On Topper of their game.

Continuing to showcase New South Wales wines as part of NSW Food and Wine Festival, the Topper’s Mountain team are really going from strength to strength. The Gewürztraminer is even better than last year’s release, whilst the Nebbiolo and Barbera are more than hinting that Topper’s Mountain will be the next big thing. Get in now.

Gewürztraminer 2013

Umlauts. Important distinction.

Luminous flax in colour. Lush exotic nose with mandarin skin waxyness, lemongrass, musk, lychees and refreshing rosewater. Like a gorgeous handwash that my wife gets excited about in really good Thai restaurant bathrooms. Generous textural palate: full without being unctuous or flabby. Flavour wise, it’s a cornucopia akin to the aroma with lychee and rosewater flavours alongside bittersweet citrus and kaffir lime leaf.  Crackling acidity delivering a spine for the wine that carries the flavour long in the mouth. Incredibly drinkable and a heavyweight contender for arguably, best Gewürztraminer in Australia.

RRP: $35 Alc: 12.8%

Barbera 2010

Ain’t no Bucket wine…

Inky, leather/meaty, moist earth blue fruit nose and a little prickly. Full fruited grippy palate with smoked meats and tart sour/sweet blueberries and aniseed. A little warm and round on the palate and goes down a touch rough/rustic. Lingering acidity on the teeth. Barbera is a Northern Italian grape and usually best consumed with food, but this is a smidgeon out of balance for the moment.
Revisited the wine on Day 2: that warm headiness on the nose has died down, the fruit far more in balance. The acidity is still fierce. So my suggestion is, if enjoying it immediately upon on purchase, give it a good air by sloshing it through a decanter (if you don’t own a decanter, a big jug will suffice), and enjoy with friends and a hearty meal.

RRP:  $32 Alc: 14.9%

Nebbiolo 2010

Tastes like new boots, not old ones…

Lovely garnet red in the glass. All spice, smoke and strawberries on the nose. Lovely medium weighted palate carrying gorgeous rich red fruit: cherry and strawberries supplemented by long tendrils of clove spice. Effortless silky tannins bind it it all together rounded perfectly by cedar-esque French oak, but still with enough acidity to ensure longevity. A wine that could use another 1 or 2 years in the cellar.

RRP:  $38 Alc: 13%

Red Earth Child Blend 2011

A spanner in the works…

A blend of Nebbiolo, Shiraz, Tempranillo and Tannat. Tegan Blue plum skin in colour. Complex richly perfumed nose: Fresh cut rump steak decorated with sweet red fruits polarised with  just laid bitumen and counter-punched with fresh clove spice then side-swiped by deep balsamic notes. Distinctly earthy and meaty with generous red/black fruit spectrum on the palate initially, then lifts off to blueberry braced by acidity and definitive tannins. Very difficult to put into one category, apart from a very unique and delicious drink.

RRP: $38 Alc: 13.4%

All wines samples courtesy of Define Wine and Toppers Mountain