The Auswine Forum

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Red Robin Rythym Stick Wines Clare Valley Riesling 2009... Covered with enough gold it could be a rap star this was made by Tim Adams according to the level. This has a pristine colour all glowing yellow green and "pristine" is definitely the word of this wine, supported by the low alcohol (11.5%). The nose is zesty lime and the palate is clean, and crisp with just a hint of oiliness from the 2yrs in bottle. Wonderful stuff, will age well.

Tin Shed "Melting Pot" Shiraz 2003 (Eden Valley)... Mid-red in hue, this smells sweet and deeply fruited, with the palate carrying it through. A bit like drinking essence of blackberry cordial, without going too porty. Wonderful wine.

Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2011... The first 2011 Clare Rizza IVe had and if this is to be judged the vintage may show better than the anecdotes suggested. Clean, crisp and pure. Will age but why wait, drinking well as a lively youngster.

Seppeltsfield "no name" i.e. cleanskin VP 1998... One of the clearance stocks they have been selling off. This is well developed, not over the top, its sweet and ripe more like a tawny than a VP. For the clearance price ex-cellar door this is a well worth buying bit of plonk. Noice.

De Bortoli "Noble 1" 2003... 2nd bottle of this in a month or so (ex auction). Developed burnished yellow gold in hue, this has a rich and typical nose of candied orange, cumquat, and spice. Drinking well no need to cellar further. Finishes clean despite the obviously significant sweetness. Nice bit of sticky.

Kaesler Wines... Also did a bit of Kaesler at a tasting while back in Adelaide for the weekend. IVe always liked their wines, but I thought perhaps this time they suffered a bit from excessive level of alcohol, becoming a bit hot/and or porty even while still young. The Old Bastard remains a stand out but, for the RRP, it bloomin well should be!

Been drinking some super stuff recently
2006 Rockford BP Shiraz…at last, a BP that lived up to the hype
Had this ready for Mark Wickmans Rockford offline on Sat, however had to pull out so opened last week instead.
Elegant and balanced, red fruits and whispy tannins, had wonderful caramel chocolate aromas when first opened. Easily my favourite BP vintage of last decade.

2008 Giaconda Chardonnay, found these at very modest mark up in the Wine Library. Myself and a friend have been ignoring reason and getting stuck in. Upsettingly good.

1992 Henschke Mount Edelstone – needed ah-so prongs for the crumbly cork, wine was in perfect condition though. Bought at cellar door a few months ago, and opened to celebrate our anniversary. Expectations were high.
Honestly was under-whelmed. Oak was way too dominant. Assuming its French oak, and even with a 2+ hours decant, it was overpowering.
Red/Brown bricking on the edges. There are red fruits (cherries and berry), with soft tannin. Savoury/earthy elements with more time in glass.
Still drank and enjoyed it, but deep down felt the balance was off and not worth the money. Finish is reasonably long, just leaves a splinter or two on its way.
Btw: we went to Macleay St Bistro in Potts Point, $8 corkage, food and service good but glassware is poor.

2008 Richmond Grove Riesling (Watervale): Superb wine, loved it and great QPR…think I paid $18 for it.
Delicious citrus limey goodness, enough body to add great mouthfeel, without any cloying sweetness. Little bit of talc. Crisp finish, and faint spritz. Loved it. Recommended.

Cheers
Michael

1997 Wendouree Pressings (Malbec) - unfortunately corked (winery will replace).

2004 Penfolds Bin 389 - opened this as a knee jerk reaction to the Wendoureee being corked - silly move. The Wendouree had been decanted and sitting for a few hours and this was poured straight from the bottle. I could see the potential (in about 10 years) but almost undrinkable as its all over the place, massive fruit, tannins etc all fighting for space. Would suggest at least 12 hours decanting before approaching.

Ten Minutes by Tractor chardonnay 2010 (I think; it was at a restaurant) - I thought this was a delicious wine, very pure, direct, wine-making with minimal intervention, just excellent, very pure fruit.

Sean, totally agree with your post about cleanskins vs labels, Faith Shiraz is one I will always consider if its available.

Only 1 for the weekend as I had a bit of a cold.

Pirramimma Stocks Hill Cabernet Petit Verdot Merlot 2007
Consumed at a BBQ in this delightful spring weather, strong tannins and fruit flavours without being heavy or gritty. Enjoyable if not particularly notable.

