So Aaron digs into the cellar to line up some long-pedigree Hunter wines for a combined horizontal/vertical (a matrix?) tasting with dinner. Some history, then, for context.
Mount Pleasant’s Old Paddock & Old Hill shiraz has been around in bottled form since the early 1980s, although the two vineyard sources are much older (and had sporadic lone bottlings under their own names back into the 50s). The Old Hill’s current 10 hectares of shiraz date partly from 1880 and the Old Paddock was planted by Maurice O’Shea in 1921 using vines from the Old Hill. These days it has 11ha of shiraz. The ‘old this & old that’, as a friend of mine used to call it, I always found a variable sort of wine, often due to the shitty american oak that McWilliams seemed to buy and the high alcohols they used to let it reach, but the arrival of top notch winemaking talent in the form of Jim Chatto in 2013 promised great things. Awkwardly, they simultaneously began to hive off some of the oldest grapes into expensive new premium bottlings beginning with the 2013 vintage (Old Hill 1880 Vines Shiraz, Old Paddock 1921 Vines Shiraz – both now $160ea from the website), and I can’t help but think this has compromised the quality of the traditional blend. The fact the current vintage is now the same $60 price as the ‘lesser’ Rosehill sibling rather confirms my suspicions.
The Rosehill vineyard was planted by O’Shea in 1946 and extended by his winemaker successor Brian Walsh in 1965. These days there’s 27ha of Shiraz. They’ve been selling the wine as ‘Rosehill’ since the early 1980s. Like the OP&OH, it has now spawned a $160 Rosehill 1946 Vines and a $120 Rosehill 1965 Vines bottling. Yes, the standard bottling has avoided widespread price increases, but somewhat at the expense of fruit quality. And that’s apart from the other $80 ‘Mountain’ bottlings since 2011 (preceding Chatto’s arrival), and which also pull fruit off these three vineyards. All of which is a long way of saying that these famous old names aren’t quite what they could be. Unless you spend the big bucks, of course.
On the other hand, Tyrrell’s Vat 9 has always been the house blend flagship shiraz since its invention in 1972. They source it from the various estate vineyards on the Ashman’s property. Some of those vineyards nowadays – 4 Acres, 8 Acres, NVC – also have their own (very limited) bottlings in selected years, but Tyrrell’s seem to have avoided any evident dip in quality of Vat 9. There’s obviously plenty of good fruit from Weinkeller, Short Flat, etc. unless the entire red vintage is a write-off (see 2008, 2012, 2015, 2020 – who’d be a Hunter winemaker?) They’ve also freshened it up this century with a little bit of new French oak but using 2700l casks not barriques. Most of the wines pre-2005 are a bit bretty or – often thanks to crap corks – just plain over-the-hill, but the arrival of screwcap (from the 2007 vintage) seems to have dealt with the packaging problem, and they obviously cleaned up the brett too. Released to the members at a year old for $80; it seems to show up at four or five years old for around $110 at retail. It’s near tripled in price over the last 15 years, but at least the quality is there.
Wines were served in horizontal flights. All the reds were double-decanted before dinner. I was a bit worried that we might have a series of carbon-copy glasses, with such similar wines over a short time span, but they were quite distinctive – within a broad style – at least until the last flight. There was a lot of wine, so the notes are a bit short too! The Medich Family must have really clamped down on expenditure once they bought Mount Pleasant from McWilliams’ receivers in 2021 because the cheap, two-colour labels on the 2021 MP bottles are the ugliest I’ve seen for many a year – they look like they were churned out on the office photocopier to a design by the work experience kid…
And, special thanks to Greg for the bonus champers at the end of the reds to toast so many birthdays in the second week of June! I’m pretty sure we’re not just getting older, but wiser too!
- NV Louis Roederer Champagne Collection 243 - France, Champagne
{cork} [Greg] Delicate, pure nose of white flowers, faint grapefruit, soft autolysis aromas. Medium weight palate, fine-grained and gentle. Small, creamy bubbles, medium /long finish. Soft-edged ripe fruit (is this at the high end of brut?), quite persistent medium/long finish, but with little yeasty character. Is this supposed to age at all – I suspect not. I went to the electric interweb, and Roederer’s site has all the news. It’s 59% 2018 vintage, with the rest of the base years stretching to 2009. Chard/PN/PM grapes are mixed 42/40/18 and the dosage is 8g/l, which may explain the relative richness despite the lightish weight. And the generally youthful mien too.
- 2014 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Old Paddock & Old Hill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Coconut, vanilla, dusty cherry. Quite youthful still on the palate, almost raw in some ways. Medium body, medium gritty tannins. Quite restrained; tastes per the aromas. But seems very bottled up somehow. Medium/long dry finish. Really seems like it needs time. - 2014 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] A touch reductive; very closed after the OP&OH wine. But then the palate is jammy, syrupy, raisiny. Warm finish. Seems way more than the listed 14%. Medium/full weight, medium acidity. Tastes a bit worked somehow, and sits towards the front of the tongue. Harsh sort of mouthfeel after its sibling. Medium length finish. Maybe time & air will help but it wasn’t very convincing. - 2014 Tyrrell's Shiraz Vat 9 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Pure raspberry fruit. Little oak. Still very primary. Palate is a seamless blend of ripe red fruit, medium/high acidity and low/medium chalky tannins. Polished mouthfeel, even palate presence, medium long finish. Medium weight overall, but oh-so-poised and ready to sail through twenty years. Very good indeed.
