Sunday 1st august

[monghead]

Hello all, another Sunday sneaks up on us, and another month for that matter.....

Notes, vibes, impressions welcome

cheers

monghead

[Mike Hawkins]

2002 Wolf Blass Black Label - still really young, oak - but not to the levels of previous vintages. I've had about 6 bottles of this, and am not sure whether it will reach great heights.

2002 Rockford Basket Press shiraz - still really primary. Ripe as you would expect from the vintage. Didn't have the portiness some have experienced. I think this will eventually rank a bit behind the great BPs (90,91,96,98, 04 - and no, not 99 for mine) when all is said and done.

1998 Katnook Odyssey - in a good place right now. Enjoyable.

1995 Houghton's Jack Mann - really good wine with many years in front of it. I have to say I like Jack Mann more than Cullen in most vintages - Moss Wood is generally the favourite though when it comes to the west.

2003 Chateau Rieussec - I wouldn't quite describe it as flabby, but I could understand why others would. Rich, voluptuous and long. Quite hedonistic. Not at the level of the 01 or 07.

1996 Henriot champagne - bready nose, ripe-ish fruit on the palate. Drinking really well (as are all the 96s)

1996 Penfolds Bin 707 - funky nose to begin but it blew off to show tobacco and blackcurrant nose, with a hint of vanilla from the oak. On the palate it has by no means developed all its secondary characteristics - if I didn't know better I'd suggest this was 6 or 7 years old. Ripe (in a good way) fruit with outstanding mouthfeel. One of the best 707s for mine and will be great in 2020 if well cellared. Kudos to Penfolds for being able to make 2 outstanding cabernets in this vintage (plus the 389 which obviously has a decent whack of cabernet).

2007 Schubert Estate Gooseyard Block Shiraz - very fruit forward - good wine given the vintage.

1994 Henschke Cyril Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon - excellent wine drinking at its peak. Medium bodied, good complexity and length. Henschke made some pretty decent wines in 1994.

Rockford Black Shiraz (04 disg) - not as ripe as expected. Earthy with licorice notes. I'd say drink up.

2008 Brokenwood Semillon - much better on day 2. Lots of lemon rind and other citrus notes. Enjoyable wine.

2001 Lindemans Limestone Ridge - household quaffer. Nice wine though wont improve further.

[Chuck]

Wow Mike. Nice list. I'm envious.

Apart from a few good quaffers only highlight was a Petaluma Piccadilly 2005 Chardonnay. Very nice indeed and went down a treat with atlantic salmon and hollandaise sauc.also tasted the Rosemount 2008 Show Reserve Coonawarra Cabernet. Excellent fruit and needs time for the tannins to settle and everything to relax. One for the cellar medium term. A joke at $10.

Chuck

[rooman]

1996 Penfolds Bin 707 - funky nose to begin but it blew off to show tobacco and blackcurrant nose, with a hint of vanilla from the oak. On the palate it has by no means developed all its secondary characteristics - if I didn't know better I'd suggest this was 6 or 7 years old. Ripe (in a good way) fruit with outstanding mouthfeel. One of the best 707s for mine and will be great in 2020 if well cellared. Kudos to Penfolds for being able to make 2 outstanding cabernets in this vintage (plus the 389 which obviously has a decent whack of cabernet).

I completely agree. I had this wine about 12 months ago as part of a vertical of '96 cab savs from Aus and France. And if I had tasted it blind, I would have imagined it was 6 years old at best. It had almost no secondary characteristics, was as dark as hell and I can easily see it going 10-20 years before hitting its true plateau. On the day the '96 Ch Beychevelle romped home. By way of contrast, a friend recently brought over a mid '80s 707 and this was awesome. They are clearly designed to go the distance and are probably one of the top two cab sav made in Aus for the long haul.

Mark

[Wayno]

Bay of Fires Tigress Pinot Noir 2006 - drinking through a few random pinots and this is probably timely - dropped a little from a few months ago - good but lacking a bit of spunk - light in both colour and palate, with peaking cherry and musk notes. Probably a good match for tonight's chicken and mushroom pie. We'll see.

