Mini Feature Winery Review Printhie Wines May 05

 

Printhie Wines is a new one on me. The winery is situated in the Orange region and located about 30 km out of town near Molong. They have 82 acres under vine and a largest producer in the area. As well as their own fruit, the purchase selected parcels from local vineyards to process in their new 350 tonne winery.

 

Their trademark is "Wine with altitude” which makes sense when you consider that Orange is apparently the highest designated winegrowing region in Australia. Naturally, lay a cool climate wines.

 

Their winemaker is Robert Black and all the wines I tried were sealed in Stelvins.

 

Printhie 2004 Shiraz Cabernet May 05 sells for $15. The bouquet showed a touch of slightly vanished, spicy vanillin oak over sweet fruit, including plum and cherry with milk chocolate. The flavour balance is harmonious and attractive and follows the bouquet reasonably closely, however the finish is clipped. Medium-weight, the wine is perfectly approachable now and will probably be improved by food; it may improve in the short term. Rated as Acceptable with *** for value

 

 

Printhie 2004 Cabernet Merlot May 05 sells for $15. The bouquet is more intense and shows sweeter characteristics than the previous wine with musk, plum, chocolate and a hint of coffee/mushroom oak. Sitting well in the mouth, there is certainly excellent intensity of flavour for the medium-weight. Plum, blackberry, and bitter chocolate finish with adequate persistence but the smooth tannins stop short. Drinking well now, the wine is rated as Recommended with *** for value. An honest bistro wine that is worthy of your consideration.

Printhie 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon May 05 sells for $15. A more serious and brooding nose than the previous two wines, the bouquet is clean with coffee oak characteristics over ripe black, lightly spiced fruit. Now this is a step up in quality. Strong blackberry, blackcurrant, plum, chocolate and bitter coffee flavours are still reasonably tight and well backed by smooth powdery tannins; it lingers well. Ample in weight, whilst the wine is approachable now, complexity should improve and the wine will soften with a few years in the bottle. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, this wine is worth seeking out.

 

Whenever I see red wines touting the virtues of very cool climates, I get extremely nervous prior to tasting them as I have tasted some shockers from the Southern Highlands of New South Wales (where I live) over the years. The wines from Printhie were, without exception, credible wines and the Cabernet Sauvignon in particular, very drinkable and great value. It's a pity more cool climate wines cannot produce wine of this quality at the price.