Last weeks drinks

[Brucer]

Thought I would start this week.

02 Tyrrells Vat 1 sem
Drinking well, no hurry.

04 Aramis "The Governor" shiraz
McLaren Vale. The oak has softened, and is fairly well integrated. I find that is more sour then I would like. Still a reasonable wine.

98 Penfolds Kalimna Bin 28
Ageing well and very enjoyable. Better then a 96 had recently.

04 Dead Arm
Not sure whats going on here. Something strange.

96 Hastlegrove H Reserve shiraz.
My last bottle of many, and it has held up extremely well.

06 Olivers Tarango shiraz
Big wine. Balanced and opened up gradually. Good.

98 Peter Lehmann Stonewell.
Yummo. Starting to enter its drinking window. Years to go.

06 Marius Simpatico
This was okay, if not a bit simple.

08 McGuigan Bin 8000 semillon.
I really like this, good wine with some sweetness which ads to the pleasure. Will age.

[Tucker Wine Studios]

Some brief impressions:

Old Kent River Diamondtina 2006: Their white bubbly – actually has a beautiful onion skin colour. Still tastes great but is best with a plate of marron at their cellar door.

Château Tanunda Nightwatch NV Sparkling Shiraz: Tasted and bought in 2008 at their CD – appears now a little bit tired but still enjoyable.

Emmetts Crossing Wines Paynes Find Roadhouse NV Classic White: A curio and an easy quaffer. Nothing special – drinks ok.

Millbrook Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2008: Hey, a really very good SB from the Perth Hills. Gooseberry Galore. CD has a very nice setting.

Cullen Mangan Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2008: Also very good, not so fruit-driven, more minerally and tart.

Knotting Hill Verdelho 2009: Just tasted at their CD and bought a bottle. No fruit salad here – more in the style of chardonnay. Different and pretty good.

Hainault Forest Fruits Bickley Valley Gewurztraminer 2008: I liked this wine a lot. Has good balance between sweetness, fruitiness and acidity. Highly recommended.

Barratt Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2006: Bought at CD some time ago. Found it first a little bit closed or too tart and minerally but had confidence that it will bloom. Tastes great now having developed a caressing creaminess without loosing its zippiness. Very very good.

Capel Vale Margaret River Chardonnay 2007: Made in a more fatter and heavier butterscotch style and also has been given a good dollop of oak. Sometimes I really do like that style. Very good.

Fire Gully Margaret River Chardonnay 2007: Made by the Pierro people and sold at their CD. Price and quality convinced me on the spot. Very good.

Vasse Felix Chardonnay 2007: Bought last year at their CD. Now a year later it showed a little bit shy and reserved…hmmm…pretty good. May become better with age or may go nowhere at all?

...and some sweeties...

Juliusspital Iphöfer Julius Echter Berg Riesling Auslese 2001: From Franconia in Germany. Auslese indicates that grapes reached a high degree of ripeness or sugar content. Unfortunately this does not really show in the wine. It has a moderate degree of sweetness but concentration, depth and length are less than what I would expect. Still a very good wine but more in the easy drinking league.

Juliusspital Würzburger Pfaffenberg Riesling Eiswein 2003: 2003 was one of the hottest years in Germany I can remember. Grapes reached very quickly high sugar levels but the aroma development is normally lagging behind sugar development. However, this is an icewine and grapes must have been harvested very late in the year, probably early winter, in a frozen state. This should be a gorgeous dessert wine but again it tastes somewhat diluted missing real depth and concentration. If tasted blind this could be mistaken for an easy drinking off-dry Riesling quaffer, actually a pretty good one. But for an icewine it is fairly disappointing.

Inniskillin Gold Reserve Vidal Icewine 2004: Another icewine and this is definitely in the sweet dessert wine style. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really…errr…nice wine…but…not great or exceptional. I have had much better stuff.

