Picked this up cheaply at auction recently and was looking forward to drinking. So given Sat night in Melb was the first coldie for 8 months, I chopped some wood for the fire and opened the bottle up early.
The cork crumbled to pieces and was hard to get out. Totally stained.
The nose was pungent. Blah I thought, and about as bad as a wine could smell without forcing you to tip it down the sink. One hour later....the same. 2 hours later....the same, but I knew it would come good.
Decanted for about 3 hours and when it finally blew off all the bottle stink and had time to breath, this was a beautiful wine.
Reminicent of the best Cab / Shiraz blends that we have in Australia.
Perhaps what the 1996 Bin 389 will taste like in 10 years.
Very smooth and silky presence on the tongue. Glided down effortlessly.
Very leathery, charcoal, cedar and smoked bacon flavours. Yet it still retained a core of red berry fruits. This wine delivered on all fronts.
Great structure with a excellent balance between savoury and mature fruit. It seemed to continually change throughout the night and evolve.
Perhaps not in the league of other high end Bourdeaux, but an extremely enjoyable wine. 92 Pts
2002 Evasham Wood Cuvee J - Pinot Noir
4th bottle from of a 1/2 case.
Perfumed nose of berries, plums, sweet strawberries, confectionary, in fact almost musky lollies. But in no way sickly.
A little thin and lacking in overall complexity. The palate was a little spicy, with hints of cloves and pepper and dark plums.
As noted in my previous TN, the 99 Bannockburn Serre was easily the best Pinot that I have had in a long time and although this was good, it was no match at all. But still good. 90 Pts
As my next post is my 100th , I will try and select a wine to drink that will inspire even the most seasoned of forumites. So it is deep, deep, deep into the cellar I go.....
