Sunday morning weekly reports due please...

[TORB]

Hi Good People,

Its semi final time (even in aerial ping pong) and in both the game where thugs try to be gentleman and the game where gentleman are thugs so no doubt many of you have been glued to the boob tube watching your favourite code and drinking a drop or two of vinous material.

In my case last night I had a 96 Black Pepper Shiraz (the first from a six pack) and its a belter of a wine. Ripe, complex, full bodied, harmonious, everything you want a wine to be; rated as Excellent and just into its peak drinking window.

Now what have all you reprobates been consuming?

[jezza]

A Dinner and a wine tasting this week
Lindemans Semillon 1986 – Showing very well – Excellent to Outstanding
Penfolds Reserve Eden Valley Riesling 1999 – Maybe a bit sweet, but a more German Style - Excellent
Meerea Park Alxander Munro Semillon 1998 – Just starting to show some bottle age. Will be watching this one. Excellent
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2000 – Full flavoured and enjoyable. Excellent
Kulkunbulla Chardonnay 2000 – Big full bodied style, drink over next 2-3 years. Excellent
Killerby Chardonnay 2000 - Not very exciting - OK
Plantagenet Shiraz 1995 – Peppery with some green overtones - Recommended
Rockford Basket Press Shiraz 1995 – Very good wine from a lack-luster year. Showing power and elegance. Excellent to Outstanding
Lindemans Bin 8203 Shiraz 1991 – Elegant example of Hunter Shiraz, not a block busting Barossa. Drink now. Excellent.
Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz 1994 – Elegance with power, drinking well now but has another 2-3 years yet. Excellent+
Meerea Park Shiraz/Viognier 2002 – Good example of the style with some Hunter overtones. Pricing is fabulous. Excellent
Meerea Park The Ants Shiraz 2001 – Another good example of what Hunter Shiraz can be. Peppery with some leather. Recommended.
Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz 2001 – Absolute cracker of a wine, intense fruit character, if presented blind most will struggle to pick it as Hunter, look out for this one. Outstanding
Alkoomi Jarrah Shiraz 1999 - Good example of Great Southern Shiraz. Recommended
PENFOLDS BIN 28 KALIMNA SHIRAZ 1998 – Not bad shiraz from the Penfolds camp. OK to recommended.
YVES CUILLERON SAINT JOSEPH 1998 - Spices and pepper, raspberries. A nice French shiraz, priced well as well. Recommended
McGuigan Personal Reserve Shiraz 1998 – Watch out as there is two bottling’s of this wine both equally as good as each other but noticeably different in style. Excellent
Meera Park Alexander Munro Chardonnay 2000 – Good chardonnay which will stand up close to the best aussies. Excellent
Chivite - Navarra Charonnay 1999 – Spainish Chardonnay which is a bit funky but very nice still. Excellent
Jean Marc Pillot - Saint Romain 1999 – French Burgundy, average in style and character. OK
Wither Hills Chardonnay 2001 – Very nice elegant fruit driven NZ chard. Excellent
Train Trak Pinot Noir 2001 - A nice medium bodied aussie pinot with good oak. Price is very reasonable. Recommended to Excellent.
Diamond Valley Blue Label 2001 – A fuller bodied aussie Pinot maybe relying on oak a little too much. But still very nice. Recommended.
Stefano Lubiana Sur Lie Chardonnay 2001 – Very nice tassie Chard, still developing in the bottle, elegant. Recommended to excellent

Cheers
jezza

[Gerard Connors]

the game where gentleman are thugs

I thought that was rugby (union)

League - the game where thugs ARE thugs
AFL - the game where pretty boys run around in tight shorts

Ged

[ChrisH]

Now I have the home computer fixed, a couple of interest :

2000 Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling
Demonstrates the virtues of Stelvin - the fruit is still lovely and fresh due to the seal, but the wine has also started to develop some secondary toasty characters. Really enjoyed this.

1999 St Henri
Not aggressive at all, this actually drinks well now. The quality fruit is to the fore with some understated vanillan oak in the background. Will cellar in the medium term, maybe while you wait for your 98's !

