Sandalford Winery

http://www.sandalford.com/
3210 West Swan Road
Caversham, WA 6055
Phone: 08 9374 9374

Visited: 15 June 2008

We pulled into Sandalford on wet, cold day and were surprised when we saw three tourist coaches outside. Things started looking bleak when we entered to find that the tasting menu was also written in Japanese (a bona fide sign that this was a tourist trap) and a tasting room that was also filled with merchandise not necessarily related to wine. There were plenty of ladies in attendance behind the counter and the tasting room was well-appointed but it couldn't avoid a commercial or "shop" feel. The adjacent restaurant was busy but a bit too pricey for my liking, with main dishes costing the same or more as in Perth city. There is a tasting fee of A$ 2.50 per person; for this one can taste virtually the entire range and this has the benefit of doing away with any moral obligation to buy anything.

Sandalford has four brands of wines; Element, Margaret River, Estate Reserve and Museum Releases. All of these groups are marketed and created with different target markets in mind. We tried some of the Element Wines, Margaret River Range but stuck mostly to the Estate Reserve.

And so on to the wines.

Margaret River Classic Dry White (semillon sauvignon blanc) 2008 $20.00
This is a classic white wine, very light with a fruity after taste and is a bit of an in-between wine.

Estate Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2008 $25
More crisp than the Classic Dry White and has a rather dusty aftertaste. It has a lovely Sauvignon nose, the best of the lot in my opinion.

Estate Reserve Verdelho 2008 $25
This is a wine designed mostly to be pleasing but unfortunately it falls rather flat and becomes just a bland wine.

Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2008 $35
This wine has been in French oak for a year, as mentioned by our hostess, which is rather obvious in its nose. You can smell and taste a hint of butter as well as the citrus that is mentioned in the description. I am not sure that this wine needs the sulphide preservative; the alcohol was, at 13.5%, in line with current tastes but a touch heavy. It is a well made wine and eminently drinkable; but you can find something on par, if not better, elsewhere in the valley.

Element Merlot 2007 $14
This was a very fresh wine and the colour was that of raspberry kool-aid. It had a lovely plum nose and the same wet dust aftertaste that is becoming a signature taste of Sandalford wines. It has got 14.5% alcohol so it will be popular with people with a certain crowd, especially when you bring it for a dinner. The price tag would also help with its popularity!

Estate Reserve Shiraz 2004 $35
This wine had a lovely soft rounded nose which simply smelled divine. It was well aged, balanced and had a most amazing colour and with an alcoholic content of 14.5% I was surprised that the alcohol didn't dominate the taste.

Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 $35
The first thing that hits you when you smell and drink this wine is the prominent sensation of mint. The oak of this wine is not very obvious, but a flowery-herby taste is the very noticeable. There was a definite after burn with the taste which came as a disappointment.

Element Late Harvest 2008 $14
This is a very sweet and fruity wine, very undemanding and perfect for those lazy afternoons next to the pool when the wine has been chilling in the eski for the last few hours. It goes down way too easily!

Founders Reserve Liqueur Port $30
It is beautifully balanced, with a slight taste of raisins and a bit of spice. This port is properly made in the Portuguese style and is one of the best things we tasted at Sandalford

Verdict
To be honest, I found it to be a over commercialised and very expensive for what you got. It was a bit soulless, especially for a winery in the Swan Valley which prides itself on being accessible.
Most of the wines were simply expensive for what they offered, especially since you can walk to most bottle stores in Australia and buy a similar quality of wine for less. Great place to go to if you are playing tour guide but if it just for yourself, I would give it a miss.

Lancaster Wines

http://www.lancasterwines.com.au/
5228 West Swan Road
Caversham, WA 6055
Phone: 9250 6461



Visited: 15 June 2008

Lancaster is one of those smaller wineries that only do cellar door sales and they seem to be doing pretty well. They have a lovely lean-to where you can do your tasting but in the winter it is just too cold and you tend to not concentrate on the wines as much. They also offer cheese tasting along with your wine and that was one of the major drawing points. There were three people behind the counter and they dealt quite well with the variety of people who came to taste, but their patent discomfort in the weather only seemed to underscore the problem of an open-air tasting area.

Verdelho 2007 $14
This is a very crisp and has a pleasant tropical fruit taste . Unfortunately it just didn't work for me.

Chardonnay 2007 $16
This wine was lightly oaked for 6 months and it was an accessible, pleasant wine with a slight taste of grenadilla. Neither a typical, nor a big Chardonnay, but priced to sell

3 Vines 2007 $15
This is an unusual blend of 75% Chardonnay, 18% Verdelho and 7% Voignier and the result is an excellent food wine. It is a smooth blend and the hint of fruit complements it perfectly. What a lovely wine.