And last night -

Clonakilla Riesling 2008 - a bit sweeter than I remember but with enough acid to sustain. Very enjoyable. Good with roast chook.

[dlo]

Last night a superb Trimbach Cuvee Freddie Emile 2001 Riesling ... reminiscent of the glorious 1989 .... 95 points .... with very good prospects for another 10 years evolution.

Tonight with the folks ... the 1989 CFE to see if I was just dreaming about the 2001 .... yep, it stillis as bloody good as ever! 95 points.

To go with the roast chook, a 2004 William Fevre Valmur. Magical wine just entering its drinking phase. Minerals, chalk, meal over drop-dead gorgeous melon fruit. Long-term prospects with this beauty as well. 94+ points.

These are not ordinary wines and thoroughly deserve these extraordinarily high ratings.

[daz]

Rosabrook Cab 07. I like this wine, obvious but integrated cedary/cigar box oak, very nice savoury cassis fruit, perhaps a bit of a dip on the mid-palate before it arrives at the finish that has surprising persistence including a bit of leafy/stalky greenness. The first 6pk (2 left) I bought was $15.99/btl + $7 freight so when I found the price had reduced to $13.99/btl I couldn't resist ordering another 6pk. Great value MR cab, 8 or so years cellarability but why bother.

Cheers

daz

[griff]

2007 Tardieu Laurent Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
Black-red. Beguiling nose. Over a few hours it moved around and included raspberry, cacao, anise, coffee. The most interesting component was spiced gingernut biscuits. Keeps that 2007 fleshy character in check and is full of dark fruit on the palate. Well supported with tannins and overall well-balanced. A glass or two without food but best served with. Can be consumed from now on. NB:- clean as a whistle which was a pleasant surprise after half a dozen bottles of brett infested Cotes du Rhone Cuvee Speciale. Excellent/Outstanding wine.

2006 Charles Melton Nine Popes
Great comparison to the wine above. Musk and earth. Unforced power on the palate that also is fleshy and ripe but always remains generous without that tannin support that the CDP has. Great Barossan old-vine style. 24 hours later and a cola flavour introduces itself. Excellent wine and drink young.

2007 Leflaive Macon
Much tighter than the 2006 and even the 2005. Sulphur at first. Lean with strong fennel notes. Slightly leesy and very young. Needs a couple of years to bloom. Very Good.

2009 Noon High Noon Rose
This has settled down to a lovely dry savoury style. Baguette with truffle butter is a great match. Very Good now.

cheers

Carl

[rooman]

Voyager Cab Sav 2001 First one out of the case. Still a dense colour with a deep purple/red colour. Four hours after it was decanted it was just starting to open up. Hints of capsicum and tomato leaf supported by cassis and tobacco box. Good length and balance with an excellent weight to the mid palate and a lovely long lingering finish. You can sense this will take on additional depth and complexity as it ages and age it will. It is still an absolute puppy, a baby in the woods. 93 and

[via collins]

Head Old Vines grenache 2009 Strong lip-smacking dark fruit and licorice blend to open, and a real freshness that I don't associate with grenache. Red jubes and earth and leather tones to follow, very good.

Teusner Avatar GMS 2006 Peppery nose (atCHOO!!) blackcurrant pastilles, lots of leather and blood and sweat, and silky tannins on palate. Zinging finish with fruit and savoury elements balancing vefry nicely. VVG.

Stonier chardonnay 2008 Peaches and nectarines upfront, generous body and a fair length. Terrific quality at the price, which Stonier rarely shirk on.

Derwent Valley 2009 riesling kerosene on opening, blows away quickly revealing a nutty and vegetal nose. This is miles away from the apple festival of the 08. Apple is present, but much subtler, and quite overwhelmed by the newer components of this vintage. A hint of muskiness as well, this will be very interesting to watch as it grows. Liked this a lot, but will wait a while before opening another.

Seppelts 1999 Vintage Fortified sipping my own way through winter, took a bottle to a card night on Friday, poured it late, and boy, did it go over well. It held a whole table rapt for a good half hour. It's great to see non-wine folks get excited by a beautiful drink like this.

