Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 1:22 am
After a stint in the MidEast great to have accessibility to nice wines in HK-albeit at a price.
Zema Estate 01 Caberent - sweet plum and vanilla oak, mulberry nose. A full bodied Coonawarra with savoury finish and some grip. Needs time though approachable in raw youth.
Nepenthe 00 the Fugue - 2000 a tough year in the Hills. I enjoy The Fugue but not this year. New wood evident , which combined with some lean fruit to give an Xmas cake nose, some sweet plum and earth/leather palate flavours. No fruit depth at all.
2001 Battle of Bosworth Shiraz - Youthful, red-purple, fruit driven wine, fine berry fruit and noted, but unobtrusive oak, mid-weight palate with the fruit driven style evident. Nice change from some oak monsters out of the Southern Vales.
2002 Nepenthe Riesling- Floral & lime bouquet, rich pear and lime palate lavours, with good fruit density, roll into a grapefruit tang finish- Halliday described this as Alsace like- and agree totally. Not unlike the palate impressions from a Hugel. The bottle states a 5 year climb to maturity in stelvin; would seem about right as more tang than acid. Very enjoyable wine.
Katnook Estate 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon - 375ml. My Hong Kong quaffer-every supermarket I enter here, seems to stock this line. Good distribution effort but bad for the grocery budget. Black forest cake, raspberry nose. The oak/fruit harmonised. Sweet vanilla, plum & chocolate fruit flavours fill out a medium to full bodied coonawarra caberent, that lacks the plushness and intensity of the 99, but neverless a good cellarable expression of the style. Some geen capsicum noted as the wine finished with length dominated by long and fine tannin. Consistant wine.
Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 01 - Outstanding and unique stuff. I tasted dozens of 01 Cote Roties at the March aux Vin in Ampuis recently. More blackfruit would bring this into the top echelons IMHO.
Soft cherry fruit is complemented by a fragrant and floral nose, spice & pepper too. Supple and harmonious, more cherry, earth, cinnamon fruit flavours on day 2. The finish is very long, with distinct, powerful tannin on a backbone of fresh acid. Keep returning to the wonderful mouthfeel, just through the wine around the mouth and enjoy an array of complexity.
It has a crafted feel to it. Maybe the terroir of Canberra will never permit an intensity of black fruits of the top echelon Cote Rotie, but it sits comfortably above most of the 01's I tried recently-and QPR still relatively good!
Will be trying to put a few bottles of Clonakilla away each year. Aswell as getting hold of their Viognier in the near term.
Noel
I think Australia GSM is an underachiever.
Their are also some monster ripe CNP around at the moment. Sure, never be the same but maybe not polls apart?
I hope Rick Burge persists. I think he will produce world class, Aussie GSM
styles with regularity-my bet is on him anyway.
Must start a thread on impressions/favourites/hopes for Australian GSM or CNP local styles.
Zema Estate 01 Caberent - sweet plum and vanilla oak, mulberry nose. A full bodied Coonawarra with savoury finish and some grip. Needs time though approachable in raw youth.
Nepenthe 00 the Fugue - 2000 a tough year in the Hills. I enjoy The Fugue but not this year. New wood evident , which combined with some lean fruit to give an Xmas cake nose, some sweet plum and earth/leather palate flavours. No fruit depth at all.
2001 Battle of Bosworth Shiraz - Youthful, red-purple, fruit driven wine, fine berry fruit and noted, but unobtrusive oak, mid-weight palate with the fruit driven style evident. Nice change from some oak monsters out of the Southern Vales.
2002 Nepenthe Riesling- Floral & lime bouquet, rich pear and lime palate lavours, with good fruit density, roll into a grapefruit tang finish- Halliday described this as Alsace like- and agree totally. Not unlike the palate impressions from a Hugel. The bottle states a 5 year climb to maturity in stelvin; would seem about right as more tang than acid. Very enjoyable wine.
Katnook Estate 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon - 375ml. My Hong Kong quaffer-every supermarket I enter here, seems to stock this line. Good distribution effort but bad for the grocery budget. Black forest cake, raspberry nose. The oak/fruit harmonised. Sweet vanilla, plum & chocolate fruit flavours fill out a medium to full bodied coonawarra caberent, that lacks the plushness and intensity of the 99, but neverless a good cellarable expression of the style. Some geen capsicum noted as the wine finished with length dominated by long and fine tannin. Consistant wine.
Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 01 - Outstanding and unique stuff. I tasted dozens of 01 Cote Roties at the March aux Vin in Ampuis recently. More blackfruit would bring this into the top echelons IMHO.
Soft cherry fruit is complemented by a fragrant and floral nose, spice & pepper too. Supple and harmonious, more cherry, earth, cinnamon fruit flavours on day 2. The finish is very long, with distinct, powerful tannin on a backbone of fresh acid. Keep returning to the wonderful mouthfeel, just through the wine around the mouth and enjoy an array of complexity.
It has a crafted feel to it. Maybe the terroir of Canberra will never permit an intensity of black fruits of the top echelon Cote Rotie, but it sits comfortably above most of the 01's I tried recently-and QPR still relatively good!
Will be trying to put a few bottles of Clonakilla away each year. Aswell as getting hold of their Viognier in the near term.
Noel
I think Australia GSM is an underachiever.
Their are also some monster ripe CNP around at the moment. Sure, never be the same but maybe not polls apart?
I hope Rick Burge persists. I think he will produce world class, Aussie GSM
styles with regularity-my bet is on him anyway.
Must start a thread on impressions/favourites/hopes for Australian GSM or CNP local styles.
Not going for another at $24/btl.
and have a good flight.
But maybe someone will find something useful or interesting in these ones anyway.
Perhaps in hibernation, this is not a great Michael right now, but good in its own right. Might just wake up later, given the vintage.