Chenin Blanc 2007 $14
The taste of green apples surprised me, and this is definitely a fresh, summery wine. Would go down lovely on a hot summer afternoon.

Cabernet Merlot 2006 $21
Clearly the winemaker at Lancaster loves blending and this wine is no exception. 88% Cabernet, 12% Merlot and what you get is a gorgeous colour and the hint of wet dust. We know that 2006 was a very disappointing year, as opposed to 2008 that should be very good; this Cab Merlot blend does its best, has good colour and a good nose; but the overall taste was disappointing.

9 Rows Cabernet 2007 $24
This wine is made from just 9 rows of cabernet vines. The wine has a delicious hint of chocolate and exotic spice. The colour was a touch light and a watery edge suggested that this is a wine for enjoying sooner rather than later.

Tin Shed Shiraz 2007 $19
Named after the tasting shed, it can be seen in the same light. Sorry guys, a bit of a disappointment - not recommended.

Old Vines 2007 $25
Done in the same, light style. Much better than the Tin Shed Shiraz, this wine would suit someone making the conversion from whites to red.

Late Picked Chenin Blanc 2007 $24
A dessert wine that absolutely surprised and delighted. Very sweet, like a sugar rush and a perfect dessert wine. Wow.

Reserve Liqueur Muscat 2002 $31
This is a beautifully integrated, balanced wine and has the most delightful nose. It reminds me of my Granny's world-famous Grape Jam and has a clean finish and is a strong contender for the best dessert wine I have tasted over the past few years.



Verdict.
Where some wineries are geared for slick commercial exploitation, others are laid back in the traditional Australian fashion. I liked the staff greeting us the moment we stepped out of the car, welcoming us and inviting us to taste. The tasting shack has all too obvious shortcomings on days both cold and rainy (as the day we were there) and hot, fly-ridden ones in summer, but the tasting staff make up for this. Lancaster is not a premium winery, but then, it does not pretend to be one and prices accordingly. One of the joys of wine-tasting is to keep on trying until you find that wine that just suits your taste perfectly, and to be able to buy this at a bargain price. I did not buy anything this time, but we could have parted with our money for either the Reserve Muscat or even the Nine Rows. I will be back to taste the 2008 offerings!

Windy Creek

www.windycreekestate.com
27 Stock Rd
Herne Hill WA 6056
Telephone: 08 9296 1057
Visited: 2 June 2008

I have to admit that this was my second time in Windy Creek, the first was somewhere in the beginning of May where they blew me away with their excellent wines. They have a lovely tasting area and offer free cheese and crackers to tasters (very nice cheese it is) and they have an entertainment area where they hold functions. They also have a lot of wines on sale, and they can only be bought through the estate itself, which is unusual for a winery of this size and caliber.
The sales staff are laid back and friendly. Their lives continue whilst you are tasting: friends and acquaintances come and go, are greeted and chatted to. They have the knack to make you feel at home, part of the family.

Eight wines were tried and they were:

Verdelho 2007 $12
A little bit bland, with a sharp after taste.

Sauvignon Blanc 2007 $12
Lovely fresh and balanced, fruity taste and very crisp. Perfect for a hot autumn day.

Premium Classic Dry White 2007 $10
This had an absolutely lovely nose, fresh and citrus like and incredibly refreshing. I loved it

Chenin Blanc 2007 $12
Very forgettable. Can't remember anything about it.

Grenache 2006 $10
In my experience this French grape is mainly used for blending and it is rather difficult to make a good, stand-alone wine from Grenache. So it proved at Windy Creek, too.

Cabernet Merlot (non vintage) $10
Any decent red at $10 must be good value, and so was this. Not a big wine, but accessible, pleasant.

Old Vine Shiraz 2007 $12
Shiraz is what Windy Creek should concentrate on - the winemaker clearly understands this grape and the wine, especially at $12, is good value.

Family Reserve Shiraz $18.50
WOW. Big like an Opera Diva, as tasty as a The Works Pizza, yet as subtle as Machiavellian plot.This is probably the best Shiraz that I have tasted. Smooth, rich and velvety, it just sits right with me. It's well worth the visit to this farm just for this wine alone. And there is no damn $1 tasting fee.

Verdict: I bought the Family Reserve Shiraz and the Sauvignon Blanc and as I am typing this review I am wondering why I didn't take the Premium Classic White. A really lovely place to visit and one of my favourite spots in the Swan Valley.

