The Auswine Forum

Hi Good Peoples,

You know what this is all about...... so pleas elet us know what you have been drinking.

Two outstanding reds thus far - St. Hubert's Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 - classically proportioned and very gluggable but, amazingly, still has some grip to resolve - otherwise typically leafy and Bordeaux-like with exemplary blackcurrant, cedar and cigar box characters on both nose and palate (92) and a recent cheapish auction purchase but an extremely good wine that needs some more time to reach its zenith - Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot 1998 - a wine very highly recommended by Ian (n4sir) back in March this year - apart from a small amount of spiky acidity that needs to soften and some still pretty serious (but manageable) tannin levels, the remainder did the trick offering up extremely pure and glossy cherry, plum and blueberry fruit, a subtle "sweet" earthy bottom note, a nice lick of licorice backed by well-judged savoury oak. 91 points from me today but has the potential to attain one or two points more once it softens and matures.

After a heavy duty week, two interesting wines to complete the week:

Montrose Black Shiraz 2002
Blackberry jam, olives, well furnished oak, some savoury, slightly tarry characters. Good wine.

Henschke Keyneton Estate 2002
Blackcurrant/Ribena, good oak, fruit full, good wine - very polished although some angular bits that might smooth off in time.

2008 Grosset Springvale Riesling
Exceptional as usual.

2006 Barcaldine House Cabernet Merlot
Pretty pedestrian stuff. Fair whack of menthol, uninteresting to the end.

2003 Seppelt Chalamber Shiraz
Deep, dark and full of ripe musky fruits. Very good indeed.

Cathcart Ridge Estate "Reserve" Shiraz 2004 - Nice fruit on the nose but doesn't follow through to the palate, I like the standard 2004 better.[/b]

Add to that

2004 Wynns Cabernet Sauvignon
Thought this was a solid wine. Hints of greenness with a leafy / capsicum aroma and taste detracted from a higher score though.

Monghead.

Drank 4 bottles of 97 Clarendon Hills semillon over the weekend. Summer here (almost 25 degrees) and its a great wine to drink in the sun.

Highlight though has been a new wine for me, the 2007 Guru Blanc, Wine & Soul, which is a barral fermented white wine from the Douro. Lanolin, minerals and lemon make for an interesting nose and these are complimented by more citrus flavours, spicy oak and good acidity. Lovely wine made from indegenous grapes. Only 4500 bottles made, so I'm not sure it will make its way to Auz, but its a must buy if it does.

2005 Carlei Tre Amici- Sangiovese 70%, Cabernet Sauvignon 20%, Merlot 10% Another stunner from Serge Carlei. Oz super Tuscans can be made, and can be great

2007Loire- didn't TN, forget details. Lovely and lemony.

2004 Brokenwood Semillon - Magnum FYI and if you think that matters. Beautiful Hunter Sem with years ahead.

2007 Vintage Cellars Cotes de Rhone- very good especially at under $10

2008 Heggies Reisling- excellent drinking now and I suspect in 10 years

2008 Ned Sav Blanc- I don't like Malborough Sav/Blanc much. This was good though, a tad more complex and a touch weightier. Honeyed too.



At tasting (great to meet JamieH, top bloke, although he may not have thought the same of me. If so, too polite to say)

2007 Dog Point Section 74 Sav Blanc- some old french oak added to interest and I liked it well enough

2007 Dog Point Pinot Noir- not such a good vintage? or 08 better? Very nice, much more pleasing than Dashwood 08 which just tasted like cherry cola to me with zippy acid substituting for carbonation.

2006 Chapel Hill Cabernet Sauvignon- nice, always like this wine and Chapel Hill wines in general, but 05 way better and 07 will be too.

More from the week-

2005 Ulithorne Shiraz- seemed old chool and delicious for it. Nice oak, lithe too. Chocolate and Vanilla, Yay.

At Brisbane Wine Festival (horrid environment!)

2008 Pizzini Arneis- touch prickly and hot, but fine

2009 Pinot Grigio- so not what I want in a Grigio, too phenolic and lacking crispness in general. No colour. Apparently they use oxidative handling now and don't want colour as consumers get turned off. Sad, as the 06 was beautifully pink/bronze

200? Pizzini Shiraz Sangiovese- Vgood and bang on for $

2008 Pizzini Sangiovese- maybe the best Pizzini sangi yet? Chewy, yummy and persistant if extremely young.

2004 Pizzini Nebbiolo- as good as the 02 just younger. You could sink a bottle now if you were rich, but obviously will improve. Dried fruits especially orange rind.

