An Old Rioja & Taltarni

[Mahmoud Ali]

Two of my wine friends and I share January birthdays only a week apart and this year I hosted a dinner of baked salmon fillet, cornish rock hen, and slow simmered goat stew. I had been thinking of serving a 1988 Santenay (Pierre Ponnelle) but, having been reminded on another forum that old-style Santenay needed considerable aging, decided to go for something I felt sure was old and ready: a 1981 Monte Real Reserva. A lovely evening was had with nary a dud wine.

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1989 Bruno Paillard Brut, disgorged May 1990 (12%) - old and mature, it looked rosé-like; small amount of fine bubbles but good mousse on the palate, strictly for fans of old champagne.
2010 Brokenwood Semillon, Hunter Valley (11%) - still relatively young and fresh, has fattened up nicely but has not yet developed old semillon character. I thought it was something like catarratto or grillo from Sicily.
2004 Boutari Grand Reserva, Naoussa, Greece (13%) - lovely wine, poised and balanced, almost claretty but with a hint of plushness made us guess super Tuscan.
1981 Monte Real Reserva, Rioja (12.8%) - I semi-Audozed this, opening it only an hour before serving and upon smelling the aromatics stoppered it right away. The nose had the immediate impression of old-style Rioja, sweet vanillin oak coupled with ripe fruit, very seductive. The wine continued to develop in the glass suggesting that this one is still going strong. Lovely, oh so lovely, why did they ever move away from this style of wine making. Curse you modern winemakers! (fist pumping in the air).
2001 Terrasole Brunello di Montalcino (13.5%) - plenty of ripe aromatics but strangely earthy for a Brunello, very characterful, ripe and warm, but lots to like here.
1981 Chateau Taltarni Cabernet, Moonambel, Victoria (12.4%) - this was old world style, and when told it wasn’t Bordeaux people migrated to California and South Africa. Shock, horror, it’s Australian! Made by Dominique Portet, son of the régisseur of Chateau Lafite, he made very tannic, almost unyielding cabernets starting in 1977. Very fine and seems in no danger of falling apart. Those old Taltarnis are fantastic.
1976 Balthasar Ress Hattenheimer Wisselbrunnen Riesling Auslese, Rheingau - no mention of alcohol percentage on the labels (no back label either), gold in colour, this is an old seductive auslese, rich and velvety, if somewhat lacking in freshness. A gracefull and elegant old riesling from the great and glorious 1976 vintage.

Cheers .................. Mahmoud.

[paulf]

I guess the thing about Taltarni is it comes from a region that isn't on the map internationally, even though it has a history of French interest.

[grapeobserver]

Lovely to see the Taltarni show so well at 38yo. Have thought for some time that cabernet sauvignon is eminently suited to the Pyrenees.

[Willard]

Nice write up, thanks.

[WineRick]

Interested in your comments on the Taltarni. I still have a few '81's left, together with a magnum of 1977. Was managing a retail outlet in 1979 when the 1977 - first vintage - came out. It remains the most tannic young red wine I've ever experienced, making Baileys, Booths et al quite drinkable as young wines. I put it down to dad telling a youngish Dominic P. how to extract the most, from a Bordeaux perspective, when Aussie Cabernet usually had heaps of colour and tannin anyway! His brother in California perhaps should have outlined this.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Well done for holding onto to both the '81s and the magnum of the 1977. YOu will be rewarded when you open them. All I have left are a couple of bottles of the 1982 Cabernet. I recall Nick's in Melbourne offering an anniversary twin pack of the 1977 and 1997 where they apologized to Dominic Portet saying "Mate, we were wrong" and went on to talk about how the development of the '77 had proven the early critics wrong.