[griff]

Leaving Perth is difficult but cherry-picking through the cellar is a silver lining.

Tonight another couple of wines

2005 Adelina Grenache
A touch spritzy at first. Great dark fruit underneath but also a little brett emerges with time. OK tonight. Let's look at it tomorrow.

2006 The Story Westgate Vineyard Grampians Shiraz
Leather and bay leaves in a cedar chest. An italian wallet of a wine. Slightly salty on the finish with tannin supporting. Not up to grilled meats but would drink well with a bollito misto say. Very Good.

cheers

Carl

[monghead]

2004 Orlando St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon- Nice young cab. Blackberries, cassis, sweet vanilla/cedar oak, bountiful coonawarra menthol. Good Good.

Monghead.

[monghead]

1996 Penfolds Bin 707 - funky nose to begin but it blew off to show tobacco and blackcurrant nose, with a hint of vanilla from the oak. On the palate it has by no means developed all its secondary characteristics - if I didn't know better I'd suggest this was 6 or 7 years old. Ripe (in a good way) fruit with outstanding mouthfeel. One of the best 707s for mine and will be great in 2020 if well cellared. Kudos to Penfolds for being able to make 2 outstanding cabernets in this vintage (plus the 389 which obviously has a decent whack of cabernet).

I guess I shouldn't be touching mine for at least another 5 years heh?

I was kinda hoping you would do a head to head comparison of the 707 and Block 42.....

Cheers,

Monghead.

[daz]

Leaving Perth is difficult but cherry-picking through the cellar is a silver lining.

Tonight another couple of wines

2005 Adelina Grenache
A touch spritzy at first. Great dark fruit underneath but also a little brett emerges with time. OK tonight. Let's look at it tomorrow.

2006 The Story Westgate Vineyard Grampians Shiraz
Leather and bay leaves in a cedar chest. An italian wallet of a wine. Slightly salty on the finish with tannin supporting. Not up to grilled meats but would drink well with a bollito misto say. Very Good.

cheers

Carl

Hi Carl, I've a bottle left of The Story Westgate 06. The last one I had about a year ago seemed to be hibernating so wonder what is your considered drinking window for it.

Cheers

daz

[PaulV]

2004 Kreglinger 2004 Vintage Brut Pipers Brook Lovely apertif style bubbly - lots of nutty and brioche characters on nose and palate, good depth of fruit on the palate, nice acid cut and fluffy finish . Needs a couple more years to gain complexity. Very good

2009 Knappstein Watervale riesling A lovely example of watervale riesling from an excellent year. Lifted lime and citrus blossom on the nose with fresh linear and minerally palate. great finish . excellent wine.

2008 Domaine Saint Nicolas Fiefs Vendéens Les Clous Blanc [Atlanic Coast France]. A blend of 75% chenin blanc, 20% chardonnay and 5% groslot gris. One of the new band of biodynamic ["natural]"wines coming out of France. A lovely, lively wine with typical beeswax, lanilan characters of chenin freshened up with the fruity chardonnay with some added phenolioc grip to give some complexity. great freshness and interest - liked by all around the table. Excellent and intersting

2004 Louis Michel Chablis 1er Monterre de Tonnere This is drinking in a great spot at present. Already quite a rich yellow colour but thankfully no pre-mox. Complex minerally oyster shell like aromas followed by an exploson of deep lemony chardonnay fruit unadulterated by oak. very complex with lovely balance and weight with a great acid finish. excellent.

2004 Tyrrell's HVD Semillon [Stelvin] Still pale colour. No toasty, buttery characters as yet, still very primary with lemon, dry straw nose, a very dry palate wth great finesse and palate drive. This needs another 5 years to develop more complexity but a great future. very, very good

1998 Best's Bin 0 Shiraz [Cork]. man this is lovely. Complex lifted plum and pepper on the nose and palate. Lively midweight palate, the fruit was so fresh and capitvating - no dead fruit nor jamminess here. While it will go another decade if you have some worth a try now. Very impressive.

