 Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Orkey. Hi, I'm Sherwin Tan. Welcome back to the show. We're filming this while the world's going a little bit crazy right now, so just make sure wherever you are you're staying healthy and safe. I'll drink lots of wine. It's good for you. We're going to talk about some Australian wines today and I am super excited because I love Australian wines. You grew up drinking Australian wines, right? I grew up drinking lots of Australian wine coming from Singapore. I've been in Singapore, I drank a lot of Australian wine. It's so funny because we spend a lot of our time in Europe and people are curious about Australian wines because you don't see the high quality stuff making it to Europe all the time, right? What you got to understand is Australia makes enormous amounts of wine. Most people are familiar with Yellowtail Chiraz, a real cheap type of wines, but people in the fine wine world, what you really have to understand is that Australia, the small producers are really focusing on site-specific terroir-driven wines. There's some of the oldest Grenache, Chiraz, Movedre vines in the world. There's lots of cool climates. It's not just this big hot desert island. Lots of cool climate areas, right? I'm 100% with you. In fact, one of the best cool climate on Grenache that I've had is actually from Australia. That you love the Susette, right? Yeah. It was one of our favorite wines from a few years ago. Anyways, we're getting into some wines from Victoria and then specifically, a place called Strath Bogie Ranges is tiny. I think there's only 600 hectares in the Appalachian that was established in 1970. And Victoria in the south of Australia, like right in the tip, where Melbourne is, you've got to understand there's a lot of cool climate stuff coming out of there. I personally love all the wines from Yarra Valley. There's some great things coming out of the Macedon Ranges. I think Jilong, Gippsland, Mornington Peninsula, and even south there, we did a big tasting of Tasmanian wines last year. It was awesome, right? I mean, it's not just a discovery of wines that you didn't expect them to taste. So what did it do? But also you get a lot of value for Money Wine in that sense because a lot of these wines are not, they don't have like a renowned international reputation. So you really don't have to pay a lot for the high quality offer. So let's get into this. We've got this winery that I think is the biggest one of the Streff Bogey Ranges. This is Fowles Wine. They make, they're big time hunters. I guess they have a restaurant. I haven't been there yet actually. They make wines too. They're specifically pairing with food. And we have two of their more premium wines today. You ready to taste some of these wines? I'm really thirsty. Okay. So let's start here. We have the Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch. So Fowles Wine is the brand, is the name, is the winery. Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch is the series of wine. This is the 2018 Wild Ferment Chardonnay Barrel Fermented. You ready to get started? Absolutely. I really like the name of the wine. It really shows this like countryside living. I mean, I think they really meant it right? Like ladies who shoot their lunch or hunt for their lunch, they actually go out to to prepare for it. And it kind of paints the picture of the countryside and where they are Do you have a corkscrew to open these? Wow, that's really tough. That's like new world technology. Crack that bad bad boy open. Let's give this go. You have to remember people even wine geeks forget this. 2018 sounds super young. You got to remember in the Southern Hemisphere, they labeled the vintage when they pick it. So they're picking at the beginning of 2018. So this is actually kind of like a 2017 wine up here. So let's give this a go. Chardonnay, really why they planted in Australia. As I poured this, I could already smell it's pretty explosive coming out of the glass. Let's give that a nice little straw yellow color. Let's give this a sniff. It's explosive. I can smell it. I can smell it from here. Let's see here. There's no like a stereotype new world wine, whatever people think, imagine, right? Yeah. So I know that this is only partially malolactic fermentation. For users that aren't hardcore white wine geeks, that's converting lactic acid into softer malic acid gives us buttery note. There is a little bit of butter note going on. Absolutely. There it's not overly pungent or explosive to me, right? You still get the I still have the melon kind of the I think the aromatic complex, I mean the aromatic intensities there. Yes. There's a little bit of that butter, not a butter bomb Chardonnay, but you do get a little bit of that. I think it's essential actually for Chardonnay to have this sort of boundary. A touch of grass too, at least a little bit. I know that this appellation is a little bit higher. I think it goes up to a thousand meters. I don't know where the vines are planted along Let's give this a go here. So what do you think? I love the acidic structure. It's a perfect like match of malolactic fermentation, so malic acid and lactic acid. Sometimes it's not very important to talk about acidity when it comes to other wines, but I really think that Chardonnay it's very essential to talk about both because you get your roundness, creaminess, richness, and then you're finished with this lemony striking acidity, which I find in this wine. The M pallet in terms of persistence is not exceptionally long, but I don't think it really matters in this regard as well because it's just a very balanced wine. It's a classic, nice, well-made Chardonnay. I