TN: Adelaide Offline @ The Sauce with Andrew Jefford 18/6/09

[n4sir]

It's been a while since the last offline, but the wait has been worth it - my thanks to Sarah for organising a great venue and menu, the crew at The Sauce for looking after us, and of course everyone for their company and the wines shared. It was for many of us our first chance to meet Andrew Jefford, so the idea was to bring wines by small winemakers and/or that accurately reflected a particular region:


2009 Golding Sauvignon Blanc (tank sample): Cloudy, pale green. Vibrant pear characters as it was first poured across the table, followed by passionfruit and a little citrus, developing crispness/lift with breathing, and later on a little fennel. The palate's juicy and even, if a little simple at the moment - very promising stuff, all the signs of a very good example of the varietal.

2009 Golding Savignin (formerly known as 'Albarino') (tank sample): Pale straw/green. There's more obvious sulphur on the nose at first, but quickly it pulls itself into some kind of shape, at first honeyed, then grassy, mineraly, and tropical with some banana creme. The palate's spicy with more grip and weight than the Sauvignon Blanc, but it's in distinct parts right now; a fruity/banana opening followed by bright/tangy acid mid-palate, and a very dry, grippy finish. This will be a very interesting wine if all these bits mesh together.

2004 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay (screwcap): Pale straw. Nutty/mineraly nose with wool carpet and cashew characters that intensify with breathing; explosive palate with nutty/peachy characters and hints of tinned tuna, the palate very long with lovely French vanilla/cheesecake characters. Not as good as the spectacular magnum at the Soho dinner last year, but still the classiest of the whites tonight.

2007 Picardy Chardonnay (cork): Pale straw. Mineraly at first with riper, peachy/apricot fruit and heavily toasted/vanillin oak; the palate similarly opens with ripe/peachy fruit followed by a spike of bright acid mid-palate, but the finish is rather slender with the acid again sticking out. A solid wine, but is really found lacking in weight, balance, class and length in direct comparison to the LEAS.

2004 Clos Clare Riesling (screwcap): Bright yellow colour. Toasty, attractive and yet I found this rather one dimensional and boring, despite having good structure and length. As much as I realise 2004 was a difficult vintage for Clare rieslings and don't have great expectations as such, they're still developing quicker than I would have liked.

2008 Lengs & Cooter Watervale Riesling (screwcap): Very pale green colour. I always thought this was a textbook example of Watervale riesling and it won a gold medal at last years Clare wine show, so it was an obvious choice for the regional theme; very pale green, almost colourless. The wine lived up to my expectations, full of passionfruit, fennel, lime juice, and mineral water, juicy and soft with a spicy/tangy mid-palate, finishing tingly/zesty and very long.

1987 Mick Knappstein Riesling (cork): Deep gold colour. Bluegum honey, gingerbread and wet limestone, also some rotting bananas; the palate's still hanging in there, with lemon/menthol drops and a thick spine of acid, finishing dry and tingly.

2002 Winter Creek Old Barossa Blend Grenache Shiraz (cork): Medium to very dark, almost inky cherry red. Still vibrant, fresh and clean, sweet, dark cherries/plums and earthy, dark chocolate, all very slurpable and dangerously easy to drink. It's just a little too easy to take for granted in a tasting like this - really underrated in the grand scheme of things.

2006 Samuels Gorge Grenache (cork): Medium to very dark red. More savoury/kinky than the Winter Creek, stocky and a little sweaty with some noticeable VA, followed by milk chocolate/cherries, finishing minty/earthy with just a little warmth. There's a lot of interesting things going on, yet it was still outgunned on the night.

2005 Spinifex Indigine Barossa Valley Mataro (cork): A few weeks ago in a line-up of 17 mataros the previous vintage of this was a standout, my second favourite of the tasting, and this one was right up there too. Inky red/purple. Earthy, dark chocolate and dark cherries, a little tomato too; very dry and mineraly palate with a slightly powdery texture, true to the varietal and true to the Barossa in every facet. My second favourite wine of the night.

2000 Chateau Musar (cork): Bright, clear red. Bandaids/medicinal characters, lean and mean with a little liquorice and tomato for minor interest. I really didn't like this at all.

2001 Murdock Coonawarra Merlot (cork): Very dark red. Baggy/metallic at first with some tomato and soy characters, and while there's a good core of plummy fruit it's medium weight and frankly boring at best.

1992 Clarendon Hills Cabernet Sauvignon (cork): Dark to inky blood red. Beetroot, truffle and coconut, earthy chocolate and just a little whiff of EA in the far distance, just enough to be enticing without being a negative. The palate's just as delicately balanced on a knife-edge, there's definitely a hint of volatility yet it's all soaked up in fleshy fruit and a wonderful structure, full weight, very long and very satisfying. At the end of the night this was the wine that stood out the most, something challenging and daring and just managing to pull it off, at least tonight - my WOTN.