Cheers, Mario

[Sean O'Sullivan]

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[Sean O'Sullivan]

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[Chuck]

Reschke 2002 Bos Cabernet. Wonderful Coonawarra fruit however oak sticks out a bit. Perhaps not a good match with ocean trout.

Nepenthe 2004 The Fugue Cabernet Blend (Cleanskin). Nice and just starting to enter its drinking window.

Stonehaven 2006 Rat and Bull Chardonnay Viognier. Bought a couple of cases for $2 pb from the local Hardys dumping ground a couple of years ago. Initially just a nice quaffer but with a bit of bottle age its transformed into quite an interesting wine. May just have to bring it out for friends to see their reactions. Stelvin certainly helps it remain fresh.

Yalumba Galway Pipe Tawny. Gad I love this with a little bottle age. Note to self - get more as Mildara bought the label a few years ago and its now crap. Still many Yalumba versions floating around the auctions at silly prices.

Coopers Pilsner. Interesting brew.

Chuck

[Wayno]

Coopers Pilsner. Interesting brew.

Chuck

If you're referring to the '62', I agree. Had this recently at a wedding and I quite enjoyed it - a lot more than the green label (and probably the red)...

[Wayno]

Peter Lehmann Futures Shiraz 2006 - quite good - big upfront Barossa style, although lacking a bit of 'drive' / 'X factor'. Never tried the much rated 04, am curious to know how this compares.

Bay of Fires Tigress Pinot Noir 2006 - delicious, this has come around over the last year - sappy, plummy, great balance - overperformer.

St Cosme Cotes du Rhone 2008 - easy drinking, probably a little too 'easy' as it could do with a touch more complexity, but as far as price goes, this is a fair buy.

[Red]

Tasted a few "benchmark" aussie wines at a very enjoyable tasting. Highlights included

2006 Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay - slightly more elegant and understated than the 2005. Very, very long. Reckon it will age superbly

2008 Bindi Original Pinot Noir - One of the best Aussie Pinots I have had. Great intensity and focus, with lovely savoury, spicy flavours.

2008 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier - The first time I have tried this wine and happy to say that it lived up to the hype. A sexy, plush wine, with some nice complexity and great length. Loved it.

[TiggerK]

Torzi Matthews Frost Dodger Eden Valley Shiraz 2005 - unusual (and slightly unpleasant) funk, manure and gooseberry on the nose, which eventually blew off to be ripe, deep and rather intoxicating. Palate was just fine, showing the style of winemaking which leads to intense, early drinking, raisiny richness, albeit with a touch of alcohol on the finish (14.5%). Have enjoyed previous bottles more and worth noting that this one did change a lot with diff serving temperatures (preferring about 16-17C, and getting rather funky at 20+). Variable and yet very enjoyable wine, but probably without a long future. I see the 2008 gets good reviews... look forward to it, in the meantime, 2005 is a 'drink up', and Solid Good.

[Craig(NZ)]

had 06 Lawsons Dry Hills GW last night with Thai. Not as good as I remember it and it didnt go with the food at all surprisingly

Beforehand we had 07 Craggy Bl 14 Syrah - very tasty

Also 02 Coopers Creek LH Riesling which was in good shape. Tidy drink without blowing my mind. Also a 02 Nederberg Noble which was dead

[Bick]

A couple of bottles over the weekend that provoked some thoughts on the whole price-value-reputation conundrum:

Chateau Langoa Barton 2002 {St Julien, Third Growth} - This was drinking ok - it showed some nice, not too overbearing oak, lots of fruit concentration and furry tannins, the requisite acidity - will last a long time yet, though most critics seem to feel the 02's are ready to drink. But no wow factor here at all and tasted blind I would have guessed a middling quality kiwi bdx blend; not so special. $75.

Peter Lehman Shiraz 2005 - drinking quite well, with no lofty aspirations, not too rich/warm, its softened slightly now and provided decent pleasure.

