The only downside to these wines with high ratings coming from the new world is their seemingly high levels of alcohol. Many winemakers seem to want to catch up with the ratings of wine critiques who like big, robust wines and sometimes seem to drive alcohol levels up in order to meet some benchmarked taste (personally, I like to drink more and longer because of the good company that wine must be paired off with; 14.5% to 15.5% alcohol in wine drives one to the horizontal, with or without your partner.)

Anyway, we started with a Woodcutter’s Semillon 2004 and a Saignee Mataro Rose 2005. I couldn’t guess at the hullabaloo wine writers were talking about with these wines and my tablemates, like Freddie Pio de Roda, couldn’t agree better with the shortness of the wines. The Semillon 2004 was short in finish and I’m not going to be diplomatic and say austere. The Saignee Mataro Rose 2005 didn’t taste like a rose but more like these Bardolinos imbibed at Godfather/Mafia weddings (well, I probably was kinder considering that my table mates, all of whom are Chateau and first growth aficionados, said it had gin.)

I was glad to be over that and went on to the reds. Now, the full range of reds is truly worth the poetry and the extra kindness and appreciation you display to the service staff (to keep it coming; and when the bottles run out, to commandeer more from another table).

The first wine I would say was my favorite of the evening and would be a good seduction wine. This was a Steading Grenache Mataro Shiraz 2003 or a trilogy. The Aussies truly make excellent interpretations of this GSM blend (Mataro, if I recall correctly, is Moudverde in French). This red wine was opulently shouting with sweet and luscious fruit. It had a light, smoky nose, with a cheek-filling and lip-smacking jamminess, with the complexity of flowers, wood spices, black pepper, coconut, chocolate, black cherry and liquorice. Although the other reds of the evening were impressive, this wine had David Powell, the winemaker’s personality and skill, imprinted on it. The wine gave a subtle creaminess to the delicately poached lamb tenderloin and white asparagus in chive broth. It even stood up well to an otherwise dangerous enemy of wine, which is asparagus.

The next wine of the evening was a good value, prized Struie Shiraz. This wine was patterned more after the Rhone style rather than the Australian Shiraz formula. The Struie Shiraz displayed its mettle showing off hints of brown sugar or treacle, pandan, cherry with light whiffs of smoke, and violets. Its back flavors evoked interestingly of peat and had a meatiness of bacon and ham that just married well with the grilled tenderloin on a Bayaldi of vegetables (I missed the truffle though but I was paying more attention to the wines.) I also kept a little of the tenderloin and paired it with the next wine which was a very classic Aussie Shiraz style.

The Factor Shiraz 2003 was very dark, powerful and spicy. It evoked violets and dark plum pudding, or fruit cake and pepper; it was truly enjoyable. This was the favorite of the table although my mind was still focused on the Steading GSM. This Factor Shiraz 2003, by the way, is a collectible.

Last but not the least was a Descendant Shiraz Viognier. What is interesting nowadays is that Australians are getting this prevalently white wine grape called Viognier, known for its bursts of fruitiness, and blending it with Shiraz. Complexity is achieved with back notes and finishes of fresh plums and apricot coupled with cranberries. The wine was rather young though, and it would be good to expect more from it with careful storage of about 3 to 5 years.

If any of our wine-loving comrades are interested in the Torbreck reds, you can call 817-1166 (a lot of readers ask me about my sources, so we will share them openly from now on).