Baxter-Stokes

65 Memorial Avenue
Perth
WA 6056
Australia
Telephone: +61 8 9296 4831

Visited: 2 June 2008

This is one of those wineries where the wine maker lives right next to the cellar and makes wine primarily for himself. He has a nicely practised sales-pattern that goes down well with the ladies and I believed him when he told us that he makes the wines for himself.He has set up a nice bar area in front of the casks and will quite happily open up a bottle of what he still has in stock. It is a bit unpleasant when you walk into the tasting room and they hand you the menu and the host immediately says that half the wines are sold out. Why put them on the menu then? For the rest, it was nice and social and it looked like a nice sort of place to spend an afternoon. On to the wines...

Flood Gully Chardonnay 2006 $15
This wine has one hell of an after-burn and that is about the kindest thing I can say about it.

Cabernet-Sauvignon-Malbec 2004 $16
This has a light body and the ever present after-burn

Shiraz 2006 $16
This is an unusual Shiraz primarily because of the taste of humbugs. The aniseedy taste is very slight but noticeable and can make this wine a discussion piece around the table. It is very sweet and is also tasted like a it would have little life expectancy. Drink immediately.

Verdict: I wouldn't go back to this place if I had any say in it. The wines have a surfeit of alcohol (up to nearly 15% on the whites!) to make up for the lack of taste, depth, subtlety and fruitiness that one can legitimately expect from the Swan valley. Great to visit, chat to the host, be social - but buying their wines? I didn't buy anything.

Upper Reach

www.upperreach.com.au
77 Memorial Avenue
BASKERVILLE
Western Australia 6056
Telephone: +61 8 9296 0078



Visited: 2 June 2008

This is a winery for a lot of people and they have a restaurant to boot! Lovely views over the vineyards and clearly geared to hold functions as well. The wine tasting area was open and relaxed and had two ladies behind the counter to ensure that there was an easy flow with all the tasters. One of the most unusual things was that they charged $1 to taste the most popular wines (and that is $1/taste!) and most of them weren't even worth it.

The restaurant looked good, the food smelled divine and they had an interesting menu. It looked a bit expensive but maybe we'll go and try out sometime.

We tried five wines:

Verdelho 2008 $18
This was slightly disappointing but very fruity. It didn't blow me away and had a bit if an after-burn. It had a lovely nose and would have gone down well with a light pasta or something.

Black Bream (White) 2007 $15
Wow. Really wow. Fruity, balanced, sweet and light but still a dry wine and well priced to boot! It won't let you down when you are entertaining even the snobbiest of wine buffs.

Temperanillo 2007 $22
This is a real quaffing wine and with 14% alcohol you shouldn't be quaffing too much of this! It is what my mom calls a swimming pool wine, perfect for those parties where the quality of the wine is not so important as the quantity and the alcohol content. A bit pricey for what you get but I can see why it sells well.

Shiraz 2006 $28 ($1 tasting fee)
A local winemaker recently told me that 2006 really stood for Two Thousand and Shit, as the growing conditions, especially for reds, had been far from ideal. With the tasting fee I was prepared for something spectacular, something velvety and rich that would make it worth the nearly $30 price tag. Unfortunately not. The colour was light, it had a closed nose and to my uncultured tastes it was like sandpaper on my tongue.

Cabernet Sauvingnon 2007 $25
Utterly forgettable.

Verdict:
I'd only go back to give the restaurant a go but for me it was a bit bland and easily forgettable.
That $1 tasting fee still smarts! I did buy the Black Bream though and I look forward to drinking it!

John Kosovich Wines

www.johnkosovichwines.com.au
180 Memorial Avenue
BASKERVILLE W.A. 6056
Phone : +61 8 9296 4356

Visited: 2 June 2008

This winery looked unassuming at first and we had trouble spotting where to park but walking underneath vines that were planted in 1922 (with a nice sign ensuring that you knew that) was a wonderful start. Walking through the wine cellar filled with wine casks that had the wine inside chalked on the top of the barrel was a lovely experience and things were looking up. The winemaker was behind the counter and seemed like a knowledgeable guy. We tried three of the four wines available for tasting.

Verdelho 2007 $18
The Swan valley prides itself on its Verdelhos, but most of them are just plain sour and uninteresting. This one is one of the best in the region so far and at A$18, is still good value for money. It was fruity, balanced and very crisp. It went down very smooth and I just loved it!

Chardonnay
This is an unwooded Chardonnay and it was a bit disappointing, especially when you taste it after the Verdelho. It was bland, and not inspiring and it came across as a filler

Pinot Noir 2007 $36
A good wine, unusual nose and fruitier than expected; expensive, especially when compared to that Verdelho!

Verdict: A lovely place, and well worth the visit. I bought the Verdelho and am looking forward to having it friends later.