and my nephew is getting married today so I am going to have an AFD. Life is to short to drink plonk! ...... well an AFD day till dinner as Marion and I will be having sushi etc and a bottle of Frog Bubbles - great combination.
Now what have you been drinking over the last week? Lists, vibes, tasting notes etc welcome.
Last edited by TORB on Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Witchmount Estate Shiraz 2004: Pepper/spice cool climate Victorian shiraz....medium bodied rich and creamy. 14.5%
Very nice but nothing outstanding to warrant the accolades.
Hardy's Padthaway Noble Riesling 2002: Medium sweetness with all classic honey apricots on display. 10%
Limited release and good drinking.
2008 Teusner Riebke Shiraz - on song as it has been since I started drinking it (2006 vintage). For me, about as good as $20 Barossa shiraz gets.
2008 Leo Buring Leonay High Eden Riesling- I wouldn't crack another for at least 5 years, but its really good and could become terrific. At the moment, the acid is holding back the fruit. But it's got superb length.
2006 Delatite Unwooded Chardonnay- simple but very nice with some ashed goat's cheese.
2006 Coldsteam Hills Reserve Pinot Noir- coming along nicely since last tasted in 08. Good complexity and length. Not a big fan of cherry cola flavours in pinot, but they are in balance here, not distracting.
2007 Meerea Park Shiraz- evolved a fair bit over a day of tasting. Nice synergy between Hilltops and Hunter fruit. Opened with red berries and cherries, brambly black notes combining with olives and coal and some nice pepper/spice all with Hunter earthiness in the background. Low oak, elegant, medium bodied, fine tannins and savoury. Plums came to the fore over red fruit and mid palate filled out as wine opened up. Excellent acid providing structure. Just a little lacking in depth, but hey, it's $13.
Delacoste NV- really good champagne at $34 dollars, wish I could have spent more time with it.
2006 Gabbiano Chianti Classico- very good for the money, not outstanding. Fairly typical Chianti flavour profile and a fair bit of farmyard in the bottle we tried. I like it.
Apart from Meerea and Leonay, all consumed with various cheeses, so loathe to make grandiose statements, just impressions and vibes.
I attended a tasting earlier in the week that produced quite a few stunners -
The Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling 2001 displayed a lot of colour for a screwcapped wine, was reasonable, but, unfortunately, is in a problematic stage where some classy toast and honey character has latched onto weird nettly/unripe pineapple - something I find most unattractive and all too common in middle-aged Aussie Riesling's. There's hope for the wine yet as I've seen these qualities disappear in other examples with several years more bottle age. 76 points.
The Tyrrell's 1999 Belford Reserve Semillon was another story. Incredibly youthful, pale straw colour, a nose brimming with an uncanny minerality, notes of lanolin, grass and hay, subtle nuance of toast and honey followed by a stunningly tight, rapier-like palate filled with mineral-rich, steely green-fruited bliss and a wealth of acidity in the extended finish. This is the Hunter at its finest. Outstanding wine with another decade or more of development and drinking pleasure. 93 points. Only 9.8% A/V but, sadly, sealed with a cork.
After my very positive experience with Dominique Laurent's 1996 Lavaux-St-Jacques earlier in the week, I decided to open his 1996 Les Suchots from Vosne-Romanee. Lacking the sheer opulence of the L-St-J, the Suchots did reveal a wealth of lovely Vosne perfume with violets and spice box to the fore aided by contributions from cardamon, black cherry, well-hung game, sous bois and pinot sap but the vintage thumbprint of high acidity marginally destabilised the wine's otherwise excellent equilibrium on the palate. Far more youthful in nature to the Lavaux, this wine is still in need of several years in the cellar to soften and mature and I'll not broach another for quite some time. Overall, I thought the wine provided very enjoyable drinking with the marinated barbequed mushrooms but without the food the palate was just a tad too spikey for me. BTW and FWIW, the oak was well under control from go to woe. 90 points. Drink 2013-2020+
The next masked wine went through the most extraordinary transition I can recall in the recent past. Upon pouring this wine screamed out "I'm ready!" with volumes of rounded, soft and cuddly, integrated mature scents of old leather, dark chocolate, a little "good" brett (a nice touch of fresh chook poo and perhaps the faintest whiff of band-aid) with hints of licorice, fennel and cigar box. The palate was similarly etched - sweet-fruited, smooth, beautifully modulated, round and mouth-filling, lax tannins and soft acidty. And then it started to happen. Within minutes, the wine started to freshen .... constanly transforming .... and changing quite remarkably ... the old replaced with the new, so to speak. On the nose scents of weedy blackcurrants emerged backed with strong cedar and herbal undertones, then black olive, tapenade, gravel, lead pencil. The palate now grew extra vitality and depth with much brighter acids and quite firm but balanced and penetrating tannins. The sheer weight increased, the structure now firmer and more youthful, the finish remarkably more sizeable and authoratative with much greater length. Initially I was predicting a beautiful old Aussie shiraz from South Australia, possibly the Hunter, probably from the 80's (about '86 if I had to guess COTB). After options it turned out to be the 1990 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon. My score - 94 points with a drinking window of now-2020! Bravo! Cork sealed and 13.0% A/V.
