James Halliday wine of year 2011 Xanadu steven's road cab

[tommyplussunny]

Dear follow Wine connoisseurs,

I have been trying to buy some 2011 Xanadu steven's road cab, which is the wine of the year 2015 on James Halliday's Wine Companion. However,I tried DM's, other bottle shops and oline retailers , but it all has been sold out long time ago .I even contacted Xanadu, they told me this wine has been sold out twice in a week after winning the award. They had absolately nothing left at all. They told me they did not made much of this wine ( around 3000 bottles ). My sommeliers friend had a chance to try this wine ,told me it was the second best young Australian wine he had even tasted.

If anyone knows where i could buy some , it will be much much appreciated.

Thank you in advance .

[Ozzie W]

Dear follow Wine connoisseurs,

I have been trying to buy some 2011 Xanadu steven's road cab, which is the wine of the year 2015 on James Halliday's Wine Companion. However,I tried DM's, other bottle shops and oline retailers , but it all has been sold out long time ago .I even contacted Xanadu, they told me this wine has been sold out twice in a week after winning the award. They had absolately nothing left at all. They told me they did not made much of this wine ( around 3000 bottles ). My sommeliers friend had a chance to try this wine ,told me it was the second best young Australian wine he had even tasted.

If anyone knows where i could buy some , it will be much much appreciated.

Thank you in advance .

I tired to source this the day after the award was announced and it was already sold out everywhere I checked. I think your only hope would be to find it at an auction, but be prepared to pay top dollar. It fetched way in excess of its initial price at Langtons, from memory over $200.

I was lucky and got to taste this at the last Melbourne offline on 11/09. It is indeed a good wine, but it's no where near a 99 point wine. I wouldn't get hung up about this particular wine. There's so many current vintage wines which are readily available that you could buy which are better than this.

[felixp]

couldn't agree more Ozzie.
make no mistake, it is a good wine, but not even the best cab out of MR in 2011. (I have seen it twice, including blind amongst other 2011's and it came in third, Moss Wood taking the honours) And even then, nothing on the night was stellar, so go figure.
has anyone else noticed that as wine critics age, their scores go up and up?
If this garnered 99 points as a young cabernet from Halliday, I would love to see what he scores the 2010 Latour, 2010 Lafleur or even the 2010 VCC for that matter. I can only assume he now uses a 120 point scale

It is staggering what happens to a wine when it receives a rave review, this is so similar to the 2010 St Henri. As such a small amount was made, there is no suspicion of a biased review, but in the case of the 2010 St Henri, I am not so sure.

Tommy, hang out for the 2012 if you want some, it was a better vintage in the west anyway.

[Ozzie W]

couldn't agree more Ozzie.
has anyone else noticed that as wine critics age, their scores go up and up?

I think their integrity wavers after being in the industry for so long. They've realised that wines which receive high scores sell really well because the general public is obsessed with wine scores. When they have conflicts of interest such as selling wines themselves or being somehow involved (directly or indirectly), it becomes a simple business decision.

The only professional wine critics I trust these days in terms of scores are the guys at The Wine Front. No integrity issues there whatsoever and everything they say is independent and unbiased.

[marsalla]

Its all the viagra the have, it keeps the scores up..............

[sjw_11]

If this garnered 99 points as a young cabernet from Halliday, I would love to see what he scores the 2010 Latour, 2010 Lafleur or even the 2010 VCC for that matter. I can only assume he now uses a 120 point scale

I think, Halliday's has said before he effectively benchmarks against an "all Aussie" sample?... so in comparison to the best of the world, you are probably right its a 120 point scale where no Aussie wine has ever made it into the global Top tier!

I expect soon wines will be sampled by computer and an algorithm will spit out the analysis: "Computer says, fruity. 100pts!"

What amazes me, and I mean no offence to our friends here trying to buy the Xanadu, is how many people still chase a wine because its an "RPJ 100pts" or a "Halliday Wine of the Year".... Dont get me wrong, if I heard that I would certainly be interested to try the said wine, but I wouldn't exactly rush out to load up.