[Rory]

'99 Yering Station Reserve Chardonnay.
Well, at least this one wasn't corked!
An elegant wine that was enjoyeable, but had a strange/interesting slight floral lift to the nose that almost bordered on green stalk. This follwed through to the palate as well, so much so that if someone told me it had a smidge of viognier in it I wouldn't be suprise. It still has a few years left in it to reach it's peak, as there was some acid there. It was my last bottle, and I'm not sad.
'98 Rosemount Estate McLaren Vale Shiraz.
Was quite good on openeing, displaying good regional varietal characters both on the nose and the palate. Then slowly but surely over the course of the next couple of hours, it fell apart into an overcooked fat one dimensional wine. Yuk!
'01 Rosemount Traditional.
My turn to taste the JW winner!
It's big & ripe , typical of McLaren Vale, it's going to get better, it's in balance, it's a well made wine and is even better 24hours later. it's even not bad value for $24.95.
BUT, if this is the winner, what were the others like! IMO, not in the class a JW winner should be.

Rory

[Anthony]

Went down the beach and had a very enjoyable weekend just drinking soem wine.

started with:
Roberto Voerzio Barolo Brunate 1994: for a not so great year this wine was holding up very well. Very earthy and savoury with no sweet fruit in sight. Good

Forrest Hill Mt Barker Cab Sauvignon 2001: from the back label 'this wine boasts the oldest vines in Mt Barker', forgetting this sales pitch as you need more than old vines to produce good wine, this was a very good cabernet. Still very closed and tight, it will no doubt open up to be a better wine today (opened yest. lunchtime). Would like to see how this wine progesses over the next 10 years.

Grosset Watervale Riesling 03: showing more than the Polish at the moment, but both are very good wines. Whilst I prefer the '02 Grosset these are great wines in their own right.

cheers
anthony

[Dig]

Lots of Canadian craft brewery beers at the Great Canadian Beer Festival. Very high standard. Wines have been a little disappointing as I'm a bit of a closet red bigot and Vancouver Island just doesn't get warm enough for long enough in the summer. Better luck next week in the Okanagan.

As an aside, had a Liebich Darky this evening and after tasting a lot of thin and under-ripe reds this last week, the sweet, ripe fruit and the assertive american oak in the Darky stuck out like dogs balls. I can see now why this style has been copping a bit of flack overseas recently.

Cheers all and better notes next weekend.

Dig

[SueNZ]

One of the highlights -
Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 Still quite youthful but very impressive, classic Coonawarra cab. Wish I'd bought more - it was so cheap at the time.
Cheers,
Sue

[David Bryant]

Been rather busy lately (in part on worthwhile wine things) so haven't made many posts. Quickly:

1999 Lakes Folly Chardonnay - My palate sure must be moving on. Perhaps a hollow life of red-bigotry awaits me! This was ripe, pineapple/tropical, very nicely oaked but .......? Just lacked something. Didn;t really have the body or structure. Good-ish.

Torbreck 2000 Roussane Marsanne Viognier - Went well with Indian. I perhaps have been seeing too much Viognier in the shiraz I have been drinking because the apricot tones were a touch too much. Very good otherwise and an interesting drink all round.

Stonyridge 1995 Larose Cabernets - Stonyridge is normally one of my favourite wines but this had such a big hole through the middle there were almost no outsides. Utterly disappointing.

Dominique Laurent 2000 Burgundies - At a recent tasting. Just goes to show that the most expensive wine isn;t alwys the best. The Grand Cru Echezeaux was obliterated by oak. Awful. The second-top wine (allegedly) the Grand Cru Clos de Vougeot was a lesson in sulphur mis-management. Also scored an Awful rating. A little further down the line things got a whole lot better. The Premier Cru Nuit St George Bousselots was the wine of the night. Rich, mixed black and red fruits, great tannins and length. Excellent. Somewhat further down the line the Volnay village wine was also very good. The rest? Pass.

Cheers, David

[TORB]

Torbreck 2000 Roussane Marsanne Viognier - Went well with Indian. I perhaps have been seeing too much Viognier in the Shiraz I have been drinking because the apricot tones were a touch too much.

Hi David,

You sure have been quiet lately, glad to see you post again.

I totally agree with the Viognier comment, a little but of a good thing can be great but to many Shiraz Viogner over do the additive and the resulting wine is OTT with apricot. However it seems the more the viogioner is added the better the wine sells.

[Pelican]

A good week in the aerial ping pong for me with the Power coming good and the Bin 65's ( aka Crows ) out ! Despite an annoying mild dose of the common cold I've enjoyed :

Gosset Excellence Brut NV : we had a bottle of this at the Apothecary Wine Bar in Hindley St Adelaide which is a good wine bar - good range by the glass and it is a pleasant place with some character. I hope it is successful. This Champagne had a lovely complex nose that did not quite live up to its promise on the palate. Still pretty good though.

