Del Rios wines

Just before Christmas I bought a couple of dozen bottles of wine from the Del Rios winery. We’d previously enjoyed a visit to this winery in Anarkie, west of Melbourne, north of Geelong. We’d liked the wines we tasted, but I think mainly we liked the people who run the place. They were relaxed and welcoming — no hint of us being an interruption. We were given a tour of the wine-making facility and tasted the coming years’ yet-to-be-bottled wine. And, no small part to us liking the place was having them help start our car after we’d stupidly flattened the battery.

So far we’ve drunk the 2004 Marsanne, 2004 Chardonnay, 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005 3D Shiraz Cabernet Merlot, and 2004 Pinot Noir. I didn’t like the Chardonnay at all. Of the reds, the Pinot stood out as the best — by quite a stretch I might add. But the wine that really stands out is the Marsanne. It’s a well-balanced,  clean, fruity (notably apricot) drop.  One doesn’t come across that much Marsanne, but I’ll be lookin’ out for it from now.