First Sunday of Spring......

[TORB]

No its not summer yet so (hopefully) there will still be a preponderance of real wine in this thread (i.e. red.)

Please let us all know what you have been drinking over the past week. As usual, lists, vibes, impressions and tasting notes all welcome.

[Sean]

deleted

[wolf]

2007 Cape Mentelle Trinders Cab Merlot: Not many notes, but very nice. Juicy, fruit driven wine. Dusty tannins, slightly short finish.

[Loztralia]

With dinner last night (corn chowder then pan fried blue eye with lentils and red wine sauce) we opened a 2004 Voyager Estate Cabernet Merlot. No specific notes other than to strongly advise that if you have any of these, don't open them yet. It's a lovely wine but still quite spikily tannic. Really glad I have a couple left.

[griff]

A few wines this weekend.

2005 John Duval Entity Shiraz
Dark purple/red. Some truffle on the nose but quite closed at present. Black forest fruits on a long and silky palate. Tannins integrated. Lucious wine now but I think it will improve further. Very Good to Excellent.

2004 Peter Lehmann Eight Songs Shiraz
A brighter dense cherry red. Some vanilla oak on the nose with cocoa. Milk chocolate A very savoury tobacco and cherry flavour on the palate finishing with moderate firm tannins. Intruiging and while not as seductive as the Duval it seemed to change with each glass. Excellent wine.

Gremillet Grande Reserve NV
Nice fruit weight champagne albeit simple. Good wine and good value.

2000 Bindi Blanc de Blanc
Vigorous mousse. Straw yellow. A sherry like note demonstrating development. A vinous sparkler this one and best with food. Good/Very Good and interesting wine.

cheers

Carl

[seddo]

Pheasant Farm 06 Home block shiraz from the doyen of the Barossa Maggie Beer. Not as good as the 02 but was defintely better the second night, was what I call a restrained barossa shiraz not at all jammy and a delight to drink.

Forest Hill 07 cabernet - Mr Halliday gave this a huge 97 points, after 2 nights the wine was still boring ? reductive- hoping it is a defective bottle will wait 3 yrs before opening another.

Hoddles Creek 08 Pinot - just opened this and it looks like pink hued dish water, taste of strawberries, will hope that the colour will settle over time . will drink half tonight and try the other half tomorrow

cheers
Seddo

[daz]

2nd last bottle of Voyager Cab Merl 04 - vinfanticide but the fruit is starting to surface. Opened up a bit with 24 hours air time in the fridge.

Also 2nd last bottle of Grant Burge Filsell 04. Still young, black fruits, tannins from the oak on the finish, improved with air time.

[b]EDIT:[/b] Torbreck The Steading GSM 05. Just opened. Initial impression after the Filsell was of sweet, somewhat confected fruit. After several more tastes, there's still sweetness but the confected character has given way to savoury bacon notes mid-palate, some sweet/sour characters on the finish with a touch of acid, background oak and talcy drying tannins.

[rooman]

With business partners in town from overseas, it has been a good week of dining out. During the course of the week, there have been 3 good reds. Wednesday night, at the Verandah Bar and Restaurant, we had an excellent Shaw & Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2007. I can now see why this attracts such attention. A superbly balanced, just north of medium bodied, elegant shiraz, red berry fruit, exquisite balance and length, no alcohol heat and a long finish. Easily one of the best SA shiraz i have had for some time. WOTW

Friday down at Otto, two more reds with dinner. First up was a Kilikanoon Parable McLaren Vale Shiraz 2005 with dark chocolate, fruit cake and mocha. Big wine with sweet fruit without being excessively jammy or porty. Next up a SC Parnell Shiraz 2005. A step up from the Kilikanoon, I have been wanting to try one of Parnell's wines for some time and thankfully it did not disappoint. Well balanced with more structure and depth of flavour than the Kilikanoon and more depth of black fruit flavour again without being in excess. Again a lovely finish that lingered for some time after each sip.

Meanwhile at home between dinners out, we opened a Rosemount GSM 2001 and a Heathcote Winery Curagee Shiraz 2001. The former I had picked up years ago after it scored well in a Winespectator Review of Australian wines. Somehow I lost the case in the cellar until looking for wines for my recent birthday when I opened the case and threw a few in. As luck would have it, I never got to try this wine during the dinner so I was very pleasantly suprised when I opened a bottle on Wednesday to find a emarkably good GSM, no fading of flavour or structure (as I had expected). I will happily work through the remainder of the case over the next 3-4 years. Likewise the Curagee, this was the first bottle from a half dozen picked up during my one and only trip to Heathcote BBC. A big Heathcote style of blackberry fruit without being excessive, the tannins have softened and integrated into the wine making for a very enjoyable wine with a braised lamb shank ragu and stracci pasta.

