See the year out with a gorgeous red or two

BY DEBORAH WALTON AND PETER MORICE

Time to mop up the last of the year's reviews.

We have a preponderance of red-wine reviews this week, so here's a column reflecting the need for a good red when the barbecue is fired up.

Ara 08 Pathways Pinot Noir

Colour: Light cherry red with the merest flash of terracotta.

Aroma: A slightly smoky sweet cherry/berryfruit aroma with some savouriness. Given a shake-up, the aroma becomes richer and rounder.

Taste: A light, fruity wine style that shows off some early-season plum and berryfruit flavour front of palate. Green, stalky notes are present around mid-palate, and the fruitiness is complemented by savouriness and drying woody tannins towards the finish. This is a barbecue or casual-occasion quaffer, priced accordingly.

Price: $19.95.

Tohu 07 Marlborough

Pinot Noir

Colour: A lovely shade of deep cherry red.

Aroma: Spicy, plummy, with some pepper/wood notes and an interesting, if vague, whiff of oily fish.

Taste: Soft and ripe with plum and pepper/spice flavours. The initial fruitiness has a juicy sweetness to it, and there's a steely mineral note just past mid-palate, which is usually where green phenolic flavours sometimes assert themselves. The fruit flavour remains out to the finish, where it's joined by some mild chocolate and herbal notes.

Pleasant and easy drinking.

Price: $26.

Domaine Chandon 06 Barrel Selection Shiraz

Colour: Intense plum red, inky, opaque and gorgeous.

Aroma: Rich ripe blackberries, plums and some smoky oak are complemented with lighter notes – tar and violets, mint and a little pepper.

Taste: A rich, spicy, fruity wine with big tannins and firm acids. The mid-palate flavours are a fabulous mix of mint, chocolate and blackberry, while some bitter herb notes temper things towards the drying finish.

The aftertaste is long and lovely – all plums, chocolate, tarriness and drying tannins. Lovely stuff.

Price: $48.50.

Saint Clair Family Estate 07 Rapaura Reserve Merlot

Colour: Old plum red, some opacity – looks appealing.

Aroma: There's nothing froufrou about this aroma – dusty oak and ripe plums, blackcurrants, and some tarry, yeasty, Marmite notes combine with a sweeter jammy whiff of stewed tamarillo and the merest hint of eucalypt.

Taste: Silky, smooth, medium-bodied and very supple, this is a wine easily enjoyed.

The ripe sweet plum and berryfruit flavours are complemented by gentle tannins and some violet aromatics. There are some game and mushroom flavours towards the finish, which is plummy, laced with chocolate, smoky and slightly spicy.

A full-flavoured wine that manages to remain easy drinking – that sweet off-dry finish with the smoky plum aftertaste will win friends.

Price: About $27.

Curio Bendigo Vineyard 08 Central Otago Pinot Noir

Colour: Bright clear ruby red.

Aroma: Plums and some sweet tobacco, slightly earthy. Peter the imaginative said there was a whiff of chocolate.

Taste: This light-bodied, plummy wine has some violet aromatics and dusty tannins. There's a light sweet plum finish and negligible aftertaste. A wine that won't excite the enthusiastic pinot drinker after a complex wine with layers of integrated flavour, but neither will it offend.

Surprisingly, this wine weighs in at 14 per cent ABV.

Price: $29.90.

Goldridge Estate 08 Premium Reserve Barrique Fermented Hawke's Bay Merlot

Colour: Dense, dark plum red.

Aroma: Smoky oak, plums, some tarriness and a dash of barnyard set the scene. This weighty aroma is loaded with those interesting secondaries – musk, boot polish, old barrels – yet some lighter, more elegant almond, cherry and blackberry notes still shine through.

Taste: Big, grainy, ripe, dangerous. This is an intense, concentrated wine offering a heady mix of rich fruitiness, white pepper and smoky oak – and that's just for starters.

The plum, blackberry and cherry fruitiness teamed with spice and dry woodiness is particularly mouth-filling, while the plum-herbal finish reminds you that this is still an elegant wine. There's some rich chocolate in the aftertaste, which is drying, oaky and very classy.

Price: An unbelievable bargain at $18.95.

For those after a light wine to accompany a salad or seafood, the Seresin Momo Sauvignon Blanc is interesting. This wine has the distinction of being completely organic, a fact that will give it cachet in some quarters.

- The Marlborough Express