The Auswine Forum

90% of the 98 vintage was lost to a hail storm. The following wineries donated shiraz grapes to produce this fascinating aberration:

BRL Hardy, Cape Mentelle, Charlie Melton, Dalwhinnie, Henschke, Jasper Hill, Katnook, Mt Langi Ghiran, Paxton, Pikes, Rockford, St Hallett, Taltarni, Yalumba.

Impressive list. Had tried the wine on release so was interested as to where it is now.

Opaque dark red purple. Couple of hours in the decanter and still not giving too much away-concentrated dark fruit and some oak. The wine is full bodied with a deep palate that is dominated with a layer of dark fruit and a underlying hint of complexity. Very smooth mouth feel and impeccably balanced by fine tannins and flavour persistance. The wine is not closed, just concentrated and youthful, giving hints to the grand future ahead. Leave in the cellar for a few more years.

More intriguing wine on release. Even if aware of the blend it was still baffling on the senses. A hint of this region a hint of that etc.

Settling in for the long haul now and recommend a bottle in everyones cellar. Still around for less than $50.

After reading your post i think i will seek this wine out...sounds tasty.

Cheers

Paul

Paul

Well worth the effort. Now that all the 98's have been and gone, this is the one I wish I bought more of. I secured three magnums but hard to keep a track of how they are going in this format.

The chardonnay and pinot noir were similarily affected. Same concept, donations of grapes from many worthy estates and a final blend. The chardonnay was good, mainstream, not unique like the shiraz, and have heard mixed reports about the 98 pinot-from the high end to the low end!

Hi Paul,
agree with you on the 1998. It is an awesome wine. What it showed me was how good Garry Farr is as a winemaker (not that I needed convincing). With such a diverse source of grapes (ie from Heathcote, W.A and south Australia) this wine could have been all over the place.

However, the final blend was awesome and would rank up there with one of the best 1998's I have tried. It has everything you would want in a wine. Ripe without being jammy, and heaps and heaps of complexity and structure. I have 10 bottles left and will be interesting to see how they hold up over the next ten years.

cheers
anthony

I find this post an interesting coincidence.
Walked into local bottleshop a few weeks ago and spotted 14 of the 98 going at $ 36 / bottle !

Vertullo

Try some! That is less than CD! The wine had a lot of accolades from Halliday but you don't here much about it anymore.

A very interesting wine, a curio for the cellar and an affordable way to try Henschke, Dalwhinnie, Jasper Hill, Cape Mentelle from 98 in the one night!