Lastly we had the pleasure of trying a truly great old Aussie icon - the 1956 Penfolds Five Star Club Port - a remarkble old wine in great shape. A hazy ancient tawny red with khaki and rust, heady nose of rancio, old leather, cherry licquer, old books, christmas cake, dusty oak, sweet earth and hints of sump oil and burnt toffee. The palate retains amazing freshness for such an ancient blend - ckocka-block full of astringent old rum and raisan, briar, rancio, plenty of strong wood, massive acidity and astringency providing an extremely firm, powerful and long conclusion to what can only be described as a totally fascinating experience. We were all pleasantly surprised when the wine was revealed! 92 points. Drink now.
Last night, my daughter, Katherine and I took Mum and Dad out to dinner to celebrate Mum's 79th birthday and I opened bottle of the wonderful 2006 Cape Mentelle Chardonnay (93 points) and a wine in urgent need of drinking, the still quite fine but just beginning to tire, 1990 St Hubert's Cabernet Sauvignon (88 points).
Last edited by dlo on Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:23 pm, edited 7 times in total.
1991 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon (Magnum) - An amazing wine, well balanced, plenty of fruit, acid and tannin but well integrated. I know it's only February but this is my wine of the year so far. I will be very pleased if I drink anything better than this for the rest of the year.
1991 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon - Isn’t it the best when you open a wine with so much promise to find it actually exceeds expectations? This is a fine example of that. So much rich liquorice, savoury, inky and luscious. This had the longest ever finish to a cab sav (and I have had some beauties). Powdery tannins and slight oak still about but reckon in many more years it will still get even better. Glad I’ve got a magnum tucked away but it is not going anywhere for long time.
2002 Houghton Gladstones Cabernet Sauvignon Ethereal cabernet from MR. JO 80pts. JH 96pts
Me 96+ pts. Still enjoying and as every hour passes it just keeps getting better. Good for another 5 years, maybe more
The Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling 2001 displayed a lot of colour for a screwcapped wine, was reasonable, but, unfortunately, is in a problematic stage where some classy toast and honey character has latched onto weird nettly/unripe pineapple - something I find most unattractive and all too common in middle-aged Aussie Riesling's. There's hope for the wine yet as I've seen these qualities disappear in other examples with several years more bottle age. 76 points.
Thanks for the note David as I was thinking of opening one of my bottles of this wine, but will instead sit on them for a few years yet.
Penfolds bin 128, 1987 $45 bought on saturday. Perfect bottle condition - very little ullage, cork perfect with only about 3mm of the cork stained and came out in one piece with the monopol
Very fine sediment. Strong morning after burnt out campfire ashes and flint on the nose. On the palate loads of slippery leather with a tiny bit of horse shed. Fell apart after about 30 mins and became very thin. Nevertheless was a pretty good curiosity buy.
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Richmond Grove Limited Release Barossa Shiraz 2006 I thought this was quite typical of the style and would develop nicely over the next 3-5yrs. Very good.
Seppelt Victorian Cabernet Merlot 2003 Quite sound but undistinguished. It lacked much character, but was good generic red wine. It opened out a little the second night, developing a few more secondary characters, especially cedar. Perhaps it should be kept a few more years, but that was my last one.
"It is very hard to make predictions, especially about the future." Samuel Goldwyn
1999 Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling: Deep golden, even slightly brown appearance. Mellow toast and honey with some mango and lime notes. Perhaps lacking slightly in acidity at the finish, but very nice
2002 The Lane Cabernet Sauvignon: Red with slight purple around the rim. Highly fragrant with toasty vanilla oak and cinnamon. Nice fruit sweetness but finished a little short. Very seductive wine, but after 2 glasses I was ready to move on.
2004 Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon Grey Label (Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Langhorne Creek)
Toothpicks my kingdom for some toothpick removing toothpicks! This puppy is big, way too big and needed 18+ hours to become approachable, however I'm concerned that this one may have its fruit fade and be left with wood and varnish. The nose is pretty with Violets a bit of varnish, vanilla, mocha, blackcurrants, mint, anise. Mouth oak just sqooshes everything.
Wayno wrote:Penfolds Bin 28 Shiraz 2004 Pleasantly surprised by this one - great nose, quite savoury, distinctive and medium bodied wine. Very drinkable.
Travelling at the moment so just a few quick vibes:
Krug NV was again bland and dull. Nothing wrong with the wine, just not my style I guess and the price is a real choker!
Petaluma Coonawarra, 2001 was awesome. Great fruit depth, soft, chalky and chocolatey tannins and great length.
Howard Park Leston, 2001 was a lovely wine in its own right but had its butt spanked by the Petaluma. Slightly more leathery notes here with less prominent fruit, but not as deep and long as the Petaluma.
Life is to short to drink plonk! 
...... well an AFD day till dinner as Marion and I will be having sushi etc and a bottle of Frog Bubbles - great combination.
