Auckland Offline - Esk Valley Terraces Vertical - 11 April

[Craig(NZ)]

Hey Guys

Thanks for a great afternoon. It all worked really well. Loved the relaxed long lunch format. Great company and lovely set of wines. Thanks also peter for the 96 Clos du bourg vouvray - a lovely treat to start!!

Consensus is next event will be "Great and Rare NZ cults and ultra classics". All stops pulled out, absolute cream of the crop rare wines, - the type we would "love to try but can't afford everything", or never even see on sale. So start thinking. We will get another thread started in a handful of months as people get itchy for another

Posted my notes

http://www.kiwiwinefanclub.co.nz/content/view/733/42/

[Bick]

My impressions from this offline tasting yesterday:

Others (well, Craig) will doubtless post elsewhere, more eloquently and from a position of greater experience, but these were my thoughts on the offline and its wines. La Bocca was a good venue, and the ambience of the tasting and meal was nice and relaxed. We went through the Terraces in vintage order from oldest to youngest. Ostensibly, we had the 94 and 95 with nibbles, 98 and 00 with entree, and 02, 04 and 06 with mains, so I'll present them this way, though there was agood deal of jumping back to try an older wine again with the mains.

"Flight 1": {Nibbles; bruscheta and bread and dips}
1994 Esk Valley The Terraces - Well aged, browning, with a smoky, leathery nose, but the remaining fruit was rather green. Better nose than palate. Certainly plateaued, probably on the downward slope.
1995 Esk Valley The Terraces - This was much deeper and younger in colour, almost purple (higher malbec?), and was less smoky and rustic than the 94. Did not wow me though: acid sticking out a bit, and for me less well balanced than some that were to come.

"Flight 2": {Entree; scallop salad}
1998 Esk Valley The Terraces - The first "wow" wine of the day. Made me sit back in my chair and grin, this was the real deal. Beautiful wine, silky smooth, with a modicum of aged savoury character to give complexity, balanced perfectly by rich deep fruit and powdery tannins but still with freshness. Fine wine.
2000 Esk Valley The Terraces - Nearly as good as 98, and very similar to style and character. Perhaps in a few years it would be indistinguishable. Very good.

"Flight 3": {Main; veal in cream sauce with mash}
2002 Esk Valley The Terraces - A stylistic change, this had high alcohol (14.7%), and it showed through, with some heat on the finish. It was described as "Barossan" by one taster, and it certainly is a blockbuster. If you like this style, its a deep, quite complex wine, but it looked clunky compared to the preceeding two vintages and the following one.
2004 Esk Valley The Terraces - Another beauty of a wine. Interestingly, this has nearly the same alcohol (14.5%) as 02, but carries much better. Its as though the winemaker wanted to stick to the modern style of 02, but managed to dial it back to retain a more open and approachable wine. Very hard to find any fault. My WOTD, by a hair over the 98. (I placed the 00 3rd favourite).
2006 Esk Valley The Terraces - This was perhaps just too young and closed to show as well as it may do given time. It was good "bordeaux", but rather daunting; heaps of black fruit and quite smooth full tannins, but all rather primary, and probably a less complete wine than 04, regardless of age.

All in all, this was a very nice tasting, with good company - it was nice to meet up with others on here who I hadn';t met before, and good to catch up again with those I had. What next we wondered? I don't think we nailed that, so that may require a new 150 reply thread to decide. Here's hoping!

[Bick]

Others (well, Craig) will doubtless post elsewhere

And I see you have already, while I was typing! Nice write up Craig. And yes, the 96 vouvray, which I omitted to mention, was a lovely aperitif wine to start - absolute delight.

[Peter NZ]

I don't have a lot to add to Craig & Bick's comments -- great event & yes, I like the informal approach where we're tasting the wines in the manner they're made to be drunk -- over food & in a social setting.

I found the following link last night, which is a report by Raymond Chan of a tasting of all vintages from 1991 - 2006. One interesting comment in particular, which won't be surprising to anyone there yesterday, where Gordon Russell is reported as confirming the alcohol in the '02 is actually circa 15.4%.

http://www.regionalwines.co.nz/wine-con ... sk-valley-‘the-terraces’-1991-–-2006--including-esk-valley-reserve-chardonnay-2005-–-2007

Also, on finishing the '06 after we'd voted, it appeared to me to finally be giving a better glimpse of its potential, suggesting we'd perhaps erred by not decanting the younger wines in advance -- at the end it was showing far more structure that it had earlier.