2004 Pizzini Coronamento(could have been 03, will email to clarify)- the shit and congrats to Joel Pizzini for honesty, excepting praise and critique, making my Girlfriend feel at home after horrible experience by someone "promoting"?!! Langhorne wines.

2004 Bremerton Old Adam Shiraz- runner up to Coronamento for best wine on the night.

Hungerford Hill Chardonnay, latest release, forgot vintage- crap and very short

Hungerford Hill Pinot Noir, vintage as above- lacking any structure

2007 Springvale "Melrose" Pinot Noir- fine but didn't do it for me

2007 Springvale Pinot Noir- better than above, quite liked it.

200? Springvale Gerwurztraminer- my first Traminer and loved it. Rose Petal, Lychees and turkish delight. A touch short but length isn't everything.

2008 Cassegrain Chambourcin- sadly bad and shows why Chambourcin is maligned as a grape (although I don't mind the odd glass of D'arenberg's Peppermint Paddock Sparkling) Sweet unstructured fruit followed immediately by nothing, zilch, zippo, a void (sometimes length matters)

2008 Cassegrain Verdelho- Chaptalized sweet rubbish that my girlfriend really disliked too. She said Vinegar-y and sweet and she may well have been correct.[/quote]

2006 Bremerton Old Adam Shiraz- young and minty, but not too much so. Reckon it'll de excellent in time. Great to meet Lucy Wilson, so humble and she made up for horrible experience with that other Langhorne lady.

monghead wrote:Add to that

2004 Wynns Cabernet Sauvignon
Thought this was a solid wine. Hints of greenness with a leafy / capsicum aroma and taste detracted from a higher score though.

Monghead.

Don't know about the 2004, however past experience (which you have probably had as well) tells me that this label improves greatly after a few years, and is much better at about 10 years old.

Wines this week;

Winter Creek 2004 Barossa shiraz - powerful but restrained black berry fruits and liquorice, focus on the fruit not oak.

Greenock Creek Alice late harvest shiraz (2005?) - 17.5 per cent! Manages to avoid being ridiculous, christmas pudding, liquorice, I feel like saying a hint of maple syrup (so I will), and fruit in there underneath. Perhaps the fruit's in the Xmas pudding!

Torbreck La Struie shiraz 2004 - definitely the week of the heavy-hitters! This is a very generous, fruity red, but it is also a well structured wine, and focused wine. Powerful boysenberry and blackberry, with very well integrated tannins, which seem to me to be predominantly fruit generated. Oak not obvious. Well worth looking out for, though I suppose it's quite expensive at auction.

deleted

Recently been comparing a few kiwi chardonnays in the $20-$30 price bracket (all screwcap):

Villa Maria Cellar Selection Marlborough Chardonnay 07 - this is ok, but not up to the quality of their Hawkes Bay CS variant. The 06 from Hawkes Bay was more to my taste, being richer and more interesting - I doubt that's down to year, more probably region. Hawkes Bay chards seem to have more citrous, pineapple and sometimes a banana thing going on, whereas Marlborough tend to strike me as being more your typically stone-fruit chard. for the 07 Marlborough; for the Hawkes Bay 06, for reference.

Craggy Range Seven Poplars Vineyard Chardonnay 07 - this is a good chardonnay from the Hawkes Bay - a nice ripe nectarine and grapefruit bouquet and concentrated palate. Quite fresh and good streak of acidity to marry with fairly gentle oak. Seemed to lack a touch on the finish though.

Corbans Cottage Block Chardonnay 07 - a second bottle of this. Also from Hawkes Bay, this is quite rich, nice mouthfeel, and more mealy and nutty than the Craggy Range. Similar in quality terms, this probably just edges it, but the fresh fruitiness of the Craggy certainly makes that a good drink. Previous bottle of Cottage Block was enjoyed more - the difference probably down to food matching and environment rather than the wine itself.