Casting back over the past week or so, its interesting to rank the quality of different wines at different price-points (according to my judgement), in descending cost:

Wine --- Price --- Quality
Chateau Langoa Barton 02 --- $75 --- Ranked 4
Craggy Range Calvert Vineyard Pinot Noir 08 --- $42 --- Ranked=1
Church Road Reserve Cab/Merlot 07 --- $30 --- Ranked=1
St Clair Block 6 (Oh! Block) Sauvignon Blanc 09 --- $25 --- Ranked 3 (lovely - lemon meringue pie in a glass)
Peter Lehman Shiraz 05 --- $20 --- Ranked 5

This put the value of the kiwi bdx blends into even sharper persective for me. A very useful exercise - as such I wasn't especially put out that the cherished cru classe I pulled from the cellar was a tad disappointing.

[Jay60A]

A couple of bottles over the weekend that provoked some thoughts on the whole price-value-reputation conundrum:

Chateau Langoa Barton 2002 {St Julien, Third Growth} - This was drinking ok - it showed some nice, not too overbearing oak, lots of fruit concentration and furry tannins, the requisite acidity - will last a long time yet, though most critics seem to feel the 02's are ready to drink. But no wow factor here at all and tasted blind I would have guessed a middling quality kiwi bdx blend; not so special. $75 ...

This put the value of the kiwi bdx blends into even sharper persective for me. A very useful exercise - as such I wasn't especially put out that the cherished cru classe I pulled from the cellar was a tad disappointing.

Er Bick, 2002 is perhaps the weakest/most dilute Bordeaux vintage since 1997 so maybe a bit harsh to judge on that basis? If you want QPR and some good wine, 2004 is the one. After that the immortal 05s dragged prices up.

[Loztralia]

Wedding anniversary yesterday so opened a couple of decent bottles:

NV Gosset Grande Reserve: had this for a couple of years now and had a deeper colour than expected, not sure if that was age or a characteristic of the wine. Quite a deep, toasty flavour and I might have picked it as a blanc des blancs such were the chardonnay elements. But it's not - in fact only c50% chardy.

2008 Ashton Hills Piccadilly Pinot Noir: Very Adelaide Hills Pinot - fruit forward style. I couldn't remember which Ashton Hills Pinot is which but it was pretty obvious straight away that this is the 'drink now' one. Perfectly pleasant but a bit forgettable.

1996 Chateau Lafon-Rochet (St Estephe): Decanted for two hours. I think this might go a bit further - still had firm tannins and fruit, though more subdued, also still evident. Got one left that I was planning to drink in the next year but may now hang onto for a bit longer.

[fatdoi]

2006 Hentley Farm The Beauty Shiraz
Dark red brick on the rim. Nose with perfumed musk, violet, fresh berries, toasted marshmallow.
Taste of typical Barossa sweet fresh strawberry pie, mint with medium-full body. Slight monolithic but nice integration from front to back with only slight bitterness on back end will surely fix it with time. 30 sec finish.....

[rooman]

2007 Schäfer-Fröhlich Bockenauer Riesling Kabinett Charming wine with soft melon and a hint of sweet pineapple. Just off dry and superb with steamed fish with ginger and shallots. Excellent balanced with a refreshing elegance at the back

[Bick]

Er Bick, 2002 is perhaps the weakest/most dilute Bordeaux vintage since 1997 so maybe a bit harsh to judge on that basis? If you want QPR and some good wine, 2004 is the one. After that the immortal 05s dragged prices up.

Cheers for the comments Jay. Yes, I've had various 04 Bdx. This wine wasn't lacking because it was weak, dilute or otherwise short on concentration though. Nor am I so sure 2002 was quite that bad - for what its worth RP rates 02 St Julien just as good as 01 and 04, and better than 06 and 07. A recent review of the vintage in Decanter highlighted some pretty smart 02's. So, I'd say it was an average vintage (and a left bank vintage). Moreover, the 02 Langoa has been reasonably well reviewed. It could have been btl variation making the Langoa show as rather ordinary, but no sign of tca and cork in perfect nick.