1996 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz Much bigger and heftier than the Best's - also in comparison quite one dimensional. lots of sweet fruit and leathery dark plum notes, strong but fine tannins and a touch too much volatility for me. Not bad but i am tiring of this style of wine.

Cheers

paul

[Sean O'Sullivan]

deleted

[AndrewCowley]

2000 Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz

Dissappointing. Had none of the classic Hunter shiraz characteristics that I love. All I could taste was oak and not much else.

[Gary W]

2007 Tardieu Laurent Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
Black-red. Beguiling nose. Over a few hours it moved around and included raspberry, cacao, anise, coffee. The most interesting component was spiced gingernut biscuits. Keeps that 2007 fleshy character in check and is full of dark fruit on the palate. Well supported with tannins and overall well-balanced. A glass or two without food but best served with. Can be consumed from now on. NB:- clean as a whistle which was a pleasant surprise after half a dozen bottles of brett infested Cotes du Rhone Cuvee Speciale. Excellent/Outstanding wine.

[

CNDP VV 07 is a lovely wine. The Cuvee Speciale has been tested twice for brett. It's sometimes variable (apparently), is reductive and has whole bunch characters. Extract from lab report below.

Date de mise en culture : 03/03/2010
Ident. Cuve Vol. Co. Caracteristiques Bactéries type
Brettanomyces
à 10 jours
UFC/0.1ml < 10

There you have it.
GW

[griff]

2007 Tardieu Laurent Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
Black-red. Beguiling nose. Over a few hours it moved around and included raspberry, cacao, anise, coffee. The most interesting component was spiced gingernut biscuits. Keeps that 2007 fleshy character in check and is full of dark fruit on the palate. Well supported with tannins and overall well-balanced. A glass or two without food but best served with. Can be consumed from now on. NB:- clean as a whistle which was a pleasant surprise after half a dozen bottles of brett infested Cotes du Rhone Cuvee Speciale. Excellent/Outstanding wine.

[

CNDP VV 07 is a lovely wine. The Cuvee Speciale has been tested twice for brett. It's sometimes variable (apparently), is reductive and has whole bunch characters. Extract from lab report below.

Date de mise en culture : 03/03/2010
Ident. Cuve Vol. Co. Caracteristiques Bactéries type
Brettanomyces
à 10 jours
UFC/0.1ml < 10

There you have it.
GW

Interesting. Thanks for the info. That test (nomenclature is a little weird but then it IS french) should identify live brett. Do you happen to know if 4EP/4EG levels where done as well? That would be useful as the wine could have been infected and then brett killed/removed prior to bottling.

Happy to say that the wine has horse manure and iodine flavours that I didn't like (although the leather was nice. Don't mind a wine with leather a la the Westgate Vineyard last night). I might be mistaking those smells for reduction. Wineanorak has a good comment on how brett was not easily plated but 4EP was high in Beaucastel. I wonder if this is similar? http://www.wineanorak.com/brettanomyces.htm

cheers

Carl

[griff]

Leaving Perth is difficult but cherry-picking through the cellar is a silver lining.

Tonight another couple of wines

2005 Adelina Grenache
A touch spritzy at first. Great dark fruit underneath but also a little brett emerges with time. OK tonight. Let's look at it tomorrow.

2006 The Story Westgate Vineyard Grampians Shiraz
Leather and bay leaves in a cedar chest. An italian wallet of a wine. Slightly salty on the finish with tannin supporting. Not up to grilled meats but would drink well with a bollito misto say. Very Good.

cheers

Carl

Hi Carl, I've a bottle left of The Story Westgate 06. The last one I had about a year ago seemed to be hibernating so wonder what is your considered drinking window for it.

Cheers

daz

Hard pressed to be certain on a window other than saying it drank well last night Better again today. I think this could do well over at least a decade. Lovely balance to it.

cheers

Carl

[daz]

Thanks Carl, I've certainly enjoyed the few bottles I've had whilst it's been young. 10 years or so is likely more achievable than Halliday's 20 years. At almost 56yo I have no intention of leaving my last bottle sleeping for 16 more years.

