NZ vs. France .............. The Final Match. Test Four.

[jafa]

Idea from Sue(NZ)'s WOTW wine blog.
Test Match Taste off between France and NZ.
Rules 1. From same vintage (2003). 2. Same price ($60).

testmatch-wine.JPG

First test Result: France Wins.
Second test possible soon.

cheers jafa

[Craig(NZ)]

Australia vs Ireland next or is it Tonga vs France?

And on to the rugby, at least South Africa and Australia will beat each other up and one will fall by the wayside for the semi finals. Watch me weep

Hopefully the All Blacks can get over the no Dan issue and get over the Pumas!

All Blacks vs Ireland Final?
All Blacks vs France??
South Africa vs England?? (god help us all)
Australia vs England?? (can it get worse than that? god id wanna kill myself if i had to watch that final AGAIN!!)

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! pass me a wine!

[jafa]

Australia vs Ireland next or is it Tonga vs France?

Err no. Likely off to bordeaux and hawkes bay or waiheke match.
Need to do some research to match prices. Not as easy as I'd initially thought.
The pinot match was about the only cellar selections able to meet that criteria.

cheers jafa

[orpheus]

Go up to about $90, and do a NZ syrah v. Rhone (syrah) comparisons.

NZ should hold up well in this one, if the best wines are chosen.

If you go up to a top Cote Rotie, you will be in a price bracket at which it is hard to find a NZ competitor, but you will also experience a great wine!

[jafa]

Go up to about $90, and do a NZ syrah v. Rhone (syrah) comparisons.

Syrah/Shiraz wines not greatly admired by me . Next to nothing in the cellar, so getting a price
and vintage match probably impossible. Should check out the 2007's; a few potential targets.

cheers jafa

[orpheus]

Go up to about $90, and do a NZ syrah v. Rhone (syrah) comparisons.

Syrah/Shiraz wines not greatly admired by me . Next to nothing in the cellar, so getting a price
and vintage match probably impossible. Should check out the 2007's; a few potential targets.

cheers jafa

Have you tried the Craggy Range "Le Sol"?? Have you tried a top Waiheke syrah? Have you tried a Bannockburn shiraz? Have you tried a top COte-ROtie Syrah?

I don't know what it is you don't like about syrah, but there isn't much not to like about the best of it.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Syrah/Shiraz wines not greatly admired by me

I'm speechless!

[jafa]

Have you tried the Craggy Range "Le Sol"??

Sure. Probably every vintage. Even have a few in the cellar, but that's about hospitality, rather than personal preference.

Have you tried a top Waiheke syrah?

Yup, again. I live in Auckland, go to many producer tastings and wine shows. Visit Waiheke now and again.
Have some Obsidian 2010 Syrah on ep order for the cellar, and other Waiheke producer examples in cellar.

Have you tried a Bannockburn shiraz?

No.

Have you tried a top COte-ROtie Syrah?

Yes. And also tried some from further south, Hermitage, Cornas, St Joseph.
Then there's the southern Rhone, Chateauneuf du Pape, Gigondas, Vacqueyras where some Syrah is used.
Tried a few from down there as well, and have a couple of examples in cellar.

I don't know what it is you don't like about syrah, but there isn't much not to like about the best of it.

Can't explain it, but given choice I'll drink Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Cab Franc, P Verdot, Pinot Noir, Grenache..................
.............ahead of Syrah. Better to leave it for them that wants it, I reckon.

cheers jafa

[orpheus]

Yes, thanks for leaving it for the rest of us, Jafa. YOu have obviously drunk a fair bit of it, and I wouldn't condescend to try to convert you.

As for prefering Merlot to Syrah (particularly Antipodean Merlot), this is, I think, perverse. NZ's perseverence with this grape is reckless, if the merlots from NZ I have had are a fair indication of its potential in NZ.

I am sure there are exceptions.

On the Craggy Range, I think the key is not to drink it too young. I love it young as well as old, but it becomes very complex with 6-7 years or so of age. I drank an 02 Le Sol in about 2009 and it was absolutely sensational.

As for the Waiheke syrahs, the one which I have found truly exciting is the Awaroa (very vintage specific). Passage Rock also make a very good one. With Waiheke, it is all about the soil, it seems to me; these wines have a very distintive feel redolent of soft clay (sounds horrible, I know, but it isn't), along with very fine-grained yet substantial tannis, which immediately take me back to the Island.

