Peter Nixon's Top Picks for Summer

NIXON’S PICKS

Unsure of which wines to drink this summer? Peter Nixon, a member of the Dan Murphy’s Wine Panel, picks his dozen of the best wines to try over the warmer months.

PETER NIXON Dan Murphy’s Wine Panel l Range Development

BLANC DE BLANCS CHAMPAGNE

Made entirely from the chardonnay grape, this relatively recent addition to the Champagne landscape has become the fastest growing style in the region over the last few years. Loved for its pure freshness and citrusy appeal, this is the perfect aperitif or the ultimate match for freshly shucked oysters.

VALUE CHOICE: Charles Orban Blanc de Blancs Non Vintage It’s hard to believe that you can get any Champagne of this quality for so little money, let alone a critically-acclaimed, award-winning ‘grower’ Champagne.

NO-EXPENSE-SPARED: Krug Clos du Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Vintage This wine comes from an ancient 17th-century vineyard; the most exalted chardonnay plot for sparkling wine on earth. An expression of Krug’s legendary power and complexity, together with the finesse of blanc de blancs. A genuine icon.

DRY, PALE, SAVOURY FRENCH ROSÉ

Dubbed ‘white wine for red wine drinkers’, it offers the freshness of white wine with the tannins (aka texture) of red. Dry style rosés have taken the world by storm over the last decade. France is undeniably the global epicentre for the style, in terms of both diversity and value, with those from the warm Mediterranean south, the most famous.

VALUE CHOICE: Reserve de Fabregues Rosé Costières de Nimes FRANCE - Grenache Shiraz Lightly coloured, fresh and elegant with aromas of peony roses and wild strawberries. A crunchy fresh palate with hints of summer berry and spice.

NO-EXPENSE-SPARED: Domaine du Gros Noré Rosé Bandol FRANCE - Mourvèdre Grenache Cinsault This brings next-level complexity and minerality. A textural edge, together with dusty dried garrigue herbs and orange rind aromas and flavours. It gives an almost negroni-like appeal. The palate is expansive, intense, and very, very long.

MODERN AUSTRALIAN CHARDONNAY

Forget those overripe, high alcohol and excessive oak styles of the 1980s, modern Australian chardonnay can still be equally full-flavoured, complex and powerful, yet now also possesses a whole new level of freshness, vibrancy, and drive.

VALUE CHOICE: MadFish Gold Turtle - Margaret River WA - Chardonnay Margaret River produces a genuine, crowd-pleasing style of chardonnay. Its maritime climate with warm dry days and long cool nights delivers a style of chardonnay full of flavour reigned in by fresh acidity.

NO-EXPENSE-SPARED: Giaconda - Beechworth VIC - Chardonnay Considered by many critics to be Australia’s finest chardonnay. No expense is spared in producing this powerful, complex chardonnay. Low-yielding, single-estate, minimally handled fruit, fermented and matured in the finest quality French oak. The palate could be described as the classic iron fist in the velvet glove. So much power and complexity, yet also tightly coiled, confident of many years, even decades. Would be fantastic with sustainable WA marron pan-fried with artisanal butter.

CHILLABLE REDS

As a generalisation, in Australia, we tend to serve our whites too cold and our reds too warm. In short, serving white wine too cold subdues the aromas and flavours, serving red too hot accentuates the alcohol (heat), which also masks the character of the wine. A fresh, young red can look deliciously vibrant at around 12-16c - or what the French call vin de soif (which loosely translates as refreshing wine), a style that is rapidly becoming popular in Australia. France’s Beaujolais (aka gamay) is the original chillable red, however, Australia also now produces some so-called slurpable examples.

VALUE CHOICE: Z Wine Rustica - Barossa Valley SA - Grenache This is a lovely expression of modern Australian grenache. Unhindered by oak, it’s bright, crunchy and breezy.

NO-EXPENSE-SPARED: Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages - Burgundy FRANCE – Gamay Not expensive, more priceless. This is the godfather of chillable reds; a global success story for almost half a century that does not rest on its laurels. It is still a truly brilliant example of the genre. The fruit is gorgeously pure, the wine utterly slurpable. Like liquid summer pudding.

TEMPRANILLO TOUCH-DOWN

Tempranillo is to Spain what shiraz is to Australia, producing a dynamic range of superb styles in a wide number of regions and climates across the nation. Like shiraz, tempranillo can also be enjoyed young as a juicy, minimally oaked wine or appreciated as a more serious, savoury expression, with more age, tannin, and oak. Not surprisingly, given our similar diversity of climate and wine regions, tempranillo has found a home in Australia in recent decades with some outstanding examples being produced in a number of premium regions nationally.

VALUE CHOICE: Brown Brothers 18 Eighty Nine - King Valley VIC – Tempranillo A terrific local, minimally oaked example, with juicy, pure pastille-like fruit, generosity and supple tannins. The cool King Valley nights ensure that the wine’s acidity is preserved, resulting in maximum freshness and vibrancy. A genuine crowd-pleaser.

NO-EXPENSE-SPARED: Remírez de Ganuza Fincas - Rioja Alta SPAIN - Tempranillo Graciano From Spain’s oldest and most significant premium wine region. This is a superb and seriously concentrated example. This is a no-expense-spared wine, each berry hand-sorted, via gravity-fed, 100 per cent top-quality French oak. The fruit is sourced from some of the finest higher altitude, low-yielding vineyards in the region. The balance of this wine is faultless, ensuring it will live for decades in the cellar. If you drink it upon release (at already a handful of years age) it still requires a healthy aeration in a large volume decanter - preferably hours before, even overnight. Drink in a large quality glassware. Eggplant lasagne or gelatinous beef daube.

THE MORPHING OF MARLBOROUGH SAUVIGNON BLANC

Marlborough sauvignon blanc is one of the most, if not the most intense regional wine expressions on the planet, however, can be unfairly criticised for being one-dimensional and all too similar. We know from the best examples, many produced in Loire (France) that sauvignon blanc can also be complex, minerally, textural and even age-worthy.

VALUE CHOICE: Stoneleigh Wild Valley - Marlborough NZ - Sauvignon Blanc A great value example of minimal intervention winemaking; this wine is wild fermented by the microflora of the local Rapaura sub-region. The result is a wine that doesn’t lose its signature passionfruit and citrus appeal, yet brings a richer, more textural palate and generous mouth feel that well balances out the crunchy acidity.

NO-EXPENSE-SPARED: Giesen The August 1888 - Marlborough NZ - Sauvignon Blanc The August sees the combination of low yielding vines, barrel fermentation with wild yeast and extended maturation on lees to deliver a wine of interest, excitement and downright enjoyability. A complex and mouth-filling wine.