CheapWineFinder Podcast
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CheapWineFinder Podcast
Devil's Corner: A Salty Symphony from Tasmania's Coolest Vineyards
Have you ever tasted a wine from Tasmania? For most wine enthusiasts, the answer is likely no – making the Devil's Corner Tasmanian Chardonnay 2023 a delightful discovery worth seeking out. This gem from one of the world's southernmost and coolest wine regions offers something genuinely different from your typical Australian or California Chardonnay.
What makes this wine special starts with its terroir. Tasmania sits off Australia's southern coast, creating an ideal cool-climate environment where grapes ripen slowly, developing complex flavors while maintaining higher acidity and lower sugar levels. This translates to a moderate 12.5% alcohol content – reminiscent of how wines tasted decades ago before global warming pushed ripeness and alcohol levels higher worldwide. The result is a medium-bodied Chardonnay where flavor nuances shine through without being overshadowed by alcohol heat.
The Devil's Corner (named after a treacherous bend in Tasmania's Tamar River Valley) delivers a fascinating flavor profile dominated by an unexpected but pleasant saltiness that becomes more pronounced with each sip. Supporting notes of melon, coconut milk, pear, nectarine, orange zest, and soft spice create a harmonious and lengthy finish that punches well above its $16-17 price point. Produced by Brown Brothers (who also make the excellent Innocent Bystander line), this limited-production wine (approximately 2,200 cases) represents tremendous value for anyone looking to expand their wine horizons beyond the usual suspects.
Want to experience something truly different in your wine journey? Seek out Devil's Corner Tasmanian Chardonnay at your local wine shop. Its distinctive character, excellent balance, and surprising complexity make it both an educational experience and, more importantly, a thoroughly enjoyable glass of wine. Share your thoughts if you've tried Tasmanian wines or other cool-climate discoveries that have surprised your palate!
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Welcome. It's Domain, dave. Again, cheapwinebinercom. As always, we've got a value price wine podcast. We write up a review every third day on the CheapWineBinercom website and then, when we're done writing, we plug it in and here we are.
Speaker 1:This one is from Tasmania. When's the last time you had a Tasmanian wine? Well, if you haven't had one yet, this is a good place to start. It's the Devil's Corner Tasmanian Chardonnay 2023.
Speaker 1:Tasmania is an Australian state. It's an island off the southern coast of Australia, south of Melbourne. If it helps you with anything, the Devil's Corner name doesn't come from the Tasmanian devil or the Looney Tunes character. The two main growing regions are the eastern coast of Tasmania and the Tamar Valley River Valley, and there is a bend in the river valley that is treacherous and that's the devil's corner and I'm gonna take a sip. This is one of the coolest growing regions in the world. I mean it's up there with the German ones, which there's a lot of cool weather growing Rieslings up there, and this is a really interesting tasting.
Speaker 1:Now that I've kind of been sipping on it. I got a saltiness to it and a creaminess to it. Above all the other flavors, the saltiness is now kind of pronounced. I didn't get it first time through, but after I took a break and went back to it it's like whoa, I kind of like that salty thing. This is a wine I think I found for $16 or $17. They don't make a lot of it. I think there's only 2,200 cases something like that, and there's 12 bottles to a case. So it doesn't go everywhere, but if you can find the Devil's Corner and they have a full line of wines, but in Chicago I only have seen the Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay.
Speaker 1:I'm taking another sip. I kind of like that salty thing. So it's a cold weather one and the alcohol is only 12.5, which is the way wine used to be back when the world was less temperate or wasn't heating up. In California, 13.5, 14.5 all the time, 12.5 is what it was, maybe the 80s and 90s. So this doesn't have. It took longer to get ripe. It didn't get as much sugar, and sugar is the alcohol. So it's got that little bit nice. It's got that backed off alcohol to it, which kind of lets the flavors flow a little bit more. I've gotten used to higher alcohols in wine. It doesn't bother me, but when I have one that doesn't, it's like oh, so that's what the lower alcohol does.
Speaker 1:Take another sip. This is my third sip. It looks like I like this one. Yeah, it's got that salty thing going. It's got melon and coconut milk and pear and nectarine and a little bit of orange zest and soft spice Apple. It's got full of flavor.
Speaker 1:This is a medium-bodied wine. It's not a large wine but there's flavor to this thing and the flavor's kind of run. It's got some decent length to it. The Brown Brothers are the winery that um makes the devil's corner and they also make innocent bystander and that's a really good uh line of wines. You ever see evidence shop and see, uh, innocent bystanders in the australian aisle. You might want to give that a try sometime. They make good wines.
Speaker 1:I'm going for my fourth sip. I like this one. It's just different enough from the usual value-priced beer and 1617 isn't too value-priced, but it's just different enough to catch your attention. I mean it's well-made, it's got good length, good acidity, balanced and some really interesting nice flavors that you don't get in the ones closer to $10 all the time. Yeah, this is a Devil's Corner.
Speaker 1:Tasmania Chardonnay 2023. It's a tasty Chardonnay. A little bit more than value price, I think. But 1670 isn't crazy, especially for something different, and ones, like I said once the last time you had a Tasmanian wine there. There's not that many new places. Oh, there are some new places in the world where wine comes from. You know Romania and Hungary and all those places are out there which I've been making wine for a long time. But here we go Tasmanian, but it's part of Australia. Chardonnay is really good. I like this wine. I didn't know what to expect. Sometimes in Australia, if you get some of the, you get the western side of Australia. I'm not as crazy about those, I like the southeastern, but this wine is completely different and completely good. So, adios, that's Domain Dave Cheapwinefindercom. Devil's Corner, tasmanian Chardonnay 2023. If you can find it, pick one up. It's fun to drink, it tastes great and Tasmanian Devil, thank you. So, adios, keep it cheap. I'll talk to everybody in a couple days. Bye-bye.