Quiet weekend here as well - just the one

2004 Peppertree Reserve Orange Cab Sauv Drinking well - not overly powerful probably just about right time.

Sean wrote:
2008 Terra Felix Chardonnay Terra Felix really has little to do with its previous life as a Tallarook second label these days having new owners and winemaker, Terry Barnett (ex Brown Brothers), and based near Nagambie to make their commercial range wines. They are competing in a tough market, but they have big plans and if the wines are good they might do OK with their Rhone style wines and this chardonnay. This has “Victoria” on the front label and while the fruit could have come from anywhere in Victoria I am guessing that in most vintages a lot of it will come from local growers around Goulburn Valley. I have had their chardonnay before and it has a style that I think many people like drinking, which is slightly oaky. This is almost gold in colour (showing it is developing in the bottle already) and while there’s clean melon and peach fruit it is noticeably honeyed on the palate with obvious toasty/nutty oak flavours, which is actually very pleasant right now.
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I've always been interested in the Terra Felix label, but for some strange reason (given their price point) never got around to sampling any. Thanks for the report I'll give this a go. Have you tried anything else in their range?

2002 Classic McLaren La Testa Blend (14.7% cork) - almost straight from the bottle and stunning - only got a couple of dozen of these as a rejected SA Rugby order. Glad I've waited for these to mature - they are a bigger wine than the 00's or 03's and more up front fruit. Will last another 10 years IMHO whereas the others are more drink until 2015.

2006 Millton Opou Riesling. $10 form my indian mate down the road. This is stunning riesling and easy to see why at least in years past this was considered one of NZ's very top labels. Focused, textured and fine with the ripe green apple tinge and floral jasmine/ ripe citrus type influence. Just delightful

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Sean wrote:

BlaCkAdDa wrote:Sean, totally agree with your post about cleanskins vs labels, Faith Shiraz is one I will always consider if its available.

Yeah I just do not see the point of buying a cleanskin because I would rather buy a wine (for about the same amount of money) that I know has some quality and integrity and will still be around next year and the year after...

Why is it relevant whether the wine will be around next year and the year after? You are buying a bottle of wine. The next vintage of that wine will not improve the bottle you bought. '

Of course there are wines that you can take on trust, but in the end, if a cleanskin happens to be, from what you have found out, a good wine, why not buy it? You will be able to buy it for significantly less than you would pay for it under its own label.

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1997 Niepoort Vintage Port: It was a leaker so it had to go. Opened a little volatile. After a few hours the fruit came up but still had more volatility than I would expect for a VP of this age. Thankfully the powerful chewy palate of ripe fruit balanced the wine. Some honey which I often get with Niepoort as well. Very Good but hoped for more.

2010 Vasse Felix Chardonnay: Clean green melon fruit flavour, typical of a competent Margaret River chardonnay. Great value over here at a snip over $13. Good.

2009 Louis Jadot, Combe aux Jacques Beaujolais-Villages: Bright, crunchy, pure juice. Quite fresh with the acidity and a decent match for a lamb tagine. Good.

2006 Spinifex Espirit: On opening had a nose of icing sugar that I often get with GSM-type blends from SA. Smells yummy and fresh. Unfortunately a sip told a different story with a thick palate of syrupy raisined fruit. Heavy palate and reminded me of a dry port. What? This wine was well-regarded by the majority of critics in Australia. Penguin wine of the year. Disapointed and provoked me to wonder if my preferences in wine are changing? In any case it was left in the fridge for two days. Drank it a cooler than room temp to finish it off and the raisins were less present but it still was one-dimensional. Agreeable in the end.

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2006 Machherndl Riesling Smaragd Steinterrassen
Opens a little mute. After a few minutes vanilla, custard, creme brulee notes emerge. No oak contact however? Quite broad in the mouth suggesting a warmer year. After an hour the wine really tightens up with a nose of bath powders and the palate becomes mineral whilst maintaining the rich mouthfeel. Other than the richness of fruit, the flavours reminds me a little of a young Eden Valley riesling. All in all a thought provoking wine that evolves in the glass. Excellent.

Sean wrote:

orpheus wrote:Why is it relevant whether the wine will be around next year and the year after? You are buying a bottle of wine. The next vintage of that wine will not improve the bottle you bought. '

Of course there are wines that you can take on trust, but in the end, if a cleanskin happens to be, from what you have found out, a good wine, why not buy it? You will be able to buy it for significantly less than you would pay for it under its own label.

I do not care about a cleanskin. If a winemaker or winery does not put their name on a bottle of wine I am not interested in it. I suspect a cleanskin is not really the bargain people think it is and I do not like or trust something that will be here one day and gone the next.

Too much of a sweeping generalisation, I am afraid.

It is often not hard to identify what it is. The reason it is a cleanskin is often that the winery cannot sell all of the wine at the RRP, and wants to sell the wine without eroding the RRP of the labeled wine. Provided you chose carefully, you can save a significant amount of money with cleanskins.

