawberry nose, nice slatey minerality to it. Beautiful, refreshing fruit on the palate and just a hint of pepper. Absolutely gorgeous. Sit and drink this out in the garden ‘till the cows come home, or really, sit and drink this anywhere. Even keep it for a wee bit, if you can. Seriously good stuff.