currently sipping

[Daryl Douglas]

Charles Sturt University Chardonnay 2007. I've posted an impression before but anyway, for the price there's a touch of elegance, spicy oak just in the background. Nice honeydew melon, white peach, grapefruit and, in a drier style, citrussy acid on the finish.

It's blown away the disappointing Annies Lane Chardonnay 2006 I had earlier.

daz

[hmmm]

2003 penfolds bin 128 shiraz, good line and length, will let it settle for a couple more hours for dinner and it will be a winner.

[dlo]

First glass of anything for several days - lurking in the back of the fridge, a partially consumed bottle of 2001 Plantaganet Riesling. Probably been opened for the best part of 5 days, this wine has seen little oxidation or degradation. Still lively, zippy, dances all over and around the tongue, lovely mix of youth and bottle development, good line, long, dry citrussy/acid-rich finish. Lovely stuff. 91 points. Screwcap closure.

[Gavin Trott]

Mike Press Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Pretty good, a no brainer at <$10 per bottle, tropical fruit, good balance, some inensity, good acid finish and quite morish.

Mind you, a couple of days ago I had the

2008 Teusner Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc, another animal completely, serious Savvy, luscious, best I've had for ages and seriously shades the 2008 Shaw and Smith!!!

[Almaviva]

2002 Penfolds bin 389 (Cab sav/Shiraz) a very nice quaffer

[dazza1968]

Saltram Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

Ho hum, Ho hum...

How long do you think you can keep this wine in good cellaring conditions

What i can say is the 02 is brillliant and is getting better by the month ,

For me this wine is great value for money and if cellared 3 to 6 years you get a drink that really is lushious Sexy and carries ego

I am not sure what time frame they will cellar but the 2000 vintage wass still fine (all gone now) I know the good vintages age really well 8 to 12 years is not out of the question IMO

Regards Dazza

[Mahmoud Ali]

Dazza1968

I think you're right about the cellaring ability of the Mamre Brook Cabernet. In fact I think most decent Cabernets can take 10 years cellaring in their stride.

My edition of Jeremy Oliver On Wine (2003) gives the 2000 Mamre Brook a cellaring window of 2002-2005+ and that is in a weaker vintage. Meanwhile he gives the 1986's (which was a Cab/Shiraz) a cellaring window of 2006-2016!

My bottles are from the 1998 vintage and he reckons they should be drunk between 2010 to 2018+. I'm not thinking of opening a bottle for quite sometime.

Cheers............Mahmoud

[Jay60A]

Tatachilla Foundation Shiraz 2003. Oak was sticking out after opening but a nice non-fruit bomb wine evolved over time ... long and savoury ... tonnes of sediment in the last two glasses. Yum.

[Bick]

My edition of Jeremy Oliver On Wine (2003) gives the 2000 Mamre Brook a cellaring window of 2002-2005+ and that is in a weaker vintage. Meanwhile he gives the 1986's (which was a Cab/Shiraz) a cellaring window of 2006-2016!

JO reckons the 04 will go 30 yrs in the cellar. This has been discussed before though and sounds optimistic to me; but I have a 6 pk so maybe I'll find out (it may depend on the old folks home liquor policy by that stage!)

[dlo]

Another small sip of a half-reasonable quaffer while the house stops spinning for another hour (hopefully longer) - 1995 Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon - looking the goods tonight, still with plenty of petrol in the tank. Lovely depth in straw/lightly bronzed/mid-gold hue. A lot of lanolin, freshly cut winter grass, some suggestion of leesy characters with an undercurrent of citrus, honey, dried herbs and grilled nuts (no toast yet) - held together by laser-like, indelible citrussy acidity. Superb definition and terrific length. 94 points with some upside to look forward to over the next 5-10 years.

[dazza1968]

Dazza1968

I think you're right about the cellaring ability of the Mamre Brook Cabernet. In fact I think most decent Cabernets can take 10 years cellaring in their stride.

My edition of Jeremy Oliver On Wine (2003) gives the 2000 Mamre Brook a cellaring window of 2002-2005+ and that is in a weaker vintage. Meanwhile he gives the 1986's (which was a Cab/Shiraz) a cellaring window of 2006-2016!

My bottles are from the 1998 vintage and he reckons they should be drunk between 2010 to 2018+. I'm not thinking of opening a bottle for quite sometime.

