2014 Symphony Hill Granite Belt Pinot Gris

We are lucky to have a winemaker running an independent, local bottle shop in a village in a regional area of NSW, Australia. Jared Dixon stocks the Clunes Cellars as if it was his private cellar. Currently he has the gifted Mike Hayes' wines from the Queensland Granite Belt's Symphony Hill, a distinctive label featuring a cello, almost coloured-block-coded for different grape varieties. To drink the Granite Belt is to drink something different than expected of South Australia, or even the NSW Hunter Valley. To drink the Granite Belt's Verdelho and Pinot Gris is to drink something much lighter than expected. The 2014 Pinot Gris is the palest of pale lemon silk in colour with just the slightest tinge of pink, so light it could be hallucinatory. It smells of the lemon combined with pineapple. On the palate it's astringent with unripe pine coming through

2015 Jilly White Wolf of Cumbria ENew England Rosé

In Jared Dixon's 2015 Jilly White Wolf of Cumbria Rosé, Pinot Noir is combined with Gerwurztraminer, both from New England. The colour is bronzed-orange pink, like shiny, new polished copper. There is strawberry and some citrus in the perfume. The palate is salty water and preserved blood orange or tangerine/mandarin, with honey mead on early palate and ginger in the mid-palate. Since Dixon's inclination is food-friendly wines, I thought lusciously about our forthcoming lamb chops while I drank a first glass.

 

2015 Jilly FIFO Barossa Valley

Jared Dixon's 2015 Jilly FIFO Barossa Valley Rosè is orange-red in colour, extraordinary really, with a red fading to bronzed orange: something like the robes of Buddhist monks. Shame they don't drink wine: they'd look good with a glass of this in hand. It has a tart orange Mirella-jube perfume with ripe, juicy mandarin at its edge. The oddity comes from its combination of Marsanne (a white grape) with Grenache and Mataro (reds). So it’s the Marsanne that gives it its tart-jube saltiness. With some cloudiness from its limited interference ideology of making (basket-pressed, indigenous yeast), in the mouth it is interestingly dry: you'd want to be near salt water when you drank it. A kind of beach/desserty/ arid outlook would suit. Spain perhaps. The Middle-eastern coast. Not quite with swimming-tog suitable, but loose-fitting clothes in ecru/cream. A straw sunhat to boot. And, and yeah, sunglasses. Peanuts might be your suitable companions. Or, because of the current penchant for salting everything from caramel to chocolate to ice-cream, one could think about drinking it with these three. It's a Rosé I would not say no to on a hot summer day. See what liquorice would be like with it. I think cheese and bikkies would underplay it. Olive, yes. Chips, not quite. But taramasalata, yes, and therefore potentially caviar – but then, what do I know about that?

2015 Jilly Lone Ranger White

Jared Dixon under his Jilly label has released an intriguing new white: a 2015 New England Gewurztraminer and Petit Manseng, hand-picked and destemmed, indigenous-yeast fermented. The most extraordinary colour, making you think of medieval mead, a kind of dense honey that's also clear and golden, with an hallucinatory bronzed-pink tinge. A mildly sweet perfume of jube, ripe stone fruit, a fluffy yellow or golden velvet. A beautiful wine that is almost like cordial; sophisticated and elegant. An adult wine, a wine for fantastically imagined aristocratic celebrations – or a wine to serve really good and valued friends to say that they are of value.