2001 Serge Dageneau Pouilly Fume : lovely complex minerally nose that kind of simpled out on the palate with pineapple like fruit. Good.

2001 Ashton Hills Salmon Brut : lovely Adelaide Hills pink bubbly.

1999 Penfold's Bin 407 : double decanted and drank nicely - pleasingly dry. We got 6 of these for $21 ea. Good value.

2000 Rockford Semillon : nice Barossa Semillon. Full bodied with distinct citrus and lanolin characters. Very good.

[DaveL]

Thought I'd try out a 96 kalimna, very nice - starting to show some earthy notes coming through the primary fruit. Tasted even better the next day, gorgeous lingering finish.

Picked up a 92 Peter Lehmann Shiraz from my local (La Vignia) was an interesting exercise in drinking wine that was on its decline (at least to my palate) lots of wet earth came up with the remaining fruit. I have found my palate prefers aged Cab Sav's to Shiraz, this added to my opinion.

Drinking a 96 Mount Mary Triolet tonight with pan fried rainbow trout. It was fascinating to watch this wine change colour in the glass...from a thin restrained light yellow/green to a stunning gold. Heaps going on with this wine, but what's really grabbed my attention is the lingering finish full of lemony acid.

Asked last week about the Brown Brothers family reserve 1978 cabernet, no response thus far but I am still keen to hear any thoughts...

[GrahamB]

[quote="TORB"]Hi Good People,

I was coerced into trying some Tessera Chardonnay/Viognier this week that I thought was dreadful. Tasted like I haad a mouthful of oil of some description. Don't know why I am so easily lead to try some of these wines by these people exhibiting wines in our bottle shops here in Brisbane.

As a true RED believer, I opened some reds on Sunday (as one is obliged to do)

Redmans 1998 Shiraz - The last of these. I was dissappointed last weekend when I opened my 2nd last of these and thought I had better finish them off. This weekend was a vast improvement on the last. Better fruit/tannin balance, I think the other was in some way heat affected as I had purchased them on separate occasions. This was consumed with a:

1998 Watervale Old Station Shiraz - Some bottle variation with this particular wine, Spoke to the owner when he was in Brisbane for wine WA (has interests in both regions) and he assures me that they tasted some recently and it was drinking beautifully. Opened one tonight for a family BBQ to go with the Redmans and it was particularly good.

I don't know why it is so difficcult to make Sunday evening observations immediately after consuming a couple of fine australian red wines.

Graham

[corcoran]

1996 Ojai Stolpman Vineyard Syrah (Santa Barbara, California) - dense ruby color with a hint of purple. Interesting, cool climate nose of spices, licorice, earth and cassis. Similar flavors with a small floral component and a hint of VA mixing in. Fairly long finish with a hint of turpentine in there. Not really my style, but interesting. Rated as Recommended.

2001 Dowie Doole Reserve Shiraz (McLaren Vale) Second (and last, I'm out) time I've tried this. The first bottle had a powerful floral component and a complex mix of dark fruits. This seemed very different, if almost as good. Very dense, bright purple color. Sweet, earthy blackberries and blueberries with a strong barnyard component. Long, earthy finish of blackberries and licorice. Rated as Highly Recommend, bordering on Excellent.

Brian

[Murray]

Picked up a few from around the shops on Sauturday morning.

2001 Tahbilk Marsanne
This has started to integrate nicely; fresh citurs and honeysickle, lovely mouthfeeling characters and a good long finish. Dwelightful.

Yarra Burn Pinot/Chardonnay/PM Vintage
The bottle's gone out and I can't remember the vintage. Nice fine bead with a persistant mousse. Very enjoyable yeasty aromas with a hint of lemon. Balance mouthfeel before a medium-full finish. For $15 Very Enjoyable drinking.

[Kieran]

Nothing much during the week; a bottle of cleanskin merlot lasted four nights.

Dinner at Bogarts on Saturday night. Four people, two bottles, one person was a designated driver. (My wife and I could crawl home if required).

First bottle was Penfolds Cellar Reserve Sangiovese 99. This was the second of two that we bought from the cellar door last summer. The first one had been great in a dinner party at home. This one tasted fine, but something was missing. This might have something to do with the fact that we started drinking it before any food arrived.

Looking over their wine list, I decided that for the price of a Jacobs Creek on the menu I could get a damn fine bottle from the pub up the road. So, before the entrees arrived, I dashed down the road to the local pub bottle shop which happens to stock a few nice older wines. After a full minute of prevarication, I wandered out with a Peter Lehmann Mentor 96.

