Its a sunny spring SUNDAY

[TORB]

Hi Good Peoples,

Its that time of the week again. Lists vibes and tasting notes all welcome. Please let us know what you have been drinking over the last week.

[seddo]

Marius Symphosium 05 - deep and dark purple red colour decadent black fruits with a smidge of meatyness first blend of this type I have tried and I love it - good one Roger

Olivers Taranga Shiraz 06 -another big wine but everything in balance, it reminded me of a very rich fruitcake. A delicious drink which was even better on the second night.

Teusner Avatar 05 - glorious,glorious wine - nuff said

cheers
Seddo

[kwattro]

2007 Charles Sturt University Chardonnay
2005 The Story Wines Shiraz The Orphan
2006 Tin Shed Shiraz Melting Pot

i ordered a few each of these to try based on the praises in the forum and was not dissappointed (thank you!). The chardy is a real bargain i reckon. Will order at least another 6 to keep me thru the comming months...both of the shiraz are impressive, I love the 'The Orphan' - will definitely order some more to keep.

[cuttlefish]

We had a blind tasting of King Valley varietals yesterday. My brief notes of the four brackets of four wines as follows:

Dal Zotto Prosecco 2006
Sparkling wine. Crown sealed. Very little autolytic characters. A little fly-spray citrus, and good honey aroma. Palate firm

Dal Zotto Riesling 2006
Screwcap. Light white colour with faint,faint hint of green. Faint kerosene aroma. Spritzy palate with quite good acid and tanginess. Lasting flavour on the front palate.

Brown Bros. Ltd Rel. Riesling 2005 (Whitlands)
Yellow straw colour. Aromas of kero and honeysuckle, lanolin. Palate has ample lemon/lime flavours. Could be some residual sugar - more textural than the Dal Zotto.

Pizzini Pinot Grigio 2007
Light white yellow colour with maybe a glint of green. Minerally nose. Some describe as "umami". Talc. Clean crisp but light palate. Possibly a bit short.

Pizzini Arneis 2008
Aroma of fresh red apple and tropical melon, almost into passionfruit, and some honey. Very light spritz, and a long lean palate. Tropical fruit characters suggested to have come from the yeast.

Boggy Creek Unwooded Chardonnay 2005
Faintly developed nose, and a little cheesy. Firm fine acid. Dry. Has sizzle on the palate, and aromas of peaches and cream.

Brown Brothers Ltd Rel. Chardonnay 2005
Mid straw to yellow. Honeyed nose and lanolin. Quite firm. Some length

Pizzini Verduzzo 2006
Light white colour. Mineral notes, and fresh squeezed lemon juice. Palate is clean but does drop off smartly.

Henderson Hardie Cuvee Celeste
Light mid straw colour with perhaps a hint of green. 1996 vintage late disgorged, or something along those lines. Aromas of sea shell, light autolysis, with a really very good balance and mouthfeel. High percentage of Chardonnay in this wine. Good evenness right across the palate.

Wood Park Pinot Noir 2004
Quite dirty looking light cherry colour. Cherry-skin like acidity and fine dry tannins. Average, really.

Symphonia Tempranillo 2006
Stewed rhubarb characters at first on the nose and oak-a-plenty. Pine/mint toast. I'd guess dominated by French oak. A little alcoholic lift, and a touch of spice on the palate, and quite mouthfilling.

Symphonia Tannat 2005
Dark cherry/plum colour. Faintly rustic smelling. Not as sweet a caress from the oak here. Ripe fruit. Dry and tannic palate. Not terribly complex. Firm acid.

Pizzini Sangiovese 2006
Mid cherry colour. Smoke taint ? Leafiness. Seems well balanced mid-weight. Good length.

Pizzini Nebbiolo 2001
Looks aged, with some bricking. Dry and lean. A touch of VA becoming apparent. Tar ?

Symphonia Saperavi 2005
Light palate at first, and some greenness to the tannins. Some slightly underripe berry fruit aromas.

Dal Zotto Barbera 2005
Meaty aromas with possible asian spice of some type. Palate subdued at first, but ample fruit and quite oaky and light-medium in weight. A little alcohol warmth.

Boggy Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
A little corked. Some mint. Showing some development on the aromatics. A touch bretty, but not overly so.

Cuttlefish

[Wayno]

Orlando Jacaranda Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon 1999
Drinking so exceptionally well, the real deal: cigarry, rich, still with good fruit, a touch of leafiness and very well balanced. Surely entering it's ideal drinking window but with time on it's side.

