Posted
10 December 2012
2010 Hedonist Shiraz makes Jancis Robinson's Top 100 Reds (2012), selected from over 10,000 wines world wide.
"Polished, fun, pure. Classic glossy Shiraz from South Australia's McLaren Vale. Spicy and not too potent. Dry finish. Biodynamically grown; attractively labelled. What's not to like?"
Jancis Robinson
For full article click the link: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a201212071.html
Posted
29 October 2012
Jancis Robinson, 19 October 2012 - 2010 Hedonist Shiraz
"I can thoroughly recommend this sunny, satisfying drink for consumption, with hearty food, any time over the next three years, and gave it an enthusiastic score of 17 out of 20 when I tasted a range of Waitrose current offerings recently."
For full article click the link: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/m/article/a201210181
2011 The Hedonist Sangiovese Rose
Rating 94 Drink To 2014
Trophy McLaren Vale Wine Show '11 for Best Rose a handy introduction. Pale salmon-pink; the bouquet of wild flowers and spice, the palate follwoing on seamlessly, the lingering spiced cherry flavours needing no sweetness. Classy wine. Scewcap.
1 December, 2011
The 2009 Hedonist Shiraz has been rewarded as Australia's best export wine of the year, winning the prestigious George Mackey Memorial Trophy. It was chosen from more than 14,500 wines by an expert panel.
November 2011: Chosen for second year in a row to be served on Cathay Pacific Business Class
October, 2011: Trophy - Sections 1 & 5: Best Small Batch Wine
www.taste.com.au, Tony Love, National Wine writer.
The Hedonist McLaren Vale Shiraz 2006, A rich, full-flavoured, medium- to full-bodied wine with a supple texture and mouthfeel to the mix of blackberry, dark chocolate and vanilla oak, the tannins are ripe and soft. Scewcap. 14 alc. Rating 93 Drink To 2021 $19
The Hedonist Shiraz chosen to be served on British Airways Business Class.
Last year we learnt that pigs could fly - provided it was Business class on British Airways, with the prominent "pig" label of the Hedonist Shiraz being the airline's pouring red.
The worldwide swine flu epidemic has translated to a worldwide swine wine expansion; British Airways now intend to increase the wine's spread from 25 per cent of its international routes to 100 per cent - yes, all four corners of the globe. Good news indeed for both the international globe trotter and the now famous flying pig of hedonism.
The Hedonist McLaren Vale Shiraz 2005, Strong colour; powerful regional blackberry, dark chocolate, warm vanilla oak and soft tannins; indeed, the Pig satisfied. Scewcap. 14.5 alc. Rating 92 Drink To 2020 $19
8 Jan 2008 by JR
I may well lead a sheltered life but this is the first wine I have ever seen so obviously labelled ‘biodynamic’ . That’s in big letters on the back label. On the front is the thoroughly appealing name of The Hedonist Shiraz 2005 McLaren Vale plus, inexplicably (to me), a fine pen and ink drawing of a pig, not unlike that of Fergus Henderson’s St John restaurant in London that is so proud of its ‘nose to tail’ food. This is nose to glass wine.
The name and alcohol level on the label (14.5%) might suggest something thoroughly over the top but this wine is far from that. The hedonism comes from the pure pleasure of sipping this delightfully approachable and civilised Shiraz from the Winterfold vineyard in the hills above Willunga in the southern, more ocean-cooled sector of McLaren Vale. Far from a syrup or tough tincture, this wine tingles with life and manages to be beautifully balanced for current drinking while not being sweetened up or vapid. It has that glossy McLaren Vale ripeness with some real finesse. About a quarter of the must was run off to finish fermentation in barrels. The majority of oak was new and French, supplemented by 30% one year-old American oak barrels.
The maker of The Hedonist is Walter Clappis who owned the Ingoldby winery for 20 years during which time it had a pretty glorious record on the Australian show circuit. He claims to be the only winemaker from McLaren Vale to have won the famous Dan Murphy Trophy three times, and is a leading exponent of biodynamic viticulture – which can’t have been that easy in McLaren Vale, I can’t help thinking. Nowadays he is substantially helped by his winemaker daughter Kimberly.
According to winesearcher.com this wine is on sale in Australia for Aus$18.35 a bottle. The UK importer is ABS Agencies (contact dftw@abswineagencies.co.uk) and in October 2008 (!) they at long last achieved a major listing: Waitrose, at £8.99.
One other thing impresses me about this screwcapped wine: there is such a shortage of decent wine names, with producers coming up with successively more ridiculous abstract nouns that it seems particularly clever to have nabbed a name as appealing as The Hedonist. Pig or no pig.
