THE TOP 500 WINES 2005-2006 www.tysonstelzer.com 2005-2006 Tyson Stelzer THE TOP 500 WINES 2005-2006 www.tysonstelzer.com on the hunt for the best wines in Australia and New Zealand… change the world by what you drink 3 the top 500 wines explained 4 on the road 6 join the club 6 the top 500 wines 2005-2006 7 the top light-bodied whites 7 the top oaked whites 26 the top light-bodied reds 32 the top medium-weight reds 36 the top big reds 52 the top sparkling wines 56 the top sweet and fortified wines 59 the top back-vintages 62 the runner-up wines 70 alphabetical listing of all wines 113 2 THE TOP 500 WINES 2005-2006 www.tysonstelzer.com shelves. The thing that scares me is that this selective change the world culling process won’t be restricted to the lesser makers. by what you drink Last month a winemaker made a comment that totally floored me. He said that in his company, there is The next bottle you buy could have more a more far- absolutely no correlation between the quality of a reaching impact that you imagine. wine that he produces and the way that it performs in the market. His statement left me shaking my head for The Australian wine industry is on the move like never days, as it came from one of this country’s top before. Changes are at hand that will change what winemakers in a medium to large company, you drink and the way you buy. But at the same time, consistently producing competitively priced, well- what you drink and the way you buy will have a direct marketed and widely distributed wines – wines of such influence on these industry changes. quality that an astounding fifteen of them went The need to exercise discernment in your drinking has straight to this year’s Top 500. Why is it that the market never been more pertinent. The sheer class of the does not acknowledge quality? wines within your reach today is unprecedented in the At this critical time, you as a consumer have a more history of this country, but at the same time you are important role than ever in defining the future of the faced with more uninspiring wines than ever to avoid. wine industry. What you drink and what you buy will My travels this year have led me past more young determine what remains on the shelves in the future. vines than I have ever seen before. In the midst of an This doesn’t simply mean supporting the little guys. overwhelming grape glut, for some reason, large Many of the growers for the big companies are little investment plantings continue to go into the ground. guys doing it tough, too, and they’re responsible for Meanwhile, the huge plantings of the past decade some outstanding fruit. The big guys are producing are now yielding strongly, meaning that there is a lot wines that certainly deserve your attention. more young-vine fruit out there, producing, in many cases, simple wines lacking in depth of flavour and The solution is simple: drink nothing but the best wines palate length. you can find. Make every bottle you buy a great one. At the same time, on the sales front, we have seen There are no shortcuts to getting it right. It is no longer increasing rationalisation of the retail sector as more reliable to simply follow regions, vintages or even and more independents are enveloped into the companies, and it probably never was. The more various chains of the two big players. The stability that tasting I do, the more I realise that the exceptions are this investment brings is a boost for the industry, as important as the rules. There is no such thing as certainly, but it does change the dynamics of retail absolute consistency across a vintage, even within a sales, particularly in relation to small producers. single subregion. I am regularly doing double-takes on wines from areas outside of the mainstream regions. The number of producers in this country this year has This year the Top 500 contains surprise wines from swelled to more than 2500, although no one has yet largely unheard-of, upcoming regions like Rylstone. been able to pin down a complete listing. The tide is Reliable producers are certainly the safest thing to go rising rapidly in the sea of wines out there, and it’s easy by, but even here it is noteworthy that there is no to go under just trying to keep up. producer in this year’s Top 500 for whom every wine There are wines listed in this year’s Top 500 from that I tasted is worthy of inclusion. producers you will have never even heard of before. For the ultimate drinking experience from every bottle, Little boutique wineries in the backblocks of our most there remains no alternative but to hand-pick wines on exciting regions, turning out exceptional wines that all a bottle-by-bottle, producer-by-producer, vintage-by- too easily slip under the radar. These are especially vintage basis. worthy of your attention as you expand your vinous horizons, but you won’t find them on chain store This is the reason for my Top 500 wines. Selected from a shelves, so you’ll need to source them yourself (see cast of thousands, you can be confident that every page 6 for cellar door details). wine listed represents the pinnacle of quality at its price point. The cumulative effect of increased plantings, retail rationalisation and ever more producers is that things Your brief in supporting the industry is simple: drink the are tough out there for many wine companies, and best wines you possibly can. Now, that’s not such a they’re only going to get tougher. In the next decade, difficult thing! more fruit will go unpicked, more producers will go under, and more wines will forever vanish from our Enjoy this year’s Top 500. 3 These reviews are not copyright. They may be reproduced in whole or in part in any media provided that the author is properly acknowledged. I encourage you to share this document freely with your friends! THE TOP 500 WINES 2005-2006 www.tysonstelzer.com wines listed separately. This separate listing aside, all of the top 500 wines explained the Top 500 wines were available in 2005/2006, or will be released in the future. A new feature this year is the This year’s Top 500 is the most exciting list of wines that inclusion of unreleased wines and tank samples. These I have ever compiled. are restricted to fully finished, blended products ready for bottling, or already bottled. Here are three reasons why: The categories are: First, and most importantly, the list was compiled from a much broader cross-section of tastings than I have The top light-bodied whites ever embarked upon before. In 2005 I tasted more than 2000 wines. This means that for every wine By far the largest group in the Top 500, this is recommended, three others have missed the mark. Of dominated by riesling, sauvignon blanc, semillon and these three, two are not worthy of your attention and SSB blends. The group is defined loosely, since many of the other one is a respectable wine which I’d happily these wines are closer to medium- than light-bodied. It drink, but not go out of my way to track down. contains all dry whites, except for oaked chardonnay. The second reason is that I have included full reviews The value-for-money in this segment blew my mind this of these “runner up” bottles – some 550 additional year, and it will blow yours as well when you get into notes. these wines. There are a whopping ninety-six wines in my list before the price gets above $20! Sauvignon Finally, by popular demand from readers following the blanc and SSB blends feature strongly – this country is Top 500 Wines of 2004, I have this year, for the first producing an arsenal of outstanding examples of time, included the full detail of my tasting notes for these varietals at every price point. every wine. This explains the swelling of this monograph to, literally, the length of a novel – some Australian riesling continues to drive from strength to ten times its previous size – as well as my lack of sleep strength, this year representing more than one-sixth of over the months leading up to its completion! But the my Top 500 wines. This stands in stark contrast to its results speak for themselves, and I trust you will find this dwindling performance on retail shelves, where it has the most useful resource yet, in guiding your wine- dropped to less than one-thirteenth of total domestic drinking decisions. table wine sales this year. Consumers are missing out on outstanding, world-class wines at ridiculously low To simplify this process, you’ll note a new format for the prices. These gems are among the most undervalued organisation of the list. Wines are grouped according wines in the world. Don’t miss them. to style, to allow you to select a style that matches your cuisine and your mood, and then simply run the top oaked whites down the list to find the right wine. They’re ordered from least to most expensive, and there’s something This category is for oaked chardonnay, since lightly here to suit every budget.