TN: Teusner and Two Hands

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 7:31 pm

I attended a Teusner and Two Hands Masterclass last night in Sydney hosted by Kym Teusner and Michael Twelftree:

2002 Teusner Joshua Barossa Grenache/Shiraz/Mataro
The blend in this wine is 65% Grenache, 10% Shiraz and 25% Mataro. Very perfumed ripe fruit on the nose showing spice, fennel and savoury hints.Fruit sourced from the Ebenezer district in the Barossa and lovely pure fruit it is.The wine is unoaked and had spice and savoury aspects on the palate with a nice weight and good length.

2003 Teusner Joshua Grenache/Shiraz/Mataro

Lots of extract, earthy spicy berry fruits on the nose and palate, more strawberry and raspberry than the wine before.Good fruit intensity, but lighter than the 2002.

2002 Teusner Avatar barrel-aged Grenache/Shiraz/Mataro
Earthy, berry fruit and spice on the nose and palate, 16 months old oak, nice weight and fantastic balance.Good length. A lovely wine.

2002 Two Hands "Angels Share" McLaren Vale Shiraz
Deep plum colour, lots of extract. Fruit sourced from 5 growers in McLaren Vale and spends 10 months in 2nd and 3rd year old fine grained American oak..On the nose and palate the wine shows hints of Mocha and coffee.Excellent fruit intensity and great length.

2002 Two Hands "The Bull and Bear" Barossa Shiraz/Cabernet
Lovely ripe berry fruit characters. Barossa fruit seems to have a nice mid-palate sweetness and fine grained tannins.Long finish..........

2002 "Bad Impersonator"Single vineyard Barossa Shiraz
Very perfumed nose with masses of pristine dark berry fruit. A dark, brooding sort of wine......bloody good with a long finish

2002 Two Hands "Samantha's Garden" Clare Shiraz
Aromatic with cloves and pepper and a fleshy nose.Red fruits on the palate with a lovely mouthfeel and balance. Oak takes the back seat here with the fruit the star.......

2002 Two Hands "Lily's Garden" McLaren Vale Shiraz.
Mucho extract and more obvious oak on the nose but not overpowering.Plums and berry fruit....great palate structure and length.

2002 Two Hands "Bella's Garden" Barossa Shiraz
Intense dark brooding berry fruit on the nose and palate, with chocolate and blueberries. Pristine fruit quality and a finish that goes on and on......
The thing that struck me about both the Teusner and Two Hands wines was the quality of the fruit, both Kym and Michael have fantastic relationships with their growers and treat them very well and the growers look after them in return with fruit that will make your eyes go:shock:
....I tell you...there wasn't too much spitting up our end of the table

Cheers

Dave

Phil Shorten · Post by **Phil Shorten** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 10:10 pm

Dave

Do you hae retail prices on these wines?

Or

Gavin, do you carry them?

Thanks in advance

Phil

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 10:20 pm

Phil,
I got some rough ball park retail prices from Kym and Michael

The Teusners are about $30 -35-ish....they make bugger all.....I think they made about 150 cases of the avatar....Kyms a talented little bugger...used to work at Torbreck.
The 2 Hands..I think the angels is about $30 the "bull & bear" and "Bad Impersonator" about $50 and the Garden series around $60.
I dont think there is a hell of a lot of the wines around in the marketplace...

Cheers

Dave

Tyson · Post by **Tyson** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 10:57 pm

Phil,

Let me know if you can't find prices on the Two Hands wines. I can give you Michael Twelftree's email address.

Cheers,
Tyson.

stelzer@cellaringwine.com

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 6:16 am

DaveB wrote:2002 Two Hands "Samantha's Garden" Clare Shiraz
Aromatic with cloves and pepper and a fleshy nose.Red fruits on the palate with a lovely mouthfeel and balance. Oak takes the back seat here with the fruit the star.......Dave

Dave,

One question if I may please. Is this wine matured in French Oak?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 10:01 am

The Two Hands clare valley wine IS matured in French oak, and it's a beautiful wine. I am so tired of those vanillin American oak characters, so things like marzipan and cedar and cloves matched to red and black fruit flavours is a real winner in my books. I remember when I was young, when I first started working in an office, the bloke next to me used to smoke clove cigarettes at his desk. This was back in the good old days when you could smoke in the office. Anyway, every time I taste one of the French-oaked wines I recall the smell of those smouldering clove cigarettes, and think what a wonderful winemaking change we have on our hands. Send in the cloves!

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 12:47 pm

Guest,

You got it in one. The reason I asked was because of this

2002 Two Hands "Samantha's Garden" Clare Shiraz
Aromatic with cloves and pepper and a fleshy nose.Red fruits on the palate with a lovely mouthfeel and balance. [/b]Oak takes the back seat here [/b]with the fruit the star..

Cloves frequently comes from the French Oak so if there is a lot of cloves in the aroma and palate there is a fair amount of oak influence, its just not as obvious as many American oak wines.

Clove oak · Post by **Clove oak** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 12:56 pm

Cannot agree more TORB. But there is nothing at all wrong with a little bit of oak, or not in my book anyways. Do not like it when it is overdone, but I do like it as part of the overall picture (and I have even been known to like a bit of vanilla at times too. Prefer cloves, in general, to vanilla though, because it is less sweet. I like the sweetness to come from the fruit, not from the oak). The tasting note for the Two Hands wine did not suggest that there was a lot of cloves, just that it was one factor among a list of descriptors. Sounds good to me! Send in the cloves! Yum yum yum!

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 5:34 am

DaveB wrote:I attended a Teusner and Two Hands Masterclass last night in Sydney hosted by Kym Teusner and Michael Twelftree:

I understand that Kym has been employed by Rolf Binder of Veritas, so he must be pretty good.

michaelt · Post by **michaelt** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 6:22 am

Gee's that surpising, TORB get his facts completly wrong again.

Kym Teusner has never been an employee of Two Hands wines, my understanding is that he worked a few vintages at Torbreck with Dave Powell but was let go when Dave found out that he was making his own wine on the side.

Our fulltime winemaker is Matthew Wenk who has been with us since the 2002 vintage.

TORB please work on getting your facts right before posting.

Michael Twelftree
Proprietor
Two Hands Wines

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 6:34 am

Michael,

Thanks for the correction, I was given one and one and added it up to three, my mistake entirely. I have edited the origional post to fix the facts and as it is so early in the morning doubt that anyone but you saw the incorrect info. You picked it up within minutes of my responding to DaveB post, which was lucky.

Noel · Post by **Noel** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 8:31 am

Glad the authority put you straight on that one Ric for the sake of humanity

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 8:33 am

Michael,

Further to my last post I did some checking.

Our fulltime winemaker is Matthew Wenk who has been with us since the 2002 vintage.

I visited your winery near the end of vintage in May 2002 and don't remember him being with you then. Now I could be wrong, but I was under the impression he started in September 2002 and by that time the wines would have been well on the road to being made. Please correct me if this is false.

Kym Teusner....my understanding is that he worked a few vintages at Torbreck with Dave Powell but was let go when Dave found out that he was making his own wine on the side.

As usual there is always two sides to every story but I was told that Kym left on his own accord. BTW, Dan Standish the Torbreck winemaker (by Dave Powells own admission) is allowed to make his own wines on the side.

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