Two Hands, touching my body

I love this winery like Jesus loves to preach. Their wines are classy and full of personality, their packaging is engaging, the price of their wines are, with a couple of exceptions, fair for what they offer.

2004 Two Hands 'The Wolf' Reisling

"If Columbard is the guy in the cheap suit,
Sauvignon Blanc is the prize fighter who is over after the third round,
Chardonnay is the snob in the cravat,
Semillon the man in the Velrco shoes,
Viognier the guy with the good-looking sister,
Chenin Blanc the fella you never care to remember,
the Reisling is the wolf in sheep's clothing."
(back of the label)

I made a special trip to work yesterday to get a taste of this from the vendor who represents it locally. He always manages to schedule his tastings on my day off, but when he brings a Two Hands, I gotta be there, and I'm never disappointed for having made the extra drive.

The Two Hands winemakers are really good at making the very best under less-than-ideal circumstances. In a great Clare Valley vintage, this wine would probably have been a complete knockout, but in June, the weather became rather hot, causing problems with Reisling fruit.

This reisling struck me as a wonderful food wine. It has a beautiful, vaseline-tinged viscosity, and ample acidity, although the fruit was rather restrained. It's still a tight wine, but you can just make out some of the recalcitrant pear/flower nose, especially after it's warmed up a bit. The palate fruit was citrusy, sometimes white watermelon rind-y, over a touch of petrol, and the mouthfeel was lucious. I wondered if, with a little time, this wine would relax. It's really classy now, but if it opened up some, it would be a very sassy lady indeed.

The only thing that bugged me was the retail on this wine. It was a very special wine, but it's going to be a challenge to convince the wine consumers around here to spend $32 on it, especially since I think it needs some time. People 'round these parts are wont to spend their bigger chunks of cash on Cab, Cab, Cab. Always with the Cab! Very few come in who recognize the worth of other noble grapes, and whites? Forget about it (see last blog entry for an extreme example).

There are a couple of other of the Two Hands that I've tried, and I've been very, very happy for it. Shiraz can either be a toothbrush killing fruit bomb from hell, or it can be lithely muscular, elegant, and full of individuality. I love the latter, and think Two Hands delivers it. As I'm lucky enough to try others, I'll report back.

Clinkies.