2009 Golden Grove Granite Belt Nero D'Avola

According to thte label, 'the 600  vines were hand-chipped and budded' and the wine is the 'first of its kind for Queensland'. '[O]nly 150 bottles were released.' Much the same can be said of Golden Grove's vermentino. That's a difficult wine to get in Australia: only a handful of wineries make it. So GG (that's their signature on the labels) is a 'first' on at least two counts.  In colour the nero d'avola is a pinky, purply, plum red with a bronze edge. It's aroma is jammy and currenty. On the palate it's dry and light and has medium length. It's warm in the mouth, like drinking flannel ( A good thing! I love the warmth and softness of flannel. And the stylishness: think 'the man in the grey flannel suit'.Grey is such a great colour; its always full of mood.).  It would be a good wine for pizza. (Mm, I must get more before the 150 are sold out: always lookin for a good light red wine.) It's $40 a bottle. There's a 'young gun' winemaker in the family who has learnt his trade in various locations. GG is part of the Strange Bird (unusual grape varieties) trail in the Granite Belt,: hence nerod'avola and vermentino. Looking good!

2009 Hidden Creek Granite Belt Verdelho

$18. This is a very pale straw or white lemon in colour, not unusual for Granite Belt whites - those of the colourless, I think, but I'm a former South Australian wine drinker. On the nose there is pear and honey. And the pear comes back at the end of the mouthfill  after a tart lemon first off on the palate. Minerally, I think is what my experienced drinker sister said, and she has worked for Matt Moran and at Moncur Cafe. A QLD verdelho is hard to beat. And so is Hidden Creek. The winery has a lovely cafe, and check out the great grey boulders on site.A very pleasant setting. 'The winemaker and part owner is Jim Barnes, professionally qualified at Charles Sturt University'. 'A part owner is Andrew Corrigan MW, a well known wine commentator and educator who is one of Australia's few Masters of Wine.' So you're in good hands at Hidden Creek.

2009 Ballandean Nebbiolo

Ballandean has a label split like the plains and hills of the regions, or ganite rock splititng the plains. It's a kind of noble, imposing label witha staggered height , in black, gold and white. The  'Messing about' series is a group of limited releases.  The 2009 Nebbiolo is at its peak development this year, 2011. In relation to drinking locally, Ballandean is apparently available in one of the Northern Rivers villages Sports and Social Club: Dunoon. We have yet to go there and see what have they have in stock, espeically if it is a range and not just a one-off, such as a sweet red. Ballandean's website says the grape has been grown at Ballandean for approx 16 years that the wine is a bit of a winner: Silver - Queensland Wine Awards, and 4 Stars - Winestate Magazine.

2006 Granite Ridge Tempranillo

Granite Ridge has a grey label for its big reds. This was a silver 2006 medal winner at the Courier Mail and Sofitel Qld wine aawards. It has chocolate and pear in the perfume. It's like honey on the palate, with back cherries or currents, and with a short, light finish. And it is lovely. Something, also, like mandarin to drink.

2010 Symphony Hill Granite Belt Gewurztraminer

red, black and silver label featuring the musical instrument on the wall of the cellar door

2007 Summit Ryan's Daughter Pinot Noir Reserve Basket Pressed

Hand pressing and French oak used. smells deliciously and stunningly of chocolate, coffee, vanilla and rich mince fruit. A bronze medal winner for $30.00. Lightish red plum in colour and light-bodied on the palate. Dry. Finishes not too quickly in the middle palate.

2010 Symphony Hill Pinot Gris

Vey pale pearlescent straw in colour with just an imagined tinge of pink at its edges. Extraordinarily, its smell and taste did make me think of coconut cherry ripe chocolate. There's also some vanilla in the perfume, and green peas in the palate. It's light to medium bodied with some length in that it remains high at the back of the top of the mouth. It's a reallly good pinot gris that you could never dismiss and not notice. It can be drunk beautifully on its own. I did begin to think of open hotel bars in the summer, listening to good conversation and participating with well-judged contributions. Equally, I'm certain it would be good with a light-to-medium tasting fish: proably pretty dam good with whiting or gar, my favs anyway. But with a cheese salad too, such as feta. A more recent drinking found it stern and subtle, a good summer, light wine, but with great friends and conversation. Around $30 from Ballina's Dan Murphy's.