Cheers............Mahmoud

Hello Mahmoud, Go On Have a sample You could be surprised how Ready to drink it really is Regards Dazza

[Wayno]

Torzi Matthews Frost Dodger Eden Valley Riesling 2007
A bit of additional fruit sweetness rolling along a wave of Bickfords lime. Not especially focussed and crisp but a decent drop nonetheless.

[Wizz]

1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Nice quaffer.

No just kidding

Seppelt Silverband Sparkling Shiraz. V tasty.

[Maroon&Blue]

Mike Press Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Pretty good, a no brainer at <$10 per bottle, tropical fruit, good balance, some inensity, good acid finish and quite morish.

Mind you, a couple of days ago I had the

2008 Teusner Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc, another animal completely, serious Savvy, luscious, best I've had for ages and seriously shades the 2008 Shaw and Smith!!!

Gavin
Is the Teusner 08 SB readily available at the moment?

If not, when & where?

cheers

[n4sir]

1988 John Riddoch - nice enough quaffer

Had a bottle Monday night with a number of other Cabernets served blind, including 05 Vasse Felix, 04 Montrose, 05 Cullen DM, 02 Stonyridge Larose, 00 Pavillon Rouge, 98 Yarra Yarra, 98 Mondavi Reserve and 90 Cos Labory. It was the last wine served and absolutely destroyed everything else - a stunning bottle that was even better than the last time when I thought it was the best Cabernet I tried that year. Full report to come later when I get the time...

Cheers,
Ian

[Daryl Douglas]

Not that I've tried them but I wouldn't expect the Vasse Felix 05 and Cullen 05 to be showing very well at present. I still lament having drunk too much Cullen 99 and 01 waaayyyy too young. If my liver's still functioning then, I may crack a bottle of each for my 60th birthday when the 99's 15yo.

Cheers

daz

[Daryl Douglas]

De Bortoli Gulf Station Chardonnay 2006. It's nice enough but after the CSU 07, seems a bit overworked in the winery, the oak more intrusive, time on lees and perhaps some malo make it bit more complex than the CSU but not necessarily more enjoyable. Chard does need a bit of oak and for me it's a fine line between pleasure.......it was a case filler.

Happily, there's a doz of the CSU 07 in transit to me.

Have I mentioned that I like whites young and fresh?

Cheers

daz

[Mahmoud Ali]

Dazza1968,

Oh no you don't, I'm not letting you tempt me into opening a 1998 Mamre Brook Cabernet. I've far too many other 1998s, both Cab and Shiraz that have earlier drinking horizons. Besides, I like my wines really mature.

By the way, can anyone tell me how to get the whole quote thing to work. When I use the quote button all I get is a string of words, symbols and brackets interspersed by the quoted text. It looks like a dog's breakfast in the preview: [b] blah blah [b] [quote]blah blah blah [quote] and so on.

And sipping on 12 yo GlenDronach has nothing to do with my computorial inabilities.

Cheers................Mahmoud

[Daryl Douglas]

And sipping on 12 yo GlenDronach has nothing to do with my computorial inabilities.

Cheers................Mahmoud

That's a distillery I've not seen the name of before, sounds like a highlander - and probably very bloody nice.

GlenLivet 12yo is my affordable malt since The Wine Society seems to have deleted it's 1ltr bottles of blended single malts - the last few bottles were very good and excellent vfm.

It's too early here for me to go to a whisky, the weather's become warmer and I'm still drinking a chardie, Gulf Station 06.

Cheers

daz

[Daryl Douglas]

Stonier Chard 04 sort of ramps up the complexity equation from the Gulf Station 06. Last bottle - absolute never-to-be-seen-again bargain for $12. Mealy, malo, lees characters are obvious, coconutty, cashew, guava, ripe peach, with a bit of breathing some honeycomb without the sweetness. Oak is there as evidenced by the coconut/honeycomb/cashew characters - this is about as developed as I'd like to see it so I'm glad I opened it. It's been more worked in the winery than the Gulf Station 06 but is very interesting nonetheless. A bit too much of everything, I prefer the CSU 07.

daz

[seddo]

Finished half bottle of Tatachilla Shiraz 06 - not bad but better last night and now currently sipping a Casacabel Tipico 05 - noice

cheers
Seddo

[dlo]

1988 John Riddoch - nice enough quaffer

Had a bottle Monday night with a number of other Cabernets served blind, including 05 Vasse Felix, 04 Montrose, 05 Cullen DM, 02 Stonyridge Larose, 00 Pavillon Rouge, 98 Yarra Yarra, 98 Mondavi Reserve and 90 Cos Labory. It was the last wine served and absolutely destroyed everything else - a stunning bottle that was even better than the last time when I thought it was the best Cabernet I tried that year. Full report to come later when I get the time...