This wine probably isn't quite at its peak yet, but it's drinking beautifully right now. The nose was pleasantly integrated black fruits with a bit of mint. The palate showed a whole bunch of flavours which I don't yet have the knack of describing. Nothing was overpowering, everything was balanced, and the flavour filled my mouth. I'll call it Excellent+ at least, with an option on calling it Outstanding in a few years. A pity the shop had only one .

Kieran

[Sean]

deleted

[Mike Hawkins]

I went to the First Estate cabernet tasting with all the usual suspects. Some highlights:-

2000 Katnook - quintessential Coonawarra
1999 Jack Mann - quite possibly the best WA wine I have tried (at least up there with 1995 Cullen)
2000 Coldstream Hills Reserve - Justifies the hype.
2000 Petaluma - also justifies the hype - velvet, balance, length.
2001 Petaluma - not in the same postcode as its older brother

Had a 1998 St Henri (half bottle) last night. Quite disappointing. Might have been a dud.

[MartinC]

Hi Ric,
E&E BP'96 is fantastic, better than their '98 IMO.

Mike,
The Jack Mann'99 is a ball tearer of a Cab and very tannic. This immortal wine will live for the next 2 decades. I'm a big fan.


The Piggot'99 was given to me and this wine showed better than the A$tralis'99. Better fruits and more depth. This is a more Rhonnish style of a OZ Shiraz. Silky and well balance but a poor QPR. A good food wine.

The St. Andrew Cab'97 didnt do it for me. A overriped Cab which showed more Shiraz characteristic. If u can overlooked the varietal defination, it's an enjoyable wine.

Rgds,

[TORB]

The St. Andrew Cab'97 didnt do it for me. A overriped Cab which showed more Shiraz characteristic. If u can overlooked the varietal defination, it's an enjoyable wine.

Martin

During my last trip to Clare, the 97 St Andrew was the most dissapointing wine in its price bracket of all the wines tried during the whole trip. Not a good spot to be!

[BobMac]

2003 Richmond Grove W/V Riesling - Delicious musk, apples and limeiness that is nice and crisp and lasting. As with the 02, I see this being one of my favourites of the 03's (not that I have had many yet)

2002 Henschke Tillys Vineyard Dry White - What is this? Lemon acid bite that is not at all a pleasure to drink. Stick with Rieslings. Or anything else for that matter.

[Phil Shorten]

2002 Forrest Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough NZ

Stock standard commercial Kiwi sauvignon blanc. Plenty of ripe fruit, but pretty boring.

Also shared a 2000 Pouilly Fume (forget the producer) which seemed disturbingly New World - oodles of ripe fruit, but very little flintiness or minerality.

1998 Dom les Pallieres Gigondas, S Rhone, France

Surprisingly light and lacking oomph for such a good vintage. Too lightweight for me.

1998 Cotes du Rhone, le Clos du Cailliou, Vacheron-Pouizin, S Rhone, France

A QPR king, kicks the Gigondas into touch. Drinking at its peak now but with hold for some time yet. Lovely sour cherry and dark plum fruit, good acidity, soft tannins, warming alcohol on the finish. Good stuff!

And a couple of beers...

Hop Back Summer Lightning, Wiltshire, UK (in bottle)

If only they made stuff like this Down Under. A Golden Ale, yellowish-gold in colour, nicely dry and reticent, with a bitter hoppy finish. Superb beer on draft and from the bottle.

Samuel Smith Organic Ale, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, UK (in bottle)

From a very historic brewery in North Yorkshire. Amber in colour, quite rich on the palate, broad and soft, slightly honeyed. Very good indeed, though the Summer Lightning is more my style.

Hook Norton Steaming On, Oxfordshire, UK (draft)

Deep reddish brown in colour. Quite full bodied, deeply flavours, touches of cocoa/dark chocolate moving to a very satisfying bitter finish. Excellent, thought provoking beer.

Hoegaarden Grand Cru (in bottle), Belgium

A step up the rung from the standard Hoegaarden. Medium-deep amber in colour, no chance of seeing through this one. Not as bitter as the ordinary Hoegaarden, full bodied, rounded and soft. Very nice indeed.

Rodenbach Grand Cru (in bottle), Belgium

A well known "red beer" from Belgium. Tan in colour with a nice full head. On the palate, very fruity - cherry/raspberry - a good palate cleansing beer with plenty of fizz. Nice stuff.