[dlo]

Visited a good friend this afternoon and we did the old "open 4 wines, drink two bottles" trick. Glorious afternoon, finished by watching the hapless 'pies go down (again) as we sipped on freshly imported PNG coffee and a lovely old port.

Marc Bredif Vouvray 1985 - a seriously good example of relatively dry, still youthful Loire Chenin Blanc. Honey, waxy apples, lemon pith, acacia, minerals and pomegranate. Excellent "sweet and sour" characters on the palate, great acid cut and terrific length. 92. 12% A/V. One of the better bottles I've opened over the years.

Rosemount Estate Mountain Blue Cabernet Shiraz 1996 (Mudgee) - fully mature, colour suggests something older although the nose delivered some (initial) enticing integrated complexity. The palate was a little exaggerated with slightly confected overripe leathery fruit and some blowsiness thrown in to spoil the party but, FWII, not too shabby. Drink up. Still a decent drop but nothing like the wine I remember when it was younger. 86

Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz 1998 - very classy, particularly upon opening but it didn't improve in the glass, looking older and losing focus and the brilliant delineation as it sat in the glass. Otherwise I enjoyed this one a great deal for the most part. I haven't yet reconciled my concerns about that degradation. 92 (-?)

Seabrook 1972 Special Vintage Port (Rutherglen) - At 37 this wine is right in the groove. No varieties mentioned on the label but wow, what a great example. World class! 94

[Wayno]

Wynns Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Haven't had one of these for awhile and thought I'd better catch up and see where they're at (9 or so remaining tucked away anyway).

It's much as I remember it, from early release - puckeringly tannic, quite bony and angular, - more toned and lightly muscular than anorexic though, loads of mint, eucalypt, some tar and a bit of blackcurrant. There's no mistaking this for a Coonawarra wine; it has that slightly savoury, gumnut quality about it that seems in some ways bland and square after all your five-spicey, perfumed pinots or your vanilla flavoured cigar box Barossa shiraz but really, these wines live on and grow into classics, something I'm pretty sure this particular wine will do fairly easily.

Rigid, upright and solid.

[Michael McNally]

2nd last bottle of Voyager Cab Merl 04 - vinfanticide but the fruit is starting to surface. Opened up a bit with 24 hours air time in the fridge.

Also 2nd last bottle of Grant Burge Filsell 04. Still young, black fruits, tannins from the oak on the finish, improved with air time.

I've had both of these and thought both pretty good QPR wise and the Filsell is a lovely wine (as is the Voyager! silly statement)

From your descriptions both of these could have used a couple of years. Was that your conclusion about the wines? You don't really say if you liked them!! (this is not a criticism, I just noticed it that's all)

Cheers

Michael

[daz]

[quote="Michael McNally"][quote="daz"]2nd last bottle of Voyager Cab Merl 04 - vinfanticide but the fruit is starting to surface. Opened up a bit with 24 hours air time in the fridge.

Also 2nd last bottle of Grant Burge Filsell 04. Still young, black fruits, tannins from the oak on the finish, improved with air time.[/quote]


I've had both of these and thought both pretty good QPR wise and the Filsell is a lovely wine (as is the Voyager! silly statement)

From your descriptions both of these could have used a couple of years. Was that your conclusion about the wines? You don't really say if you liked them!! (this is not a criticism, I just noticed it that's all)

Cheers

Michael[/quote]

Michael, I think the Voyager needs at least another 5 years, more likely 10+, the Filsell 4-8 years. I enjoyed them both very much but The Steading even more, think it's into it's drinking window, should hold for up to 5 years but why bother, it's delicious now. It went very well with a bacon, onion, mushroom, rosemary, parmesan omlette Compared to the former two, some could consider it a fruit bomb but there's more to it than that,

Cheers

daz

[Michael McNally]

Thanks Daz. Faith restored!

[daz]

[quote="Michael McNally"]Thanks Daz. Faith restored![/quote]

Haven't had one of those for a while.....

[Bick]

Vidal Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon 07 - yet another basic label bdx blend from the 2007 vintage in Hawkes Bay that punches above its weight/price tag. This is pretty good.

Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc 08 - 'quaffing dry white', as Geoff Kelly would say - always reliable.

Pirathon Shiraz 05 - went quite well with a roast dinner. Tending slightly porty and showing a hint of warmth.