1985 Wendouree Cabernet Sauvignon (cork): Oxidised.

1994 Mitchell Sevenhill Cabernet Sauvignon (cork): At the last second I decided this was slightly oxidised and not quite up to scratch, and it didn't make an appearance.

1984 Peter Lehmann ALS Shiraz (cork): I opened this as the backup for the Mitchell - of the three bottles I've tried this had the best fill level of the bunch, yet I couldn't help thinking it was actually the least impressive of the lot. That said it was still a lovely old Barossa shiraz, chocolaty/smoky and leathery with a silky smooth palate, and remarkably not overwhelmed by the much younger wines surrounding it. By the end I just scribbled 'refer to the previous note' and slacked off - maybe I'm being picky, it still was one of the wines of the night!

2007 Coates Touriga Nacional (DIAM cork) : Very dark to inky red/purple. Still very, very youthful, sweet/soapy black cherries/cranberry, and white pepper on the nose, sweet raspberries and vanilla, then some rhubarb on the palate, medium-weight but finishing very dry with powdery, grippy tannins.

2005 Castagna Genesis Shiraz (cork): Inky red/purple. This had done the rounds and had got quite a few positive comments before I backtracked to try it - I wasn't as taken by it. Unlike some early comments I couldn't pick up any apricot, the nose dark with coal/blackberries and a little tomato, becoming more vegetal with breathing. Sour cherries/blackberries on the palate entry, leading to a minty/hot mid-palate, finishing rather dry and bitter, with coffee oak characters surfacing with breathing. I had pretty high expectations and was frankly a little disappointed.

2002 Stringy Brae Cabernet Sauvignon (screwcap) : Medium to very dark red. While there's some earthy/coal characters the bouquet is very ripe, with lifted/kirsch and wintergreen characters. The palate's decent but really does nothing to say anything about its variety or region, obviously high-alcohol, the black cherry fruit lacking structure and length for a quality cabernet.

2003 De Bortoli Noble One (750ml, screwcap) : Bright gold/amber colour. Lovely fresh nose and palate with quince/mango and marmalade backed by sympathetic vanillin/toasty oak, a little brulee/nutty complexity surfacing with breathing; the acid/balance is just as good, perfectly matching the apple Creme Brulee dessert.

2005 Kabminye Trex Doux Late Harvest Muscadelle (375ml, screwcap): Looked one-dimensional and cloying compared to the Noble One.

Winter Creek Fortified Shiraz (screwcap): I didn't note the vintage (slacked off again) - they're all consistently enjoyable anyway. As usual, a great way to finish off the dinner.

I didn't try:
2002 Winter Creek Shiraz (cork)
Liebich Cabernet Sauvignon (screwcap)
2005 LaCurio Reserve Shiraz Grenache Shiraz (cork?)


Cheers
Ian

[oakboy]

1985 Wendouree Cabernet Sauvignon (cork): Oxidised.

Cheers
Ian

hi Ian, great notes as always, but is it that you get a so/so wine always on these tasting's....
just for the fact that on most of these great wine tasting's there is always a suspect wine, and from cork..... 1 in 7 maybe??
Cheers simmo

[monghead]

Thanks Ian.

Great notes.

The Spinifex sounds great. Will have to try...

By the way, did anyone like the Musar??

Cheers,

Monghead.

[Wayno]

I rather liked the Musar - polarising sort of wine though, very characterful - but I do enjoy a bit of the bretty dentist's chair though

Great notes Ian, a nice summary of an excellent and varied suite of wines - no pinots though!!!

[PaulG]

One day I'll bring a wine to an offline that you like, Ian, I'm sure!

Ah well, I liked the ones I brought nonetheless - it's such a good thing I'm a cheap date when it comes to wines!

[n4sir]

One day I'll bring a wine to an offline that you like, Ian, I'm sure!

Ah well, I liked the ones I brought nonetheless - it's such a good thing I'm a cheap date when it comes to wines!

I liked the Samuels Gorge, and it provided an interesting an immediate contrast to the Winter Creek Old Barossa Blend tasted side by side (coincidentally as a few at our table were discussing the differences between Barossa & McLaren Vale grenache). By the end I felt the latter was a little better though, hence the comment about it being outgunned.

Cheers,
Ian

[n4sir]

1985 Wendouree Cabernet Sauvignon (cork): Oxidised.

Cheers
Ian

hi Ian, great notes as always, but is it that you get a so/so wine always on these tasting's....
just for the fact that on most of these great wine tasting's there is always a suspect wine, and from cork..... 1 in 7 maybe??
Cheers simmo

I've been keeping a tally of what I've tried during the year (like a few guys at the other forum). At the moment it stands at:

Cork: 218/249 (15 corked, 16 oxidised)
DIAM: 7/7
Screwcap: 234/242 (8 reductive)
Procork: 1/1
Crown Seal: 7/8 (1 oxidised)

We had an interesting discussion about the Wendouree at the offline, which was sourced at auction by the person who bought it. I'm particularly wary of Wendourees at auction because I usually suspect they've been too heavily traded, and recent bottles haven't helped that impression.

Cheers,
Ian