Cheers,
Ian

Not a bad wine, Ian.

Thought I 'd crack another tame offering tonight to wash down the lightly herb-dusted lamb cutlets - 1998 Orlando St Hugo Cabernet - nice enough quaffer - but does need time for those grippy tannins to come under control - otherwise, looks to be good for at least another 10 years with a dazzling array of reserves of black fruit nicely underpinned by racy acidity and sensible use of seasoned oak. About 91 on my scorecard. Still can't drink much, so I'll pour off half for father's day tomorrow and see how the rest goes down while I watch the footy tonight.

[Daryl Douglas]

1998 Orlando St Hugo Cabernet[/b] - nice enough quaffer - but does need time for those grippy tannins to come under control - otherwise, looks to be good for at least another 10 years with a dazzling array of reserves of black fruit nicely underpinned by racy acidity and sensible use of seasoned oak. About 91 on my scorecard. Still can't drink much, so I'll pour off half for father's day tomorrow and see how the rest goes down while I watch the footy tonight.

Had my last of these a few weeks ago, thought the oak overpowered the (very nice) fruit. Perhaps a storage or variable palate issue - but the Longhop shiraz 07 that followed it was more balanced, easier drinking for me FWIW. [/b]

[dave vino]

The Wine Society seems to have deleted it's 1ltr bottles of blended single malts - the last few bottles were very good and excellent vfm.
Cheers

daz

How do you get a blended single malt?

[John #11]

2006 Amon-Ra, and 2004 St Henri, after getting up at 6am and putting them into separate decanters. Awesome double.

[Daryl Douglas]

The Wine Society seems to have deleted it's 1ltr bottles of blended single malts - the last few bottles were very good and excellent vfm.
Cheers

daz

How do you get a blended single malt?

Mix 20+ single malts from different distilleries together. You didn't properly read what I actually posted. This may better explain TWS pure malt for you:

Vatted / Blended malt
Vatted malt whisky—also called pure malt—is one of the less common types of Scotch: a blend of single malts from more than one distillery and with differing ages. Vatted malts contain only malt whiskies—no grain whiskies—and are usually distinguished from other types of whisky by the absence of the word ‘single’ before ‘malt’ on the bottle, and the absence of a distillery name. The age of the youngest whisky in the bottle is that used to describe the age on the label, so a vatted malt marked “8 years old” may include older whiskies.

daz

[GrahamB]

My edition of Jeremy Oliver On Wine (2003) gives the 2000 Mamre Brook a cellaring window of 2002-2005+ and that is in a weaker vintage. Meanwhile he gives the 1986's (which was a Cab/Shiraz) a cellaring window of 2006-2016!

JO reckons the 04 will go 30 yrs in the cellar. This has been discussed before though and sounds optimistic to me; but I have a 6 pk so maybe I'll find out (it may depend on the old folks home liquor policy by that stage!)

It is a bit of a worry. JO's drinking window for the 2004 Mamre Brook Cabernet starts at 2024. Maybe we can get Brian to start a page of retirement homes with good cellaring facilities.

Hmmm .. the potential for this is just starting to develop. Maybe I can start a franchise. Anyone interested?????

[GrahamB]

Just came back from my cousin's place. Had a few wines.

2006 Deen de Bartoli Vat 1 Petit Sirah. Had this several times when in Australia where it is called Vat 1 Durif (same grape different name).

deBortoli did this name change a while back. Petit Sirah is a sexier name than Durif was what the rep told me.

[GrahamB]

After more than a week of the flu, a Kabminye Hubert Shiraz 2003. Very glugable.

[Wayno]

2006 Amon-Ra, and 2004 St Henri, after getting up at 6am and putting them into separate decanters. Awesome double.

Damn straight!