The Bannockburn, from Geelong, is a great syrah.

[jafa]

Second test. Vintage and price rules as before, this time 1996 and $40.
Two bdx rightbank styles.

test-two.JPG

NZ wins.
I've heard the bordeaux 1996's are slow developers, but if you have the Pavie Macquin then I reckon another 8 years before trying.
Guess at least one more test required to break the tie. Leftbank next?

cheers jafa

[orpheus]

Excellent vintage to chose, as this really shows what a wine's potential is long-term.

Perhaps you are right about the Pave Macquin. The same thing seems to be true of the Australian 96s from South Australia, they are still very tannic, and you just have to take the proposition that they will come into balance at some point on trust.

[Craig(NZ)]

Those 90's esk reserves have travelled very well where perhaps on release you would think they are too cuddly for long term cellaring. 95/98 and 00 too looking very very good recently
I never bought the 96. I would have tried it but just can't remember it.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Hard to believe that one can get a '96 Pavie Macquin for $40, that's an excellent price. I'm not surprised that it needs a few more years, I've yet to open a 1990.

What's next, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah?

Mahmoud.

[orpheus]

Hard to believe that one can get a '96 Pavie Macquin for $40, that's an excellent price. I'm not surprised that it needs a few more years, I've yet to open a 1990.

What's next, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah?

Mahmoud.

Mahmoud, if you look closely at the thread, you will see that Syrah has (recklessly, IMO) been ruled out. We have a syrahophobe on our hands.

[jafa]

Those 90's esk reserves have travelled very well where perhaps on release you would think they are too cuddly for long term cellaring. 95/98 and 00 too looking very very good recently
I never bought the 96. I would have tried it but just can't remember it.

The EV reserves were"must have" purchases each year, but I stopped buying at the 2004 vintage.
I think other producers have upped their game while Esk have rested.
My favorites are still the 1991 and 1992, although a while since I opened either. Only 1
bottle of each left in cellar, waiting for special occassion or vertical.
1996 is (in my opinion) an underrated NZ vintage. I like the cool season, savory nature of the wines.
Bit like "old style" bdx.

cheers jafa

[jafa]

Hard to believe that one can get a '96 Pavie Macquin for $40.

Yeah, agreed. Pricing for test is something of a fudge. Quoted price for the P Mac is my ep buy cost
back in the day. The NZ bottle pricing is the retail price given in M. Coopers' Buyers Guide books as I
don't record actual cost price.

What's next, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah?

There are tough for me to setup the test match. I've stopped buying french chardie due to frequent prem-ox
failures, especially for Chablis (un oaked please!). NZ chardie is not a great cellar performer for me either.
About 5 years max in my experience. Then there's the price point, hard match, nothing from France worth
buying is "cheap".
Without playing the test: Blanc de Blanc fizz. France wins.
Still and dry; Chablis, France wins.
SB NZ wins. I could screw the scrum on this, there is a bordeaux producer (kiwi female winemaker married to french landowner)
making 100% SB un-oaked, Kiwi style, that I really, really like.
Syrah. Not entirely ruled out, but will require visit to merchant. Can't happen straight from cellar.

cheers jafa

[jafa]

Third Test Match
First opening from cache of 2000 bdx purchases.
Vintage 2000, cost $60.

third-test.JPG

Two darn good bottles. Similar in many respects but still quite different, likely due to the different grape varieties and proportions that make up the blends.
Both wines will go for years in cellar, still adolescent. And the match winner? Too close to call. Calling it a draw.

Cheers jafa

[Craig(NZ)]

Thanks or the report on the 00 colereine. i was just thinking last week when we drank the 00 SRL I havent tried the 00 coleraine for a long long time. based on your report i will hold longer.

[jafa]

The big finals game and the selector goes off piste.

malbec.JPG

OK. Variety for final match is the "black wine of Cahors"; malbec.
Slight bias as the selector likes teams in black.
Usual rules on apply---- price; $25, vintage; 2004.
The three earlier tests has the series points at 1½ to 1½, after a shared draw.
On the night the NZ wine was good, good, France very, very good. So France wins.

cheers jafa

[SueNZ]

Looks like you had some nice wines there.