[Jules]

Last night I organised dinner with some friends and had

2x 2005 Paul Jaboulet 'Les Traverses' Cotes du Ventoux which is astounding value for money, and a lovely wine.
1x 2006 [b]Telmo Rodriguez Al Muvedre[/b], really impressed with this as were my companions as it probably tastes more 'new world'.
1x 2007 Ad Hoc 'Strawman', every year a SBS stands out from the pack (excluding the Lenton Brae which is consistently excellent) and this is the one for this year. Great quaffer.
1x 2006 Burgans Albarino which is a good wine for $15, love that lime sherbet taste, balanced with the crispness it has.
1x Lanson NV, I've always thought this is the best of the NV's with it's upfront ballsy taste and while this was no different it tasted to me like it was lacking a bit of fizz, still very enjoyable.
1x 2007 Stonyfell Cabernet Shiraz, friend bought this and while it was a little 'hot' and lacked the elegance of the other reds it was a reasonable quaffer.

[hmmm]

Moet et Chandon - Grand Vintage 2000
a strong nose of yeast, lemon and lime zest, colour of natural lime syrup being of green tinged yellowy straw, a surprisingly soft and light mouthfeel with apricots, citrus fruits and nicely balanced acids. not a very long winded finish or overly amazing wine, but satisfying given the lack of cost, situation and events of the night.


Wolf Blass Black label cabsav/shiraz 1992
first off, oh how annoying to have a soft cork crumble up. anyway that aside the initial aromas were enough to make me want to do away with the decanter and glasses altogether but rational and common sense prevailed, plums, tobacco and burned ash on the nose, a more opaque ruby/blood orange colour tinged with orangy brown edges, the initial few glasses were before the food started, quite a crisp mouthfeel like biting into a juicy apple, more plums here, with additional raspberries and dry spices, medium all round, low A/V of 13% quite apparent with oak and tannins mixing with the fruit in the foreground well, needed the food though to pull everything in line and was quite enjoyable with the meal, seems to me that now is the best time to drink this, i had a 1994 a few months ago and that was prominant and a lot more youthful than this.

[lordson]

I had a glass of Penfolds Bin 128 06 and it dissapointing

it tasted alot like the other cab i've had, light, a bit bland, lacking aftertatse, or any sort of taste. they told me it was a new bottle too.

i dunno, it didn't have as much taste as the Shiraz i had, maybe i just dont like Cabernet Sauvignon, they're all a teeny bit sour

[Red Bigot]

I had a glass of Penfolds Bin 128 06 and it dissapointing

it tasted alot like the other cab i've had, light, a bit bland, lacking aftertatse, or any sort of taste. they told me it was a new bottle too.

i dunno, it didn't have as much taste as the Shiraz i had, maybe i just dont like Cabernet Sauvignon, they're all a teeny bit sour

Hi lordson, Bin 128 is Coonawarra shiraz, it's not a cabernet. But I agree, it's a disappointing wine.
I'm still waiting on you to try the Taylors Shiraz and Cabernet, not the Promised Land, the next level up, under $15 at a lot of places and likely to be more to your taste than the Bin 128.

[lordson]

????

huh. it was a shiraz eh. i dunno, as soon as i tasted it, it reminded me of the crap bottle of Toolern Vale Cab 03, and the also dissapointing Hyland Cab 06

i swear it tasted JUST like a cab sauv and nothing like the Promised Land Shiraz i had

i'm going to crack that bottle of Taylos 07 Cab, tomorrow, can't wait

does it need time to breath?

cheers

[Red Bigot]

????

huh. it was a shiraz eh. i dunno, as soon as i tasted it, it reminded me of the crap bottle of Toolern Vale Cab 03, and the also dissapointing Hyland Cab 06

i swear it tasted JUST like a cab sauv and nothing like the Promised Land Shiraz i had

i'm going to crack that bottle of Taylos 07 Cab, tomorrow, can't wait

does it need time to breath?

cheers

You seem to keep buying cabernets although you never seem to like them. Young shiraz is often more approachable than a similarly young cabernet. My weekly tasting group moan a bit when I offer up young cabernets, they can be hard going.

A lot of screwcapped wines seem to like an hour or so of air. If possible, open the bottle about an hour before you want to start drinking, pour half a glass or so and put the cap back on the bottle. You can taste the freshly poured wine and then again after an hour to see if you can notice any difference.

[lordson]

alright, thanks mate, yeah thats what i do.

oh and cuttlefish, you didn't say how good the wines were, you just described them

be nice to know how good you reckon it was

[Wayno]

I think Cuttlefish's opinion on the are generally pretty obvious, Lordson.