[sjw_11]

Its all the viagra the have, it keeps the scores up..............

If that is up as much as the scores, I feel sorry for his missus...

[felixp]

got an invite to a tasting today on November 20th…. 16 vintages of Latour dating back to the 1920, and including classics such as 1961, 59 and 55.
still deciding whether to pull the trigger given the enormity of the occasion and the fact it is a single table with Frederic Engerer in attendance.
better make my mind up in the next half hour, or else sold out for sure
if I go, I better use the 120 point scale when I report back

[Mahmoud Ali]

I think, Halliday's has said before he effectively benchmarks against an "all Aussie" sample?... so in comparison to the best of the world, you are probably right its a 120 point scale where no Aussie wine has ever made it into the global Top tier!

My, my, I had no idea that Halliday said that - it doesn't strike ma as a good standard for a prominent wine critic to adopt. Imagine if other critics used the same guide to award points - there would be 100 point wines from every corner of the world. To think, there is a 100 point Moldavian wine out there. And where would it end, in 100 point wines from different regions, varieties, blends?

Person A: "This Petit Verdot from the McLaren Vale is a 100-pointer."
Person B: "Do you think it's is better than the Mouvedre?"

Person A: "Well, it doesn't matter, it's not a Petit Verdot."
Person B: "Then I say this McLaren Vale Mouvedre is also a 100-pointer."

Person A: "Are you going to open that Grenache?"
Personn B: "Sure, maybe it'll be a 100 pointer as well."

Person A: "Don't be silly, it's from the Barossa."
Person B: "Oh, right, we're comparing McLaren Vales tonight."

Pause..........

Person B: "Maybe, it's a 100 point Barossa Grenache?"

And so it goes..........................Mahmoud.

[tommyplussunny]

Thank you Ozzie and Felixp for your help. I am sure 2010 Latour is a better wine, but I would not have the budget to get it .
My friends and my have been trying to collect wine of year winners from Australian wine compnanion and 100 pointors from Robert Parker ( the cheaper ones , not 1st growth, of course ). This 2011 Xandadu will be a nice addition to our collections with its resaonable price tag and limited qantity. I hope i could find some at Auctions, before they are all being consumed. lol

[tarija]

If you are planning to drink in 5-10 years time, wait 1-2 years and then pick up at auction - people will have forgotten about it then.

No point buying it now - price will be at its highest as a lot of people are looking for the Xanadu, and also you run a higher risk of purchasing a heat-damaged wine if the wine is posted to you during November - February.

[Ozzie W]

Thank you Ozzie and Felixp for your help. I am sure 2010 Latour is a better wine, but I would not have the budget to get it .
My friends and my have been trying to collect wine of year winners from Australian wine compnanion and 100 pointors from Robert Parker ( the cheaper ones , not 1st growth, of course ). This 2011 Xandadu will be a nice addition to our collections with its resaonable price tag and limited qantity. I hope i could find some at Auctions, before they are all being consumed. lol

I think you misinterpreted what I wrote. There are readily available current vintage Australian wines which will be better quality than that Xanadu and in the same price bracket or even cheaper. That's why I wouldn't get hung up about not being able to buy it, not because there's better expensive Frenchie's that you could buy instead. Good luck with your hunt for the Xanadu. You're going to end up with a very nice collection of wines by the sound of it.

[phillisc]

100 pointers, sounds like white pointers to me... sharks and all that stuff
The subjective view of 1 or 2 palates only.

100 pointers=trophy hunters+/-speculator's=big auction returns (they think!)=ride off into the sunset to be never seen again

Yes I am buying wines from the 2010/2012 vintages cause I have been impressed with what I have tasted so far, and yes have revisited a couple of old friends not seen since the 96 and 98 vintages.
The points are arbitrary, I am getting them because they taste great.

I laugh (largely to myself) that I have banged on here about a couple of $12 cheapies from both these two vintages, and brought 8-10 dozen to look at over the next decade plus.
One even won the top shiraz gold at the RMWS, again arbitrary, as for once I backed my palate.

Cheers Craig