[Luke W]

2 beauties this week:

1994 E&E Sparkling Shiraz - even the winery didn't think this would make it after 15 years but it was beautiful - a bit like a slightly sweeter fizzier, 1994 E&E with all the right flavours, balance and texture consistent with a top sparkling shiraz (just a pity that it seems to evaporate so quickly after you start to pour it!)

1998 Mt Avoca Reserve Semillon - lots of lemons and those lovely flavours that good semillons get after a few years in the bottle

cheers

Luke

[Roscoe]

Son Number One's 18th birthday this weekend.
A fairly quiet family celebration which was his preference.
A couple of '91s were had.
Thalgara Show Reserve Shiraz 1991
This was a very typical aged Hunter, soft, mellow, leathery. Probably at the beginning of a long slow decline. An excellent wine.
Tulloch "Hector" Shiraz 1991
This had obvious regional similarities to the Thalgara, but had dried out and lost its mid-palate. Middle son thought it tasted of alcohol and little else, which was interesting considering it was labeled as 12%. Definitely past its best drinking. Interesting but not a great pleasure.

[orpheus]

[quote="rooman"]With business partners in town from overseas, it has been a good week of dining out. During the course of the week, there have been 3 good reds. Wednesday night, at the Verandah Bar and Restaurant, we had an excellent Shaw & Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2007. I can now see why this attracts such attention. A superbly balanced, just north of medium bodied, elegant shiraz, red berry fruit, exquisite balance and length, no alcohol heat and a long finish. Easily one of the best SA shiraz i have had for some time. WOTW

I was just about to post about this wine, which is every bit as good as the 2006 (and very similar). I agree entirely, it is a wonderfully well-balanced, restrained yet powerful shiraz.

[GrahamB]

At a Yalumba dinner at 3 Bistro last week:

Current release of

Menzies
The Signature
Octavius
The Reserve (my house red when I am independently wealthy)

All were excellent.

Graham

[monghead]

A quiet weekend for me.

2007 Epis Pinot Noir- Super Good.

I don't think I will ever tire of this wine. I've had it several times now, and it has never disappointed. Getting up there in price nowadays, but worth every penny. Eagerly awaiting the 08 release.

Cheers,

Monghead.

[jafa]

First sunday of spring. Bright sunny calm day, although air temp is still quite cool, decided to get into decent weather mode, dragged the barbie out of hibernation and cooked up a couple of T-bone steaks. Went to the Stonyridge Larose shelf and pulled what I thought was a 1996.
Dark red, some bricking, and since it was a last minute choice, only 30 minutes in decanter at service, showing reds fruits and sundried tomato notes. Later developed nice cassis and black/red fruit character. About this time noticed in fact I'd grabbed what was probably my last 1998 bottle, not a great vintage, and should have been consummed a couple of years ago. The 12.2% alc was welcome (I'm not that keen on the high alc showpony style some wineries make) and a piece of washed-rind cheese which is announcing it's ripeness everytime you open the refrigerator had a corner cut off, and the whole bottle quickly evaporated.

cheers jafa

[via collins]

RK Shiraz 08 - it's the "I can't believe it's an 08 shiraz". So well formed already. Taste explosion of condensed dark fruits on opening, and then a broad expansion on the palate to follow. Very satisfying, but perhaps a tad too sweet by the close. Can't wait to see what age will do..

Kumeu River Village Chardonnay 07 - demure and understated at first, takes a little time in the class to show it's delicious fruit. Improved all the way through the bottle, maybe too cold to start (duh!).

Chambers Liquer Muscat - fine array of cut citrus peel/marmalade on palate, but a lovely floral tone in the finish. Not as sweet as a lot of the stickies I've been trying through winter, thus extremely wife-pleasing into the bargain!

[rooman]

With business partners in town from overseas, it has been a good week of dining out. During the course of the week, there have been 3 good reds. Wednesday night, at the Verandah Bar and Restaurant, we had an excellent Shaw & Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2007. I can now see why this attracts such attention. A superbly balanced, just north of medium bodied, elegant shiraz, red berry fruit, exquisite balance and length, no alcohol heat and a long finish. Easily one of the best SA shiraz i have had for some time. WOTW

I was just about to post about this wine, which is every bit as good as the 2006 (and very similar). I agree entirely, it is a wonderfully well-balanced, restrained yet powerful shiraz.

Yeah, I was seriously impressed. LIke many, I had read a fair bit about this wine from time to time so when I went down the wine list, it was a an excellent choice to show people just how good an Australian shiraz can be. It really is all class, fantastic with a steak and I was particularly impressed by its price. I may have to go back to adding the odd case of SA shiraz to the cellar again.

