Following on from the article about the new wines that Orlando are launching into the New Zealand marketplace – here are the two wines I was sent to look at – one each from the ‘New Heroes’ and the ‘Legends’ ranges.
Orlando Lyndale Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2019
A cooler-climate wine (for Australia…) from the hillside vineyards of Woodside and Piccadilly in the Adelaide Hills. Vibrant on the nose, with a hint of flinty reductivity, white-fleshed nectarine, lemon peel, apple and roast almond. Precise and well defined, with a busy acidity diving into layers of complexity. Dry, medium-bodied with heaps of crunchy fruit though the palate. A nip of fruit tannin and minerality sits alongside a yoghurt-like tang. Oak is restrained and has just a sense of buttery toastiness, but sits nicely in the background. A generous texture rounds out a seamless presentation – there’s much to like in here for fans of most Chardonnay styles. 93pts.
Orlando Printz Shed Shiraz 2018
Recently launched into New Zealand, this Northern Barossa wine comes from vineyards in Greenock and Ebeneezer. A deep purple, with flashes of magenta, bright in the glass. Effusively vibrant on the nose, with blackberry, star anise, damson, raspberry, coconut biscuit, mocha and eucaltyp. Not shy – this is punchy, brooding and fleshy. Spicy, toasted but sweet oak, and lots of it. Grippy tannin and a savoury undertow that has hints of black olive and freshly laid tar. The fruit rides the waves though and emerges, ripe, plush and with a liquorice sweetness at the back of the palate, staying just the restrained side of jamminess. 91pts.
