Godolophin named in Top Wines List of 2005

The Winefront Monthly Top Wines of 2005 included: Godolphin Cabernet Shiraz 2004 (*Winefront Monthly Best Red Blend 2005)

Tasting Notes as seen in the October/November edition of Winefront Monthly (as well as interview with Ben Glaetzer):  Glaetzer Godolphin Barossa Valley Shiraz Cabernet 2004:  The word Godolphin is given the greatest emphasis on  the label, and Ben Glaetzer explains it thus: "Too many labels have bastardised this blend and reduced its value, which is a shame, because I think it makes one of the great Australian styles. My idea is to make the brand stronger than the blend, so that people can just get down to enjoying the wine without any pre-conceived ideas". It's a kind of humble statement in a way - especially when you consider this wine's making. The cabernet was left on skins for a phenomenal three months, completing its malolactic fermentation while still resting on its skins, to help give the wine an even greater aromatic profile. As a result the wine has gorgeous lift, almost floral and citrussy, but not. It's got flavours of smoke and wood-shavings and five spice, with dry curranty fruit and a cavort of blonde tobacco on the finish. It is elaborately flavoured, but not excessively, and when Ben says that "in terms of known what I wanted to achieve, and then producing it, this is probably the best wine that I've made" - it doesn't seem like a stretch to believe it. For the record, it is 70% shiraz and 30% cabernet - other reports of the blend have been askew. It's quite something. Drink: 2006-2016. 96.

Full article: "At a time when all hell has broken loose over the quality and diversity of Australian wine - otherwise known as Halliday Vs Parker Vs Oliver Vs Schildknecht Vs Rich - Winefront Monthly today announced both the list of its best wines available in Australia for 2005, and the release of the (humbly suggested) unique wine book: Winefront Monthly, Collected Reviews 2002-2005.

To Winefront Monthly, of course, the fact that Australian wine offers both genuine quality and rich diversity is a no-brainer - even if a lot of work in a lot of quarters needs to be done to make both that quality and that diversity even more striking. It has to be acknowledged though that the Australian wine scene has undergone enormous change over the past five years, and almost seems to re-invent itself every two years.

This is starkly illustrated by Winefront Monthly's Top Wines of 2005 list - and while, of course, such a list is highly subjective, it's fair to say that almost none of the wines selected is an outrageous choice. In that light, it's worth noting that Winefront Month's top chardonnay of the year is from the (almost unheard of) Henty region, its best value white from a little known Yarra Valley producer, its best sub $50 red wine a shiraz from the Yarra Valley and its best sub $30 red wine from the Limestone Coast. While the Barossa Valley is, of course, very strongly represented in this list - and potentially provides the year's top scoring wine - this clearly shows how fast things are moving in Australian wine.

Indeed, more than perhaps ever before, to cover Australian wine properly today the reviewer needs to either live in Australia or spend a significant number of months of each year in this country. Australia is not France or Italy: Australia is an incomparably vast continent with vineyards strewn across vast distances. From Margaret River in the west to Henty in the southeast to the Granite Belt near the north-east coast - these vineyard regions are thousands of kilometres from one another, and span dramatic differences in all aspects of climate and soil. To be on top of Australian wine today takes, simply, an enormous amount of year-in, year-out, essential legwork. Anyone who judges Australian wine from afar, no matter how extensive their skills, can only ever have a fraction of the Australian wine picture - a statement more true to Australian wine than to, perhaps, any wine producing country in the world. Australian wine today is a bullet in flight.

The Winefront Monthly Top Wines of 2005 list is made up of the top 25 from Australia, and the top 10 international wines available in Australia, as tasted throughout the past 12 months. To make it into these lists a wine must necessarily be of either exceptional quality, or exceptional value.

The aim of Winefront Monthly's reviews are simple: to find the best wines, the exciting wines, the wines that might make you want to fall in love with wine all over again. The reviews contained in this list and in the guide that contains them are, then, deliberately not intended as a technical audit; they are simply the views of a wine lover."