Cheers

daz

[Craig(NZ)]

Had a look through scenic cellars the night before my taupo half marathon and picked up 08 Stonecroft Syrah to sip on in the evening. Its a classy wine, complex and balanced but it is no 07, it doesnt have the density, colour, texture or weight. A nice drink in front of the fire but i wont be buying anymore untasted 08 Syrah's. I cant think of a single example where the 08 version is better than 07

Oh and for those who care 1:38 for my first ever half marathon race

[Wayno]

Good time Craig! Well done

[Broughy]

Seppelt St Peter's Shiraz 2001 STaining along the length of the cork was not a good sign, decanted this for a while and whilst it was ok think this unfortunately has suferred from some oxidation.
Palon 2000 magnificient nose on this wine really captivated the table , violets. the palate was extremely dry and was ok with food but lacked the extra to make this good.
Bouchard Bourguignon Pinot Noir 2006 This was a pleasant surprise, lovey rich fruit nice cherry acidity and on the whole very good drionking.
Pol Roger 1998fresh with some secondry complexity, very good but too early.
Hugel Riesling 2008 nice acidity and the fruit was poking through nicely, again too early

[Bick]

2002 Newton-Forrest Cornerstone
Cabernet - Merlot - Malbec blend from the Gimblet Gravels in Hawkes Bay. Nice wine, starting to show some raisiny savoury complexity from age. Beautiful balance. I rate Cornerstone pretty highly I have to say. This was my last 02, which I had meant to leave a few more years, but I couldn;t find a single bottle I really wanted to open in the cellar and had to pick one!

[Peter NZ]

Had a look through scenic cellars the night before my taupo half marathon and picked up 08 Stonecroft Syrah to sip on in the evening. Its a classy wine, complex and balanced but it is no 07, it doesnt have the density, colour, texture or weight. A nice drink in front of the fire but i wont be buying anymore untasted 08 Syrah's. I cant think of a single example where the 08 version is better than 07

Oh and for those who care 1:38 for my first ever half marathon race

Well done Craig.

I've got one example for you where '08's better than '07: Coopers Creek Chalk Ridge Syrah -- had an '07 on Friday which was quite insipid, but have found the '08 to be pretty classy.

Opened (I think) my last Wynns Black Label Cab Sauv '98 last night. Plenty of life left, & very good.

Cheers
Peter

[Michael McNally]

I couldn't find a single bottle I really wanted to open in the cellar and had to pick one!

I hate this feeling - lots of good stuff that's too good to drink right now, and lots of stuff that's good but can wait for another day. Hard to find the right bottle sometimes!

Cheers

Michael

[Sharkey]

Oh and for those who care 1:38 for my first ever half marathon race

Good effort Craig. Are you going to step up to the full distance? I used to run marathons before getting a knee injury, though I never actually did an official half marathon.

Wine highlight of the weekend for me:

Winburndale Solitary Shiraz 2005 This is a stunningly good wine from the lesser known Bathurst region. It has won a heap of trophies and gold medals and I can see why. It is the more savoury, cool climate style - a style I seem to like these days. Blackberry and raspberry flavours with superbly integrated oak. It has great mouthfeel and a good, long finish. I've still got a few more bottles that should keep for a few years yet.

[Teisto]

These were all drunk over the course of last Friday night in a casual environment so no real notes

2008 Chris Ringland Shiraz - Not bad a bit too much alcohol at 16.5% but settled after a while
2000 Tyrrel's Vat 8 Shiraz Cabernet - Was a very nice drop
2001 Fire Block Shiraz - Not bad
2004 Peppertree Grand Reserve Tannat - Pucker up anyone? Fruit at front pallet and a massive whack of tannin at the back - needs a lot longer yet for it to settle down
2007 First Creek Shiraz - Good
2005 Stanton & Killeen Shiraz Durif - Very nice
2005 St Hallett Old Block Shiraz - Opened way too early but a very nice wine
1968 Orlando Vintage Port - very very good