For once, all the money spent on perception and marketing of a wine is actually working for you rather than against you!

A great example was the Chateau Reynella BP shiraz 2005, which was available as a cleanskin for $15 a bottle, if I remember correctly. I still have some, and it is, and always has, drunk very well.

Last Fri night, a group of us descended on a fav wine bar/pub for a "Sparkling Wine Night" here in Singapore.

We had 8 reasonably-priced bubblies from 5 countries, and no Champagne!
- Gold Leaf Sparkling Cuvee NV (Adelaide Hills, Aust) -> cheap & cheery
- Valdo Prosecco Brut NV (Veneto, Italy) -> simple but still fun (because it's bubbles!)
- Cloudy Bay 'Pelorus' NV (Marlborough, NZ) -> everyone enjoyed this, nice freshness
- Juvé y Camps Reserva de la Familia Brut Nature 2007 (Spain) -> a little sherry-ish
- Majella Sparkling Shiraz 2006 vintage (Coonawarra, Aust) -> Shiraz with bubbles! is what they exclaimed
- Fox Creek 'Vixen' NV (McLaren Vale, Aust) -> beautiful, mocha, hint of small goods
- Villa Verone (??) Moscato (Italy) -> dolce! very apple-ly
- Arthur Metz Cremant d'Alsace NV (Alsace, France) -> came late, if not would have been 2nd or 3rd ...nothing spectacular.

No notes were taken, although 3/4 of us who are a little 'more serious' about wines did spend a bit of time talking about each.
Half of the attendees were English, and most at the table had not tried sparkling reds, so it was an eye-opening experience for them.

WOTN - Fox Creek 'Vixen' (everyone love it!)

This is a wine 'n' dine group I'm establishing in Singapore, so I can get more opportunities to try/enjoy more wines here!

Cheers~!

2004 Taylors Promised Land Cabernet - bit pathetic to start but then made the proverbial ugly duckling - beautiful swan transition. It was quite a nice drop several years ago and now has developed some aged elegance (although I wouldn't leave it much longer). If it was an old Lindemans I'd say it was 25 years old - lovely surprise.

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OK, Sean, we are talking about different things. I buy "cleanskins" where I have reliable information about what the wine is, and it is a wine that I like.

The reason you are seeing so many cleanskins at the moment is that there is a huge wine glut. Even expensive wines are not selling. I try to take advantage of this fact.

I would not buy a wine if I hadn't either;

1.) Tasted it; or
2.) Have a very good idea of what it is, and what it is likely to taste like.

I buy my wine online these days, and I do not buy from Woolworths or Coles, in any of their aliases. Though occasionally there is a deal on champagne that can't be resisted. Buying online, I don't think I've bought a "cleanskin" (provenance identified) for under $15.

So I don't have any experience of the cheap cleanskins to which you refer.

Just to put my 2c in (which will have to be 5c until they're also phased out)

I wont buy a cleanskin unless i've tasted or it or can trust the write up telling me it is 'same as labelled wine x' That trust doesnt extend very hard a lot of online e-tailers and so on often twist their words and so forth with labelled stuff so Im not going to trust them on something unlabelled and untasted. I might take a punt on a cellar door cleanskin but if they're sellign by the carton only they should let you taste it or tell you what it is. So many wineries now are just labelling crap wine and selling it as a one off via different channels anyway that im starting to get very careful about what I buy and where from.

So with all that considered its sometimes better to have 'faith' in the large volume labelled wine you get year after year at a good price from a big retailer than buy something at a similar price being advertised as 'half price' when its really at best on par.

As for drinks this week, not much tried this 09 Chateau Maret boardeaux I bought recently that fits into that labelled unknown category, an ok wine with some cherry and charcoal flavours (I was however tasting charcoal in everything that night including a glass of port where i hadnt noticed it before so may not be relevant). Probably on par with something you'd buy at Aldi

2008 Turkey Flat Shiraz - Stunning...considering some of the rubbish barossa 08's i have had lately, this has completely restored my faith....the colour is so dense its almost black...completely impenetrable told me even before i took a whiff....this was a seriously top wine. So much dark fruits, very nice use of oak. The oak doesnt take over, instead it totally complements the fruit rather than dominates it, tannins are dry and a little dusty. Decanted for an hour and needed another hour....but i got impatient. Easily a wine that will keep getting better and better (even thought its drinking beautifully now) unfortunately under screwcap (but that is my personal preference rather a comment about the benefits of screwcaps) Go buy a case and drink one a year for the next 12 years!