07 Esk Valley Merlot
03 Neudorf Home Vineyard Pinot Noir
01 Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay
00 Te Mata Awatea
06 Pegasus Bay Aria
06 Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay

notes, you know where

Joined friends for dinner on Saturday evening,
First up a 1999 Pol Roger lovely citrus flavours as usual for this label, a little surprised by the colour a rich golden hue without the development on the palate.

This followed soon after by a private bottling of Mt Rumney vinyard Chardonay. The fruit from this vinyard has been used in Eileen Hardy. lovely stonefruit and malo treatment, delicious well rounded wine.

Onto the reds [/b]1995 Apsley Gorge Pinot Noir I don't get this wine, the flavors appeared to b over ripe and the addition of some green material (possibly stalk?) perhaps it needs more time but seemed a bit to lean and I don't mind them lean.

La Surprise Wine had apparentl;y been decanted for 4 hours but the nose was unyielding, some hint of American oak but little else. colouring of ruby red, initial taste indicates a quite acidic and tannic wine swallowing up the fruit. Not very approachable, thinking a youngish cabernet from Coonawarra, decide to leave in the glass and move on to some other wines. came back to this after an hour and little change....not my cup of tea at this stage of its life........oh dear, much to the merriment of my less wine enthused friends, the wine is revealed as 1996 Penfolds Grange. Well this wine has been opened decades too early on this sample, what a shame really as the wine as you may expect did not show that well given the imbalnce of components.

Escarpment Pinot Noir 2005, Martinborough. I don't care what people say about this wine, I find it a vastly overrated Pinot from an area that generally makes very good pinots. A friend brought it over last night as we finished off the excess of food prepared for Saturday night. Personally I find the fruit dull with none of the traditional Pinot characteristics. I do wonder however with so many labels above the entry level such as the Kupe and single vineyards whether there is any decent fruit left over for this wine. If that is the case, they should seriously consider dropping the price to low $20s.

Brokenwood Rayner 2002 McLaren Vale Shiraz. By way of contrast, I really enjoy this wine. Not as fruit driven as some MV shiraz, I found it has savory mocca flavours with a hint of mushroom. Some bricking in the colour, it drinking superbly now. I am not sure I see a lot of upside to keeping the remaining bottles much longer.

Penfolds Bin 28 1998. Also drinking well now although I suspect this wine will continue to improve for some time. The tannins are a little more robust than the Rayner and the complexity one expects from this wine is just beginning to peep through. I think I will leave the remainder alone for while now.

A mixed week with mostly quaffers:

04 Zema Estate Cabernet Savignon Not bad. A bit leafy and a bit more developed than what I would have expected. Brought by a friend who keeps her wine in the kitchen though so that might explain it. 91

98 Penfolds Koonunga Hill This wine has been providing very good drinking over the last two years. Bigger, more complex and more savoury than the Zema. Drinks beautifully for an $8 wine at the time. They just don't make them like this any more. Two bottles left now. 93

07 Noon Twelve Bells Drunk a lot of this recently. Very good quaffing with nice body and quite a bit of soul. 91

93 Petaluma Merlot Wanted something a bit better for a saturday night in with the girlfriend. This is from the box I recently discovered full of 93/94 wines that I'd kind of forgotten about. Decided to decant and drink out of some decent glasses. Surprisingly deep magenta red colour. Plummy, spicy nose holding great promise. Initally quite muted on the palate though. Red currents and plums with a spicy finish. At first a bit soft, dumb and lifeless but it waxed and waned over the evening. A bit hollow in the middle palate. After an hour, it got a bit more body and the flavours shone through a bit better. Imminently drinkable but probably a lot better five years ago. 88.

A couple of glasses of Richmond Grove shiraz (vintage unknown but would be current) at a pub last night. Very sweet, simple and forgetable. This used to be quite a good wine or was that just the limited release? 83

And we've been getting through quite a bit of my muscat barrel. This has been such an interesting and worthwhile exercise. It's now getting quite dark and complex with brown malt, caramel, burnt sugar fudge and toffee. It's delicious and I can't get enough of it. It's hard to imagine it getting better but I'm hoping it's still got a long way to go. It needs to be topped up again very soon so we'll see what happens when I do that.

