TNs: 1928 Burgundy, Jacq, Grange, Old pennies, Godolph, LLC+

[Baby Chickpea]

Top dinner on 17-Dec-05, hosted by Stephan Lowy at his place in Lindfield. Attendees included Ric, Rob, Adair, Dave P and Stephan's parents who served up a wonderful dinner. great night and thanks to all the attendees. In absence of Adair's notes (he has vanished), and my anally retentive desire to clean up my desktop now (as well as some relative impatience), I'll contribute my brief TV's (Adair's were more detailed).

1996 Jacquesson Avize Grand Cru
Light yellow. Slight mousse. Tight nose: lemony then, with time, became more citrusy. Palate still embryonic – powerful, lots of acid counterpoints the freshly cut lemon flavours. Obvious liqueuring detected (although relatively low). Needs 5-10 years for my palate. Beautifully structured for the long haul. Very new world-ish in style too. Glad I bought some. Top wine.
91/100

NV Primo Estate The Joseph Sparkling Red (Disgorged 2003)
Ah, my favourite sparkling red (yes, IMO even better than the Rockford Black Shiraz). Mid red. Great vigorous mousse. Bouquet is all gorgeous sweet spice, rich plums and very clean. Lovely. Palate is ripe and delicately sweet, with excellent balance and elegance. Finishes slightly bitter (or hard, perhaps the port needs to integrate with time). WouldÂ’ve shown better a little colder (my glass was very slightly chilled) and I like them with about 5+ years age.
90/100

1999 Somlo Harslevelu (Hungary)
12.7%. Light gold. A bit of heat on the nose, colouring the tropical fruits, lanolin and buttery overtones. Strange mix. Palate is simple, with little fruit definition and highly acidic. Strangely non-descript. Boring and dull wine.
83/100

1928 Pascal & Freres Cote de Beaune
Light red. Slight bricking. Rich nose, quite shrill on opening but this subsided, spicy and earthy. Very Grenache-like (don’t laugh). Palate is not really typical of any grape variety, much less pinot! Quite sweet with a remarkable acid finish. Very velvety and soft but lacks complexity. Good balance but is also slightly soupy and broad, with little varietal or regional focus. A curio and an experience. Most of us thought 1960s or 1970s in options! The score is pointless – indeed how do you mark something like this?
87/100

2001 Williams Crossing Pinot Noir (Macedon Ranges, Victoria)
13.3%. This brand is Curly FlatÂ’s declassified fruit label. Deep red/mid purple. Youthful and balanced nose of plums, strawberries and cherries. Quite rich and seamless. A lot happening here. Palate is delicious and lovely. Lacks acidity and structure. Probably the ONLY Aussie pinot I have ever drunk under A$30 that I would buy (and the only one I can remember liking in the under A$30 category!) A bargain! A wine best drunk in its youth to capture its gorgeous red fruit flavours.
88/100

1999 Bass Phillip Reserve Pinot Noir (Gippsland, Victoria)
Mid red with some bricking. Nose is fore obviously complex, with earth, forest floor, moss, mushrooms, spice all tightly coiled and seriously structured. The wine’s palate makes the previous Williams Crossing look one dimensional in comparison. Lovely length to this, impeccable balance, rich dark cherries caress the tongue and textured. Clearly a serious attempt at Grand Cru quality and succeeds. Just missing that extra “wow” factor to make it truly grand. Top wine. Notice Jeremy Oliver rated in 18.8 / 20 on release in early 2001, despite writing that it was "rather disjointed, oaky and angular" (not sure how you can give a wine what is effectively over 94 points for displaying these traits but that’s another argument). I’m sure he’d rate it much higher these days!!
91/100

1995 Lewis Cellars Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley)
13.5%. 94% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc. Mid red /purple. Lifted nose of slight alcohol heat, dirt, earth, forest, green capsicum. Sweet blackcurrant underlies bouquet. Beautiful nose. Palate is a let down, with acid and tannin dominating. Perhaps too youthful, or possibly unbalanced. Hard to say. Not enjoyable to drink.
86/100

1965 Penfolds Bin 426 Shiraz Ouillade (Clare Valley and Barossa Valley)
Light red. Rich coffee, vanilla bean and slight DMS hold court on the nose. Someone stated “Like a cappuccino!”. Palate is on the verge of a nervous breakdown: fruit is short, tannins finish hard, and palate is slightly dirty. Past it.
84/100

1979 Penfolds Hermitage [sic] (Kalimna, Barossa Valley)
12.4%. Made by Max Schubert. Mid red. Tighter and more focussed than the Bin 426. Again, quite dirty. Nicely soft and balanced and fully mature. Finishes slightly short. Held up well for an hour before descent into tuna/fish-like.
87/100

1988 Chateau Leoville Las Cases (St.-Julien)
Mid red. Quite green and capsicum-like characters on opening (that dissipated after 40 minutes). Still youthful and tight and unyielding. Hint of classic Bordeaux emerged after 30 minutes. Palate shows much better than nose, albeit still quite tannic and awkward. A touch oaky (coffee). Got much better with time. A wine that really needed to be decanted. Still too young. Very good and after one hour was beginning to come together; alas, I had no more left in my glass to see it blossom further. Adair reckons the remainder was wonderful the following day. I can only go by what was in my glass. My past experience of LLC suggests time will bring it together and it really needs decanting given its powerful tannins and tight structure. Not touching another bottle for at least 3-5 years.
88/100