Cheers
Phil

[Mark S]

Yarra Yering Underhill shiraz 1992 (3 years in cask) - a superb wine, length & depth of flavour akin to a big SA red, structure & balance characteristic of the best of the Yarra Valley, Vic. Fully developed; secondary flavours predominate, oak long since subsumed, could swear there's a touch of viognier in there. Have had a number of 1992 Underhills over the past 3 years, and while it's one of the best vintages for Bailey Carrodus' shiraz, it's certainly at or marginally past its peak, so if you have any, drink up now!
Seppelts DP117 Fino (in the new format 750 ml bottle) - lighter and fresher than the former tall 375 ml bottling, hints of yeast, sea salt, artichoke, great as an aperitif, and a surprisingly good match with take-away fish & chips; very much an under-appreciated wine style.

[Ian S]

And a couple of beers...

Phil
Based in UK? If so you might be interested in "Beers of Europe".

As we're fairly local to them (they're Kings Lynn, we're based in Norwich), we managed to pay a visit last month. Imagine an Aircraft hangar full of beer and you'd get the picture. Like getting lost in a lolly shop!

Surprisingly poor selection of Aussie beers, but they'd got beers from just about everywhere else (Mongolia make beer!???).

I'm sure (well fairly sure!) I could work out how to copy the url of their site if you're interested.

Ian[/url]

[Dig]

And a couple of beers...

I'm off to 'The Raven' in Deep Cove, Nth Van this evening. 22 B.C. micros on tap! Salivating at the thought.

[JamieBahrain]

1999 Whistler Shiraz- Big and ripe. At the moment holding it's 14.5% well with good fruit, oak and texture. Not pretending it is a long term cellaring prospect but the wife and I sure felt homesick for a hot Barossa summer, considering our apartment view the sun setting over Saudia Arabia.

For around the $20ish mark a great wine and style.

1999 The Wilson's Clare Valley Cabernet Merlot- Mid weight and with an initial interest an finesse, but the tannins set in with the last glass with the fruit falling away-blueberry, licorice and leather-earth. Still enjoyed the wine. Would love to hear about their 02 riesling!

Rest of the week in Qatar. Jacob's Creek $90 a bottle.So enjoyed the sun and Perier still water!

[Phil Shorten]

Phil
Based in UK? If so you might be interested in "Beers of Europe".


Ian

Would definitely be interested in getting the details from you. Next to wine, beer is my favourite beverage. Love good British brews and the dark beers from Belgium.

BTW, I am resident in inner SW London.

Cheers
Phil

[Paul T]

has seen a few unusual treats..

1974 Penfolds St Henri - an amazing experience, a museum release checked and recorked in 1997 by John Duvalle. Complex and soft, an amazing match with the roast duck. Sensational!!

1994 Houghtons Jack Mann Cabernet - Corked...damn..will try another soon.

1999 Old Kent River Pinot Noir - Lovely, complex farmyardy pinot. At it's peak now and drinking very well.

2002 Orlando St Helga Riesling - beautiful restrained style, excellent food wine (went well with freshly caught whiting and dart!!). Excellent value. Rieslings are very underated IMHO.

2001 Miranda Family Reserve Rielsing - nice lemon lime nose, decent length but not in the same class as the St Helga.

[Ian S]

Phil
Based in UK? If so you might be interested in "Beers of Europe".


Ian

Would definitely be interested in getting the details from you. Next to wine, beer is my favourite beverage. Love good British brews and the dark beers from Belgium.

BTW, I am resident in inner SW London.

Cheers
Phil

Phil
Try this: http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk
I recall they do mail order (no idea of delivery cost).

It's good to see a massive range of UK beers these days (I used to be really into it a few years ago when real ale was just emerging from the shadows of 70's/80's keg beer). Have you been to any beer festivals? Great fun, but with the tendency to get very drunk very quickly!
Happy drinking
Ian

[michaelw]

I tried two bottles of this over the last week. The first was atrocious. This was my fault as I had left it at my in-laws and they dutifully placed it in their liquor cabinet - upright and in the Sydney heat. One taste of this and I was forced to pour it down the sink.

My second bottle was opened with more optimism as I had stored it much more appropriately than the first. However, it was not to be. There was very little fruit evident either on the nose or the palate and after suffering through a glass over a couple of hours to see if it would open up at all I tossed it down the sink as well.

My palate has changed quite a bit in the last 2 years as well, so I'm not in a hurry to purchase any Hunter reds at the moment. Not that I don't enjoy some of them, but this example has reinforced my love of Heathcote, Coonawarra and Rutherglen reds. I might see how the 1999 Baileys 1920's block is travelling this week.