Gippsland Rising Star Impressed with the 2000 offerings from this small family owned vineyard in South-east Gippsland. Armadale Cellars is happy to present 2000 Jinks Creek Sauvignon Blanc and 2000 Jinks Shiraz.
2000 Jinks Sauvignon Blanc
Attractive herbaceous aromas that manage to avoid those tom-cat scents. Riped fruits are evident on the bouquet that follows through on the palate to provide a fresh, taut style.
2000 Jinks Longford Shiraz
Don't let the name lead you astray, this wine will not shutdown. Shiraz provides more savoury, earthy characteristics reminiscent of Northern Rhone. The palate shows those desirable fleshy, dark fruits offset by that trademark peppery Shiraz spice.
Wine Pros
2000, Jinks Creek Gippsland Pinot Noir, Shiraz.
Feb 25, James Halliday,
The little Jinks Creek winery of Gippsland has come up with three wonderful wines from the 2000 vintage. The first is Gippsland Pinot Noir (90 points, $22), loaded wih ripe fruit reflecting the seven different clones planted; the next is an astonishing Yarra Valley Shiraz, even by the standards of the vintage, super-powerful and concentrated but not over-extracted (94 point $28) and a Gippsland Shiraz, once again with very ripe fruit and multifaceted small berry flavours (92 points, $20).
A warning these wines sell out very quickly and were available at the time of writing, but may have sold out since.
New wineries on the map
Wine lovers can raise their glass to the local viticulture industry as up and coming wineries put Cardinia on the wine map.
Cannibal Creek Winery at Tynong North and Jinks Creek at Tonimbuk have matched it all with the best in the state to take honours at two recent wine shows.
Tonimbuk's Jinks Creek Winery fared well at the Southern Victorian Wine Show picking up a silver for its 2000 shiraz and a bronze for its pinot noir of the same vintage.
The Wine Merchant
Andrew Clarke is a freelance viticulture adviser working throughout southern Victoria. Over the last decade he has been turning his hand to winemaking using fruit from his own Gippsland vineyard and suitably good fruit from Yarra Valley and Longford growers. The quality is surprisingly good, and the flavours are very complex rather than just offering simple fruit and oak driven flavours. They are the most exciting wines to come out of Gippsland since Bass Phillip and Moondarra.
Jinks Creek Pinot Noir 2000
This is one from Andrew's vineyard situated in the foothills of the Black Snake Ranges in west Gippsland. It offers intense fruit, foresty spice and earthy undertones, and beats the pants off most fruit lollyish pinots of similar or higher prices. For the viticulturists out there the clones planted are the faithful mv6 and d5v12, the newer 114 and 115.
High Jinks on the vine
"When people buy your wine and say 'That's beautiful' there is satisfaction. Putting the vines, watching them grow and producing wine is a long road."
When he was a boy Andrew Clarke was fascinated with the grapevine growing in the yard of his parents'
Jinks Creek Winery is situated between Gembrook and Bunyip, bordering the evocatively named Bunyip State Park. Whie the winety was not built until 1992, planting of the 2.5 hectare vineyard started back in 1981 and all the wines are estate-grown. The 'sold out' sign goes up every year, small wondr in vintages such as 2000.
Jinks Creek Gippsland Pinot Noir 2000
Good red-purple; an appealing balance of cherry/plum fruit and integrated oak on the bouquet, then a very powerful ripe palate with an array of berry flavours and even chocolate, relecting the seven different clones planted; the alcohol (13.8%) kick slightly on the finish, but there is every prospect the wine will age well.
Jinks Creek Gippsland Shiraz 2000
Deep purple-red; super-ripe blackberry and prune aromas with nice oak lead into a very ripe, multi-faceted array of dark, small berry fruits, and plenty of complex structure.
Jinks Creek Yarra Valley Shiraz 2000
Full red-purple; a clean, rich bouquet with black fruits, plums and chocolate, the super-powerful, concentrated and rich yet not over-extracted palate, the tannins in particular being quite soft. Outstanding, even by the standards of the vintage.
Ten Dark Horses
As with the ten best new wineries, this is a highly subjective list of wineries which have either shown recent but impressive improvement in their wines, or which simply deserve greater recognition. With one exception (Stanton and Killeen) they are all rated 4.5 stars, rather than five. Without wishing to appear presumptuous, a five-star rating is recognition in itself.
Jinks Creek Sauvignon Blanc
(Four Glasses) 2002 Very light straw-green; the aromatic bouquet has slight signs of reduction alongside the tropical gooseberry fruit; the same jekyll and hyde characteristics come in to play on the palate. Others less intolerant of reduction would doubtless give the wine a higher score.
