2015 Jilly Roman Giallo

Jared Dixon's 2015 Jilly Roman Giallo (or yellow) is really extraordinary. A New England Petit Manseng, again it is a gold in colouring with a pink edge, orange too and ale-ish similarly. If I knew what gold bullion smelt like, I expect it would smell like this — along with being honeyed. And on the palate, it tastes of what I imagine, somewhat fantastically, gold dust would taste like. It's sherbet too. It is made with minimal interference, and Dixon said the wine fought through to its fine end, like the Romans, hence the name. The gold wax over the cork drips luxuriously down the bottle. And the Roman Giallo is on a leather-like shield or a piece of leather-like armour.

2015 Jilly New England Big Cats

Jared Dixon named a 2015 New England red Big Cats, the label featuring a lion's head, because Dixon thought it was a big wine. Made from Touriga and Tempranillo grapes, it is a deep, ruby-red velvet in colour with the illusion of purple. There's tart hot plum in the perfume, conveying the expectation of tannin, but it's smooth on the palate, yet with depth and length. Probably Dixon's best red to date, it represents a mature level of winemaking. Very drinkable, yet suited to experienced drinkers and fine dining. Very impressive.

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.

 

2014 Jilly Margaret River FIFO (Semillon)

This is an unusual Semillon if you're used to a Hunter Valley Sem – or perhaps not. For there can be some unusual HV Sems. Nevertheless, the Jilly Sem is probably recognisable as a Sem – a drink for adults. It's serious, high art, modernist, unyielding in any quest for popularism. A shy, clear mid gold in colour, maybe even with a tinge of lime, and it would seem, on some glances, without that yellow pigment, it could be as colourless as Australian Chenin Blanc. It is its perfume that is most unusual: nutty, nutty, nutty, and honey/hay, roast chicken,  corn, summer grass. The palate is also nutty, with popcorn. The young and emerging winemaker (not all emergent artists are young), Jared Dixon, of Clunes, NSW, Australia, says he felt sympathy for Semillon, under-rated and, as a consequence, usually mixed with Sav Blanc. The Janice Robinson Oxford Companion to Wine says that Sem  is an 'unsung' hero; but from the Hunter Valley, 'it is responsible for one of the most idiosyncratic and historic wine types exclusive to the New World'. (Strange to hear Oz described as the new world!) But here is a winemaker prepared to acknowledge sophistication.   A superb Semillon, with an idiosyncratic  label made by a friend: a snake outline, and yellow and ballet-pink blotches reminiscent of Rothko. From the Margaret River, Western Australia (gravel loam, Upper Wilyabrup, hand-picked, left on skins for 36 hours in the cold, basket pressed, barrel fermented, flew in  2/2/14, flew out 2/3/14): now contending the Hunter Valley!