2009 - Leconfield Cab Sav (cracking tonight)
2009 - Majella Cab Sav (cracking next week...my favourite coonawarra for the price)

2005 Sons & Brothers Cabernet Shiraz[b][/b](Orange Region.) I was after something different, and I got it. The wine comes from a winery with no cellar door, and only produces one wine. Crown Seal, 13.5%Alc. The wine was good and very interesting. It was constantly changing over the three hours I was drinking. When first opened there were stong tanins present, and being a cold climate wine it was medium bodied with dark brooding color. The palate had chocolate and tobaco notes showing some age. After about an hour the strong tanins disapeared and sweet re berry fruits appeared. Further into the night, fine silky tanins appeared, with some spice in the background. Sniffing the empty glass, wonderful aroma of cinnamon and sweet oak was left. The label states the wine the wine is made for a long life - interesting wine.

Rossco wrote:2008 Turkey Flat Shiraz - Stunning...considering some of the rubbish barossa 08's i have had lately, this has completely restored my faith....the colour is so dense its almost black...completely impenetrable told me even before i took a whiff....this was a seriously top wine. So much dark fruits, very nice use of oak. The oak doesnt take over, instead it totally complements the fruit rather than dominates it, tannins are dry and a little dusty. Decanted for an hour and needed another hour....but i got impatient. Easily a wine that will keep getting better and better (even thought its drinking beautifully now) unfortunately under screwcap (but that is my personal preference rather a comment about the benefits of screwcaps) Go buy a case and drink one a year for the next 12 years!

2009 - Leconfield Cab Sav (cracking tonight)
2009 - Majella Cab Sav (cracking next week...my favourite coonawarra for the price)

Tried the Leconfield & Majella at a store tasting this afternoon - My first impressions is that both are fantastic wines - however I preferred the Leconfield. It was a classic Coonawarra Cab - fine grippy tanins, oak in the background (Majella more pronounced oak with sweeter ripe fruit). I will be interested in your impressions.

Phil H wrote:Tried the Leconfield & Majella at a store tasting this afternoon - My first impressions is that both are fantastic wines - however I preferred the Leconfield. It was a classic Coonawarra Cab - fine grippy tanins, oak in the background (Majella more pronounced oak with sweeter ripe fruit). I will be interested in your impressions.

Opened the leconfield saturday. I thought it was ok, but nothing sensational and maybe even a little disappointing....i was still remembering just how GOOD the Turkey Flat was from the night before.....so i was probably a little harsh on it and maybe even overly critical....will have to give it another go in a few weeks.

HOWEVER (as previously posted) found a little GEM on sunday. 1997 Tahbilk 'Old Block' Cab Sav.....wonderful wine....SMASHED the Leconfield for the same money. Will be ordering a case in the next month or two from the Cellar door (free delivery!!)

Sean wrote:

BlaCkAdDa wrote:Sean, totally agree with your post about cleanskins vs labels, Faith Shiraz is one I will always consider if its available.

Yeah I just do not see the point of buying a cleanskin because I would rather buy a wine (for about the same amount of money) that I know has some quality and integrity and will still be around next year and the year after...

Hmmm, the Seaview label was around for many years...................

Phil H wrote:

Rossco wrote:2008 Turkey Flat Shiraz - Stunning...considering some of the rubbish barossa 08's i have had lately, this has completely restored my faith....the colour is so dense its almost black...completely impenetrable told me even before i took a whiff....this was a seriously top wine. So much dark fruits, very nice use of oak. The oak doesnt take over, instead it totally complements the fruit rather than dominates it, tannins are dry and a little dusty. Decanted for an hour and needed another hour....but i got impatient. Easily a wine that will keep getting better and better (even thought its drinking beautifully now) unfortunately under screwcap (but that is my personal preference rather a comment about the benefits of screwcaps) Go buy a case and drink one a year for the next 12 years!

2009 - Leconfield Cab Sav (cracking tonight)
2009 - Majella Cab Sav (cracking next week...my favourite coonawarra for the price)

Tried the Leconfield & Majella at a store tasting this afternoon - My first impressions is that both are fantastic wines - however I preferred the Leconfield. It was a classic Coonawarra Cab - fine grippy tanins, oak in the background (Majella more pronounced oak with sweeter ripe fruit). I will be interested in your impressions.

The 2006 Leconfield was a cracker, and I've stocked up on it. I bought a dozen of the 2008 as well, but it is not in the same league as the 06.

Have you tried the 08 or 06? f so, how did they compare to the 09 for you?

Wendouree 2002 Shiraz Mataro : Very light, smooth wine. Usual Wendouree menthol flavours but very enjoyable. Will last another 10 years in my fridge without a hassle. Not even started up the cork yet.