And just for the record, the Vouvray wine was the Huet Clos du Bourg 1er Trier 1996, which to me had also stepped up a level by the end of the afternoon.

Cheers
Peter

[Craig(NZ)]

Also, on finishing the '06 after we'd voted, it appeared to me to finally be giving a better glimpse of its potential, suggesting we'd perhaps erred by not decanting the younger wines in advance -- at the end it was showing far more structure that it had earlier.

The 06 was decanted in Hamilton before Cliff drove up so probably a good 4-5 hours before we tried it!! But yes, I agree it did start to fill out with time in the glass. I also decanted the 95 and 98 before driving in.

And thanks for the white Peter, that was awesome. I have never had a vouvray in that style before (in fact I haven't had too many vouvrays full stop!!)

C

[monghead]

Thanks for the great write-up guys.

Craig, Bick and Peter, you have all alluded to the fact that since around 2000, there has been a stylistic change towards higher alcohol and riper wines. I know it is difficult to say as these wines have not had the same benefit of bottle time, but do you think this has benefited the wines? Also, what was the alcohol content of the 1998?

Cheers,

Monghead.

[Craig(NZ)]

yeah the 91-94 were more low alc bdx styles. 98 onward more "modern"

from memory the 98 was 14%ish 14.5%?? but carried it extremely well. 02 was massive alc and it did show. the others seemed to carry it well

if you like the style they are great wines. i dont like that style but still loved these wines !!

i reckon they will age well, they have piles of fruit. i dont have any later vintages in my cellar so may not find out

[Craig(NZ)]

the riper wines started in 95. the 95 perhaps is a transitional wine with the darkness and ripeness of the later wines but with slightly fresher acids and more prominant structure (not as "cuddly")

[jafa]

Just add my thanks to the fellow participants for an entertaining afternoon.
Peter & Mrs. Peter thanks for the Vouvray, very good, good.
Nice write-ups from Craig and Bick, thanks guys.

Thanks for the great write-up guys.
Craig, Bick and Peter, you have all alluded to the fact that since around 2000, there has been a stylistic change towards higher alcohol and riper wines. I know it is difficult to say as these wines have not had the same benefit of bottle time, but do you think this has benefited the wines? Also, what was the alcohol content of the 1998? Cheers, Monghead.

I think the stylistic change occured with the '98 vintage, subsequent vintages all being out of that mold.
Thought the 2000 may have underperformed, got a cheesy stinky whiff at first, which disappeared but think that bottle may not have been pristine.
At the reported 13.5% ( a sweet spot IMO) the '00 needs revisiting and may well be the pick of the bunch. YMMV.
The 2002 I didn't like. Too much a new world, alcohol bloated showpony for my tastes. Was very sceptical about the 14.7% abv on bottle, and find the reported 15.4% very likely. On the day my top three in order; 98, 95, 04.
Monghead the bottles reported the abv's as:
94,12.5
95,13.5
98,14
00,13.5
02,14.7
04,14.5
06,14.5.
The 02, 04 and 06 are under screwcaps, the earlier examples cork.

cheers jafa.

[monghead]

Thanks guys.

I think this increase in ripeness and alcohol levels is almost universal, especially for premium brands... The only one that comes to mind that resists this trend on this side of the Tasman is the Mount Mary Quintet.

I agree, for cabernet blends, 14-14.5% is getting up there, and anything over I really question...

Cheers,

Monghead.

[Craig(NZ)]

The quality of the wines on avg was higher than i expected. i wondered whether terraces would struggle to give the same wow as stonyridge but it did a pretty good job. stylistically they are different of course but i really enjoyed these wines..they offered plenty of 'wow' and standing blind im sure they would be picked as a 'notch above' type of drink.

I sent Gordon an email with a link to my review. He replied saying he had "already read it". (Nice to see some respectable folk are regular readers!!). He wrote a long email to me re stylistic change etc and noted our observations were bang on. Nice to hear.

[SueNZ]

Hi. I understand Sue is out of town with the MG club ... she had indicated to me she is not sure if she has the wine and that she is not so keen on attending now .
I am still in with a 94.

Hi Guys, Sounds like it all went well. Didn't get back from the South Island until Friday 9th and didn't check the forum while I was away - internet access was patchy and at times very expensive. Still don't know if I have the '92 as haven't been to the lockup lately.
The next theme, "Great and Rare NZ cults and ultra classics", sounds super cool.
Cheers,
Sue