[jafa]

Autumn temperatures and time to move away from the white wine and rose diet.

2000 Te Mata Coleraine. Developing some bottle characters but plenty left in this. Infanticide really. Good Good.
1996 Esk Valley Reserve Merlot/Malbec/Cab Sav. Lovely fruit, some grip, nice balance. I think Hawkes Bay '96
is an underrated vintage, suits me anyway. Very Good.

cheers jafa.

[AaronL]

2006 Hentley Farm The Beauty Shiraz
Dark red brick on the rim. Nose with perfumed musk, violet, fresh berries, toasted marshmallow.
Taste of typical Barossa sweet fresh strawberry pie, mint with medium-full body. Slight monolithic but nice integration from front to back with only slight bitterness on back end will surely fix it with time. 30 sec finish.....

This one is a ripper. I really liked this as well. Must remember to get some more.

For me, a couple of Gold medal / Trophy wines:

2002 Xanadu Semillon - Something not quite right here. Slightly resin-y cork, and cardboard on the finish. Faulty. Not rated

2009 Heggies Riesling - Another riesling from the acclaimed 2009 vintage. Began to open up as the bottle quickly drained. More textured, than steely. Hasn't knocked the 2009 Pewsey Vale Riesling off as my favourite 2009 riesling. Very Good / Excellent

2007 Ringbolt Cabernet Sauvignon - A lot of fuss over this wine, and I'm not really sure why. Just another well made cabernet from Margaret River. There is a slight confected edge to this that downgraded my rating of this. Good / Very good.

NV Seppelt DP63 Show Muscat (375ml) - Given that Seppelt now produces this in 750ml bottles, and kept the price the same, these older bottles really show an extra dimension. Rich, viscous liquid containing big gobfuls of raisiny, caramel goodness with a lick of cold tea. Back label recommends to be matched with a fruit dessert. I couldn't think of anything worse. Excellent/Outstanding

NV Piper Heidisieck Champagne - Always happy to have a glass of champagne , especially when someone else brings it . A yeasty, bready nose leads on to a slighly broad, citrusy finish. Very good

2008 Devil's Lair Chardonnay - Opened with an attack of charry oak, but with time this settled. It is round, and lacks a bit of focus. I'd say this is an early drinker, and a bit disappointing after the successes of the previous vintages. Good / Very good

2007 Stella Bella Cabernet Merlot - Yes, this is more like it. Ripe fruit, good balance of oak and acid, no mistaking this as anything but Margaret River. Still just a pup, with a long life ahead of it. Very Good

[monghead]

2009 Mesh Riesling- Limes, green apples, grapefruits, slatey minerality, and tremendous length. Very Good.
2008 Hoddles Creek Pinot Noir- Vibrant and juicy, yet subtle spices and brambly undergrowth pervade. Very Good.

Cheers,

Monghead.

[rooman]

2009 Mesh Riesling- Limes, green apples, grapefruits, slatey minerality, and tremendous length. Very Good.

Monghead.

That is good to read. I just picked up a case. I had read the 09 was supposed to be particularly good and DLO rated an earlier vintage (the 05 I think) one of his favourite wines of the year. I am still some way to my optimal riesling collection in terms of quantum but this will help chip away at it.

Mark

[Craig(NZ)]

1996 Esk Valley Reserve Merlot/Malbec/Cab Sav. Lovely fruit, some grip, nice balance. I think Hawkes Bay '96
is an underrated vintage, suits me anyway. Very Good.

didnt buy many 1996's and i think ive only got 1 coleraine left from 96 and all else is drunk. remember it generally a very black fruited vintage - blackcurrant and mint. I remember some of the babich stuff was quite smart from 96. Awatea though wasn't much and dont remember much else to be honest.

