It was an extraordinary start. The year Geoff Hardy decided to ditch his Geoff Hardy Kuitpo range and relaunch it in an expanded, far more modern fashion, he pulled off a stunning trio of show awards. The 2001 Adelaide Hills Shiraz, $28, took out Best Shiraz, Best Red Wine and Best Wine at the 2003 Adelaide Hills Wines Show. Some new brands get lucky from the start, and this is one of them.
And if the Kuitpo range was a strange enough name, so is the new one - K1 by Geoff Hardy. The Shiraz is a lovely drop; it's a stylist's wine in every sense, with mulberry, spice, a firm structure and plumy depths. For all its perfumed appeal, it'll be a lot better for having been tucked away for a couple more years. So, too, the 2001 Adelaide Hills Cabernet Sauvignon, $28 - a solid, structured, tannic cabernet of poise and form, with an excellent push of flavour from the front of the palate to the finish - it's restrained, cool and elegantly long-flavoured. The 2002 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, $28, is no less impressive, carrying fine, eloquent, toast and grapefruit flavours with an easy aplomb before a ripe, melony finish. It could be the best wine of a very good lot, though Hardy's first attempt at a pinot, the 2002 Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir, $28, is not too shabby either. The wines are made by Ben Riggs, with Hardy in charge of the vineyards. By the look of things, it's a tiptop team.
by Campbell Mattinson