Sorry PeterP for not posting under your thread. I have a separate point to make so I prefered to post a new thread.
Popped into Rockford yesterday and thought I should give you a quick report of what I found, especially as the 2001 Basket Press was released to Stonewallers over the weekend.
First, Angela is 7 & ½ months pregnant!
Other points:
NV PN/Chardonnay Bubbles ($16): Restrained style – something not expected from the Rockford. Long with fine bubbles and good acid. Excellent winemaking but needs fruit to develop - probably will with time. Recommended with room for higher rating in 12 months. Excellent value now, and probably amazing in 12 months.
2001 Eden Valley Riesling ($17.50): Did not show much typical Riesling floral and lime fruit but this is not the style. This is broad and extractive/phenolic. Excellent balancing acidity. Will age very well. Interesting wine that is Highly Recommended.
2000 Semillon ($16.50): 12 months old oak. Very broad, smooth and mouthfilling. Sweetened butter. Again not much primary fruit but excellently balanced. Given the Barossa Semillion style, this wine is also Highly Recommended.
2003 White Frontignac ($12.50): Not my style but killed the Grant Burge WF for balance. Recommended, if you like the sweeter style.
2003 Alicante Bouchet ($15): Although not my style, I can really appreciate this wine. So cherry and so smooth. Beautifully integrated acidity. The absence of skin contact really makes a difference. I felt that this was a touch sweeter than the 2002. Recommended, if you like the style. I rated the 2002 Excellent. The sugar in the 2003 is slightly out of balance.
1999 Moppa Springs (GSM) ($21.50): One of the few GSMs I like to drink. 1999 was apparently a great Grenache year for quality and quantity and there is still a fair bit of this stuff left. Smooth, savoury and balanced. Highly Recommended - a huge rating from me for a Grenache.
2000 Rod & Spur (Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon) (2001 is $32): Too much reliance on oak sweetness. Maybe not enough fruit to balance the oak. Either way, not my "cup of tea", and definitely not in this company.
1997 Cabernet Sauvignon ($35): Really starting to shine. Awesome broad palate with liquorice flavours coming out of the ripe Barossa fruit. With great underlying structure and length. Excellent. Re-release. No label changes.
2001 Cabernet Sauvignon to be released tomorrow ($32).
2001 Basket Press Shiraz ($43): Bottled only last week and as such is not really fair to provide a full tasting note BUT its fruit ripeness, mouthfilling fruit explosion, intensity and complexity showed that it was a top-notch BP and much better than the 2000. The only issue was a lack of a middle palate but I put this down to bottle shock. I am confident enough to rate this Excellent.
NV Black Shiraz August 2003 Disgorgement ($53): Heaven in a bottle. Fruit, spice and bubbles go on forever. Noticeable sweetness but this is consistent with the style and its age. Outstanding. A great disgorgement.
1997 VP Shiraz: This wine has really changed over the past 6 months. I originally rated this wine below the 1996 but the "roughness" of this wine has settled down and the fruit and spice is shining. The structure now carries the very luscious fruit for miles without being the feature. The fortification is hardly noticeable. Outstanding.
Real reason for writing this piece: I visited Rockford with my boss. I was actually working in the Barossa over the long weekend. Yes, believe it! My boss is, relatively, a wine novice. We visited Grant Burge the previous day. He did not buy a thing. I walked out with only one bottle, a 1999 Eden Valley Shiraz - one of the trial wines. Anyway, my boss was absolutely blown away with Rockford's wines. So was I. Except for the 2000 Rod & Spur, all the wines are mouthfilling experiences without cloying the palate. All the wines are balanced, even the ripe 2001 Basket Press. More importantly, all the wines are interesting. They have personality. They do not feel as it they were made to a formula. Subsequently, my boss and I spent more money on Rockford wines yesterday than we care to reveal to our wives.
My point: It has been suggested that the reason Stonewallers love Rockford wines so much because we feel so privileged to be Stonewallers. This is incorrect. My boss had never heard of Rockford and walked out thanking me for taking him there as he found out why the Barossa was known as such a great wine region. This was even after he parted with a considerable amount of his hard earned. More importantly, I walked out of there happy that I had tasted some exceptional Barossa wines as well as feeling privileged that I had done so!!!
Adair