[TORB]

Orlando Jacaranda Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon 1999
Drinking so exceptionally well, the real deal: cigarry, rich, still with good fruit, a touch of leafiness and very well balanced. Surely entering it's ideal drinking window but with time on it's side.

Agree completely with your comments. Interesting that this wine is far more approachable at 7+ years of age than its predecessors. I also doubt it will last as long as many of the earlier vintages.

[mattECN]

2006 'Drummer' Pinot Noir (Waitiri Creek Wines), Central Otago NZ

fantastic wine from the minute it was opened. medium bodied, lively palate of bright red cherries and touches of ripe rasberries. well judged oak and overall balance; not overly long in length, but a wine that matched brilliantly with Beef Bourguignonne (the recipe required 1 cup of red burgundy so I substitued this wine, then drank the balance of the bottle with the dish).

The first 06 cental otago pinot that I have tried and this was very impressive.

[Daryl Douglas]

2007 Charles Sturt University Chardonnay
2005 The Story Wines Shiraz The Orphan
2006 Tin Shed Shiraz Melting Pot

i ordered a few each of these to try based on the praises in the forum and was not dissappointed (thank you!). The chardy is a real bargain i reckon. Will order at least another 6 to keep me thru the comming months...both of the shiraz are impressive, I love the 'The Orphan' - will definitely order some more to keep.

I wouldn't recommend crap wine - haven't tried the "Orphan" 05 but have some of the 06 that's reputedly even better - love it - but the Westgate 06 is even better, worth double the price(which it almost is). Also have a couple of Melting Pot 05, didn't know the 06 had been released - given the reputation of the 06 vintage, it should be a cracker, excellent vfm. CSU chard 07 is probably the best white for my palate that I've tasted this year, lightly oaked but enough so to make it more interesting than the non-oaked versions of the variety.

I'm sipping on a CSU chard 07 as I tap on the keyboard.

Cheers

daz

[Wayno]

One more to round out the weekend, brought by a friend.

Angoves Nine Vines Pinot Grigio 2008
Quite interesting if simple bubblegummy nose with a flat and lifeless palate with next to no length. I'm with Halliday - Pinot Grigio is a dull wine style (in most instances), some notable Aussie and O/S examples excluded. I'd take a cheapo SB over this anyday, in the aromatic stakes.

[Bick]

My weekly tasting group moan a bit when I offer up young cabernets, they can be hard going.

On this subject, my wine this weekend was young and 50% cab : Ch. Chasse Spleen 04. It was pretty much what you would expect from a young bordeaux - a bit tannic and in need of cellering; good though, in the sense of promise, aroma and structure, and I did enjoy it. I'm enjoying a glass now day 2 and its still fine.

FWIW the reason I popped the cork on a young Bordeaux was an exercise in self-education, not because I'm a snobby francophile. I've not had that much decent Bordeaux, so when I hear that so-and-so Aussie/Kiwi cab merlot blend is (or isn't) Bordeaux-like, I'd like to have a better perspective on what that means. I'm hopefully getting there, albeit slowly.

[cuttlefish]

alright, thanks mate, yeah thats what i do.

oh and cuttlefish, you didn't say how good the wines were, you just described them

be nice to know how good you reckon it was

Sorry Lordson, I'm suffering from a heavy head cold at the moment, and I really struggled through that tasting in terms of being able to pick up a lot. I know they're brief notes, but that's all I could muster. Overall, none of the wines bar the sparkling ones really did much for me. Like (Bick's ?) comment above, I was a little non-plussed with the Grigio. I've tasted better.
My poetic side didn't really come out at this particular tasting !

[crackers]

Needed something to go with my braised ox tail gnocchi and though this would work with its big juicy fruits and firm tannins. Purple in colour with upfront sweet juicy plum. Tannins were a bit all over the place to start with but came together once aired for an hour. Went great with the ox tail but a bit too much fruit sweetness on its own. Great value at $15 and great to drink something with different Terror.

[Daryl Douglas]

Needed something to go with my braised ox tail gnocchi and though this would work with its big juicy fruits and firm tannins. Purple in colour with upfront sweet juicy plum. Tannins were a bit all over the place to start with but came together once aired for an hour. Went great with the ox tail but a bit too much fruit sweetness on its own. Great value at $15 and great to drink something with different Terror.