Broughy wrote:[/b]La Surprise Wine had apparentl;y been decanted for 4 hours but the nose was unyielding, some hint of American oak but little else. colouring of ruby red, initial taste indicates a quite acidic and tannic wine swallowing up the fruit. Not very approachable, thinking a youngish cabernet from Coonawarra, decide to leave in the glass and move on to some other wines. came back to this after an hour and little change....not my cup of tea at this stage of its life........oh dear, much to the merriment of my less wine enthused friends, the wine is revealed as 1996 Penfolds Grange. Well this wine has been opened decades too early on this sample, what a shame really as the wine as you may expect did not show that well given the imbalnce of components.

Broughy,

I'm not sure, but it sounds like the '96 Grange may be corked, as a full frontal fruit attack backed up by a whack of tannin is what you should be getting with this wine. Muted fruit and an acidic taste could often be due to a slightly corked wine, not showing it's best. The other possibility if very acidic or sour, is a badly oxidised wine due to bad storage.....

Should have asked your friend to open a second bottle to compare.

Cheers,

Monghead.

1990 Wynns Black Label CabStill youthful, Dark bricjk red and really is drinking well , This bottle had years ahead of it .

1999 henschke Cabernet A bit of browning on the rim of the glass Lovelly and well integrated , nice length to finish < Drink up i would suggest

1996 Chapel Hill (the Vicar) [b]Losing its fruit , had alot of oak on the nose and same for the mouthfeel Still nice but past its best

2001 Rockford Basket press ShirazThis was one of the rockfords i thought was not really there until now, Great fruit and holding together very well , will last a while imo

1997 Hardy's Tintara reserve shirazDark and rich after a while in the decanter it started to sing Plum,dark inky with a hint of aniseed , very nice drinking

2002 Henschke Johanns Garden Dark Cherries and plenty of pepper and spice , earthy finish Yum Yum

1998 Wynns Michael shirazToo early to drink imo Its youthful and sang in the glass but had a raw twist to it ...................



Regards Dazza[/b]

Saltram No.1 2004 - opened at about 5 p.m. and not decanted as wasn't sure what my plans were going to be for remainder of evening drinking wise (possible chance of refridgerating half). Soupy and unprecise to start and gradually got better as the night got later. A mate dropped in and all consumed. The best was kept to last and it was singing with typical black fruits and well structured tannins and a good deal of complexity. Lesson - air it out.

Onto

Saltram Mamre Brook Cab 2002 - clearly lesson not learnt and at short notice opened and drunk. Very nice and cant help but wonder how much nicer it would have been with a bit more air and at a couple of degrees warmer. Was smooth and full bodied with wafts of nice complexity on the nose such as pencil shavings and muted cassis. Will be an extraordinary wine for $16 one day.

Had a couple of wines "by Brad"

2007 Wine by Brad Margaret River Cabernet Merlot. SC. $18
Complex nose of blackberry, gunsmoke and (pleasant) green undergrowth. Palate has plenty of blackberry - yummy, semi-sweet, flows seamlessly (I don't like the overuse of this word but it applies here) across the palate from front to back. Light lick of tarred chocolate. Lovely framework of tannin - could last 3-4 years but why wait? Very Good. Excellent QPR.

Drank the other half bottle tonight and confirmed my thoughts re aging. Wine had held its own and was good but I think was a shade better on Saturday night.

2008 Wine by Brad Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc. SC. $18
Watery pale yellow. Sav Blanc dominates the nose - herbaceous, passionfruit, pineapple (a tad). However, the semillon adds some real depth to the palate. Grassy, tropical fruit, passionfruit. Light and long, but no lightweight (if that makes sense?). Lovely texture. The acid handled the fish, calamari and chips with ease, but the wine was very enjoyable on its own as well - clean but not sharp. Very Good+. Excellent QPR.

Very impressed with these wines, particularly taking the cost into account.

Cheers

Michael

1994 Henschke Mt Edelstone - lovely medium bodied wine. A little shy on the nose, but in a good spot right now.

1999 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz - the best bottle I've had of about 8 so far. Excellent wine, but not in the same post code as 96 and 98.

2004 (disg) Rockford Black Shiraz - overt nose of rasberries. Really improved with air time.

1996 Lanson Champagne - disappointing bottle. Seemed devoid of fruit and ended up as an acid mouthwash.

2004 Voyager Estate Chardonnay - super wine. peaches, melon, complexity and long finish.

2004 Schubert Estate Gooseyard Block Shiraz - much better on day 2. This has a decent future in front of it.

Mike - care to speculate on how much longer the 2004 Voyager Chardonnay will last?