[fred]

[quote="dlo"]

Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz 1998 - very classy, particularly upon opening but it didn't improve in the glass, looking older and losing focus and the brilliant delineation as it sat in the glass. Otherwise I enjoyed this one a great deal for the most part. I haven't yet reconciled my concerns about that degradation. 92 (-?)

/quote]

David,

I have not touched my 98 Magills which I thought were the best Magill I had seen on release....I earmarked first taste for this wine at 2013 but on your note perhaps I should try one soon? Was this your first of a stash or is it a consistent problem?

regards
fred

[dlo]

Second bottle from a six pack, Fred, and both times, not my wine. Last bottle opened some months back (from the same source) seemed riper upon opening and I can't recall how it fared in the glass, sorry, but I do remember it being very bloody good. The bottle yesterday was spectacularly classy at first ..... 95 points. Only after a couple of hours did I downgrade my rating. Please note - even then, very little to complain about. I don't think you have much to worry about. The wine will last for many year yet, I'm sure. Maybe, the trick is just to drink it quicker, once poured?

[Partagas]

Loztralia wrote

With dinner last night (corn chowder then pan fried blue eye with lentils and red wine sauce) we opened a 2004 Voyager Estate Cabernet Merlot. No specific notes other than to strongly advise that if you have any of these, don't open them yet. It's a lovely wine but still quite spikily tannic. Really glad I have a couple left.3, 65, 7, 50Loztralia

Yep opened a bottle last night. Damn straight my friend totally agree. Fantastic wine but a little too tannic and closed right now (great fruit and structure still peering its head though). Still oozed class and an outstanding long term prospect. Am seeking more to hold onto to after this taste. Similar to 03 but more punch and longer term drinking window.

Sam

[Mike Hawkins]

A hit and run visit to Oz saw me raid my cellar (and my mates')..

1994 Penfolds Bin 707 x 2 - both similar and both just starting to get some secondary characters - particularly cigar box and cedar. Pretty good.

1984 Wynns John Riddoch x 2 - forgotten in the cellar and much better than I expected. Once again, both were very similar. Soft, complex and long. Enjoyable, but doesn't have much life left.

1996 Rockford SVS Flaxman Shiraz - after 3 hours air, this was awesome. Lovely ripe, but not sweet, fruit. Length and complexity and everything you'd hope for from Rockford. Leave for 5 more years if well cellared.

2002 Gnadenfrei St Michael Barossa Shiraz - too sweet for my palate

2002 Mesh Riesling - just starting to get some toastiness. Enjoyable.

1998 Rosemount Balmoral Shiraz - simple and ordinary

2002 Kalleske Greenock Shiraz - this will be a great wine in years to come. Infinitely superior than subsequent releases (and made in far smaller quantities).

[bacchaebabe]

Had a couple of 99 Veritas Christa Rolfs. Liked the 98s so much thought I'd better check on the 99s. Very similar in all respects. Juicy plums and blackberries with a bit of spice for interest. Drinking very well now and went down well with the family. 93

[monghead]

1996 Rockford SVS Flaxman Shiraz - after 3 hours air, this was awesome. Lovely ripe, but not sweet, fruit. Length and complexity and everything you'd hope for from Rockford. Leave for 5 more years if well cellared.

This is good news Mike. Do you know how the Hoffman and Moorooroo are faring?

CHeers, Monghead.

[Davo]

A bunch of 03 Shiraz, tasted blind at the Peel Shiraz Tasting:-

Capercaillie "Ghillie"
Katnook "Prodigy"
Majella
Bests "Bin 0"
Peel Estate
Penfolds "Grange"
Cape Mentelle
Plantagenet
Yalumba "Octavius"
Guigal "Chateau d'Ampuis"
Geoff Merrill "Henley"
Torbreck "Run Rig"
McWilliams "O'Shea"
Juniper Estate
Kilikanoon "Oracle"
Wolf Blass "Platinum"
Isole e Olena
Orlando "Lawsons"
Guigal "Hermitage"
Seppelts "St Peters"

The Torbreck stood out from the bunch due to the prominence of the viognier, like smelling and drinking a can of apricot nectar. On the other hand the Grange just blended right into the bunch and I scored it equal to 7 of the 20 wines at 17.5/20.

Best on the day for me was the Oracle by 1/2 point, and worst by a mile was the O'Shea which was not faulty but was just acid and tannin and very little fruit, just seemed drying out to a premature death. After a further 4+ hours in the glass it was just nasty.

An interesting day with some pretty good wines from a pretty ordinary drought affected vintage pretty much all over.