2008 Granite Ridge Petit Verdot

Petit Verdot is a new favourite red for me because it is lightish in the mouth. It's not going to be among the all-time greats perhaps, as another winemaker in the region noted it was a grape for mixing. But it sits between lighter-bodied reds such as pinot noir and merlot for me, and if you're sick of merlot for the moment, as my drinking companion and I are, then think about this grape.   This Queensland Granite Belt wine is a deep, opaque  crimson or plum red in colour, with an immediate smell of plums on the bottle opening, followed by raspberries, chocolate and pepper in the aroma. Green apple and anise may also have come to mind. My drinking companion said 'sappy and dry' on the palate, with a finish. I thought it was calm, and light- to medium-bodied, finishing early, but with a hint of light tannins. Granite Ridge's colour-coded labels has grey for this red, and given the subtlety and sophistication of some shades and tones of grey, this is one of their most striking and attractive labels. It has a few streaks of white imitating the ridges, the high altitude,  or creeks in the landscape. Granite Ridge may not match Symphony Hill in 'standoutishness' but these are good, mid-range drinking wines from an eccentric, individual, independent  master-of-all-trades winemaker. Prices are most often under $20 and $25. 'Dennis Ferguson founded the winery in 1995' and is a man-for-all-jobs at the winery.

2008 Granite Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Rose

This rose has the winery's old and a-bit-too fussy-and-ornate label. But the label's changed for the 09. The winemaker at Granite Ridge does everything at this boutique winery:  do the viticulture, make the wine, move around the bottlesetc, store the ottles, run the tasting at the cellar door. The 08 rose is blood red in colour. There's warm honey in theperfume with a soft, white-pepper edge. It's very dry, but still with honey and violets on the palate, and quite a strong mouth fill.

2009 Ballandean Estate Classic White

I bought this wine specifically because it had chenin blanc - an lall-too-rare grape to find -  in the mix of chardonnay and semillon. Unfortunately, it does not have that mix specified on the label. Why not, I ask?   It does specify, fortunately, that it's an early-drinking wine. It is a light to medium gold in colour, and smells like pineapple with an edge of blackcurrents, with pine and green apple on the palate, with a light sweetness. We had tried the Casley, another Granite Belt, but were shocked at its strength, being used to SA chenin as the very essence of summer barely-there lightness.  The bottle, a very hanbdsome one, has a tear-off label at the back. The winery is owned by the partner of Summit Estate winemaker.  It claims to be the oldest operated and owned family estate in the area.  The label has a shadow of  embossing of BE in pale blue on white, with Ballandean in aristocratic large gold letters on black just above. The winemaker is Dylan Rhymer. $16.00.

2009 Granite Ridge Verdelho

A golden yellow, medium-bodied wine, with pineapple in the perfume and ending warmly on the palate. It's a verdelho that reminds your of verdelho, like a riff on a full-bodied, buttery chardonnay. In colour-coded labels, this is beige/bone.

2008 Hidden Creek Granite Belt Marsanne Viognier

I have double ticks for this wine in my notes. Why? Because its perfume is pear and banana. Its colour is clear, pale lemon. On the palate it's banana at the edges, with  a hint of buttersotch, creme brulee, and vanilla, and some passinfruit. Delicious! Acidic, medium-bodied, as if it han tannins. My drinking companion siad, 'I really like HiddenCreek'. Nice dark bottle with a creek image highlighted. It's sold out!