I've only once had memorable gnocchi but it was made in the kitchen, served with a delicious cheese sauce. Still remember the now-gone pub in also Ingham had real ravioli spread on tables drying under the ceiling fans. Nice Italian tucker in Ingham 35+ years ago. A deli next door to the the bank I worked at then always had a huge tin of anchovies on the counter near the till and salamis hanging on racks in the back corner of the shop with drip trays to catch the fat.

On the other side of the bank was a pub that served we underage drinkers ($0.20/$0.25 I think was what a 7oz XXXX cost then), mostly in the private bar, and just a bit past it, a liquor shop where I used to buy Cold Duck, Seppelt Sprietzig and Mateus rose.

My, how times change.................

[monghead]

Ruinart NV
- One of my favourite NVs.

2004 Tower Estate Hunter Valley Chardonnay
- Big, oaky, heavy, too much of everything, not too enjoyable.

2007 Over the Shoulder Pinot Noir
- Simple, clean, easy to drink pinot. Not one for the mind, but enjoyable none the less.

2003 Bouchard L'enfant Jesus
- Complex, ripe cherries, earthy, gamey. Loved it.

Cheers

[Waiters Friend]

A couple of auction bargains:

Penfolds Thomas Hyland Chardonnay 2004: Given the subject of a previous posting, people may be aware of my doubts about Australian Chardonnay's ability to age beyond 4-5 years. I think this is a prime example - good (but not great) with some savoury developmental notes on both nose and palate, and fruit and oak struggling to be in balance. Maybe reaching that point where further development is not an option. However, at 1/3 of retail price, I can't complain, and my partner likes it, too, so a relative bargain.

Eppalock Estate Shiraz 2002 (Heathcote): Like the Hyland above, I went back for seconds at auction, and got this for about 40% of retail. Notes as previously posted (despite cork closure, the wines I have opened so far have been consistent) with a touch of mint / menthol on an immediately appealing nose. Nice for the price.

[griff]

Lots and lots and lots of beer in Brugge. Back to wine soon.

cheers

Carl

[ACG]

St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz 1998

Showing some mushroomy development on the nose, there is no mistaking the sweet, choc cherry like aromatics of Barossa fruit. Its dark chocolate Cherry Ripe and it is quite distinctive and delicious, with the bottle age injecting some meatiness. The medium to full bodied palate shows more of this mushroomy sweet fruit, mixed with coconut oak and finishing with some alcoholic warmth - its drying out a little on the palate without the immediate attraction of the nose, but its still quite tasty in its mould.

A nicely mature Barossa Shiraz. 17.5

[/b]

[Mandingo]

Majella 2004 Sparkling Shiraz - Improving each time I try it. Wasn't super impressed when I first bought it.

Majella 2004 Mallea - was a bit concerned about it after Halliday's comments in the Wine Companion. Neednt have been. This was tight and delicious - glad I bought it.

2006 Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz - 13% a/vol? This was a tight and focussed wine - not sure whether to like it or not at this stage. Quite tannic and a little austere - the fact the the bottle was empty be the end of the evening probably tells the story. (The 2005 Cabernet is also very tight at the moment) These are very different style from much of the premium reds coming through at the moment.

2006 Kays Shiraz - not super impressed. Plenty of flavour, but a little simple and warm on the palate IMHO. Still managed to finish it on the second night, when it came up a bit better. Probably just needs time.

Cheers,
John

[winetastic]

Rosemount Show Reserve Shiraz 2002 - Corked

Ferraris Rose 2007 - Berry fruit flavours but not sweet, not overly dry either - nice minerality about this wine, just the thing coming into warmer weather and a bargain at $15.

[bacchaebabe]

98 Tahbilk Cab Sav This bottle a bit past it really. I think just a bit of bottle variation as other bottles I've had of this recently showed much better.

Been working my way through a bottle of Lauriston Show Port. I know I've had this for about 10 years and there's a heap of medals and tropheys listed on the box, some dating from 1984 so not entirely sure exactly how old the stuff in the bottle is. I probably bought it in 95 or 96.

A deep orange brown colour. Spirity nose with prunes, grapes and treacle. On the palate, lovely complexity with plums, prunes, mollasses and a long and complex rancio and coffee finish. Maybe a little lightweight in the middle palate but finishes like toffee. Very nice way to finish each night.

[John #11]

2004 Saltram Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon
We opened yet another to celebrate the passing of another Sunday.
It opened just as we expected, but within 90 minutes it had just fallen apart, lost all of its structure, and tasted just like a fruity cask cabernet. I hope this is not a trend....

[crackers]

2004 Saltram Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon

Do you think it was a dodge bottle John? Have you had this experience with any other 2004 Saltram Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon, doesn't sounds good for ageing?