New Wines at Crush

 2009 The Ned Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand                                                      9.50 €
‘The Ned’ is the mountain that dominates the skyline of Marlborough, New Zealand, a region justifiably famed for its Sauvignon Blanc. This combines tropical fruit aromas with drier grassy notes. The Ned epitomizes the crisp aromatic style of Sauvignon Blanc that is characteristic of this area. The winemaker, Brent Marris, started out at Oyster Bay before moving to start Wither Hills. In his spare time he somehow found time to create a vineyard on the Waihopai River. 2009 was his fourth vintage, and has been spectacularly successful, winning the Blue Gold (highest scoring Gold Medal) at the Sydney International Wine Show, and earning him a place among the 10 finalists for the Young Australasian Winemaker of the Year.

2007 Thorn Clarke Shotfire Ridge Shiraz                             15 €  

A well-regarded recent vintage from one of Crush's stalwarts. Thorn Clarke, in the Shiraz heartland of the Barossa Valley, has been a family-owned vineyard for several generations, predominantly as a grower of grapes, but also using a small selection of their crop to produce some carefully made 'home farm' wines with a very good price-quality ratio.
Despite our assuming that we had a good supply, the 2005 vintage (the 'Velvet Fist') has sadly departed the Crush shelves. The 2007 has more upfront fruit and brooding power typical of the region, but will probably mellow in the next few years; South Australian wines from this vintage seem to be a bit less accessible than the 2004 - 2006 wines, and to want to sulk in the bottle for a bit. This Shotfire gets 91 points from Halliday (the principal Australian wine critic), and can be cellared for the next five years if you're more patient and not so thirsty as we are. It incidentally seems to have acquired 92 Parker points, which is more than Chateau Lafite-Rothschild of the same vintage...