2008 Symphony Hill Wild Child Wild Yeast Viognier

Winemaker: Mike Hayes, self-taught by growing up and staying in the area.  This wine is part of  the winery's 'exslusive white label range', says the label which is white, with largey writ  'Wild Child' in grey in the left-hand top corner and a large purple hand in the right-hand bottom corner. This is a limited realease wine of only 150 cases, using wild Indigenous yeast. It has more colour than most Granite Belt whites: my drinking companion said pale wheat, clear with a very slight green tinge. She also reminded, or instructed, me that viognier, a variety I love, has the lemon of reisling, the honey of semillion and the weighty oilness of chardonnay. And that's why it's go good, is what I say: three grapes varieties that I love (having returned to chardonnay). Its perfume is of green apples and pine, but it's also nutty. The palate is light and subtle, with some height in the middle. A really very pleasant, sophisticated, complex and subtle wine. Symphnoy Hill itself has a sophisticated cellar door in minimalist, clean, white and polished-wood style, with an amazing cello or viola hanging on the wall as practically the only decor, apart from a striking red seating,  with a sharp, take-no-nonsense, aim-for-and appreciate-quality taster behind the counter. $30.00.

2010 Summit Granite Belt Verdelho

Verdelho is a Granite Belt speciality and the label of this Summit Estate wine says it's their signature wines. This has a sweet, piquant perfume with some passionfruit. It's pale lemon in colour. On the palate it's light-bodied, dry, but nevertheless has depth and texture, reminding you of what it's like to drink a wooded chardonnay, as the memory of it remains on the palate: coconut, or bubblegum like that blue milkshake flavour.  The winery says at 900 mt above sea level, it's one of the highest and coolest vineyards in Australia.

On another drinking later I found the colour to be very, very pale, almost colourless; pine in the perfume, and maybe a little stone fruit such as apricot or peach; very dry and citrusy on the palate, acidic and astringent. Available at Dan Murphy's Ballina. $16.15.

2009 Summit The Pinnacle Premium White

This is a good wine for food. It has pear and cherry, with some citrus and pine, in the aroma. On the palate there's honey and musk and just ever so lightly sweet - an edge of fairy floss. The moorish combinatin of grapes is Marsanne, Rousanne  and Vigioner, and is about $18.00.  Summit's rough-edged (on the back) label reflects the hilly region of the Granite Belt and features blue, white and gold. It's a fairly distinctive label. but the most distinctive thing about the winery is its Spanish female winemaker.

2009 Golden Grove Estate Accomodation Creek Granite Belt Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

This wine won silver in the Rutherglen Wine Show. golden Grove is in the Ballandean Valley.  The Costanzo family opened its cellar door in 1990. The label has an understated striped paper featuring green black and gold. Pine gold in colour, it has pine in the perfume. It's stern, tart and serene. Slightly resinous. Very dry. Probably best with food, it tastes of pine and unripe orange.

2008 Hidden Creek Granite Belt Chardonnay

Hidden Creek has a stacked label in black and white with caps of HC above the spelt-out name. But a lovely grey/green red image of a bird on a crreek. From Ballandean in QLD. The  label says the conditions are comparable with north-east and central Spain,  and  around French Cahors and Galliac, and the upper Rhone Valley. this is mid-lemon in colour. It's unusual: immediately like drinking cake, like maderia, but wihout the sweetness, with cream.  Pine is mainly in the perfume. A gorgeous chardonnay that's also subtle.

2009 Granite Ridge Granite Belt Queensland Merlot Rose 2009

The label has a cerise/lolly pink . But the simplicity of the label is a plus: a strip of white like the outline of a ridge or river. /Granite Ridge is 'a boutique winery producing handcrafted wines in small batches'.  the winery is in Ballandean in the Granite Belt QLD. And the winemaker here does everything. This rose would be really good with food. My drinking companion said it was floral. It had no back palate. but up front it's dry, with honey and roses.

Robert Channon Wines Chardonnay 2009

laberl image of the Whispering Lake over which you look when dining in the cafe. winemaker = Mark Ravenscroft won a national trophy for chardonnay at the Royal Brisbne Show 2004.  'maake wine grown only from grapes in their 19 acre vineyard near Stanthorpe in the QLD Granite Belt.  950 metres above sea level.  warm summers and frosty winters with granite soils where granite boulders stick out of the landscape like giant marbles.