1997 Mazzei Badiola (Tuscany)
Mid red. Bouquet is like my visits to the University of Sydney Anatomy Museum inly student days – packed with formaldehydes! No fruit on bouquet. Appears OTH. Not game to try. But did – rank, dirty, off. Palate is acerbic and hard to discern anything remotely resembling grapes. Disgusting.
57/100

1991 Wynns Centenary Limited Release Shiraz Cabernet (Coonawarra)
Deep red. Ripe but balanced. Not bad at all with spicy plums and black berries. Palate is lovely, balanced, drinking extremely well. My previous bottle of this at another offline a couple of months back was seriously tannic. This was better and an options disaster for me – no idea! Lovely wine showing well.
90/100

1989 Penfolds Grange
13.5%. Usual crappy corks from Penfolds – crumbled and corkscrew bore straight though the middle! Mid red. No bricking. Bouquet of prunes, coffee oak, sweet ripe red and black fruits, chives, and dark chocolate. Palate is very elegant for Grange, with cherry ripe flavours finishing with slight acidity. Top balance. Drinking very well. Not sure there is much improvement to be garnered from further ageing. But will hold for years. I like this wine, atypical for Grange but as a wine in its own right, a bloody good one! Not the blockbuster like, say, the 1971, 1976, 1983 or 1986. But it’s not all about power. I prefer harmony, drinkability, balance, structure and length. An interesting wine to serve in options: not a typical Grange. Majority liked it a lot (but when the Grange label is revealed, preconceptions tend to set in along the lines of: ah, 1989 not a great vintage in general or for Grange so this can’t possibly be a great wine. Pffftt! What robbish! This is an excellent wine – present it blind and discover for yourself.
91/100

2004 Ben Glaetzer Godolphin Unfiltered Shiraz Cabernet (Barossa Valley)
15%. The “wine-of-the-moment” here in Australia and all sold out. One smell of this and I guessed it outright. Opulent nose of rich liquorice, jubes, pastilles. No sign of alcohol. Palate is very rich in blackcurrants, with some acidity and tannin that provides structure (that I find rare in these lush high alcohol wines). Classy wine. Excellent wine. I liked it alot. Not sure it will improve much but who cares – this is hedonism. Now, who’s gonna sell me a couple of bottles?
91/100

NV Campbells Isabelle Rare Tokay (Rutherglen)
Mid brown/orange. Amazingly gorgeous and sexy melange of coffee, tang, honey, some alcohol heat seeping through. Equally brilliant palate that has a structural framework, long, long length; stunning balance, and intoxicating syrup-like toffee/treacle flavours that linger. Stunning and exceptional wine. WasnÂ’t really taking notes by this stage so point score may be under estimating this wine. I just wanted to enjoy it.
94/100

[Adair]

Danny,

Sorry for the delay and thanks for posting. I really have a marathon of notes to post, but I actually have less time to post when I am on holidays.

Interesting how the TORB stickie to end these evenings often ends up the greatest wine. Amazing things we have in this country!

Kind regards,
Adair

[n4sir]

1965 Penfolds Bin 426 Shiraz Ouillade (Clare Valley and Barossa Valley)
Light red. Rich coffee, vanilla bean and slight DMS hold court on the nose. Someone stated “Like a cappuccino!”. Palate is on the verge of a nervous breakdown: fruit is short, tannins finish hard, and palate is slightly dirty. Past it.
84/100

1979 Penfolds Hermitage [sic] (Kalimna, Barossa Valley)
12.4%. Made by Max Schubert. Mid red. Tighter and more focussed than the Bin 426. Again, quite dirty. Nicely soft and balanced and fully mature. Finishes slightly short. Held up well for an hour before descent into tuna/fish-like.
87/100

Thanks fot the notes Danny. I'd seen a couple of the Bin 426 at auction last year, and was curious what it would be like. The cappuccino characters of the nose sounds a lot like a 1965 Wynns Hermitage I tried back in May 2000, which itself was a nice old wine just hanging in there.

Was the 1979 Grange decanted prior to serving? I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that the 1979 would have a rather tricky drinking window to predict, and the decant time may have been crucial as to how it faired.

Cheers,
Ian

[Baby Chickpea]

Ian, the 1979 Penfolds was not a Grange - just labelled "Penfolds Hermitage" and stating that it was made by Max Schubert. First time I have ever seen this bottle.

[Scoobinski]

Ian,
The 1979 was a special release wine made for the athrtitis association. Apparently there were only a couple of cases made.
Cheers

[n4sir]

Oops - that's what happens when I'm scanning over this quickly while waiting on a phone call.

Sorry for the stuff up guys, and thanks for the correction - I know what you're talking about now, as I think I saw one of these at Oddbins a month or so ago (among other interesting things).

Cheers,
Ian

[TORB]

Hi Guys,

No doubt about it, it was a top night with some very good and some very unusual wines. Even though Attila wasn't there, thanks to Adairs warped sense of humour, we even got to drink some Hungarian wine.

The 1928 Pascal & Freres Cote de Beaune was a fantastic experience and as Danny stated, how do you rate a wine like this? None of us could believe the age of the wine.

Overall the selection of the wines were very unusual and covered a diverse range which made for a most enjoyable night.

Thanks to all who attended, but especially to Stephan and his parents for being such terrific hosts.