By David Ellis from vintnews
Side by Side is an interesting new label from Brothers in Arms at Langhorne Creek in South Australia, and whose Metala Vineyard is one of the oldest in Australia – William Formby buying the property 130-odd years ago, and first planting grapes there in 1891.
Today his great, great grandson,Guy Adams is the fifth generation to live on and work Metala – side by side with his wife Liz, with the farm still side by side with the vineyard, and the vineyard in turn side by side with the winery.
Little wonder they chose the name for their new label, recently releasing under it a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Shiraz and a Malbec, all nicely priced at $27 each.
Their 2012 Malbec is a beauty, reflecting why Malbec is grown more in Langhorne Creek than any other Australian wine region. Fruit for this one came off vines planted 12 years ago, the resultant wine - a lovely floral and fragrant style, and which, as Liz says, is simply made for foods, chargrilled meats being particularly suited to it.
One to note: Lerida Estate in the Canberra District’s Lake George has released a ripper 2012 Chardonnay from a vintage that owner Jim Lumbers sums up as “simply magnificent,” with perfect dry and cool conditions supplemented by plenty of days of bright sunshine.
And as bizarrely as it does, Lake George – despite the dry – mysteriously filled with water for the first time in a decade in 2012, continuing to confound the locals.
This 2012 Lerida Chardonnay is a wonderfully fruit-filled, crisp and mouth-filling wine that epitomises just why Chardonnay is the world’s most-appreciated white wine when it comes to easy matching with food – and in this case one that reflects the contradictory nature of cool-climate Chardonnay by boasting both fruit and minerality.
Pay $24.50 and match it with roast chicken with a rosemary stuffing, pan-fried pork spare ribs or white fish.
