Australia Day in the Stillorgan Park Hotel.

I was in Dublin last Monday for the Australia component of my wine diploma. Martin Moran MW, who regularly employed a plausible Aussie accent for effect throughout the day, was lecturer.

I’ll briefly go through all seventeen wines tasted (cue 95% of readers closing the window immediately) as there were quite a few icon brands. I’ve scored the wines but try not to take these scores too seriously as they are completely meaningless, as are my tasting notes. I’ve included prices and vintages where I remembered to write them down.

Two Rieslings first. Pewsey Vale 2008 (85/100) from Eden Valley was aromatic and spritzy with musky, lemon-sherbet, passionfruit, and green apple aromas. More of these, plus lime and grapefruit on the palate. Jim Barry Clare Valley Riesling (88) was a year older and showed more complexity and development than Pewsey – its fruitiness complemented by marked honey, toast and, yes, petrol.

Tahbilk Marsanne (84) from Victoria followed. Subtle in comparison to the previous two, there was still a bit going on if you looked hard enough – gentle apple, pear, nut and cinnamon. This is a semi-famous wine (even though it’s only €12.50) but I think it is one that won’t excite too many consumers.

Two excellent Semillons next. Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Hunter Valley Semillon 2000 (91) (€34) was in amazing condition for a ten year old white. Very dry and acidic with a lengthy finish. Huge complexity – honey, toast, pear, shortcake, wax, and citrus. Popular with all. Lehmann Barossa Semillon Reserve 2001 (90) (€20) was almost as good at fourteen euro cheaper.

It was difficult to follow these two stars but common garden wine, Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay 2008 (84), performed beautifully, showing attractively ripe melon, yellow apple, peach and citrus. I think Martin called it “classic commercial Chardonnay from a warm climate”. Whatever, it was hard to fault. Penfold’s Yattarna Chardonnay 2005 (85) (€60) from the Adelaide Hills was a heavily oaked beast, an absolute animal. While the spice-butter-toast of the new wood dominated, there was enough tropical fruit, orange, and peach to lighten the palate and keep things interesting. Finish a touch hot though.

Last white was Yalumba Y-Series Viognier 2007 (86) a wine widely available in Ireland and priced in the low teens. Fairly exotic flavour profile – peach, cinnamon, flowers, spice, marmalade – and a solid example of this northern Rhone variety that is easy for producers to get wrong.

On to the reds and Stonier Pinot Noir (87) (€32) from the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne was as pale in colour as you’d expect a pinot to be – it tended towards the brown end of the red colour spectrum too. No shortage of flavour – cherry, raspberry, prune, chocolate, tar, blackberry. Nice wine, if a bit full on.

John Riddick’s Wynn’s Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 (89) (€75) was a great wine showing classic cabernet traits of cassis, mint, and tobacco. There was a real richness to it and I also detected molasses, plum and black olive. There was some debate among students as to whether it represented good value or not, the suggestion being that it didn’t. Lecturers felt that there was no issue with the price-quality-ratio, saying that it would perform well in a blind tasting against plenty of similarly-priced classed growth Bordeaux reds. I guess the assumption there is that these Bordeaux wines are themselves good value.

Cape Mentelle Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (88) (€38) was more of the same, but with liquorice, tomato leaf and chocolate to add to the black fruit, tobacco and mint schtick.

We had a coffee break then to give lowly Yellow Tail Shiraz (€10) a fighting chance. Maybe the coffee didn’t help, actually, as the contrast between the dry bitterness of it and the consumer-friendly, confected Yellowtail was jarring. Students were all but dropping to the floor clutching their throats after swirling and spitting, such was the perceived level of sweetness in the world’s biggest wine brand. There are 8-9 grams of residual sugar per litre of Yellowtail, which is quite high for a red table wine. 0.5% grape juice concentrate is added at the end of fermentation to sweeten the wine. Anyway, it wasn’t that bad. It’s easy to see why it’s popular – deep colour, aromatic, off-dry, super-ripe dark fruit jam, chocolate, and vanilla – what’s not to like? And for anyone who thinks that’s a kangaroo on the front label – wake up and smell the coffee, it’s actually a rock wallaby (pictured above left too).

I liked the Tyrell’s Vat 9 Hunter Valley Shiraz 2001 but apparently it was tainted by brettanomyces, which strips the fruit character. So, another wine fault goes undiagnosed. I had better luck spotting that Rosemount’s Balmoral Shiraz (€50) from the McLaren Vale, was porty, oxidised, and very much past it.

Back to the good stuff and Tahbilk Shiraz 1999 (90) (€65) from Goulburn Valley was a quirky one, not very like Shiraz at all. The final two were Penfold’s RWT Shiraz 2004 (91) (€82) from the Barossa and Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz 2004 (Eden Valley) (93) (€75), both gorgeous. The fruit for the former is the same grade as that which is used for Grange, but the RWT is aged in French – and not American – oak and costs a quarter of the price. What a steal.

So that was that.

Martin also mentioned that he didn’t really see so much demand for low-alcohol wines among Irish consumers and that, in his experience, they want as much “bang for their buck” as possible. I think he’s right. I would guess that 95% of wine consumers here have never read a sentence on the subject in their lives and so may not be aware that high-alcohol wines are deemed uncouth by many connoisseurs.

Looking even at members of my own family, who are probably pretty representative of the “average” wine drinker, I have never once heard any of them complain that a wine is too high in alcohol. And if you gave them the choice between a wine at 11% and one at 15% it wouldn’t take them long to decide which to go for.

Anyway, I mention this because Mike of Curious Wines was tweeting during the week, feeling people out as to their opinions on a wine of 16% ABV. Ernie Whalley suggested that people unhappy with the high alcohol in their wine simply dilute it with water. But don’t vineyard owners lose their minds when it rains at harvest time because the vines’ roots suck that water straight up and pump it into the grapes, diluting the resulting juice? I can’t imagine they’d think it a good idea mixing one part water to two parts their pride and joy in an attempt to rein in the alcohol level.

Ernie was also in favour of having spittoons at parties – as if there wasn’t already enough mess to clean up the next morning.