The Ben Schild Reserve Shiraz 2007 has just been released. The fact that we're now in 2012 and the wine is a 2007 says much about how the winemaker feels about the wine - holding it back and letting it develop in the winery cellars until he thinks it is just right.

The 2006 was a big, bold Barossa: the 2007 is more refined and elegant, in keeping with the pronounced trend to produce more stylish and graceful Barossa reds. The wine will be formally launched on the 12th February at the winery - here's a link to the launch event, should you be in South Australia. 

The 2006 vintage scopped up any number of global awards and the 2007 has done even better: awards received by the 2007 Ben Schild Reserve Shiraz include:

GOLD & TOP 10 Syrah du Monde 2010
GOLD (BEST IN CLASS) International Wine & Spirit Competition 2010
GOLD London International Wine Challenge 2010
GOLD Decanter World Wine Awards 2010
GOLD Mundus Vini International Wine Show, Germany 2010
SILVER San Francisco International Wine Competition 2010
MERIT Wine & Spirits Asia Challenge 2008

The wine is made from a single‐vineyard parcel of Shiraz grapes selected from the low‐yielding Angus Brae vineyard in the hills overlooking Lyndoch, in the southern end of the Barossa. The wine has been matured for 17 months in a combination of French, American and Hungarian oak, before resting for a further 24 months in bottle before release.

The 2007 Ben Schild Reserve Shiraz has rich dark berry fruit on the nose with subtle hints of clove and spice. The full‐flavoured palate has spicy plums, aromatic violets and blackberry crumble and cream with a soft, textural mid‐palate.

Approachable now, this wine will continue to drink very well until 2017. As Schild Estate says, “2007 was a hot, dry year in the Barossa as a whole, but we went against the trend down here in the southern end of the valley – and we’re very happy with the result. The Ben Schild is a single vineyard wine, made from one individual patch up on a hill behind Lyndoch, and I think it really reflects that piece of dirt in that season. It’s fresh and vibrant with juicy dark berries and creamy mouthfeel.”

Only 500 cases made and this wine sells out quickly. Buy here.

This week, Australia's earlybird warm wine regions have started  harvesting grapes that will make their way into 2012 vintage wines. We expect yields will be down on 2011 and demand will be up: good news for the wine industry, and good news for you as wine drinkers as quality will be good to very good this year (if rains hold off during harvest).

The cool climate regions have lived up to their name with below-average temperatures so far, but as their grapes are picked later than the warm climate regions, their yield and quality picture won't be clear for a couple of months.

Choice has never been better for wine drinkers, especially with the high $A making imports so competitive. We sell more imports (nearly nine hundred to choose from) than we do Australian wines - and as we want to sell what you want to buy, please write to us and let us know if there's a wine you like we don't have for sale.

Moscato is all the rage these days. It is a very refreshing, low alcohol (half the normal) white wine with a hint of fizz to it.

There are plenty of Moscatos on offer from Australian producers - our two suggestions are both from Rutherglen in northern Victoria - the All Saints Moscato ($14.25) and the Campbells Moscato ($17.10). Both are low-alcohol, and have a faint fizz ("frizzante"). I like them because they cover three food bases: as an aperitif, with fruit desserts, and especially with cheese. 

The "real" Moscato is Moscato d’Asti: a lightly sweet sparkling wine produced in the town of Asti, in the Piedmont section of northern Italy.

To quote from the Moscato winemaking book Of the Excellence of Wines That Are Made on the Mountain of Turin and How to Make Them:

"The stems have to first be removed from the grapes right before pressing, then the must (crushed grape juice prior to filtration) is fermented separate from the skins. Then the juice is repeatedly filtrated until it runs clean."

All sounds very modern: save that the book was written over four hundred years ago, in 1606!

Our two favourite Moscato d'Astis are the Alasia ($21.85) and in particular the quite brilliant La Spinetta Moscato d'Asti Bricco Quaglia ($32.30). 

What makes Moscato d’Asti special you ask? Well, it’s many things all rolled up into one, but it starts with the perfect adaptation over centuries to the home turf. Layer in a unique terroir with precipitously steep south facing hillsides, manual harvesting of all grapes,  and the gentle sparkling nature of the wine, and you have freshness and delicacy that other Moscato producers can only dream about.

The aroma of a d'Asti is flirtatious, seductive, pure, true and generous.

Increasingly I'm offering a Moscato d'Asti as an aperitif ahead of Champagne: half the price, half the alcohol and just as much flavour. This stuff is fun to down.

Here's a quite wonderful blog post by Andrea Frost, a marvellously erudite newcomer to the Australian wine blogging landscape  - 'The invention of wine'. It's a completely gorgeous article - funny, poignant, wry, insighftul. Come back here when you've read it - but please do read it.

Till soon,

Sarah Fuller
sarah@worldwine.com.au
World Wine