Julio G wrote:Mike - care to speculate on how much longer the 2004 Voyager Chardonnay will last?

Interesting... last bottle I had of this, it seemed a bit tired. Or maybe I was. Note to self at the time was to drink up soon-ish.

Sassoregale Sangiovese 2006 Don't know much about this one - picked it up 'cause it had a pretty label.

Ruby red with savoury dusty notes. Supple and slightly lean on the palate with an attractive astringent finish. Balanced and athletic.

Mt Helen Cab Merlot 1994.

Was half expecting this one to be past it, but it scrubbed up nicely. Chocolately purple things going on on the nose(sorry, it was a bit late by the time I took notes), and a rich mature mouthful. Drinking well.

Balgownie Estate Shiraz 1996

Garnet red with leather, spice and caramel toffee on the nose. Plenty of depth & vibrancy. Dry front palate, quite firm acids lingering through the finish. More structure than fruit. At a nice point between the exuberance of youth and the grace of maturity.

Julio - I like some bottle age, so for my tastes it'd be best in 3 years

Seppelt St.Peters Shiraz 2003
Screwcap. 13% or 13.5% alc ?
Started out pretty closed and didn't really do it for me on the first night. The palate was a bit hard and it was offering so little. Fast forward 48 hours, and the wine has really fleshed out on the palate, and become juicy and mouthwatering, with some regional spice/pepper starting to emerge. Needs further cellaring for sure. But appears to be an excellent wine. Absolutely juicy tannins.

Wayno wrote:

Julio G wrote:Mike - care to speculate on how much longer the 2004 Voyager Chardonnay will last?

I had my last one couple of weeks ago and it too was beautiful. best chardy i've had in recent memory. more enjoyable to me than the current 2006 vintage which seems oakier (but still great). seemed the oak had really settled in. seems its a wine that appreciates a couple years in cellar.



Petaluma Riesling 2007
had no white in the fridge so snuck one from the cellar. bit dissapointing, tasted steely. whereas a bottle couple months ago was nothing like it & didn't have this steely taste. nor did it on first release. will leave my last bottles for many years now.

Mount Pleasant Philip 2007
Has been my house staple over the last couple years, not nearly as much a fan of the current vintage, i find the acid too spikey. Much prefer the Meerea park hilltop/hunter cheapy for a couple $ more.

Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2004
Was spritzy - drinkable but distracting. Odd.

I'm not sure, but it sounds like the '96 Grange may be corked, as a full frontal fruit attack backed up by a whack of tannin is what you should be getting with this wine. Muted fruit and an acidic taste could often be due to a slightly corked wine, not showing it's best. The other possibility if very acidic or sour, is a badly oxidised wine due to bad storage.....

Should have asked your friend to open a second bottle to compare.

Monghead, my initial reaction was that this just hadn't opened up as I am normally very sensitive to TCA...but looking back it should have been big fruit. Didn't get a chance to see the cork as it was decanted prior. I have also seen this effect by poor glassware decanter care i.e. washed in dishwasher...better luck next time. He should just keep opening them till he gets a good bottle!!!

Broughy wrote:

I'm not sure, but it sounds like the '96 Grange may be corked, as a full frontal fruit attack backed up by a whack of tannin is what you should be getting with this wine. Muted fruit and an acidic taste could often be due to a slightly corked wine, not showing it's best. The other possibility if very acidic or sour, is a badly oxidised wine due to bad storage.....

Should have asked your friend to open a second bottle to compare.

Monghead, my initial reaction was that this just hadn't opened up as I am normally very sensitive to TCA...but looking back it should have been big fruit. Didn't get a chance to see the cork as it was decanted prior. I have also seen this effect by poor glassware decanter care i.e. washed in dishwasher...better luck next time. He should just keep opening them till he gets a good bottle!!!

Indeed.....

[/quote]

JG wrote:



Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2004
Was spritzy - drinkable but distracting. Odd.

Yeah I don't quite get this wine either...

Rave reviews by others though.....

Batch variation???

Or more likely, palate variation???

Definitely some bottle variation, mong. Somehow there's the odd bottle or three that presents poorly with a spiky "spritziness". I've rated the "ok" bottles mostly in the mid- to higher-eighties, about very good on average as a verbal rating but it needs more time to be at its best.