2000 Te Mata Coleraine. Developing some bottle characters but plenty left in this. Infanticide really. Good Good.

Liked this vintage but didnt buy much of it. i was poor that year. Havent cracked one yet. quite an expansive coleraine

[Julio G]

A couple of bottles over the weekend that provoked some thoughts on the whole price-value-reputation conundrum:

Chateau Langoa Barton 2002 {St Julien, Third Growth} - This was drinking ok - it showed some nice, not too overbearing oak, lots of fruit concentration and furry tannins, the requisite acidity - will last a long time yet, though most critics seem to feel the 02's are ready to drink. But no wow factor here at all and tasted blind I would have guessed a middling quality kiwi bdx blend; not so special. $75 ...

This put the value of the kiwi bdx blends into even sharper persective for me. A very useful exercise - as such I wasn't especially put out that the cherished cru classe I pulled from the cellar was a tad disappointing.

Er Bick, 2002 is perhaps the weakest/most dilute Bordeaux vintage since 1997 so maybe a bit harsh to judge on that basis? If you want QPR and some good wine, 2004 is the one. After that the immortal 05s dragged prices up.

I have had a couple of 2000's recently that are right in the groove and still have plenty of life left in them.

[roughred]

Had a quick visit at Brown Bros CD which is always interesting given the diversity of wines on offer and frequency with which the line-up changes. They seem to have done away with the old Cellar Door releas label and replaced that with smart looking Limited Release labels...prices seem to have crept up a bit as well. Sparkling whites are always a feature, the NV Extended Lees Pinot Chardonnay being my pick of the bunch, with the 2005 Patricia Pinot Chardonnay not far behind. Sparkling Shiraz has been great from here in the past, but the 07 venures too far into sweetness territory for me. I've always found the whites a bit patchy but the 2008 Limited Release King Valley Riesling and 2008 Banksdale Chardonnay hit the mark. Not surprisingly they also have a Savagnin on the market now...smelt pretty enough but pronounced bitterness on the back palate.

Reds were all over the shop. Their experimentation with Nero D'Avola continues with the 09 vintage coming from their own Heathcote vineyard (I think the previous releas was a trial batch shipped direct from Italy). Gluggable with a few simple savoury notes soon overwhelmed by fruit sweetness. Good pasta fodder. 08 Heathcote Shiraz was really forward and attractive. No discernible tannin structure, but loads of drink now appeal. The 06 Patricia Shiraz was far more oak driven, and I am not convinced it has the fruit stuffing to match. Find of the day was an 08 Cab/Merlot/Petit Verdot. Fragrant, minty, cassis, earth and spice...lovely mouthfeel with fine pliant tannins. The most appealing table wine I have seen from them in some time. 07 Heathcote Durif offers plenty of tanninc grip and a punch of violet and blueberry fruit, and the 05 Shiraz Mondeuse Cabernet rocks old school style. Chewy, complex, mouthfilling, ripe and satisfying.

A typical visit to Brown Brothers...some disappointments, some question marks, and a lot of very good wines.

[Peter NZ]

2000 Te Mata Coleraine. Developing some bottle characters but plenty left in this. Infanticide really. Good Good.

Liked this vintage but didnt buy much of it. i was poor that year. Havent cracked one yet. quite an expansive coleraine

I've struggled to get too excited with the couple I've opened -- I guess it's possible they were just too young, but on the other hand I very much enjoyed the '05 that Number 5 in Akld was pouring by the glass a couple of weeks back.

[Red Bigot]

04 Dead Arm
Not sure whats going on here. Something strange.

Some reports that some bottles of this are showing bretty characters.

[Capel Vale Wines]

Capel Vale Margaret River Chardonnay 2007: Made in a more fatter and heavier butterscotch style and also has been given a good dollop of oak. Sometimes I really do like that style. Very good.

Cheers, Mario

Where did you find this little beauty? This was rated 94 from Halliday in the 2010 companion and received a gold at the Adelaide Wine Show back in 2008. We have well and truly sold out at the cellar door and are now on to the 09 Pemberton Chardonnay, displaying a tighter acid profile than the Margaret River style.

Scott - Capel Vale Wines