- 2017 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Old Paddock & Old Hill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Charcoal, tobacco, blackberry. Polished, subtle palate. Just medium-bodied, softly-textured. Low/medium dusty tannins, medium acidity. Not big, but elegant. Medium length finish at least. - 2017 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Gentle raspberry, softly sweet nose, little apparent oak. Palate is a bit more chippy and raw though, with vague red fruit flavours. Anonymous sort of thing – I can’t connect with this somehow. Medium/high gritty tannins, medium acid. Barely medium finish. Outclassed by the wines either side, which is probably a bit unfair. Might get better with time. - 2017 Tyrrell's Shiraz Vat 9 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 13.7%} [Aaron] Dark-hued fruit aromas. Soft clean style, with balanced earthy-tinged fruit, low/medium chalky tannin. Medium weight, balanced but finishes short-medium in length. It’s OK, and time won’t hurt, but doesn’t quite hit the mark.
- 2018 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Old Paddock & Old Hill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Tobacco and earthy red fruit, somewhat developing. Youthful, but with a dried grape character, and a touch reductive. Medium weight, low/medium gritty tannins, medium acidity. Subtle palate. Very young. - 2018 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Bright cherry/raspberry fruit, little oak. The vivid nose is matched on the voluptuous palate, still medium weight but with blue-ripe fruit, low/medium powdery tannin, medium acid. Rich mouthfeel but never sweet. Easily the best Rosehill of the night. Medium length finish. - 2018 Tyrrell's Shiraz Vat 9 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 13.5%} [Aaron] Very closed nose, with peeking out blackberry and spice on the nose. Low-key palate, but balanced with the fruit presently submerged by medium chalky tannin and medium acid. Dry and savoury palate. This one is slumbering for the time being.
- 2019 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Old Paddock & Old Hill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Cherry/blackberry with a hint of glue. Subtle oak. Dry palate, savoury fruit. Almost too young to say much about. Ticks all the medium boxes, with chalky tannin and a balanced finish. Certainly shows potential. - 2019 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Edgy, dark-hued, raw red fruit. On the palate liquorice, raisin. Seems to need time to tame the raw character. Medium gritty tannin, medium weight and acid. Will be OK with time I suspect, but feels like it’s missing pedigree a bit. - 2019 Tyrrell's Shiraz Vat 9 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 13.5%} [Aaron] Very closed nose, with peeking out blackberry and spice on the nose. Low-key palate, but balanced with the fruit presently submerged by medium chalky tannin and medium acid. Dry and savoury palate. This one is slumbering for the time being.
- 2021 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Well, I honestly couldn’t tell this from the OP&OH as far as the bouquet goes. An extraordinary aromatic replica (especially after so many preceding bottles!). On the other hand, the palate lacks the depth and richness of the previous wine, with lowish gravelly tannins, medium acid, medium weight. Not a bad wine at all, but just a bit short on the finish, the palate presence – it just misses fractionally. Take the OP&OH in a heartbeat here. - 2021 Tyrrell's Shiraz Vat 9 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 13.5%} [Aaron] Silky blue/black fruit, with liquorice hint, on both nose and palate. Medium weight, very primary still, with medium chalky tannins, medium acid. Grand presence on the tongue, even, rich, balanced. I do think Vat 9 is just getting better as the years go by. But needs a decade. - 2021 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Old Paddock & Old Hill - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
{screwcap, 14%} [Aaron] Youthful, and a bit gluey and oaky. Blue-edged fruit on the palate – no ripeness issues. Still, it’s quite tart, despite the jubey fruit. Medium acid, low/medium gritty tannins. It’s medium weight overall but doesn’t quite reconcile the ripeness with the palate presence – it just seems to finish a bit simple (& medium length) overall. Hard to call at this age.
- 2009 Louis Roederer Champagne Brut Nature Cuvée Starck - France, Champagne
{cork} [Greg] Almost colourless. Raw. Young. Stripped. “A croissant in a glass.” So dry, so crunchy. Disgorged in 23, apparently. No evidence of yeast, or true aging. Only light-medium weight, medium acid. Crunchy texture. Medium-long finish, even if it’s hard to pin down explicit fruit flavours. A strange experience, like a wine naked, somehow. Huh. - 2019 De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Sémillon - Australia, New South Wales, Big Rivers, Riverina
{375ml, screwcap, 10%} [Greg] Burnished, caramel, aged. Rich apricot, orange, cumquat. Balanced but verging on cloying, medium/full weight, medium length finish. Medium sweet. Lovely and decadent, and drink now.