think it's really well made. It's super delicious. It's not for me, it's not like Grand Cru white burgundy, but it doesn't, it's not trying to be that. It doesn't have to be that. It's delicious. You have this kind of tanny acidity. Absolutely. Really enjoyable. I know that older vintages have been scored by Parker, by Venice before, not these newer vintages. Let me give this another shot. So the label says wow for man Chardonnay. I think it's important for some people to know that. Yeah, 13.2% alcohol, very balanced wine. 13.2%. Yeah. I think this is super delicious. This is the kind, this is really kind of the balance between somebody that you don't want that old school California butter stuff because the smell gives that to you, but somebody that wants more acidity or strength, you can give it to both kind of pallets because it brings together both worlds. It's not too big in fat on the pallet. I really enjoy it. I really enjoy it too. To me it's, to me it's, to me it's easily a wine that's going to score in the, I would be guessing that this score blend would be in the 90 point type range. I think it's really, really super enjoyable. Okay, let's move on. So anything else you want to add on this? I mean you dealt with it. I think it's important for people to know that this one's available in the US and the UK. Yeah. That's the reason why we're doing a show on this because we want to only introduce practical wines to you that most of you are able to define. Yeah. So I think they're in the $25, $30 range. So yeah, it's a little more premium, not super expensive. What Australia is most famous for? We have the ladies who shoot their launch Wildferment Shiraz from 2017. Can I get the corkscrew out? Don't get old, you know. Okay. I looked at the website. This vintage of Shiraz, they had to pick into late April. And if you equate that into the Northern Hemisphere terms, that's like picking into late October. So it must have been a cooler vintage. Let's see if it's Shirazi or it's more Shirai. We're looking at an alcohol of 14.2. Let's give this a go. Not explode what people think of typical humongous Blackberry plum Shiraz. This is like a lot of blueberry to me. I think to suit that, it's important when you think about Shiraz from Australia, it's very important to not just kind of create a tight cast and talk about Australian Shiraz, but really understand the climate. I think it's more accurate to talk about cool climate, warm climate, you know, the sort of thing to understand the growing condition. Both the wine's not too oaky. That's what I like at all. Both the wine's definitely not too oaky. What do you get? I get blue fruit? For me, it's quite candid for me on the nose. Black raspberry. Oh, it's ripe? Too ripe? No, it's just candid. I don't think being candid really indicates that it's too ripe. It's not compote or whatever. Pepper? I definitely get pepper. Do you get floral aspects or not? No, a little bit. Okay, let's give this a little bit of a go. This definitely feels very new. Shiraz, Shiraz to me. Can you explain that to people, for people that don't know of them? I mean, it's just more clarity, very fruit driven. The tannins are more polished. I won't say that it's too ripe because it's not really compote or burn. It has a lot of nuances still from the cooler weather, but there's just clarity, a very clean wine, and very very fruit driven. For me, I say maybe because it's maybe we've been, you know, we've always in Europe so long. I'm really, really actually really enjoying this wine right now. Lots of fruit. Like I said, blueberries, black, black raspberries, red raspberries. If I put pepper over top, it's ripe. The tannins are really, really nice. They're not too astringent. I think it's really enjoyable wine. I'm not talking about the rejuice sugar, but there is a lot of sweetness in this wine as well, which indicates for me more phenolic brightness and of a new world style of Shiraz. So are you not enjoying this right now? I mean, if I have to score it, I would score it. Well, but this is not my kind of Shiraz to be honest. Okay. For me, I'm really enjoying it right now. I like Shiraz. Obviously, it's nice to taste some Australian Shiraz, not too big, not too fruity. If I were to score, I would score probably probably 90 plus. I think I like it a tad better than the Chardonnay. So yeah, check this out. I think this would go, actually, you think this would, this is in their ladies who shoot their lunch series. Would this go well with game meats? Absolutely. I definitely, definitely, absolutely think so. I would even think about like wild game meat, roasted meat, which would go very well because it's got a lot of sweetness, a lot of explosiveness on the palate to go well. You think this it'll go well with a black blood sausage tonight? I would definitely think so. In fact, I think I'll like it a lot better with food. Okay. I think it's a good wine. Okay. By the way, it's just, it's just whether you're in the mood for it and what you're getting yourself into. I'm not really the kind of person who drinks a lot of fruity Shiraz. Yeah. Okay. This is really nice. Now, enjoyable, enjoyable wines. Check out these wines from Fall's wine. I'll put links in the description box. We don't have affiliate connections or anything like that. Just, I think they're, if you want to get into us, some more higher quality Australian wines, these are a good place to start. Check out, just explore some of the wines from Victoria. I think you'll find some really good stuff. Yeah, definitely. So guys, take it easy. Remember, explore, try new things. And if you liked this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you at an next episode. Bye.